This action is preceded by the event Lucky Talon: Cygnari’s Assignment, which was preceded by Iron’s End: Three Strikes…
The beefy merchant known to most around The Shambles as Blot strides into the docking ring of Iron’s End. It’s about this time that the Lucky Talon is departing, which briefly draws Blot’s attention. But then he sets his gaze on the Dragon’s Flight and steps with purpose toward that vessel. He raps on the hull with leathery knuckles and yells: “MEP!” That’s all. Just “MEP!” It echoes through the hangar.
After having made a quick stop by the Lucky Talon to give Cygnari the promised medical supplies, Rosa thoughtfully turns to go back to her own ship. However, taking note of Blot she pauses, attempting to watch the scene from the shadow of another ship.
The Dragon’s Flight speaks: “Welcome to the hull of The Dragon’s Flight. May your stay be as pleasant as your departure.”
“Oh,” Blot replies, shrugging. “Thought you were looking for repair supplies. All good. Never mind!” He turns to walk back toward the marketplace.
The ship replies, “We are. What do you have on offer?” Same voice and it’s not Newt’s.
Blot pauses, turns, and walks back toward the ship. “Whatever you require, I can procure. The real trick is determining whether you can afford it.”
The ship pauses for a bit. “Well that depends on what Maintenance is willing to pay to get stuff fixed.”
“Maintenance?” Blot chortles. “Yeah, we used to have a chief maintenance guy. Odarite named Zyx. Last seen checking a power outage in the Dark Decks. Well, not seen so much as heard.” He shrugs. “Anything in particular you want to fix?”
“Well, there are aircon maintenance bots that aren’t doing much,” the ship replies. “Figure people like breathing.”
“Sounds like the sort of thing Zyx would say,” the chubby merchant observes. “Well, I could probably scare up the parts. Not for free, though. Not unless you go through Patch. You persuade her, I’ll make it happen.”
The ship would grin if the ship could grin, “Ok. Where’s she hang out?”
“She runs The Shambles. Only four-armed Nall I know,” Blot answers.
The ship asks, “Four arms? Seriously?”
“A couple of them are cybernetic augments, but…yeah, seriously,” Blot says, chuckling. “Anyway, go talk to her. And try not to piss her off too much.”
The ship replies cheerfully, “Will do. Hopefully she’s a fan of breathing, too.”
“She doesn’t like the smell of sweaty humans very much, so I guess it’s a double-edged sword, right?” Blot looks the Dragon’s Flight over with an appraising gaze. “Lots of demand for ship parts, you know.”
Rosalyn continues walking toward the Endless Seeker with one eye on Blot as he departs the Dragon’s Flight.
The ship says, “Yeah. There’s lots of demand for body parts, too, you know.”
Blot makes pistol fingers at the Dragon’s Flight, says “Pew Pew,” and then walks away toward the passage leading to the Shambles.
The ship responds with silence.
Rosalyn cocks her head at Blot’s gesture and follows at a distance into the Shambles
Blot continues through the marketplace, passing Sereta on the way to his vendor booth.
Rosalyn continues into the market herself to buy some herbs from one of the other merchants but one eye stays on Blot.
This action is preceded and then parallel (at least for a short while) to this event: Lucky Talon: Eyes On…
Blot stops near his booth as his commlink chimes. There are a few customers waiting to talk to him. He waves a hand, urging them to wait, and then taps the commlink activator: “Yeah?” He listens through the earpiece looped around his left ear. “You’re where?” Blot peers toward the ceiling of the marketplace.
Rosa finishes her transaction and steps away from the herb salesman’s booth before following Blot’s gaze upward
After a while Newt exits the Dragon’s Flight and heads for The Shambles and Sereta.
The station shakes violently. Lights flicker and go out. Gravity controls are disabled, leaving objects and people floating upward in the marketplace.
Well, Newt doesn’t. He rebels against the lack of gravity by remaining firmly attached to the deck at The Shambles. This, of course, doesn’t mean he’s not shaken. He flails about for a bit til he manages to squat and put his gloved hands on the deck, “What the snot was that?!”
Amber emergency lights come on, running on batteries. Sereta is clinging to a vertical pillar behind her booth. Like Newt, Blot’s got his magnetic boots activated, green telltales glowing on the heels. He sees his potential customers adrift in the air and calls out: “Find something to hold – the bots might get gravity back online in a few minutes. Or a few hours. Or never.”
Newt straightens up and looks around. Whoa! Lots of floaters. He waves to one or two as he begins to head forth in his quest to find Patch.
“Remain calm,” growls a four-armed Nall who comes thumping into the marketplace ensconced within a cargo exoskeleton. Spotlights shine from shoulder lamps on the mech. She uses two hands to manage the mech. A third clutches a pistol. The fourth bears the commlink that she speaks into: “Marshall Rake, you ok? Market’s in free float.”
