Chapter 14: Phaon

Solo sat up in his bunk and when Antheus appeared to be looking away, he casually undid some of the straps holding his body down, covering his body with the blanket when Antheus came by. Though the task was slow, since Solo had to work with his left arm, it was made much easier when Antheus left the room altogether, his audible prayers to the Emperor emanating from the annex. Solo, keeping his mind focused on blind rage in case the acolyte was a mind reader, sat up. He was dizzy, and he realized then, that he was not altogether well. Lurching over to the table, he grabbed an officer's baton that he found on the table and swayed over to the entrance of the other room.
Antheus knelt on a cushion while a holographic image of the Divine droned out the Khoravic Mantras. Antheus' own voice repeated the mantras, adding or interjecting ritual responses when needed. Though Solo understood most of what was being said, there were still some phrases that he could not make out.
Trying to be as quiet as possible, Solo crept up to Antheus, making hardly any sound in his bare feet and held the baton up high. Focusing all his strength and anger, Solo clubbed Antheus' head and continued to beat down savagely. (Solo does a 57/EK attack). The was a soft muted sound like a ripping melon rind as Antheus' skull caved in, splattering Solo with greenish grey brain matter. Just like that, Antheus lay dead below Solo, the elder acolytes blood washing over Solo's bare feet, feeling warm like life. The holographic Emperor droned on, oblivious to the crime. Strangely, it was the first time Solo could remember ever killing someone with his bare hands. There were dreams he had, but if they were ever real, the killing in them seemed distant, more abstract and no more savage than the pushing of a button or the pulling of the lever. But this time, he had known the dead man's name, had eaten his food and had been cared by him, for whatever reason. There was a taste in his mouth that he didn't care for. Looking around, he spied some water and drank it down. Still, the taste wouldn't go away.

Thorn stayed at camp, guarding against any intrusion. Her nerves were getting the best of her. She wished that she had gone with Tessa, Joe and Bug, rather than staying alone. Dreading the opening of the automatic door to the stateroom they had claimed, she trained her rifle on it, hoping that she could control herself from firing should it turn out to be friendlies.
Listening on her com unit, she heard nothing but background static, probably from the leaking conduits and structural interference. Neither Raymont, Leon , or even the voice claiming to be Solo came back online. She was alone, and that was what she feared the most.
Tessa voice abruptly interrupted Thorn's solitude, informing her that Joe and Bug were about to awaken one of the Marines. Tessa waited for a further statement, but as she waited, none more was forthcoming.

Tessa nodded, after adjusting Joe's uniform, she had donned her own. The cloying smell of death still hung on both sets of clothing since they had gleaned them from defective or damaged cryochambers. There were enough of these that finding a near fit hadn't been that hard.
Joe was scanning several of the cryochambers. They had been powered up and Bug, using Joe's portable comp, was overriding their controls and supposedly setting them to activate. If he did it right, the chambers would open and one sleepy Marine would emerge for debriefing.
"I hope you're right about this," Tessa told Joe.
Joe looked at her and shrugged. "If it doesn't, what does it matter?" he told her. "We'll die anyway."
"Thanks, that really cheered me up," Tessa remarked dryly. "Did you ever finish analyzing `Solo's' voice?"
He nodded. "I didn't find anything," he told her. "If Solo's voice was copied, it was a good job. My computer can't tell the difference between the voice on the transmission and his recorded voice from some of his saved game files. Still, that doesn't mean the transmission was from him."
"It just means that it still could be from him," Tessa finished.
Again, Joe nodded.
Bug called over to them. "O.K. It's all set to go," he announced.
Joe followed by Tessa walked over and looked over at the display. Some sort of octa-decimal language scrolled across its surface. Bug seemed to be following it, though it seemed to be scrolling faster than Joe would have thought possible to read.
"Just press this key," Bug told him.
Joe didn't feel there was any need to wait, so he pressed the button.
"How long will this take?" he asked the little alien.
Bug pivoted his head, mimicking a human shaking his head.
"I don't know human physiology. A Dak warriour wouldn't suffer any effects from being properly frozen. It seems that human systems are more fragile and require longer recovery times - but that's only a guess.
Joe rubbed his chin. Standard recovery times could be anywhere between 10 minutes for a military model to well over two hours for some older civilian models. He'd even heard that some archaic units took days to thaw out their occupants, but he suspected that the units before him would follow the military pattern.
Still, he wasn't quite prepared, none of them were quite prepared, when the lid to a one of the cryo chambers parted with a slight hiss and the interior platform elevated to allow a combat ready marine, all dressed in armoured exoskelton, to simply walk out.
Tessa appeared behind him and hissed in his ear, "She was being injected with stimulants, even as the unit came on."
Joe was impressed. These Marines were instantly available for combat. Looking around, apparently unconcerned with the damage around her, the marine, with some sort of insignia on its armour, came up and saluted Joe and Tessa.
"Sergeant Garsya," a woman's voice was heard as a mike clicked on. She at once began to speak in a guttural voice, issuing several clicks and quickly formed syllabants that Joe couldn't even begin to understand. When neither Joe or Tessa answered, the Sergeant raised her blaster, pointing it right at them.
In standard Galcom, she asked, "Who are you? Identify immediately."
Both Joe and Tessa raised their hands.
"I'm an officer, Sergeant," Joe tried to lie, "I suggest you reconsider your actions!" he barked, hoping to sound authoritative. He smiled for her benefit as well. "I don't know you Sergeant," he told her. "I'm from the ship's communication staff. I'm afraid I'm not a field command officer. Still, I don't think there's any need for your suspicions. I can identify myself," he promised.
Tessa thought his voice sounded as smooth as mythic snake oil.
However, the Marine did not lower her gun but kept it pointed directly at Joe.

