Of Dust and Desolation

[Bishop Morse]

Calloway County
July 22, 2517 - Shadow
5:26 P.M Local Time
10:39 P.M A.S.T


Shifting and rocking. That’s all any trip through a planets atmosphere could be described with. It caused the floor to tremble, and things to shake a bit on the shelves. Nothing generally ever fell off, the force wasn’t enough to do that. If there was something wrong with the atmospheric entry then perhaps that story would be different. Generally however things on ships such as the Chainless were kept locked up right. People that spent enough time on ships knew what happened when you didn’t do that. You go to sleep in space, and when you wake up on the ground, you’ve got a pile of cinnamon scattered all over the floor because its tin wasn’t locked in a cabinet right. For those that weren’t familiar with it however, it took a little while to get used to. It taught people a simple lesson in organization, as you had to have it to some degree in order to make sure things weren’t going to be falling all over the place. That wasn’t to say a lot of freighters weren’t crewed by messy people, typically they were. But there was ‘method to their madness’ and they all knew how to keep what was their in order.

On a planet like Shadow some people may be surprised to find the same shakes. Rumors suggested that such a place didn’t have an atmosphere, that it was closer to an asteroid at that point. But it did, and it was more the contamination to the soil and water that had caused the problem. It was one thing for people to settle out on moons in the Rim, with little to nothing, but the soil was generally such that things could grow, and rain did come. It may have been a hard life, but it was a livable one. On Shadow however, that was impossible. If it did rain, it was going to be that of acid, which would help further destroy the soil. There was still water on the planet, but it had been so thoroughly contaminated that you couldn’t grow anything with it, and after a certain amount of time, you’d likely wind up dying from the fact that you poisoned yourself. The Terraforming process took decades, and Shadow not on any corporate list for re settlement. It would be cheaper and smarter to terraforming six moons on the rim and make an atmosphere from scratch then to pump out all the problems that had been brought on Shadow. But even then, no one was likely to forget the reputation that Shadow had been scarred with. So it just sat as a barren rock floating around the central star of Georgia, as nothing but a dead zone.

But after enough time the rocking and shaking always stopped. Suddenly and abruptly things just leveled out as the craft would then be dealing with flying through atmosphere, instead of through fire. 

In the cargo bay, Morse stood on top of his yellow vehicle. He had placed two large empty crates on the front bed of the vehicle. He didn’t know what they were likely to find there, but he knew that keeping an eye out for anything useful and valuable was always a good thing. He didn’t want to have to run all the way back to the ship either if they found something that was good to have, and so the crates were seen as a good thing to have. Would he need them? Probably not, but it was better to have them just in case. Morse recognized that some of them may have been a bit spooked by where they were going. But Morse saw the location for what it was. Empty. He’d been to Shadow once during the war, and that was prior to it being completely destroyed. But this wasn’t much different then standing in a desert. No one was around, and nothing was there. So there was nothing to worry about. Hopping off the side of the bed Morse opened up his coat, and checked his pistols. He saw that they were loaded, and spun the cylinders. He very much liked his LeSnuf revolvers. They were better then the LeMats he was carrying for years, but they’re cleaner design made them more practical. Carrying his LeSnufs sometimes gave people the wrong impression, especially the dog tags he’d tied around the barrels. While he could take them off, he wasn’t going to. He liked them where they were. Now he just had them back, and it was like nothing had changed.

Placing them back in his holster he spoke. ”Don’t bring any rifles.” Morse said aloud, not directed at anyone. ”It’s just gonna be dead weight on this dead rock, and if we wanna carry anything off, you won’t be havin’ any fun luggin’ bullets you aren’t gonna need.” Morse made sure that the crates were latched down to the bed of the vehicle, tugging on the chords wrapped over them. He checked a lantern that he’d placed on the vehicle as well. They’d probably need the light, since Shadow was a very dark place. You could see for a distance, but the difference between night and day wasn’t very great on that planet. And if there was no power on the ship they’d want them. He checked a small but powerful light that he had in his hand. It was circular and no longer then 3 inches across, and was just a circle really. It shown very brightly and he put it back in his pocket. As far as things went, he was ready to go, but there wasn’t much that needed to be done.  

[Marcus O'Terra]

Marcus walked into the cargo bay wearing tough boots and dark pants, a dark denim. He wore a red and grey button up, that was faded, and his brown coat, which he was buttoning up. Morse was making sure the cargo crates were secure, and Marcus liked the initiative of the man. Marcus, however did not agree with his statement on rifles. 

