In the Greystar hab, a briefing room is set aside for displaying reviews of the scan of orbital space. The local gravity well is a mess of shaper hulks, ship wreckage and pieces of the damned moon, most of it still intact as one solid hunk. It’s unclear if shaper war forms are still aboard

Svenka reviews the current status of the various bodies in Greystar space “Shit, that’s a lot to deal with.”

“Well, let’s get this over with. Not the most glamorous mission, that’s for sure.”

Svenka sighs “Okay... I guess this doesn’t need to be any different than undersea salvage. We should prioritize what we can use and get it collected together as best we can - debris left floating will make launching from the surface increasingly difficult, any small pieces could become more powerful than fired guns... as to the Shapers... I really dont know.. we could try to agonize whatever we find out there. I fear that some... things will still be alive on the moon and could pose a problem. How do you think we should approach this, Kelvin?” (edited)

“I was thinking about this as two parts. First, that big hunk. It would take a ton of ammo to break that thing up, and like you say it’d make a big mess. I wonder if we could try to determine if there’s anything left alive, and once we’re confident it’s dead we let it orbit until we can find a way to get it far away from Acastus and hit it with a singularity gun. The second piece is all of the smaller debris. You say ‘get it collected together’ - do you think there’s a way to sort of gather it? I had been thinking we’d just hit it with flak until it’s broken up into really tiny pieces, but maybe that just makes it worse...”

(How big is the hunk?)

“I’ve got another idea or two, but they might take a bit of time to engineer. If we aren’t just obliterating this stuff, we would need to either push it out of the gravity well or send the smaller pieces into Acastus’ atmosphere to burn. I would vote for destruction since we aren’t sure they couldn’t somehow repair or reactivate themselves later. I can think of two ways to push this stuff into orbit. One possibility is to attach some sort of cable to a piece, and using a ship we slingshot it towards Acastus. Another would be to use a large solar sail to collect as many pieces as we can at a time, then slow it’s orbit so it gradually gets pulled to atmo.”

(1/3 of a moon sized. Big )

(I never had hard dimensions for it. )

“We need to sort through the scrap. We can salvage the ship remains from our side... collect the dead.” She looks sombrely at the screens “and try to collect together what we can of the... organic matter they left behind and get it away from the planet.”

“Slingshotting or towing it is going to take a lot. The battleship and anything else we could muster... I don’t even know if it’s possible, but we could engineer a brace and do some modelling to try to take our best shot?” (edited)

“I think I might be able to destabilize the molecular polarity on the forward Argon collector to enable us to use the deflecting matter stream to bridge with the central subspace opti-cable to make a rudimentary anti-matter tow line.”

(So like an orbital net for junk?)

Kelvin rubs his chin and pulls out his datapad. He quickly types in a few calculations and checks a few physics references before looking up with a smile. “You’re good Svenka. That might actually work.” (edited)

(Ha basically?)

I.... thought that was like 70% bullshit. I was just giving a ridiculous intro to the fact we have a tractor beam... but... shit, his calculations look sound, maybe we could do more with it... “Uh, yeah... we have a tractor beam on our battleship, Veles... but maybe we could do more with it...”

Kelvin relaxes. He knows he’s outmatched as an engineer, and he has no idea if this will work, but he’s not going to let her know that. He closes the datapad, his incomplete, incorrect calculations unsaved. “Alright, well glad we solved that puzzle. Should we start with salvage ops?”

She nods “You work salvage before? I’d suggest we coordinate a crew in the shipyard to take in and look over what we collect, and we can focus on being in space and getting it all pulled together. If we move quick we have a remote possibility of survivors, although I wouldn’t count on it. My...my dad once pulled a crew out from a shipwreck who had been in a mostly sealed bulkhead.”

