Rubrum's GURPS - United Humanity Long Distance Exploration

Laszlo frowned, leaning close to the glass of the stasis chamber. Nothing. He turned to the control panel, looking to access life support readouts.
 
GM UPDATE POST (yeah I lied)

The control panel that the MD examined seemed to have received some punishment. As if someone had frantically tried to do something with it. After much fiddling with the back of the box, the display seemed to flicker and turn on... The commands and images, while they reacted, seemed to be sluggish. Something was definitely wrong with this unit. Upon closer inspection, Laszlow figured out that while the box seemed to be beaten in appearance, it wasn't necessarily the physical damage that hindered its functionning, but something deeper. Maybe the power input was damaged? Many menus gave error messages and refused to open. The MD managed to access an emegency screen allowing unlocking of the hatch and a special code needed to be input, each chamber had its own code. Laszlow remembered that the codes were available in a note book that should be in the container that is in this room, or the information would be available on the mainframe computer accessed with portable crew computers or directly on the main computers of floor A (main control room). There was also another menu with graphs plotting blood pressure and it displayed "N/A". The heartbeat graph was stuck altogether as if the heart was in a perpetual expanded state. Temperature inside was normal. Laszlow tried to access a visual image using the camera screen; a human silhouette was definitely visible, but there was a lot of white dust inside and it was hard to see more than this. Eventually, image broke and the unit shut down. Dr Martin knew that it was possible to turn it back on without problem again, but he wasn't sure there was much more information to get from it.

Spoiler :
Laszlo succeeded a hard -4 roll of Electronics Repair (medical). He had to roll under 10 (skill level 14 - 4 difficulty) and got a 9
 
Alex is surprised by Gregory's abrupt move but shrugs it off as just one of the ill effects of being in stasis for so long. While he was supposedly slightly "hard of hearing" before he left he believed his hearing was still perfectly fine. Strapping the computer to his arm he went over to help Nozomi open the door.
 
His senses were returning to normal, though Gregory reckoned his stomach would continue to be queasy for a while yet. He glanced at Nozomi, who was struggling with the door, and once again noticed the orange button. He sighed.

"Best get this over with, folks." he said to the others. "Hopefully this is nothing more than opening the curtains with a little trumpet-fare, but you know what scientists are like." A sheepish grin at Fraser, "No offence."

He paused in front of the button then, remembering orders, reluctantly pressed it.
 
Laszlo frowned and turned away from the stasis pod. He had to get it open at some point, but not until he was able to determine what that strange white powder was and figure out how to get at it safely.

Instead, he turned to look in the box at the centre of the room, sorting through everything to find the medical supplies and taking them for later.
 
GM UPDATE POST

While Dr. Martin was gathering medical supplies, the three remaining people were gathering around the exit door. Alexander took notice of Nozomi's attempt at opening the door and of her conclusion (the door's own comm system was trying to say something). He had seen similar systems in his past and knew some of the codes by heart. He took his turn trying to open the door, but the same thing happened upon pressing the blue button. A series of bleeps and the blinking light. This time however, he paid attention to the code. At this moment, Gregory came towards them and announced his intention to open the blinds, sending the first message back to Earth. He pushed the big orange button...

A Russian accented voice came up on crisp loudspeakers as the mechanical blinds started to retract very slowly. As this was happening, there seemed to be a power draw and even the artificial gravity reactor seemed to lose a bit of power momentarily, resulting in a strange feeling of suddenly weighing a lot less. A ray of orange light started to seep inside the room at the top high edge of the window… The movement of the blinds was slow and the Russian voice was well into this long speech before they could finally see outside.

“UHLDE pioneers, this is the voice of Anton Sidorov, president of the Eurasian Union. As I am reading this, the year is 2171, tomorrow you are leaving on a heroic mission with no return. I have met you many times in the past decade and I grieve your loss in the name of humanity. The irony being that, in all likelihood, I am myself dead at the moment you are hearing this, and have been for many years. I suspect I may think of you on my death bed”

The mechanical blinds were pulling down more and more…

“Also in all likelihood, you are the first men and women of this Earth to see a livable exoplanet with your own eyes. Gliese 581g, discovered almost two centuries ago, now visited by us. Hopefully, Dr. Vogt [note: the scientist who found this planet in Hawaii in 2010] was right all along, and this place is our future. Now, so many decades into the future… our calculations have brought you straight into the orbit of his dream… behold…”

The blinds finally reached eye level; all eyes went from staring at the receding blinds to being glued to the blinding (ouch) scenery through the window… As eyes took time to adjust...

