Mission to Mithril - Part 5

With the ATV packed with rescuers and rescuees, the crew travels back to the ship and discovers that the E-a-taka Wasab has not yet finished causing trouble at Mithril Down Starport.

This note is from our January 6, 2019 session and was written by Carl and Kay with additions by myself.  Since we are now scattered around the country, we used Discord for voice communications and Roll20 online virtual tabletop to connect with each other.

Continued from: Mission to Mithril - Part 4.

Imperial Date: 315-1107.

Location: The Planet Mithril in the Sword Worlds Subsector.

315B-1107 0700
Mid-morning; weather was clear, about minus 4 degrees Celsius.

Out at the air/raft crash site, we loaded up and headed back towards the starport. We kept a watch looking out for any tunnels that big nasty worms might have made. Fortunately they show on the ATV’s radar so we can see them before we get stuck in them. We must have hurt the creature that attacked us yesterday bad enough that it is staying away, at least until we were clear of the area.

1400 Late afternoon
We were crossing a mostly flat plain with mountains to our left. Fig was driving with Archaeologist Eric Bothildr observing. The weather is clear, 0 degrees C.

Eric spotted something ahead of us to the left on a low hill. There was a platform or some structure on it. He definitely wanted to map it and take a look.

As we approached and he got a look at it, Eric says, “I don’t think it’s Aslan”.

Sam records exact location of site, and we allot one hour out of our travel time to check it out before the sun goes down.

Some kind of ruin, a type Eric did not recognize, was up on the hill. Octagonal shaped, three of us took a breath and hoped it would not be like the one we explored on Fulacin.

It looks like an old Octagon Society shelter, worse shape than most of the ones we saw when we were hunting for Twilight’s Peak.

Kipenzi and Medicus, watching via our button cams and the relay we set up, encouraged us to check it out. We had about one hour till sunset, so we figured a look was quite appropriate, and no storms were showing up on the radar.

Our patient, Egil Tedorsson, is awake and grumpy at this time. A good sign, considering his condition when we pulled him out of the air/raft wreck.

Sam got us multiple good confirmations of coordinates. Sam, Eric and his son Egino went in to check it out. The front door was missing, the remains of the walls were mostly only about waist high. The corner support columns stuck up about 1 meter above the walls. The floor was rubble from the collapsed upper floors and covered with snow and ice. There was about 1.2 meters of snow on the platform and about half a meter of snow and ice covered the floor.

Sam carefully cleared snow to avoid a hole, and dug down to the rubble layer. No evidence of an access to the basement was visible, and the ATV radar could not penetrate the rocks, even with Myntelle operating it, and she seems to be pretty good with it. A chimney stuck up through the wall but was full of snow. Eric says that it looks about 300 years old.

As darkness descended, we headed off. Conversations included miscellaneous talk about octagons and ancients.

1500
As the sun went down, we went back to the ATV and talked about the Octagon Society. They built shelters like this one in the 800s. They are gone now, they were rolled into the Travellers Aid Society after a number of funding scandals. We suggest that the Imperium might be interested in studying this as a site. Eric reacts badly, asserting that this is Sword Worlds sovereign territory and the Third Imperium might think it owns the galaxy, but it doesn’t own Mithril.

316-1107 0300
Fig was driving with Leon on sensors. It had been about -10 C since midnight. We got stuck in the snow again. Seems to be a way of life here. Been there, done that, doing it again. Getting unstuck is also a way of life here.

Fig felt a sharp pain in his right calf. Egino too. Looking at the injuries it looks like a small ice splinter. It digs in deeper when touched, and we saw a bunch of tiny legs. We tried to suck one out with the syringe that Medicus had added to the kit before we left. By that time the thingy was red. We got both of them out of the legs, and did whatever first aid and medic stuffs and things seemed appropriate.

