As the crew of the Blind Jump continue to explore the bug-infested Founder site, they reach a large chemical lab. Miaulong notices a vapor in the space “Seems like there’s some sort of vapors in there – but there’s also a Founder’s medkit”. It seems that some of the vent hood benches are broken and leaking chemicals into the air. Whooey promptly stomps into the lab, with Shuhb quickly attaching the ribbon climber in case the crew needs to haul him out. Whooey manages to fix the vent hoods, but not before a small suit breach leaks some of the gas into his environment suit, but he swiftly patches it and retrieves the medkit, giving it to Binx.
After some continued exploration, the crew finds a room with a set of catwalks over a large pool of acid. A dozen flying insectoid drones patrol the catwalks, which themselves lack railings. “I don’t know that a single one of you can convince me to cross this room,” says Binx. The crew agrees, retreats, and tries another path. They come to a space filled with liquid nitrogen freezers; the entire space appears to be at an extremely low temperature. Six cold-adapted drones patrol the room. Miaulong steps in, fires his lightning gun, and singes one of the bugs. Lefty fires his microwave raygun at another bug, but misses. Max charges into the room with his cyberblades swinging, but fails to connect. Shuhb opens up with his array of needlers. One jams, but the other shreds a drone. Binx fires her needle rifle and takes down the bug that Miaulong singed. The surviving bugs surround Max, stinging violently and knocking Max off balance.
Whooey fires a microwave raygun and a bug shrieks but continues its attack on Max. Miaulong fires the lightning gun and another bug explodes with the heat of the ionized air. Binx fires again but her rifle’s power cell goes offline. Shuhb continues to spray needle fire into the bugs and punches a needle through a bug’s carapace. “Nooo, it’s losing the juice!” yells Shuhb.
Whooey microwaves another bug, which screams but keeps fighting. Lefty runs in with his Founder plasma welder but can’t connect with the flying bugs. Max swings his cyberblades wildly and carves a gash into one of the remaining bugs. Lefty swings his torch again but still fails to connect. Shuhb fires at the two remaining bugs and brings one of them down in a hail of hypervelocity needles. Binx fires her Founder raygun at the last survivor, scorching it as Whooey swings his welding torch, finishing it off.
The crew’s environment suits display messages saying “WARNING, extreme low temperature – mobility impairment. Move to a higher temperature area immediately.” Shuhb and Miaulong make it to an airlock without difficulty, but the others are too far from the exits to reach them quickly. Binx manages to reach the airlock, but Whooey, Lefty, and Max are all frozen in place. Miaulong, now thawed, returns to the room and uses his ribbon climber to drag his frozen crewmates out of the room.
Continuing their explorations, the crew find a corridor filled with dense fog. Peering into the fog, Miaulong says, “I see something moving up there!” A moment later, a large, winged insectoid with a spiked tail appears.
“Every room here is bad,” mutters Binx. “Every room is terrible. At least psychadelic world was pretty.” Max charges the creature, cyberblades swinging, but it dodges effortlessly, then swings its tail, sending a barrage of spikes at Miaulong and Whooey, but all of them ricochet off of their battle armor. Whooey charges with his welding torch, but fails to connect as well. Lefty fires his microwave raygun, and the creature shrieks and runs.
Further into the installation, the crew reaches an office-like space, where a wormhole coordinate fragment is scratched on a piece of thin plastic. A working holoterminal sits on a desk next to the plastic. Whooey reads the terminal and sees that the holoterminal is prompting for a password. Assembling clues from the objects in the room, the crew manages to guess the password and receives a chemical formula for an ultra-high-efficiency fuel. With the coordinate in hand, they return to their ship. After a bit of debate, they decide to head for the Place of Contemplation, Whooey’s homeworld, where they rest and re-equip before heading out on their next blind jump.
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