Caught Between an Eridani and a Hard Place: Chapter 3: The Ship
From SSDC, Inc.
The Lady's Kiss is a Dromedary-class light freighter, a design which is outdated, but still very common along the spaceways due to low cost and the ability to keep running under almost any circumstances. It is a battered, aged hulk of a ship, with a lot of patchwork and jury-rigged modifications. None of this particularly helped when a small asteroid smashed into the starboard cargo bays!
In general, locks on the Lady's Kiss may be engaged by anyone with a level 1 Computer Operation check. They require a level 4 Pick Locks check to get past. The interior doors can take 50 points of damage. Lighting on the shipis currently sporadic, and may be determined as follows:
| 01-30 | Full lighting | ||
| 31-80 | Partial lighting. Lights are dim and flickering. | ||
| All vision-related skill checks are at a -40. | |||
| Missile combat incurs a -20 penalty to hit. | |||
| 81-00 | No lighting. Vision related skills are impossible. | ||
| Combat of any sort incurs a -100 penalty to hit, unless the characters can see in the dark! | |||
| (Note that Urga, Heinriksson, and Cully all can.) |
Portable light sources such as flashlights will improve lighting conditions by one level. Powerful light, such as that from a matrix, will give full lighting for the duration.
Locations of interest are noted below:
Contents |
1. Bridge:
The control center of the ship, the bridge has the following stations:
- Piloting:
Manually controlling the cantankerous old Lady's Kiss is a feat requiring a level 5 pilot spacecraft check just to get a feel for the controls. Activating the autopilot is only a level 2 check; the autopilot will avoid obstacles and hazards with level 4 piloting skill, moving the ship along a programmed course. Unfortunately, there's a security program to prevent unauthorized access to the console. This program requires a level 8 Bypass or Defeat Computer Security check to circumvent.
- Navigation:
Access to numerous star charts, the ship's astrolabe and hypercompass, and other neat navigational doohickeys is available here. With a level 6 Navigation check or a level 10 Computer Programming check, coordinates for a new jump to hyperspace can be plotted in. Laying in a subspace course for the autopilot is only a level 3 Navigation check.
- Sensors:
The Lady's Kiss has a sensory range of 1 parsec. Anyone making a successful Pilot Spacecraft or Operate Computers check at level 3 will be able to make sense of the readings; this information will be enough to allow a navigator to attempt to plot a course.
- Communications:
A communications console. What did you expect? The ship's "CB" is horribly out of date, but can be used to send an SOS with a successful Interstellar Communications check (level 1.) An IQ check at a -50 will also allow the broadcasting of an SOS. Such a message will be responded to in 5-20 days.
- Captain's Console:
You sit at it and look cool! In more practical terms, any of the other stations' functions can be accessed from the captain's chair. It takes a level 2 operate computers check to call up any given system.
Present on the bridge will be Lukaz, the navigator (see "The Crew,"below,) and the PC taking sensor readings.
2. Engineering:
The engineering section is located at the stern of the ship, near the engines themselves. The corridors between Engineering and the rest of the ship are currently inaccessible, due to large pressure doors which sealed automatically when the hull was breached. These doors can be overridden with a level 10 Computer Programming check, but anyone doing so had better be wearing a space suit at the time. A second set of blast doors will slam down 4 meters further down the corridor, one round after the first set is opened (a failsafe to keep vacuum from flooding the ship.) Unprotected characters exposed to raw vacuum will die in a number of rounds equal to their constitution score divided by 20.
A safer way to reach engineering is through the maintenance access shafts. These small, cramped crawlspaces did not depressurize during the collision, and can still be safely traversed by anyone of less than size class 6. Size class 6 or 7 characters will have a 50% chance to become stuck, requiring a check against the average of their Strength and Agility at a -30 to get loose again. Failure indicates that they're well and truly wedged, and someone is going to have to break out the blowtorch to get them free. Any hand combat occurring in the maintenance shafts incurs a penalty of -50% to hit. Dodge and parry penalties also suffer this penalty. Furthermore, any weapon larger than a dagger or pistol will simply be impossibly to use.
