HOUR 2

While Seth continues to the ship, Bob heads back to the admin office. Chief Marshall Quinton is not there, but one of her deputies is. When you ask about Frankie Battista, she very nearly shuts down. "Look. All I can tell you is that he must know someone big. We've only managed to slap him with a fine or two, and I think those only stuck because he has to keep up appearances. If you saw guys with him, they're probably bouncers at the Starfire, but they rotate in and out nearly with every freighter. I wouldn't go looking for trouble there. You'll find it. That's all I can tell you. And hopefully no one heard me say that."

As Bob leaves the office he's met by Seth with carrying Theodore's crate. The cat was a tortoise shell domestic mix - at least partially maine coon - with an orange and blue eye. "Ah, Bob, meet Theodore. Theodore, meet Bob."

When the cat meowed, it looked directly into Bob's eyes. And as uncanny as it was, it sounded like the cat had attempted to say. "Hi!" Considering Seth's economy with words, extremely limited social skills, and generally obsessive and hyperfocused personality; it wouldn't be a stretch to consider his only hobby was teaching Theodore the cat.

"Ah it is well. Theodore likes you."

Where is the cat to accompany you to next? Back down to the shafts, or up to the Starfire?

The lift works for Bob on his way back to Life Support. Food is also life support of a kind, which is why the assembly line for the food packs is located there. He waits for Seth. And waits. And waits.

The lift works for Seth too, at least on the way up. The dwellings here are utilitarian one-room affairs... painted walls, a simple bunk - couples get two, stacked, unless they know someone. There's a small kitchenette along one wall along with what is actually a copious amount of storage, at least for Seth's needs. The combination shower/toilet is in the corner by the door. Sit for one stand for the other, nothing fancy and it's self-cleaning when it works.

It's on the way back out that the lift has issues again, and so Seth is forced to walk. He climbs down the stairs to the main level and then heads out the main hallway. He hits wide marble stairs (you know the kind in every mall) going up that lead to the Galleria Mall, so-called because of the observation gallery that's located just above the main mall level up another set of nice generic marble stairs. The map says to go left though, and so he does, past Lee's Shop-MART and Anarchy Ink. A narrower hallway leads to the Starfire Lounge, but there's a lift here too, and it works. He's able to take it down to the Life Support level, where he meets up with Bob again.

The vents await. So does Adam, having waited here for you to return. He's staring at the blood stains, not really processing anything.

Yep! Seth and Bob met back up at the Life Support level, but Adam is still just sort of... existing there in the food assembly room where he had previously stopped existing.

The vents are mostly, short passages, some carved into the rock itself as the asteroid slowly became the base. It's easy to tell which way you should go at first, but as you reach the end of the life support section, you're left with almost no trace clues at all.The cavernous central vent goes in two directions here. One way is warmer than the other, but beyond that you have no real way to tell which way you should go.

The rocks show no real signs of erosion from air or water; it's very dry and cool in the vents, and the air circulates slowly through the station. However, in one direction you do find areas where the stone is worn smooth from continued use. Both on the ground and at about hip-level - or slightly above - the sheen of the rock indicates that someone has been walking through here regularly, relying on touch as much as sound. And these marks are, while not easily traceable, at least remarkable. Once they're pointed out, they're obvious, and so slowly, you follow those marks. The shaft angles down and then takes a ninety degree turn, then another, and another. The air is blowing from behind you now, and it's slightly warmer in front.

Eventually, the shaft opens up onto a high, cavernous area, and you find yourself looking down at the reactor that powers the entire station. You're about a hundred feet up. No one is supposed to be up here, so there's no guardrails or vent covers blocking your view.

The shaft overlooks the cathedral-like ducts and pipes of the reactor. Occasional arcs of electricity illuminate condensation running down the large plexiglass window that is there solely for the purpose of blowing out in the event of a reactor overload. The station would need to be saved, after all. The people could be restocked.

There's no clear way down from here, so you keep moving.

