The Pinicon Belt

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Jun 2, 2024 2:47 pm
You transport aboard the station, knowing that if you're going to use the alien technology you'll likely need to see about getting power working. But accessing the database and finding out what they did is also a key. The away team materializes in a corridor between the archives and the power facility.

The other away team (of four) materializes near you, tricorders out and scanning. They're going to focus on the Sculptor (their name for the aliens) dimensional apparatus, leaving you the database and power tasks.
OOC:
Which do you do first?
Jun 2, 2024 3:26 pm
Upon materializing on the station, Jayce cannot help but to immediately look around to assess similarities and differences in the station's structure and layout to the member races of Starfleet. He looks for symbols and writing around to determine if these aliens employ recognizable patterns of communication. Glancing at the activities of the other crew, Jayce is also interested in how familiar they seem with the same elements he is trying to assess.
OOC:
Jayce will wait for orders regarding what to do next, but would personally be more inclined to work on the database with others.
Last edited June 2, 2024 3:31 pm
Jun 3, 2024 5:49 pm
As the bright interior of the Raven was near instantaneously replaced by the darkened station, Cole joined the others in taking in their immediate surroundings. Their counterparts, predictably, volunteered to search out and began studying the alien - deemed the Sculptors - quantum machinery that had brought them here. His face impassive behind the faceshield of his environmental suit, Cole nodded his assent, frowning when the team turned and began making their way as he wondered if he could trust them to notify them if and when they found the alien dimensional tech. Eyes narrowing, further increasing the creases in his brow, he had the momentary thought of sending Aurin with them before deciding better. The scientists skill would be better used searching the databases.

For the moment, nothing could be studied until they restored at least some semblance of power to the station. Motioning forward with a gloved hand he stated as much to the rest of the team.
OOC:
Do we need to roll to scan with the tricorders on where the reactor/power source is for the station or did we already figure out that using the ship's scanners?
Jun 3, 2024 8:18 pm
M'Ress, being a doctor, not an engineer, felt slightly useless, though being useless on an away mission with her particular expertise was actually a good thing... it meant the trouble hadn't started. Yet.
Jun 3, 2024 8:51 pm
Luna sees Walker's motion and nods to acknowledge. Getting power online is first task at hand and though not a scientist, fixing spacecraft was part of her training.
She starts to go down the corridor toward the power facility.
Jun 3, 2024 11:05 pm
"Power first, then." Aurin began to pick his way through the station, his tricorder held high. Fearlessly, he glided down the hall, a hand dragging along the corridor walls, though he tried not to get in the way of his more terrestrial bretheren, pausing with his boots clamped on the ceiling if he got too far ahead.

"Facinating. The bipedial sapience hypothesis has yet another point of evidence." He looked at the vaguely human sized doors, and around at the shape and proportion of the corridor, wondering momentarily at what differentiated these sculptors from other races, what unique ergonomics populated their living and working space.
Jun 4, 2024 2:51 am
Seuss says:
OOC:
Do we need to roll to scan with the tricorders on where the reactor/power source is for the station or did we already figure out that using the ship's scanners?
OOC:
The power facility has the reactor, which you were clearly able to locate them with the Raven's sensors.

Also, Jayce and Dr. M'Ress' time to shine is coming in due course.
The unusual and spartan color scheme, lit by your EVA suit lights, gives the truth to Aurin-Ah's assertation. Everything here is roughly proportional to the mainly humanoid shapes of beings that the Federation has encountered. Still, the style alone tells you of alien design, with strange pictograms possibly indicating function. Still, without power, you're not going to get doors open by pressing the right sequence. For now, it's prying them open manually.

The power facility opens with two of you working in concert, to roll the door into the left bulkhead on a hidden balance point. This large chamber contains a vast array of machinery and equipment, much of it floating in the zero-gravity environment. A large, roughly pyramid-shaped chunk of crystal dominates the center of the room. An entire section of wall opens into space, presumably torn away by an asteroid collision, affording you a view of the Pinicon Belt beyond.

Examining the machinery requires a Reason +Engineering task with a Difficulty of 2.
Jun 4, 2024 3:49 am
"Oh, I can only hope that's a dilithium array. That would make everything much, much easier to bootstrap." Aurin floated towards the center of the room, anchoring his boots on a slowly rotating piece of debris. His tricorder was out and scanning, but his eye was only half on it, as he analyzed the device itself. While there were innumerable paths to creating enough energy for interstellar travel, some were more common than others, and if this was one of many convergent antimatter reactors, it might be well within his understanding...

Rolls

Reason (12) + Engineering (3) [15] - (2d20)

(32) = 5

Jun 4, 2024 12:34 pm
Drake posts himself in the corridor to keep watch while the others go about the business of powering up. He doesn't resist a peek inside the power facility though, fascinated by the large room and the floating equipment within.
Jun 4, 2024 9:17 pm
"Be mindful of free-floating equipment" Luna warns. Aurin is immediately at work with the power and Luna intends to go help but as she had spent just a moment too long admiring the terrifying but oddly beautiful view through the hole in the hull, Aurin had already managed the task by the time she got there.
Jun 5, 2024 3:45 am
Aurin-Ah surmises that the crystal in the center of the room powered the entire station, much like a dilithium crystal but on a more powerful scale. The crystal, composed of an unknown material, appears inert but largely intact and capable of storing power and transferring it to other parts of the station.

Momentum: 12
Threat: 4
Jun 5, 2024 5:06 am
"Aha. Interesting."