He'd brought his, and as he walked up, set it down in the flat bed with an extra pair of clips. "Not Have and Not Need are two very different things, Morse." He said as he pulled up a handkerchief up around his neck. If the dust got bad he'd be ready there at least.

He pulled a pair of gloves onto his hands, pulling the black leather tight. Shadow disturbed him some, more than he had expected, thinking on the prospects of legitimizing his ownership of the Chainless. He had no illusions regarded his wanted status though. Still, it'd be a pretty bonus, to be sure. He vaulted up to the flat bed and walked over to the driver's compartment. 

He pulled out his Pistolu and checked it, before pushing on an easy attach pistol light on it. He checked the light, still good. He didn't know why, the lifetime on the things outstretched their users plenty often. The thought darkened Marcus' outlook on the whole mission, but only for a moment.

[Jay Fuller]

Jay was almost starting to regret not staying on the ship. Especially when he grabbed a holster and pistol from the armory. It was loaded and sitting at his waist, the holster attached to his belt. He was wearing a black turtleneck with a courderoy jacket over that. He was told it would be cold, so he came prepared. He wasn't wearing a hat, though, his brown hair hanging free around his face. It had grown a bit since he joined The Chainless. Not that he minded. He had long, dark gray denims that taipured out past the knee. He always liked the boot-cut style jeans, they just looked badass to him. His shoes were black boots.

He walked into the cargo bay and made his way to the vehicle that Morse was driving. He sat near the edge, looking around. Morse and Marcus had already seemed to be getting ready, but it didn't look as if anyone else had shown up.

Jay didn't say anything. He crossed his legs and leaned back, waiting. He was pretty calm now, which was suprising. He half expected to be freaking out or throwing up everywhere. That would probably catch up once they started moving, but as of yet he was oddly calm. Not that he was complaining, of course. He liked this cool version of himself. It was much more presentable than cowering in the corner and trying to hide it like he did all the other times.

[Ray Hudson]

Ray was sitting on the toilet. He didn't really feel like he had to go but he didn't want to have to use the restroom on the ghost ship. He sat there, waiting. He thought about the retrieval and how much the pistol was actually worth. Some people didn't understand the idea of spending disgusting amounts of money on something, simply to have it. But Ray completely understood. It was a sign of status, something to lord over someone and Ray was a supporter of boasting. The pistol wasn't exactly what he was into but he could certainly appreciate it's worth.

Thinking about buying things simply to have them, Ray remembered when he bought his cleaning robot. His former crew mates considered it a waste of money and they all knew that Ray had bought it on impulse. Ray saw the robot and he knew that he had to have it. He had the money and saw no negative's about purchasing it. Since buying it Ray didn't have to clean a single thing again. His one responsibility on the ship was now solved forever. He could now go about his days doing nothing.

After five minutes of nothing happening, Ray decided to give up and stood up. He left the restroom and made his way to the cargo bay. He was wearing an old, heavy charcoal colored coat. He had a coat like it years ago but he threw it out when he took a bullet in the shoulder. His clothing was mostly dark and he had a single pistol in his shoulder holster. It was a simple 9mm pistol with a silver top and trigger with a black bottom. He wasn't really concerned with the gun he was carrying, considering where they were but he decided to carry something regardless.

When he got to the cargo bay he saw everyone getting onto the large yellow vehicle. Ray didn't jump on just yet, he would wait until everyone was their and completely ready.

[Ilana Logan]

Ilana stood in the cargo bay near the yellow mule.  Someone had told her it was cold on Shadow, she thought maybe it had been Marcus.  Who it was didn't matter much, it just prompted her to dress a bit differently than she normally did.  Instead of her usual short-sleeved button up shirt, she was wearing a long-sleeved red pullover, her usual khaki pants and black boots, and the duster she had recently bought on Persephone.  She added the small knapsack, which was empty.  Of her usual assortment of weapons, she had only her six-shooter, holstered on her hip.  She didn't expect to need even that, but she refused to go anywhere without at least one of her weapons, as a just in case measure.  She had twelve extra bullets dispersed throughout her front pants pockets.  Though if it came to needing the extras, they were probably all going to die anyway.

