| Visitation Rights |
| Summary: | Legacy and Matto conduct an initial recon and survey of Scorpia. |
| Date: | PHD 043 |
| Related Logs: | None. |
| Players: |
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Given the change of operation order by Vendas and the subsequent launch, the Raptor is cleared by Kharon CIC for jump prep. The CAP waggles their wings on an escort out from the ship and slowly peels away to each side. The DRADIS is clear for the time being, everything quiet on the comms.
Thea, for once, seems relaxed and comfortable - even given the type of mission. "Everything ok back there, Kissybear," she asks over her shoulder. "Everything looks fairly decent from this end."
"We are at sixty-sixty-sixty clarity annnnd," Kissy flips a switch, "Set. No contacts. We're ready back here, Captain," he reports, leisurely, from his post in the back, as if they were heading out for a vacation. "You know, Poppy and I were planning on going to Virgon next leave. We heard they had some great white water rafting."
The two Vipers that peel away form up outside of their safety range, both pilots watching. As if practiced, both of them throw a salute to the raptor before finally turning away for the last time on their patrol.
Legacy waggles her wings at the departing Vipers and offers a bit of a smile. "Ri and I had talked about going there as well," she says softly. "For a vacation. Strange, isn't it?"
"What, vacations?" Kissy asks back, running a sweep of the FTL range, then another one, then another one, compiling the data peacefully. "Yeah, I never really took to vacations. I always figure if you're not happy doing what you're doing on a day-to-day basis… you're probably better off with a change of lifestyle than a vacation," he quirks a grin at the DRADIS screen.
Legacy laughs quietly and shakes her head. "They weren't so much vacations," she says quietly. "As…a chance for he and I to be alone. To share a double bed, rather than a bunk." There's a smile at the memories. "Alright, spool us up for jump, Kissy."
Matto gets all the FTL data compiled and a safe jump locked in before he unlocks the drive and begins to let it spool. "Spooling up, Black Cat. Heh. As for us, vacations were mostly a chance to go see mum and let her feed us. Jumping in six. Five," he continues to count down to 'jump.'
<FS3> Legacy rolls Piloting: Good Success.
<FS3> Legacy rolls Alertness: Failure.
<FS3> Matto rolls Alertness: Terrible Failure.
And so they jump, right on target about midway between "too close" and "too far away." Thea's a little more tense now. "Keep an eye out, Kiss," she says quietly.
Matto squints at the DRADIS screen, "An eye out on what? Frakking gods, that's a lot of interference. I can't see jack and/or shit back here, Kitten. Um, hold on, it might be a tic in the electronics suite, let me see if I can clear it up."
In the back of the Raptor, one of the Marines can be heard to pipe up. "Shit! Watch out!" He levels a finger out the windscreen where a scorched nearly-black piece of ship can barely be seen rotating through the vacuum. The velocity of the Raptor has it heading right for the piece of wreckage.
Thea growls quietly. "I'm not sure if it's interference or FRAK!" The raptor pulls slightly to avoid the ship piece. "Damnit. What are you showing, Kiss?"
Matto takes a deep breath, not quite a gasp, "Okay we've got contacts bearing 770 carom 13, 418 carom 238, 192 carom 87 within collision range," he calls out. "There's some larger debris in high orbit." "Inert," Kissy thinks to add.
The Marines in the back grumble softly to themselves, though not being much vocal beyond that. Meanwhile outside the ship, the planet of Scorpia slides into view. Dark clouds trace across certain parts of the planet, tinged with yellow and brown.
"Hold on gentlemen," Thea calls quietly. "Kissy, get as many pictures as you can, please." She pauses for a moment, swallowing hard. "Ok, not horrible," she murmurs, doing her best to dodge the debris. "If you see any crates, let me know. We'll try to even yank a couple of those in." Is she kidding?
Matto has NO idea whether the Captain is joking or not, but he's got his hands full keeping her appraised of headings which might eventually kill them. While taking pictures of the planet. Man, is he ever buying Poppyflower a present when he gets home.
