The Characters

 

 

Scene 12: Chaos 9 - "Oddity Detected"

Mason dips his hand into his shallow pocket and finds the teeth of an old bottle cap. He runs his finger over the familiar grooves then squeezes it in his palm. Signature Item - 1 Stress. It somehow grounds him, brings him comfort. It has some significance to him, but for the moment we don't know why. The team has rested since the last scene - 1 Stress. 

Capilano remains ready and Marlaina observes their surroundings.

Roll for oddity I get "Area + Ahead".

"Come in, lieutenant. This is ground squad, do you copy?" Capilano transmits. There's nothing but static coming through. Not a trace of a human voice. The hive resin is too thick, there is no chance of reaching anyone.

"Guys, there's an opening here!" Marlaina shouts as she starts to kneel towards a darkened wall of the hive. It leads deeper, but it's completely black inside. The hole is about the size of one of them crouched down.

"Take a look. Carefully..." Capilano orders.

"Hold up." Mason reads his motion tracker.

Does he get a ping? "Exceptional Yes." The tracker screams to life, beeping as the movement gets closer.
Is it a big fucking signal? "Yes." 

Capilano freezes and holds his cross. This ain't over yet. Motion Tracker Power roll. No change.

"Dead hive my ass!! This signal says otherwise." 

Capilano sees something shift in the dark but he can't tell what it is. An undulating shadow of black waves.

"Marlaina, d'you see that?"

Marlaina - Observation Roll - Wits (4), Observation (2) 6 Base dice = 3 Success

"Shit. I see it Cap. I see them."

Is it coming for me? "Yes"

Are there more close by? "Complication." Roll for "Fire + Aides".

It's too dark to see down into the hole, but Marlaina is sure that something is undulating down there. A snarl comes from within, echoing underneath the floor and beyond them through the bowels of the hive.

"They lied Cap. It's a fucking ambush. This hive is ACTIVE!" Marlaina unslings her flamethrower and points it towards the tunnel, firing a short torching burst that illuminates the hole momentarily. Roll for "Creatures". Whoa! kinda worked out perfectly there.

The entire hole is moving. The squad reels back with fright. The whole room is moving, it's a HIVE, an active one. For a moment, Capilano can only think to barricade the hole with some of the old mining debris to buy them some time to escape, but before he can complete the thought he knows it's too late.

The storm is too bad to fall back to the APC. They are cut off!!

"Fall back to the mine! Go! Go! Go!" 

The marines file backwards, as if part of one body. Fluid and well trained, they find their footing over the mining junk, shell casings and other shit that's too hard to identify in the dark cavernous hive. 

Scene 13: Chaos 10 - "Scene Interrupt" Roll for"Inquire + A Plot"

Kitzmiller struggles in the storm. He can't continue at this snails pace and so must give up on finding the APC. He checks his Motion tracker quickly to make sure he is in fact alone still. Stones pick at the screen. His attempts to shield the glass from the debris is in vain. No signals... Power check. All good. 

As a way to avoid the dust and debris, Kitzmiller gets low and crawls in the sand like a sidewinder. The swirling winds envelop his body, echoing inside his helmet. He attempts to retrace his steps back to the hive, his face down in the sand. Air check. All good. 

Does he find his tracks? (50/50) "Yes". 

Kitzmiller follows his footprints as best he can, back in the direction he came. His body is battered by wind and rock. As he crawls, Kitzmiller is starting to have his doubts about the mission. He should have trusted his gut. It all seemed a bit too reckless from the start, a bit too straight forward and now he knew why. This mission was destined to fail and as he crawls along like a dying rat, he wonders what they were doing here and who really sent them.

Scene 14: Chaos 9 

Lt. Allen assigns Jill to the ship repairs. Jill Vickers, now suited up, meets Lt. Allen at the back of the Santa Rose. They speak over the comms system, while at the same time absorbing the impact of hundreds of pebbles pricking their suits like a rain of BBs.  

"Vickers, you're back on maintenance and repair."
"But sir, the storm is so bad I couldn't take off in this anyway." Vickers protests.
"We can't afford to spend anymore time here. We need to be ready to fly when the storm passes. You out us here Vickers, now get us out." Allen responds.
"Yes sir."
"You'll camp out here until it's finished."

Allen walks past her, intentionally brushing into her shoulder on his way into the ship. Long shot or not, Vickers' doesn't waste anytime. The only way to get out of this hot water is to feel the burn.

Vickers handles the necessary tools she prays will do the job.

"Come on baby, you got this."

Jill Vickers - Heavy Machinery Roll - Strength (4) 4 Base dice + 1 Stress = 0 Success

"You fucker!"

Vicker's gives the ship a vicious kick.

Inside the dropship, Lt Allen leans over the sector map on the bridge. It's a crude LED map of the planet's surface, but missing large and unexplored portions. He glows a calm blue. He draws his P-DAT from the bridge, planning to guide in the marine's visually from the ship in order to advance the mission. The projected display blooms ahead of him in midair, giving him a clear shot of his ground team and all of their PDTs. The image glitches as the wind picks up; storm interference is inevitable.  

Does he see Kitzmiller? "Yes"

Does Allen notice if he is heading towards the hive? "Yes"

He gets on comms and tries again to establish contact.

"Kitzmiller, come in!"

Does Kitzmiller receive him? "No" It's too windy.

"Great... That's just great..." Allen grumbles sarcastically. He whips off his headset and sits back in his chair. 

All Allen can do is look on at a glitching, solitary speck on the map - a PDT wandering alone.

Kitzmiller gets low and crawls in the sand