A Fast Exit

[EchoMirage]

Slowing down, Hollen's Prize approached a field of debris, forming a veritable ring around the fourth planet. Ancient ships floated in silence, dead but preserved by the airless chill of space. Their wounds spoke of their final moments: a dreadnought, its front hammerhead resembling a metal daisy, ripped open by a nuclear explosion; a cruiser blown open in its center by an ammunition explosion; a battleship almost unharmed, except for all its gravitic beta drive-coils having blown. Its gravitic sheath must have failed in an instant, spreading its crew as a very fine film over its interior.

A scanner beam swept across the Prize, then the hailing frequency opened. "Behold the glory of the People's Republic of Morskoi! Stand down, or prepare to be liberated!"

There had not been a Republic of Morskoi for about a hundred and fifty years.

[EchoMirage]

There was their target, the Lilarcor, a clunky freighter with added plating, connected to the side of a sleek cruiser that was pock-marked by impacting debris and charred by laser fire.

"Dammit Quan, don't sleep. Hit the scanners and tell me what we've got!" Yulo bellowed, slamming his meaty fist into the arm rest.

The Lilarcor was dead in the water, though a backup power source could be detected. The Morskoi cruised had dead drives, but the main power was online; fusion reactors tended to last. A few dim sources could be seen in the surrounding debris - shuttles? Escape pods? After all this time?

The cruiser had them locked in its sensors, the Hollen's Prize briefly hesitant. "Stand down! Any aggression will be deemed an attack against the People of Morskoi!"
Were there any people of Morskoi left?
The comm screen remained dead to the unspoken question, the bent star of the Morskoi emblem dispassionately rotating on the display.

[Dozus]

Quan's large fingers darted across the controls. "Scanning now, sir." Gone was his bravado, replaced with a militant air of precision. He prepped the laser cannons to power up, but not charging them yet lest the Morskoi take it as a threat.

OOC: Sorry for the delay, my Internet's been down for a few days.

[EchoMirage]

The scanner beam swept across the other ships and the surrounding debris - luckily the Prize had a model Quan knew well, and thus it documented every detail of the filigree gothic architecture of the Morskoi cruiser, tiny delicate sensor towers and coiled fantastic beasts around the muzzles of its terrifying weaponry, litanies of conquest on its landing bay doors, even the name of the ship. Desdemona, no less. The sweep revealed its scorched bridge, burnt-out shields, depressurized cabins and empty missile tubes. Some of the laser batteries on the prow might still have power, though.

Hidden in the debris, safe from all but the keenest prying eyes, were battle-drones, patiently waiting to leap out and wreak havoc.
One of them was hidden in the gutted wreck of a small freighter, misplaced in a battlefield of old.
"The Sour Cherry" Yulo gasped. "She's been missing for five years."

The scanner swept on. Faint, but still, the signal was there. Someone was alive on the Lilarcor.

"Any ideas, kids?" the captain rubbed his chin.

[Dozus]

"AI must be runnin' it," Quan offered. "Can't do much in the way of negotiations. Could we fake an old Morskoi reg code and convince it we're on its side?" The question came out rhetorical, and Quan shrugged as he answered it. "Maybe. But it's already pegged us as a potential hostile. And I reckon we don't have much time before it decides we're definitely hostile. So, whatever we do, probably quick."

[Autumn]

From the engine room Autumn viewed the sensor results on a secondary display with curiosity, awed at the sheer durability of the ancient hulk. To still run after all these years....

"Any ideas, kids?"

Autumn reached over and thumbed the intercom to respond, her eyes never leaving the screen. "I could boost our sensors to increase  resolution  in all this debris if you wanted, and  I doubt that old hulk has any weapons still operating on her stern, might make a good  holding spot while we determine our next course of action."

Not the most dazzling tactical solution she knew, but it was the best idea she had given the current circumstances.

[valadaar]

Jerome thought back to the takes of ancient Japanese Soldiers, lost on countless islands and fighting on when their empire had already fallen.

AI perhaps, or maybe even some poor soul recently released from cryosleep.  He knew how to deal with AI's, but not loonies.

He asked his PDA for whatever was on file.  Who knows, might even have some override codes left over somewhere.

He awaited the Captains call on the lasers, though was plotting a firing solution. 

[valadaar]

Jerome patched his audio through to communications..

"Desdemona", said Jerome, "We are standing Down. Now" - he said as he flicked the main power off the primary laser turret.  "We are having control malfunctions and need assistance with some repairs.  Do you have damage controls staff available? Please report..."

