Beyond Terra [Prelude | Complete]

[G-Tech Corporation]

Beyond Terra



After eons spent drifting through the void in silence, a voyage is now reaching her end. This end, however, is not what her designers anticipated. The U.N.E. Harmony, one of the greatest triumphs of human engineering, is struck by a chain of unexpected system failures in the coolant systems of the main reactor. This reactor supplies power to the bulk of the ship and the cryostasis decks of the colony pods, who are now forced to operate on reserve power supplies. The year is 2220, ninety years after the Harmony left the orbit of Earth seeking a new world, and disaster has caught up to her.

There will not be enough energy in the reserve systems to keep every part of the crew in stasis until they arrive at their scheduled location, the uncharted but promising system designated by UN Space Command as Lagrange 121. An onboard emergency AI makes the unenviable but utilitarian decision to awaken one hundred of the thirteen thousand souls who are in cryostasis aboard the ship, as the considerations which must be taken are now outside of her operating parameters. Crucially, these one hundred officers and experienced civilian crew discover that the captain and his first mate are missing, and airlock logs show inexplicable usage nearly four months ago in their interstellar journey.

The crew on board the ship are now all effectively last in command. Disagreements immediately break out between the crew as to what now needs to be done to ensure the survival of the mission, with some opining that it will be necessary to jettison cryopod capsules to conserve the energy remaining on the ship. This act may save the voyage, but damn thousands to death in the cold void of space. No agreement can be reached on how or if this should be done, with many understandably opposed to mass murder even out of utilitarian concerns. Conflict quickly breaks out, and eventually escalates into physical violence. It is now the duty of those who still believe in the Harmony's mission to make for the planet before them, scavenging what they can from the ship and launching with colony pods for the good of all mankind.

---

Someone managed to shut off the klaxons, thankfully. That mournful hooting was starting to drive you mad. The hubbub that has replaced it on the bridge between eight dozen arguing voices, however, isn't much better. Lurid amber warning lights are pulsing at both entrances to the command deck, and intermittently shuddering sensations beneath your feet aren't encouraging - whatever is happening right now might not be over yet.

"We have to jettison excess pods now, or never. Fuel reserves are already at 82%! If we don't lose the dead weight now, we'll be a ship full of mummified corpses within the week."

A voice cuts through the murmur of officials, officers, functionaries, flunkies, and bureaucrats. A bald man is waving a data readout while standing on the captain's chair, his whispy moustache of prematurely white hair a sharp contrast to his face, which is a mottled red of frustration or fear, one of the two. Whatever is on the readout you can't really be sure, but it has what looks like a real-time update on some downward trendline. Some voices around the command deck mutter vague words of agreement, while another set of sharp tones cuts through the din and side conversations.

"That 'dead weight' is men and women, brothers and sisters a hundred light years away from Earth. They have just as much right to fight for their survival as the rest of us. I say we prime the ignition sequence, reroute the fuel reserves to the colony pods. The survival of the mission is in God's hands, and I am not going to wield the executioner's axe and choose who lives and who dies."

A breath of awkward silence follows. It is one thing to speak dispassionately about conserving mission resources and prioritizing optimal outcomes, another to be reminded that those euphemisms revolve tightly around the deaths of thousands. The shouting begins again in mere moments despite the odd reprieve, the bony engineer in his flight suit jumping down off of the captain's chair to point a talon-like finger into the chest of a silver-haired woman who bears a chaplain's epaulets.

Into the chaos a calm computer-generated voice speaks, chiming out of the communicator placed against your right temple.

"Alert: a series of power surges have been detected in the drive core. Drive containment has sustained damage. Assessment underway."

Damage to the drive core? Damnation. The Harmony might not even make it to the landing site in one piece then. You quickly pull up a map on your datapad, weighing your options.

---

The UNE Harmony

Deck 1: Observation
This deck is a series of star-gazing lounges and recreation areas, all mothballed and intended for usage once the colony ship was in stable orbit above the planet for crew relaxation. It might be possible to salvage some entertainment materials, recreation equipment, or other items from this level.

Deck 2: Command, Armory, Officer Quarters
You are here. A wide array of long range observation and command and control systems are located here - accessing them with the entire crew around could be difficult, but there would be a lot of value in having at the very least a simplistic map of Adelia from this close range, and more in depths scans could probably be taken with more effort. Alternatively, the Armory isn't far away, and there's no telling what might be valuable in the captain's quarters or the other spaces set aside for the Officers of the Harmony. Who knows? There could even be some information about what the hell is actually going on hidden away here somewhere.
Options:
-Collect Adelia Topographical Information: This could be used to select a landing site, if you choose to abandon the Harmony. Additional scanning options will be available after topographical information has been collected. [3 Minutes]
-Assess Harmony Condition: By quickly accessing the AI information on the state of the Harmony's subsystems, you might be able to know where to focus your efforts on preventing the breakup of the ship, or at least be able to steer yourself and anyone with you away from the worst of the damage. [2 Minutes]

Deck 3: Engineering and Infirmary
This is the floor where complex tools for repair and maintenance of the Harmony are stored, as well as the carapace suits for spacewalks and to deal with hull breaches. Given the degradation of the ship which is ongoing, wisdom might prepare for worse eventualities... the infirmary is also located here, which could be helpful indeed if you run into unstable members of the crew, or need to secure vital medical supplies.

Deck 4: Cryogenics and Launch Control
If the Harmony is really on the way out, you'll want to end your journey here, bundled into one of the Colony Pods along with some human popsicles along with whatever you can scavenge from the doomed ship. There may also be a chance to save the ship here, or at least prolong her demise, if you have it in your breast to begin dumping some of the precious cargo that the colony ship is carrying which is devouring her limited power reserves.

Deck 5: Biology and Genetics
A great wealth of cultivars, both artificial and Terran, are stored here alongside a variety of genetic treatments for maladies and the gene-prints for colonial organisms to stabilize the biosphere. No doubt these will be some of the first systems the Harmony's AI shuts down to conserve power, but it is hard to put a price on a stable food source on an alien world.

Deck 6: Laboratory
The Harmony was intended to have a fully functional suite of research facilities for any challenges the colonists might encounter, everything from biology to geology to xenomorphology and theoretical physics. Almost none of it will be able to be meaningfully transferred, but you know a variety of prototype technologies were also sent along on the trip, and those might be able to be salvaged. There is also an experimental subspace ansible here which the Captain intended to use to communicate with UN Space Command.

Deck 7: Reactor and Docking
The starship's main field reactor is housed in the bowels of the ship, on the opposite end of the vessel from her short range launch bay for inter-atmospheric transporters and a variety of exploration craft and the like. It should be possible to siphon energy from the reserves here for your own purposes, if you feel so inclined, but it will almost certainly shorten the timeframe in which the Harmony survives the stresses she is facing.

