SHIP'S LOG: USCS DAWN TREADER TSV-150086
ENTRY TWO: EARTH DATE 23 JAN 2225
REPORTING: RORY BUCHANAN, CAPTAIN
AFTER-ACTION REPORT
SUBMITTED: 12 FEB 2225
I submit this entry with a heavy heart and a belief that some things come at too great a cost.
Upon receiving our assignment, the crew was assembled for briefing. Our mission objective was an abandoned research facility on Medusa, a small moon orbiting a gas giant in the Ross 780 system. The nature of the research that was conducted there was unknown to us, and for reasons of security and plausible deniability, R&D did not disclose the identity of the company that formerly owned the site. I am uncertain that the Company even knew why the site was abandoned, or why any equipment would have been left behind.
Rather than the usual contracted rate and bonus structure, our payout would depend entirely upon the value of any hardware and data that we recover. With a good haul, we could be looking at thousands of dollars each, or more. Aman Aldel, our sensor operator, was impatient to depart. For those who don't enjoy getting out and about, even shore leave can result in "cabin fever".
Medusa is a jungle world with 25% Earth gravity. Its primary value is timber harvesting, and logging concerns hold most of the accessible territory there. The atmosphere is laden with toxic pollen that can cause insanity or catatonia if inhaled, so we needed to acquire filter masks. As we might be working in unlit areas, portable lighting would be helpful. Ownership and use of shotguns is permitted by law on Medusa, and since we might be encountering hostile wildlife or other resistance, I felt it prudent to acquire a few. I can handle the kick, as could Loadmaster Evans and Engineer Nelson.
Navigator Chun laid out our flight plan. The closest hyperspace point was 90 Mkm away, which would mean 4.5 days to travel there. As Ross 780 is only a parsec away, we would spend 3.5 days in hypersleep, meaning a total travel time of 8 days to get there. Predicted burns were 12-13, leaving us with a comfortable margin for unexpected needs.
While the Dawn Treader was being loaded and refuelled, I made the acquaintance of a young Marine officer in a portside bar. Lieutenant Jacob Colby was on detached duty from the 22nd MEU, and he sported a tattoo of his unit's slogan "Anytime, Anywhere". He joined the USMC to follow in the footsteps of his father, who had been a Captain in the 24th MEU.
He was an optimistic man in his mid-20's, and though he was physically unremarkable, he possessed a keen intelligence and came from a very affluent and well-connected family. I knew it could be beneficial to have some military assistance for our task, and attempted to recruit Lt. Colby for the mission. He regrettably declined, but said he looked forward to perhaps working with us in the future.
We lifted off and set out for the hyperspace point. Pilot Lewis needed to make a minor course correction, resulting in a longer burn than originally expected. While under way to the jump point, we were hailed by a patrol vessel, requesting our sensor logs. As we had no reason to refuse, Aman complied and transmitted the data we had accumulated. Engineers Nelson and Knight went about routine maintenance and reported no problems.
We arrived at the hyperspace point around mid-day on January 27th, and Desh assisted us in preparing for hypersleep. It was late in the evening of January 30th that he revived us. Chun and Lewis were experiencing some sickness, which concerned me as Pilot Lewis was the backup navigator, and Navigator Chun was our backup pilot. Desh was able to treat them in the medbay and release them for duty a few hours later.
Sensor Operator Aldel had some difficulty obtaining a fix on our position, and a task that should only have taken an hour turned out to require the better part of the day. We were 50 Mkm out from Medusa, and would arrive there in 2.5 days. While en route, I led the crew through a mandatory Company training module regarding anti-piracy and anti-hijacking. They performed capably in the drills.
We arrived in orbit of Medusa just after lunchtime on February 2nd. Aman was able to locate the objective site with only a few hours of scanning. It was in fairly dense jungle and we would not be able to land the Dawn there. Loadmaster Evans rolled the ATVs onto the ship's boat and we shuttled down to the surface. Lewis and Chun would remain aboard the shuttle and await our call for extraction.
Though we were able to find a suitable landing zone four kilometers from the facility, the terrain was quite unforgiving. It was slow going for our three ATVs, especially for Evans and the trailer he was hauling. On the way, we could see some reptavian scavengers circling overhead, but they did not attack us. We heard sounds of logging equipment ahead and steered clear of that area. The less we were seen on this mission, the better.
After about 45 minutes, we arrived at the facility. It was fairly unremarkable from the surface - merely an overgrown concrete bunker about the size of a ground vehicle garage, in a small clearing surrounded by a dual fence topped with razor wire. We did not see any defensive weaponry installations, but Assistant Engineer Knight warned us that the fence might still be electrified. While she worked on disabling the gate security, Desh carefully studied the area. His conclusion was that this facility may have been used for study of the local megafauna, but as we had not encountered anything but the flyers, he could not conclude what that might entail.
Knight disabled the power to the fence and we were able to force the gate open. We rolled the ATVs and the trailer into the clearing, near to the building so that we could easily load up equipment as we recovered it. A few minutes later, she had overridden the access controls for the bunker doors and we entered the building.