Asteroid-belt.jpg


An asteroid belt. Or a belt of debris surrounding the orange star that must be the Gliese red dwarf. According to the plan, Odyssey should now have been in the orbit of Gliese 581g, close enough that its huge globe (three times the size of Earth) would occupy most of the view. However, in the background, quite far away, a Gliese 581(c?) planet was barely visible, and the red dwarf star Gliese 581 shone in a strange way, or at least, its deeper, more soothing shine was much different from Sol’s shine.

“Men, women, welcome to your new home, please, send us good news, and extend our salutations to whoever you may find”

At this point an automated female onboard computer voice took over:

“Welcome-to-Gliese system” (strange static and hesitation). “Welcome, in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw—“

And the voice skipped and refused to stop.

At this very moment, Alexander remembered the meaning of the sound-code the door was emitting…

Mechanics and rolls
Spoiler :
Alex succeeded at Electronics Operation (comm) with a roll of 11 vs skill level 13
 
Alex looks over from the door at the window in muted awe "Good news is we arrived at the right place!". Looking back at the door "Bad news is we might not be one piece. The door is refusing to open because the otherside is a vacuum."

Sharing a grim look and trying not to think about the fate of the rest of the crew Alex returns to the equipment locker to look for B cell batteires in the hope there are some with a bit of charge left.
 
Laszlo bit the inside of his cheek in consternation.

"Right. Broken ship, missing crewmates, screwed up AI, and then there's Dr. Dankevych, who is here, I think, but... no idea, really, something's gone wrong with his stasis pod. We can't just leave him in there but we can't open the damned contraption as things stand now without risking exposure to possible contaminants. If anyone manages to find any of our isolation suits, great, but until then we've got to keep that thing sealed. Too risky."
 
"Oh great, a vacuum." Gregory turned to Fraser. "Do you think any of these computers can be used to get info on what happened? Maybe something that will restore life support?"

The computer voice continued to repeat itself, over and over. Gregory tapped the button a couple more times, before giving it a quick bash with his fist.

"Y'know, if that voice keeps up I may welcome being ejected into an abyss."

[Search the room for anything else of use.]
 
"Oh my.. ...that long?!" Nozomi said as she finds a place to sit down. Nozomi utters to herself as she sits and stares at the floor "That means, my father is long dead". Then Nozomi gathers herself and stands up. "Well isint this lovely, the door is locked and I can't get to my stuff" Nozomi said directly at the door.

Remembering that Alex's computer needs a Type B battery. Nozomi begins to search other containers that her crewmates have not searched. "I really don't feel like going into the vacuum, nor do any of my other mates"
 
GM UPDATE POST

Spoiler :
Maybe one of my sentences wasn't clear enough when I reread it, but I'll re-write it here:
(after seeing the asteroid belt through the window):

All that was visible was an asteroid belt. Or a belt of debris surrounding the orange star that must be the Gliese red dwarf. According to the plan, Odyssey should now have been in the orbit of Gliese 581g, close enough that its huge globe (three times the size of Earth) would occupy most of the view. However, this wasn't the case right now, there was this... belt of space stuff. In the background, quite far away, a Gliese 581 planet was noticeable (but which one? (note: every planet is the system is named after its star so they are all called Gliese 581, only the last letter changes, 581c, 581g, 581d... See image in first post), and the red dwarf star Gliese 581 shone in a strange way, or at least, its deeper, more soothing shine was much different from Sol’s shine.


“Welcome, in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw—“

Alex paced back to the goodie crate and frantically started to check on the B batteries. None of them seemed to work until he found one. One and only one, that had maybe enough juice to power up the computer, but probably for literally only seconds before it would die back. Just at this moment...

Nozomi turned back to search "other containers", noticing that there was still only the one in the middle that everybody had inspected up to now. She approached it to rummage through the batteries with Alex, and try to see if some of them may still have had some power in them, however the sudden decrease in gravity that happened a few seconds ago and the influx of light from the Gliese 581 was too much and she started to retch some bile, some of which dripped down into the crate and imbibed the blankets (note: sorry! read spoiler below!) and covered a bit of the bottom of the container.