Newt finally spots her (well hears her then spots her) and begins to head over. “Hey. Need help?”
Patch peers down at the small human. “You are tiny and therefore deserving of respect. What are your capabilities?”
Newt grins at that. “I fix stuff. Was going to ask if you wanted the aircon maintenance bots fixed but… ” He looks around, “It looks like the grav systems might want a look at first.”
“Yes,” the Nall agrees, “we should first repair the gravity –” She’s interrupted by the voice of Dorian Rake coming over her commlink: “He set off a warhead! And now there’s a dead-stick Rustborn warship about to –” He’s interrupted by another series of shuddering jolts, and the comms go silent.
“Among many other things,” Patch concludes.
Newt whoaas, “What was that?” He looks around. Then something clicks, “Whoa set off a warhead?”
“The dead-stick Rustborn vessel striking this station, I think,” Patch answers Newt. “But if we just declared war on the Rustborn, we could have chosen to do so without also leaving Iron’s End defenseless in the process.”
Newt’s face drops. “This kinda sucks.”
Rosa is busy trying to find something to hold onto. As she attempts to use a booth to anchor herself, her gaze shift’s to Newt and Patch because the Nall’s presence is somewhat hard to miss. She hollers over “What now?”
“It does,” Patch agrees with Newt. She turns her attention to Rosa. “Now we get the backup generators online to power the gravity controls. We turn things back on once everyone is safely holding onto something or magnetized to the deck. Then we need to determine how badly and where the hull was damaged by the collision.”
Newt looks over at Rosa and gives her a wave and then to Patch, “What do you need me to help with?”
“Alright. I assume the generators are the easy part. For someone on the ground at least”
Patch tells Newt: “Get your friend some boots. And then climb down six levels in the utility shaft to the hardened generator containment bay.”
Newt looks over at Rosa and waves again, “Hey! You need some help?”
Rosa nods “Get me some magnetic boots and I’ll go down with you to the generator”
Newt replies, “OK! How big? And you got money, right?”
“Size five” Rosa answers, patting a pocket where coins are kept for Newt to retrieve and quickly returning said hand to the stall before she floats off
Patch observes the exchange of money and shakes her snout: “If anyone charges you for boots under these circumstances, I’ll have their guts for dreadlocks.” She swivels her gaze toward Blot and shouts: “Size five magnetic boots! NOW!”
Blot gives a curt nod, smiles thinly, and then steps toward his booth. “I may not have size five, but perhaps a six, we just fasten it extra tight.”
Newt raises his eyebrows at that and looks from Patch to Blot, quietly watching the exchange.
Rosa nods and floats over to retrieve and put on the boots, activating them and giving a relieved sigh as they magnetize to the deck “Generator here we come”
“Good luck to you both,” Patch replies.
“Yeah,” Blot concurs. “Be safe down there.” He makes pistol fingers at Newt again. “Pew pew.”
Rosa looks sidelong at Newt and whispers “What the heck is that all about. You first or should I?”
Newt scowls slightly at Blot and looks up at Rosa, shrugging, “I think he might’ve shorted a circuit or something.” and moves off towards the stairs down.
“Who are you making pew-pew noises at Blot?” Patch hisses. “You go with them. Make sure they find the way and keep them safe.”
Blot opens his mouth to protest, but he seems to know better. His shoulders slump and he marches after Newt and Rosa.
Ros barely keeps herself from frowning and Patch’s latest order.
Sefra enters the shambles from her daily explorations trying to get a feel, sometimes literally, of the station right as the gravity gives way. The felinoid’s ears droop at it and the hood part of her cardigan starts to rise above her head slightly. “It is like one of the cave ice patches!”
Instinctively she slams her claws on her hand into the best spot on the wall to hold her self upright…then tries to push herself down to see if she can get traction with her claws on her wrapped feet. This takes Sefra a moment of steadying and finding traction as she find some kind of ‘rhythm’ of moment with her claws, also giving her a moment to take in the goings on between people.
At the mention of Blot going into the shaft she looks back and forth between them as if comparing the sizes. Then still in her quiet observer mode makes her way over to the group, almost looking like she would go on all fours for claw traction if needed.
Newt looks behind him and up for a moment at Blot and then ahead. Once at the ladder, if there are no complications, he grabs a rung and gives himself a controlled push down.
Rosa motions Blot in front of her, seemingly not trusting the man to take up the rear
“Hey, this ain’t exactly a picnic for me either, sister,” Blot says to Rosa, activating the flashlights on the sides of his boots. He peers down at Newt. “Sixty three rungs down, should be a vent opening.”
