The Dashboard Melted But We ... (Ch. 3b: Day 1, pt. III)

NPC · Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 1:33 am

The ARK intranet itself, however, was eerily silent. To anyone with the unique view of the ARK's electronic functions that Tau had, it was apparent that something had gone critically wrong, as seemingly vital systems dropped off the grid, one after the other, with no sign of stopping.

The majority of the systems outside of life support had vanished, leaving behind scant blips of information, and life support was rapidly beginning to spiral into the red, as ancillary functions began to report:

Code: Select all

INTgnaut offline. Closing to conserve power!
INTgnauk offline. Closing to conserve power!
INTgnaur offline. Closing to conserve power!
ECgroves reports blocked flow!
ECgrovs1 offline. Closing to conserve power!
ECgroves reports blocked flow!
ECgrovs2 offline. Closing to converse power!
ECgroves reports blocked flow!
ECgroves offline. Closing to conserve power!
EChydrop offline. Closing to conserve power!

And on, and on.

The entire space station was — as far as electronics was concerned, rapidly becoming a moon-sized, orbiting brick, with no apparent way of stopping it.

Tau · Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 1:43 am

" . . . It may be wise to quickly to return to the shuttle acquire environment suits and personal illumination devices at this time. " He added to his previous statement to Rock, shifting his primary optics focus towards the nearby, otherwise occupied Hedgehog and devil nearby.

Diluss · Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 1:59 am

Coop stared balefully at the raccoon's unconscious cargo. He had approached close enough to hear the conversation in the interim, but no closer.

Locking eyes with wild badge's roving gaze, he spoke.

"So. What," he said, "no-where to put… her?"

Seafarinhare · Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 2:05 am

He looked over at Coop as he approached. Almost asked him where he came from, but decided against it. Stupid question. He let out a sigh.

"I don't know... I don't wanna leave her with the rent-a-cops. They have no idea what she's capable of." He said in a low grumble, "And they don't know where any GUN officials are..."

"Got any suggestions?" He asked, looking up at the big Eagle.

Diluss · Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 2:13 am

"Me?" The Eagle looked momentarily non-plussed, then:

"Well, what-ever those things you have on her do seems to work, but—"

"A," he said, holding out a finger the size of a banana, "she's insane."

"B," he began counting the points out, "she could probably rip you in half, and C," he finished, "she's angry. All the time. I dunno," he finished, morosely, "how long are those cuffs supposed to last?"

…

There was a moment of terrible after-thought, and then he said, flatly, "I guess if you know who she is, you know who I am too, right?"

Seafarinhare · Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 2:36 am

He looked at the cuffs that bound Tracer's hands behind her..then at Coop again.

"I don't know... My supplier just developed them in time for this mission. Guess...I'll find out." He said somewhat nervously.

Then Coop asked him if he knew him. He nodded, "Yeah, I know who you are... But you weren't involved in the attack on Vincent's Ball."

He paused a moment, then added, "Besides...your actions in Westside proved that you're no terrorist." He said with a nod. This is where he would normally flash a thumbs up, or something, but his hands were tied, fortunately.

"It must have been an awkward reunion." he noted, of course referring to Tracer and himself there on that mission.

Mie · Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 4:13 pm

Jam's lips tightened over her clenched teeth. It was clear she still had much more to say to the presumptuous hedgehog; her beady eyes glanced several times back and forth between him and the hand offering her a way out of what would surely be a maddening, wheel-spinning dialogue. Finally, the primate, visibly red in the face, snorted a puff of air out her nostrils, and turned on her heel with a dismissive wave of her hand.

"Whatever," muttered the monkey mutinously in parting. "Good luck gettin' help, bein' such an enormous dick and all."

psikeout · Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 4:23 pm

Meanwhile, Rock nodded vaguely at what Tau said, then did a visible double take, and seemed to get about three times more awake. He mouthed the words "environment suits" in silent echo. Tau had pertinent information, and as was par the course, was only saying as much as needed to be said. Normally, Rock liked this. However, this was a moment when details were very important.

"Alright," he replied, turning apprehensively back toward the ship. "Could you give us a full rundown of what you discovered?"

Tau · Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 4:55 pm

Tau gave a nod to Rock as the simian requested further information, and would do as asked, once more in a low voice for various reasons. (One being panicked masses is bad, mmmkay.)

"Due to the recent events, the spacial shift, and improper and premature activation of the colony's infrastructure, multiple critical systems are either failing, deactivating or have already been shut down.

"Current systems affected worth noting include the primary life support network, and communications - both internal and external. Currently, the colony's life support is operating on emergency measures, however, these systems have not been maintained in quite some time. A general lock down of the facility, including bulkheads, has been engaged, partly to maintain the remaining oxygen supply, and cannot be undone without sufficient power."

