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Low Orbit


Supercape

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"Photonic."  Roulette exclaimed as if it explained everything away.  Taking more time to actually breathe in the air around him.  Which was far from fresh at this point.  "The transport we came in is near enough to recover the passengers if they take the escape pods.  As we already have to descend further towards the planet, we will pursue our quarry further."  He looked over Blood once more.  His nose scrunching up, partly due to the smell, acknowledging that it was likely now down to a two man chase.

 

Roulette, wasn't pleased with the situation.  But, he also couldn't help shake the feeling that he was missing something.  The criminal making a run for it wasn't anything new.  But, there seemed to be no exit plan.  Unless he had some way of contacting outside transportation, how was Photonic expecting to get off the gas giant?  The possibility remained that he was simply being emotional and in the moment not thinking ahead.  Photonic seems too wily for that.

 

Just thinking about it seemed like pure lunacy.

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GM

 

Some ushering and organisation later...

 

Varis was a big ship and well built. But there was no question, it was sinking. The Lor Supersplicer was cramped, designed for speed and speed alone. For the rich guests it would be an almost intolerable cramp. Even with the best will in the world, the Superslicer could only just take on board the guests. Whether its life support system would work for such a number was another matter...

 

That still left the Varis crew...in particular, Captain Gellis, Steward Vam, Engineer Parx, and six others, two pilots, two technicians, the cook and the hostess. And the Varis was starting to hit turbulance...

 

Parx was trying his best with the engines. They looked like they could be repaired...but it was a question of time...

 

Blood, despite her injuries and the loss of her gun, was still as determined as Grunt. 

 

Captain Gellis sat in his captains chair or the bridge, his squat body tight. 

 

"We are going into low orbit around Kapler-7..." he explained to the three bounty hunters. "We still don't know where Photonic is, or indeed if he is still alive...and most importantly, why did he jump out of the ship down to the planet?"

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"I would have asked.  But was busy choking to death."  Roulette added.  Silly though it sounded, the Zultasian hated turbulence.  It gave the false impression that things were worse than they seemed.  Which would have been fine had he been the responsible party.  That was essentially the dark skinned Zultasian's idea of a good time.  No, instead it was merely him being subject to the whims of bad luck.

 

"The why is important.  I won't argue.  Yet, I find myself more concerned with how long he has had an opportunity to accomplish this why."  The situation was not currently in their favor.   In fact the only way things could have been worse for them would be if there was still a breach in the ship's airlock.

 

"My foremost concern comes from attempting to predict lunacy.  Photonic has lost it pure and simple."  Not that it mattered.  At the end of the day, he was going to be another paycheck to collect.

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GM

 

A flicker later...

 

The lights flickered and went out. A dim red light followed, from emergency lighting, giving the lounge a very spooky feel. 

 

The chief Engineer, smoked stained and singed, walked into the lounge, clearly somewhat frazzled. 

 

"That's it. Best I can do..." he coughed. "I have diverted all power to the engines, or at least, the ones that still work. We can steer, at least, even maintain orbit. But escaping orbit...that's going to be pushing the babies. Might blow out more, and then we go falling" he explained. 

 

"But we have limited power. I pushed everything into the engines. Even life support. You want anything else, we start dropping. Not fast, but...drop we will..."

 

Grunt just grunted again, his armoured suit ready for action. 

 

"I came here to collect. That's what I'm going to do. We scan for him, drop orbit if we have to. Then steer this ship to him, collect the bounty..."

 

"And then what?" coughed Blood, a little recovered. 

 

"Hold tight till we get collected" grunted the Dog-Man. 

 

"I can do that...but we will be in low orbit around the planet. Windy, dangerous..." said the Engineer, who clearly did not like the prospect. 

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Roulette had already gone this far.  He wasn't planning on coming out of this job empty handed either.  "I say we don't even scan for him.  We'll drop orbit in our suits alone, and find him after.  Save as much power on the ship as we can for the escape.  We'll be karked if they have to try and haul this glorified hotel out of orbit too instead of just four bodies."

