>>3370126
>Take the tour. No need to rush, you’ll be here for some time. At least, that's your plan.

Lets take are time here

>>3370126
>Take the tour. No need to rush, you’ll be here for some time. At least, that's your plan.

>>3370126
>>Take the tour. No need to rush, you’ll be here for some time. At least, that's your plan.

Agreeing to the tour, you begin your journey through the maze of corridors. Frist up: Engineering. The Head Engineer, a grumpy fellow of few words talks a little about the hangar you just have been in - a rudimentary module designed to care for the two only shuttles the stations has to offer for now - before moving on into the refinery. Heavy machinery, automated production lines, and only a few engineers process any asteroids towed to the grinders.
“Not a large-scale strip mine, but it’ll do for a while. A little inefficient for my taste”, he comments.
Last module in Engineering is the fusion reactor. With hydrogen being plentiful, thanks to the ice on the many asteroids harvested, power generation shouldn't be much of an issue. Luckily, the reactor is nowhere near capacity yet, leaving enough room to begin first expansions without regards to power.
>Engineering keeps your station up and running, while also being responsible for most manufacturing happening. The refinery will produce alloys for export and repairs for every idle shuttle. Shuttles themselfs can be sent on missions out into the solar system the outpost is situated in.


Next on the list is Research and Development. “While not very spacious, it’s serviceable.”, the Fidgety Doctor explains. R&D currently houses both a basic lab and fabrication module. The first is a mixture between research lab and sickbay, the latter a simple production module for everyday items. “Sure, a dedicated space for research and medical, or an actual development workshop would have been nice - But you know, budget ist tight, as always.”, the Doc informs you, “But as long as no one breaks a leg or cuts off their hand, we can research in peace and quiet.”
>The lab, being this hybrid between research and medical lab, will produce technological progress as long as no crewmember gets seriously hurt. Should that be the case, the lab will switch to medical mode and treat the crewmate.
>The fabricator supplies the station with small everyday items. Tools, medicine, cutlery - Sadly, its no workshop or assembly line, but it’ll do for now.

Third on the list is Botany. Standing in a hot and humid greenhouse, the Stoic Botanist calmly explains how food for the station is grown, water and air recycled and trash used as fertilizer. “Not much else here yet. We would very much so appreciate some more space to feed a probably growing population of crew. All in due time, of course.”, she adds before ushering the group out of her sanctuary.
>Botany does everything related to life support. The greenhouse is one of the limiting factors when it comes to expanding the crew.

>[1/2]

Second to last are the civilian facilities, currently counting a basic habitat and a cargo bay. Mess hall, kitchen, gym and personal rooms, all crammed into one module. “It's not much, but it’s better than sleeping on the floor.”, the Doctor jokes, not everyone appreciate the attempt at humor.
>Housing is the other factor limiting the population on the station. Besides that, Civilian will house any entertainment the station will be offering. Keeping people happy and, more importantly, sane is another important part. More on moral later.
>Cargo is stored in the cargo bay. The bay, however, does only store export goods and other items of interest. Stuff like food and other things do not need micromanaging.

Last, but not least, the Scarred Officer shows you Security. The armory is not very impressive - Standard issue weaponry for keeping the station safe. At least you have trained personnel armed and read at all times. And with that, you end the tour at the centerpiece of the station, the command center. The officer gleams. “This will be your domain, commander. Everything, from scanner data, to communications, to the last reports imaginable, all bundled here.” He invites you to sit in your chair, observing four assistants of yours working on their respective stations. “Now - do you have any question, sir? Otherwise, the briefing is awaiting you in your office, right adjacent to the center.”

>This will be all - Your officers can return to their stations, and head for the mission briefing.

>Theres something bugging, in fact… [write-in]

>>3370325
>This will be all - Your officers can return to their stations, and head for the mission briefing.

Lets get this show on the road.

>>3370325
>>This will be all - Your officers can return to their stations, and head for the mission briefing.

>>3370325
>This will be all - Your officers can return to their stations, and head for the mission briefing.
By all means, let’s.

>>3370388
>>3370399
>>3370400


Thanking your officers for the tour, you dismiss them. With them trotting back towards their respective departments, you only hear the Doc mumble “And not even a single explosion - that went well!”, followed by a collective groan.

You yourself get back up and stride over to your office. Even tho space seems to come at a premium, your office is large enough to stretch your legs, get comfy in your chair and bring up the briefing on a PDA lying on your desk. “Greetings, commander.” Familiar words, a man in a suit probably worth more than half the crew’s lives and a face made of stone looks back at you. “Congratulations to your new assignment. I trust that you remember your pre-deployment briefing, the terms of your employment and duty here on this outpost. Now, as you might have noticed, the station has been outfitted with various facilities to aid you in your upcoming assignments. This brings me to the first of your mission goals: Maintaining and expanding the mining capabilities of your outpost.”

“Attached to this briefing are the shipment quotas for the next month. I am confident, that you can achieve this with ease. Of course, successfull shipments - and especially outstanding performance - are rewarded with the opportunity to requisition new equipment - modules, ships, crew. Beside this, we will be issuing a multitude of secondary objectives. For now, we would like you to survey the solar system, making sure the initial reports of the three planets and their respective moons were correct. In addition, the initial surveys have reported on certain anomalies inside the asteroid belts. Sending an away team to confirm and investigate is required. We expect your report on the matter in two months time.”

“However, be aware: You may be remote from any civilisation, this does not mean you are alone. Be careful with your resources, resupply will only happen once every month. Be sure to hand in requests beforehand. Good luck commander, and we will be in contact.”

>[1/2]

File: week 1.png (28 KB, 1113x509)

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>>3370513

The image vanishes and leaves you to ponder the words for a moment before you begin checking both the survey and the station reports. The former denotes three planets, one gas giant, the others of volcanic nature. In addition, there are at least two anomalies in the nearby asteroid belts.