She heard Morse bark an order not to bring any rifles.  He didn't appear to be talking to anyone in particular, but she hadn't brought hers anyway.  It was still locked up tight in her bunk.  She'd bought a security console on Persephone too, and paid a pretty penny for it to boot.  She had still been fairly pissed at Hawkeye then, and didn't trust him, though she didn't know him much better now and didn't trust him any more than she had then.  She was even more glad she had bought it when Amelia showed up.  She liked Amelia well enough, but liking someone and trusting them ain't mutually exclusive terms.  She'd installed it when they got the ship through atmo, and so far nothing had come up missing from her bunk, so she didn't expect it would now.  

She pulled herself out of her brooding and hopped onto the mule, taking a seat next to Jay, who was looking much more calm about the whole thing than she ever would have given him credit for had she not seen him with her own two eyes.  She gave him a grin.  Things may turn out just fine, or they may go to hell in a handbasket.  Either way, there was nothing she could do about it before it happened.  She'd just have to wait and see.

[Marcus O'Terra]

Marcus nodded as the crew was assembled, noticing the trend toward darker colors, Marcus wondered if they were planning on a funeral. It was a jest he chose not to voice. Things were fine without him bringing up burials and all that talk that came with it. 

There was the usual rumble as the ship set down where Marcus had designated, a moderate distance at that. The cargo bay door began to lower, and he could see the dust of the planet ahead. He pulled up the handkerchief over his nose, looking almost a bandit, albeit a short one. Still needed a good hat though.

Buy one? Wait for a gift... taking one off a dead man had a bad feel to it, but he had the thought, if only to quell it.

"We're all set?" He looked around, noone seemed to be missing anything, since they wasn't sense in carrying much to the party. "Ray, hop on, we're rolling." He motioned for the man to get on. 

He flexed his gloved hands and nodded to Morse to get things into motion.

He sat down and

[Bishop Morse]

Walking around to the back of the vehicle Morse checked a small mapping device in his pocket. It wasn’t a very expensive thing, and would work better if they were on a more civilized planet as it could key off of orbital points. Here it just had to go off the most viable transmitted signals. Those were pretty much going to be the Chainless and it was going to be probably picking up core residue from the Guiding Light. It wouldn’t be able to map out the terrain since it didn’t have almost anything to get that information from. While he could activate a pulse to get very close information, that was completely useless unless someone was just walking in the dark without a light. So at least Morse would be able to figure out their direction in the dark. That was a very important thing on places like this, because if you couldn’t, you could get lost extremely easily, and could just stay their till you died. Of course the ships scanners could probably find them, but if you didn’t have to make a call to be located that was always a good thing.

The only one who seemed to dispute Morse’s advice about bringing a large weapon was Marcus. In this situation of an emergency, Morse wouldn’t find that to make that much of a difference where a pistol wouldn’t. A pistol wasn’t heavy, and killed people all the same. There was a reason they were just about the most common type of weapon that the verse’ had to offer. ”Xīwàng nǐ xǐhuan tòng húndàn” Morse stepping up the back steps on the hovering vehicle. In his experience, weapons that looked like that were heavier then even the assault rifles, namely because they weren’t all made for war like situations. And leaving one on your shoulder for an extended period of time, while lifting other things, that tended to hurt after a while. But what did Morse care, he wasn’t the one holding it. Morse didn’t tend to lift any more then he absolutely needed, just because it was going to be difficult to deal with later.

As everyone got aboard the vehicle, Morse started it up. It gave a high whine and then a low engine roar. It was like that of a small spacecraft, and it wouldn’t surprise Morse if they were built out of the same thing. He removed several safety locks, and took the controls in his hand. He held them at the base, rather at the hand grips. He found driving like that easier then holding his arms up for a long period of time. He pushed the controls forward and the vehicle began to coast down out of the cargo bay and into the air of Shadow. Just as Morse thought, it was cold. It wasn’t absolutely terribly so, but it was worse then he would have liked. But he had been in all sorts of situations where there was lots of cold, and he was bundled up quiet well as usual. His well insolated coat made sure of that. 

It was dark outside, though that was just because of the extreme amount of cloud cover. You couldn’t see the central star of Georgia at all, and one could barely make out through all the clouds the shape of Murphy, the body Shadow itself orbited, off in the distance. It wasn’t much of a sun set, as the clouds were pretty much eliminating that. The ground itself was gray from what Morse could see. It had twinges of a brownish color in it, but it was mainly just grayish dirt. That might have been the large amount of running lights on the vehicle messing with the color scheme, but from where he was, that was it. There weren’t really any distinguishable land marks. There were just some rocks around, some small and some large. You couldn’t see much farther then about two hundred yards, and that was just because some of the light getting through from the star. When it got to be night time, it was probably just going to be the lights on the vehicle and anything else they had. 