After she gathers that Blot isn’t climbing down, she reconsiders and after grabbing the EVA helmet from Blot’s booth starts down after Newt
Sefra has been following the trio like some kind of ghost at this point, despite the sometimes flail traction finding with her claws in the zero-g the whole time thinking she was GLAD she paid attention to one of her elders’ cave navigation lessons when she was younger with how much is looking for traction. Though swimming might be more apt here…
The Lyiri finally stops and tilts her head at the ladder down, but is also now ABRUPTLY visible, considering how quiet the observer can be.
Newt replies, “Okies.” and begins floating down, lighting his own way.
Blot can’t help what other people assume. Once he sees Newt and Rosa descending, he joins them in heading down into the shadows. But he stops, looks up, and sees the Lyiri peering over the edge: “You pouncing or helping?”
Sefra blinks a moment, “Oh, She can come help. She will follow after you.”
In not too long a time Newt stops and shouts out, “Found it!” He looks inside the vent, helmet closed now.
Sefra starts to climb down after making sure the ones ahead of her have enough space.
The vent extends inward, but its terminus is lost in shadow for the moment. Near the edge of the opening, three inert drones are scattered about – likely disabled by the pulse.
Newt hmms and goes in, staying at the edge. “Well… I can’t see anything much in there. There are three bots here, though, having a nap.”
“Just go on in,” Blot says as he stops on the ladder. “Duct goes about 15 yards, then there’s a hatch into the generator chamber.”
Newt looks from Blot to further in… “Okies.” and begins to make his way inwards and should nothing eventful happen, tries to open the hatch when he gets there.
Rosa follows in after Newt in case he needs help.
The hatch opens without any issues, but it remains pitch black inside the chamber beyond. A flashlight should help.
Blot clings to the ladder, then calls down: “No way I’ll fit in the duct, so you’re on your own for this part. But you’ll need to flip the activator switches on all six backup generators. Flip three times. The first two flips prime the system. Third turns them on.”
“Right” Rosa turns to Newt. “You wanna split this up? You do three. I’ll do three?”
Newt replies loudly to Blot, “Okay!” then looks back at Rosa, shining his helmet lights right at her face, “Uh, yeah sure. Hi again.” and then looks inside, checks for the floor and, if all good, flops on in.
The floor is, in fact, still there.
Sefra has climbed down at bit more behind blot listening to the conversations while trying to kind of squeeze in.
Newt looks around, trying to locate the six switches, “Thought this was gonna be more fun.” He points to the furthest one away, “You take that one.” and heads over to the closest, “I’ll take this one.”
Newt’s lamps make it pretty easy for him to see and interact with the generator switches.
Rosa moves to the furthest switch and follows the sequence Blot gave, then motions to Sefra and the switch beside her “You can take that one if you want”
Sefra tilts her head a moment, then navigates over to a switch to try to flip it.
Newt goes about doing his thing with the switches. He toggles each switch one at a time and then does the final flip to turn stuff on, “Well. Let’s see if this blows anything up.”
Lights start flickering back on throughout Iron’s End, including the marketplace and within the generator chamber.
“That did it,” Blot announces redundantly, giving a thumbs-up through the conduit. “Now we can head back up, make sure folks aren’t floating around, and switch the grav on again.”
Newt grins to himself and begins to make his way back, He stops at the vent bots and pokes one.
The bot doesn’t respond.
Newt frowns and moves onto the ladder, assuming there isn’t a giant Blot in the way, and heads on up and out. “The bot’s still dead. Looks like it might need more fixing than before.”
Blot is waiting at the top, along with Patch. The Nall is currently making certain that no one remains adrift in the air. People appear to be clinging to columns, light fixtures, bulkheads, counters. But once the gravity comes back on, it would become a race against stamina to get everyone down. “Start helping folks get down to deck level,” Patch urges.
Newt looks up at the people most likely to go splat and ponders a while, “Do we have something like a cable we could shoot near them and they could then pull themselves down? Something with a magnetic end that we can switch on and off?”
“Maybe,” Patch replies. “But it might be faster and less trouble for someone to put on an EVA suit and use maneuvering jets to help people down.”
Blot raises a pudgy finger: “I remember giving a suit to someone around here.”
Rosa nods and goes to fetch the suit as quickly as she can. Once the suit is in place, she floats up to hug a woman struggling to get down about the waist and guide her gently to the ground
Newt’s shoulders slump a little but then he looks over at Rosa as she runs off and then watches her return with the suit and start performing rescues, “Looks like she’s putting it to good use.”
“I want it back in good condition, though,” Blot grumbles.
Newt grins at that and ponders a little. “Maybe I can help. I don’t suppose you’ve got a jetpack or something I could borrow?”
“He’s got at least six,” Patch says when Blot starts shaking his head vigorously, and then he turns that into an emphatic nod.
“Sure. Be right back,” he says, stepping carefully toward his vendor stall.
Rosa methodically continues rescues but it’s definitely more than a one-woman job
Blot returns with a jetpack, which he hands to Newt. He opens his mouth to say something, but then looks at Patch, forces a smile, and puts his hands behind his back.
