Space-Mad (Ch. 3b: Day 1, pt. II)

Greens · Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 7:53 pm

It had been a very long time since anyone had been inclined to help Ace strap on headgear in the appropriate fashion, and it took a very strong will to keep his lips pressed, and his pride in check long enough for Rock to do his thing. Thankfully, any blushing Ace may have been doing, however faint they surely were (if they were even there in the first place of course), were mostly hidden away by his newly sported helmet.

"Thank you," he could have been heard muttering.

With that, his fingers quickly traced the outline of his helmet securing all of the straps and latches he didn't know how to work, but was too soon interrupted by the feeling... or the lack of feeling his own feet on the floor. "Woah, s**t," he blurted, the brisk movement of his head looking down at his feet suddenly flipping him upside down. "What-- oh, God. Damn it."

It almost felt like a less extreme version of being caught going downhill on a rollercoaster, only now it was hard to tell which way was downhill. Ace was wriggling around every inch of his body down to the tip of his tail, but with no prior experience, he was caught gently floating and spinning in place for the moment. "A'right, hold up, hold up," he said calmly enough. "I c-- got this..."

Rachel · Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 9:29 pm

The llama tilted her head upwards as the red eyes on her visor focused on the bird. No way of knowing if that registered any sort of response from the armored llama as her face was entirely covered.

"Indeed." She replied, her voice came out mechanical sounding and slightly distorted. A moment later she reached out and grabbed the cat's foot, pulling him down towards the railing she was holding as well.

"Hold on."

Greens · Posted: Tue May 03, 2011 8:15 pm

OOC: Quickie response-post.

"gah"

Sure enough, where gravity failed, a helping (if not entirely friendly) hand had put the serval back in proper working order. And yes, he too found the handy dandy railings to keep himself steady by. "I said I had it..." he whined, his personal way of saying thanks.

NPC · Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 7:23 pm

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARK.

A harsh, ear-shredding buzz cut off any further conversation. The light above the door began to flash.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARK.

The inner door slid down, and there was a hydraulic hiss as it settled into its seal.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARrrr…

There was the sound of a distant motor, and then a rushing noise, and then the sound in the room seemed to fade away, getting thinner and more distant until it tapered off into silence. The air had been surgically removed from the room, and all the noise had gone with it.

Anyone not free-floating, who was holding on to a brace nearer to the outer airlock door, would hear a very muffled whirring noise as the vibration from the outer door's mechanism vibrated up their arms and into their head.

The door drifted open. There was a short flight of steps down, but—as the ship was in fact up-side down on the underside of the ARK, and there was no gravity—there was very little need for them.

In front of them was a giant shield node—a huge, glowing yellow pylon with a ring of steel plates around the base, where the electronics would be—with some work—accessible.

The gently pulsating wall of light separated the crew from the interior of the area, Mad Space. Breathable air would be inaccessible to them until it came down.

Diluss · Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 7:32 pm

Coop reached over to a small cabinet by the outer airlock door, and took out a very dense, very heavy-looking length of cable, with a clip on one end. He hooked the clip over one of the railings that lined the inside, and gently unfurled the rest of the length of cable.

It slowly filled the airlock room, drifting out in expanding loops like a comatose sea-snake.

"Clip on," he grunted.

He pulled up on a tab that had been velcro'd to the side of his space suit, revealing it to be a heavy strap with another, similar clip. He locked it over the cable, tethering himself to the parked shuttle to keep him from floating away during the spacewalk.

psikeout · Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 8:30 pm

Rock meanwhile did not seem to give a flip about procedure, and slung himself outside the ship loose. His momentum as he pushed out allowed him to arc and swing from the top of the doorframe, somersaulting back until he landed in a low squat on the side of the ship. Then, just a quick glance upward for orientation and aim, he fired away from the craft in a mighty leap, and went sailing loose across the immense void, toward the shield ring.

It was one of those things that, as a matter of optical illusion, looked very close to the ship, but was in fact a considerably greater distance just on account of its enormity. Drifting about as fast through the frictionless void as a car speeding down the highway, though, it didn't take long before the navy-clad primate reached his destination, forward flipped with a tucking motion, and landed solidly on a steel panel, the resonating bang of impact rattling through his bones.

With a tap of a button on his belt, his magnetic boots engaged and he became free to walk along the side of the structure. Their (at least relatively) smart design allowed him to do so with fairly minimal resistance, as they activated and deactivated individually with each step.

He homed in on the maintenance access panel he was looking for. He had already scoped the pylon out back when they first arrived; it was just a matter of getting it open and finding his way around its internals.

This did not take long. Whoever was last to leave the ship would probably arrive just as he was finishing up a searing cut along the panel's latches and hinges, using a handheld pistol-like device with a small, pressurized tank of some kind of gas jutting out its side. The blazing bright light died out, the apparent plasma cutter was stowed, and in its place came a crowbar. The way Rock handled it bore unfortunate implications, as if he knew his way around the tool much better than was justifiable by any aspect of his (legitimate) career. He practically whirled the thing out, jammed one end in the crevice between hatch and frame, and in a single motion sent the three-foot-by-three-foot little door flipping off into the depths of space, never to be seen again.

He slid the crowbar back into his pack, crouched, disengaged his boots' magnets, and pulled himself inside, vanishing like a diver into the inky depths of machinery and conduits. The deafness of space rendered it mute, but touch revealed humming and warmth. They were dealing with an immensely powerful structure, if the countless hazard symbols, labels, and signs on every little thing weren't enough indication. If anyone looked in after him to see just what it was he was doing in there, they'd find only a flashlight beam glinting around. As cramped as it was inside, the hole seemed to run deep.