”Welcome to Calloway County.” Morse said with a hint of optimism. ”Population, zero.” He continued. ”Local exports include dust and desolation. While you’re in town its suggested you come and visit our wide variety of abandoned and broken buildings, and come and try some of our amazing miracle water, as it’s truly life changing.... cus it'll kill ya.” Morse wasn’t blind to the extremely dark comedic nature of what he was saying, but he also wasn’t concerned. These people were long since dead, and people had been making Shadow-Jokes since the day after it happened. Now he was just on the planet itself, and he might as well make a few while he was there. The water of course would be life changing as it would probably start making it so you were no longer living. But it wasn’t likely that specific location was the place of a mass grave, any more then anywhere else. A lot of people on Shadow were evacuated when the bi-products of the bombings were really coming into play, but in terms of local bombings, there probably wasn’t a whole lot more then anywhere else. Not like on a place like Persephone, where you’d have a sky scraper hit that was filled with people, and it would come crashing down. Here this was just a tiny little town, and while there probably were some people dead there, there wasn’t a place in the verse’ that wasn’t exactly the same. Morse had come to accept this and had lived with it in a way that he could make snide comments at it. Other people doing it was irrelevant. 

So the vehicle kept on pushing forward in the relative darkness towards it’s destination.

[Jay Fuller]

Jay shivered at the cold wind when they started off. He crossed his arms. Once he got used to the chill, he relaxed a little. The planet's desolation was odd. Even when he was on Paquin, a planet rich in wilderness, he was still surrounded by people.  But since then, it was thriving metropolises. Or, as thriving as they get on Beaumonde, which, compared to Ariel or most other core planets, wasn't a whole lot depite they were both large cities. Here, it was cold and desolate. There was something eerie that this desert-like planet was both empty and cold. Jay didn't like it, and he was thankful he had the crew here. If he were alone on this planet, he thought he would probably go mad.

Jay smirked a little at Morse's little monologue. Under normal circumstances, he would find it more humorous, but the nervousness of the upcoming job was also starting to sink in. Jay suppressed most of it, and tried to keep himself in check. Being nervous and awkward wouldn't exactly help in any sort of job that he could think of. 

His current mood didn't stop him from making a comment, however, "Sounds like my kinda vacation."

[Marcus O'Terra]

Marcus looked out into the dark of Shadow. The name was more appropriate now, perhaps, than when the world was first named. Looking out at the hills, he wondered how it must have been to live here. The weather, the people, the songs, the dancing. 

Was it just the same as anywhere else in the 'verse? Did that make the lose of the world 'not as bad'. He wondered, his mind wandering from the mission.

Then Morse starting talking, and Marcus rolled his eyes a little, but when Jay added his piece, Marcus had to laugh. The doctor was certainly coming out of his shell, he had to give him that.

Marcus gripped the edge of the mule with his gloves, testing how the metal felt with the gloves between his hands and the metal. 

It felt familiar, if nothing else.

[Bishop Morse]

The vehicle kept its heading smoothly. There wasn’t anything really to avoid, any rocks were to small to even reach up high enough to hit the mule. Even if they did however the mule would no doubt do far more damage to the rock, and almost not even notice that it had hit anything. It was built strong like that, so that it could just shrug off any damage that it may take. The manufacturers weren’t exactly certain who would be buying them, but it was a fair bet it was going to be people that were further out in the border. Even if it was used somewhere like a core world, it would probably be put into hazardous environments, and most companies weren’t prone to buying vehicles that broke a lot. That was how manufacturers went out of business. So all around it was a big and tough vehicle. A big portion of that was why Morse had bought it in the first place. He liked larger vehicles more then he liked fast ones. He found it difficult to keep a handle on things that moved too fast, at least for ground based transport. So he liked this vehicle for exactly what it was.

Morse kept his eyes moving forward, and then down to the maping device that was on his lap. It was small and slid at one point right when they were starting out. But he caught in time and moved it a bit more centered so that wouldn’t happen again. He only had to adjust the course very slightly whenever he did. The thing they were looking for was relatively close, but in the darkness it was hard to see. But it was so large that the signal coming from it didn’t move almost at all on the maping device. 

After a very short amount of time, they came across a building. It was wooden and beaten down. It was fairly intact though it had some damage to it. After another few seconds they came across more. Some were in better shape then others, while more were just pieces of what was likely a wooden building that had been blown away. In the darkness, there appeared to be a silhouette off in the distance. It almost looked like a far off mountain range in the darkness. You couldn’t make out much of its shape, but it looked far away.  

