Aboard the Boxing Kangaroo
Lieutenant
Brickley was in a conundrum regarding what was going on aboard the Burwell.
He wanted, like every officer, to take control of the situation on the
ship, but realized it was not an option. Like every Jump-capable captain, he
was a prisoner of his own status. Thinking back to his tour on the Mortal
Quench-Fire, he realized how his captain then had been constrained by
limitations on his role. Realizing how he wasn’t alone, he started drafting a
message for the planetary governor. He needed the doctor from the garrison. The
other thought was to tell Brand to leave the bodies in the freezer. The horror
had to stay.
Search One: Hassan, Hall, Appledorn, and Hoedmaker
Sub-Lieutenant
Hassan understood the fracas going on with the other team couldn’t bother his.
They had to keep pressing on. They came to the next stateroom after the
library, empty, but with cloth stripped. The marked it with “DS”. The next one,
though, was different. As he opened the door, and looked into the darnkess, he
noted the bunk was torn from the bulkheads, and material thrown around.
Reaching for the light switch, he looks up and sees the lights are broken. “This
won’t work.” Stepping in, he moves around the barricade, where the mattress
covers a hole in the deck.
Marine Appledorn has joined him in
the room, and asks, “Sir, do you want me to take a look down there?”
“No, we’ll just leave it. We need
to get to engineering.”
“Aye-aye,” as they leave and head
for the next staterooms, marking the one the left with tape and “DD”. The next
is surprisingly normal and untouched, the apparent harmony at odds with the
rest of the ship, earning it a “DS” marking. The following is dark and empty,
earning it a “DS” as well. The next, Hassan and Hall open, with the Marines on
each side of the door.
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| Red lights are a tradition when examining darkened areas |
As the door opens, the stench comes
out, and the hand reaching for the lights find they don’t come on. Two red flashlights move across the floor, but quickly reach the center, where they
both see the source of the smell. A male human, missing his left leg.
Obviously, he’s been dead for a few days. In shock, they leave, and mark the
room “CR”. In the passage, Hassan looks Hall over, noting how she’s still
shaking. “That’s the shit we see on these. My first tour, I saw an old spacer loose
his lunch when I was on a cruiser out of Savisz. Some jumpnutter was wrecking
through a Sub Liner. The crew had managed to contain him when he went crazy
during jump, but he’d cut a family open before they’d subdued and froze him.
We’ll get through this,” turning to the Marines, they button hook to the next
stateroom, which has working lights, but stripped sheets. Finally, they reach
the auxiliary control station off engineering. The Marines take up position at
each iris valve to the small compartment, as Hassan sits down to examine the
computer. Working through, the controls, he notes the ship is in a
geostationary orbit, and will not require a change in the forseeable future,
and the drives are in good shape. There is mention of an explosion in a lab,
and how it was sending chemical fumes through out the ship at the end of the
logs. He resolves to sit down and examine them more in depth.
Search Two: Brand, Castillo, Fini, Binici
Once the
survivor had been carried away, the examined the dark smashed up stateroom, and
pick through the pile of filthy blankets and mattresses, ensuring nothing is
there. They mark the compartment “DS”, and move on. The next stateroom, is
dark, and apparently wrecked as Brand and Castillo look through it. Strangely,
the mattress is missing form the bunk, despite the stateroom showing “Stavro,
P.” next to the door. Dismissing it, they note it as “DS” and move on. The
corridor, though, Brand notices there’s a trail that’s led from the iris valve
to the second stateroom in. It’s spotted, and red-brown.
“Blood.
We’ve got more traces of some foul play here. We definitely need a criminal
investigator here,” she coolly reports back to the ship. Following it in the
stateroom, there’s the remnants of two brown bottles on the deck in the center
of the stateroom. Castillo, looking at them, saw the parts of a label holding
some pieces together.
“Terran Gentleman? What’s that?” he earnestly asks.
“Cheap
whiskey. When I was your age, I tried some, but I was miserable. Come on, we’ve
got more to get through. I’d guess that someone got drunk and did something
here, but we don’t know. Mark it as “DS”, and let’s keep going.” Brand replied,
trying to keep them going.
“Wait, you
partied?” was his youthful reply, astounded to hear that his LPO didn’t have
the quasi monastic existence he’d expected.
“When we
get to Fenris, go to a barracks party, now that you’re less of a boot,” she
explained, as the moved out into the passage, marked the room, and moved to the
next. Locked, they tried to open it, with some of the small tools in the kit.
The simple lock popped open to reveal a neat and undisturbed stateroom. They
marked it, and moved on. The final stateroom before the bridge was a mess, but
showed no sign of any bodies.