...

...

...

Eventually, a voice came over the radio: "Tau. We got a diagnostic port and a comm line here. Which one you want me to patch your interface into?"

Diluss · Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 8:39 pm

"Huh," Coop said quietly.

He let go of the rope, and floated in the air lock for a moment, drifting in a slightly counter clock-wise motion from the motion of his arm. Then he turned, and slung himself lightly out the doorway, drifting out into the space between the shuttle and the station.

The tether snaked out after him.

NPC · Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 8:44 pm

The door that Rock had so gracelessly flung off into space had drifted for perhaps a hundred or so feet past the outer rim of the ARK, when it was caught by a stray meteorite. There was a flash of sparks, and the metal square was sent hurtling down into the stratosphere, where it evaporated.

The meteorite, brought to an abrupt halt by this sudden transfer of momentum, floated slowly through space, back in the direction of the ARK.

Tau · Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 8:58 pm

As the others departed the shuttle the small aerospace drone would zip towards each of them and hover a few feet away to inspect them before darting off to resume inspecting/observing the surrounding area, All the while utilizing it's assortment of sensory equipment to feed both video and various other sensory input to it's owner.

Unlike his drone,however, Tau was content staring up at the colony itself while the others were were prepping to depart the shuttle. After Rock has disembarked the craft Tau's focus shifted and he began moving slowly around the area, taking the time to insure each step he took was either, firmly dug into the surface of whatever he stepped on, or magnetized to it. He'd shift his focus towards Rocks location for a few moments when radioed before resuming his inspection of the general area.

"...Diagnostic will be sufficient. "

Mie · Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 10:12 pm

Jam, much like Rock, didn't much care for Coop's preventative measures, though lacked the white primate's experience to justify it. Merely, in her opinion, tethers were for children with propensities to get lost in malls and theme parks, and severely limited the potential for fun (see: dangerous) activities.

She floated out of the airlock after Rock at a leisurely drift, with an invisible grin.Tumbling about somewhat awkwardly as she attempted to orient herself, the green and black-clad monkey eventually wound up scaling the side of the ship in a weak attempt to mimic her forebearer's undeniably stylish trip to the pylon.

When at last she made it to the sight of Rock's forced entry, she peered inside anxiously, as if hinging on whether or not she needed to be doing anything. After the brief radio exchange, Jam piped up with her own contribution.

"Hey, boss," she prefaced, vainly squinting after the dancing flashlight beam. "What can anybody who ain't a walking hacking machine be doin'?"

psikeout · Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 10:26 pm

...

"We're ... practically 75% complete," Rock replied after some delay, with a voice that indicated his concentration on something else. "Just stand by. Watch for hostiles; find something to hold on to. The barrier will either weaken or fail completely. If it's the latter, the sudden catastrophic depressurization event may have the power to space anybody who isn't ready for it."

Silence again. What was he doing? Well... he didn't exactly have the convenience of knowing what kind of interface would be needed, so he was actually in the middle of wiring Tau's transmitter directly in. It wasn't a horribly complicated affair, but it was tedious, and he was doing his very best to do a record-setting soldering job so they could hurry up and get inside.

"Tau, all finished," he stated flatly. "Check for signal?"

He meanwhile anxiously awaited confirmation, shining his flashlight back down that claustrophobic corridor of conduits toward where he entered. As soon as he got the word, he was gonna get out of there.

NPC · Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 10:46 pm

The space rock drifted closer.

Tau · Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 11:33 pm

"Connected, stand by..."

A few moments would pass by before a reply. While he couldn't find a quick method to deactivate the shield, it wouldn't take him too long to find a method to weaken the shield.

"Insufficient access to profoundly modify the shield at this time. It is possible to weaken it for a short duration."

NPC · Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 4:26 pm

After some tentative resistance on the parts of the shields' security. Tau would find a way to divert energy from the shield nodes in the area.

The glowing wall of light ballooned out, eerily, like a sail blowing in the wind, as the weakened shields fought to compensate for the constant air pressure inside the zone. Holes began to appear in the most strained areas of the shield, laced with crackling arcs of energy and odd bursts of luminescent vapour where stray molecules caught inside edges were turned into ozone.

psikeout · Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 8:26 pm

Rock stayed where he was until the job was finished. With his hand resting on a humming metal wall, he was able to tell as soon as the shield generator suffered from Tau's tampering (basically by hearing through his hand, as it were).

"Alright. On my way out," he sighed with some relief, glad to be done. He wasn't particularly claustrophobic (one couldn't be while being an astronaut, at least prior to space's commercial boom with cozy-comfy-spacious spaceships), but the inside of the generator was uncomfortably cramped and noticeably radiating heat, even without air to convect it.

Rock began trying to turn himself around in the crawlspace.

Rock got hung.

There was at least one grunt and cuss that slipped quietly across the airwaves, along with a couple "clunk-bonk" kinds of sounds, likely his helmet getting caught on various metal doodads. He eventually must have given up, because when he emerged about fifteen seconds later, he did so backwards.

He engaged his magboots again and walked toward where the shield began. It looked like some sort of bubbling membrane ready to give way.

"Should be safe enough to force our way through, now," he stated.

...

Notably, he was not volunteering to do it first. (After all, if it incapacitated the first person to touch it, he would need to go do more work to disable it, wouldn't he?)

Space-Mad (Ch. 3b: Day 1, pt. II)

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