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File: Space Wrecker Titlecard.jpg (221 KB, 1329x834)
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Earlier today, you had an unscheduled heart attack. And of course, it was during your only free period.

Though you had no good reason to, you had started to think that after being regimented for eight years without any issues, you weren’t ever going to get an unscheduled attack. Supposedly, such a thing is possible. More than a few of your fellow lifers aboard the Commissioner claimed to never have had one, including your neighbor, that dozen-lifer Ironbelly.

The scariest thing about it though, was how mild it started out, mild enough that you nearly convinced yourself that you weren’t having an attack. Now, obviously, there was no way you were going to be completely certain. You don’t rate a waking harness. But you would have at least thought that the onset of an attack would have been … well, less subtle than a slight unexplained ache in your left arm. After you noticed it on your way back to your cell, and you finally clued into what it might mean, you hesitated. Even though all of the peons here – except those in the Belly, of course – are entitled to medical attention, you know full well that those who go to a sickbay with nothing wrong with them quickly get a reputation as malingerers. And that is not a reputation anyone would want to cultivate. You won’t make trustee, won’t be respected in the blocks, and the medics are less likely take you seriously and deal with you promptly.

But in the end, you relented. You walked yourself over to the nearest medical station and got the attention of the man on duty, a no-nonsense looking trustee. Within twenty seconds, you were in a harness, and he was running tests. Within a minute, you had been diagnosed and you were convalescing on an incredibly uncomfortable built-in chair, with a good-sized dose of Ticker Tape dissolving under your tongue. After securing the rest of the Tape and then finishing whatever the Hell he was doing before you came in, the trustee comes back over to you, and checks the read out from the harness.

“Alright, you are back within safe parameters.”

He turns away from the handheld reporter, looking you over. Then he sets it down and takes the harness off of you, talking all the while.

“On dosing day, you need to make sure that whoever is doling out your Tape knows that you were prescribed a standard emergency dose today. I’ll leave a note in your file, but odds are they won’t bother reading it unless you tell them to.”

As he winds the leads of the harness back up, he looks at you, and you get the sense that he is thinking of saying something else on the topic … but in the end he decides against it. He returns the harness to its drawer, then turns back to you.

“In consideration that this is your first unscheduled, and taking into account that you are seventeen, in excellent health, I am going to clear you for sorting duty on second shift today. Questions?”
>>
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“What about EVAs? I’m all good for those, right? And heavy duty too?”

He just stares blankly at you. If he is impressed that someone as young as you has been certified for EVAs, then he is hiding it pretty well. After several moments have passed, he sighs, and looks away.

“If it was me, I’d take a week off, at least. Working outside, or even downstairs – the Gs, the exertion, the thin air – that’s no good for a heart that just had a bit of misfire. But it is your prerogative, and if the worse comes to pass, then it is your funeral.”

What an absolute jackass. You have debts to pay – and as far as you can tell, you’re more likely to die of delinquency then of a heart attack. That said, you do have enough saved up that you could take it easy for a few days without running into the red or having to ask for some … accommodation, which would come with costs of its own.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Follow the “doctors” orders, at least for this next shift. It is not glamorous, and it certainly doesn’t pay well, but report to the Recyclers for second shift anyway.
> Take the middle ground and work heavy-side on second shift. It is even less glamorous than sorting duty, but it pays better, and you at least get to work at your own pace. Sort of.
> You are going to clear your debts or die trying. Report to the Hangar for second shift and suit up.