Morse looked at the locator, and looked up. He didn’t really see anything and brought the vehicle to a slow stop. He turned one of the running lights sideways, and suddenly there was a bright shine on what looked like a metal wall. The wall was very high, and gray. Morse turned the vehicle and spread the lights out. In front of them, almost like magic, appeared a massive structure. It was the wall but it was very high, and slightly rounded. It was clearly not a wall, and it didn’t come from there, it didn’t match any of the structures that were in the area.

”Ho, shit.” Morse said looking up, realizing that he’d been driving next to the ship and not even realizing it for about a minute. He stayed looking up and from side to side to see as much of it as he could. It was easily over One Thousand Feet long, and well passed three times the size of the ship they’d come in on. Some bits of it seemed slightly damaged, and scorched. Overall however it looked like it was in fairly good shape. There was no real trail of impact, but with the weather that occurred on Shadow, even if there was one, it would have been eroded away by then. As clean as it looked, it was undoubtedly a ghost ship. There was no sound outside of a tiny little bit of wind that would blow by, and the sound of the vehicles engine, which Morse shut off once he realized they were there, though kept the lights on. ”Found it.” Morse said standing up. He was a bit taken back by the sheer size of this ship that was just laying here, and surprised that it was there at all, but that’s what they knew it would be there, so he wasn’t too confused. He hopped off the vehicle and stood on the ground. The dusty dirt was hard. He brought his ‘torch’ out and shown the light on the ground to see where he was standing. 

[Ilana Logan]

Ilana sat quietly on the back of the mule with the others.  It wasn't a long ride, but it felt long because sitting on the back of a mule in the freezing cold darkness of some desolate backwater planet wasn't exactly comfortable.  Her nose was a bit cold, and she had gone from feeling upbeat to being unmistakably snarky.  She could only be thankful that no one had spoken to her.  It was the scenery, it had to be.  Well, she supposed that should belack of scenery, because there wasn't any.  Between the darkness and the layer of crap floating in the air, visibility was low.  She pulled a piece of cloth from a pocket of her duster, unfolded it, and tied it around her mouth and nose under her hair.  It was kind of like a bandana or handkerchief, but at the same time, not like either of those things.  She felt a little better about breathing, even though a little piece of cloth wouldn't protect her from whatever she was breathing on this hunk of lu suh.

She was jolted from her thoughts by Morse's, "Oh shit."

She followed his eyes and saw a huge metal...thing.  If it was the ship they were looking for, it was a hell of a lot bigger than she had thought it would be.  Interestingly enough, the damn thing looked fairly clean.  It was supposed to have been there for a while, so that didn't make sense in her mind.  Morse jumped off the mule after stating that he found it.  She sighed thinking that he damn near drove them all right into it, and climbed down from the mule.  She looked around and waited for the others to get down so they could be on the move.

[Marcus O'Terra]

Marcus had a creeping feeling up his spine the last minute of the journey, the sort of feeling he got after he'd made a mistake, but hadn't figured out what it was just yet. It was disconcerting, because he recognized the feeling, but couldn't guess what it had been attached too.

When Morse shone the light and the hull of the ship was illuminated, Marcus had to let out a whistle. "That... is quite a ship." It was one thing to look at a massive vessel from the inside of a cockpit, in space. The frame of your own ship could ease the size of what you were approaching. 

On the ground, on your own two feet? The magnitude wasn't diluted at all.

He looked to Morse, who was getting off the ship. "Right, so where's our entry point?" Morse had much of the information, so if anyone could get them in, it would be him. He followed Morse off the ship and nodded to the rest of the group to follow suit.

[Bishop Morse]

Continuing to look over the large vessel, Morse began to think about where they were. He looked around and saw that the craft had come right down on top of that town, Calloway. It appeared to have managed control of its crash, as if it hadn't then the entire town would be nothing but dust. He'd seen ships this size crash before, and it really wasn't something that happened easily. Buildings all smashed to bits, lots of fire, and the initial shockwave. Looking at these buildings he'd have been surprised if the fire would have even mattered when put up against a shockwave a vessel this size would have made. Its tonnage easily had to be in the thousands, and that wasn't going to come down lightly. But assuming whatever forced the ship to come down hadn't been too damaging, they might have been able to keep it in control. He guess they might have probably burnt out the yaw thrusters trying to pull a maneuver like that off, but the act alone to see would have been worth the undoubtedly immense financial cost. 