Two more were on the outside of Sam's coat, and tried to smoosh them, but they disappeared when he took off his coat and set it down to stomp on them. One more was on Eric's sleeve, and it was syringed up too, though it appeared dead. No one had any idea what these things were.

Fig actually took some damage from the bite, and felt poorly afterwards.

The little buglets having been subdued, we tried to get unstuck from the snow, and Leon did the right things to get us back onto the path home and to freedom of the skies.

0500
We were rolling again at sunrise going toward some trees in the distance. Still -10C, it doesn't warm up all day, but it doesn’t get any colder either.

Two of the Sword Worlders, Myntelle and Katrin, got into an argument in Sagamaal, and started ignoring each other after that. Kipenzi went through the recording with a dictionary, and learned that it was about Myntelle giving Katrin marital advice, and not appreciated at the time.

There was some friction between the Sword Worlders and Skylark crew, but for the most part we got along fairly well. Over the thousands of years since we first went to space, there has evolved traditions and points of etiquette that together make up a spacer culture that keeps people who are stuck together in a confined space from killing each other.

The archaeologists and the starport staff that we had rescued came from a different culture altogether. Being cooped up in the ATV was wearing them down and it’s only been two days.

They are also too proud of their own culture to “act like imperial traders.”

316-1107 Morning

Leon was driving, with Fig observing. In the distance ahead we spotted what looked like a row of pits, or gaps in the snow. They looked deep, crevasse-like. Making a map note of these, we wanted to get back on our path coming out. Medicus checked the satellite map, and saw a line running N/S about 20 km long. He wasn’t sure what the line was, but definitely a line.

We went south to avoid it and get to the east of it.

By early afternoon we were back on the track we followed on the way west. No sign of our own tracks, but that was to be expected given the weather.

By sunset Fig and Egino’s bug bites have stopped getting worse, but they don’t feel much better. After passing the crater that we had passed on the way out, someone found the two missing bugs, they were dead.

Sam went into a minor skid in a small gully, but recovered without any problem.

317-1107

Traveling along the edge of the plains, the weather is clear -10C.

We decided to stay to our outbound path, rather than cut off a few miles. So, we added a few miles to our return, but got back on the same route we came out by - hopefully just a safe as the trip out.

In the night we ran afoul once more of the terrain, and hit a hidden obstacle under the snow, but there was no damage and we continued.

318-1107 Morning
It is raining and 4C as the ATV continues to the east. They pass the abandoned ATV near the river. The archaeologists say it’s not theirs.

Egil knows about it, it belonged to the port. It was wrecked and abandoned about 5 years ago

The temperature dropped below zero and we got freezing rain late in the day.

319-1107
Fig tried really hard to put us into a hole, but somehow the hole moved out of his way, or some such. Good thing we followed a known safe path back toward the port.

Egino came within about 2 cm of challenging his father to a duel.

Katrin and Myntelle are still not talking to each other.

320-1107
As Fig was talking with Skylark concerning the approaching storm, they get an automated alert from the tower. A ship had jumped into the Mithril system. The E-a-taka Wasab had returned. The tower sent out an automated greeting but they did not respond. About 10 minutes after appearing its transponder signal vanished.

At 3G they are about three hours away from the planet.

At normal speed, the ATV is still 11 hours away. Fig suggested that they swing around and approach from the southeast, putting the Skylark between the ATV and the starport.

Everyone agrees.

Kipenzi turned off the SkyLark’s transponder, but left the power plant going. If they scan us, they can detect the emissions from the power plant, but it is worth the risk to be able to fire the ships weapons at full power. Doing the math, she calculated that we could get about three shots from the batteries, but then we would be sitting ducks until the power plant could be brought back on line. “When seconds count…”

The ship had a heavy layer of snow on it with icicles hanging over the sides from the days when the temperature got above zero. No footprints in the snow showing traffic. With the landing gear damaged so that we tilted, the ship looked like a derelict, and we were keeping it that way. Maybe they wouldn’t notice that the power plant was still on. Kip brushed the snow off of the camera above the cargo bay door to give us a better view.