Deck 8: Storage and Maintenance
This may be the most important deck of all; uncounted prefabricated dwellings, crates of freeze-dried meals, hydrogen fuel cells, and the like populate the belly of the colony ship, waiting to supply a nascent human city on Adelia with everything she needs. There is a catch however - it appears a detonation in the reactor level has left a significant breach in a few of the storage chambers, and the structural integrity of the deck is deteriorating rapidly. Time spent here will likely come with significant danger, danger which will only increase unless emergency repairs are made. That said, if some of the emergency fuel reserves here could be moved up to the Reactor... the entire crew could have more time to prepare for all eventualities.

---

Good luck, officers and crew of the Harmony. Choose wisely, your destiny awaits. Two minutes of time are necessary to move between each Deck via the lift, unless the power fails...

[Lunas Legion]

Fawzia al-Rayes, Engineer (Climate Systems)

They were, Fawzia al-Rayes realised, all going to die. The captain and the first mate, the only people with the expertise and the incontestible authority needed in a situation like this, were missing. Dead, most likely, if one joined the dots to the airlock use four months ago.

But why? How were they even awoken? They couldn't wake themselves up. Fawzia hated mysteries. Hated problems that had no solution she could comprehend, or even know where she should start. That she'd been awoken... Why her? She was a climate engineer, she wasn't any help with ethical and moral dilemmas like this! They should've awoken a philosopher or something, not her!

She stood at the edge of the command deck, near a wall, silent. She didn't want to try speaking up in that arguing mass of people, yelling about morality and whether they could make it to their destination with anyone with everyone. Lines and data in fields of science she hadn't studied or did not remember, orbital mechanics and laws of motion and gravity. What could she do? What did she understand?

She understood the ship, to a degree. It was in a great many systems to the eco-bastions she had called home almost her entire life, but with the cold unforgiving vacuum of space instead of the blistering winds and scouring sands of the Arabian Peninsula. She breathed deeply. Prioritise. She needed to prioritise. If she wanted to do anything about this, she'd need equipment first. And that meant deck 3. Engineering. She didn't hesitate, didn't pay anyone any attention, and headed straight for deck 3. Engineering. Her bare hands would do little against the vacuum of space, after all.

[Action: Visit Deck 3 for repair equipment and don a spacesuit.]

[The GAmeTopians]

Research Director Caitríona Quinn, Lieutenant Commander
0 Minutes Elapsed, Location: Deck 2

A voice cuts through the clamor on the Command deck, earning at least a brief moment of silence from the horde of officers.

“Look, folks, we’re on a clock here, and we have a real chance to save some lives if we get our asses in gear, working together, and get where we’re going in one piece.”

The lithe figure of Research Director Caitríona Quinn pushed through the crowd, moving with purpose toward the elevators, her voice still carrying across the deck.

“I will be heading to the labs in order to attempt to activate the transmitter, and contact Earth Command - all of my subordinates in the Research Department, you are ordered to immediately take up positions on each deck, in order of your listing on our department personnel sheet. Everyone else, my department will serve as points of contact for the repair effort, so we don’t have people talking over each other. My subordinates will not be making decisions for the ship, just relaying information to each deck as quickly and efficiently as we can.”

In the moment left before the elevator's arrival, she took a moment to look into the eyes of her compatriots. The briefest serious gaze for each of them.

“Save the politics and the scheming for when we’re all safe on the ground, people. While I'm in the elevator I’ll be putting up a priority sheet on the ship-wide bulletin. Each of you, go find something you’re good at, and stay in contact via the closest member of Research. White lab coat, can’t miss it. Let’s go, people!”

Caitríona held her fist in the air, punctuating her last point, and stepped back into the waiting elevator. She quickly pulled up her datapad and started searching for the information she needed. All she could do was her best - it was up to them to do the rest.

Actions
Organizing officers via speech (Ostensibly Free)
Moving to Laboratory (2 Minutes)
Posting the Ship Repair Priority Bulletin (Ostensibly Free? Would take me like 15 seconds to type)
Pulling up Deck 6 map and Ansible Manual on her datapad while in elevator (Ostensibly Free, mostly to justify moving quickly once on Deck 6)

Ship Priority Bulletin
Relocate yourselves to the area where you can do the most good and wait for the diagnostic.
CURRENT NUMBER ONE PRIORITY: If you’re brave and strong, go to Deck 8 and help move emergency fuel to the reactor. We need to buy time, people!

[Cybernetic Socialist Republics]

"We live the "trolley problem" everyday of our lives, to choose to live is flip the switch one way, but we all get some input into who and how many lay on which track."


The question of whether or not to jettison any of the pods not in anyway a moral dilemma for Tiffany, but a practical one. As far as she was concerned, by signing up on this journey, the all had on some level, already chosen to abandon earth to the rest of humanity & all the evils that could of potentially elasped during cryosleep. They had so with the belief that this new journey would nonethless be a worthwhile endeavor for humanity, making it worth the sacrifice. In a very real sense, the jepordize the mission now on behalf of a few hundred, betrayed the billions alive the left behind & if they on this ship were by some chance the last of human civilization, the billions that came before. If it really was a question of jettison 'excess' pods for the survival of the rest, there was no reason at all for hesitation.

That, however, is where practicality came in. There was no way to be certain that that the calculations that were being relayed here would wind up being correct & everyone survivor that made it to planetfall improved their chance of succcess with the colony. That was before one even considered the very obvious issues with being the one to take the first step in the direction of jettisoning pods. Saving the ship without jettisioning any pods, would be an all-hands on board effort, which would be neatly foiled by anyone person or group of people deciding to carry out with it one way or another. So it was a safe bet that it would end up happening. If one chose to to it, those against it would despise you for it, even if they ended up being amongst those that benefited from it in the end. Comparatively, standing by for someone else to lead the charge in that direction would only serve to make you appear indecisive & weak to those who lept to action, which was by no means a crippling label to have.

However the best of all actions, would be something that either side would look upon positively or neutrally, while still being a productive step. Given that, it was none to difficult for Tiffany to decide what to do, standing in that command center, she quickly made her way toward a console to Assess Harmony's Condition. That would provide her with AI information that would allow her to get a better understanding of the ship. That was information that'd be useful to her or anyone else, whether they'd end up saving the ship, or cutting their losses.

[Lagene]

Exoplanet Analyst Joseph Kalibronsky
Location - Deck 6, Labratory
Joseph was jolted awake. What was happening? What was the screaming? It all came to him at the same time. His nightmares, his worries, all real. Really here happening right now. What was the plan he had? Why was his brain suddenly not working? What were his scenarios? Right. He remembered his friend, the Research Director, Caitríona Quinn, going over this with him. Her words were now locked in his brain.
"Fix the ship. Land Safely. Worry later."
Then he remembered the extra fuel in dock 8 and the orders Caitríona had given. Surely moving those to the reactor would let all the helpful members of research have some more time to work. After all, surely an Exoplanet Analyst would be no help in a crash, but if he could halt the time of crash, surely that would be of use? Sounds like a plan. Fix the ship.
Land Safely.
Worry Later.
The mantra was still running through his head as he sprinted to the lift and pressed 8.
He knew that the saving of the ship would be crucial to survival on this planet, and according to his studies, the resources they had would only last them a few months. They needed to do something, or they were all doomed.
"I've got the fuel." Joseph said plainly as the doors opened
Happiness. That was key. If they survived, that would be the goal of his faction. Not Surviving, thriving. This was not temporary, it would have to be a home.