The planet continues to roll by below them. Most of the bad radiation looks to be along the southern side of the planet. The northern continent looks fairly intact. However, there are a few obvious scorchmarks that blot the planet in certain areas. Some suspect. Some not.
"I'm going to take us by the Yards, Kissy," Thea says quietly. Scorpian Yards, where they flew out of so long ago. "It's probably not going to be pretty, but we've got to try." Where there'd been a tiny bit of desolation before, now there's an odd determination. "Get pictures of those patterns, the scorch marks. I want to map that out."
<FS3> Matto rolls Technical: Good Success.
Matto sets the camera to take photographs at regular intervals so that they can lay out a broader image of the terrain later. He glances down, though, at a few images, and since they're in a bit of a clear straightaway through the debris, now, he pulls one of the images from the lineup and taps in a command to blow it up. "There's a crash site below us, Captain. There's definitely part of a flight pod down there."
"Hmmmm," she murmurs. "I'm taking us down for a closer look, then we'll hit the yards," she tells Kissy. "Keep an eye on DRADIS, please. I don't want visitors. Not now."
Matto puts the pictures away, "Visitors bad," he agrees. He also begins scanning the jump horizon as they go, juuuust in case they need to make a quick getaway. It might only shave a few seconds off of a jump, but those could be an important few seconds.
Thea takes them down toward the atmosphere, but doesn't break it. "Can you get any readings on what that pod is down there, Kiss," she calls back to him.
"It's dead, Kitten, no emissions. We wouldn't be able to tell what ship it was from unless we went down and poked at it personally," Kissy replies.
"Alright," she says, clearly not happy about this. "Let's head toward the Yards. Depending on what we find, we may come back."
One of the Marines in the back stands up in the Raptor and looks forward out the windscreen. She removes a set of prayer beads from her pocket and begins a chant barely audible even to herself. The Private's eyes stay locked on the scorch mark the two pilots are talking about.
"Yes, Captain," Kissy replies, leaving aside jocular nicknames as the Private stands to pray. "Hey, uh…" he calls over quietly, trying not to sound too brash, "You might want to sit back down, you know, just in case we run into trouble," he notes, then looks back to the DRADIS as if expecting to see some of said trouble.
"Sit," Thea says quietly. It's not polite, it's an order. "And strap in. I'm not taking a dead Marine back to McTiernan." Well then. "Alright, we're off to the Yards."
The Marine, even if she is just a Private and probably not more than a couple months out of basic, gives him a scowl. But she does do as she's told. Her head bows and she falls silent, rolling her beads in her fingertips. Meanwhile outside the glass, the Raptor turns towards the Scorpian Yards. Following along the bearing, they should see it by now. But rather than seeing a fleet yard tens of miles across.. there are broken pieces scattered about. Likely the large ones Matto reported earlier.
Matto isn't too grand to be scowled at. He takes the scowling in stride, neither scowling back nor snapping and telling her to stow her attitude, like a good officer might. Kissy never quite bought into those pretenses, himself. He focuses his attention on reporting the bearings of the remnants of the shipyards up to the front of the ship, their dimensions. He runs a sweep for any remaining emissions.
Legacy is quiet for a long moment as she watches the remnants. "That answers that question," she says quietly. "Makes sense they'd go for this. Are you seeing anything back there, Kiss? Anything on the readings?"
<FS3> Matto rolls Technical: Success.
Getting closer to the location of the yards, details come out. Small sections of ships can be seen. Even some larger ones. They fade into the black background of space with their extensively scorched hulls and damaged sections.
"Completely signal-black, Captain," Kissy replies, "Looks like we've got about… twelve battlestars and frigates, in pieces. Definitely irradiated," he adds, after a moment.