The station report is what you expected: Numbers, words, more words. Helpful for planning, but less exciting. However, this is part of your job as well. You begin planning the activities for the coming week.

>You have two shuttles available to you. If left idle, they begin to mine asteroids, producing alloys.
>Sending an away mission takes at least one Engineer out of hangars as pilot, one security guard, and one other crewman. This can be another specialist or a simple redshirt. Should you be sending specialists with redshirts in reserves, said redshirts will fill their position to keep facilities running at 100%.

>Send an away mission to survey one of the planets [Write in which, and what crew]
>Send an away mission to survey one of the anomalies [Write in which, and what crew]
>Keep shuttles on standby. Let's see what the week brings.

>>3370531
>Send an away mission to survey one of the anomalies
>[Engineer, Security Guard, Specialist]
(asteroid belts have minerals right?)

leave the other ship to mine resources.

>>3370551

You send instructions to have one shuttle manned for an away mission to survey one of the anomalies in the asteroid belt, and keeping the other on mining duty. In the meantime of your away team traveling to the asteroid belt, a journey of a day and a half, life on station is rather quiet, until-

“Medical to command - We got an issue here”, sounds the intercom, a security guard on the sending end, “Commander, could you come around?” After making sure your assistants will inform you of your away mission’s status, you leave for the sickbay.

Arriving inside the hybrid module, the Fidgity Doctor is checking some vitals of a redshirt, the sec guard a few steps away. “Hello commander - We’ve got a situation.”, he murmers, waving the Doc over.
“Well, it’s nothing too serious, medically speaking.”, exchanging looks with the guard, “Simply a case of… “recreational drug use” gone a little south. They will be up and working in no time.”
“Still, this might pose a problem. Where there's a user, there's a stash. We haven’t found it on him, but we fear this might evolve into an actual problem with workers getting incapacitated and productivity going down.”, the guard continues, “Question now is: how do you want us to handle this, commander?”
>Policies are a way of shaping the way your outpost operates on a day to day basis. Incidents like these are a prime opportunity to estabnlish new ones. Be aware tho, your decision can have lasting impacts on the station.

>Have security search this crewmates rooms, see if it turns up anything. No need to make a fuzz about this.

>Recreational is fine, but not on the clock. Have your assistants communicate as much, and offer medicals support in all questions related. The crewman is to go through counseling at medical.

>Have security search all crew dwellings, public rooms, and workplaces. This is inacceptable behavior on a station under your command.

>You have a better idea how to deal with this… [write in]

>>3370551
Yes, the belts do have mineral rich asteroids - the mining shuttles basically haul back these asteroids to the refinery, where they are processed.

>>3370640
>Recreational is fine, but not on the clock. Have your assistants communicate as much, and offer medicals support in all questions related. The crewman is to go through counseling at medical.

>>3370764
The Fidgity Doctor raises an eyebrow. “Huh - how progressive. I’ll get the staff up to… *speed*” The guard groans while the Doc snickers away, calling the R&D staff together to discuss the new policy. In the meantime, your assistents make it a public announcement, most of the crew seems to approve, some seem a little more reserved about this decision.
>Terror decreases at an extra -1 per week due to people taking the edge off when things get hectic. Work disruption may occur more frequently with rising terror. Also, you find the odd patition to requisition large amounts of fast food. How odd.

The issue resolved, you await the response of your away team. After about two days of nothing much to report, they call in with some results: “Away team alpha to command - we think we found what’s been shoing up on the initial report: Scans indicate a debris field of alloy plating and electrical components. Looks like something ran into the belt and got shredded to bits.”, the pilot reports back, “Cant really tell what’s it supposed to be, seeing how its all in pieces, but scans say some bits still emitting trace amounts of electrical energy.. What’s the order?”
One assistant suggests towing the largest bist back to the station for R&D to have a look, another puts forth having the specialist go on a space-walk and take a look right then and there. And, of course, having gathered the data, one could just leave it where it is. The report counts, right?

>Tell the shuttle to tow as much as possible back to the station. It’ll give R&D something to do for the next week or two.

>Have the specialist take a look. Cant hurt to see what it is before bringing it home.

>Leave that junk, we got the report. Tell the shuttle to return to base.

>Write-in

>>3370825
>>Have the specialist take a look. Cant hurt to see what it is before bringing it home.
If it's on the up and up, we'll have R&D play around for the next couple of weeks.

>>3370834
“Alight command, preparing for EVA mission!”, the pilot confirms your command, bringing the shuttle closer to the object. You ask one of the assistants to get yourselves some visuals from the EVA-suit, and promptly the widescreen at the end of the room lights up. “Alright, EVA to shuttle, enviro-seals are shut and secure, oxygen is at 100%, battery is up, maneuver thrusters seem operational - Vent me!” With a silent thud, the airlock opens and sucks the crewman out into space. After fiddling with the maneuver thrusters, they finally get themself oriented correctly.

“Okay, approaching the object now. First impression: doesn’t look like anything I’ve had my hands on. Besides being absolutely trashed.” The crewman drifts, bobs and weaves through pieces of rock, ice, and metal until the object is in reach. “Hm - Scanners confirm initial scan, somethings still live under that hood… What the hell is this thing?” Slowly revolving around the objects, they find an exposed spot where this thing must have hit the asteroid.

“Yeah, no clue what I am looking at. Looks like this thing was heavily plated, maybe these are fuel lines and electrical cables?”, the crewman points out a couple of tubes and woven fabric wires, “Maybe there's a transponder under there pinging on a frequency we didn't scan for? Or just some computational unit still drawing power? Whatever it is, it’s not built to regulating. Or, well, like anything, for that matter...”

