Robotech - Tales of the UEEF (Main)

[Sherwood]

Using your long range cameras, you can see that there is no visible damage to the outer hull of the Raven. It is just motoring along as if there is nothing wrong.

Alex pipes up, "Still no answer to my signals. We have a potential problem, though. If Raven-04 keeps its current course and speed, it will impact on a small asteroid in about thirty minutes. So we have that much time to figure out what to do before kablamo. One way or another, we have to keep that from happening."

 

[Psychie]

Scorch frowns. "Thirty minutes? We should have this resolved by then. Ok, I'm going to pull in close and see if I can spot anyone in the cockpit. Everyone else, keep your eyes open." With steady hands, she works the controls to match course and speed with the Raven. Flipping over so it is 'above' her, she creeps along to get a look inside the front windows.

 

[Sherwood]

Moving in close, things are going great - right up to the point where you have to sneeze. Fighting it seems to make the need even worse, until you can't control the urge and let fly. This makes you jerk the control stick up and the two vehicles slowly drift into each other with a loud CLANG! The good news is, before you nasal explosion, you were able to see inside the cockpit of the Raven, and it appears to be empty. More good news is that there is little damage, just some paint scrapes, and the Raven shifts in its course a slight bit, showing that it is possible to alter its trajectory by pushing on it with your Valkyries in Guardian mode and using your rear thrusters to boost and gently nudge the Raven along.

 

[Psychie]

With a muffled curse and a red face, Scorch uses her maneuvering jets to open up the space between the two aircraft slowly to keep from having another accident. "Well, if there is anyone inside that was asleep, that woke their asses up. Shit. Did you guys see what I saw? There's no one at the controls! What the hell?"

 

[Sherwood]

With a chuckle, Alex says, "Bless you! You ok there, Scorch? Doesn't look like there is any damage to either you or the Raven, so you should be ok."

 

[Orikanyo]

"Wait... No one at the controls? how in hell is that possible?" Grumpy scoffed as he put away his camera, the scene immortalized forever on the tiny screen. Now getting close and changing into battleoid mode to move the Raven out of it's collision course, the man thought about it. "Maybe we should board it..? Alex we should report what we're finding, doubt any of the pilots jumped ship, and really doubt they would be doing this for a prank.. Espeacially after the bump Scorch gave it..."

 

[Sherwood]

Alex is already busy setting up a real time feed to the MacArthur. "Got it. Everything we're doing is now being sent live back home, so watch your language. This type of ship is too small to have any escape pods, so its not possible for them to have used that to get off the ship. Besides, there would still be the twenty radar techs in the back that would still be there. I just don't understand how its possible that there is no one responding to us, especially after Scorch ringed their bell like that. We are now down to twenty seven minutes before the Raven hits the asteroid."

 

[Orikanyo]

"Well, whats our options for slowing and stopping it? Can we get inside?" the man stated as he continued to try and get his valk to push the raven out of an intercepting path. "Another question would be, is it safe to even go in?"

 

[Sherwood]

"We can nudge the Raven off of its current course with the Valkyries pushing on it. That will buy us more time. As far as getting inside, it is possible to EVA from the Valks over to the Raven. Whoever does that can then open the hatch and get inside. The CVR-3 suits are all fully sealed, so if there is anything hazardous inside, the armor should protect whomever that goes over."

 

[Psychie]

Scorch gently positions her Valkyrie next to Grumpy's fighter so that the two of them can use their boosters to move the Raven off its current course. "Well, I'm in position to push this thing off its current course. A coordinated effort from the two of us should be able to do the job. One of us can then transit over and get inside."

 

[Sherwood]

It takes a minute for Scorch to get into position (without running into the side of the Raven again) and place your mecha's hands on the hull.

Orikanyo and Psychie please give me Pilot Veritech rolls to be able to coordinate your push.

 

[Psychie]

"Ready? On the count of three! One, two, three!" With that, Scorch begins to apply thrust from her boosters to move the big spaceship.

 

[Orikanyo]

Grumpy gives Scorch some space and readies to apply his thrusters. "Hold on alex."

 

[Sherwood]

By working together, the two Veritechs slowly ramp up the thrust on the side of the Raven. With Alex keeping track of the course, he finally says, "Ok, we are now clear of the asteroid. You can cut your thrust now. We now have hours to be able to figure out what to do about our runaway. Good job, you two. Now, we just need to figure out how to get inside and see what happened. Any volunteers?"

