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[Xander Morhaime]

Once the ship's boat was prepared for launch and all loose items removed from the hangar bay, the atmosphere was cycled out and the hatch in the Crow's underside opened up to the void of space. Charon floated out lazily before Evedro engaged the engines, sending the tiny craft for an encounter with the derelict giant. A craft repurposed for living quarters for one person wasn't perhaps the most comfortable passenger craft for an additional two people in full vacuum combat gear, but it was better than "swimming" across.

The view from the cockpit was rather monotonous - just the solid wall of the derelict gradually growing larger, details on the hull coming into view... vent ports, the occasional point defense nest, minor battle scoring...

The boat was perhaps half-way to the docking port when the whole craft shook as if it had just collided with a wall. From the cockpit, it would look as though Charon had hit upon some energy field, judging by the bright blue energy discharges seen dancing over the viewport and the onboard systems going crazy. Whatever the field was, it didn't stop the boat, but it sure as hell didn't do its maneuverability any favours. The thruster controls had become somewhat unresponsive, and the impact had thrown the course off a bit to the side, from the open docking bay door to a very solid ship hull.

Some course correction may be called for...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

SK, a piloting roll is called for. Of course, if you've any better ideas, feel free to enact those as well, but bear in mind that you have a rather limited time frame.

[S.K. Ren]

    "Ferryman of the dead huh..." Evedro muttered. "Elizabeth! Yurij! Things aren't looking too good. You're going to need you to prepare to jump. I'm going to try and give you a clear facing on the hull so get ready."
  Turning his attention back to the control console, Evedro brought the engine power down to a minimum. Sweat began to form as their momentum continued to hurl them towards the capital ship. Evedro's eyes lit up as he remembered seeing a sizable hole blasted in a nearby section of hull. If I can get Charon to land in that she might survive this little cruise...
  Gently, Evedro tried to coax the stubborn thrusters to tip Charon towards the hole. He only had a few moments to correct their trajectory. With their destination roughly lined up, he cut the engines out completely. Hopefully she wouldn't explode on impact. With slow cautious steps he made his way to the back.
    "Alright guys. Suits secure? You got everything you brought with you? Good!"
  Removing a panel from the wall he pulled what looked to be a handful of random wires out. Picking several of them he disabled the security on the Airlock door. Keeping an eye on the incoming surface, he rushed the two into the airlock. "On the count of three release the airlock and jump. One...two...... three!" he yelled, joining them in their evacuation.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Piloting Check (2d6=7)

[Xander Morhaime]

The hull breach may have been relatively close, but performing course corrections under extreme pressure was hard enough without having to factor in angle and speed of approach, or indeed any more advanced maneuvers.

The boat grazed the larger ship's hull some distance from the breach.
It deflected off the hull.
The boat's thrusters did not take to the impact well.
The "outer" side thrusters fired off a few seconds after impact.
The extra burn accelerated the boat back towards the hull.
They also gave it quite a spin on the way there.
You jumped.

Elizabeth's landing was best, though not perfect. She managed to aim for a corridor and after bouncing off a wall got her magnetic grapples to stop any further flying about. Evedro wasn't quite as graceful, bouncing several times more before finding something to actually grab and stay in place.

Yurij, well... the spin threw off his aim and sent him towards the rim of the hull breach, where the metal was rough and jagged from whatever had damaged it. One conspicuously long bit of metal looked to be particularly nasty, and straight in the flight path.

Yurij heard a clang.
Everyone else watching saw Yurij approach the metal spike at considerable speed, make contact with it... and stop, before lazily drifting back, leaving the sharp tip of the spike a bit blunted. It seemed it lacked the punch to get through the armour, though the force of the impact would sting like all hell.

Then Charon crashed into the other side of the hull breach. It was a curious thing, watching one large piece of metal plowing into another, far larger piece of metal, in complete silence. The mind insisted there should be an ungodly amount of noise, but there wasn't the slightest ring as the boat embedded itself some 10 metres into one of the decks, sending out a cloud of shrapnel it had displaced. The thrusters finally switched off.

So, you are left standing on the rim of a shallow, but quite wide breach in the armour plating of the giant ship, spread out - Elizabeth and Evedro in separate corridors, Yurij floating a short distance from the hull. You are alive, for the most part, though the boat that brought you here won't be flying anywhere any time soon. And if you had any doubts to your vital status, you heard Carrion's voice in the commlinks a few moments later.

"Query: Blue Crow to Boarding Party, what is your status?"

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Yurij's lucky he's got the armour, though the impact still left a mark in the form of 1 point of Endurance damage.

[Gargulec]

'Elizabeth, to the Blue Crow' muttered the solider to the intercom, breathing heavily. She took the crash surprisingly calmly, but was still a bit shaken by all the impacts. 'I have landed safely, I have visual on Yuri- though he is floating, and I lost contact with Evandro... can you tell if he is okay? I am awaiting further commands.'

[S.K. Ren]

Dazed, Evedro gave the surroundings a quick glance. Elizabeth was nowhere in sight and Yurij had been in his line of sight but had drifted off since.
  "Th....s Eved... *screech*" Evedro attempted to communicate but was interrupted by a sharp feedback. "Great just what fucking need right now" he muttered. A vacuum was not the best place to be fiddling with your HEV. Carefully pulling his arm into the main body of the suit, he adjusted the Intercom.
  "Hello? Testing, testing... this is Evedro. Can anyone hear me? I've landed on one of the outer decks in the breach. Elizabeth is nowhere in sight and Yurij is drifting somewhere, I lost track of him."