Newt takes off his backpack and puts it near Patch before taking the jetpack from Blot, grinning, “Thanks.” and begins putting it on. Once done he looks up and around before spotting a likely rescuee. Grabbing the controls with his gloved hands he starts heading off towards them. “Whee!”
The people clinging to high perches are all too happy to have Rosa and Newt assisting them down to deck level.
“Thank you so much,” burbles a Castori hunched next to Rosa as they settle onto the floor.
A Timonae woman helped down by Newt peers at him, confused. “Are you old enough to operate that jetpack?”
Newt grins, “Looks like it.” and zooms off once more.
Sefra climbs out of the shaft after them all still using her claws for traction. Then looks around trying to get a read of everything while the others are zooming around on jetpacks, also trying to get the hood of her cardigan from free floating into her face every so often.
Once everybody is safely down and no free-floating objects appear likely to drop onto the unwary, Patch speaks into her commlink: “Restore gravity systems.”
Moments later, the grav boots are rendered unnecessary.
Patch dismounts from the cargo mech, tells Blot to return it to its berth on the far side of the Shambles, and then looks toward Newt. She’s actually a bit shorter than the boy. “Now the true work begins. We must assess any structural damage caused to Iron’s End.”
Sefra flips her previously floating hood of her shirt off her face as it drops and looks around blinking. “She mostly knows how to repair armor and weaponry. She is unsure about structures..may speak the same though.”
“If you need someone on comms in here, I can do that as well as patch up anyone who sustained minor injuries during the loss of gravity,” Rosa offers.
Newt considers this, not yet giving back his jetpack, “I can go outside.” He says betraying some excitement in his voice. “Just need stuff to figure out the damage. Big stuff you can see. Little stuff?” He shrugs.
“You are all quite adorable,” Patch comments, looking at her three volunteer assistants. “What we really need is to get the drones back online. We can send them out to examine the hull without putting lives at risk.”
Newt raises his eyebrows, “Are they all operational?”
“No,” answers Dorian Rake as he comes strolling into the marketplace. “And it’ll take hours to get just one repaired. We don’t have hours. The life support core systems took a hit. We’re leaking oxygen. Someone has to go out, find the leak, and seal it.”
Newt sticks out his gloved hand, “I can help with that.”
Rake furrows his brow as he considers the gloved hand and the boy to whom the glove belongs. Patch notices the skepticism and chimes in: “He just helped rescue our floaters after getting the generators back online. If he thinks he can help with our oxygen leak, let him.”
The marshal sighs. “Fine. But I’m going along just to keep an eye on you, kid.”
Newt does an exaggerated shrug, looking happy regardless. “You don’t have to but if you wanna you wanna.”
“I’m not sending you out alone and then dealing with angry parents when you get hurt,” Rake counters. He scratches his cheek, then adds: “Although, we should get them involved too. You have a ship, right? Let’s ask them to take us on a tour of the hull.”
Newt raises his eyebrows, looking a little less happy now, “I thought life support needed fixing.”
“It does, but I don’t think we can spare the oxygen for EVA suits,” Rake says. “Your ship has its own life support system, right? I’m commandeering the vessel for emergency purposes to get a better look at our situation. Wherever we’re losing oxygen, it seems like it’ll be near the hull breach.”
Newt bluuuuhnks, “Uh. Ship needs fuel and stuff.”
“We can spare the fuel,” the marshal assures Newt.
Newt considers this. Might as well try for gold “We’re gonna need sandwiches, too.”
Serata is brushing herself off after the scare without gravity. “No sandwiches, but I can provide ration packs. Recovered from an old Consortium military freighter. Foil sealed. Should be fine.”
Damn it. Newt’s shoulders slump, “Fine. You know… you don’t need to commandeer the ship or anything just to oxy up an eva suit.”
Rake accepts a few foil-sealed ration packs from Serata, then nods to Newt. “Lead the way, kid. Every second we waste arguing, we’re leaking more oxygen.” He looks toward Patch, adding: “And I know Cygnari managed to disable the Rustborn ship, but I’m worried they’re not all dead over there. We could have boarders. Arm up.”
Newt grumbles and shifts along, “There are off-limit parts of the ship to visitors and stuff, you know.”
“I’m sure your folks will give me the house rules,” Rake acknowledges as they head toward the docking hub.
Patch bobs her snout at Sefra and Rosa. “You should go along and see if you can assist.” Then she turns her attention toward Blot. “Gather whatever weapons you can find. I’m putting you on Rustborn watch.”
Newt uhuhs lost in his own thoughts as he heads for the docking bay.
Sefra’s ears droop at the talk of people being dead. “She was far enough away to not hear if they did die…” the feline shakes her head and starts to follow towards the dock “she will try to help she supposes.”