Leon said to Raymont, "Actually if that thing has a grenade launcher, maybe we ought to get out of here. That thing doesn't need to get past the bulk-head, it just makes a hole big enough for a grenade to get through and then blow us up with the grenade.
The grenade would be doubly effective in such a confined space because of the huge pressure generated. Trust me I've seen what a grenade in tight quarters will do, it's not a pretty sight. How's about we climb and hope that the robot can't?"
He went on to add, "The only thing I can suggest is to weaken some of the rungs with our lasers : not cut all the way through, just enough to make them dangerous. As for the scanner, we can if we have to, but I'd rather we both had one, and use it on passive sensor so that it doesn't emit anything traceable."
Raymont replied by telling him, "If I recall, the one I saw wouldn't have to use the rungs to climb. Perhaps we could seal the shaft somehow. If it uses it's grenades to punch its way through, it risks dropping a large chunk of ship on top of itself."
"I can see your point. Can you spot a way we can booby trap this shaft, in case it CAN climb? We also ought to toss one of the scanners down a corridor, on full, and shut the other one down while we climb. If it got a lock on us that way, it will have to reacquire."
Leon examined the open entrance for a way to weld them shut. Regrettably, without a cutter/welder handy, they wouldn't be able to do much of anything effective.
Raymont called down to Leon, "I see movement on my grid," he said, indicating his scanner. "It's big. It's coming this way."
"Anything else?," Leon asked him.
"It's made up of synthetics. I think it's our friend," Raymont told him.
Raymont played with his scanner settings. Regrettably, he wasn't much of a tech, but he was still able to isolate an incoming pattern. It was faint, very subtle actually, blending into the background static as to be almost undetectable.
"We're being scanned in return," Raymont called down.
"What's it keying off of?" Leon asked. "Our own scan or life signs?"
Raymont's irritated voice yelled back, "How the hell do I know! You want to go ask it?"
"Turn off your scanner for now," Leon told him, doing the same for his own. "We'll climb blind. If it is using our own scan as a lock, it might loose track of us. Meanwhile, let's get out of here."
Raymont complied without answering, climbing fast above Leon. Going up a couple of decks, he came upon a massive blockage in the shaft, which turned out to be the jammed lift that had been pinched tight between girders. Still, it appeared to be largely intact.
"We're blocked here," he whispered down to Leon. "Better back up."
Leon started to head back down the eight or nine meters to where another closed set of doors probably led off to another deck level when the muffled sound of an explosion came from somewhere below them.
Then Leon's com unit, which he had left open, blared out in a voice that seemed incredibly loud in the confined space of the shaft, "Thorn, this is Tessa. Joe and Bug are about to awaken one of the Marines. Hold on."


x.p. award: Joe 550, Leon 250, Raymont 555, Solo 2820, Thorn none.

