You carefully lean out over the vertical shaft. “The deck we need is three ladders down from here at the bottom of the shaft, but I don’t like the look of that second landing. I can’t be sure from here, but several of the supports appear rusted and / or corroded. Combine that with this slime and I think we should take this slowly and carefully. Single file, and maintain overwatch against ambush. Neonate Cian, you may use your powers if they will make the decent easier, but you’re going first if you do.”

Cain nods and steps away from the party before beginning a soft chant. He eases himself over the edge of the mainince shaft, well away from any ladder, and then stands upright, walking down the wall of the shaft alongside the ladder. About a third of the way down the shaft his chant falters, and a soft whispering laugh briefly fills the air. Half a heartbeat later and Cian is thrown head first into the far wall of the shaft, some six meters away. He impacts with the unnerving CRUNCH of bone and metal colliding before sliding to the base of the shaft two decks below. Amazingly he shakes his head and stands up, apparently unfazed by the impact and the fall, and draws his SPP-5h Hand Cannon to cover the hatch at the bottom of the shaft.

Atellus curses, “MEDIC! WITH ME!”, then throws himself onto the ladders. Almost immediately, his reckless haste and the slime conspire to make him lose his grip, but he manages to grab hold of the ladder again and descends the last few meters much more sedately.

Kathrine descends the ladder much more smoothly, nearly slipping and catching herself twice. She promptly dicards here filth-covered gloves and pulls a medical kit out of her backpack, fussing over Cian and the blood leaking from his nose and weeping from the back of his head.

You shake your head and examine the ladder. It is still slick with waste fluids, but a cautious approach should serve you well.

Strength test at +10% (+0% base, +10% from cautious approach): Descend the Ladder. Success: needed 20: +2 successes.

Need 2 more successes.

The first few meters go smoothly enough, but you still find yourself cursing both mentally and subvocally at the weakness of your fleshy arms. You also consider speeding up your descent. Had you taken a fast approach, you would be 66.667% of the way to the bottom of the shaft instead of only 60.000% of the way down.

Strength test at +10% (+0% base, +10% from cautious approach): Descend the Ladder. Failure: needed 10: Extra 1d10 damage if Peril not avoided.

Peril: make Agility test at +10% or fall to the bottom of the shaft! Success: needed 10: Slid down the ladder for a while: +1 Success.

Still need 1 more success.

The next section of ladder proves slicker than the rest and your organic feet slip out from under you. You kick and flail wildly, but manage to catch yourself before you fall of the ladder completely. You give your arms and hands a begrudging apology, as they kept their grip and helped you convert your fall into a sliding decent. You are now 80.000% of the way down the ladder. You’d be at the bottom if you had used a fast approach, but it’s too late to change your mind now.

Strength test at +10% (+0% base, +10% from cautious approach): Descend the Ladder. Failure: needed 40: extra 4d10 damage if Peril not avoided.

Peril: make Agility test at +10% or fall to the bottom of the shaft! Failure: needed <44, got 84.

Take fall damage: 5d10 Impact damage.

The very next rung gives way as you put your weight on it and you begin to fall helplessly. Your backpack is torn from your back by a stray spur of metal. You start to twist in the air, but the floor is both too close and too far. You land heavily on your back, stunned briefly. Your eyes come back into focus just in time to see your pack, the butt of your LR-20c Blinkenlight lascarbine leading the way, falling towards you. Everything goes void-black.

Suffered 27 damage to the head.

Health at 0 / 13 - taking critical damage! 

Critical damage (head) -4 / 10: Character death imminent: burning Fate to avoid character death: 1 Fate remains.

Fate burnt: set health to 0 / 13. Set critical damage (head) to 3 / 10. Any further damage to the head will probably be lethal! Stunned (helpless) for the next 8 rounds (40 seconds). Movement speed halved for the next 9 hours.

You come too laid out on the floor of the maintenance shaft with Initiate Kathrine leaning over you. Everything feels slow and syrupy. Before you can blurt out any questions, she puts a hand over your voxcaster and raises a finger to her lips, indicating silence. You slowly creep a hand up to point at your head. She starts whispering in response to your question.

“Concussion, probably. If you didn’t have so much metal in there, you pack would have splattered your skull all over the floor. We’ve got a bigger problem though. Five floating things just moved past us further up the hallway. I’d call them servoskulls, but they didn’t have any skull, just a smooth metal dome the size of a dinner platter. They appear to be searching the next room we need to pass through, a Munitions Vault by the sign on the doorway. We have a chance to ambush them, or try to sneak past, but only if we keep quiet.”