As for my other quests: I’ve got the stuff planned out for the foreseeable future in The Graverobber’s Daughter, and I have rewritten the thread to my satisfaction, but unfortunately, I am not going to have the two to two and half hour blocks in my daily schedule that I typically need to write updates for the Quest, at least until mid-December. Rather than step away from QMing completely, I have decided to return to the Starsector-inspired world of Space Scrapper Quest, as had promised to do when that quest ended a little more than two years ago now. Unlike The Graverobber’s Daughter (and Collapsing, for that matter) I can keep the size and scope of this quest narrow enough that I can still run it.
>>
>>5444797
>> You are going to clear your debts or die trying. Report to the Hangar for second shift and suit up.
>>
>>5444797
>> You are going to clear your debts or die trying. Report to the Hangar for second shift and suit up.
Wageslave orbital worker a go!
>>
>>5444797
>> You are going to clear your debts or die trying. Report to the Hangar for second shift and suit up.
>>
>>5444797
> You are going to clear your debts or die trying. Report to the Hangar for second shift and suit up.
Bills gotta be payed, work gotta be done.
>>
>>5444797
>> Follow the “doctors” orders, at least for this next shift. It is not glamorous, and it certainly doesn’t pay well, but report to the Recyclers for second shift anyway.
>>
Your business concluded here, you leave the medical station, and head over to the Hangar.

If what you had been told was true, when she was first laid up, the Commissioner had eight hangars. Three absolute caverns for the landing craft, two modestly sized ones for scouts, fighters, bombers and fighterbombers, an even smaller one dedicated one for drones, and then two more modestly sized bays for the lifeboats. But it has been a long, hard road for her, and after the Port Authority recommissioned her as a prison ship, you are not sure how many of those hangars haven't been removed or converted into something else. Currently, there is only one hangar that peons and trustees are allowed in, so you all refer to it as the Hangar.

Judging from the relative quiet of the staging area, you figure that you must be at least ten minutes out from the first call. That suits you fine enough - unlike the vast majority of your fellows, you don't need the postings read to you. Currently, there are three on the board, corresponding to the three different stacks of time-cards sitting on a table underneath them. Obviously, you can only work one.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> While all EVA work is inherently dangerous, some of it is safer (though less rewarding) than others. The safest is 'net duty'. Pretty self-explanatory. You get a magnetic net and an augmented boost tank, and you just trawl around the hulks collecting castoffs. Just ... don't stray too far.
> There is a pull-job up on the board. Looks like the Comptrollers have found a buyer for ... some torpedo tubes? That is going to be a real hack job, getting those out of a hull in one piece. Hopefully whatever fuel residue is left inside the tubes has been cleaned out... or at least isn't explosive.
> What is more dangerous than working outside of a broken down hulk? Working INSIDE of a broken down hulk. The listing indicates that you are going to be recovering conduit and electronics from enclosed and potentially unstable areas. But it also says that overtime is available, as is the hazard differential.
>>
>>5444916
> While all EVA work is inherently dangerous, some of it is safer (though less rewarding) than others. The safest is 'net duty'. Pretty self-explanatory. You get a magnetic net and an augmented boost tank, and you just trawl around the hulks collecting castoffs. Just ... don't stray too far.

