Session 4

Back to Sessions

The group stares at the blood smear on the floor where the clerk had just been moments before. A bone-shaking shudder rumbles through the entire station, followed by a feminine computer voice informing that there has been catastrophic damage to the reactor. It calmly announces that all residents have three hours to reach minimum safe distance before containment failure.

*\*At this point, a real-time three-hour timer starts\**

The remaining people on the Concourse begin to panic. The only route to the spaceport, along with most of their ships, has been destroyed. In the mass confusion, the group returns to Otaka and attempts to revive him. Strategic use of smelling salts snaps him back to a vague form of consciousness. He overhears the countdown and asks them who fucked up. Ignoring his question, they ask him if there are other ways off the station. He says there's a cargo airlock on Deck B and maybe another on one of the other decks but seems to be having trouble grasping reality. He points at an APOLLO station and says they can use his ID card to check out the station's plans. He fishes around for the ID card and fails to find it, not knowing that the group had already lifted it from his possession. He shrugs and guesses he left it at the bar. He staggers to his feet and stumbles over to Maverick's.

Realizing Otaka will no longer be of any assistance, the group approaches the APOLLO console and inserts his ID card. A primitive interface appears with green text on black and a few interface choices. They pull up the station's plans but note that it still says Novgorod Station and seems a few years out of date. They realize they cannot trust the accuracy of the information but have nothing better to go on right now. They ask APOLLO about airlocks, and a tiny, animated person with a Seegson logo on their shirt appears in the corner. The cartoon person unhelpfully repeats their request, stating, "it looks like you're asking about airlocks." It mentions the cargo airlock on Deck B and gives them a route to the airlock. A red warning flashes across the screen, saying in that calm feminine voice from before, "Catastrophic damage to Cargo Lock on Deck B." They see a backup traffic airlock on Deck F above the Habitation Block and a smaller personal airlock on the Deck J Comms Platform. They also see that Deck F contains a Starcub shuttle, at least according to the plans.

They are interrupted by the sound of a growing commotion. They see the elevator's door open and over a dozen people trying to squeeze inside, oblivious to the elevator car dropping as the metal begins to groan. It drops a few feet before screeching to an abrupt halt. Some passengers second guess their choice to be inside and attempt to climb out. A few of them are partially out before the metal groans again. Then, with a horrific snap, the elevator's brakes fail, and a dozen screams cry out as it plummets out of view, save for a few dismembered limbs twitching on the deck. After a few seconds of silence, they hear the terrible crunch of metal upon metal as the elevator hits the bottom of the shaft somewhere on Deck A. The elevator door closes, and the calm feminine voice of the station advises, "Elevator use is no longer recommended."

The group sees a ladder access tube accessible from the backside of the elevator shaft. They resolve to make it to the airlock on Deck F but need to find a way to signal the Otago to be there waiting for them. The Seegson character advises they simply use the Spacecraft Ping service. However, when they attempt to use it, a red warning flashes across the screen and tells them, "Catastrophic damage to outbound communications." After asking what options they have, the character directs them to the Comms Platform and states that line-of-sight communications are still functioning for the time being. They pull the ID card out and head for the ladder tube.

They climb into the ladder tube one by one, seeing that each deck is locked off by a hatchway with an ID card reader. They pass the ID card up to Rufus in the lead, and he opens the hatch. They all climb up and watch as the hatch spirals slowly shut behind them. They now know they need the ID card to open any hatches up or down and believe the hatches stay open as long as motion is sensed. They climb upward in near-total darkness, save for dim red emergency lighting along the inside of the tube.

After a few minutes of climbing, they reach the portal for Deck D Life Support. The doorway has an inactive ID card reader and is wide open, revealing pitch-black darkness. No emergency lighting, no activity, nothing. They can hear the slight thrum of machinery and water pumping and smell something like musty rotten eggs. They shine a flashlight into the darkness but see nothing of note. Feeling they would be wasting time exploring every deck on their way up, they choose to forgo Deck D and instead keep climbing.

They climb past the Deck E Habitation Block, noting that the card reader seems active and the lights are working on that deck at least. However, they have no business there and just keep climbing. They eventually make it to Deck F, the Lower Tower. They activate the card reader, and the door slides open, revealing a nearly dark hallway with a couple of malfunctioning emergency lights flickering along its length. They discover two Mk. 50 compressions suits hanging in glass locker bays, not nearly enough for the entire group if forced to spacewalk. The airlock appears to be active; however, they confirm they have no way of signaling the Otago from this floor. They know they still have to climb. They pass by a workshop, with one of them taking a maintenance jack from inside just in case they encounter any locked doors. Next, they make their way to the shuttle hangar and see its inactive card reader. Placing the maintenance jack onto the door's frame, they force the door open. Instead of a Starcub shuttle, they find a long-forgotten storage room filled with collapsing cardboard boxes and junked machinery. Deck F no longer has anything for them, so they return to the ladder tube to climb.

They continue their climb, looking for Deck G so they can get their bearings. However, they instead come to Deck H. Assuming that Deck G simply must be accessible elsewhere, they decide to explore Deck H to see if there's anything useful. As with most of the other decks, only a few red emergency lights provide any illumination. They enter what used the be the Emergency Ops Center and find a hatch on the ground. They muscle it open and see it leads to a claustrophobic access tunnel under the floor. Phillipe decides to explore elsewhere and goes off into one of the side offices. Ricky waits for no one and jumps down into the access tunnel. Bullock is reluctant to let the child go alone. However, Bullock knows he must stay and keep the hatch open with Phillipe gone, so Ricky isn't locked into the tunnels.