Meanwhile he typed to helmsman.

"Swing us around hard and point the engines directly at Desmoda, then enage emergency full fusion burn.  Hopefully the fusion exhaust will confuse, and ideally fry their sensors.  Hope everyone's strapped in... "

[Dozus]

Quan listened to Jerome's voice through the comm system, then read the text. He and Yulo looked at each other.

"Figure it'll work?" the captain asked.

Quan pouted his lower lip, then gave a short nod. "Could be. Any systems on a derelict like this are probably in piss-poor shape. And if it don't work, at least we're pointed in the right direction."

Yulo crossed his arms for a moment and nodded. "Do it." He thumbed the comm panel. "Strap down, people, we're coming around."

Quan grasped the helm controls and engaged the control for the navigational thrusters, firing the fusion ignition as he did so. The engines began to roar in the back while the smaller thrusters whipped the ship in a one-eighty. Quan fired the engines to full, the blast putting him further back into the pilot's seat as Hollen's Prize rocketed forward.

[EchoMirage]

"Thank you for your compliance, civilian vessel. Please dock and prepare for salvage..." the Desdemona managed to transmit before Hollen's Prize went to full throttle.

In open space, the speed may have meant nothing, but in the cramped confines of the debris field, it was more than enough. With the gravitic sheath off, the full uncompensated force of the acceleration pushed the crew into their seats, blood thumping in their ears.

Like a dreadful blossom, the prow of the derelict cruiser flared up with blinding fire, lasers silently cutting through dead ships as they trid to seize the sole live one. In their pursuit of their Prize, they found an unspent ammunition storage instead, and a broken vessel in their path exloded like overripe fruit.

The delicate balance was upset, wrecks tumbling off each other, spinning, crashing, scattering.

Blinded she might have been, but Desdemona's anger almost caught up - then, Quan saw an opening! A gutted dreadnought, with launch bays agape. The best way to get shelter from the thrashing ships, no?

He swerved up and hit the braking jets - but the bays were sadly cluttered with fighters that failed to launch, and Hollen's Prize crushed them as a wrecking ball as she skid along the bay.

Then, there ws silence, only damage codes blinking on the display.

"d**n, that was close. But the Lilarcor's still out there, strapped to that murderous husk." Yulo frowned. "Autumn, get at look at what is broken!"

[Autumn]

"Strap down, people, we're coming around."

"I guess they found my suggestion unappealing." Autumn commented to Minerva, grasping a near by support buttress and bracing herself for the acceleration surge.

"Keep your head down, if the previous mechanic didn't do a good job of stowing his tools and clamping down anything movable, we could be subject to a mini tornado of deadly debris!"

* * * * *

"Autumn, get at look at what is broken!"

Pulling herself back to an upright stance she thumbed the intercom and barked a quick "Yes sir!" in reply. Judging by the sound of the impacts, the Prize had flown through an exploding ship, or broadsided a derelict, either way, it was time to earn her credits.

(OCC: rolled a 65% for Autumn's Mechanics skill of 55%, not sure what kind of a skill % bonus I get for the ships diagnostic systems etc, PM me with the details of my damage inspection when you get a chance please?)

[Autumn]

Gritting her teeth Autumn punched several buttons on the nearest console, silencing the shrieking alarms, leaving the intercom set to open so she could more easily communicate with the crew, A quick scan of the damage readout made her ears droop as she cringed inwardly.

Bad, but not catastrophic, and we're in a ship graveyard so replacement parts shouldn't be a problem.

"We have a blown gravitic  beta coil, stress fractures along the starboard hull and a primary coolant leak for starters," She gave Minerva a reassuring glance before continuing. "We'll need to go EVA and slap some molecule weld on the stress fractures, but the coolant leak and beta coil can be patched up internally inside of a few hours; assuming we have a replacement coil and extra coolant in storage anyway."

"Might I also make a further suggestion my pack mates? A beast of that nature is built to take on prey of the Prize's size and smaller, resulting in our current predicament. However any great beast is vulnerable to fleas and parasites; and against that monstrosity such flesh and fur creatures as ourselves are but burrowing insects."

"Once our repairs are made, slipping across in hard suits to breach the hull from the exterior would allow us to gut that beast from the inside and achieve our target objective. Internal defenses would be a problem, but nothing we can't handle, assuming the rest of you are as familiar with personal conflict as I suspect?"

My last idea fell on deaf ears, hopefully this one will be greeted with more enthusiasm.