Welcome back QM.
>>
>>5444916
> What is more dangerous than working outside of a broken down hulk? Working INSIDE of a broken down hulk. The listing indicates that you are going to be recovering conduit and electronics from enclosed and potentially unstable areas. But it also says that overtime is available, as is the hazard differential.
BIG BUCKS
>>
>>5444916
>> What is more dangerous than working outside of a broken down hulk? Working INSIDE of a broken down hulk. The listing indicates that you are going to be recovering conduit and electronics from enclosed and potentially unstable areas. But it also says that overtime is available, as is the hazard differential.
Megacredits here we come.
>>
>>5444916
>> While all EVA work is inherently dangerous, some of it is safer (though less rewarding) than others. The safest is 'net duty'. Pretty self-explanatory. You get a magnetic net and an augmented boost tank, and you just trawl around the hulks collecting castoffs. Just ... don't stray too far.
>>
>>5444916
>> What is more dangerous than working outside of a broken down hulk? Working INSIDE of a broken down hulk. The listing indicates that you are going to be recovering conduit and electronics from enclosed and potentially unstable areas. But it also says that overtime is available, as is the hazard differential.
>>
>>5444916
> What is more dangerous than working outside of a broken down hulk? Working INSIDE of a broken down hulk. The listing indicates that you are going to be recovering conduit and electronics from enclosed and potentially unstable areas. But it also says that overtime is available, as is the hazard differential.
We are not going to be getting out of here before we turn 60 if we play it safe.
>>
>>5444916
> What is more dangerous than working outside of a broken down hulk? Working INSIDE of a broken down hulk. The listing indicates that you are going to be recovering conduit and electronics from enclosed and potentially unstable areas. But it also says that overtime is available, as is the hazard differential.
Hey, Trash, how's it going, I hope this quest goes well, I'll have the proverbial candle in the window for Collapsing but this one is pretty cool so far
>>
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You look at the piles of time-cards, and you cannot help but sigh. Part of you knows that you are already taking enough of a risk by simply doing an EVA the same day that you had an unscheduled heart attack. On the other hand, you have only had the EVA certification for a little more than two months now, and while you incurred new debts to get it, you have finally started to make some serious dosh. Well, at least, serious for a seventeen year-old peon who didn't have a trade going in. You would never admit it to anyone - partially because you don't have anyone to talk to about things like this - but ... you are a little scared of losing your momentum here, as silly as it sounds.

So without too much hesitation, you pick up the time-card for the high-paying interior work, and head on over to speak with the foreman, a freeman by the name of Quimbix. He is competent and pleasant enough to speak with, which makes you think that he must have either gotten on the wrong side of someone, or refused grease the wheels (and hands) of Personnel. You really cannot think of any other explanation for why he'd be down here with you.

"Sir, Smithwick checking in. I'll take the interior work, please."

"You got a real leg up on everyone, by being able to read, don't you, kid?"

"It has come in handy at times, sir."

He snorts in vague amusement at that, and then signals to some of his peons, and they start to pull together your equipment for your shift. The suits hang on frames that have been welded onto flat-bottomed carts, so the equipment loadout for the shift can be gathered up into one place. As they work, you glance around the Hangar. Besides the equipment, suits and the board in the staging area, the place is empty. To be sure, the place is always empty, the docking and refueling equipment for whatever craft belonged in this bay were removed a long time ago, and you don't even know if the bay doors work anymore, as you have only even entered and exited through the airlocks on either side of the doors. But typically, there are more people here - and for that matter, the air is usually warmer. You are beginning to think that you are a lot earlier than you originally thought. You consider asking Quimbix, but you decide against it. The shift begins when the shift begins. It is not like you have anywhere better to be.

One of his flunkies rolls your suit for the day over to you, and immediately, you are surprised to see that it is a newer, slim fitting model. Not just, no patches or repairs new, but ... out of the box new, maybe. Quimbix sees your reaction, and snorts again.

"Before you thank me, let me just say that this isn't a kindness, this is a necessity. We keep these new-model suits in reserve for work like this. Setting aside the integrity issues of the standard issue suits, odds are good that you are going to be in spots that are simply too small for the motley to fit in."
>>
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You must have some sort of look on your face, because he starts chuckling.

"And that isn't even the worst of it. That new hulk that you are working on, the Highest Heaven? Her chitty has a class three bio-hazard stamp. The bitch has worms."

Just what you fucking needed. You have seen conduit worms before - or rather, bits and pieces of them coming down the conveyor back when you worked recycling, and persevered specimens when you were learning for your EVA cert, but you have never been wrecking on the inside of a ship that was infested. And of course, you are salvaging conduit and electronics, which is exactly where those fucking parasites live and feed. You are beginning to question if you made the right decision when Quimbix stops chuckling to himself.

"Now you don't need to worry yourself about it. The Highest Heaven is just a modestly-sized tender, and on top of that, she has an undersized power plant for her displacement. And as the size and fecundity of conduit worms scale with the system that they are feeding on ... well, you shouldn't have anything too serious to deal with in there. More than that though, on top of the bonuses, overtime and hazard pay available, there is a bounty on their eggs. A damned good one. I'd go out there, if I could."

