Breaching the Derelict

JP with Omni, Jaxx, redsword_7, Kudzu, and CS

Setting the mood again, assuming you aren't shitting your pants already.
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Late Evening, December 16, 2183
USCSS Montero
Somewhere in deep space

Capt. Kenny monitored the display screens for anything out of the norm while sipping his coffee. He was concerned that Vera DID see something on the Cronus on top of the Montero being sabotaged, finding the Cronus at the same time and MUTHUR changing the mission last second while unprepared.

Roberts floated carefully to the outside door of the airlock to the Cronus. There was no gravity inside the umbilical.

"They have basic power to the door.", he announced. He looked the door over, making sure it was safe. "...and there is no card slot for entry. Unless someone had the codes? The inside of the door has some damage. Asahi, you're up. See if you can get it open?", he reported.

Ogai looked to him after suiting up and nodded, "Gotcha. I'll try my best."

He moved forward, looking at it for a moment, then looked to Roberts and asked, "What do you think will be best? I can attempt to hack the console or I can use my cutting torch? Personally, I'd recommend hacking the console first, just to see if I can."

Kenny asked MUTHUR for the access codes for the Cronus and received an unexpected response.

"1-4-2-6-0-1", she gently chimed. He then relayed to the crew, "MU/TH/UR said the code is 1-4-2-6-0-1. Asahi, try it out."

Roberts was on overwatch looking around the door and the Cronus with the shotgun at the ready.

Ogai sighed and mumbled under his breath, "Why didn't Roberts ask that earlier? Then again, why would I ask?"

He typed the numbers in, swallowing as he stepped back, "Ready to go?".

The keypad flashes a dim green. Ogai feels a slow grinding of metal as it unlocks. Red, he knew, would have told him that the code was wrong, blue would have told him the inner airlock was pressurized and that it wouldn’t unlock. Green was ready to open.
Ogai tried the button, nothing. He pried and wrenched at the unlocked hatch with no success. The damned thing was buckled outward and wouldn't budge.

Vera stepped up next to Asahi at the hatch. "May I? This is kinda my thing..." She held out a hand for the maintenance jack.

Ogai looked up at her and offered a small smile. He nodded and handed her the maintenance jack, rubbing his hands together as he stepped back to allow her to do her thing.

With her other hand Vera patted him on the shoulder as he stepped aside. She then examined the door closely before placing the jack.

Capt. Kenny sipped his coffee as he watched the crew on the vid screen. He had a bad feeling and was depending on his coffee to calm his nerves. He was hoping that he was blowing this whole thing out of proportion and that everything would work out just fine, but every fiber in his body was telling him that something bad was going to happen.

Then Kenny muttered, "I don't like this. I don't like this at all. Sure, there is nothing now, but in a second something bad will come out, and they're gonna get ugly somehow, and there's gonna be a million more of them."

The bent airlock grinded along its housing as Vera pried it open and peered into a deep black airlock chamber. It must have already been the same pressure as the vacuum of space because no air burst forth from it. Maneuvering her headlamp, Vera could see 10 ft down, there was a floor airlock entry to A Deck. But in order to open that hatch, the chamber must first be pressurized to match the ship's interior.
She entered and scoped out the room for anything out of the ordinary. In the bright light of the headlamp, Vera could make out scratches and dents in the metal around the interior of the entry hatch airlock. She pointed these out to the others and proceeded to examine the next hatch. She was curious to see if there was a window on it.

Roberts walked over to the marks and scratches and dents to see if he could determine what had caused the damage. He ran his fingers over the scratches. He had seen a lot in his time in space. He just hoped he could figure out this.

Ogai frowned at the scratches but looked at where Vera went too. It was not a good idea to split up. He looked around the room, his hands twitching slightly as an uneasy feeling seemed to rise from the silence and darkness.

"See if we can close the door and seal it. If not... all of this was for nothing.", Roberts says.

He determined that a person had been kicking and pounding at the door and buckled it outward, but it was a slide open hatch. There were scuff marks and scrapes in the paint. He thought it was possibly sabotage but that would be very dangerous and difficult. He found this to be odd.

"I think something tough and strong did this, Android maybe? I say we close the door and weld it with a light seam if we need to. To hold the air in here, but we need to move fast."

"Umm...I'd really rather not weld us into this thing... even lightly. Just my thoughts on the matter. If everyone else is good with it then ok.", Vera replied.

"I agree with Vera. If we make a mistake, we could potentially be welding ourselves into something dangerous."

Ogai crossed his arms, glancing around the room once more.

"OK" said Roberts. "Can we close the door and get a seal?”

"On it!" Vera said, returning to the door with the maintenance jack.
It was much easier to pry the sliding door open, but the door was now tightly wedged inside its casing.

