"Ze sleep ov yours vazn't too good, ??????? ?", Matvieyevich utters silently, adressing Elizabeth, standing somewhere nearby. After a few seconds, he yawns as well, leaning his back against the wall. It appears that his interest in a purchase is relatively low. But, he decides to ask a question anyway - just for his own curiosity.
"Vould ye mind telling uz, zir, vhich ?????????? did thiz ship belong to before ?"
After a while, he adds, smiling keenly.
"And... vhere iz ze catch ?"
I may use my telepathic talents to check if the man will be lying when talking about "a catch". At GM's discretion, I would like to do so.
***
The formalities done, you descended to the docking bay. The first closer look at the ship was promising at least - the hull, while a bit on the dirty side, looked quite solid. A grav platform carried you up to the airlock located near the front of the ship. The airlock opened without any problems and let you aboard the ship. The interior wasn't exactly first-class, no frills or shiny paintjob, but no wires just hanging about loose in the corridors. The air was a bit cool here, colder than the station's atmosphere.
And then the shipboard AI spoke up.
"Greeting: Welcome aboard the Blue Crow," the voice said in a calm and measured tone with a metallic ring to it. "I have been notified that you will be taking command of this fine vessel. Introduction: I am Carrion, the on-board computer. It is my duty, and possibly - though unlikely - my pleasure to see this ship safely through any insane risks you may wish to expose it to. Request: If you will step up to the bridge, I can provide you with a technical readout of this ship and its capabilities."
The OOC thread should now be updated with info of the current ship in your possession.
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...
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.
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.
Piloting Check (2d6=7) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2751131/)
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?"
Yurij's lucky he's got the armour, though the impact still left a mark in the form of 1 point of Endurance damage.
"Hello," it said suddenly, in an artificial voice that still somehow managed to come across as cheerful and friendly. It also dipped a bit as it spoke before returning to face height.
For a sample of the voice we're going for here, see link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKVuPUY9D-A