"You would, eh? Still, that posting didn't say a damned thing about worms, sir."

Quimbix makes a dismissive gesture with his hand.

"I was going to tell everyone at first call, but you jumped the gun. Besides, I told you now, didn't I? Wait, are you getting cold feet? Kid, the hulk was hauled here, she hasn't been running in half a year. Without any juice, most of the damned things will be dormant or dead as a door-nail by now. And the ones that are still up are going to be sluggish. Just keep them away from the electronics, smack them away with your prybar, bash them with your sledge. I'm telling you, you will be fine."

You look at the suit that has been made available to you for the shift. While you cannot be certain without a manual or schematics, the suit appears to have all of its electronics shielded ... but of the equipment in the cart underneath, of the ones that are electronic, none of them look shielded. In fact, more than exposed wiring, you can actually see exposed copper on some of them.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Ask Quimbix if you could get better equipment, on account of the worms.
> Ask Quimbix for permission to tinker with the equipment, to try to improve its shielding.
> Accept the equipment, then tinker with it, to try to improve its shielding.
> Accept the equipment as is. Do not do any tinkering.
> Ask if you could take one of the other jobs.
>>
>>5445133
>> Ask Quimbix for permission to tinker with the equipment, to try to improve its shielding.
>>
>>5445133
> Ask Quimbix for permission to tinker with the equipment, to try to improve its shielding.
Wouldn’t hurt to try.
>>
>>5445133
>> Ask if you could take one of the other jobs.
>>
"Er ... would you mind if I ... you know, tinkered with the tools a bit, get them a little shielded."

He laughs at that. Not a snort, not a chuckle, but a full, throaty laugh. The peons that are working with him are smirking as well, which really gets under your skin. Though before you can get too sore about it, Quimbix calms down enough to explain himself.

"Smithwick, you are good kid, a good worker. And more than that, you can read, and when you speak it is always polite and formal - which really puts you head and shoulders above most of the other peons. Some of them I can barely understand one word in three, if I am being honest. You are going places, I guarantee it. But what you got to understand is that right now, all you have an EVA wrecker certification. And that is it. You are not an engineer, you are not a mechanist, a machinist or even a technician. You want to try to 'tinker' with the electronics, get them shielded. With what? Odds and ends that you can get your hands on before the start of second shift? Is that the plan?"

Admittedly, you hadn't even thought that far ahead yet, but yes ... that probably would have been your plan. When you don't immediately answer, Quimbix continues.

"What if you break the thing before you head outside, what then? Am I supposed to just give you another, and possibly end up short for someone else? Let you go out there without one? And what happens if your quick fix fails while your inside the hulk, and you end up needing that tool to do your work ... or God forbid, to get out. What the Hell then? Or what if your tinkering manages to last this shift, but then next shift the tools go to someone else, and then they fail on them. I'm not the kind of person who looks for scapegoats, but ... if I was outside, and the stuff I was using broke on me, inconveniencing me at best and endangering me at worse, then I found out that a shift or two previous, some one without proper certification or tooling was fiddling with them, then to be honest, I'd say that it is that person's fucking fault. And of course, Supply would have to get involved to replace the damned things, and the less any of us have to deal with those assholes, the better."

These are all very reasonable points. Perhaps this wasn't your best idea ... or perhaps you should have figured that any foreman worth their wage wouldn't want a semi-skilled laborer 'tinkering' on communal tools. Might have been better to just do it, you know forgiveness instead of permission?

"Listen, kid, you didn't know the full story when you picked up that time-card. So the way I see it, even if you are so concerned about what is left of those worms, there is absolutely no shame in it if you went back to the board, and picked one of the other cards."
>>
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> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Accept the equipment as it is, and suit up for the start of second shift.
> Accept the equipment, but once Quimbix is distracted, do what you can to improve the shielding on the tools. Be careful!
> Return to the table in front of the board, and grab a different card.
>>
>>5445331
>> Accept the equipment as it is, and suit up for the start of second shift.

