Location: The Relentless
Planet: None-Space
Tendrils of energy pulsated out to grab hold of the local gravity feels, like static electricity sparking against the stars. Building rapidly until azure tendrils gripped the reality of space and propelled the ship forward, pushed along but the e-drive. The Needle and the broken planet, Vestige, disappeared behind them.
(Undertake an Expedition <strong hit>)
After many hours of travel, Kieran shuts down the e-drive to recharge it. The ship gradually slows down, tendrils of energy dissipating into whisps. The Relentless finds anchorage in the lee of a large asteroid poised outside of brilliant nebula.
Through the glass of the ships' bridge, the heavens are lit with gold, blue and red bursts of energy from the nebula. The dense cloud of gas stretches out as far as the eye can see.
"Woah," Laris says, peering out of the cockpit. "It's amazing."
"Sure is," Mae pipes in. "Don't see them quite this colorful that often." She stands up and leans forward over one of the seats and looks out the window along side Laris.
The crew of the Relentless spends several hours recharging the e-drive, Laris overcome with wonder at the spectacle. Mae and Kieran spend some time readying the ship, cleaning up, and taking turns making meals as the engine recharges.
The next morning, ship time, the re-engage the eidolon drive and the ship speeds off, leaving the nebula behind.
(Undertake an Expedition <strong hit>)
The day passes quickly, each taking turns piloting the ship and overseeing the consoles and read-outs. They power down the e-drive again, letting it recharge. Space is big, and empty, and the crew find themselves out in the black.
After breakfast the next morning, the e-drive is fully charged and Kieran let's Laris pilot the ship again. The e-drive fires up and off they go, hoping that the gravity currents lead them to Enigma station.
(Undertake an Expedition <strong hit>)
Another uneventful day, charting the gravity waves as they journey towards enigma. Laris has the hang of the cockpit and navigational systems now. Kieran finds he barely has to instruct her. As the ship settles into another quiet anchorage, deep in the darkness of space, Mae spends her time studying biology texts. Kieran sits in the armory and cleans his weapons meticulously.
(Undertake an Expedition <strong hit>)
(Explore a Waypoint <weak hit>) (Peril: Infestation is revealed)
The Relentless finds anchorage in a densely packed asteroid belt, asteroids many kilometers in size, gravitationally bound.
Kieran brings the ship in between the asteroids, seeking a place to anchor the ship while the e-drive recharges. It will be several hours until it is ready to go again.
Caution and warning lights begin to blink and flash. "LADAR is picking something up other than these rocks," Kieran waves Mae to her seat.
Mae turns on the remaining ships sensors, trying to identify the LADAR contacts. Laris grabs a chair and buckles her safety hardness closed.
"Whatever it is, it's getting closer." Mae peers into her sensor readings, parsing the results.
"Uhhh what's that?" Kieran points out the bridge window.
Around the curve of the asteroid, large winged shapes come into view. Not one, not too, but many. Drifting together, large ephemeral wings sprouting from bodies the size of spaceships. The shapes drift and float around each other as they approach a neighboring asteroid.
As they approach, there appears to be about a dozen of the creatures. A few spread out above, below, and to the side of the main body.
"That looks like hunting behavior," Mae says. "See how they keep their main force in the middle, but they send out others to their flanks. This lets them attack from many directions and not just one."
Laris' voice cracks a bit, either from fear or from excitement, "C-c-can they see us?"
"They look like they are flying away." Kieran points at the LADAR readout. "But they look like they ARE hunting something. Maybe us."
"That's what I said," Mae laughs sardonically. Outside the bridge glass, the large, winged creatures swarmed the asteroid from different directions.
Kieran fired up the engines and the Relentless jolted away quickly, curving around their own asteroid to break line of site with the creatures. "Time to go!"
(Face Danger <strong hit>)
The winged creatures swarmed behind them, speeding across the gaps between asteroids with amazing speed. The LADAR sweeps showed them quickly converge on the Relentless. Then the spacing between them and the ship increased until the Relentless gained enough speed and bolted out of the asteroid field.
"Amazing," Mae said. "I'm glad I collected some data about those creatures. They show a high level of intelligence, and I wonder if their wings are actually some type of propulsion or maybe they are for energy collection?" Her eyes glazed over as she continued to read the sensor data.
The ship drifted for several hours while the e-drive recharged.
Once recharged, the e-drive hummed as Kieran lit the engines and ephemeral tendrils reached out from the ship. Waves of energy collided and the Relentless sped off.
The Relentless dropped speed toward their next anchorage, time distorting around them as they decreased velocity. As they slowed, wreckage appeared around them from some type of calamity. Kieran reversed thrust, flipping the ship around, trying to reduce speed even faster as they flew into a field of wreckage.
Too late to stop, the Relentless hits several pieces of wreckage, damaging their engines and venting the cargo hold. The crew and living areas are unaffected, but the crew spend a few hours trying to patch holes while the e-drive recharges.
The next day, they all cross their fingers as they fire up the e-drive.
Kieran, Mae and Laris are all on the bridge when the ship idles down the e-drive. All three securely belted into their seats. The radio system lights up as the ease back into normal space.
Kieran flips a switch and routes the audio through the ships speakers so that everyone can hear it.
"This is Enigma Station. Guidance signal is 1233.33 for landing. LADAR is required for approach." The automated robotic voice begins to repeat the short message.
Mae punches the guidance frequency into the navigation computer. "Friendly. Welcoming. Can't wait."
Kieran pilots the ship towards the landing signal, LADAR illuminating a large asteroid, devoid of surface lights. The bright flood lights of the Relentless bounce off metal structures dotting the surface of the asteroid.
The guidance signal leads them to a large hangar door built into the side of the asteroid. As they approach, the doors slowly slide open, a gaping maw into the interior of the asteroid.
It takes several moments for the doors to open. Kieran guides the ship in, following the dim lights that illuminate a landing bay.
"Be prepared. We need to repair the ship, if we can, and rest up. These guys may know where Jors is, or maybe not. But I don't like the look of this place."
The ship settles down into the landing bay. A small airlock door juts out of the stone of the asteroid. The metal landing pad is scorched, scored and dented from heavy usage.