Marooned on Giri Minor
You can't bring yourself to stun the commander, who just hours ago was such an inspiring leader. So instead you start climbing up the rocky slope above you, making a strategic retreat to higher ground.
You turn frequently to see if you're being pursued, and indeed after a few minutes you catch a flash of red darting between the rocks below you--the tunic of Andrade's officer uniform. She seems like an anger-filled zombie in a single-minded pursuit. You resolve to run as far as you can, and resort to the plasgun only when all other choices fail you.
The ridgeline rises no more than a hundred meters above the desert plain, an irregular spine of rock with no shortage of small ledges and free-standing boulders. You have no map, and no idea where you're going, except that for the moment you are simply heading for the highest point.
But then you come across something unexpected: an ancient building built into the side of the ridge!
You scan the terrain behind you, and sure enough Andrade and her red-and-gold uniform stand out amongst the rocks; her pace is slower than yours, but she is still on your trail.
The building appears to be a medium-sized bunker, partially buried on the windward side by a massive pile of sand, but otherwise intact. What appears to be an abandoned road, also covered with sand and dust, leads right to it, probably from the colony site. A large door across the front of the building suggests this was a hangar of some kind.
There is a smaller door to the side, but it seems to be rusted shut from centuries of disuse. Your cracked rib is already throbbing in pain, so instead of trying to force it open with your body you blast it with the plasgun. The polysteel door jolts open, squealing like a Keltan walrus as it swings on its antique hinges.
The inside is so dark you need the handlight, but the dusty lightbeam illuminates something awesome: a small spacecraft, parked exactly where it was abandoned more than 200 years ago! You walk around it, examining its condition. The landing struts are all bent at an odd angle, as if an earthquake once nearly knocked it over. There are no hyperspace field generators, so this ship was not designed for interstellar travel.
But it otherwise appears in good shape. Might it still fly?
You turn frequently to see if you're being pursued, and indeed after a few minutes you catch a flash of red darting between the rocks below you--the tunic of Andrade's officer uniform. She seems like an anger-filled zombie in a single-minded pursuit. You resolve to run as far as you can, and resort to the plasgun only when all other choices fail you.
The ridgeline rises no more than a hundred meters above the desert plain, an irregular spine of rock with no shortage of small ledges and free-standing boulders. You have no map, and no idea where you're going, except that for the moment you are simply heading for the highest point.
But then you come across something unexpected: an ancient building built into the side of the ridge!
You scan the terrain behind you, and sure enough Andrade and her red-and-gold uniform stand out amongst the rocks; her pace is slower than yours, but she is still on your trail.
The building appears to be a medium-sized bunker, partially buried on the windward side by a massive pile of sand, but otherwise intact. What appears to be an abandoned road, also covered with sand and dust, leads right to it, probably from the colony site. A large door across the front of the building suggests this was a hangar of some kind.
There is a smaller door to the side, but it seems to be rusted shut from centuries of disuse. Your cracked rib is already throbbing in pain, so instead of trying to force it open with your body you blast it with the plasgun. The polysteel door jolts open, squealing like a Keltan walrus as it swings on its antique hinges.
The inside is so dark you need the handlight, but the dusty lightbeam illuminates something awesome: a small spacecraft, parked exactly where it was abandoned more than 200 years ago! You walk around it, examining its condition. The landing struts are all bent at an odd angle, as if an earthquake once nearly knocked it over. There are no hyperspace field generators, so this ship was not designed for interstellar travel.
But it otherwise appears in good shape. Might it still fly?