Dumb
Captain "Shields seem to be holding, make sure they don't crack, re-divert any power if necessary, keep thrusters and weapons up, hopefully pressures will remain the same. Are they any updates on incoming messages or further anomalies around the target system?"
Science Officer "Power from non-essentials have been re-directed to shields, all equipment still running, no further anomalies have been detected. Drone seems to be holding fine."
The ships continue their course further in, ships have re-directed spare power not being needed to shields not taking from reserves, the Research ship does have on board Anti-grav gens like the drone however has not power them up yet.
The colors out of space (multi-faction-ish exploration event?)
??? if >=960, ??? if >720, ??? if <240
1d1200=545
The buffer between the drone and the fleet slowly reduce due to the presence of the shield, but aside from that, nothing much remarkable...
Except, as they continue to venture forward, a school of fish-alike creatures briefly caught on the visual sensors, before disappearing. Perhaps, there are already creatures adapted to such a bizarre environment within such a short time?
Dumb
Science Officer "Were those...... fish..... someone get a camera on them and see where there going."
Captain "Turn off all exterior lights and make sure all windows are covered, if there are lifeforms out there it would be in our best interests to see them before they see us"
the ships venture further in, keeping an eye on thermal sensors to see if any other life forms decide to approach them
??? if >=860, ??? if >620, ??? if <240
1d1100=102
You have found [???]!
The outside scenery remains the same dormant darkness once the lights are shut off, giving an oddly timeless feel if one isn't looking at the clock. But soon enough, an object is picked up on the displacement sonar, an object which doesn't seem to be moving, or perhaps, judging from its sheer size, isn't capable of moving. Anyhow, the object is just beyond the visual range, and with other detection methods remaining useless, it would be wise for some pre-emptive planning
- Edited
Dumb
Captain "Hold positions, we have located a ship"
Science Officer "I suddenly don't like the feeling of this. should we try and communicate with it?"
Captain "Well either there friends, hostile, or the ship was abandoned, and seeing how this place is supposed to be a huge debris field according to open records ill put my credits on being debris. I think we should prepare a team to see if they can shuttle over, while we approach and get a visual on the ship, maybe we can find something useful out of it, hell maybe find out some information about what's going on."
Science Officer "And if there not friendly and open fire on us?"
Captain "Then there stuck here, if they fire on us we leave them for dead, simple as, if anyone on board needs help we will have a discussion on board to see what kind of assistance we can give up."
Science Officer "Very well, I wish to send one of my men over to get a closer look at everything"
Aboard one of the Destroyers a team is prepared, as they slowly approach they try to get any other readings that they can get before the ship comes into visual range. The lead Frigate sends a message
Incoming Transmission
This is Captain Abvi son of the Senla, Is anyone there? We heard news of this anomaly and ships going missing, we are here to help.
Transmission Ended
Encounter rolls halted
Soon enough, a gigantic metallic mass can be spotted, for some reason it is painted in the color black, but can be quite easily spotted due to the slight difference in terms of darkness of the surroundings. A moment of silence follows the transmission, long enough for the crew to start wondering if there really is no one in that object, then, a soft light appears on the center of the target pointing towards the direction of the fleet, and begin blinking.
... .... .... .... --..-- / - .... . -.-- / .- .-. . / --- ..- - / - .... . .-. . --..-- / .--. .-. . -.-- .. -. --. / --- -. / - .... --- ... . / .-- .... --- / . -..- .--. --- ... . / - .... . -- ... . .-.. ...- . ... .-.-.- / -.-. --- -- . / .- -... --- .- .-. -.. --..-- / .-- . / .-- .. .-.. .-.. / ... .... .- .-. . / -- --- .-. . / -.. . - .- .. .-.. / --- ..-. / .-- .... .- - / .-- . / . -..- .--. . .-. .. . -. -.-. . -..
After three repeating routines, the blinking stops, and the light disappeared, leaving the floating structure as lifeless as it was before.
Dumb
Captain "they are allowing us to board and may be friendly we are sending the team over as soon as we get a response. They also say there's something out there and can hear us, clear coms and communicate via lights as standard issue from now on, just be very careful with it."
The ships go quiet and use a series of coloured flashings lights to communicate to one another.
..- -. -.. . .-. ... - --- --- -.. .-.-.- / .-- . / .-- .. .-.. .-.. / ... . -. -.. / .- / ... -- .- .-.. .-.. / - . .- -- / --- ...- . .-. .-.-.- / .-- .... . .-. . / .-- --- ..- .-.. -.. / -.-- --- ..- / .-.. .. -.- . / - .... . -- / - --- / . -. - . .-. ..--..
- Edited
Jared
Another moment of silence, and a small, lit-up entrance opens up on the lower portion of the structure, leading to a hanger composed of assorted scrap pieces, large enough to house a small transport inside. Aside from that, there doesn't seem to be other lights, be it blinking or not
- Edited
Jared
The hanger door closed behind them, and slowly, the surroundings seem to slowly get increasingly brighter, as if a dark filter getting removed...or perhaps more suitably, "drained". Some residual can be spotted on the bottom surface for a brief second, looking like droplets of mass before disappearing into some crevices which probably is the drainage system.
Suddenly, a booming voice filled the space, even audible from inside the space shuttle, coming from a rather bad quality mic it seems judging from the raspiness of the sound.
"Heyo, welcome to the Sanctuary...at least that's what we call ourselves...what are you, and where do you come from?"
"What are you"...such a weird question to be asking a complete stranger...but perhaps it is related to what they had experienced so far?