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Brand examining the computer
|
Entering
the bridge, Binici ran to cover the far entrance from the corridor, while Fini
stayed to
ensure nobody could sneak up on them. Brand sat down in the left-hand
couch, while Castillo moved to sit in the right. She shook her head at him, and
he paused, then moved to the ensure she wouldn’t be surprised. She opens the
memory for the logs, and starts examining them. There are regular transmissions
to the lab down on Loki, but a second set of those same reports going to an
anonymized out of the system account every week. The final item of interest in
her search was the visitor logs. There are several mercenary officers, some
from major units like the New Bavarian Freikorps. “Mercenaries on a lab ship,”
she asks aloud, before copying the information to take with. “Let’s get going here.”,
as they head to the drive pod, and she notifies the rest.
Search One: Hassan, Hall, Appledorn, and Hoedmaker
After getting
the message the other team had secured the bridge, they move into the drive
pod. The iris valve opens, showing a darkened pod, Marine Appledorn flips on
the lighting switch next to it as he leads them in. The party walks around, and
examines the space, not seeing much. Examining the overhead hatch nearest the
door, Hall starts undogging the hatch and moves slowly up there. The oversized
battledress is not what they need in this case, with Hassan following her.
Entering
the darkened, confined space, they can’t see much, even with flashlights. “Red
filter,” he orders. Passing over the filth, they come to a man lying in the far
corner on a pile of mattresses, with blankets poorly pulled over him.
After his push, she goes over to
the man, and says, “Sir, sir! We’re from the Navy and here to help!” while
tapping on a shoulder. He awakens with a startled expression.
“What? Huh? What about the rest of
them!”
“The others? How many other
survivors are there?” Hassan answers, taking control of the situation.
“Four, wait three others. There
were four of us who survived the explosion,” came the survivor’s response. “We
were running low on food, but then, the secondary lab had an explosion.”
“And what about them? The one our
comrades met turned out to be feral, and tougher than expected.”
“Something happened to all of them,
I don’t know, but they’re all dangerous cannibals!”
“Wait, did you say cannibals? What
have you been living off of?”
“Me, I’ve been eating what remains
of our supplies. Got a bite?”
Hassan opens a sealed pouch on his
vacc suit, and withdraws a survival bar, and gives it to the man. “Your name?
We’ll get you back to safety shortly.”
The man takes a very hungry bite,
and says, “Pent Stavro, drive hand. They wouldn’t get me in here,” and he gets
out of the den he built, and stretches some.
“Come with us, and we’ll get you
back.” Hassan replies.
“They’ll get me if I leave, I’m not
going anywhere” Pent asks, surly and uncooperative.
“I’ve got two Marines in battle
dress. You can come on your own two legs, or else. We’re taking you back one
way or another.” Pointing at the open hatch, “You have your choice,” as he
reached for his snub pistol.
“Fine, but turn down the lights!”
Stavro shouts, stepping over the filth on the deck, and going down the Marines
below, with Hassan refastening his holster. Hall goes down immediately
following Stavro. Hassan waits, and calls ahead. “All units, Search One. Have
one survivor. Give them food, avoid lights, and do not trust them. They’re
deranged. We’re returning to the Joey right now. Joey, do you copy?”
“We copy one survivor, do not
trust,” came Sergeant Valdez’s response. The awkward five go through the drive
pod, and into the corridor, where Valdez and Franke were there to meet them.
Seeing more Marines in battle dress, Stavro starts shuffling on his feet some.
Grabbing the man abruptly, Valdez, Appledorn, and Hoedmaker force him down,
cuff him, and then inject a sedative.
“The other one’s in Yap’s
supervision, sir,” explained Valdez as he hefted the unconscious man, and
started taking him back to the lift in a fireman’s carry. “Anything else?”
“Keep them separate and strapped
down. This is an investigation; we don’t want it ruined,” Hassan replied, in
the manner that suggested an order.
“Aye-aye,” as the groups moved
apart, with Search One heading for where they left.
Search Two: Brand, Castillo, Fini, Binici
Leaving the
bridge, they check the empty turret control station. Seeing nothing, they enter
the drive pod. Looking through, there’s nothing but a thin coat of dust,
something Brand is slightly disgusted with. The quick search shows nothing, and
they leave, taping both compartments as “DS”.
The Marines
take up position around the iris valve to the air/raft hangar. Castillo opens
it, and goes in, finding it dark, he and Brand turn on their helmet lights.
Seeing the smashed lights, but a well stowed air/raft, they head back out into
the corridor, leaving their tape mark on the iris valve. They move into the
cargo bay.