 

[Psychie]

Amanda looks over at Grumpy. "Either one of us could do it. We're both trained in how to fly a spaceship of this size. Want to rock paper scissors for it?"

 

[Orikanyo]

"Well I gotta pilot this thing for Alex. Not sure if useing mecha for rock paper scissors is exactly kosher in command's eyes either." Grumpy only imagined what they were thinking right now hearing that, maybe they wanted to see it.

It was sometimes easy to forget the valk wasn't their own body.

 

[Psychie]

Scorch nods. "No problem. You guys watch my back, and I'll EVA out there to try and get inside. I'll make sure my helmet camera is sending a good video feed so you can see what I see." Making sure that her Valk is securely locked into place with a good grip on the Raven, she quickly double checks her suit seal before opening up the cockpit. "All set, I'm exiting now."

Going slowly to make sure she has a good grip on whatever handholds she can find, Scorch works her way to the main hatch.

OOC If the veritech has a rope in its survival pack, I'll use that to tie myself off. Also, is the hatch into the Raven a airlock?

 

[Sherwood]

Smart move. Yes, there is a rope in your safety gear that you can pull out and use. Also, the Raven does have a small airlock that you can open up without venting the interior to vacuum.

Please give me a percentile roll.

 

[Psychie]

Percentile roll coming up.

 

[Sherwood]

Using a slow hand over hand method, Scorch is able to get to a small airlock on what would be the cargo deck, but on this model of shuttle, its bay is filled with electronics and work stations for the radar operators. Over the radio, Alex gives you the codes to open the outer door. Once you are inside, obviously you won't need the rope to keep from flying off into space any more.

Cycling the airlock takes only a few seconds, and you are now inside the electronics bay. Artificial gravity is working in here, so you are not floating about the room. Creeping out into the main hall, you can see that power is on in here, and the room is well lit. Down the length of the bay you can see the various work stations with their displays still active and working, and at the far end there is a stair leading up to the flight deck where the cockpit is. What you don't see is the crew of twenty operators that should be sitting there, running the equipment! Just like inside the cockpit, this place is empty.

What do you do now?

 

[Psychie]

She stands still for a moment, taking in the entire room and letting her helmet camera pan about. "Is everyone seeing this? The lower electronics bay is devoid of life. I say again, no one is in here. No blood, no bodies, nothing. So far, the ship is pressurized and has gravity, but I am not going to crack my helmet to take a sniff of the air. I am going to make my way to the cockpit to bring this ship under control once more. Standby."

 

[Sherwood]

There is little difficulty in moving through the ship to the front ladder, and as you go, you can see the displays of the various terminals are still on and appear to be working normally. No alarms are going off, and you can even see the occasional cup of coffee on the counter, sitting there half drunk. Everything here seems to be business as usual.

Going up the stairs to the flight deck shows you more of what you have already discovered: nothing. No blood, no signs of struggle, no bodies. There is a small bunk area for the flight crew to be able to rotate through for long term flights that is empty. Farther forward is the three seat cockpit. All the displays are on here, too, and a quick scan of the controls shows no alarms going off, no red lights, nothing at all out of place.

One thing you do notice is that the Flight Data Recorder is still on and running, so there should be a record of whatever happened here. All you have to do now is get it back to the rest of the fleet.

 

[Psychie]

Amanda slips into the pilot seat. "Ok, guys. I'm in the cockpit, and I am starting to run a quick test run of the controls before trying to maneuver. If there is no systems out of whack, I'll make a slow course change to bring the Raven back to the fleet."

 

[Sherwood]

There is no mechanical problem that you can detect, so you begin to apply thrust to turn the Raven around. It is a little sluggish on the controls since there is a Valkyrie still grabbing ahold of the port side of the ship. Other than that, you are able to make the needed course correction to get you back home with no difficulties.

Now that you have a second to lean back and take in the readouts of the cockpit around you, you can hear the radio operators from the MacArthur still calling, trying to get ahold of someone inside the ship.

 

[Kwops]

Juryrig pokes his head out from behind a console he'd been working at and says "Hey Scorch, we really ought to radio back to the MacArthur soon. They're probably looking for both us and the Raven."

Spoiler: OOC

Surprise, I was here the whole time! You thought it was console, but it was me - Juryrig!