Chapter 3: Red dwarf and purple planet

DS-Beta-3641 is a system of a red dwarf and three planets. According to the data in the ship's database the outermost planet is a very cold gas giant, the second planet is a rather small, rocky and cold one and the innermost is the only one to have temperatures that allow life to thrive there.

The innermost is the one where the research camp is located

It orbits very closely to the red dwarf and has a bound rotation. Thus it's always day on one side and always night on the other.
The satelite should be located in an orbit trailing the planet.

Adonis' jump led the ship into a position just inside the orbit of the outermost planet. That's very close to the system, given that the jump was programmed a lot of lightyears away from here.

If you engage the thrusters at full speed you should be able to reach the innermost orbit within a few hours.

As Adonis calculates the trajectory to bring the ship into a position close to the satellite, he begins to wonder about why the satellite was set up in a solar orbit trailing the planet as opposed to a planetary orbit. Could it have something to do with the planet's tidal lock on the red dwarf? After he gives up on his conjecture he checks his calculations one last time and begins the burn to bring them closer.

The Sycorax II is speeding toward the innermost planet. The comm systems can't pick up a signal from the satellite or the colony all the way until the ship is only twenty minutes away from reaching the position of the satellite.
Suddenly the collision warning system is blinking and making an alarm sound. An object is approaching your position. It seems to be a ship and it's flying straight at you.

If you do nothing it will be in firing distance in five minutes and at your position in another three.

What do you want to do?

If there is a response to the hail Adonis will explain that they are arriving to repair damage to the satellite at their request. If there is no response the evasive maneuvers will continue but with a modified approach to the colony.

The ship doesn't respond to Adonis' hail but continues to speed towards the Sycorax II. Just as it enters the outer range of the weapons system you detect an energy surge emanating from the ship. It's firing at you!

SPACE COMBAT TIME

So this is our first space combat encounter. Please describe what your character wants to do to help in combat. Derek previously stated that he'd take on the gunnery station and I'd place him there if no else wants to.
The following stations are able to be manned The ship is approaching you from the front and has fired a volley at you.
@ Adonis please make a piloting roll to see wether the volley hits you
@ Everyone else choose a station and decide what to do. You can roleplay that you prepared yourself for the attack beforehand so that e.g. you already had your shields deployed

Adonis will stay at the piloting station but will shout loudly to the crew that they are under attack.

Dotty squeezes into her vac suit as fast as she can before heading to the bridge in a panic her helmet tucked under her arm.

"Oh shit oh shit oh shit." she mutters to herself taking a seat at the sensors coms station. Dotty had practiced with the equipment a number of times over the past few weeks but actually having to do the job with adrenaline pounding through her system she wasn't sure what any of the buttons on the console did. "I feel like I'm going to throw up."

She puts the helmet between her feet and starts trying to gather information on the ship that's attacking them.

Adonis turns to the Gunnery the auxiliary gunnery station on the right side of his pilot station. He punches in some numbers which would aim the cannon at the attacking ship. He punches the engage button and watches with on eye to see if he hit while maintaining his watch on the piloting evasive maneuvers.

Derek seats himself at the bridge and begins reconfiguring the shields. As the ship is approaching from the front he chooses to deploy the front shields. Unfortunatly he's not very familiar with the ship's shield system and accidentially forgets a critical step in the deployment sequence. He fails to deploy the shields.

Meanwhile Dotty does a basic scan of the ship. It seems to be smaller than the Sycorax II and she can only spot one cannon. A more thorough scan may reveal more information.

Adonis carefully waits until the enemy ship stops firing and then sharply banks the ship to the left. Everyone on the ship is pushed to the side like in a roller coaster. A few seconds later he makes another sharp turn upwards, then one downwards and at last he turns the Sycorax II so that it points at the enemy again. During the last turn he activates the turret and fires a volley at the approaching ship.
The maneuver is a success. Adonis was able to avoid all of the projectiles flying at the ship. The enemy was able to avoid Adonis' volley too, though. After all both ships are far apart with much time to react between firing and dodging but are closing in on each other quickly

The enemy is now in the medium range of the weapons' system. It is easier to hit it but it's also easier to be hit.

Dani can overload the reactor if she wants to. Round One ended. The enemy ship is now in medium range and shows no signs of stopping.
Round Two begins...

Adonis continues the maneuvering and finally uses a different angle to pivot the cannon and fires again.

Dani gets herself up off the deck and toggles the comm. "Cap'n, permission to boost the juice?"

"Hold off a few more seconds, Dani. I may have just gotten a bead on them." He watches his sensor screens closely to see if his last volley did any damage.

Dotty tries to get a better sensor lock on the ship.

"I do not like this, not one bit."

Dotty scans the enemy ship again and get's a much clearer picture.
The ship reminds her of the small boarding vessels that are used by pirate gangs to capture freighters. She has seen a few of them up close. Only a nuisiance if you encounter one alone, much more dangerous if they come in masses. And usually they come in masses. Usually there is a mothership that deploys them. Her eyes go wide and she immediatly scans the area for another ship. She doesn't find one. Instead she registers a cloud of debris from where the ship came from. Curious...

Derek does his best to deploy the shields to the front arc once again. But instead of the shield console he just opens the music playlist and begins to play some strange alien music. He quickly corrects his mistake but not before the second volley of shots is flying towards the Sycorax II

The enemy ship swirls left and right and shoots another volley at the Sycorax II

---

This time Adonis' shots connect. Dotty can see several pieces of debris flying away from the enemy ship but it's still flying.
Adonis didn't make a piloting roll in his previous post. You can do this now and then another one for your next action of you continue to make evading maneuvers. If you roll a 13 or higher you dodge the shots. Otherwise the Sycorax II takes light damage.