4952 Delcia

You barely finish your sentence that you hear a female scream, and then the familiar "CLIK" of someone trying to fire a firearm when it is out of ammo.

After several "CLIK"s, the sobbing resumes, louder this time.

Mesec starts prying open the doors of the lift, and thanks to his Perception, manages to avoid a semi-auto pistol hurled his way. He then notices a familiar sight inside the lift. Kendza Jesda, one of the missing crew members. She's cowering in the corner, sobbing. She looks like she has some burns on her and doesn't seem like she's quite herself right now...

She panics at first as you approach her, but then she hears you calling her by her name and she calls somewhat...

"They... they don't use names..."

She stares at you for a moment, as if she didn't recognize you at first, and then her eyes light up.

"Mesec? It's you... When Yularia fell, I thought you all died... I just ran... Where... Where are Yularia and Alex, are they okay?"

Nero approaches and has a quick look et her burns.

"Her burns are too old, I cannot help her with first aid... I'd have to perform surgery in a sick bay. She looks dehydrated and malnourished though and obviously in a state of shock. Best I can do right now is give her some vita-iron pills to help with the dehydration and malnourishment..."

While Mesec talks to Kendza, you look around to notice you're into some sort of room carved directly into the surrounding rock. There are a few access to what looks like a couple of other rooms, but more interesting is that passage carved into the rock which leads to a narrow metal bridge above a chasm. The bridge disappears into darkness, so you have no idea how far the other side is... And of course, the area is just honeycombed with crab holes...

"I... don't quite remember... I remember running... and shooting... And I got into the first room I could find. It was this lift. I pressed a button, and it took me here... Mesec, there are so many of them. I hear them digging all the time. this whole place is infested!"

As if on cue, you start hearing scratching noise. A few at first... but more and more join as if to form a macabre chorus of scratching... SCRITCH... SCRITCH... SCRITCH... You're going to have guests soon, and LOTS of them, and judging by all those holes, they could come from any or all directions... Unless... perhaps that bridge could take you to a more defensible location? It's as good as any other idea right now...

As sam suggest to make for the bridge, you see mane of those "crabs" come out of many holes. Trudy does it's best to keep them at bay, opening fire with it's integrated blaster, but as you retreat towards the bridge you all hear a rumbling sound, then part of the natural wall crumbles, and a literal wave of crabs spills forth, quickly overwhelming the robot. You start running down the bridge with a furious swarm of crabs close on your heels...

Make an AGL test please... well, except Trudy who's probably a digested metal snack at that point...

Oh yeah, since Trudy basically sacrificed itself to hold the crabs back, might as well make this one at Advantage... So ya'll can read the result in the most favorable way (ex: a 72 becomes a 27...).

Everyone makes good progress on the bridge while you hear Trudy's blaster fire several times behind you before being silenced for good... Both Nero and Sorrack are not slowed down one bit by whatever debris lie on the bridge. But now, with Trudy no longer holding back the crabs, the wave starts running after you, and though those crabs are usually slower than you, they are spitting at you from a distance now. Most of those globs of acid will fall harmlessly into the giant crag in the earth, but some of them will probably fall on the bridge, maybe even on you...

Make another AGL roll please, no advantage this time...