Kelvin shakes his head “Nope. Not a salvage like this anyway. Guess I’m following your lead on this one. I’d be damned surprised if there are survivors on that thing, but... well I’ve been surprised before.” (edited)

“Ok, well, Kade can coordinate from the battleship, we will need to be a bit closer to everything - I’ll take my frigate. I don’t think we have any real salvage-specific ships, so we will have to make do. This might take some time outside as well. You can either come along or join in another ship - we will need to coordinate whatever fleet we can muster to get this happening.”

“Sounds good. I’ll take one of the corvettes alongside your frigate. If there’s a lot to salvage, perhaps once we determine the sector is all clear we can send in a heavier ship or two to haul more out. I’m still just wary of a trap or surprise attack.”

(I don’t want to cut this off before you’re ready but I’m caught up

(I’m ready if Svenka is)

(I’m already done the cleanup - in my mind (and ready))

The group splits into the three ships used for this, the more ponderous battleship hanging further back due to its reduced reaction time. A map of the junk and moon fragment spreads out on the holo displays in everyone’s ship

“Okay, slow, methodical. We could be dealing with live munition, survivors or shapers. Be careful everyone.” She keys in a section of scrap. “Let’s start here.” (edited)

Several signals appear, the closest is the skewered remains of one of the red sangha patrol boats. It wasn’t destroyed in an explosion but rather speared by one of the battle moons s bone shank torpedoes. It hangs in space, buckled in the middle and broken backed by the barb, it’s power failed. Crew signatures inside and a distress beacon play on repeat with ever decreasing powe

Svenka sits upright “We have signs of life - try to raise them on comms, confirm they are human, prep the teleporter and get an armed squad in the teleport bay.”

“Powers down on that side. We don’t have a teleport locus to lock on to over there. Have to do it the old fashioned way”

(Someone on the other vessel basically has to allow you access which they can’t do)

(Teleporting to ships is a little different than down to a planet)

“Alright - teleporter isn’t going to work... we are going to need to get over there and do this manually. Kelvin, you know your way around a ship’s systems, you ok to come out for a little walk with me?” She remains on comms while she is getting in to her space suit and getting ready to get out the airlock

“Sure... I’ve done this before.” Then, off the comms, to himself, “...once.”

Well that makes one of us

As Kelvin straps into his suit, the same set of nerves runs through his body as they had done the last time he’d stepped into space. He’s experienced similar feelings before, in dreams where he walks into a mechanical engineering final forgetting to wear clothes

Svenka likewise gets ready for launch You’ve done zero-G before... sort of.. It will just like deep sea salvage... just like it. Fuck.

(So it'll be just you guys heading over at first, I see two options ahead, we can try to get the power back on, and teleport reinforcements over, or we can go right for the crew. The ship is bisected, so from the outside you're not sure if there's a way totally through the ship or not)

(or what decks/passageways have crumpled inside)

“We can either try to get this thing powered back up or try to cut our way in and go right for the crew - your call Kelvin, I’ll follow your lead on this.”

“I think we should track down any remaining crew before we power it on. Reinforcements would be nice, but we’re not sure who or what might be in there and I worry about what kinds of capabilities we give them access to with a powered ship.” (edited)

“As quietly as possible. We don’t want to alert anything that might have gotten a ride on that torpedo.” (edited)

“Agreed” Svenka thrusters towards the wreck

Kelvin looks ahead and stays at Svenka’s side, moving towards the ship and continuing to scan for any signs of activity.

The ships get as close as they can to the skewered wreck, before debris and particle warnings begin kicking in. The air locks on both ships begin preparing for your spacewalks

“Ok, here we go. Be careful” She gets ready and moves towards the derelict as soon as they are close and the airlock opens.