Gregory started to look around the room, but it was really quite empty. He remembered why; this room was temporary, the chambers were to be dismantled and this place was supposed to be fused with the existing cargo containment next door to create a larger cargo space to contain stuff. In fact he knew the wall between this room and the current cargo next door was temporary and not made in the same way or of the same stuff as the rest of the walls in this ship.

“Welcome, in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw—“

Mechanics and rolls
Spoiler :

Alexander's vision roll
SL 13
Roll = secret result

Alexander's Spacer roll (to operate standard crew equipment)
SL 13 - 2 (difficulty mod) = 11
Roll of 5, success.

Nozomi's vision roll
Skill Level 11 + 2 (acute vision) - 2 nauseated = 11
Roll 3d6: 6+6+6 = 18 (I'm not kidding, sorry CivGeneral, the tables will turn soon I hope!) = critical failure

Gregory's vision roll
SL 12 - 2 (nauseated) = 10
Roll = secret result

Gregory's Spacer roll
Skill level 11 - 2 (nauseated) = 9
Roll = secret result
 
Gregory was feeling his way along the wall, trying to get some idea of the design of the ship. Schematics, materials - he had studied as much as he could of the Odyssey before the mission had begun, and it seemed it may come in handy. Ignoring any odd looks being sent his way, he spoke to the others.

"This wall was meant to come down. If I was a betting man, and I'm not, I reckon that it wouldn't take much to smash it down and get to the next room. That's one step closer to our cabins."
 
Deciding that mentioning that we are a long ways yet from any planet and drifting aimlessly in space near an asteroid belt was not a good idea at this time, Alex joins Gregory at the wall to try and force it open.
 
GM UPDATE POST

While Nozomi was gathering herself up. Alex and Gregory started to study the wall. Gregory was still reeling from nausea and feeling like the ship was a frigate in a thunder storm, he had to lean on the wall a bit. Alex could not really think of anything. He tried pushing it in places, to no avail. The wall seemed to be made of a certain number of sheets of a relatively light metal. None of them were able to think of much regarding anything else at the moment.

Spoiler :
Alexander Crewman/Spacer roll (secret roll)
Gregory Crewman/Spacer roll (secret roll)
 
After a couple of pushes, and a quick shoulder barge that resulted in nothing more than sharp pain and a sudden reminder of the sickly feeling in his belly, Gregory decided that maybe the wall had the better of him. He leaned back against the wall, half-kneeling, trying to ignore how ill he felt. Now looking towards the centre of the room, his eyes fell upon the metal container holding the supplies.

"Hey, Fraser," he gave the scientist an almost child-like grin, "You ever wanted to use a battering ram?"
 
Spoiler :
My rolls sort of concentrated on your task of finding something out about the wall (including screws and whatnot). Crewman/Spacer, I assumed, would be the rolls to find stuff out about a ship's different functions like hatches and airlocks and partitions and whatnot). I didn't really do any attempts at actually barging into the wall with your body like you have hinted at PrinceScamp.

You could attempt this (body ramming) but you are quite convinced that it would be pretty hard to do and that it has high potential for injuries
 
GM UPDATE POST

Both men grabbed a side of the crate, things shuffled inside. This box was at least 200 pounds, and it showed. They started to sprint clumsily towards the wall at an average-to-slow speed of 3 yards per second, hoping the momentum of the heavy weight would do its thing.

Both men managed to keep steadfast and the metallic box resounded on the wall... The speed was not high enough. The result was appalling, not a single notch.

“Welcome, in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw—“

Spoiler :
None of the characters benefited from knowledge in Forced Entry skill.

The combining of your strengths allowed you guys to run a bit faster but still not very fast.

The attack with an improvised ram, which no one is trained in, is at -5 on a target that is at least 10 yards wide! (hard to miss so +4) so the attack is DX-1

Alex rolls to attack with adjusted SL of 10 and rolls 9 (success)
Gregory rolls to attack total with adj SL of 11 and rolls 10 (success)

The damage calculated with the speed and structure of the chest gives 3d6,
Damage to the wall: 10
the wall's damage resistance (DR) is above this... So there was no damage(DR must be subtracted to damage dealt before any damage is even inflicted to whatever is being attacked).

HT rolls success; nobody loses fatigue.
 
Picking himself back up Fraser glares at the wall, wishing he had some explosives and that they weren't on a space ship. "Well that almost worked, maybe if we all try this it will work.
 
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