 

It was an awful, awful plan.  The slightest tear in a spacesuit would mean a bad day for anyone other than the canine.  Roulette hated flying off the cuff when it came to such matters.  Luck was to be a manipulation of circumstance and planning.  Not actual random probability.  Or at least that was how he saw it.  Not that circumstances had gone their way.

 

Free diving onto the gas giant's atmosphere was to be an example of such a philosophy.  At least the ship would be out of Photonic's reach in case he had means to try and storm it again.

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GM

 

"Are you mad? You have no idea where he went? Skydiving into a gas giant?" gasped Blood, shocked at the audacity of Roulettes plan. 

 

"Thats what I call a plan" grinned Grunt, truly impressed at the audacity of it, and sealing his own armoured suit, giving a thumbs up. 

 

"I...I don't know what to say" stammered the Captain. "That's the most foolhardy and heroic thing I have ever heard of..." he gulped, as he opened the airlock. 

 

Blood was fuming, torn up at the thought of the other two skydiving without her. But...she didn't go, and was incandecent with herself for not following. 

 

"I'm not going down there with you two absolute lunatics!" she screamed at them, displacing her own anger onto Grunt and Roulette. The former just ignored her. 

 

The airlocked opened, a blast of air pressure difference. The ship had indeed entered low orbit around the planet, the atmosphere here was thin, but not absent. Down, down...the atmosphere was a blend of clouds and colours below...

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Roulette wasn't an adrenaline junkie.  He loved messing with people.  Using his wit to toy with them for his own entertainment.  If anything he preferred to avoid danger.  But, despite his questionable pass the man did have a moral compass.  Or maybe just working with his more destruction happy teammates had a profound effect.  Enough so that he was willing to dive into a gas giant.

 

If anyone asked Roulette would say he was just doing it for the money.  But the fact was Blood was clearly injured.  Her not jumping aboard was to their benefit.  The ship was on its last legs so not risking further equally so.  Lives were at stake.  Roulette was merely being pragmatic and picking the option with the smaller casualty risk.

 

About a split second after he had exited the spaceship, he discovered how much less comforting that was when you were still one of the lives at risk.  Considering they were jumping into a gas giant he didn't expect there to be a landing zone.  The plan was to use his optic blasts to help maneuver around in free fall.  That was another one of those plans that were easy to reconcile with until you actually have to put it into effect.

 

Desperately looking around he tried to keep an eye on Grunt.  More importantly, he tried to find signs of Photonic as they entered the highly dangerous gaseous environment.

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GM

 

Down they flew, with the atmosphere steadily getting thicker and more opaque. Winds started to buffet them. It must have been approaching a terran atmosphere pressure soon. Clouds of wonderful colours streaked and bloomed. Whatever else was to come, Grunt and Roulette were witnessing a magnificent sight, and possibly creating a new sport. 

 

Then, something floated past. And another. What were they? Clouds?

 

No...the Gas Giant had natives. Giant megafauna, hundreds of feet across, floating gas backs with hundreds of tendrils behind it, crackling with electricity. Like titanic amoeba, or jellyflish, filled with some gas, or maybe kept aloft by static discharges, they wallowed, feeding on..what? Radiation? Storms? Who could tell. But these behemoths were strange and exotic by any measure. 

 

No photonic. 

 

But then, a stranger sight than the creatures they saw. 

 

An airborne habitat...also hundreds of feet wide, kept aloft by four enormous balloons of carbonite plastic and helium, a dome in the sky, crystal and steel and maxiglass, a hidden station...

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Roulette pointed to the airborne habitat down below.  The gelatinous creatures around served as a deterrent for those souls willing to venture into their territory no doubt.  If only one didn't have to be a loon or a fool to even consider going through a gas giant.

 

As the universe's first, and therefore premier authority, on gas diving Roulette aimed his descent towards the habitat.  Firing an optic blast to preposition himself on a miss was risky.  His vision was already tested seeing in infrared especially while firing meant the heat of a gas giant was obscuring enough to begin with.  Now there was the added bonus of avoiding electrical tentacles.