You ask the assistant at the scanners to check, but he shakes his head - nothing pinging on any frequency the station could pick up. Maybe it's just too faint, he suggests, but you can tell his guess is as good as yours at this point.

>Have the EVA try to dig into the electronics, see what's under that plating.

>Haule the thing back to the station. R&D will have a field day.

>Leave it. This is probably no good.

>Write in

>>3370874
>Haul the thing back to the station. R&D will have a field day

>>3371093
this

>>3370874
>>Have the EVA try to dig into the electronics, see what's under that plating

Sorry, Redshirt, You're gonna have to die out there alone so the rest of the crew doesn't have to experience Alien live and uncut.

>>3370874
>Have the EVA try to dig into the electronics, see what's under that plating.

Rolled 6, 6 = 12 (2d6)

>>3371093
>>3371133
>1

>>3371292
>>3371505
>2

Also, on a different note, I'll be back and full time running this thing in about 9 hours

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>3371589
And dice fail

Hey people, Op here with a quick message: i'll be updating later, but i wont be running due to a visitor showing up at my doorstep. I'll see how much i can update later in the night. In any case, i'll be back to do a full run tomorrow eve in about a full 24 hours.

>>3371590
Dr. Vahl-
I mean Fidgety Doctor will be dissapointed.

>>3371093
>>3371133
>>3371292
>>3371505

You order your team to pack in as much of the debris they can tow and bring it back to the station. “Roger that command. EVA to shuttle, returning now!” The crewmate carefully floats away and back through the field of trash to the shuttle, cutting the wide-screen feed. “O-kay, this is away mission to command, EVA returned successfully. We’ll begin to deploy the net and start collecting.”

A couple of hours later, the team reports back in, having scooped up most of the major bits and pieces and now preparing for towing it back to base. You have someone alert R&D and Engineering about your find, the Doctor responds promptly, saying they will set up a quarantine in the cargo bay. “Give us the rest of the week for set-up in the cargo bay and we should have a preliminary report done by the end of next week.”, the Doctor ensures you, after a minute of bickering with the Head Engineer about who will be doing what, when, and where.

Later in the week, the away team arrives back at the station, cargo in tow, safe and sound. Engineering works hard to untangle the net of debris, while R&D eagerly awaits to begin their work in the quarantine area inside the cargo bay.

The weekend passes without any major incidents, the reports rolled in just as expected. Reviewing your first week on the station, you begin planning out next weeks priorities.
>You have your first research project! R&D can only work on one project at a time, and knowing the Fidgity Doctor, they won't stop until they have found a conclusion. At least, not without inconveniencing the department.

>Due to it being the only research, R&D automatically began researching it.

>Send an away mission to survey one of the planets [Write in which, and what crew]
>Send an away mission to survey the other anomalies [Write in which, and what crew]
>Keep shuttles on standby. Let's see what the week brings.

>>3372503
to clarify, there was no check going on, i just used the wrong dice to break the tie.

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>>3373122

>>3373122
>>Send an away mission to survey one of the planets
>[Engineer, Security Guard, Red Shirt]
Let’s check out that gas giant!
Quick question. What’s the difference between sending out a redshirt and a specialist?
If we send out a redshirt enough times wil they become a specialist?

>>3373243
>>3373125
>>3373122
Send an away team consisting of 2 engineers, 2 specialists, 2 security guards, and 2 redshirts to the giant gas planet for survey as well as their moons. Leave the other shuttle for mining purposes

>>3374358
+1

>>3374358
sure

>>3374346
Basically, a redshirt is a jack of all trades, but a master of none. In contrast a specialist - meaning a redshirt that has a job in one of the four departments, making him an engineer, researcher, botanist or sec guard - excels in his field of expertise.
Sending a redshirt to do something will produce an average result, while a specialist will produce above average results.

Redshirts become specialists as soon as they fill a job position in a given department. For example: The research lab currently has positions for three researchers. Should One of those be sent out, get wounded or killed, then a redshirt will automatically take his position to keep the module running at 100% efficiency. When the former researcher returns to duty, he will convert back into a redshirt, as his former position was filled.

This means redshirts are the buffer currency that is spend should a specialist be unable to work his post, while also being expendable on a mission: Rather throw the redshirt than the botanist or engineer at the raging alien to buy the group time to get away.

>>3374358
>>3375547
>>3375580
Now that I have explained this part - would you please specify what kind of specialists you want to send?
I will update the weekly report with a table, showing the distribution of job's and specialists to aid you in your decisions.

File: week 2_updated.png (35 KB, 1121x514)

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>>3375998

>>3375998
>Send an away team consisting of 2 engineers, 2 specialists, 2 security guards

>>3375998
So since each away mission already takes a Security and an Engineer it’s a choice between R&D and Botanist, right?

>>3375998
>R&D

>>3376093
An away team needs to have one engineer, one security and at least one other crewmember - this could be another engineer, or security, or you cloud load up two redshirts and a botanist. As long as another body is on board, you are green to go.

Also, I'll be updating in about two hours, so stay tuned.

>>3376097
>>3376093
>>3376060
>>3374358

After some deliberation, you order the crew to prepare one shuttle for a survey op of the gas giant and its moons in the system. The away team is happy to be this numerous. “Double and triple checking reports all day and night makes for an unmotivated crew - unless you can share the load.”, an engineer comments while loading probes into the shuttle. Fully loaded and staffed, the shuttle is send off to its multiple day-long journey.

In the meantime, station business continues as normal, until one afternoon: You just had settled in your office to read up on the news coming straight from the core sectors, when the yellow emergency lights come on.
“Attention all staff, this is a FTL-Proximity warning. Secure all stations and follow security protocol ‘F-Delta’. This is not a drill.” The voice of the A.I. announcer repeats the message several times as you secure any loose objects in your office, before entering the command center.