“Hey, are you sure we shouldn’t put someone else on guard duty?” Blot asks Patch. “I mean, I’m happy to help, but maybe I should tag along with the kid and bring some EVA suits and any other equipment they might need for repairs, yeah?”
Rosa nods ” I’ll be glad to tag along” she replies following Newt and Rake toward the Dragon’s Flight
Newt suddenly realises something and says quietly as he walks away, “Pew-your ship looks tasty-pew guy is not coming on board.”
Rake stops at the comment from Newt, then looks toward Patch and says: “Blot stays on watch. We’ve got enough hands for this already.”
Newt comments as they approach the ship, “We will need stuff to help repair things. Like instant-filler for quick repair jobs for crack and stuff.”
“You sure you don’t want Blot along? He probably has ample supplies of that stuff,” Rake replies.
Newt stops now and looks up at Rake now, “Would YOU want someone who suggested taking apart your how and pew-pewed at you repeatedly in your home?”
The marshal stops, frowning, and turns to look down at Newt. He crosses his arms. “Look, I get it, Blot’s annoying. He’s condescending when he’s got no right. But he does have resources. You don’t want him on board? That’s fine. Just give me a list that we can pass to Patch. She’ll have it delivered to your ship.”
Newt considers and then replies, “Yeah. That’s ok and can do. Need to be checked out as it’s boarded, though.”
Sefra just follows the conversation with her eyes going back and forth while following along. “Just tell her what to do really..she will try.”
“Very good,” Rake says as they arrive at the Dragon’s Flight. “I’ll notify Patch.” He activates his commlink.
Newt nods and waits for Rake to finish. Once he’s done and he thinks he has everyone’s attention he says, looking up at them from face to face, “Ok. This is my home. You are passengers and I’m captain. Everywhere is off-limits except the places I explicitly say are ok to go to. Messing with my home is a no-no. Going for the controls is a no-no. Going for me is a no-no. Don’t do stupid stuff.”
The marshal considers Newt’s words. He looks at the ship. Then at the boy. His eyes narrow. Seems like he wants to ask something, but thinks better of it given the oxygen situation. He shrugs and nods agreement.
Newt looks back at the marshal not budging an inch or blinking for that matter. Nothing the shrug he looks back at the others. Anyone who doesn’t agree they can twiddle thumbs here. “Ok.” He turns around and heads for the airlock, getting it open and going inside.
Rosa looks at Newt “May I monitor comms? For this type of mission, it’s the best place for me to be. Of course I can also use the viewscreen and identify damage”
Newt pokes his head back out of the ship. “Nope. But I’ll lend you a tablet with a live feed.”
Sefra pads on and looks around the ship “She normally repairs weapons and armor..she thinks you call that smith work, she knows a bit of engineering for you know..the ones with those bits.” She blinks a moment “people outside her clan may find it weird but she is more better at listening to things. She is not as good as listening to weapons like mother she more listens to..”
The Lyiri cocks her head back and forth thinking and knowing how weird this is going to sound “…dead things?” Sefra straightens her head up “but she will try to help if you tell her what!”
Rake takes a few moments to study the Lyiri in silence before asking Newt: “Where do you need me?” A couple of market workers – neither of them Blot – arrive with a hoversled laden with supplies, tools, and materials.
Newt almost pops back in before looking over at the supplies, then at Rake. He ponders, “Well… There might be survivors and stuff so we’re gonna need protection as we go outside. And you’re the Marshal, right? So you ought to be good at that, yeah?”
The marshal smirks. “No one’s lived to complain about my work.”
Newt pauses and looks at Rake, amused, “I bet that sounded better in your head.”
“Not really,” Rake replies, then checks his pulse pistol – held together with, it appears, duct tape and good wishes – for a full charge.
Newt’s amusedness drops. “Well, uh. Ok.” He looks over at the supplies, “Might be a good idea to check that for anything that goes ping.”
Rake holsters the pistol, then starts checking the supplies. “Not sure what you’ve got against Blot. Yes, he’s odd, but why would he sabotage our repairs? He’s going to die with the rest of us if the oxygen runs out.”
Newt replies, “Well not so much him. If that was a Rustborn ship then /someone/ here is on their side, right?”
“We’ve seen Rustborn ships before,” the marshal replies. “Granted, it’s been a few years and this one showed up at an exceedingly convenient moment, and quite clearly at the command of Strel Varnak. So do I think we have a mole? Yeah, hard to argue otherwise.”
Newt says, “Right. So I figure we might as well check. Maybe they put a tracker or something in it. Not just a bomb.”
“Ok,” Rake says, looking through the materials on the hoversled. “Not seeing anything alarming.”
Newt shrugs, “Ok. Let’s go then, I guess.” and heads inside.
The marshal nods, shoving the hoversled into the corner of the inner corridor aboard the Dragon’s Flight and awaiting takeoff.