The words that come out of Thea's mouth are likely the words that will torture the ears of the faithful. Girl's -creative- in her cursing. Some poor Cylon goes up in dust at the aspersions on its beginnings. "Alright. We're heading up toward the Assembly plants on the northern continent. Let's see if we have better luck there."
Matto takes a deep breath, not minding the swearing all that much, though it's not something he does very often or creatively, even then. He doesn't quite think this is the time to note that cursing the ancestors of the cylons is fairly bad luck, so he just says, "Fingers crossed, Captain."
The northern continent is where that flight pod was seen. Mostly clear skies seem to prevail over it. There's another deep black blemish on the planet many miles West of the crashed flightpod. Perhaps over one hundred miles.. Near the Viper plants.
"Damnit," Thea murmurs at seeing the crater. "What do you want to bet that's where we wanted to go, Kiss? Frak. Munitions plants…Do you know anything about Scorpia? Any of you? Plants, supplies, where?" Go! Like a track coach. Go Go Go!
Matto has flown this route before, and as the landscape unfolds, scarred though it is, he still has some idea of where he's going. "That was Ambrose Airbase," he notes. "Viper assembly. Holy fucking crap," Yeah, that's about as creative as his swearing typically gets. "That's -gone.-"
One of the Marines in the back, a male Corporal nods out the windscreen. "I bet if you point your camera up at that airbase, you'll find rail-lines nearby. Track them back to where they come from. You'll probably have your production locations if they don't already give 'em to you before you launch." He adjusts in his seat, cracking his neck. "Pappy used to drive trains on Tauron. Did the same damned thing."
"Good man," Thea calls over her shoulder. She turns her Raptor slightly. "Let's see what we've got down there. Kiss, keep your eyes out for anything that doesn't look right or like it doesn't belong."
"Eyes are out, Captain," Kissy replies. Even he's growing a little on edge, at this point, and he leans over the DRADIS, keeping watch.
The cameras point down to the surface and sure enough, the railroad tracks are there. Following them they lead past darkened factories… that.. look like they might be damaged somehow.
<FS3> Matto rolls Technical: Success.
Thea keeps an eye out, though she's more contemplative now. "Damaged. But that doesn't mean destroyed," she says quietly. "Kiss, can you get a read on the radiation levels down there or do we need in closer?"
"From the site debris… looks like there was a gunfight… and a fire down there at the final assemply plant. Radiation is reading at above normal, but within tolerable extremes," Kissy reports carefully.
"Get pictures," seems to be Thea's refrain for the night. She and Matto are kind of like those foreign tourists at Disney World. You know, the ones who take pictures of every crack in the sidewalk and every bug on a wall. Over the planet they go a few times, coming at things from different directions, getting enough pictures to fill a few baby books. But finally Thea calls it a night. "Can you think of anything else we need to get, Kissy," she asks quietly. "Have we missed anything?"
"Hm. Can we make a couple of orbits scanning for radiological levels?" Kissy wonders, "See if there's anywhere on the planet still habitable?"
"Sounds like a plan to me," she says with a little smile. "We'll do two more passes to see what we can get on it."
<FS3> Matto rolls Technical: Great Success.
A few more passes around the planet and Kissy's artfully created an image of the planet (read: black sphere) and mapped the radiation levels onto it. "Looks like there are still some territories up north which are habitable. I've got them mapped," he adds, "Did we want to try to see if we could find signs of survivors up there?"
Thea considers that for a moment, then nods, once. "We might as well. One more pass then we're done. We can come back if we need to."
"Alright, Captain," Kissy replies, "Though the cylons seem to be missing in action. I'm not -complaining,- mind. Lords, no. I just wonder whether they're that well-hidden or whether they've just left."
"I'm not taking the chance they're out to lunch," Thea says quietly. "We're heading back to base. Spool us up for jump. Marines, I apologize there wasn't any action today. Maybe next time. I'm just happy to take you all home to the Lieutenant safe."
"At least we'll get our security deposit back," Kissy adds with a sort of jovial smile for the Marines in tow. "Alright, spooling up."
