Mission to Mithril - Part 6

The Travellers explore the wreck of the E-a-taka Wasab and discover that the starport is not as deserted as they thought.

This chapter is based on Carl and Kay ‘s notes from our Feburary 10, 2019 session. 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 5.

Imperial Date: 321-1107.

Location: The Planet Mithril in the Sword Worlds Subsector.

1030
After all of the traveling through the wilderness and the firefight afterwards everyone was tired. Egil looked like he needed to be in the autodoc for about a week. Katrin wanted a shower, clean clothes and her bed in the starport building.

Medicus looked at Egil and reluctantly persuaded him to go into the autodoc. He noticed that Fig was limping a bit, but didn’t press the matter.

We had some discussion about priorities - fuel vs security or both at the same time, the need for someone to watch the E-a-taka Wasab and how urgent it was to examine the wreckage and check for survivors.

The Skylark 2 is out of fuel. Top priority is to get some fuel refined before our batteries give out. One wing fuel tank sustained structural damage and Kipenzi spent most of the night repairing the other so we can fuel up. The other tank will take about a week to repair before we can use it.

We finally decided to keep an eye out while we refueled the one tank that was usable. Kipenzi and Leon hooked up the hoses and got the refueling process started. Probably about 2 hours +/- to get set for processing the water into hydrogen.

Fig sat on the bridge with the gun turret controls up while Eric and Myntelle stood on guard as Kipenzi and Leon hooked up the hoses. Medicus watched the sensors.

It will take about a day and a half to get the fuel processed.

We have seen no signs of activity from the other ship. The weather is clear and we have a good view of it in the painfully bright sunlight.

By about 1100 the hoses were hooked up and the tank was filling. Everyone took turns taking a shower in a fresher and put on some clean clothes and everyone had lunch and talked about what we would do next.

1130
Weather: Cloudy, -10 C.

Sam, Kipenzi, Eric and Leon went over to check out the wreck of the E-a-taka Wasab. Medicus and Fig stayed on the Skylark 2 watching the team’s progress. The away team drove the ATV at an angle, giving Fig a clear shot with the Skylark’s guns if necessary. The away team was loaded for bear.

Climbing up into the ship was a little challenging, with the metal bent and warped from the laser fire and crash damage, but they managed to get aboard intact.

There was an opening in the area that had been the bridge, about a one meter climb up, Kip makes it onto ledge but Eric slips on the edge and falls. Leon hops up like a mountain goat in the low gravity.

The door on the left inside contains a toilet on the ceiling. With everything upside down, it was a little distracting and we proceeded carefully.

Sam went first, there were two doors on each side and an iris valve at the end of the passage.

Unsurprisingly, the first door they tried was stuck, but Sam and Leon managed to get it loose enough to open.

The first room is a stateroom, the beds had come loose from their mounts and were on the floor along with the bedding, there were two chairs still mounted on the ceiling.

The next room was another crew cabin, the fresher was leaking sewage that was starting to freeze around the edges.

The iris valve wouldn’t open. On the radio, Kipenzi suggested holding a button cam up to it and using it to listen. There was no sound coming from behind it.

At this point, the boarding party became aware of a strong smell of alcohol as they approached an opening where sunlight was shining in through a breach in the hull. The breach turned out to be where the laser turret had been. The beam from the Skylark had completely destroyed the laser turret, crossed the corridor and opened a hole in the cargo bay wall.

Looking into the cargo bay, we saw damaged cargo containers sitting in about 10 centimeters of what smelled like whiskey. Fig said, “Whiskey... Tango... Foxtrot.”

We waded into the cargo bay and found what looked like about eight smashed barrels, the source of all the spilled booze. Even though our boots were waterproof, the chill of the sub-zero alcohol was numbingly cold. The whole floor was not covered, it was more pooled towards the front of the ship, the rear of the cargo bay was dry.

In the cargo bay we found:

• Cargo pallets of drugs – designer narcotics
• Cargo containers of leather - Some kind of zebra colored hides, soaking up the whiskey though tears in the side of the container.
• 16 tons of industrial-grade gems
• 5 tons of gold

Most of the bay was empty. Sam said that it didn’t look like cargo, it looked more like loot.

The most immediate concern was that no one was hiding in the bay. Sam grabbed some gems for analysis and pricing later on.