“Commander!”, an assistant spots you, they are visibly distraught, “Something’s trying to FTL right next to us!” You swing yourself into your seat, asking him about any scheduled FTL-jumps that might have gone off course. “Negative, sir! The FTL-Beacon’s jump log only shows the monthly resupply as being scheduled - And the chances of another jump going this far of course is-” His sentence is cut short by your other assistant exclaiming: “Jump imminent! Brace yourselves!”

You don't need to watch the radar to see what just got spat out of FTL-travel. Only a couple kilometers away, a frigate class ship appears out of the distorted space. Pieces of its hull shimmer in the sunlight as they are ripped off the frame, explosions expand from within the vessel, lightning crawls over the metallic hull. You bark at one of your assistants to tell you what the everliving hell just dropped out of FTL in front of you. After a moment of silence, you ask them if you need repeating yourself, only then one answers: “The- The transponders says its… of the ‘United States of Pan-America’, sir.” You throw him dumbfounded looks. “According to it, this ship is over half a millennium old.”

[1/2]

>>3376606

“I got a signal! Way out-of-date standard, one of the first few universal signaling languages for space travel. They are calling for aid - Seems somethings gone really south.” That was very much so evident, even to yourself. The assistants quickly gather reports from all stations, apparently, nothing out of the ordinary happened to them either. Still, the crew awaits your response to the hailings.

>Try to establish communications. Let's see if anyone is still alive, or if we are just hearing automated messages.

>Scramble the other shuttle with engineers, security and medical - as well as a shipment of alloys from the cargo hold. Let's see if we can help out.

>Scramble the other shuttle with engineers, security and medical - but no materials. Evacuation should be the priority, we hand out our precious alloys.

>Scramble the other shuttle with security and secure the ship as best as you can. Technically, this is an act of aggression, entering in privatized space without permission, no matter where they are from.

>To quote famous Admiral Ackbar: “It’s a trap!”. Do nothing, see what happens.

>There’s something else you need to know before making a decision.

>>3376609
Correction:
>Scramble the other shuttle with engineers, security and medical - but no materials. Evacuation should be the priority, we cant hand out our precious alloys.

>>3376609
>Try to establish communications. Let's see if anyone is still alive, or if we are just hearing automated messages.

>>3376652
The assistants are instructed to hail the ship, in hopes of getting a human to respond. “Broadcasting now on all frequencies, commander - thus far, no response, aside from the SOS. Seem like it’s on repeat. Not even a message-received. Their com-systems might be busted, seeing how the ship’s falling apart.”, one of them informs you. You ask if there’s any other way of seeing if anyone still alive. “Well - scanners indicate possible lifeforms, but how accurate that is, seeing how the ship just got out of FTL. Space might still be slightly distorted, spoofing our readings.”

>Scramble the other shuttle with engineers, security and medical - as well as a shipment of alloys from the cargo hold. Let's see if we can help out.

>Scramble the other shuttle with engineers, security and medical - but no materials. Evacuation should be the priority, we hand out our precious alloys.

>Scramble the other shuttle with security and secure the ship as best as you can. Technically, this is an act of aggression, entering in privatized space without permission, no matter where they are from.

>To quote famous Admiral Ackbar: “It’s a trap!”. Do nothing, see what happens.

>You have another idea. [Write-in]


>There’s something else you need to know before making a decision. [Write-in]

>>3376908
>>Scramble the other shuttle with engineers, security and medical - as well as a shipment of alloys from the cargo hold. Let's see if we can help out.
Focus on stopping explosions, then evacuating.

>>3377100
Also, if we’re part of a corporation do we have standard procedures for situations like this or is it left to the Commanders discretion?

>>3376908
>Scramble the other shuttle with engineers, security and medical - as well as a shipment of alloys from the cargo hold. Let's see if we can help out.

>>3377111
While there are different protocols for stuff like this, most of them basically say "sit tight and report it in." In your case, waiting for the big corporate guns to get here might take weeks. Luckily, as a frontier outpost commander, you have the permission to disregard protocols if you see them to be unfit for the situation. Being this remote from civilized space does have its pro's and con's.

>>3377128
>>3377100

You relay your orders to Engineering, Medical, and Security. Promptly, the three departments work in tandem to quickly put together the relief team, with a container of spare alloys in tow to patch up what they can.
“This is Shuttle to command, approaching the frigate - scanners show no activity in any weapon systems, thrusters seem offline. This thing’s dead in the water. We’ll find a nice place to dock and cut through the air-lock. Team, time to suit up!” The wide-screen turns on, showing off 9 different helmet cameras, as the away team gets ready. Having successfully docked, the engineers get to work, using plasma cutters to make quick work of the airlock’s doors. With a loud thump, the heavy metal slab falls inwards. The lighting system inside is partly offline, with red alarm lights blinking in the hallways beyond Arrivals.
“Damn - this place is old. Like, not last-year-old, I’m talkin’ ancient!”, one of the engineers says with some excitement in his voice as he’s around before security takes point. With your orders in mind and what your database tells you about the ship’s layout, the team heads off to get to work. With the engineers having a hunch that the vessels power network might have overloaded due to a failed FTL-Jump, the team heads for engineering.
On their way, you see blown lights, busted consoles, and broken power-lines sparking, your engineers seem to have been in the right. Arriving at Engineering, they immediately begin to go to town with their provided alloys: Analyzing ship components, fixing powerlines, rerouting power, replacing consoles and computational units, shutting down reactors, jettisoning fuel tanks before they blow, reengaging fire-fighting systems. Not before long, the ship floats in space, silent once more.
Still, something isn't right yet. “Away team bravo to command. Commander - I managed to get the ships manifest: According to it, there should be about forty people here, but looking at internal scanners, there's not a single piece of human anything here - At least nothing living the scanners can pick up.” A Doctor interjects, “Not just that - There's nothing alive. Not a single microbe. Either my MediScanner is broken as well, or we might be onto something.” - “Huh - That would explain the dead bio-computational cells we found. Those algae are usually pretty hardy...”
“In any case, commander, whats our next step?”, the leading security guard asks.