Solo weakly shuffled about the room, the bulk of his energy expended in his attack on Antheus. Looking about, he could see that he was in a large stateroom, actually three rooms, not counting the head. Antheus' room appeared to be a meditation room, complete with holographic projector and a strange raised platform with a darkened control panel. There was also a chair off to the right before an activated computer console. Solo tried to make use of it, but the computer failed to acknowledge his voice or any of his manually entered commands or queries.
The next room contained two fold down bunks, the lower of which he had occupied. There was also a table and off to the foot of his bunk, a storage rack containing religious vids, though there was no player evident. Exiting this room through a door that remained open, Solo came out into a sort of living chamber, with cushions and low legged chairs occupying a sunken area, while to the left, there was access to a door. Walking up to this door, Solo saw that it was powered and that a row of unmarked control buttons stood off to one side. It slid aside for him as he slowly progressed. There was a small chamber, of about 1.5 by 1.5 meters beyond which there was another door. This small chamber seemed empty. The entrance/exit to what lay beyond beckoned him and Solo continued, satisfied when the second doorway also slid open. Walking out, Solo found himself in a corridor. Lighting was dim or completely off in places, but he suspected that the doorways leading off might also lead to other staterooms. Trying the doorways, he found that all seemed to be locked.

Bonus x.p. 15

(Memory roll to see if any names you encountered stand out - none do.) One name stands out - Margrave Rabastus. You don't know why you remember it, but you do remember encountering it in reference to military operations.

Bonus x.p. - 5

Mini-Move

Questions first:

1. With the exception of your Superior Reasoning, none of your skills help you in this instance. Even your reasoning fails you in this case.

2. Yes, I am using the bonuses from Rolemaster and/or Spacemaster Companion I. I don't have them handy in an ASCII format. I'm really busy right now with my WOD campaign. How about you asking one of the other players to send them off to you? I'm guessing that at least one of them might have more time on her/his hands then I do currently. If not, then let me know and I will make an effort to get them off to you or have one of my friends do it for me.

3. Your uniform gives you no armour benefit. There was no name on the uniform, but the label on the side of the cryo chamber said that the occupant was one Vaj and then something you can't remember.

4. Yes, you are in a bit of a fix, aren't you. That's alright. The situation for the party as a whole isn't the greatest.

Joe, never having been fixed with the stare of the dark eye lenses of a marine helmet, found that he didn't at all like the feeling. It was very intimidating and he found that it always felt like she was staring at him, which she probably was.
"Are you going to answer, or do I kill you now?" the sergeant's voice clicked on.
Just then, there was a bright flash and sound of a blaster impact. Red hot bits of metal and melted plaststeel showered down as black ash and all three of them ducked.
"Bug!" Tessa hissed. "He probably tried to shoot her, but doesn't know how to fire a gun."
"Stop firing right now!" the sergeant called out in Galcom. "If you don't, I will execute one of your men immediatly."
There was a pause.
"Which one?" Bugs voice answered, sounding not so far away.
"The man," the marine answered, scoping with her blaster, trying to see the source of the voice.
"Go ahead," Bug told her. "I think you're bluffing!"
"Bug! YOU SPACE-ROACH!" Joe yelled out.
"Shut Up!" the marine barked. Calling once more back to Bug, "Very well, I will now execute one of the prisoners. I'm now firing on - the woman."
"WAIT! WAIT! I give up!" Bug floated slowly into view, all if hands held up.
"Come over here!" the sergeant ordered, backing up and alternating her blaster on both Tessa and Joe, and then Bug. "No one move!" she told them.
Bug floated over to near Tessa. "I couldn't let her hurt you," Bug apologized.
"Thanks Bug," Tessa smiled.
Joe just shot Bug a dirty look. "Great rescue," he hissed.
"SHUT UP!" the marine barked. "Now I'm going to shoot one of you, just for talking." She raised her blaster.
Everyone stiffened. Glancing over, Joe noticed Bug fold his arms, as if in a rigor mortis position, but then saw his hand slip up under a fold in his carpace. The marine had noticed it too and turned her blaster on the tiny alien.
"Before you shoot me," Bug told her, "you might want to see this." He held out what looked like a grenade and rotated it so she could see the symbol on its side. Joe wasn't a military type, but it looked like it's timer was set to zero and that it was primed, so that if Bug released his hand from the priming button, that it would immediatly explode.
"I trust you know what this means?" Bug told her.
"I'm not afraid to die," she replied.
"Then I suggest you shoot," Bug told her. "Then we can all die together."
Though she kept her aim fixed on Bug, she did not fire, but continued to regard both him and the others. Joe wondered what thoughts were going on inside that helmet.

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