0800
The ATV leaves the old path in preparation to approach the starport from the southeast.

0820
Lost contact with the satellite. We lost our communications relay, but the ATV is now close enough to talk with the Skylark directly, at least for voice and text, we don’t have the bandwidth for video at this distance.

We decided to go to radio silence. We don’t want “that ship” knowing we are out there.

Satellite going away is a pretty good indication that the ship WAS the bad guy. We are assuming that they shot it.

Kipenzi got the turrets ready for firing, as the storm hit us in the ATV.

Medicus spotted the ship coming in on the passive detectors. It came straight to the starport rather than the actual landing area. Kip turned one turret down and one up, for some options on firing. She (we all) were hopeful that the ship would land, recover the data stick, and go.

320-1107 About noon
The E-a-taka Wasab is an Empress Marava 2 class ship (400 ton). Kipenzi could see one triple laser turret from the Skylark, there was probably one on the other side as well. They landed just after the storm hit full, high winds and hailstones with freezing rain. Kipenzi and Medicus could see the ship but that was about all.

Kipenzi said, “Luckily they set down in the parking lot adjacent to the building itself, nowhere near us.”

Our button cams were still in the port and transmitting. They showed several uniformed people walking down the corridor. They were wearing sloppy military garb, likely pirates or mercenaries maybe. They split up to cover the building, and were pretty heavily armed. We could see six, plus two outside and approaching the Skylark. Despite the name of the ship, none of them were Newts.

While Medicus ran for their weapons, Kipenzi worked the comm, trying to listen in on their transmissions.

Medicus returned with his laser rifle and handed Kipenzi her gauss pistol. He then helped her break the encryption on their comm, his high-tech software made short work of the cheap commercial encryption they were using.

These people had apparently never heard of ComSec, the comm channels were labeled with their names and even had their images.

Corporal Retav Maro: “..where are you two going?”

Hoola Keggle: “We are going to check out the ship.”

Corporal Retav Maro: “Lagrange wants everyone searching the starport.”

Hoola Keggle: “What about the ship?”

Corporal Retav Maro: “We will use it for target practice later. You and Groogrun go back and search the ‘port.”

Hoola Keggle: “What if someone is still on the wreck?”

Corporal Retav Maro: “They are probably in the building anyway. If they are on the ship, they are going to have a bad day either way."

Hoola Keggle: "On our way."

They turned around and headed back to the port building.

Goruk Groogrun: “I kind of like the idea that we are killing everyone on a whole planet.”

Hoola Keggle: “You are a psychopath.”

Goruk Groogrun: “Hee, Hee, looks who’s talking.”

Dash Terrik: “The ATV is missing.”

Major D'Taskov: “Our job just got a lot harder.”

---------------------------

That evening, probably about when the marauders were thinking about dinner, they found our bogus data chip that we put in place where the real one had been.

--------------------------

Thargri th'Dane: "Found It!"

Thargri th'Dane: "I got Patricson's data chip!"

Thargri th'Dane: "It was in the workshop."

Capt. Ryker Lagrange:“Everyone come back to the ship and take a break."

-----------------------------

1620
The ATV is about 7 hours out from the port at this point with Eric driving, Sam spots something, but is too late. It was some kind of animal burrow which collapses under the weight of the ATV, it took about five hours to get unstuck, we never saw what dug it, was probably long abandoned.

Back at the Skylark, Medicus looked up the crew numbers for the Empress Marava Class: A captain, one pilot, sensor operator, two engineers and two gunners.

Watching through the button cams in the port building, Kip ID’ed an Imperial major’s insignia on one of the uniforms, it may mean nothing. Looks more like they are mercs or pirates.

Kipenzi and Medicus wait until they are all back on their ship. They decided on a plan to take out the visible turret, then the bridge, and then on to other parts of the ship.