Kelvin follows, thrusting forward to keep pace with Svenka

The airlock of the red sangha ship remains closed as you both power through the void on your long tethers toward it. You can hear the howl of empty space as a dull roar behind your ears, kept out by your helmets. Failing power has shut down the electronic lock, but the emergency lights above and below the flywheel to manually open it are lit

Svenka gets to and attaches a tether to one of the safety grommets (or whatever she can find) “Alright, looks like we might be able to manually open this - we will need to be careful that we don’t vent the atmosphere remaining. It would be a shame to get here only to cause them to suffocate.” She bangs on the door to see if she can hear air... only to remember that that wont work in space like it does under the sea. Fuck, what now? (edited)

(This is just the airlock right? so if I pop this door open, we enter, and then close it behind us we shouldn’t risk venting?) (edited)

(As long as the interior door isn’t open as well?)

Kelvin hesitates for a second “I don’t think I’ve told you about this, but I have this... ability? I can materialize equipment. Essentially any tool we might need. So for this... let’s see...” Kelvin starts inspecting the door

(Is there anywhere a simple lever like a crowbar could be jammed in to get leverage to force the door?)

“You can.... what?” Svenka watches incredulously while he works

Kelvin looks back at her. “Yeah, I know. It’s weird. So I can make something simple...” He holds his fists together, and slowly pulls them apart. As he does, a steel crowbar materializes between them. He smiles awkwardly and flings it into space. As he lets go, the crowbar disappears. “...or something more complex.” He does a series of more complicated motions with his hands, then holds them together, facing down, palms outstretched. He pulls them apart again, this time revealing a compad. He quickly flips his hands to catch the device, which he turns on and shows Svenka before tossing it to the side where it vanishes.

Svenka floats there like an idiot with her mouth hanging open, no words coming out.

Kelvin grins. “I kinda keep that to myself, but thought you might appreciate it. So, any ideas for something that might help us get this door open?”

She looks at the flywheel “We could start with hands and see if we can exert enough force?”

Kelvin looks at the flywheel and sinks his head “I always miss the easy option.” He grips the flywheel and starts to turn it

(I’ve been waiting to try to use that magic for months, I think here a great opportunity! And there’s a door opening machine right in front of me)

(Lol - I mean I could break it?)

Only the outside door seems to be opening as you twist the wheel, which is what was hoped for. The inside one remains shut and there is a hiss of air pressure as the exterior vents.

Inside, the emergency lights are off now as well. This second airlock door looks to be stuck , though you can close the exterior one at will with a similar mechanism inside

Svenka heads inside and waits for Kelvin before closing and re-sealing the door. “Ok, see what you can do on that stuck door, I’ve got you covered.” She brings her shear rifle to bear

“Alright, let’s try the simple option first...” Kelvin re-materializes a crowbar and tries to find the right point to apply leverage.

The airlock is tense but silent , aside from the scraping sounds of your prybar. The outer airlock closes without trouble. With a snap hiss , the inner door opens. The hallway to the left is cut off from the enemy weapon impact. Water and rusted looking fuel runoff slicks in trickles down the bone blade from ruptured lines. To the right, four room, two on the right and two on the left have their door closed

In your space suits it’s hard to hear

(Is there gravity on the ship or we’re still floating?)

(It’s like moon gravity inside. You’ll eventually come back down but you can kick off and drift )

“Room by room? Start on the right, you get the door open and I’ll cover you.”

Kelvin looks at the damage from the shaper weapon, then back to Svenka. He nods before silently posting up next to the first door on the right, laser rifle readied. With Svenka in position he tries carefully opening the door, ready to swing it open and raise his rifle barrel the second it gives. (edited)

The door opens and there is a crash of something from within the room and a shadow darts across the field of vision of your gun mounted flashlights

“We are here to help, calm down, we wont hurt you.”

The light shines on them and two badly wounded red sangha troopers try to raise their weapons in the corner of the room r

Their veins especially in the neck and down their arms are purple and bruised, the kind of hurt that only comes with brief exposure to vacuum without protection

“No no, weapons down - we’re Greystar!” (Was one of them the darting shadow or is there something else in this room?)

Svenka lowers her rifle “we need to get to the others.”