Not surviving, thriving.

Arriving at dock 8, he really could see how he really could die here. But if he wanted anyone on this ship to survive, he had to do this.
(Action - Go to Dock 8, grab the extra fuel)
(contribute to conversation)

[Kreigsreich of Iron]

John Smith, chief HR administrator for UNE Harmony


John Smith, datapad in hand, assessed the situation as he knew it. First, the problem of the pods. While he found himself agreeing with the chap who had proposed ejecting the surplus pods, he could tell without even looking that policy was firmly against mass murder. He spoke up.
“While I personally argue with the opinion of my colleague in the captain’s chair, I think we can all safely agree that UN policy is quite clearly on the side of those arguing in favour of the motion. As such, all debates on the issue are moot. We should focus on addressing the most prominent issue, which Director Quinn has already spotlighted: that is to say fuel. I will draw up a plan to conserve fuel and energy. You will receive the plan in your datapad shortly. Failure to comply will result in serious consequences.”

And so his fingers began to fly across his datapad.

Actions:
Contribute to discussion (free)
Draw up plan (not sure: anywhere between 5-15 minutes)

[G-Tech Corporation]

T - 2

Deck 3

Fawzia stepped out of the lift-corridor to a scene of shambles - apparently some degree of the inertics that the Harmony relied upon for her internal order had failed in this part of the ship, and left pallets of welding equipment, servo-actuators, zero-g capacitors, and all manner of equipment strewn across the main engineering bay. Thankfully the crew maintenance lockers seemed to have weathered the worst of the damage without being too effected; several of the carapace suits were standing ready to use, though the others were in their locked storage containers. There are also some heavy mechanized exosuits farther back in the bay, which are capable of lifting heavy girders of the aerospace-grade alloys of which the Harmony is built. The Infirmary also stands close at hand, just across the small central foyer. It seems to be untouched.

Options
- Don a Vacuum Hardsuit [3 Minutes]
- Collect Engineering Tools (Useful for Repairs on the Harmony, or a bonus of Industry on Adelia) [4 Minutes]
- Activate Engineering Walkers (Very Useful for Repairs, or an additional Construction Unit on Adelia) [7 Minutes]
- Collect a Mobile Infirmary (Produces 2 Harmony at the cost of 1 Energy on Adelia) [3 Minutes]
- Other Actions currently hidden

Deck 6

Commander Quinn is one of the first officers out of the command deck, and arrives in her lair of Research just as swiftly. The Laboratory is in pristine condition, just as she left it after cleaning up before heading into the cryotubes. At the center of the deck stands the large supercomputer which contains the colonial manifest's technology templates, a wealth of easily digestible knowledge to allow even the humblest of workers to re-create the wonders of human civilization, given time. If it is lost it will be a great setback to the colonial mission. Half a dozen portable storage units are stacked here, intended to be used to copy the datalinks and distribute them to outlying colonies during the first decades of the mission. There are also a few surveillance cameras hooked up here, a small psychological study that had been intended to study the colonists when they were first coming out of cryosleep. Toward the bow of the ship is the clean-chamber where the quantum-entangled ansible stands, ready to use her paired particles to transmit the codes for a clean landing back to Space Command, perhaps now never to be used...

Options
- Copy a random Technology from a chosen Path (Conquer, Knowledge, Prosperity, Exploration) to a Datadrive [8 Minutes]
- Copy a random Technology to a Datadrive [5 Minutes]
- Check the Surveillance Cameras [3 Minutes]
- Transmit a Message to Earth (30 Character remaining) [4 Minutes]
- Pack up a Mobile Sample Extractor (Used to generate Research on Adelia) [6 Minutes]
- Other Actions currently hidden

Deck 2

Tiffany, Chief Logistics Officer, secured a valuable flow of data. It took only a handful of keystrokes and precious seconds of intermittent prompts to get the onboard AI to spit out a basic sitrep on the Harmony, which is perhaps fortunate because it seemed that there would be quite a lot that needed to be done aside from simple information collection. A calm polite feminine voice chimed out across the Command Deck, cheerily reporting an array of alarming statistics.

Diagnostic Report Priority Alpha

System Alert Mauve. Primary Drive Core offline. Secondary power systems offline. Reserve power systems depleting: 48 minutes to hibernation.

Composition Sensors report Hull Breaches at Deck 1 in two locations. Hull Breaches reported at Deck 2 in Captain's Cabin in three locations. Hull Breaches reported at Deck 7 in Reactor Primary Containment in six locations. Hull Breaches reported at Deck 8 in Secondary Storage After in three locations.

Signal Corruption detected. Calibrating. Calibration failed. Secondary calibration initializing. Calibration failed. Remote activation accepted.

Executing wakesleep protocol three-zulu-tango-bravo. Security parameter crash-dive initializing.

Diagnostic Report Priority Beta

Genomic stabilization offline in bay seven. Genomic stabilization offline in bay eleven. Genomic stabilization offline in bay twelve. Genomic stabilization offline in bay 15. Corrupted data entry ends. Return fail. Register: inspection required.

Overpressure loss in Docking Bay. Assess.

The chirpy AI voice fell silent, and then a harsh burst of static rippled through Command. A number of errors winked across the ship's computer for a handful of seconds, before the normal operating system reclaimed the screen once more.

Near at hand John Smith labors on his power conservation plan, and swiftly arrives at what might seem like fairly obvious conclusions, but conclusions which are good to have confirmed; the largest drains on the Harmony's power are the repair systems and the cryopods by far. Eliminating even a single cryopod from the energy equation could buy at least another ten minutes for repairs, at the cost of only a thousand lives. If a few repairs can be conducted as well, and thus the emergency systems which are currently guzzling the reserve power at a prodigious rate stepped down, each hull breach sealed could likely buy the entire crew another four or five minutes to bring the reactor back online. However, with the primary and secondary power systems offline, the reserve power systems are fundamentally a diminishing asset - time can be bought, but ultimately it will run out...

Deck 8

The ride down the entire length of the ship seems interminable to Joseph as he makes his way to Storage, but in truth it is analogous in duration to that of the rest of the crew - the elevators accelerate quicker the further up the ship one travels, and most of the time is spent on careful overpressure conversion and reactionless breaking, since bumps and jars in space can cause structural damage less tolerant facilities don't need to worry about.

It is well that Joseph is focused on survival, because he soon realizes that it may very well not be guaranteed in the mess that is Storage which he finds when he arrives. Almost all of the contents of the cargo bay have shifted mightily in flight, and a scent of char hangs in the air. More alarms are flashing here, and there are, very worrying, several points along the bay where self-sealing temporary repair foam has filled gaps which likely opened into the hard vacuum not long before. The air is definitely thinner than he would like, and next to the elevator a trio of oxygen masks have helpfully deployed via automated security protocols. Taking one of them is probably a good plan unless he plans to risk fainting in a pocket of bad air deeper in the hold.