[Silhar]

The shock.
A thin stream of blood pours from the mouth.
Eyes open, vision plagued and narrow, the screen doubling for a while.
And the ship - further and further from the grasp. The Russian lengthens his arm, as if desperately trying to catch anything.
"??? ?????... ??? ???? ????????.", he whispers silently to himself, his head pulsing. Then, he turns the helmet's intercom on.
"Thiz iz Yurij zpeaking. Blue Crov, do ya copy?", he sneers, then spits blood, pushing the thruster-pack's button. Engine blazes with fire and Morgov gets closer to the deck. His heavy breath echoes deeply. He threads towards Elizabeth, the only squad member he could see.

[Xander Morhaime]

"Statement: Good, you appear to have all survived," Carrion said. Yurij had time to make his way over to the hull breach relatively near Elizabeth's position, and the light of burning thrusters would've likely drawn Evedro out of his corridor as well.

"Troubled Statement: It would appear the derelict's debris deflection shield is still active. That is the likely cause of the trouble you have experienced with docking. The Crow's own shield should be able to nullify the effect, however, a shield for a ship of this size would require more power output than what sensors are reading. Advice: Proceed with caution."

Back on the bridge of the Blue Crow, the doctor and the captain were treated to a display of the derelict with a rough structural analysis. The away team had to make do with Carrion's directions.

"Statement: The outer hull of the ship appears to have only a few corridors running through it. I have identified one most likely to lead to the bunker at the ship's core. Request: If you proceed ten metres keel-wise from miss Elizabeth's position and from there thirty metres aft-wise, you should find the corridor."

[Malek Deneith]

- "Well if you're all alive and past the initial shock I suggest you carry on with the investigation of the ship" - Dorans voice sounded in the commlink - "In the meantime me and Carrion will try to pick up what's left of Charon. At very worst we'll have more salvage to sell."

[S.K. Ren]

    "She doesn't look that bad... does she?" Evedro replied sullenly. Working his way out to the edge of the breach he located Yurij and Elizabeth a few decks away.

[Gargulec]

'Copy that, Blue Crow' Elizabeth murmured to the intercom, waiting for Yuri to float to her.

'Are you all right? she asked, when he finally reached solid ground. His armour was not pierced, but the very impact could have harmed him.

[Silhar]

"Y-yeah, zort ov. Thank you.", murmured Yurij, crawling back to the deck. "Could-a been vorse, ??. That vaz a huge zpike... And ye? Everybody'z fine?"
Appears that the Russian is still a bit stunned, but bravely manages to carry on further. He stands up, preparing his rifle and looks around.
"Nov. Let'z get ztarted."

[Gargulec]

' 'Kay, then. Few things first: we don't know what we can find here, so be on your guard, please. I'll take the point, Yuri will watch our rear. And, unless something starts shooting at you first, first ask, THEN shoot. We do not want any unnecessary causalities. Or property damage, for that matter.'

Elizabeth took a deep breath.

'Blue Crow? This is is Elizabeth, we are all ready to begin investigation.'

[Xander Morhaime]

"Confirmation: Understood, away team. Will be monitoring communications, report anything out of the ordinary."

It took a few minutes getting around to the proper entrance way - mostly because you had to keep a hold on Evedro's vacc-suit to keep him from floating off. The passageway's interor was also devoid of gravity, so keeping a hold on the magnetic grip-less party member was still something of a good idea.

As you went deeper into the structure, helped on occasion by instructions from Carrion, you couldn't help the feeling that these corridors weren't exactly meant for crew. You hadn't seen any life support systems, and little in the way of bulkheads - though the ones you did see were closed, forcing a change of route more than once due to the lack of power. There wasn't much sign of any crew either, no belongings or markings to help you find your way around. Without Carrion's mapping, you probably would've got lost quickly.

Between the winding corridor and the size of the ship, it took you a good while to reach the inner regions. Just under two hours at a steady walk, in fact. Eventually, though, you reached what looked for all intents and purposes to be the bunker structure that Carrion had detected. The main giveaway was a very solid-looking airlock door that now barred your way. Unlike the bulkhead doors you'd seen before, though, this one appeared to have power, if the blinking light the control panel next to it was any indication.

[Gargulec]

'To the sides' ordered Elizabeht, placing herself right next to the panel, so that when the airlock opens, no one would stand in front of it. It was a common mistake to assume that there was nothing inside, way to often fatal. Only then, she tried to command the massive gate to open.

[Xander Morhaime]

The caution, however well-founded, proved unnecessary in the end. The airlock panel lit up a friendly green with the words, "cycling airlock", and a few moments later the heavy door opened. Stepping inside, you quickly felt the tug of artificial gravity - quite the improvement for Evedro, at least. The interior was well-lit, clean, and looked in far better shape than the outside corridor. The interior panel worked well enough as well, and soon the airlock cycled again, opening up out to the corridors of the ship bunker.

It looked more like a luxury liner. The walls were panelled with what looked like dark wood, the floor appeared to be some sort of polished stone... or it could be imitations, but it looked damn fancy at first glance anyway. The halls were well-lit too, and judging by what your suit sensors told you, they had a breathable atmosphere. Whatever happened to make the ship a derelict, it certainly didn't seem to have had an effect on the bunker.

***

Meanwhile, outside the ship, the Blue Crow had taken its sweet time getting through the derelict's debris shield and pulling up next to the hull breach where Charon had buried itself. Once the remaining two crew members had finished preparing the salvage drones under Carrion's directions, the AI set to work extracting the ship boat. Around the time the away team got to the airlock, the extraction work looked half-done.