Doods been on the level, be wrong to lie.
>>
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>>5445331
A corollary to this post, for those voting for the first or second options only - do you want to work alone this shift, or do you want to find others to work with? There is safety and efficiency in numbers, but the more people you are working with, the more material you are going to have to bring back. The way that a recovery job like this works is that to get the base pay for the EVA, every worker is required to retrieve a required amount of something - in this case conduit and electronics - at a specified quality. Certain bonuses (and overtime) kick in if the workers manage to reach certain milestones beyond the required amount (for example, a bonus at two times the required amount). So the more people that you work with, the more material in decent enough condition you are going to have to find. And if you find something really special, having more people means you have to split it more ways ... and not everything splits evenly.

Or at all, for that matter.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> You will work alone, as you usually do.
> You will try to find someone reliable to work with.
> You will try to find a small group to work with.
> You will try to assemble the largest possible group.
>>
>>5445334
>> You will try to find a small group to work with.
>>
Are you >>5445339 this >>5445332 anon, anon? If not, make sure to vote for both.

Regardless, I am going to get some sleep. I'll close this when I get up.
>>
>>5445334
>> You will try to find a small group to work with.
>>
>>5445334
> You will try to find someone reliable to work with.
One person to work the tools, the other to keep an eye out for works and defense the tools. The less people working together, the greater our shares.
>>
>>5445331
> Accept the equipment as it is, and

>>5445339
>>5445345
But then we might have to share the muny, plus some of them will probably be too dumb to help by the foreman's description of our fellow peons.
>>
>>5445331
>>5445339
>>5445340
>> Return to the table in front of the board, and grab a different card.
Failing that,
> Accept the equipment as it is, and suit up for the start of second shift.
>>
>>5445334
> You will work alone, as you usually do.
>>
>>5445334
>> You will work alone, as you usually do.
>>
Alright, lets look at the tally:

On the question of the equipment:
>>5445332 >>5445353 Accept the equipment as is.
>>5445355 Return to the board and grab another card.

On the question of working alone or with others:
>>5445361 >>5445389 Working alone
>>5445352 Look to work with someone else
>>5445345 >>5445339 Look to work with a small group

I am going to leave this for another hour or so, and if there is not a tiebreaker for the second vote, then I am going roll for it.
>>
>>5445331
> Accept the equipment as it is, and suit up for the start of second shift.
>>5445334
> You will work alone, as you usually do.
>>
>>5445488
Okay, closed and writing.
>>
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"No, it - it's fine. I'll do the interior work."

With that, you hand over your time-card, and he stamps it.

"Okay. To get the base pay, you need clock back in at the end of the shift with one hundred cubits of conduit, in lengths no smaller than two cubits. And on top of that, it needs to be in good condition - scuffs and cosmetic damage is alright, but anything more than that isn't going to make the grade. The bonus is incremental for every fifty cubits on top of the first hundred. You are eligible for the time worked - or what you kids call 'overtime' - if you bring back three hundred and fifty. At five hundred cubits of clean conduit, you will be eligible for a prorated rate for the substandard stuff, the ones that are either too short or too damaged, which pays out every two hundred cubits."

"What about the electronics, how do they pay out?"

"Appraised lot by lot, though you have to have two hundred cubits of clean conduit, otherwise they won't pay out at all."

You try to hide your excitement at that by quickly asking another question.

"What about the stuff inside of the conduit, does any of that pay out?"

"No, and they don't want it pulled out either, just leave it in there. Supposedly it will make the exterminators job easier."

"Fine, then. And how much conduit do I need to pull before I am eligible for worm egg bounty?"

"Actually, that one isn't gated. The eggs are laid in clusters about the size of a fingernail. You get a bonus for each cluster, with a little extra every time you make a dozen. They really, really want this ship clean. Hell, if I didn't know better, I'd think they were considering recommissioning it. Maybe they are. Right now, there is a restriction against cutting through the hull or anything structural ... but then again, that is typical for a new arrival here, isn't it? "

"Yes, I suppose it is, sir. And ... uh, the hazard differential?"