Much of the cargo has been crushed or damaged, but there are still nearly endless quantities of useful goods to salvage here. The items near at hand are relatively pedestrian, tents, food, fuel cells; the things you need to unpack in the first day on an alien world so everyone can sleep in relative security and doesn't go to bed hungry. If he can dig his way through some of the wreckage though, there are turbine blades, photovoltaic cells, even prefabricated industrial lathes... somewhere back there in the myriads mangled cargo containers...

Options
- Take a detach a set of Oxygen Masks (-2 Minutes for further actions in Deck 8) (3 remain) [3 Minutes]
- Load a prefabricated Habitation Pod into the lift [6 Minutes]
- Gather some crates of Freeze-Dried Meals (5 time-locked Food) [4 Minutes]
- Load a Fuel Cell into the lift (Powers the Harmony, worth 6 Energy on Adelia) [8 Minutes]
- Attempt to Clear Away Debris by Hand (allows access to other parts of Deck 8) [10 Minutes, 75%]
- Other Actions currently hidden

---

Engineer Zakharov

Not good. Not good at all. Dmitri had only been half listening to the moral debate, his head put together with some other members of the maintenance team to try and figure out what might have brought the main reactor's coolant systems offline - then the insufferably chirpy voice of the ship's computer got his full attention when it started talking about power surges in the drive core. Without the Heiward-Tanaka drive online, they were totally without reaction mass aside from the landing rockets on the colony pods, not to mention most of the power on the ship was about to start running out precipitously. He thought quickly, and reacted automatically even as his brain raced along a different axis.

"Williams, Zarya, O'Donnel, you're with me. Where in the devil is Maria?"

He was about to dash for the lift and toss his body into the no-doubt burning fire of the central reactor, support or no support, when the somewhat familiar form of the Chief Logistics Officer - Jessica? Brittany? - quickly waltzed up to the captain's computer and keyed in a diagnostic request. The gears in his brain began slowing down. It would only take a moment's delay to have at the very least a surface-level understanding of the disaster which had befallen the Harmony. And without at least some sensor data, he might be opening the lift door to a hard vacuum. He had survived that once, through far more luck than he deserved, and had no intention of repeating the experience.

In the tense seconds that ticked past as the diagnostic report processed, Dmitri pulled a dozen men and women with engineering backgrounds out of the crowd, recalling the interviews and handshakes of a century ago with foggy alacrity. More hands would fix more problems more quickly. Even as he shook his head in chagrin as the AI stolidly announced catastrophic damage to the ship, the Chief Engineer made his way to the elevator.

He had hands. He needed tools. And there was only one help for that - down the shaft, to the shambles that remained of his carefully organized collection of the needful mass of the deliberate application of physics.

- 2: Gathering Engineers
- 4: Command -> Engineering
- 8: Collecting Engineering Tools
- 11: Donning Vacuum Hardsuits

[The Orson Empire]

Samuel Turati, Chief Security Officer

Once he had gained his bearings after waking up from cryosleep, Samuel Turati immediately snapped to attention. His training as a police officer and detective allowed him to remain calm and focused, unlike countless others who were arguing over exactly how to proceed.

Based on the information he gleaned from his datapad, Samuel knew he only had minutes to react before everything went to shit. Something terrible was wrong with the drive core, and Harmony's fuel reserves were draining rapidly. He ignored the arguments and the supposed "plan" of that idiotic paper-pushers in HR, proceeding with his own strategy.

Samuel summoned the other security officers, ordering them down to Deck 8 to help add emergency fuel to the reactor. Samuel then proceeded alone to Deck 4, preparing to dump cargo and cryopods into the dark vacuum on outer space. It was certainly a ruthless strategy, but the circumstances had left Samuel no choice. The crew knew what they were signing up for, and were fully aware of the dangers. If he couldn't save everyone, then he would take measures to keep as many people alive as possible, even if it meant releasing some cryopods to conserve energy.

Actions
-Order security officers to head to Deck 8 and move emergency fuel reserves to the reactor.

-Move to Deck 4, and attempt to eject 100 cryopods.

[The GAmeTopians]

Research Director Caitríona Quinn, Lieutenant Commander
2 Minutes Elapsed, Location: Deck 6

The manual for the ansible was equal parts enlightening and absolutely horrifying.

The communications array should work, all but certainly - and if it did, the response time should be near-instant. But she would only have 30 1-byte characters' worth of outbound data transfer, at least in the time they had until they either landed or crashed. It was a devil's bargain, for many reasons. Who knew what listened on the other end of the ansible, ninety years after their departure? Who knew if they could even help? Well. If her fingers on the keypad were any indication, she'd decided the moment she woke up that considering the merit of the bargain was just a waste of time.

She'd be taking it either way.

The ansible whirred to life, echoing a dull confirmation tone with every command entered. Director Quinn intentionally paused every few characters - sending a character to indicate a space was a waste of resources, and given the instant sending time, a few seconds of gap would be plenty. Her heartbeat never slowed until the message was complete. She glanced down at the assessment log generated by Officer Abdelmassih one last time, to make sure the code info was right... and confirmed the transmission.

HMY ALRT MAUVE REQ AID

Five words. Eighteen characters. The weight of eighteen thousand lives.

All she could do was wait.

Actions
Transmitting Message to Earth (4 Minutes) (18/30 Characters Used)
Updating Ship Priority Bulletin (Ostensibly Free)

Ship Priority Bulletin
CURRENT NUMBER ONE PRIORITY: If you’re brave and strong, go to Deck 8 and help move emergency fuel to the reactor. We need to buy time, people!
NUMBER TWO PRIORITY: SEAL HULL BREACHES
HULL BREACHES:
3x Deck Two, Captain's Cabin
6x Deck Seven, Reactor Primary Cont (DO THIS ONE, WE NEED TO GET THE REACTOR BACK UP)
3x Deck Eight, Secondary Storage Aft
NUMBER THREE PRIORITY: REPAIR POWER SYSTEMS
NUMBER FOUR PRIORITY: Repair Drive Core

CURRENT POWER LEFT: 48 MINUTES (AS OF T+2)

Signal Corruption? Anybody Know What That Means?
Genomics need inspection (LOW PRIORITY)
Docking bay overpressure loss? Needs inspection (MODERATE PRIORITY)

[Res Publica Solaris]

Exobiology Researcher Bertrand Rawls

Rawls stumbled down the darkened corridors of the Harmony. The voice of the Research Director boomed around him: “Look, folks, we’re on a clock here, and we have a real chance to save some lives if we get our asses in gear, working together, and get where we’re going in one piece.”

He heard, but did not understand, for in his head a very different voice echoed. A shrill, panicked scream repeated over and over again. "I can't die! I can't die! I can't die!" He had known since the beginning, this endeavour could be a modern day babel. The pinnacle of human arrogance, to be struck down by the cruel vacuum.

And now he could just picture it. His face, frozen in a never ending scream as his body floated in Space, an eternal monument to human mortality.

He stopped. The familiar doors of the lab were already in front of him. Surreptitiously he stepped in and advanced to his work station. He could feel the disapproving eyes of his colleagues, but all that mattered was the overwhelming dread, the vision of his body charred and torn open, being picked apart by the elements of a planet he would never get to even see. With shaky hands he grabbed a MSE, then he shuffled through his data-disks and grabbed one with haste.

