CALLISTO AND EUROPA HAVE GONE DARK.
You are BLAKE HITCHES, Ceres base mission commander.
Your job was to head to Callisto's survey & mining station, rescue station crew and restore order to the base. Now, the base has been wrecked, with not only by the presence of a massive unknown object in the base, but the breakout of a crazed murder spree.
There has been only one survivor found so far: senior cosmonaut Mikhail Lebedev. Thanks to joint-nation astronaut training, he's had many other astronauts under his wing, one of them you, and it began at Moscow's Star City. Now, he's in the worst shape you've ever seen him ever since he was recently shipped to Callisto.
>>Rules:
>>Roll a 3d10 to beat a specified DC. 2 passes out of 3 to win.
>LIGHTBULBS:
>>During write-ins, if your idea or course of action is unusual and clever, you can earn a Lightbulb --- similar to a Fate point for a reroll, or you can spend a Lightbulb for a hint/insight.
>>I can even award lightbulbs for ideas that come up during discussion between updates. Lightbulbs will carry over to future campaigns from this one, I guess?
>>But for now, there isn't really going to be farming lightbulbs by catching name references/puns, so take it easy with the names.
>>I'll reveal something at the end of the entire quest.
Previous threads: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Clockwork%20of%20the%20Void%20Quest
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FreQuenphase
>>Previous choice voted:
>[X] Run back and get suited up in EVA gear, and bring one for Mikhail.
>Writing.
archive now
>>44759726
THE MESS HALL is the nearest, unchecked place from the greenhouse and the dorms. There are visible bloody marks staining the only window. Guessing that beyond those doors lies the center of the murders, you decided to brace for decompression from stray bullets rupturing the walls.
You're relieved, perhaps too relieved to see an old friend alive. At least your impending retirement might be looking bright. You tell Mikhail to lock and barricade the greenhouse doors again, and to double check if it was you. On a high, you grab most of your crew and bolt over to the airlock where you first removed your EVA suits. Now that you don't have to investigate much, and need less finesse, the protection with the newly-issued suits is what's needed to get the problem solved.
Upon fetching one of the spare station suits in the airlock and one of the other EVA suits to fetch to the greenhouse, you hear a man's bloody terrified scream from where you came.
"Looks like we must've overlooked something," Shae says in a cold sweat.
You hurry through the corridors, all the way to the greenhouse. Your search reveals one of your crew dead, and Mikhail missing.
Upon investigating the corpse, the indications on the wounds seem to hint that your man was killed fairly quickly. Oddly, none of his things were taken.
[ ] The killer must've broken in.
[ ] Search for Mikhail.
[ ] The killer's got to pay, we're going to the mess hall.
[ ] Do/Suggest some other idea/thing (This is a write-in option)
>>44759691
I need to check this out.
>>44760274
I've ran quests and one-shots under different trips over the years. Nothing of much importance.
>>44760043
>[ ] Search for Mikhail.
suspect, but don't immediately shoot
>>44760043
>[ ] Search for Mikhail.
>>44760349
>>44760711
>Writing
For practicality's sake, you bend over to pick the dead crewman's left over ammunition and rifle. Time seems to be ticking with this upset, and Mikhail is nowhere to be seen. It looks like the dead can wait for now, so you cover the corpse with a small tarp sheet.
You examine the area. Mackey, the fire team captain, fiddles around the air vents. These seem undisturbed, much less pried open somehow. "It's not like you can stick a whole person or a space suit through the vents like that," Mackey says, looking at how narrow the opening is, and how the tubing construction is done.
"Even back on Earth, someone would've been easily stuck or fallen through with his bulk," he says.
"Let's check the nooks and crannies for anything hiding," you say. In a tightly controlled greenhouse like this, there's no space for large open hydroponic racks, but hiding inside one of the drawers is possible. You point Shae to the first drawer, and with guns trained, slide it open.
There's nothing but junk. The same happens for the rest of the drawers.
"Do you think he's the killer?" Shae asks.
"You're gonna ask next if he's *one* of the killers?" you say.
"I'm no detective," she says. "Just guessing, and there's no one really left to ask, is there?"
You shake your head.
[ ] Mikhail's must've run back to communications.
[ ] Check the door again for clues.
[ ] No doubt about it, it's the Mess Hall
[ ] Mikhail might've escaped to one of the airlocks, let's split up and check each major airlock.