[valadaar]

Jerome sighed, but after seeing the firepower the old ship still had on-line, he was happy with how it went. AIs are cruelly literal and he really didn't think negotiations would have went well..

"General ideas  sounds good - but there are battle drones there too - and us in hard-suits would be easy meat for them.  We'll need to come up with a plan to deal with them as well.  We'll need the sensors tuned so we can find all of them before we move.

Some of these fighters here might be salvageable - we might be able to convert some into suicide drones to wear them down.   

It also may have a self-destruct system to prevent boarding. The Morskoi were arrogant bastards and they would likely do anything to keep the lesser folk from their ships. 

So, those are likely complications we have.  "

[Dozus]

"It's a not a bad plan," Quan said over the comm. "We throw some fighters in to blast the drones, hop on there and throw some charges around, we should be able to toast whatever's left of their targeting system, maybe even their power core. Doesn't have to be too risky, if we're careful about it."

"First thing's first, though. Anybody handy with a hydrospanner? Many hands, light work, and all that." The V'rak didn't mind repairing what he needed to, but he'd be wary of any of his own self-made repairs without supervision.

[EchoMirage]

"Great ideas, kids! Get fixing! Jarvis, you lazy git, you too!"

Yulo examined the displays from their brief confrontation.
On a datapad, he showed them to Jerome.
"A drone is here, in the Cherry's wreck. Two hidden on the satellite. Another two here in the debris. The last one Quan detected seems to have wandered off."

He tapped the display a few times, and proceeded to the scans of the two interlocked ships.
"The Lilarcor is docked at the Desdemona here, near the cargo bays. Whatever the bastard did, he got there without a fight. Watch out, she's still got air and someone's alive, so in the little fighter-drone drama-rama, she must not get hit."

He frowned, trying to remember.
"Never been to a Morskoi ship, but the bridge is usually well protected in the ship's center. You could sneak i through the cargo bays, the missile stores or the stern, the Desdemona took quite some beating."

Finally, he approached Minerva. "Time to be useful, kiddo. Here's a space suit approximately your size, and a pulser. It works like a charm in vaccuum, too." He handed her a worn but serviceable suit. The chestpiece had some light armor - but looked very much like someone had patched a few bullet holes from a hand cannon. The pulser was a light gauss hand gun, used to shoot solid slugs.

"So, what are you waiting for? Go save people, kick some Morskoi ass, and loot whatever you can! The Prize ain't flying on love and good humor!"

[Autumn]

With a quiet confidence Autumn continued to work, quickly stripping away burnt cabling and nano fibers surrounding the blown beta coil, barking in synch with a rendition of Fervors "Moon Lit Symphony on Bikor VII" that blasted from a portable stereo she found stashed among some rusty stem bolts, the welding torch a quick flicker of movement and the hum of her hydro spanner a steady rhythm of motion.

"Jarvis, run a diagnostic on the secondary power relays and let me know if any thermal couples are  in need of replacement, Quan could you give me hand with installing the calibrating the replacement coil please?"

Everyone working together as a pack, quite a nice feeling, hopefully it'll last after this damage is repaired.

[Dozus]

"You got it," Quan answered affably.

Climbing down through the ship's levels, he came to where Autumn was working and squatted down, adjusting his goggles a bit. He gave a hum that could've passed for a whistle as he saw the damage. "Blown good, hunh? Gotta watch how where I land 'er next time. Handles well enough for a boat of her class, though." He stretched out his fingers. "Okay, beta coil. What'cha want me to do?"

[Autumn]

"You did fine on the landing, no one got hurt and we didn't have any major hull breaches; I'd call that a win."
Pausing, Autumn gestured over to a hunched over power loader sequestered between several stacked crates, "You'll need to hop in that old gal, once I get these last few shielding panels unbolted we'll be able to access the coil; and with how big she is you'll need the power loader to move her out so I can ascertain the extent of the damage to it."

He's a d**n fine pilot, better then that vapor brain Jacques had working for him by a long shot, nice to see a pilot that can do more then just fly.

Grunting she slid one of the five foot wide  blast panels to the side, leaning it against  the wall alongside several others, the Beta Coil rested snugly in the wall niche, the casing cracked in multiple places and the stink of burnt wiring now clearly noticeable.

"There's a good chance we'll need to replace this beast, resealing the casing and replacing part of the coil might be possible as a temp fix if we're lucky." She turned to look at the captain with a questioning slant to her ears. "We have any spare coils Cap? Or do we need to go EVA and hunt for one?"