Finally, he picked up the unmarked vial and used his faithful pocket srynge to pump the dread out of his veins. Immediately, as the dedicated hormones swamped his system, he felt the fear and horror disappear and be replaced by the warm familiar feeling of absolute certainty that benefits a man on a mission.

With a smile on his face, he waltzed out of the laboratory and back into the darkness.

Actions:
•Copy a random Technology to a Datadrive [5 Minutes]
•Pack up a Mobile Sample Extractor (Used to generate Research on Adelia) [6 Minutes]
•Moving to Laboratory (2 Minutes)

[Ovstylap]

Automation Specialist Takeda Kamatari

As soon as he had an understanding of what was going on board the vessel Takeda took a moment to simply stand and process the information. Quite simply, there was a high chance that everyone was going to die, and unless decisive action occurred, a certain chance that some people were going to die. In terms of his role, it was often to produce and maintain the equipment itself used to maintain the ship.

He thus decided not to get involved in any of the moral debates, but accepted that perhaps waiting for an AI report might be best before ejecting any pods- nonetheless perhaps at least a set should be ejected. He kept such thoughts to himself.

"We need to act rapidly and effectively to minimize powerless as an absolute priority- I'll look towards initiating repairs as soon as possible. Make sure the diagnostics report is broadcasted to us all." He nodded after listening to Caitríona's speech and as he descended saw the priority bulletin. (+Respect for Caitríona)

He sprinted to the lift and descended to Deck 3, issuing an immediate communications dispatch to his team. He then heard the report when leaving the lift.

"Associated automation teams prioritise minimal power loss through repairs, co-ordinate through research team "
(2 Minutes elapsed, 48 remain). He then went to don a vacuum suit, a process which usually took 8 minutes with all of the checks before equipping the items, six minutes checking over once it was all on, or four minutes for a routine donning. This was an emergency. Three minutes. As this occurred, he heard the diagnostic report and recalled the calculations which had come from his hours of studying emergency protocols before cryosleep (after all, he'd either wake up in an emergency, or in complete safety).

System Alert Mauve. Primary Drive Core offline. Secondary power systems offline. Reserve power systems depleting: 48 minutes to hibernation.

Composition Sensors report Hull Breaches at Deck 1 in two locations. Hull Breaches reported at Deck 2 in Captain's Cabin in three locations. Hull Breaches reported at Deck 7 in Reactor Primary Containment in six locations. Hull Breaches reported at Deck 8 in Secondary Storage After in three locations.


The breaches had to be fixed, and rapidly. But would it be worth it to delay starting to fix the breaches in order to fix latter ones more rapidly. The sooner a breach was repaired, the more time would be gained, thus reducing panic and enabling rational decision making. But then that time gained would be negated by subsequent repair costs. It was simple enough then. After donning is hardsuit in case of an issue, he went to activate the Engineering Walkers- he would then evaluate where to head to, and also decided to pick up some engineering tools to give to another engineer if necessary.


Total 16 Minutes Elapsed (Deck 2->3, Vacuum Hardsuit, Walkers, Tools?)

[G-Tech Corporation]

T - 2

Deck 4

Chief Security Officer Samuel arrived in the cavernous expanse of the main deck of the Harmony to a familiar and welcome sight - sure there were amber alarm lights pulsing along the bays of sleeping figures, but there didn't appear to be any hull breaches or fires here. The cryobay had been constructed to the highest specifications, after all, holding the most precious cargo of the entire Outbound Flight mission. In the heavy alloy bulkheads and armored blister modules, you could theoretically survive anything short of a direct nuclear strike.

Or one dedicated officer driven by utilitarian concerns.

As Samuel took stock of the situation he realized to his chagrin that he was not alone; at the far end of the cryobay figures appeared to be staggering out of some of the tubes, whisps of cold evaporating into the temperate main chamber's air. That was very concerning. Who had authorized reanimation protocols on more of the settlers? The energy needed to thaw out the popsicles without damage was an expenditure the Harmony could ill afford at this juncture, and he counted more than a hundred figures already in the various stages of confused reanimation, some beginning to mill about in the main area.

There was more though. As he stopped to stare at the gathering crowd, two soft chimes behind him indicated other lifts arriving in the elevator chamber. Dozens of figures spilled out of the opening doors, two lifts arriving simultaneously, with unfortunately familiar officers at their heads - the weedy haired engineer who had been convincing people to launch the crypods, and the silver-haired chaplain who had been arguing against him. The chaplain was a few breaths behind the knot of men in flight suits that were following the engineer, and their expressions were grim.

"I won't let you do this Ishmael. You don't have the authority."

A wild voice answered her from within the posse of engineers, and Samuel made out a man walking quickly for the command room a bit further down the cryopod bay.

"You don't have the authority to stop me. I'm not going to die here for your lunatic morality."

There is more to see toward the aft section of the Cryobay, where the colony pods are stored and prepared for their eventual launch, but Samuel is too far away to make out what a half dozen figures over there are doing. From what he remembers of the launch briefing, an orbital specialist was supposed to oversee the landing of the cryopods on Adelia from here, calculating envelopes for them to enter the planet's atmosphere using their retrorockets for a safe landing. He was no orbital specialist, but the calculations couldn't be that hard, could they?

Options
- Begin Reanimation Protocols for 100 Colonists (will drain Harmony power) [4 Minutes]
- Eject a Cryopod into deep space [6 Minutes]
- Calculate an orbital path to allow future Crypods to be ejected to Adelia instead of deep space [12 Minutes, 60% Chance]
-Other Actions are hidden

T - 6

Caitríona keyed the final few confirmation codes into the Ansible, and after a muttered epithet depressed the "Send" key on the tactile input display. The text disappeared, and in theory nearly six dozen light years away a coterie of entangled particles at the monitoring facility in Geneva began to move, transmitting her message to Space Command. Another handful of breaths, and an excellent response - a single glowing green light came on on the receiving display, the automated system confirming that the message had been received.

There was, however, no immediate response. Even with the peculiar qualities of space-time tunneling particles, it might take minutes for Command to run her message up to someone with the authority to answer. Would they be expecting a communication at this point in Harmony's predicted flight plan? She could wait, but that would eat minutes. Minutes she might not have.

That was not all though. She was growing concerned that her shortrange communicator wasn't functioning properly - it flickered occasionally, and when she was broadcasting her updates they seemed to be cutting off intermittently. She couldn't be sure any of her questions had gotten through the rest of the crew. If a message came through, that was great, but if it didn't, or nobody had paid attention to her plan... she might be sitting here fiddling as Rome burned, as it were.

[Lunas Legion]

Fawzia al-Rayes, Engineer (Climate Systems)

Fawzia was the first there. Was that good? Bad? She had no idea. Was she late? Had her haste meant she was the first to make it to Engineering? She didn't know that either. It didn't matter. What did matter was she was alone, and the first there. Engineering was, of course, a mess. Pallets of equipment had come loose and left what could almost be described as an explosion of equipment scattered across the bay, welding equipment, zero-g capacitors, servo-actuators, things she didn't even recognise from the angle they were presented to her at...