Dumb
The hatch under the shuttle drops down and walks out two humanoid figures in what seems to be basic military uniforms walk out both carrying a rife of sorts, one takes off his helmet
Solder 1 "Hello, I am Sargent Dimitri Davinichsky A Citizen of the Terran Citizens Union, we received news of strange disappearances in this area and were sent to investigate. Do you have any information you can give us so we can better understand where we are and what happened?"
The second figure, standing quite a bit taller is looking around, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious, on its shoulders what looks like a small robotic arm with some sort of camera also scans the room their in
- Edited
Jared
Although the interiors look pretty organized and standard for a normal hanger, they are composed mostly just components on standard spaceship hulls, but also with a percentage of some unknown matters... they all plastered together in an unorganized fashion and forming walls and floors, almost as if it is made with haste and gets reinforced over time.
The booming voice, waited a bit after the response, finally start voicing up again.
"Well...humanoids eh?...and you didn't flop around even after draining those DSF...alright then, guess you really ain't those things. Welcome abroad-"
Linked with a pair of ladders on the two sides, a feminine figure appears on the platform overhead, looking down on the bunch.
"We shall have a chat over in the conference room, follow me."
Encounter rolls shall start if continue to advance
Regardless of how streamlined the ship is, as soon as the cruiser entered the perimeter, speed is immediately locked onto 1/4 of its original output, and while the pings still can reach its standard range, the speed of receiving each ping has drastically decreased compared to previous results. Nonetheless, with most other detection methods failing to even be useful, ping echoing would have to do for now.
Dumb
6 more men, 5 of them seem to be solders like the first two, but one is holstering a smaller weapon and is carrying a large back pack, like with the test figure, it tool is tall, and also has a robotic arm mounded on its shoulder.
Sargent "Very well, I hope you don't mind some extra company."
The 8 fallow the lady.
Jared
"My name is Xar, the XO of this vess...station."
Noticing the group has made their way up to the platform and following her, She turns around and went through the door, speaking while walking along the corridor.
"This "Sancturary" was a former battleship, a fully capable vessel that went through countless hardships."
Tuffs of white hair danced in the air as she walks, and her facial appearance was weathered by sheer time and challenges. Her left eye remains closed, and a massive scar streaked vertically perpendicular to the eyebrows and the closed eyelids, but her remaining right eye still gleams with such energy it almost doesn't fit the individual at all.
"But for some unknown reasons, during our last refueling over in Parendam Beta, something went wrong..."
After walking for quite some time, she stops in front of a door, pulling out her id card and revealing a lounge of sorts, bookcases filled with books settled on the two sides, and a set of sofas and table in the middle, and on the far end, a small open kitchen.
"Make yourselves comfortable, anything that you guys may want to drink?"
Dumb
The group fallows Xar into the room, The solders stay to the side of the room, looking at a few of the book's however not touching them.
Dimitri "I'll take some whisky on the rocks will be fine for me. Men if you want anything speak now"
The other solders decline the generous offer, however one of the Taller figures steps up beside the Sargent and takes off his helmet as well, he is visibly a different species then the Human Sargent
Scientist "I'm fine, thank you for the offer. I am Ra sister of Senla, I was sent over to figure out what is going on here, mind telling us more about whatever you know? Only thing we have been able to uncover so far is we are in what can best be described is a ocean, and there are.... living creatures?"
Dimitri "And who is "they" that you spoke of earlier? should we prepare our weapons? and what are the best methods to avoid "them"?"
Jared
Xar remains silent, possibly pondering to answer which question first, while her hands work out the magic, elegantly pulling out an ice cube and start polishing it into a small ball, perfectly fit into a whisky tumbler before pouring whisky into it. She also decides to make a small cocktail for herself, before returning to the table and gently slides the tumbler over to Dimitri.
"Well...to start it off, everything started back in Parendam Beta, but...we ain't sure what exactly happened, as far as we know, the space just begin to get filled up in these liquid-isk phenomena, which we nicknamed as Deep-Space-Fluid, as in its similar attribution with the deep sea fluid used commonly in early FTL travels."
She takes a small sip of her drink before continuing.
"These DSF isn't exactly a matter, as not even one particle can be spotted even under microscope, but it certainly behaves like non-newtonian fluids."
She leans back with the cup in her hands.
"As for living creatures, there was indeed something which we had met before, they are mostly just big white blobs charging at everything they see, and for some reason, their simple charging can even put a big dent on a fortified station. But recently there are rumors from my crew that there are..."more advanced" individuals, though I don't exactly know what they mean by that, you can ask them when they return if you want."
"As for weapons and ways to avoid them, usually, it would be them who detects us before we do...assuming you are using some sort of displacement sonar., weapon-wise, we had tried beams and conventional kinetic weaponry, which all failed miserably. Energy-based ones usually just disperse to nothingness within a few meters, and shells just lose too much speed while traveling through the DSF, even through magnetic launchers and such. Fortunately, rockets and missiles seem to still work, albeit their speed is way slower than what they are meant for, but one gotta rely on whatever still works in order to survive."
Dumb
Ra "Interesting, by any chance do you have more information on this early way of FTL travel? and would some of the ships in this system use it?"
Dimitri takes a sip from his drink before speaking
Dimitri "And do you by chance have the Coordinates to Parendam Beta, would be best to know for sure where it is"
Jared
"Huh..."
Xar looked bewilderingly at Ra the scientist, but recovered almost immediately with another sip of her cocktail.
"well...during. early FTL, inertia dampeners haven't been developed yet, so in order to counter that inertia and avoid turning all crew into meat patties, a fluid called Deep Sea Fluid would fill up the cabins and the bridge before an FTL jump to help cushion the crew."
"And yes, some of us were using such methods as well, but not on this one at least."
"As for the coordinates...doubt that even works under such conditions, but sure I guess."
"Let's head to the bridge after this to get that, anything else you want to know?"