Phillipe wanders into an office and sees a few inoperable computer terminals, including stacks of files and folders strewn about the desks. He is unable to get any of the terminals to work; however, he does notice a file binder underneath a desk. He grabs it and stashes it in his briefcase for later perusal, noting the logo as belonging to the United America's Military.

Ricky is able to walk in the tunnels, albeit hunched over uncomfortably. He travels a few dozen meters and comes upon a ladder leading down to another deck. As Ricky climbs down the ladder, he feels an odd gust of wind and the sensation that something is above him, only inches away. He sees a long trail of slimy liquid drip past him and pool on the floor beneath. Overcome with irrational fear, he drops the rest of the way to the floor and looks up, seeing only the empty ladder tunnel. He steadies himself, then follows the darkened hallway toward a partially ajar door. Having no ID card and seeing no access panel, he attempts to muscle it open. He gradually scrapes the door open with a good grip and a strength belying his slight stature. He feels that odd gust of wind again, this time in front of him through the door. He looks up and into a nightmarish visage only inches away from his face: a black, eyeless dome receding back into the shadows and a steel-toothed rictus grin like a human skull. He shrieks and falls back from the door, lost in animal terror. In his panic, he doesn't see a long black arm shoot out to grab him, missing him by centimeters. Falling to the ground, he backs away from the door, waiting for the demonic thing to pull it open and follow. However, there is only silent darkness staring back at him. Unable to think clearly, he closes his eyes and rocks back and forth in the shadows. The darkness recedes after a moment, and he hears Bullock shouting for him from the ladder tube. Regaining some wherewithal, Ricky jumps up the ladder without another look back.

The group reconvenes at the ladder without further incident and, being reminded of the station's imminent destruction, climbs to Deck J. They split up, searching for the airlock, the beacon controls, and anything else that might be of use. Instead, they find a room of inoperable computer terminals and two corpses on the ground with strange holes in their heads. A pulsating, organic tube comes out of each corpse's skull, connected to a black mass that glows with tiny bits of electric light. They back out, not wanting to know what happened here or become part of it. Phillipe and Rufus enter another room of terminals, finding them on and powered up. However, they are stopped by two armed men hiding under a nearby table. The men both have rifles and seem unhinged, asking Phillipe and Rufus if they are real or nightmares. Phillipe tells them about the waiting Otago and that they can all get off the station if they put their guns down. One of the men, a bit more coherent, lowers his rifle and eventually drops it entirely. The other man keeps his rifle trained on the interlopers and moves closer, threatening them. Phillipe faints as he looks down the barrel of the rifle. Rufus attempts to reason with the man and, unfortunately, ends up fainting as well. The men look at each other in horrified confusion. Bullock, Maverick, and Ricky hear all of this and take up position outside the computer room. Ricky attempts to distract the still armed man so Bullock can try to sneak in and take him out. Bullock, however, trips over the unconscious bodies of Phillipe and Rufus and goes down, knocking himself out in the process. The last armed man drops his rifle, demanding to know what is going on.

Everyone begins to wake up as Maverick steps past all of them to the computer terminal. He signals the Otago to a position outside the airlock and begins the docking procedure. Then, stepping through the confusion, he leaves the room to finish preparation at the airlock down the hall. Eventually, the group is fully awake and not pointing guns at each other. The two men promise no violence if they are allowed to come with them. With a tentative agreement in place as the station countdown reaches 5 minutes, the group files out of the computer room and makes their way down the hall.

As they march down the darkened hallway toward freedom, part of the ceiling drops away, and two long horrible arms reach down and snatch Phillipe. Bullock raises one of the rifles they had confiscated from the two men, only to realize that the rifles had no ammo magazines. They had been empty the entire time. Throwing the useless gun to the ground, Bullock jumps up on Phillipe to try to pull him back down. Ricky tries his best as well. The two men look at each other, knowing their situation is at a crossroads. With a brief nod, they each jump up and grab onto Phillipe to try to wrest him from the beast's grasp. Phillipe struggles but is slowly pulled higher into the ceiling duct. He looks up and into the black eyeless face of a nightmare. The creature pulls him towards its awful, eyeless face. It opens its steely maw, revealing an impossible second set of jaws waiting inside. As the station countdown reaches two minutes, the creature pauses and closes its mouth. Phillipe sees faint traces of what looks like blue lightning inside its long domed skull before it bashes its forehead against his, knocking him unconscious. The creature drops Phillipe and scrambles away. The group catches Phillipe before he hits the ground, and, confirming he's alive, they all make a dash for the airlock. Maverick is waiting there, keeping the door open. They rush inside and pile into the decontamination chamber, closing the portal behind them and disengaging the docking umbilical. Rufus goes over the portal's window and watches the umbilical recede into the station. As the Otago pulls away from Barghest, Rufus sees a flash of something in the window at the other end of the tunnel, a horrible shiny set of teeth in the darkness.

Maverick steers the Otago away from Barghest and pushes the engines past their threshold to get past the minimum safe distance before the station explodes. They all watch as the station disappears behind them before a blinding explosion lights up the darkness of space. Everyone breathes a sigh of relief, slumping against the chamber's walls. Rufus and Bullock help carry Phillipe to the medbay. A cursory examination reveals he is alive and stable but in some sort of coma. The two men from the station don't move from the decontamination chamber, staring at the ground, lost in whatever horrors they saw on the station.