Session 1: Asteroids and Emptiness

Please refer to the resource list, overview, and intro for more info. Note that this is the first session.

Our group of players started out on their way to the new asteroid family. Their unfamiliarity with their new captain makes them uneasy. After arriving in the family, it becomes clear immediately why there was a weird EM signature, there’s a man made habitat on one of the smaller asteroids in the family.

The group takes some time discussing this strange find and finally decides to drop in and investigate. Taking the short range transport shuttle from their primary ship ‘the dump’, the crew leave captain Levas behind and make their way to the mysterious hab.

Upon arriving at the hab,the techie successfully docks the shuttle with the hab’s one docking bay, though it cannot power down (the hab appears to be powerless). On the way down they get a clearer look at the layout of the habitat:

Asteroid base (unexplored)
This is the mysterious asteroid base the players find in the belt

The base appears to be all white, and made of some a common temporary hab material. There are no heat signatures and it is the same temperature as the ambient space around it.

The group then begin to explore the hab, having to manually engage every airlock they encounter (because of the lack of power). The techie over zealously jumping  into the main corridor of the hab first, failing to free fall (critically), and bonking his head on the opposite end (in the dark derelict habitat). After a few terrifying moments the players clear the hallway, and identify three airlocks (not including the docking bay airlock).  Behind the first airlock the group finds what looks like living quarters (several beds and amenities make this seem clear). The room appears to have been damaged by some kind of fire and the group quickly jumps to the erroneous conclusion that there was a fire on board that killed everyone. After clearing the living quarters the players move onto the next airlock, which houses what appears to be an exercise room, as there are zero-G work out equipment scattered throughout the room, a clear indicator of non transhuman level humans having inhabited the facility (transhuman don’t lose muscle mass in zero-G, that would just be sad). This room is also coated in residue from some sort of hot burning fire. The group continue to check and probe the room, finding nothing.

Then the group moves onto the last unopened airlock, which is a bit larger than the previous two.  This room is quickly identified as a laboratory, complete with an industrial fabber and the habitat’s comms array,  both of which have had key components removed and are unusable until new ones may be found. This room, like the previous two are domed structures, the difference being this room has two more airlocks leading to separate section of the habitat.

The next airlock opened up on long winding corridor, which lead to a much larger airlock, which has been damaged as well as de powered. The group’s AGI spends some time working on the door and with the help of the Gangster are able to open the airlock, revealing a much larger domed structure than all of the previous rooms. This dome has no floor, and is exposed to the asteroid surface. There is a large crater in the center of the dome, and remnants of destroyed mining equipment can be seen floating freely in the room. On the opposing wall there is a 2 meter wide hole in the domes roof, likely from an explosion (the habitat is fairly durable, and there is no sign of a micro-meteor impact). There is one final airlock in the room as well, this one leading outside.

The center of the crater contains a smaller whole, where something was clearly excavated and removed, though there appears to be no sign of what it could have been. A cursory glance from the mad monk reveals that the asteroid is billions of years old and anything removed from it would be as well.

Outside the final airlock,the players identify a ferrous heavy walkway leading to a stand alone structure. The structure is quickly identified as the habitat’s fusion reactor, which is intact but powered down and missing a key component to operation. The Techie quickly fabs (from the groups desktop cornucopia) an acceptable replacement part and restores power to the habitat.

While the techie repaired the fusion reactor, the party remained outside, assessing the damage to the primary dome and attempting to repair it and restore atmosphere to the habitat (using the air they brought with them).  While outside Levas contacts the group, wanting to know how they travelled to one the much larger asteroids thousands of kilometres away already. The party is confused by this and begins scanning the asteroid in question, identifying a heat signature that had gone previously unseen. Levas then attempts to hail the ship, at which point the other heat signature becomes two, the original and a much smaller one accelerating at several hundred G’s towards Levas’ shuttle. Less than a minute later there is a thermonuclear detonation and all contact with ‘the dump’ is lost and the unknown heat signature grows immensely as the mysterious vessel accelerates away from the asteroid family. The AGI maintained line of sight with the vessel until his sensors could no longer accurately pick up its heat signature, obtaining the vessel’s heading.

the Party then had a stressful moment reflecting on their new situation, marooned light minutes away from the closest civilized space, with no means to contact the outside solar system (no long range comms on hand).

This is the current layout of the habitat the players found
This is the current layout of the habitat the players found

END Session 1