(OCC: Rolled a 64%/75% on Jury Rigging and a 03%/45% on Starship Propulsion Systems to determine if it's possible to rig up a bypass or if it needs to be replaced it all together.)

[EchoMirage]

"What am I, daft? Why would I haul a beta coil around?  Those things are usually exchanged in docks, for farg's sake! I need my hold for cargo!"
Yulo paced behind them for almost a whole second before he returned to the bridge.

The echoing static was pierced as if by a lightbeam by a transmission from the Desdemona.
Not to the Prize though, to a satellite miraculously pared by the wreckage. Then another.

Briefly, silence reigned.

Briefly.

Then, the satellites began chirping hence and forth and the hulk answering eagerly.
A choir of brief answers came back.

A much calmer Yulo returned to the laborious mechanics.
"Kids? I think the Desdemona swallowed her pride, and called for help. I don't know what may be coming, but we have a few hours at most before it coms knocking at our airlock. So. Hurry and go save the Lilarcor. We can play later."

He pointed to the fighters littering the bay. "Get a few rigged, and don't tell me you never stole a ride before. Jarvis and I will try to get some repairs done, ready to welcome whomever you bring back."

[Dozus]

Quan's eyes widened beneath his goggles. "Best to be moving, then." Looked to Autumn. "I can patch the fighers' engines up to flying, if you can rig their guidance systems. Figure slave 'em to the Prize?" He moved as he spoke, already opening a compartment and grabbing an EVA suit to disembark.

[Autumn]

Autumn nodded and quickly donned her hard suit, strapping the hand cannon she carried on her hip over the bulky armored leg pads, her tools following close behind.

"I'll rig up as many as you can drone rig," She responded,  mentally calculating signal strength and variance frequencies to cut through the oppositions attempts at jamming as she bypassed manual systems with practiced ease.  "These buckets are temporary firepower, so I'm going to red line the engine, com and weapon outputs; without pilots the added G-force won't matter much, and if they start to come apart at the seams near the end you can use'em as makeshift missiles."

I hope the Lilarcor's crew are ready for a rapid evac, the timing on this is going to be tight.

(OCC: 3 Jury Rigging skill rolls to represent the wiring up several fighters: 96%, 39%, 37%)

[valadaar]

Jerome walked in "Need a hand with the robotics?  That was my day job in another life.  I think we can remap the autopilot on these things to be more useful." <ooc 65 robotics engineering>


"Did we ever find that last drone?  We can't EVA until we know where it is - our suits aren't armored enough to deal with those things."

[EchoMirage]

Somehow, the Morskoi tech was impressive, with two unused fighters springing to life after half an hour, the third taking longer to rig. They were sleek, resembling predatory fish, with lasers for eyes and a torpedo tube along their length, hidden in the beast's maw.
How did they even find the time and resources to decorate their craft so?
Given their fate, perhaps it was effort mis-spent.

Nonetheless, it gave the crew of the Hollen's Prize something to look at, and fancy fighters to cover their way.

"Farg the sixth drone, you got them fighters. They can shoot it down once it rears its ugly head. Be sure to rig them up good, I'll steer them from the cockpit according to Jerome's plans; Jarvis can meawhile earn his pay. The doc is going with you - we have no idea in what shape my buddies are."

(OOC: you can give the fighters commands - basically, you call Yulo where and say where you need support. Now move it).

[Autumn]

"These three birds should give us sufficient cover there and back again, it's your call on how to proceed Jerome," Autumn took a short sip of water from her drinking tube before continuing. "Think there's anyway we can punch a message through to the Lilacor and let them know we're inbound? I'd hate to see us cut down by friendly fire before we have a chance to introduce ourselves."

Time to show us what you're made of mister security man.

She gestured to Minerva with a free paw, adding almost as an after thought, "We should give our newest member back her pistol as well; she's dead weight otherwise if a fight breaks out."

[Kassy]

After a short struggle with her suit, she checked it was tight before taking back her handgun from Autumn.

Full clip, one in the chamber, safety on, two extra clips, good. Might have to salvage something to shoot with when this is gone. Time to prove my usefulness.

"I know you don't trust me, but if you wanted to I could also monitor comms, that way the Captain and the Gunner can concentrate themselves wholly on keeping the ship safe."

"Or would you rather I came with you to help with the extraction?"

d**n it girl, keep the jargon to a minimum!

Continuing she said "It'd probably be better for me to be with you. After all the Captain can take care of comms easy enough, plus, who knows what else is there.."