The tunnel continues its downward cubic spiral, and eventually ends at an intersection. To the left, a grate much larger than the one you started at is screwed in securely at one corner, but the rest are loose, letting it swing to the side to open your way out. The station's elevator is nearby, but its buttons are unresponsive. Overhead, lights flicker and buzz.

If you turn the other way, there is an endless labyrinth of gloomy tunnels, each slightly smaller than where you started. They all at some point lead out to rooms lined with maintenance access panels.

The entire level is hot and humid, and nothing is maintained well.

The only good thing to note is that here again, just next to the lift, is a layout of the level.

I've marked your location with an X.

YOu follow the hallway until you come to the corner. At the end is a sign that points to the left, proclaiming the next room to be:

Maintenaince Access A2.

Yes, it is misspelled. The door shoots open with a smoothness and speed that belies its age. The motors are in pristine condition, probably because it only gets opened once a year, if that.

The room is a bit lower than the hallway, and ankle-deep oily water covers the whole floor. It's slippery. You'll have to make your way through very carefully.

Seth definitely has the best Awareness.
Best Parkour probably too. Does he want to try both those? or do one and one? It's up to you guys.

@Jomsviking - Lets go ahead and have you make the Awareness roll, and then in your post, let CESN know if you want him to try the Parkour roll or alternatively, you can make it at the same time you make your Awareness roll.

You both look around carefully, and it seems safe. The two of you wade out until you can find a good box to climb up on, and then cooperate to make your way across. It's not until you're balanced precariously in the middle of the room that you notice there's something down there, just below the surface of the water. That bit of attention divide is all it takes for the box to shift off balance just a bit, and all of a sudden you're seconds away from falling all the way to the floor. Make a Reflex save to save yourself, or a Body save to take the hit.

A save is just 2d10 straight, and then you add your save score. You want 10.

You come down with a great splash, but not much else is worse for wear. The water broke most of the impact. You're all oily though, and as you pick yourself up and try to wring whatever moisture you can out of your clothes, you can very clearly see that there is a tripwire stretched across the room, just under the surface of the water. Someone did not want anyone else down here.

It's not stopping you from going forward; it'll just need to be handled on the way back. The far door opens when you approach it, just the way it's supposed to. It reveals a long, wide hallways that's stacked on both sides with detritus form decades of use. Old keyboards, burnt out servers that once upon a time were the upgrade for the junk that now sits beside it.

Midway down the hallway there's a disabled android pierced with several spikes. Motion sensors blink when you approach, apparently setting off some sort of warning system. Air begins to event, and the dust from the ground reveals a laser grid that covers the hallway in front of you.

There's no tripwire here in the hallway. Though, as Seth searches, he notices that the motion sensors don't seem to respond to his search.

Do you want to wake up the android? You could also simply test the system somehow, since it appears to not be working.

There's a series of beeps from the android and then The voiceline that accompanies the Mk VI Veris line starts up. "Hello, I am you-- yo-- y--" The voice darkens. "I AM YOUR DOOM". Seth realizes the danger just in time to vault backwards away from the rigged android, and there's a rolling boom as the explosives buried inside the android go off, sending shrapnel and smoke everywhere. Fortunately, the scattering debris is mostly harmless, so aside from a few scrapes on Seth's paint, and a few metal splinters for Bob, you're safe. The lasers are knocked sideways, and there's a clear path through them.

You head to the end of the hall, to a large room that proclaims itself Maintenance Access 2, and then through the door to the right. In this last hallway, live cables dangle at chest height, and the subceiling wobbles precariously, making the cables sway to and fro, sparking and sizzling when they brush up against each other or the walls.

There is a rather complex panel standing a few feet away from the door where you came in. Surely one of the buttons turns on the light and one turns off the power supply...

The lights come on with your first button push, but that's because the entire system has woken up. You're not sure what exactly they were trying to do here, or if all of this was even it's original configuration, but what you do know is that when the lights come up, the ceiling apparatus that supports all the sparking cables begins to sway precariously. You know that if you touch anything else, anything else at all, that it could all come crashing down. But you have to go through to get where you're going.