[ ] Do/Suggest some other idea/thing (This is a write-in option)
>>44761659
>[ ] Mikhail's must've run back to communications.
we can at least try to contact him if we fix comms
>>44761659
>[ ] Mikhail's must've run back to communications.
>>44761739
Hopefully
>Mikhail's must've run back to communications.
"If he's not hiding anywhere here, do you think he found another safe spot?" you ask.
"Or maybe he's still on the run," Shae says.
"Maybe he went for the airlock, or tried communications one more time?" you say.
"Communications might be worth checking out," she says.
One of the first things you remembered about Mikhail's account was that he ran back to fix the communications equipment when the base went completely awry. If you're guessing about instinct under stress, he might have tried it again, given how much in bad shape he was when you found him earlier.
As all of you exit the greenhouse, you turn around to check the door for clues. In the darkened base and with a few flashlights scouring all over it, it's hard to properly find any fine details of what's happened, and more for bigger signs of activity. As far as the condition of the door goes, it seems to just have undergone typical wear and tear --- like fine scuffs and scratches on the coated metal bits from handling it or tools bumping onto it.
[1/2]
>>44762505
[2/2]
You head further away from the main portion of the base and barrel along the length of a corridor down to where communications is. As you come closer to the wreckage, you begin to make out how the metal structure is really like, and at the same time, you feel a scratching sensation, and some sort of static noise in your head. There's certainly a banged-up, grimy surface to it, except for the points of contact where it's striking the small building. Down over there, does the impact reveal a glimmer of metal.
For a split second, the whole base lights up brightly, as if it were business as usual. But the brightness of everything around you sears to a white intensity, and then blinks back to the cold dark state, with only the light of reflected ice filling the way around. You feel that scratching sensation becomes a maddening feeling of someone staring at the back of your head.
[ ] Who's that staring behind you?
[ ] Seriously, look for Mikhail.
[ ] Get even closer to the surface of the gigantic metal structure.
[ ] Do/Suggest some other idea/thing (This is a write-in option)
>>44762534
>[ ] Who's that staring behind you?
>>44762534
>[ ] Seriously, look for Mikhail.Don't let them know we can see them
Rolled 2 (1d2)
>>44762654
>>44762824
Tie breaker. Either way it's suspenseful.
>>44762824
>>[ ] Seriously, look for Mikhail.
>>Don't let them know we can see them
LIGHTBULB EARNED
Total: 2
Good job. You can ask me later on what would happen if you spilled.
Don't look.
Don't look.
What you might see might not be worth it, you tell yourself.
You fight that terrible feeling, and focus down on what really matters - finding Mikhail.
"Couple flashlights here," you call.
The beams of light sweep all around, looking for any signs of Mikhail heading out. Your eyes wander to the biggest, intact thing around: a still intact, but barely reworked communications console. It's just like what Mikhail said. However there's still no sign of him.
"He wouldn't hide under the rubble, would he?" you say.
"And rupture a suit?" Shae adds.
An older model EVA suit would tear itself easily on a sharp object. Back in the day, that was the risk of space station astronauts on spacewalks, as they tried to manually install equipment on the outside walls. Sharp surfaces of equipment, used for other experiments and data-gathering, would dot the outside.
You look around you on what's left here. Further beyond this wreckage is the surface of Callisto. Oh, but if one were to swing around the perimeter of the base from here, they'd find themselves ending up at the doors of the vehicle bay-and-landing pad, or an airlock where the labs and robotics control would be.
"He couldn't possibly have ran out here without a space suit, right?" you ask.
"If he ran the other way, it could happen, or he hid somewhere and passed without us noticing," Shae says.
Then it was a process of elimination then, you think.
"He backtracked us?" you say.
[ ] This gigantic metal structure is really fascinating, I want a closer look.
[ ] Let's head opposite of the Mess Hall: the first residential block
[ ] Let's backtrack to our entry point and then check the Mess Hall.
[ ] Do/Suggest some other idea/thing (This is a write-in option)
>>44763867
>Try to fix comms/establish a link with the shuttle...thing.
>>44763867
>[ ] This gigantic metal structure is really fascinating, I want a closer look.
Good night folks.
>>44763899
>>44763975
I LOVE TIEBREAKERS! So suspenseful.
We haven't even fired a single shot in the entire quest, amazing.
Well, this it for tonight. We'll come back tomorrow night with the tie breaker. I'll roll for it on the spot in the next thread.
Thanks for coming!
