Jack looked around at the other members of the team, getting a couple of nods and a couple of shaken heads in response. After a moment conferring with First Impact via radio, he chuffed out a breath - sounding slightly relieved. "Yeah, I reckon you can." he said, and eyed their rover. "There ain't enough room for all of us in here, though." The woman looked slightly deflated, and was about to say something. Jack held up his hand. "I got an idea, though." he said, moving over to one of the rovers that had defended the old colony. They were remarkably intact - most of their damage seemed to be superficial, except in the case of the scorched holes torn through the middle of the engine block.
Scepta and Meir walked over, looking at the rover thoughtfully. "Think our rover could pull it with the tow chain if we flipped it back onto its wheels?" Meir asked.
"That's what I was jus' wonderin', Lochan." Jack mused out loud. "Benny, Vic, go grab the rover and chain." he ordered, and within minutes the First Impact rover was backed up to the technical, Benny chaining its undercarriage to the rover's tow bar. With everyone out of the way, the rover threw up rooster tails of dirt as it strained against its payload. Slowly, it started to tip over. For a moment, it seemed as if the rover wouldn't have enough torque to get the job done - but then, with a groan, the technical tilted over and dropped onto its wheels, bouncing on its suspension.
"Alright, ever' one aboard!" Jack called out, and the survivors scrambled to get aboard the rover and the technical.
Benny unhooked the chain from the technical's side, moved it to its front, and mere minutes later, the rover was doing work for two, hauling the survivors to their new home.
[New Codex Entry: Settlers]
[Settlers acquired: 9 ZB, 1 Specialist (R&D)]
[New Codex Entry: Technical]
[Damaged Technical Acquired (Carries 2 crew+6 troops, armed with HMG) (Repairable with Garage)]
Nevill and Steve got to work, trying to repair the transport's engines. The discovery of the ravaged colony site had driven them to the conclusion that a getaway option was vital for the colony's - and their own - survival, out here in the Wildlands. But at the end of the week, they'd just wasted a bunch of alloy and wiring trying to attach the 'new' engines from the other colony ship to First Impact's.
Minor Failure. +1 XP to Steve, Nevill.
-10 DC to next repair action.
The machine shop assembly effort went slightly better. Claire, Roselia DuClare, Bob Smith and Michael Erickson worked as hard as they could to get the machine shop up and running by week's end. Their efforts were met by obstacle after obstacle - the ceramacrete took longer to dry than expected, a support beam fell on Claire and broke her arm, and in general, the build team's morale quickly dropped as the week wore on. But finally, on Saturday morning, the assemblers came online, the CNC machine fired up, and Roselia op-tested the lathe, punch and other machine tools.
First Impact was now ready to start making things.
[New Codex Entry: Colony Asset: Improved Machine Shop]
[New Codex Entry: Turnkey Blueprints]
[New Codex Entry: Turnkey Blueprints: Slug Throwing Rifle, Light Machine Gun, Heavy Machine Gun, Rotary Autocannon, Survey Toolset Mk I]
[New Production Options]
Painful Success. +1 XP to Claire, Roselia, Bob and Michael.
Claire is Injured for 3 turns, and may not participate in any physically-intensive activity.
Scepta, meanwhile, took the time to familiarize herself with her weapon, and train in the skills required to be an effective fighter. There was only so much she could learn, working by herself - but she did get the opportunity to improve her marksmanship against some static targets.
Success. +2 Combat XP to Scepta.
Ludwig, Dr. Mizzet, and the newly-awakened Kayla Futhark worked on fortification technology throughout the week. It quickly became clear that none of them were born fortification engineers, as every attempt at coming up with more than basic razor-wire barricades (which, at the time, they couldn't even make) was met with at best no result, and at worst a heaping pile of improperly fused ceramacrete off to one side of the colony, where they'd attempted to form a wall of the super-hard material.
It was frustrating, but Ludwig was somewhat sure that given more time, they could come up with better results.
Minor Failure. +1 XP to Ludwig Cristoffen, Dr. Mizzet, and Kayla Futhark.
-10 DC for next attempt at researching Fortification I.
After last week's adventures, one would have thought that Jack and Meir would have had their fill of exploration for a short while, but one would also be wrong. Early in the week, they hopped aboard the rover, and explored to the west again.
They traversed the rolling hills at a reasonable clip, the rover handling itself well both up and downhill. They discovered rivers winding through the hills, and forests began to dot the land before long. An animal the size of a small dog took to following the rover, curious and non-hostile. It had a long tail, a blunt, trapezoidal head, two large eyes and four sure feet - whose digits, on closer inspection, were splayed far enough apart and jointed just so... were those some form of hand?
They eventually lost sight of the little beast, and gained sight of something else.
A ship.
It stood on short landing legs, people scurrying about the base of a ramp that extended from its belly to the dirt, hauling up pallets of what looked like furs and gems. A rover and a mobile mining rig stood off to the side. It wasn't a very large ship - no larger than the First Impact colony ship, which was itself a converted tramp freighter, and not a large one at that - but it looked new, and well maintained. Down one side read the name: "LADY LUCK", and beneath that, in smaller font, "INDEPENDENT SHIPPING SERVICE - REGISTERED CONFEDERATE TRADE AUTHORITY CT-2501387"
Traders?
(All can vote)
[] Approach
[] Don't approach
[] Hail via radio
Success. +4 XP to Jack, Meir Lochan.