"All you need to earn that is to clock in."

When he sees that there are no more questions forthcoming from you, he nods cordially.

“Alright then, if you think of anything else, I'll be going over all of this with everyone in half an hour or so for the first call."

Half an hour! You really did jump the gun, didn't you. Oh well. Just ... think of it as more time to prepare. You roll your new-model suit off a little way and suit up. As you do, you take a look at your equipment. Most of it is simple hand tools; vac-grade ratchets, screwdrivers, pliers, wrenches, and hammers. And the selection of bars: crow, pry, and breaker, each with their own cheater. There is some more advanced equipment as well, though. Shears, a driver and a drill, the wrecking torch, the grease gun, several pieces diagnostic equipment. And of course, a number of lights. Towing all of this behind you - and the conduit - is going to be a real tricky situation, especially if the Highest Heaven is as cramped as Quimbix has said.
>>
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While you typically work alone, maybe you should … no, no, not this shift. Not with electronics appraised by lot. The only time the bosses do that is when a hulk arrives that has not been completely gutted out yet … which means that you stand to really rake it in, if you can find something juicy enough. You are going to get the two hundred cubits of conduit, then you are going to pull every electronic you possibly can before your tanks run dry. Why would you split up your payday with a partner, when odds are you are going to be doing most of the work anyway? But now that you have decided to work alone, you have to decide if you are going to use a guideline or not.

When working in a hulk, especially one that no one has been into before, many solo-wreckers like yourself will use guidelines. You mount the anchor of the line to the outside of the hull before you go in, then you unwind the spool of guideline as you make your way through the ship. Once you are ready to leave, you simply rewind the spool to find you way out of the ship. The issue with guidelines stems from how the haul of a recovery or a salvage job is determined. You don’t get any credit, any compensation for finding the requested articles – you have to get them onto the ferry. So there have been times, quite a few times, that you have found a lot of what is being looked for, only to end up with someone else working right on top of you, making off with a good chunk of what should have been yours.

And there really isn’t much you can do about it. You have only been certified for two months – you and the others from your graduating class are still the new kids on the block. And while you have made a point of being respectful to the more senior wreckers, you get the sense that they see you more as mark than as coworker. They haven’t taken things that you have actually pulled yet … but you could certainly see that happening. Especially with all of the talents on the table this shift. If they stopped you on your way to the ferry with a load in tow, what the Hell could you do besides hand it over, really? The radios that they give you aren’t ever able to get through the hulls, there are barely any cameras in the boneyard, and none of them are inside any of the hulks. And everyone knows that wreckers have a brutal … turnover.

On the other hand, without a guideline, you stand to lose a lot of time trying to find your way in and out of the hulk. And that time could be better spent recovering electronics. Of course, it also goes without saying that if you get lost bad enough, then you could end up running out of air in there.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Use guideline.
> Do not use guideline.
>>
>>5445626
> Do not use guideline.
I’d be cold and dead in the ground before I even let the possibility of someone stealing my work.
>>
>>5445626
> Do not use guideline.
Fuck no lmao
>>
>>5445626
> Do not use guideline.
What we can do is punch small holes in walls, make large scratches, or paint walls to indicate where we have been, and the way out. We can make areas with # to determine the way back out, ÷for places that have been fully searched by us, X for potential hazard, S for works, % for worm eggs, and @ for places we are currently search but have yet to finish. We can also simple put < > v ^ markers in halls to indicate ways out or combine with other markers to point out directions and hazards.

Or very own cheat sheet.
>>
>>5445626
>> Use guideline.
>>
>>5445626
> Do not use guideline.