These things didn't bother Morse though. He'd seen it done before, and this one happened probably in the same era when he saw the last one. But it had been sitting here for probably close to a decade, and even though those people probably survived, they were no doubt dead by now. That was something that Morse loved about this particular job. This was an empty monster with nothing in it but the valued belongings of anyone who'd made the voyage, on top of a hidden payout. Made it easier then some of them, when you had to start with a rifle in your hand, shoot in, and shoot out. Morse practically just had his pistols at this point just because he'd feel like something was missing if he didn't put them in. When something wasn't there, he'd notice, and it would bug him if he didn't have it. So he just had them there for that reason. Of course when the rest of this lovable pack of outlaws walked out with a gun, he'd have to have one as well. And he'd need to one up them anyway, so he at least had the satisfaction of that.

Hearing Marcus mention an entry point, and Morse already looking. "Well, this is port side." Morse said starting to walk along side it. He shown his light on it, and it was very good at for illumination. A large pan of the light was there. As he walked he continued. "That probably'll have a yield point of airlock… or boarding section." Morse said still walking along the side. He looked up and down, knowing one would have be there. Most ships had a number of air locks, but large ships like this had a lot of them, mainly for ease of moving cargo easily rather then dragging something like a desk all the way from one end to the ship or the other. He walked further down and finally came across a outline. It was a bit dented out, and Morse recognized the heavy airlock hinges when he saw them. There was a large latch on it was long, and probably twisted multiple times. Looking at it, rusted down, and weathered, Morse didn't even think for a second that it would open. 

"Like this" Morse said looking at it. Fortunately he'd anticipated a door looking like this and brought a special set of 'access codes' that would unlock any door. "Gotta go get the keys…" Morse said walking back towards the mule, to get a mining charge.

[Jay Fuller]

Jay said nothing, but gasped when he saw the ship. A shiver went up his spine at its sheer massiveness. He hopped off the mule, anticipation growing. Nothing had been in this ship for a good number of years, he assumed. That in itself was always creepy. His mind flashed to ghosts or animated corpses lying around. The idea of ghosts made him shiver -- those were button pushers for him. He didn't know why, but there was just something about them.

He walked next to Ilana, crossing his arms against the cold. The ride on the mule made him more than a little chilled. "I wonder how long this thing has been empty," he said absent-mindedly.

[Bishop Morse]

Walking over the dust Morse looked at the ground a bit. He wasn’t all that concerned about the scenery. None of it was all that consequential to him. He wasn’t extremely curious about a place that he could barely see that just wound up being empty from one side to the other. As far as he was concerned he was just standing on a border desert at night, and that was pretty pointless in terms of sight seeing. The ship itself might have been interesting, but he also couldn’t see much of that as it was. And because he couldn’t see much of it, he just took it for what it was. He’d seen bigger, and he’d seen bigger on the ground. Right now he more so just wanted be away from there. He wasn’t scared and he didn’t have that big of a problem with it, he just didn’t like the cold. The feeling was something on his skin he didn’t like. He kept his right hand in his pocket with the sleeve connecting over the small pouch so that air wasn’t shooting up it. As he walked a bit of air went up the left sleeve of his coat, and shot a shudder all throughout Morse’s body. ”Bruhhhhhh fuck it’s cold.” Morse said aloud as he shivered for a moment. He reached the mule after a few moments, using his light to guide him so he didn’t trip on anything. Though there wasn’t much to trip on he played the piano in a similar way to walking. If you couldn’t see what you were doing you were prone to making mistakes, at least he was. Humans were visual creatures and Morse was especially.

Hopping up onto the bed of the mule, Morse grabbed the large mining charge. It was a bit over two feet long, was about two inches thick. It was about as heavy as a manhole cover. As clunky as it seemed, there was a reason for it. These mechanisms had the machinery inside of them to judge the density of what they were digging through, and detonate a varying charge accordingly. These things weren’t powerful enough to bust through a bank vault, and they weren’t re usable, but they were very effective. Morse recalled that they’d used them to rip open the heavy door at the bank on Whitefall. Morse liked using these sorts of things because they were relatively cheap for him and were very effective. For a lot of basic miners they weren’t as easily obtainable, because in the bulk amount they’d need to use them for it wasn’t very practical. But if there was a really hard part of rock, and they needed get straight through, without damaging something valuable buried within it, that’s what these were used for. They also shot the charge in only one direction, assuming that’s what you set it for, so that it would force all of its power forward, and the only thing you’d have to worry about on the other side was maybe bits of shrapnel. Still it was good to take cover. Morse held it under his arm and began to walk back.