(Best you can guess it was one of them scrabbling across the floor to get to a gun)

(Since they didn’t know what was coming in the door. Just that something was) (edited)

“Help. Help us” one groans, pinned down in her midsection by a fallen locker (edited)

Svenka fully slings her rifle and moves quickly to help get her free, looking for a way to apply leverage to the locker to maximize her limited strength.

Kelvin rushes over and materializes a 6-foot steel bar, looking for a place to wedge it to lift the locker up so Svenka can pull the woman out

Holy shit that is cool

Kelvin is able to find enough of a gap in the broken floor plate to get the bar in. With a sharp pull, it lifts high enough for there to be enough space. You can see the poor soldiers legs have been crushed in the lockers fall, and her companion looks to have done everything he can to keep her alive , including applying a Lazarus patch already

“We are going to get you help.” (Can I beam them back from here with tracker thingies aka Star Trek?)

Kelvin turns to the other trooper “Have you seen others?” (edited)

(I don’t think there’s an item like that in the game iirc)

Svenka makes sure they will be more or less ok while they continue the search

(What door next?)

(No response from the one I asked about seeing anything?)

(I missed that but he would tell you they’ve been bunkeredndown in this room)

“Alright Svenka, next door. Same plan.” (Heading to second door on the right, same as before)

“Agreed, ready.”

The door opens and inside you find the ship armory. Weapons have been scattered across the floor and a dead red sangha troopers lies speared by a fallen ceiling beam, now pinned to the deck. Archaic rimworlder semi automatic rifles are scattered around the room along with loose projectile ammunition. A gentle breeze wafts out of one of the vents somehow, even though the power is down

Kelvin looks around the room, checking for any weapons that may be of use. He searches the trooper’s body as well.

“Why am I detecting a breeze? That doesn’t seem right...” Svenka sweeps the room with her sensors.

(Notice/wis)

(8)

Something shifts in the vent, ever so slightly , just enough for you to see it’s shadow move behind the metal grate

(9, in case my search needed one as well)

“It’s ok, you can come out, we are here to help.”

Kelvin looks over, seeing Svenka eyeing the vent. He grips his rifle, ready but not raised, in case this doesn’t turn out to be another trooper.

(evasion save for you both plz)

(Success 11 v 4)

(Fail 4 v 7)

Kelvin is struck by a bone spur shot (6damage) from the vent. The Metal grilling crumples under the force of it and you get a brief flicker of some sort of shaper creature inside. It begins rounding a corner inside the vent, out of sight

Kelvin grimaces in pain. “Dammit! What the hell! Did you see that thing?”

(I’d like to take a look at the vent and see if I can determine where it goes - an adjacent room? Somewhere we can access?)

(Do we get a shot at it before it fully escapes?)

(Yes Svenka. And once that resolves I’ll give you an answer kelvin)

As he yells to Svenka, Kelvin manages to fire off a burst from his laser rifle (23/8)

Svenka follows suit with a focused burst from her shear rifle (26/12)

“Should have brought the goddamn drones.”

The shots connect, both of you aiming true, and you hear a squeal from inside the vent. A hound like shaper creature has been splattered around the inside , it’s purple blood climbing against the metal

Kelvin carefully peers into the vent (Ok back to examining to see if I can tell where it leads)

The vent looks like It banks left into what must be life support next door, judging by the positioning of the fans and air exchanges inside. It’s hard to see much more with the alien viscera in the way

“Fuck. Should have brought my goddamned drones. You ok Kelvin?” Svenka continues scanning

(That’s all there is to know with the vents for now)

Kelvin looks down at his leg. There’s a dark wet stain of blood on his thigh, about 4 inches in diameter. “I’m OK. Fucker got me pretty good but luckily just hit flesh. I’m fine to move forward. Should we check out that next room? I’m pretty sure it’s life support, and it looks like that’s where the vent leads.”