He held up his tricorder, giving it a tap. "The crystal seems to be acting as some kind of capacitor. We should reconnect it to a safe subsystem and see if it is storing power." Aurin glanced around the destroyed chamber, somewhat listlessly. Untangling the theory of the system was easy, but actually getting it to work would be... well... these weren't exactly what he would describe as laboratory conditions.
Jun 5, 2024 11:27 am
Jayce maneuvers his way with the others down the corridor helping with the forcing of doors as needed. With Ensign Drake on the lookout for trouble, he stations himself inside the power chamber in a location near Doctor M'Ress.

"It's quite amazing, isn't it doctor, how similar these Sculptors may be to what we understand?" he comments rubbing his gloved hand over some foreign pictograms. "But at the same time there are significant differences." He looks toward the power crystal at the room's center, as Aurin works away.

"Well, it seems we are along for moral support thus far. Let's hope it stays that way."
Last edited June 5, 2024 11:29 am
Jun 5, 2024 2:32 pm
She nods and follows his gaze. we can only hope. As the place appears to be deserted, perhaps we will be able to find the signal that sends us home
Jun 5, 2024 2:48 pm
Pleased to see that everything appeared to be going as planned, Drake allowed himself another glance into the power chamber but then chided himself. He had a job to do, and he best devote his attention to watching the crews' backs instead of staring wide-eyed at the wonders inside the chamber.
Jun 7, 2024 9:38 pm
Luna catches up with Aurin-Ah at the crystal. "Can we fix it?" she asks while looking at the inert power source.
OOC:
It might be worth spending some of the momentum gain to obtain information. Like, why is it off and what is needed to repair the device?
Jun 8, 2024 1:32 am
Grimly Cole followed the rest of the away team deeper into the station's infrastructure, following the course the Raven's sensors pinpointed as the direction of the alien power source. Deferring to his team's more technical expertise, he was quick to jump in on the physical aspects of the endeavor, eager to lend a hand on wrestling the derelict bulkheads aside. Though his concerns for the other team's intentions continually gnawed at him, Cole could not help but crack the slightest of smiles at his crew's enthusiasm at navigating the interior of the strange and very much alien station. Like the others, when finally breaching what he deemed the engineering section of the station he paused to admire the eeire, yet beautiful view afforded by the breach in the hull.

Without being prompted the team went to work, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips in pride as he watched his crew work. Moving to his pilot's side he offered the young woman a comforting grip of the shoulder with his thickly gloved hand, nodding in approaval as he met her eyes before turning to his science officer. "Agreed," he said, meeting the avian eyes of his science officer, "Can it be fixed? I'm confident you're the expertise in this situation so just tell us what you need."
OOC:
My apologies for the very delayed response. It has been a week where I have been burning the candle at all ends. My daughter's HS soccer team has advanced far into the state playoffs and work has been a bit of a bear. Hopefully I wasn't holding things up.

Though I am guessing Luna and Aurin are probably the most skilled in this area? Cole will offer his assistance with command if the @GM thinks it prudent ... otherwise I am guessing it is their show?
Jun 8, 2024 8:33 am
"In my reckoning, if you are asking, commander, there are two steps to this process."

"First, is to get power into the system. This reactor, I can explain how it works, roughly.... I think." His hand touched the back of his helmet in a rare gesture of uncertainty, a strangely human posture. "The crystal, here, is suspended in a reaction, like a dilithium crystal. Unlike dilithium, though, it acts like a capacitor rather than a regulator, or a catalyst. Then, as needed, power is extracted from the crystal, through... well..." he motioned around himself to the floating debris where there was once an engineering compartment.

"With a little help, I think we can try to get the crystal reconnected properly to the power grid. Hopefully it still contains enough energy to bring some more functions online. If not, we may be able to replicate a conduit to the Raven that will let us, to pardon the term, jump-start it.

"The second is to get power to the various subsystems. We'll need to trace power conduits through the station to where we need it. And we'll need to make sure the power is properly regulated, so we don't blow the computer banks when we plug them in. Getting the power routed properly, bringing conduits and systems online... that may require some guesswork, steady hands, and a willingness to interpret and disregard alien warning signage our translators may not be equipped for."

"Frankly, working to decipher at least their symbolic writing might be useful to help keep us from electrocuting ourselves, and would give us a head start when we do get those computers online." He put a hand on his hip as he gazed into deep space, as if they could just hold a linguistics symposium in pressure suits on some leisure deck.
OOC:
Kind of shooting from the hip here to build the scene based on what I can see and guess? Let me know if I am wrong and I can modify things as needed.

Aurin's hands-on engineering skill is pretty mid. If he's not using Reason or spending momentum his dice pools are... shall we say "fair."
Jun 8, 2024 6:02 pm
Drake grabs his tricorder while the others are working on the reactor and scans the other group to determine what they are doing. He is especially interested in what his counterpart is doing.

Rolls

Reason 9, Engineering 2 - (2d20)

(420) = 24

Jun 8, 2024 6:25 pm
Aurin-Ah is exactly on the right track. The crystal and the systems seem intact, but there isn't any power within it to use to power the stations operations. You'll need to devise a way to transfer a large quantity of energy into the crystal, which can then shunt the energy to various systems, such as the Sculptor apparatus, the archives, internal lighting, or artificial gravity. Restoring a breathable atmosphere to the station becomes possible as well, but you'd have to deal with the gaping hull breach.

The breach in the station’s hull is large enough for the away team’s runabout to maneuver close enough to the crystal to initiate a power transfer. Doing so will require some advanced piloting, however. The character flying the craft would need to complete a Control + Conn Task with a Difficulty of 2, assisted by the ship's Engines + Conn, to move the runabout just outside the breach without crashing into the station.

As to Drake, he sees from his tricorder readings that the other crew are at the Sculptor apparatus, and appear to be laying out a bunch of machinery. They also have a lot of phaser rifles, two each, so they may be equipping for an assault.
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