As Morse did, he started to wonder which direction the ship was in. He looked around and recalled he wouldn’t be able to see it if he wanted to. So he reached into his pocket and looked at the mapping device. There was the Chainless signal, easy enough to find, as it was the farthest out. Then there was the reactor signal he was looking for in the Guiding Light, which they were more or less right on top of. However something was different. Morse stopped a moment as he looked at it, making sure he was reading it right. ”Shénme shì dìyù?” Morse said to himself slowing down a bit. He turned the device to see if it was still reading what he thought it was, and sure enough it was there. 

Morse continued walking over to where the access point they’d found was, and where he’d left the others. ”O’Terra.” Morse said, walking over towards him. He put the mapper in Marcus hand and continued walking over to the airlock. He put the charge on it, and the device began to grip tight.”The yellow dot’s your ship.” Morse said, explaining the basic concepts on how to read it. ”The red one is this thing.” Morse said pointing at it.”and that yellow dot right next to it… is commin’ from inside.” Morse said continuing to set up the charge. It was a pretty easy process, he just had it read the density, which was quick because it wasn’t much, and it was pretty much ready to go. He came back over towards Marcus. He pointed at the device. ”That’s a weak signal that didn’t show up till we got real close here… and it aint what we’re lookin’ for. Cus what we want…”Morse said pointing to the left. ”Is on that side, and that…” Morse now pointing towards the right. ”Is on that side.” Morse had an idea of what it might be, but he didn’t know. But he knew he wasn’t exactly expecting something like that to show up on a dead ship.

[Marcus O'Terra]

Marcus watched as Morse walked back, laughing as the man complained about the cold. During the war, Marcus had lucked out in that he'd avoided the 'winters' of most of the battlefields he was actually on. But he had heard from those who hadn't that it was something to remember, being stuck in the cold and the trenches.

Still, Marcus had to admit, the cold was a bit fierce, what with the damn lumbering hulk. He wondered idly if it had anything to do with it. Did the colossal corpse of the dead vessel draw in the cold? Not in some superstitious manner, but in a general science-y heat way. Convection, and all.

He shrugged, thinking it was enough of a reason.

Morse came back with the charge, but was also looking at the mapping device, he didn't like the way the man was looking more at the mapper than where he was going. "Problem?" Marcus asked, but Morse was explaining on his own. 

Marcus stared at the dot, worried as much that it was putting out the same sort of signal as his ship, but it was a weak one, in it. or maybe ON it. The thing was top down.

"So we've got someone else in here?" He said looking down in the direction Morse pointed. "Or someTHING?" He didn't want to say reavers. Not now, not ever again. But if it was a threat...

[Bishop Morse]

Not blind by the concern that he probably put into the heads of those that were there, Morse shook his. He understood that they were in a touchy sort of situation. Not necessarily because of any actual danger but of the self perceived problems that may occur. Space dementia was a scary thing, and it didn’t take a very long time to take hold, it all depended on the person. But the same thing could probably happen in a situation like that. A cold rock, with no where to go. Morse ran a hypothetical through his mind. He thought that if at that very second someone crashed on the other side of the world, the nearest person to them would be ten thousand miles away, being them, and they wouldn’t have any idea. It would present a rather helpless situation. Fortunately they weren’t in that, and to their knowledge no one else was either. Still it was a somewhat scary prospect to someone that wasn’t thinking it all the way through.

Morse stopped shaking his head. ”Nope.” He said discounting the conclusion Marcus had come to. ”This signal is a tiny little thing, and is probably deliberate…. But it aint new.” Morse pointed out. ”A signal that weak, probably used to be a bit stronger, and has just been fading out over say a decade.” Morse suggested. He wasn’t the best there was with understanding such things, but he knew their situation, and that mapper in his hand he’d been using long enough to make a fairly accurate guess at what’s going on. ”My guess is its somethin’ the crew put out to get help and it didn’t work…. but I’d be willin’ to put a good bet in that there’s somethin’ valuable down there.” Morse said, his snide expression returning.

The way Morse saw it, was that the previous occupants of the vessel set up a signal close to where a lot of them were going to be. And that was probably going to mean that they had all their valuables there with them. One way or another he wanted to be down there to see what there was. If it was nothing, or if it was something, it was better to at least know. There was more to everywhere you went then what you came for, and it was important to seize on such opportunities, and that was exactly what Morse planned to do.