He paused for a few moments before shifting his focus towards Rock. "If you wish, I can repair your damaged equipment. It would not take long if i make use of the nanites collected from the P-100 series."

Rachel · Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 6:21 pm

The heavy llama suddenly started moving. Regaining some feeling in her arms she again tried to get free. Her arms jerked outwards suddenly, but then flopped back down as did the rest of her. she returned to the limp slug state she was in before. It was torture for her to be aware but unable to move or act, she was forced to just hang out and stew. Wild Badge's lack of information about the cuffs at least gave her some hope.

psikeout · Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 7:05 pm

His mind was abuzz with the issue at hand, so he had to consider Tau's offer a moment before giving a real answer. Eventually, he shook his head and replied, "Might take you up on that later. Doesn't sound like we'll lose atmospheric pressure—just breathable air—so for now, I'll connect a regulator and mouthpiece to a life support pack and be done with it."

His strides carried him quickly back to the ship (presumably with Tau and Jam).

"So, let's pick this apart," he sighed, and began brainstorming aloud. "We got a complete reactor failure, and we don't know what's wrong with it, so we shouldn't risk wasting time trying to find a way to fix it. Backup power is about fifty years old, and no go. Our options include ditching everybody here and going planetside ourselves, hoping somebody here has some idea of how to fix it, or tryin' to fix things ourselves."

By this point, he was inside the ship's bay, and rummaging through equipment lockers.

"We don't know anything about the planet out there. It isn't Earth. We don't even know if it has enough oxygen, or what. The greenery could be primitive... lichens for all we know, or something. That means getting ARK operational is probably in our best interests."

He was assembling his life support pack.

"Jam's got a Chaos Emerald. It could be used to generate electricity if we had somethin' capable of harnessing it. This is way bigger scale than just using a Chaos Drive or a ring, though."

He stopped, stared at what he had been working on, and thought a moment.

"The Eclipse Cannon operates using Chaos Emeralds," he stated. "Do we know if it would be possible to reroute power from it to the main grid?"

Greens · Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 8:22 pm

"Woah wop-- woah, hold up," came a voice from the back. Ace, looking a little more disheveled than usual, gripped at the side of a wall with one hand and tripped his way over to the others as he finished shaking the last pieces of his space-suit off in a untidy looking heap on the floor behind him. (Yes, it was a very likely possibility all that time was spent taking the thing off, and not for lack of trying, either.)

"The Eclipse Cannon? The top-secret experimen'al superweapon that almost blew up the world a few years ago? The one hidden away right up the asscrack of the abandoned government space ship, surrounded by aliens and monsters and experiments gone wrong?"

Of course, judging by the way his facial expression didn't move out the bounds of a stern-but-neutral, 'I hope you know what you're doing' sort of stare, he must've known there'd be no talking his way out of this one, and he didn't seem have any intention to. "...Just wanna be sure I got the right one in mind."

Mie · Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 8:28 pm

It was always remarkable in hindsight how quickly seething rage could boil down into a reduction of stress and fatigue, if only the heat source was removed. Without really paying attention to where they were headed, Jam followed in a beleaguered haze, only superficially taking note of Rock and Tau's exchange, until, perhaps unknowingly beneficially, the whiter primate began to bluntly and succinctly verbalize their predicament and potential solutions. Scrutinizing, analyzing, rationalizing...

... Then, along came Ace.

After the several-second stare that was nothing if not entirely deadpan, it was hard to even imagine being ready to tear someone's head off mere moments again.

"I think he meant the other one -- Y'know, the one with the heated massage chairs, and concierge service," chided the pinker primate. She flashed a glib grin, and a pair of thumbs up, adding, "Good guess though."

Greens · Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 8:35 pm

Jam's response was half a nod of acknowledgement, and half rolling his eyes (at the situation of course, not the monkey herself.) With that, his neck led the rest of him around the corner and into the crowd. "N'yah, well, wouldn't that be jus' swell."

Tau · Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 10:08 pm

Tau had simply continued to follow Rock back to and into the shuttle while he himself continued to remotely check through the failing systems he was able to gain access to. It wasn't until Rock posed the question about the Eclipse Cannon that he responded.

"In theory, your concept is possible. However, there are several issues with your idea, the largest being that I can not currently confirm the Eclipse Cannon infrastructure remains in an operational state after its last use." His focus shifted towards Aces direction a few moments before shifting it to Rocks equipment pack.

"The second, while less significant, is that systems you are referring to are located within the center of the colony, to which there are currently no direct route available, and indirect routes are likely to be devoid of oxygen. Some may even be depressurized due to the events surrounding the previous use of the system."

The Dashboard Melted But We ... (Ch. 3b: Day 1, pt. III)

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