Gorgon Life is extremely harsh, as the surface is exposed to constant high-velocity winds. In some areas the vegetation has adapted by growing in umbrellate forms to an average height of two metres. The micro-climate under this layer is just bearable to the few hundred inhabitants who live there in shelters of organic construction. This population, a prison society, mines for copper, zinc, palladium, silver and tin. Some untouched rare earth deposits will show up on a full planetary survey, and the trunk and limb wood of the parasol trees has a tensile strength amongst the highest recorded for a natural material. Planetary landings are particularly hazardous. |
In order to reach the second cache with enough fuel to bail again if things went badly, the fleet jumped for Gorgon, listed in their information as a prison world owned by the Belgardian Sojurn. Tidally locked, it was a true hellworld, with unbearable heat on one face, terrible cold on the other and a thin band of habitability between the two.
As the ships emerged from jump at the innermost of the gas giants and commenced fuelling, they were hailed by a System Defence Boat patrolling the orbit. Though the Sojurn's official Tech rating was 9, it was not especially sustainable, and most of their spacecraft were ancient legacy items showing considerable wear. The commander of the four boats in orbit granted them permission to refuel (a sensible move from a 600-ton SDB to a 60kTon warship!) and warned them away from the 'mainworld'. Feng, putting all her persuasive powers into play, explained that she was conducting botanical research and needed samples of the legendary umbrella trees. With a mixture of plausibility and intimidation [and a roll of 13!] permission for a supervised landing on the far side of the planet from the exile camp was granted. "If you can raise these somewhere else, maybe it will reduce interest in them here," he said.
It occurred to someone that Gorgon might be a good place for a Cranium Rat colony. This was suggested to the rats, who deputed five of their number to go down and see, and to stay if it looked feasible. Given this, both groups suspended their moratorium on reproduction until numbers were made up aboard the Walk.
Undocking the Mountain Walk, they travelled from the gas giant to the mainworld, making contact with Lieutenant Branston commanding the SDBs in orbit there. He designated a landing area, and the Cats very cautiously put the Walk down, blessing her unconventional wings for their improved stability in the constant, tearing winds. Once under the canopy, they disembarked and explored. As described, the wind under the strange trees was merely gusty, and small animals and plants lived in the microclimate. Feng spent some time researching things like pollination, tree gender, seed spread and so forth, while Nevada asked the rats to scan for life forms, and whether the trees themselves had minds. With only five rats, range was limited, but they managed to confirm only animal-level intelligence and nothing from the trees. The rats seemed quite positive about the strange world; there was enough to eat, and interaction with humans was easy to avoid - five hundred ragged exiles twelve thousand kilometres away were unlikely to come looking for them. The Cats promised to come back and check on them when they could, and the rats approved of this. You never know. We might evolve space travel and come to find you, was the slightly troubling response.
The wood turned out to be as difficult to cut as expected; only lasers would really do the job, and they felt pity for the prisoners forced to make habitats out of the stuff; they'd probably be better off living in their mines. In the end, Nevada unpacked the Hoplite (any excuse!) and used it as a cherry-picker to cut wood and investigate seed pods. Gathering her samples, she commandeered one of the empty passenger staterooms to make a micro-microclimate, and try to establish the plants. Someone was bound to want this stuff.
Emerging into the vast tract of nothing that Cache 2 was said to be in, the fleet idled along while their passive sensors picked up what was to be seen. Sure enough, roughly equidistant from the systems around it, was an installation. This one, however, was different. Rather than the buildings on an asteroid that had been Cache 1, this was apparently four 3,000-dTon starships welded together to make a strange asterisk shape. It had power, and weapons, and a 300-ton CE docked to it; a 200-ton Q-Ship was in orbit nearby, and another heading away - presumably having restocked.
There was some dicussion as to what to do next, which was terminated by the sight of the moving ship going into Jump. Nevada cursed; he'd wanted No Witnesses. The Trenchant could probably destroy this place several times over, but ideally they wanted prisoners, information and optionally anything valuable - notably the ships. At a nod from Captain Sterling, four missile bays were targeted, switched to Ion missiles, and fired.
WEAPON TRAIT: ION
Ion weapons overload power systems, temporarily disrupting critical systems on board a ship without causing permanent damage. This can give a vital edge in combat while an enemy ship recovers or force an enemy to surrender before the disabling attack is followed up by something far more potent. Instead of dealing damage as usual, Ion weapons use the following rules.
When an Ion weapon successfully hits a target, roll for its damage but ignore any armour the target possesses. Instead of applying damage to the target’s hull, it is instead temporarily deducted from the target’s Power, representing the disabling effects as they spread throughout the ship, forcing its crew to reroute power in order to keep the most vital systems online.
This reduction in Power lasts until the target completes its next set of actions, in either the current round or the next.If the Effect of the attack roll is 6 or more, the reduction in Power lasts for D3 rounds. [In the case of multiple strikes, I would rule that to stack - HWF]
Hardened Systems: If a system is listed as being hardened (as with /fib computers, for example), the crew may choose to allocate any Power to it before any deductions for Ion weapons are applied. This ensures a hardened system will always have enough Power to function, provided that the Power was available before the Ion attack
Each ship received 12 missiles, and went instantly dark; the base managed to get some PD up and throw some of its own missiles back. The Trenchant's sensor operators almost contemptously baffled and deflected the incoming with their EW; the base did its best, but the remaining missiles were more than enough to black the place out.
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Nevada, Wombat and Feng were already aboard one of the ship's troop landers, and as the base went dark they approached and orbited it, dropping a quarter of the marines at each 'end' of the peculiar structure. The three Cats went with the last group, who - disdaining airlocks - slapped a boarding hatch onto the end of the structure and carved through the hull.
Inside, all was dark, and though there was still air and heat, there was none of the usual faint circulation normal aboard a ship or base. Carefully, the squad [11 marines or so each end, so there were pretty much the right number of figures] moved through empty living quarters and store rooms, finally emerging from a passage into a more open space. Three pirates, also in Battledress, stood ready in open space, gauss rifles in hand. Feng, blood up and mist pink, charged straight at them, drawing her Arclite sword. They didn't move, which she took to be simple surprise, and her faintly howling blade scythed the heads off the two standing together, before a step and second strike served the third the same. As the blood fountained, and the filled helmets bounced across the decking, everyone stared at the three bodies ... which stood unmoving. Then the penny dropped. The ion pulse had been so massive that it had taken down not only the base's own power systems, but everything else inside. These poor thugs had been trapped in their motionless armour, forced to watch the berserker approach with their deaths riding her blade and powerless even to surrender. If not for the sword, they wouldn't even have seen her. "Well, that's a bit grim," said Feng.
Recovering, they moved forwards with the Shadowcats scouting, Feng collecting a head out of habit as the base's power recovered and the lights brightened. Further through, another space crowded with machinery contained some more armoured thugs, and a general battle broke out. The marine loadout ha been diversified since the boarding of the Helrouhtal, and each had either grenades, lasers or an energy weapon. The gauss fire from both sides was only minimally effective against full armour - though the marines' was better - but the AP gauss ammo Nevada had issued to the Cats made short work of it, and casualties mounted. One fighting pair suffered simultanous misfires, and stared stupidly at each other until the thug noticed the carnage elsewhere and dropped his rifle. The marine covered him with his own rifle, hoping the man didn't realize it was unusable.
Feng had led with her signature thrown head, unfortunately missing by a long way, and engaged with the smaller Arclite installed in her cybernetic arm. This proved inadequate to pierce the armour and in the end she had to fall back on the gauss rifle mounted on her shoulder.
Nevada and Wombat had been clearing bunkrooms behind the main body, walking through doors and walls as appropriate. As Nevada crashed into one room, he found a pirate in his trollies frantically struggling into a set of carapace armour. A burst of AP gauss fire was very much enough to stop him doing so. On the other side, Wombat had found another man in similar state; he snapped an order at InBoots and the 'cat drilled the man with its laser rifle. The victim wasn't quite dead, but as the cat stepped over him, it casually slashed his throat with its hind claw - without looking - and walked away.
With Nevada and Wombat added to the picture, the battle drew to an end, and Wombat started to work on the single Marine casualty as the rest joined up with the other squads until the area was cleared. The structure had three decks, this being the mid-deck; the other two had been converted almost entirely to hold fuel and stores; the jump drives were gone.
Two marines had been killed, and seven prisoners taken. There were also half-a-dozen slaves. When these were told they were free, they dropped to their knees in conditioned submission. "Whatever you say, master," intoned one of the women. Wombat shuddered. These were going to take considerable pychiactric care to make well again...
The Trenchant's fuel lighters were despatched to take off the majority of the base's fuel, while Nevada rubbed his hands at the thought of getting a little spinal mount target practice on the place once they'd finished...