>Have the team turn over the entire ship for clues why we got a ghost ship on our hands. Forty people dont just vanish.

>Have Engineering estimate what you would need to do to get the ship back in working condition. Maybe this can be a blessing in disguise.

>Have Engineering tour the ship and mark down whatever they think can be recycled. This ships too old to use, might as well strip it down.

>You got another thing you wanted to ask… [Write in]

>>3377322
>Have the team turn over the entire ship for clues why we got a ghost ship on our hands. Forty people dont just vanish.
>Have Engineering estimate what you would need to do to get the ship back in working condition. Maybe this can be a blessing in disguise.

Finding the people is a Priority 1. People, not even microscopic cells, just completely wipe off the face of the universe. If nothing else, we have a new ship.

>>3377322
>>Have the team turn over the entire ship for clues why we got a ghost ship on our hands. Forty people dont just vanish.
>>Have Engineering estimate what you would need to do to get the ship back in working condition. Maybe this can be a blessing in disguise.

>>3376908
>“Well - scanners indicate possible lifeforms..."
>>3377322
>You got another thing you wanted to ask… [Write in]
Does scanners show something now?
>>3378249
+1
But
Before we make final decision we probably should call corporate

>>3379445
Before giving a command to the away team, you ask for another scan of the ship by the station's scanners. “Results are much clearer now… huh.”, the assistant seems surprised, “Well, I got our away team on the scanners - but nothing else. Was space this distorted?” He goes on to look for the old scan to cross-reference it with the new results, only to grow more nervous. “This… Hey, can you see if you can access the scan in memory bank Delta-Four?”, he asks his colleague, who looks equally confused and nervous after doing as we as asked to. Feeling left out, you demand an explanation of what's going on. “The scan is… gone. Well, not gone-gone, but corrupted. I can’t pull it up. As if the scan didn't go through correctly.” the assistant confesses. You instruct him to have Engineering test the data bank for faults.

>>3378249
>>3379431
>>3379445

Is everyone on board with calling this in with corporate? Anything they send your way will probably not arrive before the monthly resupply comes through. On another note, I’ll be updating further in about two hours, but won't be staying long. Still, I hope I can dish out two or three updates before going to bed. Thanks for sticking with this slow-paced thing thus far!

>>3378249
>>3379431
>>3379445

With your new-found information, you relay your orders to the away team, to leave no piece of rubble unturned to see what happened to the crew, while having the engineers get to work and assess the damages. The team quickly divides up and sets out into the abandoned ship. One after another, the smaller parties report back in as you watch their helmet cameras with great interest.

A team of two security guards inform you that only some escape pods were used, most of them seem to have been never touched. Likewise, most space-suits are still at the airlocks, with only a few missing - Yet, some seem to have been pulled out of their respective lockers, as if someone wanted to gear up, but was interrupted.

A second team is inspecting the kitchen, mess hall and common areas. Here, a doctor makes another discovery, having a look at the kitchen nutrient paste dispensers. “Gross.”, comments the accompanying engineers, making notes of the structural damage, “Isn't that stuff, like, way past bad?” To his surpirse, the doctor shakes his head: “Not by a long stretch. There no contamination inside the paste, not even from passive aerosol contamination. Plus, there's not a single ‘fresh’ food item in the kitchen. Looks like this paste wasn’t considered ‘alife’, as weird as it sounds.” The engineer gives it a nervous chuckle. “You make it sound like we are in some low-effort horror piece.” The Doctor doesn't seem to feel reassured by that comment, continuing his search.

[1/3]

>>3380200
Another team, a doctor and guard, have made their way into the dark and now damp halls of the dormitories, on their way to the bridge. They report of equally strange findings. Some rooms look like they were never touched, beyond the structural damages, of course, some aren't even furnished - Yet they even find a room that looks very much so lived in and rather messy. “Finally, some signs of habitation.”, the doctor mumbles as he shines his helmet light into various drawers, before getting distracted by the guard grabbing his attention with what looks like an ancient pre-holographic display PDA that he found near a busted console. After some fiddling with it, they finally manage to turn it on.

“Ensign Jackson, personal log. Relative Stardate: Well… I guess that's not really working anymore. Let's call this Day 1. *sigh* I… guess there’s no nice way of putting it. We are Lost in FTL. Something fucky happened to the jump accelerator when we tried to outrun the sun storm. The guys in navigations say it might be nothing much, just us being knocked off course. Still, even they seem worried. The captain has put us back onto our duties, but honestly, we all just hope it’ll blow over quickly. ”

“Jackson, personal log. Day 3: It happened again today. We nearly didn't notice, but… someone from the engine crew is… gone. I guess. It- it’s weird to explain. We… kind of forgot. Like, we don’t remember them. Their quarters were always empty, like the officer's cabin. R-right? No - no no. They were there. They must have been. The logs didn't lie. There should have been people. Why can't we remember them? Why can't I remember?” Silence for a good minute. “Crew motivation is down, needless to say. We all feel weird. It’s all like a fever dream. If there is some sort of God, I hope he’s smiling upon us.”