That close only a turret malfunction could cause her to miss. When you have a weapon that can hit a target at tens of thousands of kilometers, aiming at a target across the field means you get to pick out which rivet you want to hit.

Kipenzi hit the fire button and severely damaged the visible turret and bridge in quick succession.

Within seconds, the E-a-taka Wasab rose to about 20 meters, spun around, and fired back. They must have had an alert and quick-thinking engineer flying the ship from engineering since their bridge was completely gone.

The wobbling E-a-taka Wasab was a shaky firing platform, but they could hardly miss at this range. The triple beam laser came down next to the Skylark and the snow flashed into steam and then the gunner adjusted his angle and targeted one of the Skylarks wings, puncturing a fuel tank.

It is one thing to take a fuel tank hit in space, surrounded by vacuum, it is quite another to get hit in an atmosphere containing oxygen. The ship rocked on its damaged suspension as a huge fireball erupted out of a large hole in the wing. The blast blew through baffles, broke valves and went through the interconnection to the other wing, igniting fuel there. A fitting broke in engineering and sprayed flaming hydrogen into the maneuver drive. We had taken a critical hit.

The beam moved up the ship and swept across the port turret, severely damaging it. The beam continued on, cutting a deep trench in the snow across the field behind the ship creating a cloud of steam that spread into a layer of ground fog.

Medicus called the ATV and told them what was happening, there was no need for radio silence now.

“BIG hits on Skylark.”

Using our one working turret, Kipenzi took out the other turret on the hostile ship, so at least the main misery would stop coming.

Our engineering bot put out the fire in engineering.

The E-a-taka Wasab engineer flying the ship decided it would be better to go away, and went straight up. Kipenzi kept firing. She hit the power plant, and the ship crashed almost straight down, tumbling as it went. Without inertial compensators, it was unlikely that any of the crew survived. DARN... It even landed topside down, adding injury to injury and insult.

321-1107 0550
The ATV arrives after sunrise and all the crew and sundry were back in the port area.

Kipenzi and the repair bot had the port fuel tank sealed by the time we arrived. The blow-out valves had worked and some split seams were quickly sealed. The other wing could take a week or more to fix since there was serious structural damage. We were lucky we didn’t lose the fuel refinery.

Fig and Leon run up to a visibly damaged Skylark, Kipenzi – splattered with sealing materials from fixing the fuel tank - greets them at the cargo bay hatch.

Fig yells, “WHAT DID YOU DO TO THE SKYLARK?”

Kip points silently across the field to the downed ship, a 400-Ton resting upside down with major holes in the turrets, bridge and engineering room.

Fig says, “Oh, okay.”

Kipenzi had put the repair droid to work, and done what she could, and the Skylark was on the way to, if not well, at least functional. The M-Drive could be repaired with parts from our spares and what we could produce with the maker. Between what we saw in the starport store room and what we might be able to salvage off the crashed ship it should be possible to make the starboard wing structurally sound and capable of holding fuel again.

The plan now is for Sam and Kipenzi to go to what we are still calling “The Newt Ship”, while Fig and Leon start repairs on the M-Drive and look at the damaged turret. Somewhere in the process we need to fix the grav-lift with the part scavenged from the crashed air/raft.

Between driving all night in the ATV, digging it out of the snow, Medicus staring at the scanners and comm while Kipenzi worked on the wing through the night in the cold, everyone is exhausted.

Katrin says, “What I really want right now is a hot shower and a change of clothes.”

Continued in Mission to Mithril - Part 6

See Also: Dramatis Personæ, Skylark 2, Campaign Starts, The 2nd Adventure, The Chamax Plague, Horde, Shadows, Research Station Gamma, Twilight's Peak, Prison Planet, Leedor on Aramis, First Call at Zilla, Trade War, The Bloodwell, ANNIC NOVA, The Kinunir, Kesser's Return and Justice.