It was dim and musty inside. The facility was operating on emergency power only, and a thin film of dust covered most surfaces. We found a computer room nearby, and Knight, Aldel, and Evans began to evaluate the setup and establish a salvage plan. Knight would hack through the security software, and the others would locate which systems held useful data. It would be easiest (and most profitable) to simply physically remove those servers rather than downloading what likely would be vast files.
[Scene Challenge: Safe, Shaky, 10+. Natural 12. Success! What went wrong... a twist in the story]
The team determined what servers held the information, and loaded them aboard our ATVs. While the rest of us waited, I thought I heard some soft sounds of sighing and scraping. As I listened more closely, they had stopped. I dismissed it as a trick of the mind, merely the slight fear that comes with being in a dark, unfamiliar place where one should not be.
Once the computers were loaded, we proceeded on. We came to a lab that contained some experimental equipment. Engineer Nelson, accompanied by Aldel and Desh, would evaluate and remove any equipment of a proprietary and valuable origin.
[Scene Challenge: Safe, Shaky, 10+. Success! What went wrong...]
The team managed to locate and disassemble some of the equipment that was suitable for transport, and we began to load it up. There was a loud clang and I hurried back to the lab. Nelson and Desh were okay, but a large piece of equipment had toppled over, blocking the door through which we had entered the lab. We would need to find a way around, while they pressed forward.
* * *
Meanwhile, aboard the shuttle, Lewis had grown bored. He attempted to strike up a conversation with Wen Chun. Aside from her personnel records, no one else knew that she had fled her home in China to escape a violent and abusive marriage. Word was that her vengeful ex-husband was still looking for her.
Somehow, Lewis had found out, and his curiosity outweighed his tact. He began to press Chun for details on the whole sordid situation. Chun felt uncomfortable and did not wish to discuss a very traumatic relationship. Then, Lewis apparently made a flippant remark and Chun lost her temper. She began screaming at him and stormed out of the shuttle, waiting alone in the field where we had landed.
* * *
Desh and Nelson came to a decontamination vestibule, and peered through the window. The lab on the other side appeared to contain equipment used for direct testing on large specimens. An indicator showed low levels of radioactivity within, likely from x-ray and gamma scanners positioned around an examination table. They were able to locate radiation suits in a nearby locker and began to remove some smaller but highly valuable equipment. The rest of us had found another corridor that linked up with the area, and we waited outside the decon chamber until they were finished.
Beyond the examination room was a long tunnel. It would have been wide enough to drive an ATV into. Some of the emergency lights had become burned out or otherwise broken, and we had to rely on the eldritch green light of our glow sticks as we proceeded forward.
On either side of the tunnel, large metal cell doors stood open - some were just sets of bars, others were more solid metal panels. It reminded me of a zoo that one might have visited on 20th Century Earth, or a jail for animals. The cells appeared to be unoccupied and the area was eerily silent.]
Behind us, we heard a scraping sound that rose into a screech. Nelson felt a breeze and ducked just as a massive talon swept through the area where a taller man's head would have been. Another wicked claw swung toward Knight, scraping against the wall a hand's width from her side.
The beast to which those claws belonged stood before us and shrieked once more. It was terrifying to behold. It looked like a small Tyrannosaurus - small being a relative term; it was still the size of a five-ton truck. We could clearly see its maw full of razor-sharp teeth, dripping with bilious saliva. As we backed away from it and readied our weapons, it dropped onto all four legs and prepared to charge.
Knight and Aldel dove behind one of the armored cell doors. Desh joined them, but readied his medical kit in case anyone became wounded. I shouted an order to Nelson and Evans and we opened fire. Our shots struck the creature, but its armored hide was hard to penetrate. Still, we could see some blood, and from its roar of pain we knew it could be killed. The only question was just how much punishment it could take.
The beast turned in my direction and snapped at me. I stumbled back and felt its hot breath on my skin as its wicked fangs tore at my harness. Narrowly escaping injury, I opened fire point-blank. The injury I inflicted appeared to be grievous, but the creature fought on. I heard the deafening boom of the other two shotguns, but Evans and Nelson appeared to have missed their shots.
The beast turned toward Nelson and lunged forward, knocking him over. He had dropped his weapon and I could see that he was badly lacerated and bleeding. Desh rushed forward to render aid as Evans and I continued to fire at the thing, but it was moving too fast to hit easily.
Nelson tried to crawl away from the cruel monster, but he was hurt too badly to escape. With a vicious snap of its jaws, it tore open Nelson's abdomen. I heard screams behind me as it stooped to feed on our fallen engineer. Evans was numb with terror, but I was furious and I continued to blast away at it.
It raised its bloody snout and turned its predatory gaze onto Desh, crouched beside Nelson's body. It could not smell him, but it had seen him move. I shouted to Desh "SHOOT IT! KILL IT!". Desh, a pacifist, seemed conflicted. "OBEY YOUR DIRECTIVES!", I screamed. Desh paused, gazing into nowhere for a brief moment.
* * *
Lewis was startled by the comm alarm inside the shuttle. He heard the screaming in the background of the call for an emergency extraction. He bolted outside and begged Chun to come back aboard, but she ignored him. He shouted that it was an emergency, but her only response was to angrily remind Lewis that he took orders from her, not the other way around. Lewis shrugged and dusted off without her.