+1 for subtle marks.
>>
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You decide against using the guideline. Maybe it costs you time. Maybe it even costs you your life. But you are not a fucking mark. No one but you is entitled to what you find out there, regardless of whatever the Hell the rules say. You -

You stop yourself, and after making a point of taking several deep breaths, you remind yourself how this is simply not the time and place to get worked up – over this, over any of your other grievances, over anything-at-fucking-all. Realizing that you are still a little worked up, you take another set of several deep breaths. Before you can have a fully-fledged meltdown, you get the suit on, and run the built-in diagnostics to check that you got a good seal. When that comes up clean, you check the levels in the tanks – the air tank, the tank for the suits’ boosters, and the torches’ twinned tank, one which has the gas, and the other which has the flux.

When you get the readouts you were looking for from the tanks, there is nothing left to do but wait. You sit down on the cart and just stare at the airlocks. At several points, you get the sense that someone is watching, but when you look at the growing crowd in the staging area, some of which have also suited up already, you cannot see anyone staring. Eventually, it is time for the first call. Rather than listen to stuff you already know, you head across the Hangar to the locks with your tools. Several other wreckers have managed to suit up already and are heading over as well. One of them is wearing one of the new-model suits, which presumably means that they are going to be working in the Highest Heaven, though because of the tinting on the visor, you cannot tell if it is another newly certified wrecker, or it is one of your seniors. Well … does it matter? You aren’t working with them either way.

It is probably another ten minutes before enough wreckers have suited up and made their way over to the lock for there to be a full load for the ferry. The kiosk for the time-cards lights up, indicating that the ferry is ready to go. You are the first to punch your card, the first to receive your tags, the first to get in the lock, and once it has cycled, you are the first to get onto the ferry.

For the safety of the Commissioner, the boneyard is kept at a distance, so it takes a minute or so for all of you to get out there. On arrival, those who have elected to do net duty disembark and start puttering around as their shimmering nets trail behind them like sinuous tails. Before you know it, the ferry is moving again, and the trawlers are getting swallowed up by the enormity of the hulks that they are flittering around, just as the hulks are getting swallowed up the enormity of the Endless Night.

You look away, down at your hands. As much as you like working EVAs, you have to admit that there is something deeply unsettling about space, completely separate from its inherent danger. Something that is best left unsaid, unarticulated.
>>
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You run another diagnostic check, though you know full well that everything is in perfect working order. You only look up once the ferry begins to decelerate. The first thing that jumps out at you is another ferry, synchronously stationed in front of … holy shit. That must be the Highest Heaven, because there is simply no other hulk in the boneyard quite like it. She has wings. Not hardpoints or struts that have been aesthetically done up to look like wings, no, those are functional. So then, she has to be atmosphere-capable craft.

Now, for a space-bound tender, she would be rather modestly sized. But for something that is capable of landing on and taking off of a planet, she is massive. As you get off the first ferry and boost over to the second, you can’t take your eyes off of her. You have never seen anything like her. You have never heard of anything like her. And she supposedly has an undersized power plant? Wait, undersized for a typical ship of her displacement, or undersized for an atmospheric ship of her displacement, because atmospheric ships need a lot more power than a purely space-bound vessel does.

Jesus Christ, if it is the latter, then the conduit worms could turn out to be a serious problem after all. Well … there is nothing that you can do about that at this point. You are a man, after all. You have made your bed, now you are going to lie in it. To that end, you are going to need to decide where you are going to start poking around. Remember, you are not alone. There are ... ten, twelve other wreckers here, and you have no doubt that they are all as eager as you are.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> There seems to be a cargo bay towards the rear of the ship. See if you can slip inside there, and get a better sense of the ship.
> There is an engine cluster straight ahead. Stands to reason that there would be conduits and electronics nearby.
> There is a spot on the wings that looks like an empty weapons mount. Surely, there would have to be some conduits and electronics left behind.
> There looks like there is not one, but two communication relays. If the rest of the ship is as overbuilt as that, then you might have stumbled onto one Hell of a payout, even accounting for damages from the worms.
>>
>>5445748
> There seems to be a cargo bay towards the rear of the ship. See if you can slip inside there, and get a better sense of the ship.
>>
> There is a spot on the wings that looks like an empty weapons mount. Surely, there would have to be some conduits and electronics left behind.
>>
>>5445748
> There looks like there is not one, but two communication relays. If the rest of the ship is as overbuilt as that, then you might have stumbled onto one Hell of a payout, even accounting for damages from the worms.