It was a mess. She fought down the annoyance of seeing such a mess. The irritation at the disorder in her workplace. Focus. Yes. She needed to focus. The crew lockers seemed untouched, as, more blessedly, did the engineering walkers. She was under no illusions as to how much she could do alone, but with those... Oh, what couldn't she do?

Carefully crossing the piles of ruined equipment, Fawzia headed for the walkers. The sooner they were activated, the sooner they could be put to use. Then she'd need a hardsuit, just in case the worst happened. If the atmospheric systems failed... She didn't want to think about that. They were her responsibility, sort-of. They would hold.

[Actions:
Activate Engineering Walkers (Very Useful for Repairs, or an additional Construction Unit on Adelia) [7 Minutes]
Don a Vacuum Hardsuit [3 Minutes]]

[Cybernetic Socialist Republics]

As Harmony's A.I. read allowed the ships' condition, the next thought that occurred to Tiffany was that as useful as this information was for the moment, it could be safely said, especially during an ongoing crisis, that what is true one moment could very well not be true the next, especially when you through in the unpredictability of multiple people all trying to react to said crisis. Yet, it she wouldn't be all that useful if all she did was stand around the console periodically asking the state of the ship, she needed to get on the move, doing what she could to help, if for no other reason than to ensure that nobody grew suspicious of her for not sufficiently carrying her weight in activity. She also happened to notice that since the captain's datapad had been unpaired with the computer, it was possible that she could do a little technical work to 'convince' the Harmony to send live diagnostics data to her own datapad.

Tiffany got to work doing exactly that and before long, she succeeded in doing so. Now, where she went, on the ship, she could consult the system's diagnostics, so she could know any major changes in the condition of the ship. However, she'd only cleared the fog of one of the two unknowns that she had been considering, the other, of course, being the actions of other people on the ship. That couldn't be found in the diagnostics data, unless it was something that system recognized as major. Though there was one place that she could try to get that information. She vaguely remembered some discussion of some social experiment logs on the ship, with one possible place where an access point to that data being the Officer's Quarters. Such information could also be useful in potentially determining the root of the crisis, if it had any connection to the captain's decision to abandon ship.

[Head to Officer's Quarters in search of an access point to the 'social experiment logs']
[Use Datapad to monitor any significant changes in Harmony's systems along the way]

[The Orson Empire]

Samuel Turati, Chief Security Officer

What Samuel witnessed upon arriving on Deck 4 left him speechless. Dozens of people- at least a hundred by his count were wandering around the cryobay in confusion, having just crawled out of their pods. Someone had authorized their reanimation without telling any of the other officers.

Samuel's stoic determination almost cracked at the sight, but he quickly regained his composure. Just reanimating a single colonist used an enormous amount of power. The Harmony might only have minutes to spare at this point before it was dead in the water.

Samuel cursed himself for not having a gun. He didn't have time to visit the armory beforehand, and couldn't control the others if a riot erupted. Nevertheless, he resolved to move quickly and start ejecting cryopods, desperately trying to buy the ship more time.

Actions:
-Eject a cryopod into deep space

[G-Tech Corporation]

T - 2

Deck 4 - Cryopods

As Samuel made his way over to the command console room in the center of the deck, it was immediately apparent that things might not be as simple as planned. Harsh words echoed around the control panel room, and just as he stepped through the door he saw a burly bearded man punch a lanky woman right in the face. Shouts of "murderer!" and "zealot!" spilled out of the room, as well as a frenetic flurry of human motion, the two sets of individuals apparently having resorted to attempting to physically restrain the skinny engineer from jettisoning any of the pods...

Which left a golden opportunity for the Security officer.

Sidestepping the brawling individuals, and with only a few pairs of eyes noting his passage, Samuel quickly keyed in his access code on the main console and stabbed the number of the first cryopod he saw - Cryopod 6. After he tapped half a dozen confirmation messages, message filled the screen of the control console.

"Cryopod Ejection authorized. Stand clear."

A low wailing klaxon sounded, rising and falling, and spinning yellow lights flared around Cryopod 6. One of the wild-haired combatants turned to Samuel, appearing to see him for the first time, her eyes red-rimmed and her uniform disheveled.

"What have you done? What have you done?"

Two men extricate themselves from the fight, where the moralists appear to be getting the better of the utilitarians. They square up and push themselves through the door of the command chamber, eyes weighing up the security chief. Without a weapon, he is better trained than they are, but they're also obviously quite emotional about the whole situation. One of them glances now and again at the panel, probably contemplating a lunge to shut the ejection sequence off again.

Outside Samuel hears a voice bellowing.

"Help us! They're trying to eject the sleepers!"

Options
- Well, this is a sticky one. Maybe deactivating the sequence until the radicals have cleared out would be wise
- They're only civilians. You can take them.
- Talking them down hasn't worked so far, but hey, first time for everything

---

T - 6

Deck 2 - Officer Quarters

Tiffany only has to walk a few dozen strides to leave the command deck and access the quarters for the senior crew which are near at hand. The hallway to the sealed rooms is sterile, as clean as you might expect, still waiting to receive new visitors once the Harmony entered orbit of Adelia - if she ever would now.

There's a recreation area at the end of the hall she could explore, or a number of other quarters. Perhaps most interestingly, the access panel to unlock the Captain's Quarters is glowing a dull amber, indicating that it is either in use or locked to prevent entry. The Chief Medical Officer also has quarters here, as does the First Mate. There could be something useful in any of those rooms...

Options
- Try to hack your way into the Captain's Quarters [4 Minutes, 75%]
- Search the First Mate's cabin [4 Minutes]
- Search the Chief Medical Officer's cabin [5 Minutes]
- Search the Recreation Lounge for useful supplies [5 Minutes]

[Cybernetic Socialist Republics]

Chief Logistics Officer Tiffany Abdelmassih: T - 6

Tiffany had a few options, being at the senior crews quarter's. At first, she figured, the reason she'd come in this direction was to head Captain's Quarters, but ironically, finding something of note on its outside changed her mind. The access panel to the captain's quarters indicated that it was locked, in contrast to that of the First Mate's cabin, who'd also, apparently, ejected from the ship four months ago & that's door was not locked. Her mind ran through the possible reasons for that & none were particularly comforting, but it all only made her more curious to get in side. The problem being, however, It'd certainly take a considerable amount of time, time that could be possibly be used to search the First Mate's cabin, never mind the fact that there was no certainty that she would be able to get inside in the first place & time was of the essence.

So against her immediate best judgement, she decided that rather than attempt to break into the captain's quarters, she could stop by the cabin of the other person to have fled the ship. Perhaps there was even the possibility she could find something that'd let her more easily get into the Captain's Quarters, but regardless it was almost certain she'd find something, anything there, which could very well be better than struggling to hack her way into the captain's quarters & have to spend additional time scouring whatever was inside even if she was successful.