Newt goes into the front of the ship and closes and locks the door behind him. He sighs, “Poop” and heads for the pilot’s seat. “Hey. DF. Standard passenger protocol. Keep an eye on them but act dumb.” The ship responds with a pleasant “Okies.” Newt taps a few things on the console, “Hey. Everyone ready?”
“More than,” Rake replies.
Newt taps away, cheering up a little as he begins to get the ship ready and then lift off once an all-clear is given. He gently makes it out up and over and heads for the little boo-boo that the station received.
Between the docking bay and the “boo-boo” is the hulking mass of the spike-bristled Rustborn warship that has become impaled in the hull of Iron’s End. Thin trails of glittering mist twist their way out of both vessels – oxygen from their damaged life support systems.
Newt pipes up over the comms, “Oh, man. What a mess.” and shows the sight on a display panel in Rake’s part of the ship.
“Wow,” Rake shakes his head. He studies the Rustborn ship briefly before adding: “We should pull them loose and nudge them away before they get any kind of retaliatory boarding party up and running. We don’t want our people in there trying to fix things just to have those savages pouncing on us.”
Newt remains silent for a while before saying, “Yeah. That’d probably be a good idea.” He begins to manoeuvre the ship. “Hey. You know… If there’s no one left on it…” he says seemingly lost in thought.
“Let’s get it loose first,” the marshal cautions. “If that doesn’t trigger a self-destruct and kill us, we can think about salvage later. But we’ll want to make sure everybody on that ship is dead first. And clear it for traps.”
Newt nods even though no one but the ship can see, “Yeah. Thought so. Gonna get a grapple on it. Things might get bumpy. Maybe. When I pull back with it.” and so he does and, if successful, so the ship does.
It takes a bit of tugging, but Dragon’s Flight seems up to the task, and the lack of obvious resistance from the powered-down Rustborn ship makes it rather easy work to separate the hulk from the breach in Iron’s End. After a few minutes – and without any surprise detonations – the Rustborn ship is clear, leaving a scary gap where work can begin.
Newt grins and cheers, fists up in the air above his head, “YEAH! It’s free and everything. Nothing exploded, either, so that’s cool.”
“Nothing exploded yet,” Rake replies to no one in particular, keeping his eyes on the monitor displaying the exterior image. “Disengage and see if there’s anywhere stable for us to land inside that breach.”
Newt’s arms drop, “Ooooh. Fair point.” He lets go of the ship to go to the opposite end and grapple it again. “Going to make it stop moving.” He gives it JUST enough pull to counter its previous motion. Once successful he ungraples, repositions and gets a better look at the hole before deciding where to put “down”.
The leakage from Iron’s End seems to be coming from a utility space on Deck 25. The oxygen’s not gushing at the moment, so it is relatively safe to suspect that inner bulkheads that sealed against a vacuum breach are holding. Instead, it would appear that the repair crew is dealing with a rupture somewhere in the life support system, possibly a pipe.
There’s a decent-sized chamber along the edge of the breach, close to the likely source of the leak, where Dragon’s Flight could land without too many hazards.
Newt begins to hum a song, obviously enjoying himself. Occasionally there escapes a “waddle, waddle”. He pauses, “Found a spot. Going in to land.” and then resumes humming as he moves the DF to that spot.
For reasons Rake probably couldn’t explain, he mutters: “Got any grapes?” He looks around at Rosa and the Lyiri. “So. You two can help fix this leak, right?”
Rosa hms “Insofar as I’ve patched up my on occasion” She begins retrieving the equipment necessary to patch the leak, such as sealant and piping looking toward the Lyiri to making certain she isn’t missing anything as he triplechecks her EVA.
“She can try to help, Repairing ships isn’t something she does often but maybe if she listens right to it right it can help.” Sefra blinks as she is securing her own EVA though it looks like she is very uncomfortable wearing actual shoes in the form of mag boots, “Besides what is obvious to see, It will be better than nothing she thinks?”
The Lyiri nods her head then after a moment looks at where rakes duct taped pistol is then at rake, “Do you need help fixing that later or are you fine with it like that?” Sefra blinks as apparently she has been thinking on it since she saw a duct taped pistol.
Rake studies his pulse pistol briefly, then tells Sefra: “If you know how to fix it, that’d be great. But let’s get through the immediate crisis first.”
Newt asks over the intercom, “Is that broken?”
“The gun?” Rake chuckles. “I mean, it works. Hasn’t blown up on me yet.”
Newt grins, “Well that’s good. Suck not to have a hand and stuff.”
Sefra just nods at rake while finishing setting up, then waits.
Beyond the airlock, the breached area awaits. About 10 meters from the Dragon’s Flight, there’s a horizontal pipe that appears to have been ruptured during the collision. Oxygen is leaking from it. The rupture is about five centimeters in length.
Newt spots the Oxygen leak, “Uh… We have a leak close by. Anyone gonna go out?”