* * *
Lewis touched down on the fenced-in clearing and opened the cargo doors. Evans supervised the hasty loading of the ATVs and trailers onto the shuttle as Desh carried the lifeless body of Nelson aboard, wrapped in a tarp. Lewis stammered an explanation for the absence of my First Officer. When loading was complete, we returned to the original LZ to pick up Chen. As I stepped out of the airlock, she began to shout at me. I held up a finger and she became silent. "Now is not the time," I told her. "Get your ass on that boat and do your job." She stormed aboard and strapped into the copilot's seat.
The ascent was rough as we rose quickly through turbulent skies, and docking with the Dawn was equally bumpy. Chun and Lewis stood sullenly in the docking bay as we disembarked. Each of us passed her quietly. "Where's Nelson?" she asked, before noticing Desh gravely carrying his bloody burden to the medbay.
It would be three days and four more burns back to the hyperspace point. When unloading was complete, I summoned Chun to my office. She demanded that Lewis be disciplined for abandoning her, or she would request a new posting. I agreed to confine him to quarters for the duration of our return voyage. Then I brought up my disciplinary concern. I reminded her that while Lewis may have abandoned her, he had done so in compliance with my order for extraction, and that she had abandoned her post by leaving the shuttle. As my pilot was confined to quarters, she would be required to stand his duty shift as well. Furthermore, she would forfeit half her share, the funds to be disbursed to Nelson's next-of-kin. Chun looked ready to argue my decision, until I reminded her that taking the matter up with the Company would likely result in termination of her contract for her actions.
It was a difficult few days in space. Knight, now my sole engineer, went about the preventive maintenance duties, numb with grief. Lewis didn't leave his cabin, while Chun only returned to hers to sleep between double shifts. Aldel spent a lot of time talking it over with Desh, while Evans didn't want to talk about the fight at all.
The tedium and tension were broken late in the second day. We received a request for assistance from a commercial shuttle. Their passenger, a trophy hunter, had become violent, demanding they land in an unsafe area of the planet. This would be an ideal opportunity for my crew to make practical use of the anti-hijacking drills we rehearsed on the way out from Hamilton.
Our plan was to dock with the shuttle and attempt to negotiate with the hunter. If necessary, we could pump sedative gas into the docking airlock and overcome the shuttle crew and their passenger, detaining the hunter in hypersleep until we could turn him over to the Marshals.
[Scene Challenge: Dangerous, Solid. 8+. (7) barely fails. (9) Complication - damage to equipment]
Chun matched velocity and attitude with the shuttle and used thrusters to mate our docking collar with the shuttle's airlock. Evans and I covered the airlock door with our shotguns, in case the passenger came out shooting. We waited anxiously as the airlock pressure equalized and the inner lock swung open.
Beaten and bruised, the shuttle crew stumbled into the compartment as the outer lock cycled behind them. We heard the roar of the shuttle's engines as it literally tore free of the docking collar, damaging it in the process.
Desh tended to the shuttle crew and placed them in hypersleep, while Knight attempted repairs on the docking collar. She reported that she was unable to complete a repair without bringing the ship into port, but commented that Nelson probably could have accomplished it.
The following morning, we buried Nelson in space. We carried out the solemn ceremony in accordance with ancient naval tradition. I spoke a few words that seemed hollow and empty, and I cycled the lock. We watched the bag containing Nelson's mortal remains tumble out on a puff of air pressure, floating off in a trajectory that would someday carry him into the star Ross 780 itself.
Midday on February 9th, we awoke from hypersleep in Ross 248, inbound to Hamilton. None of us woke with hibernation sickness, but we all felt pretty awful anyway. During the three-day burn to the station, we were hailed by a small corporate executive vessel, requesting technical assistance. As our airlock was damaged, Knight had to make a brief EVA over to the other craft. She was able to diagnose the issue as a damaged hyperdrive calibrator, and within a few hours, the suits were on their way.
Landing at the downport, I was confronted by a Port Authority manager, demanding to know why we had changed our flight plan and landed planetside, instead of docking at the highport per the flight clearance. It took all evening to iron out the matter, but I managed to avoid any ICO fines.
Representatives from R&D arrived at the ship soon after, and collected the materials we had salvaged from the research facility. Our cut of the salvage was assessed at $18,000, meaning a $3,000 share for each of the survivors. I was reminded of our non-disclosure agreement and advised to speak of the matter to no one outside my crew and authorized Company officials.
Shore leave was uneventful. Lewis emerged from his cabin, said nothing to any of us, and we did not see him at all for three days. Knight stayed in her quarters with a book. I don't even know where Chun went. Aldel told me she had seen some vid celebrity passing through Startown, but the starlet ignored her and her bodyguards wouldn't even let Aman get close enough to ask for a photo or autograph. Evans and I drank a toast to Nelson at some dockside bar, but I wasn't even in the mood to drink. While he finished the bottle of whiskey we bought, I went back to my suite to compose a message to Nelson's family.
- Buchanan out.