[Search the First Mate's cabin]

[The GAmeTopians]

Research Director Caitríona Quinn, Lieutenant Commander
6 Minutes Elapsed, Location: Deck 6

The green light of the ansible hovered over Director Quinn like a specter haunting its victim.

It was, as everything had been since she woke up, a mixed bag. Earth had received her message - but no immediate response meant either no one had seen it, or they needed time to compose a useful response. No matter - somebody had to be around to see the reply if there was one, and there was plenty to do on this deck.

Like stopping looters, for instance.

Director Quinn caught one of her subordinates in the midst of packing away the Mobile Research Unit as she stepped away from the ansible - Bertrand Rawls, if she remembered rightly.

"The hell are you doing? Get on the repair effort, or go haul fuel! You won't be looting my lab while everyone else tries to save the damn place."

As she interrupted his efforts, she scanned the floor for anything that might be of use - or perhaps an alternative use for something she'd already seen. Who knew what her eager subordinates had secreted aboard a century ago?

Actions
Disrupting attempt to pack up Mobile Research Unit (Ostensibly Free? I can think of half a dozen ways of interrupting such a process)
Searching for Hidden Actions on Deck 6 (3 Minutes) <Searching methodically, so that future searching doesn't repeat the same area)

[Lazarian]

Kwan Seo, Night Captain - T-0

Kwan's eyes snapped open as the blaring klaxons pierced through the air, wailing their cries of disaster. As his eyes fluttered, returning to life, the cryopod slowly hissed open, spilling wisps of vapor out around him onto the floor.

This wasn't how it was supposed to be, his subconscious muttered. There was no sight of a new home below - nor the cheering sounds of joy. No, instead, the bay was filled with the mournful wailing of the klaxons. What had happened?

Kwan swung his legs over the side of the pod, his head still spinning from cryosleep disorientation. Judging from the sounds echoing through the chamber, there had been a system failure of some sort. Not too far from where he laid, he heard the sound of several dozen arguing voices quickly fill the air, as the disaster alarms slowly died.

"We have to jettison excess pods now, or never. Fuel reserves are already at 82%! If we don't lose the dead weight now, we'll be a ship full of mummified corpses within the week." he heard a voice shout. 82 percent? Already? Hell. He wasn't an engineer, but you didn't have to be one to know that was bad.

"That 'dead weight' is men and women, brothers and sisters a hundred light years away from Earth. They have just as much right to fight for their survival as the rest of us. I say we prime the ignition sequence, reroute the fuel reserves to the colony pods. The survival of the mission is in God's hands, and I am not going to wield the executioner's axe and choose who lives and who dies."

The shouting began again in mere moments. A cold knot twisted in Kwan's gut, who was now standing in the back of the congregation. Others were starting to run this way and that, enacting their own plans. It was chaos - the situation had gone AWOL.

Taking a deep breath, he began to run too, heading towards the armory immediately. As one of the few security personnel roused, it fell to him to try to restore order. Shouldering his way through the milling people, Kwan shoved his way through the crowd, elbowing and pushing. After a short run, he faced the thick armory door, keying in his security code.

If this mission was going to be saved, he might have to take charge and make some tough calls. And a gun at his side would certainly help.

[The Orson Empire]

Samuel Turati, Chief Security Officer

Samuel managed to successfully trigger the ejection sequence while the others were fighting amongst themselves, but he was not out of the woods yet. Already, several of the moralists were barging into the command chamber, attempting to forcefully stop the sequence while calling out for help.

Samuel wasted no time, instantly lunging towards the closest intruder. While he had no gun, he was trained in martial arts and hand-to-hand combat during his employment at Mariner Development Corporation. It would be a tough fight, but Samuel hoped the civilians wouldn't have the stomach for an intense brawl.

Actions:
-Fight the civilians

[Res Publica Solaris]

Research Director Caitríona Quinn, Lieutenant Commander

This time the booming voice was much closer and much more threatening. Rawls turned, aghast, to find his hierarchical superior glaring at him with a positively murderous look.

Bad sign.

He tried a pacifying smile. Slowly, like a kidnapper caught in the act, he lowered the Mobile Research Unit to the ground. "I'm sorry Lieutenant Commander, I... I felt a bit disoriented. The shock of this rather rude awakening, you understand..." he chuckled awkwardly.

The Director looked at him unconvinced. Damned woman. He had always known she had it our for him.

He straightened his crumpled vestiments and redoubled his efforts. "You know how precious this research is to me, madam director. I will do as you command now, please take care and keep it secure until I return." He purred "I leave it in your capable hands."

He made a stiff half-bow and turned in his heels, heading for the fuel depot.

Minutes later, as he strained his muscles pushing the canisters of extra fuel from into the shaking interior of the lift, he cursed his superior again. "Superior" in what, he asked? There was nothing and no one superior to him, him who now spearheaded the most important quest, the most ancient drive, in all of Human history.

If only she knew the wonders he would work with that equipment, she wouldn't have so callously deprived him of it and sent him to do the degrading work of a servant robot.

Damn her, damn them all.

-
Actions:
Dump the Monile Research Unit [Spoilsport] [Free]
Head to deck 8 [5 minutes?]
Load a Fuel Cell into the lift [8 Minutes]

[G-Tech Corporation]

T - 0

Deck 2 - Armory

It is a handful of strides to pass down the hall to the Armory from the command deck, barely an inconvenience - one turn left, one turn right, and the impressive barred doors of the weaponry meant to support the colonial effort against any malcontents (and speculated alien life) was only a thick slab of armored bulkhead away.

Kwan swiped his passkey, and frowned when the access panel flashed with the bolded words "ACCESS DENIED". Why would security staff be locked out of the weapons? Who would even have the authorization for that. He paused for a moment, flummoxed, and glanced about himself.

There's another door near at hand, to the callout room for the security team. Poking his head inside the thoughtfully opening door he sees the familiar surveillance console, powered down, and the cabinet where the tight-band radio communicators are stashed. It, too, appears to be securely locked, and he doesn't have the key. It might be worthwhile taking a few moments to search for that, or simply trying to break the cabinet open. A few bursts of garbled static from his datapad seem to indicate that the civilian comms bands are either oversaturated or being interrupted.

Options
- Attempt to hack the main Armory Door [4 Minutes, 25%]
- Start up the surveillance system [3 Minutes]
- Break open the secure comms cabinet [8 Minutes]
- Other Actions hidden

---

T - 6

Deck 4 - Cryopods

With a bit of skill and some adrenaline born of impending conflict pumping in his veins, the Security Officer wades into the two interlopers, tackling one of them immediately to bring the fight to a grapple where he felt superior to the two smaller men. His first few jabs are effective, driving the air out of the first man he grabbed, and the civilian's ineffective attempts to swing his fists down into his back are less than problematic. The upper hand, for the moment. A boot in his ribs from the other man, however, causes stars to start in his vision, and two more savage kicks to his midriff soon fold up the security officer, leaving him gasping for air. He tries to hold the other scientist down and disable him with some tendon locks, but the disorientation of the man's strikes leave his hands flapping ineffectively while the first man pins him down.

"You're a piece of work, you are."