[2/3]

>>3380200
”Jackson, log. Day 7. A full week lost. Still. The crew is lethargic. It’s hard to get up in the morning, it takes several minutes to remember where I am, and why. Some crewmates didn't even show up for roll call today. Had to get them out fo their beds, they thought they were at their previous deployment. In addition, the chef reported we are now running on paste. I don't remember much of the last days, but I swear we had *solid* food. I told them to look, to get the quartermasters PDA, the manifest. They told me we never had a quartermaster. I told them they were wrong. Noone believed me. Said I was going mad. Confined me to my room. Bastards. They are the ones gone mad! Damnit!”

The following recordings play back mad ramblings of distant voices, pacing back and forth some ways away from the PDA, before getting too corrupted to play. Only the last entry is still intakt. Alarm sirens can be heard in the background. Jackson sounds hurried, and slightly out of breath.
”Ensign Jackson, personal Log. Relative Stardate: Unknown - I have no idea where I am. This junker, that I woke up on, is falling apart as I speak. Think the power grid got overloaded, blowing out many systems with it…. Fuck!”, a hand slaps against a reinforced door, “Door’s shut, gotta find another way. There seems to be no one around. I know, sounds hella crazy, but I fucking checked every room, before the fire broke out! Anyways - I’m trying to get to a functioning console, so I can get emergency broadcasting up and running, then I’ll head straight for the pods…. Come on, you stupid thing, turn on... Ah! Jackpot! Initiate emergen-cy broad… cast… Everything’s set - Let's blow this joint! To whomever finds this… I don't know, this is fucked up.”, an explosion goes off, followed by a loud ‘Fuck’, and the recording stops.

Medical and security exchange looks with each other, one paler than the other. “... Away to command - Did you catch all that? Not wanting to be the killjoy here, but I really don't want to stay.”

>Have them continue the search, they are trained professionals, not little children in a haunted house. When done, they are to assist Engineering in their report.

>Pull the away team, this place isn’t kosher. You’d rather have your team not go crazy in there - or lost to whatever is going on there.

>Have the assistants call in corporate, this is a number too big for yourself - even if they will take their sweet time with it.

>>3380204
>Pull the away team, this place isn’t kosher. You’d rather have your team not go crazy in there - or lost to whatever is going on there.
Fuck memetic viruses and fuck the machine ghosts.

Best case scenario is we find a long stick to poke this thing until we figure out how it works and we get a ghost ship.
Worst case scenario we wonder why our one shuttle hasn’t started prepping for their mission.

>>3380204
>>Have them continue the search, they are trained professionals, not little children in a haunted house. When done, they are to assist Engineering in their report.
>Have the assistants call in corporate, this is a number too big for yourself - even if they will take their sweet time with it.

>>3380427
You thinking it’s something mundane?

>>3380204
Whatever we do, I don’t want to tell corporate.

>>3380470
Could be nothing, could be everything. What we do know, is that it took time before the spirting aways happened. As long as they are quick about it, everything should be fine. I would want to contact corporate because chances are they have larger databases and connections to help figure out what this thing is.

>>3381352
I’d agree with you if that scan wasn’t already scrubbed from our records.
Whatever needed time to spin up is obviously still going.
Personally I don’t think corporate’s going to have data on perception warping entities like this.

>>3380204
>Have them continue the search, they are trained professionals, not little children in a haunted house. When done, they are to assist Engineering in their report.

>Can you try find a log of a person that was not confined to their room? Also try to find manifest that could confirm or deny whatever this ensign was speaking.

>Either this or quarantine on ghost ship. Your choice...

>Don't call corporate

>yet

>>3380269
>>3380427
>>3381237
>>3381871

Alright, looks like we will have the team continue and we wont call this in with corporate for now. I'll write up the update in a bit.

Also: You can request data from corporate, no problem. However, the less mundane your request, the more likely they will ask questions you might not want to answer, or simply tell you to sit tight and wait for help they will no doubt send.
So, asking for a list of ships fielded by the Pan-American States from half a millennium ago is indeed a little weird, but wont raise too many question back at HQ.
Asking for a list of known reality-warping entities might trigger some alarms somewhere.

>>3380269
>>3380427
>>3381237
>>3381871

You raise your voice, ranting about how the away team is comprised of highly trained professionals, how this isn't some haunted house out on the fringes of some county fair, and that they have their orders to follow. However, you do add new parameters for their mission: Searching for and finding more accounts of what happened and instruct the engineers to transmit the manifest they found earlier. The security guard and the doctor still seem a little weirded out by what they just learned, but follow their orders, pocketing the PDA for later examination, if needed.

“Away engineers to command - Data batch incoming. The manifest looks no different than it did earlier.”, one of the engineers reports back, as you receive the mentioned manifest. The document holds exactly what you expected: A list of the names of the crew on board. Sure enough, according to it, there should be 38 people on board - including a quartermaster, a couple of officers, and the Ensign.

“Commander? Engineering has checked the data bank with our scan: No discernable damage was found. It looks like the warping that was caused by the ship dropping out of FTL affected the scan, corrupting it. At least that’s their running theory, apparently.”, the assistant informs you while studying the manifest.

In the meanwhile, the away team continues to inch through the ship. As both, the team from mess hall/kitchen and the dormitories, converge on the bridge, the security guards having checked out the escape pods now are making their way into cargo. After a back and forth with the engineers to restore the power to the security locks of the cargo bay airlock, they finally make their way inside. With the powerlines inside cargo defect, neither light nor gravity is working, causing the containers inside to float in the dark. Engaging the suits magboots, the security slowly begins their journey. “Away security to command. We got a couple of empty transport containers here, floating aro-” - “Hey, check this out - there's a faint energy signature coming from one of these containers.” - “Huh. Some self-contained system? Command, I’ll go and check it out.”