There is a rattle and cough from some kind of filter system next door

Svenka makes a motion to go to the source of the cough, quietly.

Kelvin nods and starts to quietly approach that room, starting to open the door with his laser rifle ready

The life support station is not powered and you see two of the creatures feasting on a dead red sangha crewman. Another three are bound in some kind of cocoon (think like a spider) but are struggling and alive

Kelvin immediately fires at one of the two creatures (30/13) (edited)

It roars as best it can while getting a face full of hot energy bolts. It’s carcass slides a meter across the deck before coming to rest in the corner of the room, burned meat still sizzling.

(Svenka)

Svenka fires at the other one, horror painted on her face. (23/11)

This one is heavily wounded and reacts by spitting ropes of The binding ichor at the both of you. (Base roll wasn’t even double digits so I know I missed the ac 13 vac suits)

Your quick reactions save you from whatever this would have done

Kelvin fires a single shot at the remaining creature (12/6)

As does Svenka (18/17)

It howls, and collapses into a heap, it’s head and forelegs savaged by the gunfire. The crewmen wriggle and squirm, trying to get free, though with a bit less urgency now that they’re not on the menu (edited)

Kelvin rushes to the first one and tries to pull them free of the webbing

Svenka produces her mono knife and works to cut the other crewman out.

After a few moments the captured are freed and standing before you, their circumstances now greatly improved “Thank you” one says, his eyes showing nothing but serenity, even amid his surroundings.

“We struggled for escape to fight. Not for our lives to be spared but we thank you all the same”

Svenka looks at them, confused “you seem oddly... serene. For one who was in and is still in such a dire situation. Why is that?”

“The enlightenment that comes with Red sangha provides peace. We uphold all deals” he says , Bowing slightly

She nods. “I remember hearing something about that. You fit to fight?”

“If we must.” They begin gathering small arms and whatever they can use as a makeshift weapon from the deck. One injects himself with a vial of KFOR

*lift

Kelvin looks at Svenka warily before turning his eye back towards the troopers “Well alright then. Are there more of those things on the ship?”

“If you are better suited to defending, 2 of your crew are in the first room down the hall wounded.” Svenka shared the look and didn’t want these 2 watching her back right now.

“We will tend to them and make ourselves ready for Rescue. There aren’t suits aboard for us, but if you report our location someone will come”

Outside, kade is doing her best to coordinate the destruction of smaller pieces of junk, waiting for your word and expertise to engage the gravity tow line

(We have one more room to clear?)

(You found what there was to find but if you want to sweep it you can anyway)

Svenka points to the last door to give it a check before calling in the tow line

Kelvin nods and carefully opens the door with rifle ready

This is the ship hydroponics bay. A small greenhouse like room with four rows of vegetables growing in trays occupies the space. It doesn’t look like the beasts made it in here

But there are some seed samples on the wall

Svenka takes stock of the hydroponics, it brings her kind back to what she was hoping to do on Pelgason back before all the politics got involved. She is especially interested in the samples and what they are growing here, perhaps related to their mood.

Kelvin notices Svenka’s interest in the plants “Anything, ah, unusual here Svenka?”

The planes look to be some kind of vitamin fortified squash, each growing i. A small tray. This must be the opening stage of its life cycle, just past seedling. The trays look a bit dry, probably because power had been off for a while now. There are about sixty plants growing in here that all look to be the same

Svenka looks to collect some of the seeds, secretly.

(i think with the red sangha looking after their own, and the rest of you scanning for more threats, no roll needed here. Someone would have to be specifically watching you, and no one is)

(Done and done - AOK to fast forward if you are)

(I’m good)

You return to your vessels as a flight of lighters from the starhab make their way over to the wreck, and a few beyond. Other salvage teams are working out here now, and other survivors have been located. The number of craft darting in and out of the wreck field gives the impression of there being more life out in the debris than projected.