Moving through the ship, several doors were stuck but overcome. Lots of debris and damage and rubble in staterooms.

The Smell of coffee and death became apparent in a few minutes, and the first corpse was located.

Kipenzi went to an opening on the far side of the cargo bay and turned right into a crew common area. She found a dead body, a smashed coffee pot and 8 chairs scattered around the room, one side of the room was a galley. There was a hatch on the floor with a ladder on the wall that once lead up to it and an iris valve that led to an airlock.

Around the common area were a number of staterooms, some of the furniture was still locked to the ceiling, but most had broken their mounts in the crash and were on the floor. The rooms all contained random personal belongings but no bodies. There were broken water pipes and sewer lines in some of the freshers and the whole mess was starting to freeze.

Leon pried open the door to the front cargo lock with a crow bar exposing a door on the right side. It was locked, but Kipenzi made short work of the lock with her gauss pistol.

Behind the door was the ships locker and armory. The gun racks were about half empty, containing four Advanced Combat Rifles (ACR-12’s). There were also boxes of ammo and shelves of other stuff. Sam finds a large bottle with a handwritten label, “Ammonium Nitrate, 2KG”. No bodies, so we moved on and left a more thorough search for later.

Moving aft, we found a low passage berth. It was occupied, but damaged and unpowered. We did not open it to see who might have been inside.

Sam and Kipenzi went back into the galley/common area. Sam searched the body and checked the ID: his name had been Winford Dowe. Sam also pocketed the 80 Credits and .38 pistol he had been carrying when he died.

Kip opened the wheel hatch to the next floor, getting over-pressured air coming out very cold and very quickly, possibly a fuel leak. She closed the hatch.

Moving aft, they passed through an iris valve and found two empty low passage berths. Beyond that, through another hatch, they came to engineering.

Engineering was a mess, we could see sky where Kipenzi’s shot had come through what had been the floor, passed though part of the drive and then continued on up into the upper engineering which was now below us.

There was a dead body hanging from seat restraints in front of a console. It wasn’t clear whether he had died from the extensive burns or if he was killed by the impact when the ship hit the ground. Checking his ID, he was Arron Mattix, an engineer from Tizon, 30 yrs old. He was carrying a knife, pistol and 90 credits.

We spent about 10 minutes while Leon opened one of the iris valves down to upper engineering rather than risk injury by climbing through the hole in the floor.

There was another body in upper engineering. He hadn’t been strapped in and had been definitely killed by the impact. He had been Asohn Parker, a 31-year-old engineer from Roget. He had a knife and 6 credits on him.

Sam opened access panel to an iris valve labeled fuel lines. It looked like it only led to an access to the fuel tank.

Back outside, looking for something that looks like a bridge. Too bad that was one of the big hits that Kipenzi put on them. Alas, the lost information. Gotta wonder where the ship went between leaving Mithril and coming back... sigh...

Checking the database for schematic and floor plan for this class ship, it looks like there should have been 3 or 4 more people than have been found, they may have been on the bridge.

Back inside, we open the hatch and iris valve to vent the leaking hydrogen fuel.

Areas that had not been explored were labeled passenger cabins on our schematic. We would probably need to hunt for the bridge debris later on, but it was starting to look pretty good for 'this is a safe ship to ignore while the hydrogen vents out'.

Getting late in the day, looked like we were pretty secure from attack, fueling was going well. Time for dinner and some real rest after a couple intense days.

1430 About sunset
Sam takes first watch and checks out the gems he brought back – focuser gems (lasers) industrial quality gems.

Sam guesses we could get about 600 KCr for salvaged cargo. (Gems, gold and leather).

Kip asks the Sword Worlders if they want to stay on the Skylark 2, the ATV or in the starport building.

Katrin wants to sleep in her own bed. The Bothildr’s decide that they would be more comfortable at the starport as well, so they all take the ATV over to the port building.

Once at the port they climb up to the tower and inspect the roof for damage from debris from the crashed ship. They don’t find anything that would cause a hazard and decide it would be safe. They also discover that the raiders had gutted the tower, ripping out all of the remaining electronics.

We get a call from Katrin, ”They trashed my room!”

We probably should have warned her about that. The raiders had searched the starport’s living quarters on their first visit, stealing anything of value.

Sam took first watch, just in case. Fig took next 4 hours and searched the log of the battle to locate an approximate debris field from the battle - maybe the ship’s log can be found, maybe not...