Engineering itself is a mess. Half of the systems have been knocked offline by the collision, and it doesn't look like most of them functioned very well even before the collision. To get the ship up and running again to the point where it can limp home will require four separate skill checks, all at level 5: a Computer Operations check, an Electrical Engineering check, a Mechanical Engineering check, and an Ionization Engineering check. For every round that one of the possessed crewmembers is able to wreak havoc here, one of these skill checks goes up by 1 level (determine randomly). When any check reaches level 10, that system has been completely destroyed and may not be repaired. Destruction of the hyperdrive (the Ionization Engineering check) will also destroy the collision field and free the asteroid ... but it will leave the ship dead in the water. Destruction of the electrical systems also means trouble, because life support will go offline. From this point, the characters will have 30 minutes before there is no longer a breathable atmosphere in the ship. Backup life support can be engaged from the bridge, a fact which a level 3 IQ check will reveal. Activating the backup system will take a level 3 Computer Operation check, and give the characters 10 days of bare minimum life support.
3. Weapons Locker:
This site is likely to be of very great interest to the characters. Their weapons and armor are being kept here, along with the spare spacesuits. Characters going to inspect the outside of the hull will be brought here and assigned spacesuits (standard ES-3 suits.) In addition to the suits worn by these characters, Cully, and Urga, there are from 2-8 additional suits. (Yes, this means that not all of the characters will necessarily have a spacesuit should they need one. Life can be a real pain sometimes.)
The locks on this room are much better than the average lock on the ship, requiring a level 9 pick locks check to disable. Furthermore, failure by more than 20 points will trigger the anti-theft system. The would-be safecracker will be subjected to a powerful electrical jolt, which inflicts from 1-8 points of damage (non-locational). Inside the room is all the characters' gear, the spacesuits mentioned above, and the following additional pieces of equipment: one human sized suit of Bear armor (size class 5), with environmental containment, an independent oxygen supply, Quick Sealant Unit designed to prevent rents in the armor, and skalers; a human-sized set of Cub armor (size class 4) with the same modifications, and a Ram Python's suit of AKMB, also with the same modifications. All of these suits have AKMH helmets in the appropriate size. Furthermore, the following weapons can be found: two BS-2 laser pistols, one RKM laser carbine, two tasers, and two M-90 concussion grenades.
4. Medical:
The Lady's Kiss currently doesn't have a ship's doctor, and the autodoc here is hopelessly out of date. It will attempt to treat any medical problems presented to it with an effective Paramedic skill of level 2. Some medical supplies may be collected here: 3 BRIs, 1 MBRI, two CRAs, and three doses of radiation treatment serum.
5. Crew's Quarters:
Where the crew and characters have been sleeping. There is little of note here.
6. Cargo Bays:
The cargo bays take up most of the underbelly of the ship. There are six of them; 5 are carrying vitamin-enhanced synthegrains. (The characters will not be permitted to keep this; it has already been sold. The Kiss is simply transporting it.) The sixth cargo bay, (the one to starboard and stern, near the back of the ship) was also carrying grain, until the asteroid struck it. The force of the collision touched off a small but powerful explosion that blew a hole through the secondary hull into the main ship (hence, the sealed off corridors).
Characters will probably need to enter this cargo bay in order to deal with the asteroid at some point. The bay can be accessed in one of two ways: by disabling one of the pressure doors and climbing down through the hole, or by performing EVM and entering through the outside of the ship. Inside, it is a mess of twisted metal; the rock is imbedded in the outer hull.
7. Gunnery Pod:
The Lady's Kiss is armed with one low-level plasma cannon battery, located on the top of the ship. Urga is very possessive of his territory, and won't let any other characters in here if he can help it. Due to the guns' position, they can't be used against the asteroid.
Next
Caught Between an Eridani and a Hard Place: Chapter 4: The Sound and the Fury
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Caught Between an Eridani and a Hard Place: Chapter 2: A Rude Awakening
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Caught Between an Eridani and a Hard Place