 

It was like a bad date.  Or a good one depending on the planet.

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GM

 

The floating station was magnificent, its clean shiny surfaces and ultra high tech architecture only improved by the magnificent clouds and gases of the planet it floated over. The particular gas clouds, and the ionic storms would make it almost undetectable to vision or sensors. 

 

Grunt arrived first, his amorued space suit propelling him to the main airlock with jet boots. Roulette was not far behind, propelling himself in a controlled sky dive. Grunt caught his arm as he made a landing. 

 

"Got ya" he grunted. 

 

"Airlocks sealed. Comm is down. I guess Photonic got in here first. Don't know how...there doesn't seem to be any damage to the station...gotta get in..." he said, firing up his wrist mounted lasers.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Roulette extended his hand to stop Grunt.  Rather than destroy their landing pad.  Therefore damning them to fall to the center of the planet.  Roulette thought it best to perhaps not enter that speak unspeakable horror.  "Hold on."  Reaching into the pouch of his uniform the trickster pulled out a small cylindrical device.

 

It was a multi purpose unit currently spitting out a small flame like a portable blow torch.  Moving it above the locks to the habitat the bounty hunter set about manipulating it.  Seeing as they were in the center of a gas giant the miniature torchlike object  wasn't intending to use heat to melt their way in.  Instead pressure, a more precise pressure than that of the planet itself, was being used to push in just right against the locking mechanisms of the airlock.  Aiming his hand with steady accuracy all the while.

 

It took some finagling.  But the sudden opening of the airlock spelled success.

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GM

 

There was a brief moment of repressurisation in the airlock, and then the inner door opened. 

 

It was dark, with flashing emergency lighting on the floor. The facility was high tech, with plati-steel plating, and computer interfaces everywhere. It had big corridors and top facilities. Living quarters, laboratories, recreation rooms, hydroponics...everything. The base could remain independently operational for years, at the very least. 

 

Except...

 

The computer was down, inoperable. The base had been hacked. Power was still up, but there was emergency lighting and warning lights everywhere. 

 

Grunt took a readout on his armoured suit, and powered down his helmet, exposing his canine face to the air. 

 

"Its good...good air...and I can smell him..." he said, pointing to his nose with one of his laser-powered gauntlets. 

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Roulette wasn't going to argue with the canine's nose.  Activating the equipment in place could serve them if it could send out a message.  But, Roulette wasn't exactly a computers expert.  Lying to a machine was harder than lying to a person.  It was also less interesting.

 

The bounty hunter set it aside as a problem for later.  The more pressing concern was the madman who had also snuck into the facility.  "Give me a moment.  Then you can lead the way."

 

Roulette looked over the paper work in the area.  Trying to familiarize himself with anything that looked like a floor plan.  Using his knowledge of the hard to spot Photonic.  Letting it all bounce around in his head.  Formulating how to capture the man with the least amount of collateral damage to the structure keeping them afloat.

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GM

 

Grunt lead the way, following his squat but clearly functional nose. 

 

"Easy to smell, in clean building.." he explained. "But...smoke...something is burning...I hope it is not Photonic. I...I mean we...have a bounty to collect, yes?" he said, gruffly. 

 

The Base was big, but not endless. Only the slightest of tilts and wobbles reminded of the fact they were floating in the high atmosphere of a gas giant. 

 

WARNING: LEVEL 1 DEVELOPMENT: HAZARD RATING ALPHA

 

Was the ominous sign they found after a few hundred yards. Inside, a trace of smoke. Perhaps gunfire. The laboratory was full of high tech equipment, some of it smashed. The Level 1 Development hub was actually a series of rooms and laboratories, but even in the first, it could be seen someone had been here...

 

Two security guards, either dead or unconscious. Three laboratory workers, in hazmat suits, the same. 

 

And a sixth body, a woman, probably in hert fifities, coughing and barely conscious, who croaked at Grunt and Roullette, croaking for help...

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