“Here goes nothing. I think a sheet of metal can patch the rupture assuming we have welding equipment but someone likely needs to hold it in place while the other welds” She looks around for the laser saw to cut a patch for the rupture. Once she has a patch of the right size, she takes it and space walks toward the hole
Sefra lets Rosa get ahead of her slightly before she spacewalks after “she can hold it in place she is sure.”
Rake also gets into an EVA suit, following the trio out of the Dragon’s Flight and into the breached chamber. He doesn’t seem to take much interest in the ruptured pipe. Instead, he looks around at the surrounding shadows as he drifts in zero-g. “I don’t see any Rustborn lurking about,” he says over comms. “Unlikely that they found a way past the lockdown failsafes.”
Rosa welds the metal into place, happy that nothing too delicate and out of her depth seems required
The Lyiri helps hold the metal and looks around every so often. “She hopes they are still on thier ship…or not hiding…” blinks a bit, “…There are no open ventways are there for them?”
“Not from here,” Rake responds, his attention shifting to the huge rupture in the hull, through which he can see the Rustborn ship. Which, he notices, is starting to show signs of life. Lights are flickering. “But if they get those guns back online, they can make their own holes.”
The breach in the life support pipe is successfully sealed.
Newt’s continuing to sit at the pilot’s seat, monitoring as much of everything as is reasonable to monitor, “Well that sucks. That ship is getting its power back.”
Sefra blinks and looks at the ship worriedly.
It’s probably good to worry, because now it appears the Rustborn vessel’s maneuvering thrusters are coming back online. The ship may be capable of angling around under its own power.
“Get back on the kid’s ship,” Rake says. He switches frequencies to contact Patch, saying: “The good news is we’ve plugged the oxygen leak. The bad news is our visitor’s not quite dead yet.”
He starts drifting back toward the Dragon’s Flight.
Rosa doesn’t need be told twice as she quickly angles herself back to the Dragon’s Flight, hoping to get back aboard as quickly as possible “Will they really pick a fight? Technically the station’s not responsible for the damage they’ve taken”
“It’s the Rustborn,” Rake responds as he enters Newt’s ship. “They’ll blame Iron’s End for being in the way when they wrecked, no matter who picked the fight to begin with.”
As soon as everyone’s behinds are in the ship Newt begins to putputput away, at speed, from the scary monster. Regardless of the truth Newt says, “Took you guys long enough.” He’s not happy.
Rake isn’t in a hurry to extricate himself from the EVA suit. Almost as if he’s hedging his bets. “Just get us back to the docking hub.”
The Rustborn ship pulses its maneuvering jets, swinging around in a slow arc, possibly looking for a weapons lock on Iron’s End…or the Dragon’s Flight.
Newt mutters, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Already on the move. Be…” He spots the manoeuvering, “Poop. They’re swinging about.” Newt puts the pedal to the metal a bit harder.
What comes next is preceded by this event: Galactix: A Flash in the Dark…
Suddenly, with a bit of a flash, a massive vessel appears out of FTL and stops several kilometers away from Iron’s End and the Rustborn vessel. Thrusters fire as the ship angles itself to aim one of the large nacelles in its wings towards the Rustborn ship, and the front of it begins to glow as if building in power, reaching a brightness as if a lightbulb has reached full power. Suddenly a bright beam of red energy fires from it, piercing into the Rustborn vessel, burning through it like a sword piercing flesh, finally emerging from the other side before the beam shuts down…
“Hey, at least we fixed our leak…” Rake’s voice trails off as the Rustborn vessel is butchered through and through by the incoming starship. “Well, shit. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?”
Newt, well, pauses, staring, “WOWSERS!” It takes him a moment to recover and the ship stays on course. “Hey, Big Ship of Doom. Are you a good guy or a bad guy?”
Sefra manages to scramble onto the ship in the excitement of everyone else and follows conversations back and forth in her observational mod, up until she sees the newer ship gut the Rustborns, which in itself is terrifying enough.
However, the Lyiri has also brought up her paws to her ears, even though covered by her EVA and seems to have this stunlocked look focused on the butchered ship, “…So many whispers at once…”
There is a bit of a pause, before the comms crackle to life. “My name is Galactix. Rest assured, I mean you no harm. It has been well over a century since I detected a polydenum detonation, and felt it worth investigation. It appears I was just in time to prevent that rather scruffy looking vessel from causing you further harm. My apologies if I caused any concern.”
Newt relays things along, “Big Ship of Doom says its name is Galactix, doesn’t wanna kill us and was just curious about a polydenum boom.” He then goes back to talking to the other ship, “Oh. Dunno about that. We were just fixing the station that the ship you blew up crashed into. We’re good guys.” He doesn’t change course, though. Still heading docking bay-wards.