[1/2]

>>3382107
Turning the boots off and engaging the maneuvering thrusters of the suit, the guard makes his way up to the floating container. He spins around the thing a few times, scanning it while looking for a way to open it. “Besides having no keypad or something to open it, it’s some sort of system running on battery or something - But there’s something else. I’m no gear-head, but this looks like some sort of shielding? Nothing radioactive or the sorts, that's what the scanner’s telling me. Yo bud - can you look for similar containers to this one?” - “Sure thing...” The second guard begins to float up and checks out the other containers. “Hey, this one has a similar system, but it’s basically dead, run out of juice, maybe?” - “Weird. Command, should we get the gear-heads down here and have them crack one open?”

>You are curious yourself - Get some engineers down there and have them open one up [choose either the dead or the live one.]

>Cracking them sounds like a bad idea. Have a researcher and an engineer work to trigger their opening mechanism - if there is one. [choose either the dead or the live one.]

>Negative, have the engineers vent cargo into space, send the shuttle to pick one of them up and have it tow it back to the station - R&D should have a look at them. [choose either the dead or the live one - or both.]

>Whatever is sealed in there was put there with a purpose. Curiosity killed the cat, let’s leave it where it is.

>>3382109
Correction, of course there has to be a write in:

>Actually, you have a better course of action in mind.

>There's something else you need to know before making decisions.

>>3382109
>negative have the engineers vent it into space. Have a shuttle puck it up and have r&d look at them and open them, preferably in a room ready to be vented into space.

>>3382109
>Negative, have the engineers vent cargo into space, send the shuttle to pick one of them up and have it tow it back to the station - R&D should have a look at them.

We'll have R&D look into the dead one. If the live one survived this long, we'll leave as is until we know for sure what we're dealing with.

>>3382117
>>3382150

“Copy command, Away in cargo to Engines - You got that? Can you vent this place so we can pick up the dead one?” - “This is Engines, no worries. We can lock the Bay, suck out the air and open the loading bay door - Just push your Container out there and Shuttle can pick it up.” - “Understood, Cargo to Shuttle, you know what to do?” - “Aaah- This is Shuttle, copy that - Swinging by the loading bay door now. Just say the word and we are ready to tow.”
From your comfy seat in the command center, you supervise how the security guards proceed with their plan and carefully shove the dead container out the loading bay door after the cargo hold got depressurized. The Shuttle secures the container and continues on to deliver it to the stations' cargo after announcing the delivery to the remaining researcher at the quarantine inside. A few minutes later, Shuttle radios back in: “Shuttle to command, successfully delivered the package, returning to point-of-interest now.”

While containers are being shipped, the team making its way towards the bridge has managed to find its way through broken doors, hallways full of rubble and blown-out walls. Finally having arrived at the bridge, they cut their way through the secured door. The room itself is a mess. Consoles have blown, scattering their debris in zero-g, as well as cables and wall panels slowly floating around. The engineer of the group quickly navigates towards the old memory banks of the room, while the others turn over the debris for anything new. “Damn - Banks are a bust. A shock must have taken them out, some even fused. Old-as-hell-tech didn't have our fancy-schmancy protections.”, the engineer comments, ripping parts of charred and fused chipsets out from under a console. “Let's hope we find something else of interest - Shouldn't there be a captains office?”, a security guard comments, before the doctor answers by asking him to help with a door he found. Sure enough, with the door pushed open, a cramped office reveals itself.

[1/2]

>>3384483
Unlike the bridge, the office looks rather undamaged - pristine in comparison to the rest of the bridge. As the Doc tries to float inside, with a comically loud thud and groan, he face-plants onto the floor. All helmet cameras immediately turn to look at him, as he slowly realizes what had happened, and gets up, and looks back at his crewmates. “A-are you guys seeing this?”, he stammers. “Uh… This section doesn't have power.”, the engineer tells him as if he asked him to stop having artificial gravity. “Could it be a contained system? Like the boys in Cargo found?”, a guard chimes in. “Huh - Yeah. The office is actually shielded to not give off any indication it’s running on a separate power source.”, he explains, with a dumbfounded look on his face. “Well, help me have a look in here then.”, the Doc says, before turning around. A sec guard shrugs and follows him, landing a little more gracefully on his feet.

Yet, besides the terminal on the desk, that has been disconnected from the data bank inside the bridge, they don't find anything - until they begin scanning the walls. “There’s something behind that panel.”, the security mentions, before the engineer chuckles, “Of course, all power lines and other stuff run behind there.” - “Not like that - give me a sec....” You see his fingers searching for something along the mentioned panel. He then stops, wiggling around a little, before the panel pops off the wall, falling to the ground. Looking at the opening for a second, he signals his crewmates. Now revealed, a second terminal lies in front. “This is definitely non-standard.”, the Doc murmurs, as they turn it on. Only a short log is saved as if someone had purged it on the regular:

”The package has been retrieved. On our way to drop site Gamma.”
”Copy. Handle package carefully. Content highly volatile. Check safety regularly.”
”Understood, package will be handled with utmost care.”

“... that's all she wrote. Command, you got that? Otherwise, this room’s pretty empty. The captain must have not trusted his crew if this is how he communicated with… whoever.” You rub your chin - Somethings extra fishy about this. Of course, you have your assistant relay this info to R&D - Who seem even more excited now. Weirdos.

>Have the engineers rip out the terminal plus storage. If corporate ever has questions about this, maybe they will want to have it. Continue the damage report otherwise.

>Keep it where it is. This might be nothing, let's just get on with the report.

>There’s something else you wanted to know… [Write-in]

>>3384485
Is there any reason not to take the terminal?

If not >have the engineers rip it out
>also have them check if there is any thousand year old whiskey in the officer's cabinets they all have somthing.

>>3384499
If you choose to not take it and salvage, refurbish, destroy or whatever you guys want to do with this ghost ship, the console would be lost to you. If you think you want to keep it, this is the opportunity.