"Svenka, we're ready to fire up the tow line, if you are, I just need some guidance on how to do this" Kade says, from the bridge of the battleship

Svenka types away on her black slab, permutations and calculations running in a separate window. Once it all completes she keys her comm. “Relaying the vectors to you now. Need to keep an eye on the strain as we haven’t really used this before.”

The battleship fires a long tow line from its aft, and after a few moments the power level rises, charging it with a faint electric blue. Small pieces of junk begin moving towards it. “So, I just had a thought” says Kade. “It might be nothing , but it’s bothering me”

“Go on... please.”

“What do we do about the organic materials. The stuff out here with too little metal to bond to the tow line. We could be out here for a long time individually vaporizing every large piece. Especially when we start shooting at the moon piece left over”

Kelvin turns to Svenka. “What about our crazy space net idea? Too crazy?”

“Basically a large solar sail that could gather smaller junk and pull it either away from Acastus or bring it into atmo to burn.”

“Could make a giant, physical net and start dredging space for all the remaining pieces.... As to the Moon... I wonder if we could put enough thrust behind it to get it into a decaying orbit with the Sun?”

Kelvin nods enthusiastically “Yeah, it would take a really long time, and I wonder how much force we’d need, but I think we’d only have to nudge it a bit to give it enough velocity to make it to the sun’s gravity well. Eventually. As long as we aren’t worried about any long-term effects of it drifting through space this could work.”

“I’d much rather see that thing incinerated than risk whatever it is being reawakened/repurposed by the shapers.”

“Well there’s always the Suhan’s singularity gun...”

“Smorkle’s at the ready to fire on our signal”

(If that thing was hit by the big gun would it be vaporized? Or do we then have the same problem of tons of debris that we need to worry about?)

(It would be imploded so it would suck everything into a super dense mass. Then you could ram or tow it )

(That’s actually a great solution kelvin I totally forgot about that)

(IIRC we had something set up with Smorkle so we could signal him to fire. I can’t remember what that was so if we have to go visit him that’s fine.)

“Svenka, if you’re good having the Suhans fire the gun I think that’s our best option. The implosion could also capture nearby debris so we might end up capturing quite a bit into one dense mass we can then deal with more easily, and without fear of shaper deactivation.” (edited)

“We should probably warn the rest of Greystar first, so nobody enters the sector until it’s clear.”

(there had to be a ship in the quadrant to set off the signal to detonate the sub-munition and virtually everything in the quadrant would be destroyed or heavily damaged)

(This not being a combat zone anymore they won’t have to get as close)

“Agreed. We should contact the director and ensure we have a clear sector. Would be great to test fire that thing anyhow.”

Kelvin nods, then sends an alert to Kensh (edited)

Kelvin shrugs to Svenka. “Good enough I suppose. We’ll wait on a confirmation and then give the Suhans the go ahead.”

The director does not answer you directly but you see an evacuation of local space order given out , and all ships are recalled back to the far side of acastus, minus a small survey probe to confirm the impact of the shell. If ordered today, the shell should be hitting the target in four days

(They’re going to have to re-calculate a bunch of stuff and then actually shoot it through a few hexes)

“Nice work Kelvin! We can continue working on the metal scrap collection and rescue efforts and keep that sector clear. We should check in on Eisheru at some point and see how the fight has gone.”

( if we want to fast forward at this point we can. I think you guys have done what you’re able to do as far as the major problems. If you want to sweep more ships we can too

(As long as you don’t feel trapped)

(I’m ok to gloss over and fast forward, but will defer to Kelvin!)

(Fast forward away!)

(I just want to watch the Big Bang. Or is it a big suck?)

(I mean why not both?)

As they watch the implosion after retreating to a safe distance, Kelvin pops a bottle of sparkling wine, pours two glasses and hands one to Svenka. “Nice job up there. Cheers Svenka. To Greystar.”

(6xp, 10,000 credits for you both)