He walked over towards the air lock where he had placed the mining charge. It was completely set and ready, and all he had to do was either pull the detonator or set the timer. He reached in and pulled out a small cylindrical device. It had a tiny number display on it, and two buttons, one on the side and one on top. He stepped away from the charge and walked back over to where the others were. ”Blow it?” Morse asked, with his finger pressed down on the first button, which deactivated the safety and made the trigger button live.

[Marcus O'Terra]

Marcus listened to Morse's explanation and visibly relaxed. Morse knew what he was doing, that was for damn sure. The rest of his words were only more motivation to get this job done. He moved a bit more back from the charge, a respectable distance.

"We get the target FIRST, all of us together." He said, stating the plan aloud. "We come back to the entry point, check in with the ship. If all's good, we'll stop by and see what's worth leaving the back porch light on for."

He looked at the group to make sure they were clear before looking to Morse. Once everyone was back and ready, he nodded to the man. Strange, once enemies of a sort, now working together. Neither one dead, but bodies in their wake; at least in Marcus's.

"Breach and clear, Mr. Morse." He said, a hand on his side arm; if only out of habit.

[Bishop Morse]

The idea of moving around that large ship together wasn’t exactly what Morse had had in mind. It seemed sort of like a waste of time to him, since there was a lot of ship to go over, and there were only the four of them there. He knew they were going to miss things as it was, but that was going to make that easier. At the same time Morse didn’t really care. Money wasn’t everything to him, just more so a habit. He didn’t have anything that he really wanted and he’d more or less gone from owning a full sized home, to practically renting a room. That had severely cut down on his weekly expenditure rate. While in his mind he thought that he and Ray should say split off, he figured that since it wasn’t his boat that he road in on, he should probably just not bother. He didn’t want to stay down there too long anyway, the cold was a thing that he really didn’t like dealing with.

Morse turned around with the call to detonate. He held the device in his hand somewhat loosely, still keeping the activation button down. He hovered his thumb over the top button. He was far enough back that there wasn’t going to be any problems, and the charge was going to throw all the force forward anyway. Moving his thumb down onto the top button, there was a high pitched beep. That was normal and Morse knew what came next.

There was a large flash of light, and a heavy pitched bang going off. It was similar to the sound of an Alliance plasma cannon shot hitting the ground. Not quite like a straight explosion, but it had a higher whine to it that made it more distinct. That was really just because of the charges that were placed in it, but Morse never bothered to go much into the details of such things. So long as they worked and he knew a very brief version of why, the rest didn’t matter. The charge had kicked a lot of dust into the air, but didn’t do much in terms of a shock wave. As the dust moved away, and all lights were forward onto where the bomb once was, it was visible what the product of such a tactic was.

The airlock door had been blown clear off its hinges and inside of the derelict ship. The charge itself was pretty much all gone and broken itself, what was left of it. The door had a large dent in it and was laying just on the floor. Morse stepped forward a bit, not very cautiously since there was nothing there, and went towards the newly blown hole. ”Ding dong.” Morse called out into the empty hallway. This was something he frequently did when entering somewhere. He didn’t like knocking or ringing door bells, more often then not he’d call when he was at the door and just say that. As a result he said it here. The ship inside was dark, and about as cold as it was outside, but there was no movement, and no sound coming from inside, as would be expected. ”Looks like no ones home.” Morse said with a very serious face and his eyebrows somewhat lowered. He then began to give a light cackle sort of laugh, as he was prone to doing, and leaned against the side of the ship, since he presumed Marcus would want to go in first. 

[Marcus O'Terra]

The tension before the detonation was unnerving for Marcus, like right before a face off in a bar became a charlie foxtrot of bullets and bad times, except there was nobody staring at him with a gun. Least not one pointed to his head.

Morse pressed down on the button, and the breaching noise was a relief to the feeling. He waiting for Morse to indicate it was clear before motioning to the group.

"All right, quick and clean." He said leading the way, and entering the vessel. It was dark and only the faintest of running lights were still on. They had incredible life spans, on the trade off they didn't do much more than turn pitch blackness into just regular dim darkness.

That could be a lifesaver, when you're navigating a crashed vessel.

He navigated to a hall that would take them to their goal. It was a long straight path with only a few angles to the path to give a bit of 'scenery' the ship and work around the superstructure of the vessel.

He heading down the hall, toward their set goal, intent on finding the damn thing and moving on.