>>3384510
Then yes keep it no reason not too

>>3370126
>>Actually, you do have a question, before moving on…
Where is the can? I gotta take a shit before we get started.

>>3384485
>>Have the engineers rip out the terminal plus storage. If corporate ever has questions about this, maybe they will want to have it. Continue the damage report otherwise

>>3384485
>Retrieve terminal

>>3384519
>>3384573
>>3386543

Hey people, quick update, there wont be a post today or tomorrow, but updates will resume on Saturday. Thanks for keeping up with this quest so far!

>>3387126
It cool .ill be excitedly waiting till then

>>3387134
>>3386543
>>3384573
>>3384519

You tell them to take out the console and turn over the office once more - Never have you met a single ship captain who didn’t have a pretty drop of something in his office. The team complies and, with no surprise to you, find a bottle tucked away in the back of the desk’s drawers. Last, but not least, you have them complete their report on the state of the ship.

While your crew is busy with the ship, the other away team signals in. “Command, this is away team alpha. We are about to wrap up our survey report, currently picking up the last data transmission for the moons. Thus far nothing too spectacular. The gas giant is that - one large cloud of gas surrounding a solid core. If we ever need to pump up the hydrogen fuel production, this thing got that in spades. The moons are baren, probably asteroids that got caught inside the gravitational field of the planet. Their composition is nothing to write home about, no major difference from the stuff we break down and refine back home.”

A short pause ensues, with some background chatter. “And that should be the last of our datasets. We’ll head home once it's fully processed and-” - “Hey buddy, there's some non-standard deviation in the topology, something that's too small and short to be a mountain, and too round and smooth to be an asteroid stuck on there.” - “Huh - Did you get that command? We’ll check the reports once more and swing by to check it out.” You give them the go-ahead, no need to waste the trip going back only to send another team.

A couple of hours later, the team radios back in: “Alright command, we got some good close range scans of our little anomaly. From what it looks like, we got some sort of metal dome on the surface. Could have been some outpost or something, but judging by the dents in the dome and the absence of any energy signatures, this looks to be pretty abandoned.” You immediately task one of your assistants to look for records of any forward outpost having been established before the station got set up, but he comes up with no records of such. You relay the info to the away-team. “Roger that, maybe someone wanted to get ahead of the game but didn’t follow through? Anyway, we’ll have a quick look around before we head home - Time to stretch out legs boys!” Without any objections from your side, the team touches down near the dome and suits up to check it out.

>>3398127
Once more, you watch the team of seven - leaving the pilot back at the shuttle, just in case - via their suit’s helmet cameras. “Yeah, that thing hasn't seen any maintenance for some time...”, the engineer comments as the group bunny-hops towards the structure. The dome does indeed look as if it’s way overdue some repairs: Beyond some dust gathering on the supports, there are many small dents in the metal plating, probably cause by small meteor impacts. As they scan their surroundings, they not only find the entrance airlock but also buried energy conduits. “Just as dead as the rest of this rock.” - “Still, where do they go? That-a-way is nothing but craters and moon dust.” - “Hm… we should check that out then. They probably weren't piping power into the void.”

Moments later, the team stands in front of the airlock, with the engineer taking a good look at it. “Well, I got good news and bad news.” - “Hit us with the bad first.”, a guard tells him, the engineer shrugs, “Bad news: this thing won't budge.” - “And? Get the torch going!” - “Sure, if you want to stand out here for a couple of hours, be my guest. This thing does not only have a maglock but is reinforced as well. But, that's the good news: Things not busted, once we get power going, it’ll open right up.” The team lets out a collective groan. “Alright, what about the dome, could we cut in that way?” - “‘fraid not. Thing’s some sort of compound metal, so we got the same deal as with the door. If we want to stay overnight to get inside, sure, but I don't reckon anyone’s stoked about standing outside with a plasma torch.”

>>3398128
“Damn… Okay team, let’s check out those conduits before we call it a day.” The team agrees and begins a slow trek across the moon’s surface, following the power line buried beneath the surface. A couple of boring minutes of watching the cameras slowly bob up and down later, the group comes to a stop. The powerlines have split up, leading to two different craters. Accordingly, the team splits near evenly, before continuing.

Once the first group gets into one of the craters, you finally get a report back. “That’s clever - command, we got some sort of structure buried inside the crater. Looks like some sort of docking port maybe, not sure. Whatever it is, it seems to over itself in the dust once done. Would explain why the first survey scans didn't show this.” The second group makes a similar discovery. “We got another of these docking ports, but we also have a few long range scanners embedded in here, three it looks like. Weird. You got that too?” - “Nope, just the dock. Maybe some redundancy.”


“Command, do you copy? It looks like there's not much more here. I’d suggest it’s time to pack it in and come back with more gear.”

>Tell them to uncover the structures they found and assess their function more closely. Why would anyone put those there without purpose?

>Tell them to stay put and cut their way in through the airlock. Their time to earn their pay.

>Time to pack up indeed. There isn't much else to be done here, it seems.

>You got something else on your mind…. [Write-in]

>>3398129
Woah your alive qm!

>time to pack up, return to base take the night off and get whatever equipment to get the power on it running and head back out there. We should crack that as soon as we can.

>>3398148
The curse wont get me with mere alcohol poisoning - still, I do regret not giving a you guys a heads-up. Anyways, updates will continue as normal, and I'll do my best to get another one out tonight as well.

>>3398232
It is probably best to create a new thread tho btw as this one had stopped bumping amd will fall off the board eventually now.

>>3398285
True, I'd say I'll set up a new thread as soon as I got that update. Thanks for sticking around, btw!

>>3398294
Np I always pin these in the hope the qm comes back. I'm pretty happy to see you alive. I'll be looking forward to that update

>>3398305

>>3398746
New thread is up!

Last post lol

HAH Got'em