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The cargo bay
|
Fini runs
ahead to the iris valve at the far end to stay in overwatch position, with the
other three fanning out into the area. It’s a fairly standard storage area
aboard ship, dimly lit with a few crates, mostly for scientific instruments. At
the end farthest from the air/raft bay, Castillo finds something different.
“MM1! I’ve
got something here!” he shouts out, “Can you can Binici take a look, it’s
interesting.” He stands next to a different crate. This one was marked for live
specimens, and there are some smaller cages nearby. “Blood trail as well,” he
points out as they get to him. “Looks like they were testing stuff on some
critters.”
“Good work,
Castillo,” Brand notes, as she takes down some quick notes on what happened.
“Nobody else found, but it looks like there’s something up here. Poke around a
little more to make sure nobody else is hiding.”
As they
examine the space, they find the door at one end can be opened to allow cargo
to be brought in from the air/raft, but don’t open it. Most of the containers
are empty, just retained for future cargo. As they went through, Brand’s radio
chirped, receiving Hassan’s message, and called her team together.
“Right,
we’re going through the next space, and there’s still more people unaccounted
for. Fini, you take point, then me, Castillo and Binici, bring up the rear. Red
lights, if in there the lights are out. Got it?” she laid out the plan for
searching the next compartment.
“Aye-aye,”
the trio responded in unison. They got into position around the iris valve. It
hissed open, and they could not see in the inky blackness. Their flashlights
turned on, red light, revealing two aisles of lab tables. The quartet moved
into the lab.
Search One: Hassan, Hall, Appledorn, and Hoedmaker
As they
reached drive pod they’d previously inspected, the crew briefly checks on the hardpoint.
Empty, they pass on. Opening the iris valve, they look into the empty air/raft
bay. Dark, empty, and featuring no way to turn on the light, like the
proceeding space, they mark it “DS”. They move into the secondary laboratory.
Smashed lights, and an area wrecked, it looks like an explosion went off in
there, as well as they can in the red light. Looking to the left as they enter,
Hassan looks and sees a familiar looking heap of waste in front of a stack of
lab tables and benches. “Let’s take a look,” he says.
They move
over, and see a person coming out from the stack. Quickly, four red flashlights
illuminate the survivor. “HANDS UP!” comes Appledorn’s voice as he takes out
his gauss rifle, and levels it at the unknown person.
In a state
of shock, the survivor slowly complies, right arm coming up to clean the mouth.
Hoedmaker and Hall hustle over to secure the prisoner. Disdaining the time for
interrogation, they start the frog march back to the main spoke. “Joey, Search
One, we’ve got another,” Hassan calls.
“Search
One, Joey copies,” Valdez replies. “We’ll sedate this one as well.” The two
groups meet in the middle of near the open iris valve sectioning off parts of
the lab ship. The sedated survivor gets taken to the boat, until they hear a message
from Search Two. Valdez takes off at a run to the main lab with Franke in tow,
with Search One taking the survivor back to the boat.
Search Two: Brand, Castillo, Fini, Binici
Entering
the darkened lab, they see nothing of importance as they enter, moving slowly
up the aisle. Sensing an opportunity, Binici moves to the right 10m up the lab,
and starts looking along the other aisle. Walking through, they come to a
computer terminal, still on, with flickering lights. There is a sequence of
numbers flashing by, 1103, 1101, 1077, 1079, and 1067, with no apparent
meaning. Brand stops the numbers, and sees what they are. Her face lit up by
the screen, she scrolls through, and see what happened.
“Combat
drugs, that makes sense.” She pulls out a hand computer, and starts downloading
the information. Then they notice something.
Coming out
of the corner by where they entered, but missed, is a man, running at them.
Taking them by surprise he clumsily jumps on Castillo, who manages to escape.
Fini turns, and moves to hit him with her cutlass. Castillo, avoiding the attack,
moves out to dodge the attacker. Brand, taking a second to collect herself,
wheels around and takes a punch and the crazed survivor, dropping him to the
ground. As he falls, Binici shoots the man with his gauss rifle.
Gasping,
she keys her radio, “All stations, Search Two. We were attacked in the main lab
by a survivor. He’s down, and we need help. Over.”
“Search Two,
this is Valdez, Franke and I are on the way. Can you do first aid? Over”
“Search
Two, this is Kangaroo, are any of our people injured? Over.”
“Valdez,
Search Two, yes, I can. Over. Kangaroo, Search Two, wait one.” Brand looks at
her team, “You all right?” The trio responds positively.
“Kangaroo,
Search Two, we have no injuries. Out.” She states, and starts performing first
aid on the injured man. Not knowing exactly how, but she makes it work enough
that by the time Valdez and Franke arrive, they manage to get him patched up enough
not to die.