“Who are they with?” Rake asks. “Ashen Pact? Obviously not the Rustborn. Do they sound weird and creepy, like the Hollow Choir?”
Newt asks Galactix, “Hey. Who are you with? Ashen Pact or someone else?”
“Ashen Pact? I am not familiar with that.” Galactix responds. “I must admit I am quite out of date with current galactic politics.”
Newt blinks, “You’re not familiar with the Ashen Pact? What the? You been sleeping or something?”
“On the contrary… I have been travelling for well over a century. Ever since the plague…” Galactix says, trailing off. “Watching the Consortium, the Parallax, countless worlds crumble… it was… distressing. I have been travelling and surviving ever since. This was first time I have detected anything resembling something from before the fall… I felt it needed to be seen. It seems I stumbled into more than just a relic from a past time.”
Newt goes silent. In fact, he’ll likely miss the turn-off into the docking hub if it comes to it. Eventually a single word comes out quietly, “Bull.”
“Bull? I do not see any male members of the bovine species currently present, so may I ask what your meaning is?” Galactix responds.
Er… That snaps Newt out of it. “I said you’re lying.” He replies matter-of-factly with a good hint of upset.
“What’s going on, kid?” Rake is now removing the helmet from his EVA suit, relatively certain the explosions are done for now.
“Lying? I think not. I have databanks going back thousands of years to prove otherwise.” Galactix says with a hint of indignation.
Newt suddenly snaps to and blurts out, “What the snot?”
“Kid?” Rake asks. “Our new friends good, bad, indifferent?”
“I fail to see what mucosal excretions have to do with present circumstances.” Galactix says. “Perhaps we could return to the matter at hand?”
Newt scowls at Galacatix through the display, “IT HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH MUCOSAL EXCRETIONS! GEEZE!” and then flips to Rake, looking over at the console for whatever reason, “Good but annoying.” And then back to G, “So what now?”
The marshal’s eyebrows twitch upward. “Good but annoying sounds a lot better than murderous and pissed off. I’ll take it.” He activates his commlink connection, telling Patch: “This particular Rustborn ship won’t be bothering us anymore. And we met a new neighbor.”
“I would presume that depends on the denizens of this station.” Galactix responds. “I would like to meet them, there is much to discuss. Plus I have passengers who may desire to meet as well, but I shall leave that up to them.”
Newt tells Rake, “It wants to come over and say ‘Hi’.” and then returns his attention to G, “What sorta passangers? Are they from before, too?”
“In a manner of speaking… they are descended from a colony of Nalls I rescued during the fall.” Galactix responds. “We have been travelling together all this time.”
Newt blinks, “Nall? From before The Fall? Seriously?”
“Indeed. An isolated colony spared from the plague, that would have perished.” Galactix responds.
Newt flips over to Rake, “You know anything about the Nall from before the universe want crazy?”
“Not much,” Rake answers. “Patch told me some stories. To hear her tell it, the universe didn’t so much go crazy as the crazy changed and got less populous.”
Newt replies, “Well, there’s a whole bunch on board.”
“Oh,” Rake manages. He tilts his head. Chuckles. “Maybe one of them wants to be a marshal.”
Galactix moves closer to the station. “In the meantime, I shall meet with the administration of the station at their convenience.” he says.
Sefra has been in a kind of stunlock with her paws over her ears still, though after a moment has gone into some sort of meditative breathing exercise with the paws slowly coming down and her exrpessiong getting much calmer.
“It feels calm in here…” she takes off her EVA helmet. “..Everything is okay?”
“More or less,” Rake replies to the Lyiri. “Looks like the weld is holding on the life support system, so good work there. And a talking starship loaded with Nall saved our bacon from the Rustborn. It’s not the worst day Iron’s End has ever seen.”
The Lyiri takes in ‘talking startship loaded with nall’ for a moment before he ears twitch curiously. “She is now curious and just wants to see it if she can later.” Sefra nods her head, “She will also remember she offered to look at the pistol but uhh..maybe get settled again.” she looks in the direction of the former Rustborn ship and frowns lightly.
Newt replies to Big G, “Okies.” He flips over to Iron’s End, “I’m coming in and the big ship wants to say ‘Hi!’.” and then to Rake, “We’re going back in now and the Big Boom ship is moving closer. Wants to say hello to admin.”
“I’ll put on my company’s-coming flak jacket,” Rake comments.
Newt grins and, eventually, lands the DF without so much as a bump to show for it, “Ok. We’re back. Everyone can go now.”
Sefra gets out of the rest of her EVA suit and looks a bit relieved when her fee are freed from the boots. “Just tell her if you need anything. Though she is curious about the talking ship now still.” she ruffles her fur back out and starts to go for an exit.
Rosa considers the big ship “I’ll bet that thing has enough stories to last several lifetimes. She looks to Rake “and you’ll have a new one after meeting with the Nall. Good luck with that”