"We don't have time for this. Capitan, pressurize the umbilical to match the Cronus if you would." requested Roberts.

Capt. Kenny asked MUTHUR to aid Roberts on his request and any further command on the mission.

MUTHUR 6500 took a read on the Cronus interior and began pressurization inside the 10 meter long umbilical now attached to the dorsal airlock.

“Ogai, can you try the door when the pressurization finishes?" asked Roberts as he readied his shotgun. "I will cover you."

As the chamber pressurized, sounds of the environment returned. Paddy Lohan came over the comms.

“Team, this is Paddy. Captain had too much coffee, he’ll be back soon. I’ll be your backup in the meantime.

You’ll notice the artificial gravity is still working when you climb down in. Also, currently, the only lighting is from those weak emergency lights. Your interior temperature is pretty low, guys. Deep freeze. We’re talking 0•F (-18•C).
The air is barely breathable, probably super stale. High concentration of carbon dioxide. Obviously, I don’t recommend taking off your suits just yet, at least not for long. Gotta get life support up and running in there or you won’t last long without recharging your air supply. ”

Ogai looked at Roberts as he listened to Paddy, before nodding, "Yeah, I can probably get it open when it's finished."

He swallowed as he sighed. He was not getting paid enough to do this shit.

“Pressurization complete.”, MUTHUR piped in over the comms.

"I can help, Asahi. We can do it together." said Vera.

Roberts responded to the information, "Where was their last stop? Does it state that?” He raised the shotgun and pointed it at the door.

Paddy’s voice crackled in, “Looks like they were headed to a planetoid dubbed LV-1113 way out in the 26 Draconis system. Searching for life-viable planets. No record of them arriving or leaving but they must have turned course to end up all the way out here. You'll have to access the ship's manifest to get more information, MUTHUR can only breach so much security without officially syncing with the other ship.”

"That's just great.", groaned Roberts. "So we really don't know what's on this ship. When we get this door open I will be point man; the flamer behind me. Last will be Bruce, you watch our back.”

“Yeah, you got it. Anyone got another one of those hi-beams? “, asked Jensen.
The airlock below was mechanical and didn’t have a keypad. Ogai twisted the handle and lifted the hatch with a slight pneumatic hiss. He saw a ladder leading down into the A1 junction, a small chamber roughly the same size as the airlock. There were two doors; one leading towards the bow and one towards the stern of the ship.
In the center of the chamber was another closed hatch leading down to B Deck. There was one circular ventilation shaft on one of the walls. The team descended into the A1 junction.

Roberts stepped through the aft doorway leading with his shotgun, doing a zig-zag pattern, floor up to the ceiling, checking any vents and corners. He stopped when there was room for everyone in the corridor.

"Close the door behind us. Flamer, watch left.”
When he thought the intersection was clear, he went to the right wall and walked along with it to a corner, checking the corridor to the right. All clear.

Vera checked the left and went back to the spot behind Roberts. All clear.
Roberts signaled everyone to the next corridor door. He took an overwatch position. "Open the door."

Vera pressed the button and the door swiftly slid up. Beyond it was a dark 20 meter corridor. Two ventilation ducts; one on the left and one on the right. Another door with a small window stood closed at the end of the corridor leading to the Cryodeck.

“Not picking up any movement.”, Roku stated, checking the Motion Tracker. She was a little worried about the possibility of a rogue Android as the Captain mentioned. She knew about the deterioration of the old models and possibility of malfunction.
Robert signaled for everyone to move forward. "Watch the vents and corners." he said, as he walked with his shotgun ready.

When they got to the next door he looked through the window.
Capt. Kenny returned from the latrine after wiping his face. The downside to drinking too much coffee is that you will need to visit the little boy's room. Sadly the stress was still building up inside Kenny's gut and he needed to cool his head down a bit before returning to the command deck.

Luckily, Paddy was back before he left. Before returning to the comms, Kenny got a new cup of coffee to help calm his nerves. He returned his eyes to the vid screens.
The ventilation ducts were all sealed and the area where a singular EEV (escape pod) had once been was empty. Roberts shined his light through the window. Ahead was a corridor that ran port to starboard, there wasn't much to see from the window.
Paddy came across the comms.

“You got 3 cryochambers off of the corridor ahead. If anyone is alive, they’ll be in there. Also, an elevator on either end of the corridor, a computer terminal toward the port side elevator.”

With Roberts on overwatch, Vera opened the door and entered the next corridor with her incinerator pointing down the starboard end. She saw a door with soft teal light glowing from its window and something on the floor beyond it in the darkness.
To the port side of the corridor, Roberts saw the dim green light from a computer terminal and two more tiny orange lights from the elevator buttons.

Vera motioned to the left and Roberts shone the hi-beam flashlight in that direction. They saw a slumped-over figure leaning against the wall just past the Cryochamber entrance door.