You have made your bed, now you are going to die in it.
>>
>>5445748
> There seems to be a cargo bay towards the rear of the ship. See if you can slip inside there, and get a better sense of the ship.
>>
Closed and writing.
>>
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While it is very tempting to just head over to somewhere you know there should be conduits and start pulling, you want to get the best possible sense of the Highest Heaven before you start hacking away. To that end, you are going to see if whoever 'parked' the hulk here left an access hatch open in what you wager to be a cargo bay at the aft end of the hull.

You double check that your toolkit is tethered, and that it is sealed shut. Once you are satisfied, you quickly grab handlers, wraps and hauling chain off of the second ferry, as the first speeds off to the third jobsite. With everything you are going to need in hand, you boost on over to the hulk, and swing over to the aft, looking for a bay, a hatch - Hell, you will even take a fueling or charging port if you have to.

It turns out that you don't have to. There is one big bay door on the back of this thing, and it is wide open. Smiling broadly, you turn your suits lights from low up to medium, then pull out a couple wisps and hook them into the accessory ports of your suit. These little drones are like floating light bulbs - while they do pull a tiny amount of fuel and charge from your suit through their twinned umbilical cord, they are really handy when exploring inside a hull, as they ensure that a much broader field is illuminated for you. The final thing you do before accelerating into the gaping door is switch your suits diagnostics to the master readout.

Suit Integrity: 100%
Suit Charge: 99%
Boost: 96%
Air: 98 %
Cutting Gas: 100%
Cutting Flux: 100%


Jesus, it is going to be hard going back to wearing suits of motley after this, where you have to keep track all of that information separately - or in some cases, just guess. With the wisps puttering ahead of you and your toolkit and recovery gear trailing behind, you slip into the metal cavern. The first thing that you can see is that there are still crates in the cargo bay, but as they are all floating around, unsecured, you doubt that they have anything in them really worthwhile. The next thing that you notice is that it looks like there was some sort of loading mechanism by the door, that has been removed. Parts of the hull have been cut into, from here you can see ... conduits! You are about to punt yourself over there, but then you remember that Quimbix specifically said that there is a restriction against cutting through anything structural or the external hull itself. Frustrated, and seriously considering pulling them anyway, you take another glance around the bay, and notice that in the back, jutting down from the ceiling there seems to be some sort of viewing station that overlooks the whole bay.
>>
> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Maybe you shouldn't be so quick to write those crates off. Try to open a few. (Suit Charge - 1 %, Air - 1%)
> Someone has already opened up the hull to get the loader out, and odds are if another wrecker sees that, then the restriction against cutting into the hull becomes a vague suggestion. Why should you play by the rules when no one else will? Get to work. (Suit Charge - 2 %, Air - 1 %, Cutting Gas - 1 %)
> Try to get into that viewing station. If it hasn't been gutted, there could be electronics inside. (Suit Charge - 1 %, Air - 1%, Cutting Gas - 1 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %)
>>
>>5446194
> Maybe you shouldn't be so quick to write those crates off. Try to open a few. (Suit Charge - 1 %, Air - 1%)
>>
>>5446194
> Maybe you shouldn't be so quick to write those crates off. Try to open a few. (Suit Charge - 1 %, Air - 1%)
Okay but hear me out,
MYSTERY
FUCKING
BOX.
>>
> Maybe you shouldn't be so quick to write those crates off. Try to open a few. (Suit Charge - 1 %, Air - 1%)
Lootbox time!
>>
>>5446194
> Maybe you shouldn't be so quick to write those crates off. