Secure an Advantage: with expertise; roll +wits : 3 +3 vs 3 & 10 : weak hit
* take +2 momentum, now 9
Hammer, for once, piloted Retribution himself and angled the rear of the ship down as he overflew their selected area at treetop height. The plan to use the engines to burn a clearing worked well and after another two passes, the clearing was large enough to allow for tolerably long defensive sight lines. After a final pass to get accurate data on the clearing, Hammer brought Retribution into land.
Strickland went back to the hold to finalise things before debarking while Hammer transferred control of the ship's weapons to KOMie. They confirmed between them that the weapons would not target Hammer, Strickland or the Moreaus and then went to don his armour.
Finally all ready and assembled, the group entered the airlock, Hammer cycled it through its sequence and they stepped out onto the surface of Vesta. The toxic atmosphere of the planet began its futile assault on their suits, but all their seals held successfully and they began to fan out, looking around at the new sights.
"BLAM-BLAM-BLAM!!" erupted across the newly created clearing as a point defence cannon (PDC) on the far side of the ship fired, shooting at something unseen on the edge of the still smouldering space.
The ash on the ground beneath them stirred up in small clouds as they walked toward the line of tree-like plants closest to them. They could see no movement, but all held their weapons at the ready. Strickland had been very clear about the amount of hostile life on Vesta ...
Strickland's initial plan was to find a game trail and set some trap cameras as the first step in locating a Render, so they plunged straight in when they reached the edge.
Face Danger: stealth or expertise? As Strickland is running things, I think expertise is more appropriate; roll +wits : 2 +3 vs 1 & 2 : strong hit
* successful, +1 momentum, now 10 (max)
They were lucky, finding a game trail after only 10 minutes' searching. Strickland had Hammer stay way back, saying that the armour could pollute the trail with its lubricant's smell. The Moreaus were sent up and down the trail to keep watch while he placed the cameras. That done, they returned to the clearing uneventfully where Strickland and the Moreaus returned to the ship while Hammer went to see what the PDC had shot at earlier.
Creature Oracles: Environment - land; Scale - 40 Medium (person-sized); Basic form - 86 Worm; First look - 3 & 33 flushed skin, 4 & 42 hoofed feet; Encountered behaviour - 4 & 67 pacer; Revealed aspects - 1 & 55 infested with parasites
Rounding the ship's bulk as rain began to fall, Hammer saw the creature that had entered the clearing. Initially, the rain obscured the creature's corpse but as Hammer got closer he could begin to make it out. It had bright pink skin and looked like a 2 metre long, half-metre diameter worm, but as he looked, centipede seemed better as each side had lots of one-metre legs ending in hoofed feet. As he looked, though, the corpse began to ... bubble? no ... undulate?
Lumps began to appear and disappear all over it, then the skin started bursting and thousands of small mouths with tiny bodies attached ate their way out. On the point of retching - never a good thing inside a suit - Hammer pulled out an incediary grenade and tossed it onto the mound of squirming, devouring mouths. After he had confirmed that the flames were destroying the creatures, he turned and went back to Retribution, thoroughly disgusted with life on Vesta ...
Hammer had given Strickland use of the workshop for the duration of the hire and he had just finished setting up the feeds from the trap-cameras when Hammer reached it after removing his armour.
"I've got my VI set to monitor the feeds, so in the morning we'll have a 'highlight' reel of any movment," Strickland told Hammer.
"The Moreaus in the viewing room again?" Hammer asked noting their absence.
"Yes, it seemed best," replied the Doctor.
"I took some footage of what the PDC shot," Hammer told him. "You can download it whenever you like."
"No time like the present," said Strickland, and turning back to the monitors, became deeply engrossed in the recording.
Installing the cameras and getting film of another creature, constitutes Reach a Milestone: formidable vow, "I will take Strickland to Vesta and bring him back to Lodurr" : progress now 4 / 10
Leaving Strickland at the viewer, Hammer went forward to the armoury, and began to clean his weapons - something he did whenever he had downtime on an 'op'. He had got through to his pistol when Strickland joined him and, as he watched Hammer, Strickland began to speak.
"It would be good to let the trap-cameras work for a day," he said. "We can decide what to do based on the data they gather."
"Whatever you think is best," replied Hammer, pausing what he was doing and giving the Doctor his full attention.
"Great," said the scientist, "I'll go and start planning some options," and Strickland returned to the workshop as Hammer finished his weapon maintenance.
* * * * * * *
The next day, Strickland had collated the data from his cameras and was waiting for Hammer in the workshop.
Still being written ...
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