321B
Snow started just before dawn. The weather satellite was not responding. We think the E-a-taka Wasab shot it down when they came back to the planet.

0500 Sunrise
Not much visibility - The Skylark’s radar shows a big storm on its way.

About breakfast time, Eric called and said that the ATV was gone. The transponder shows that it is about 50km away to the NW now. Our laser rifle is still mounted to the turret.

There must have been at least one of the newt ship’s personnel still there hiding somewhere.

With Myntelle guarding the kids, Eric and Katrin follow two sets of footprints leading from the back of the building near engineering to where they parked the ATV.

When the ship crashed, we assumed everyone was on board and didn’t search the starport. No one showed up on the button cams so we assumed it was safe.

0600
Everyone went back to the Skylark for breakfast and decided to stay out of the port buildings until it was checked out completely again; we didn’t want any more surprises.

0800
Leon, Kipenzi, Sam and Eric took the snowplow back to the wreck.

Leon and Kipenzi went back to engineering to try and salvage the anti-grav component that we needed, Sam and Eric went to get the arms locker cleared out.

Fig and Medicus on stayed on the Skylark watching the scanners and tracking the ATV as it moved away from us.

Katrin keeps checking her gun - she’s a bit shook up. The loss of almost everyone she worked with at the starport has hit her hard. Someone stealing the ATV while she slept was the last straw.

Kipenzi wearing a mask and carrying sensor equipment checked out the area that had the hydrogen fuel leak. Eric stays behind in the galley on guard.

Hydrogen content in the ship was at a safe level, it dispersed overnight.

Kipenzi found four more bodies, all frozen solid.

• Major D'Taskov
• Thargri th'Dane
• Ismaag Ishlugshash
• Dash Terrik

She recognized a couple from watching them via button camera days back.

As Kipenzi moved around there was more disarray and damage.

One of the cabins had another body: Ganimakkur Shugilamar.

So just the two (hopefully) off with the ATV were outstanding.

One of the cabins had a laser rifle on the floor and she took that.

She cranked open a hatch to find an air/raft upside down and smashed, the external air/raft door was bulging inward with snow leaking in around the sides, buried.

The antigrav unit we got from the other one was readily accessible. Lots easier to recover than frozen in ice.

Yes, having extra spares of single-point-of-failure items is GOOD!!!

Sam went through the ships locker and took everything of value.

• 4 Advanced Combat Rifles (ACR-12’s)
• 6 Auto Pistols
• 400 rounds of ammo for each
• Misc. Emergency Equipment
• 16 Filter Masks
• Box of misc. fittings and adapters
• Box of 9 carabiner clips and cable attachment fittings (labeled as a dozen pack).
• A desktop chemical analyzer in a carrying case.
• Hand held radiation sensor.

He left the miscellaneous junk and the bottle with a handwritten label “Ammonium Nitrate 2kg”.

Next door, Kipenzi found another body. ID’d as Cpl Retav Maro, a 24-year-old mercenary from Strouden.

Kipenzi got all of the names she could, to compare to a ship log or roster if we found one, and for intel when we got back, just in case.

Later Kipenzi and Leon got the ship's antigrav regulator unit out easily. It was a heavier-duty unit than what we have on the Skylark so it should work well. Probably better than trying to get the unit from the air/raft working and hoping it doesn’t blow.

They got the grav unit out of the air/raft as well, since you can never have too many spare parts.

Sam had checked out some of the bodies while the grav lift work was being done (looted.)

1600
By the time they got back it was after dark. The missing ATV was 200 km to the northwest by then.

We all got back together for dinner and a recap of the day and events.

• All of the Mercs home worlds were in the Imperium, specifically within a couple of subsectors in the Spinward Marches.
• The two gunners and two engineers shared rooms. Everyone else had their own rooms.
• 7 Ship crew and 8 troops.
• One cabin had Zhodani language training materials.
• Winford Dowe had a wafer jack on neck, used implanting skills or personality, we didn’t find any wafers though. He probably had had the work done years earlier.
• We didn’t find the captain, Riker LaGrange, the pilot, Johnny Titan, or the two gunners.
• Hoola Keggle and Goruk Groogrun, the troops on guard were missing. We assumed that they were the ones that stole the ATV.
  
  

Continued in Mission to Mithril - Conclusion.

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.