Session 35: Infiltrating the U-Boat Report

General Summary

Introduction

You each feel the thud of the ship, your new home though unnamed it may be, slamming into the much large but still slowly drifting forward Krasian S33 Carrier "U-Boat". You hear the screeching and groaning of metal as the various shock suppression systems within the ram strain to avoid ripping holes in the ship with the sudden impact. Even with system, you can tell that ramming a ship even this hard would have risked throwing you forward without Captain Tumerian Li Shen's timely "Brace for Impact!" over the coms.   As the footing beneath your feet stabilizes, you hear a dull, distant "thud" and suddenly feel the slightest tingle run up your spine. However, you hear the growingly familiar, and uncomfortably close, fire of automatic turrets targeting your ship. For a brief moment, there is a breath of calm where the only sound is the faint straining of metal and the purr of the engines. Then, with the suddenness of a respite broken, you each feel yourself coming to once more. Your ship's ram has slammed into the side of the huge, slowly drifting Krasian Uboat. The Krasian Patrol Ship nearby hasn't swung around to assault you yet, while Nibian 6 and the slightly more distant Nibian 3 loom behind you.   Burt, Kyra, and Rose sit in various positions in the Systems Room, peering over panels or looking out of the viewport at the looming freighter before them. Though the reference would be be mostly lost on them, some ancient genetic memory calls to mind an image of a sedan having just rammed an 18-wheeler as they stare up at the massive cargo holds wrapping around their ship and extending backwards on either side. Captain Li's knuckles loosen on the reverse thrusters as he breathes a small sigh of relief, having pulled back just in time, and hears Astrid's voice over the coms "Still want guns live, Capn?".   Meanwhile, Ronin and Chiara stand near the main loading bay door. You would have felt the intensity of the impact more than most, being located just above it, if your looming Gavel armor did not absorb most of it for you. Chiara slides a datapad into a sealed pouch at the side of her sealed suit and pulls a line of cable out of a box attached to the front of her EVA suit. Her smirk is almost imperceptible through the sealed visor, but you can still see the glint of excitement in her eyes as she reaches for the door and says "Ready to break some stuff?"

Highlights

The crew quickly split into 3 overall teams over the course of the encounter as they infiltrated and investigated the U-Boat. They received a message to turn themselves in immediately or be destroyed from the Captain of the KPO Invictus, the Krasian Patrol Ship nearby. It turned around and stayed at Extreme Range (4 Size 3 Zones) while firing its Railgun and attempted to breach their Systems (each intermittently, turn after turn). The Pilot team tried to slow, divert, and ram the U-Boat while dodging the Krasian Patrol Ship (which quickly turned around and started firing Railgun rounds). The Systems team diverted power to defend the ship, scanned the U-Boat, tried to infiltrate the enemy ship via EW, and kept the Iridium Dawn intact. Finally, the Infiltration team (Ronin and Chiara) investigated the U-Boat, fought Drones, hacked the systems available, and discovered/interacted with the U-Bombs.

Pilot Team

Li and Jay remained in the cockpit. Jay boosted the engines and provided targeting while Li rammed the enemy ship, manuevered around it for cover from the Railgun, and piloted the ship nimbly. Astrid remained on the guns and fired at his command. Soon after ramming, they disengaged to slip underneath the drifting U-Boat to try and take out its engines. It took some time, but they eventually destroyed the thrusters and prevented it from pushing it forward (and providing the resistance to their slowing attempts).   When they realized the looming Nibian 6 was nearing collision, Jay ran for her Hornet. Li started trying to push the U-Boat to divert it (though a little too late as it was already almost there) as she ran for the speeder. She flew out, grabbing a fuel cell along the way per a mentioned idea of trying to blow the bombs up prematurely, and went to grab Ronin and Chiara. They raced back into the ship, damaging the hornet's landing gear as it couldn't take the weight of 3 people plus Ronin's armor, and she ran back towards the cockpit. Around that time, Li yelled for everyone to Brace and did a microjump away from the U-Boat across the system. 

Systems Team

Burt, Rose, and Kyra held down the fort in the Systems Room. Burt ran back from handing off the datapad to Chiara while putting on an EVA Suit. He quickly swapped their standard Trader ident chip to a quickly cloned KPO Vanguard "Patrol Ship" chip. They each took turns scanning, boosting the ship's defenses and power, decrypting signals (Burt), attacking the other ship via a porn-bot virus (Rose), and keeping the enemy systems engineers out of their ship's systems as best they could. Kyra studied the U-Bombs and found the cable running in the middle along with the core with chemical and technical components within it (that she couldn't get a precise read on). Burt tried to hack and access the systems of the U-Boat via the datapad but was unable to crack into it in time. He eventually received a transmission from the monitored Krasian Coms Channel that indicated the KPO Invictus ordered the KPO Vanguard and its compatriot to "Rally Point Delta". They each moved off with haste as the detonation timer seemed to near. Soon after, when the ship jumped across the system, Burt was taken unaware and was thrown across the room. He dislocated his ankle on the landing.

Infiltration Team

Ronin and Chiara breached the U-Boat by spacewalking down the ram. Ronin used his Hardlight weapon to cut through the ship's hull. They busted into the ship, found bare and stripped rooms, and found the absence of any life support. The emergency systems kicked on soon after and illuminated the space with thin Running Lights. They discovered the emergency systems had also been set up to trigger the secondary thrusters to keep propelling the ship (and its cargo) forwards into the planet.   Chiara went up the dead elevator shaft and dropped down the Scanner that Kyra had given her to Ronin (failed save when the ship was rammed and jostled). Ronin headed into the cargo bay and found a row of square "U-Bombs"  the size of a starfighter. He found the thick cable running through the center of the bay with offshoots heading to each of the devices (though not connected).   Soon after, he and Chiara were both attacked by the internal Defense Drones. They easily dispatched them, though Chiara was surprised in her ambush and sustained an injury from one while fighting it with her knives. Ronin easily dispatched his with his hardlight Naginata. He continued investigating the Utopia Bomb using the hand-scanner, sending data to Kyra, and even by chopping into it (almost triggering an explosion). He soon found the panel of thinner utopia laid over the port covering that is in the same symbol as the symbol of Orgeneous, the metallic endpoint of a cable coincedentally arranged in a shape that looks like 2 interwoven infinity signs. He continued trying to interact, study, and steal them while Chiara plugged Burt's datapad labeled "Jose's Datapad", carrying his decryption programs with it, into the two interactable systems that hadn't been removed when the ship was apparently scrapped (Emergency Systems and Defense Systems) until they were alerted to leave the ship.   They met back up while running through the ship. They left via the rammed hole, ran along the exterior of the ship towards the Iridium Dawn (which was ramming and pushing it from another point), until Jay swept in on her Hornet. Ronin cut open another hole in the Cargo Bay, Jay tossed him a fuel tank, he threw it in the hole at the U-Bombs, and they escaped on her hornet. They crashlanded back in the Hanger Bay as the ship escaped from the crashing U-Boat.

Finale

After their best attempts to slow or stop the U-Boat failed, though the shifting plans, unfortunate luck, and the everpresent Patrol Ship seemed to be the largest culprit in their lack of success, Li jumped them across the system. There, they watched the ship detonate seemingly moments before colliding with the asteroid Nibian 6. Moments after, the wave of darkness rippled through space and they detected an anomoly that appears to be a Black Hole where Nibian 6 once sat.

Missions/Quests Completed

Gather Data on Weapon's Test (Given by Scav: Lady Ash Reparl)