With a series of irritatingly easy keystrokes, probably reflective of efforts to ensure accidental cryopod ejection could be canceled before anything happened which many people would regret, the second moralist shut off the ejection sequence. Outside of the chamber a small ragged cheer went up, and the klaxons ceased their infernal wailing. Samuel was unceremoniously bundled to his feet and tossed a good distance down the hold, where angry eyes watched him and not a few epithets were hurled in his direction.

Well, that could have gone better.

It wasn't necessarily over now though. A small knot of engineers bearing bruises and a few bloodied noses was doing some glaring of their own at the dozen doctors and other ne'er-do-wells who had taken command of the cryopod bay console. If he could get some reinforcements, or better yet weapons, they wouldn't be able to stop him...

[Status: Winded] Actions aside from moving between Decks will take one more Minute for the next [10 Minutes]

Options
- Try and recruit some of the civilians for another attempt [4 Minutes, 60%]
- Try and recruit some of the new people thawed out of cryo, maybe an appeal to his status as a Security Officer [6 Minutes, ??%]

---

T - 9

Deck 8 - Supplies

Bertrand beat a hasty retreat with the datadrive under his arm, shuddering down through the lights of the Harmony to the lowest level where the supplies were kept. It wasn't everything he had wanted, but every scrap of information saved from this certain disaster was a scrap worth having. The elevator doors open on a scene of disorder, most of the cargo having broken loose of the storage straps and having been strewn across the cargo bay. A number of options present themselves.

Options
- Take and detach a set of Oxygen Masks (-2 Minutes for further actions in Deck 8) (3 remain) [3 Minutes]
- Load a prefabricated Habitation Pod into the lift [6 Minutes]
- Gather some crates of Freeze-Dried Meals (5 time-locked Food) [4 Minutes]
- Load a Fuel Cell into the lift (Powers the Harmony, worth 6 Energy on Adelia) [8 Minutes]
- Attempt to Clear Away Debris by Hand (allows access to other parts of Deck 8) [10 Minutes, 75%]
- Other Actions currently hidden

---

T - 10

Deck 2 - Quarters

The First Mate was not a cleanly man, apparently. It was curious, Tiffany noted in her quick toss of the quarters, that they appeared to have been lived in for some time - dirty laundry festooned a hamper to one side of the room, and the small officer's bathroom had definitely been used extensively. Nobody had seen the First Mate, a man named Xi Kiambang, and in theory he should have been in cryosleep like the rest of the crew. That clearly hadn't been the case though, judging by the state of his personal quarters.

Her haul is less impactful than she might have wished - a small diary, curiously written in some language she didn't recognize, and an odd oblong 'art piece'? composed of a dull white crystal pulled from his personal footlocker - until she took a second look in his closet. Underneath a thick layer of clothing, almost concealed, a small man-portable datadrive is innocuously placed. Maybe fifteen pounds, the block of q-crypt could hold a library worth of data and encoded technical readouts, or, more likely, enough smut to sink the entire colonial vessel.

Options
- Tiffany may take any or none of: First Mate's Diary, Datadrive, Crystal Artifact

[Theyra]

Second Watch Security Officer Rano Rajemisa

What in God's name has happened while they were in cryo? The ship is damaged, and the captain and the first mate are missing. Though the fact that the airlock has been used four months ago gives a clue to what may have happened to them. But if so, then why? It does not make sense, and while he would like to conduct an investigation. There is no time for that, and the ship and the rest of the crew are in danger.

While his skills as a soldier and security officer will help little other than to order people around. His engineering skills will be at a better use here. Rano does how the systems of the ship and seeing how getting emergency fuel from storage will be useful, making sure it is safe to do so will also be better since it looks like the storage deck is damaged and is in need of repairs and how long can the crew last without supplies. If we get to Adelia that is.

So he headed to Engineering and, in time, saw how bad the breaches in storage were.

Actions:
Move to Engineering (2 Minutes)
Don Hardsuit/Carapace suit (3 Minutes)
Collect Tools (4 Minutes)
Move to Storage

[Cybernetic Socialist Republics]

T - 10

Deck 2 - Quarters

The First Mate was not a cleanly man, apparently. It was curious, Tiffany noted in her quick toss of the quarters, that they appeared to have been lived in for some time - dirty laundry festooned a hamper to one side of the room, and the small officer's bathroom had definitely been used extensively. Nobody had seen the First Mate, a man named Xi Kiambang, and in theory he should have been in cryosleep like the rest of the crew. That clearly hadn't been the case though, judging by the state of his personal quarters.

Her haul is less impactful than she might have wished - a small diary, curiously written in some language she didn't recognize, and an odd oblong 'art piece'? composed of a dull white crystal pulled from his personal footlocker - until she took a second look in his closet. Underneath a thick layer of clothing, almost concealed, a small man-portable datadrive is innocuously placed. Maybe fifteen pounds, the block of q-crypt could hold a library worth of data and encoded technical readouts, or, more likely, enough smut to sink the entire colonial vessel.

Options
- Tiffany may take any or none of: First Mate's Diary, Datadrive, Crystal Artifact

The Search of the first mate's quarter was not quite as fruitful as she'd hoped it would be, to say the least. part of her wished that she'd take a chance with attempting to hack into the captain's quarters instead. But there was no time to second guess anything, only to act. She picked up the diary, datadrive & Crystal Artifact without a moments hesitation. Sure, she couldn't read the diary, but it didn't mean she couldn't get someone, or something, to translate it later. Such was similarly the case with the datadrive, but that was more of a question of it being certainly too time consuming to even attempt to meaningfully look through. As for the Crystal Artifact, she hesitated to leave for it, there was nothing immediately useful about it, but it did standout enough for her to pick it up. If it became a burden to move around with, however, it'd certainly be among the first things she'd abandon.

With the first mates room combed through, it was now time to make her way to the captain's quarters & attempt to hack into it. While she'd certainly picked up at least one & a half things of value from the first mates' quarters, there's no question that there was something meaningful in the captain's quarters, especially since it was locked before they left the ship. Anticipation boiled up inside her for what could possibly be behind that door.


[Attempt to Hack into the Captain's Quaters]

[The Orson Empire]

Samuel Turati, Chief Security Officer

Samuel laid prone on the cold metal floor, coughing repeatedly as he tried to regain his bearings. He chucked a bit, realizing he hadn't been in a scrap like that in some time- it certainly reminded him of his days patrolling the beat on Ceres, and his encounters with various Belter scum. Though he was getting older, he still remained physically fit and adept. The crowd of moralists thought they had achieved a complete victory, but Samuel was just getting started.

Samuel rose to his feet, his chest and stomach aching from the hard kicks he received. He saw a group of bruised engineers standing about, staring menacingly at the other group that had taken control of the console. It might not take much to get them back into the fight.

"You lot over there, listen up- I'm the Chief Security Officer. Those fuckers standing near the console are blocking the only way to save this ship. The colonists in those cryopods knew the risks when they signed up for this mission. Do you want to live and make it planetside, or die for a bunch of popsicles?"

Actions:
-Attempt to recruit civilians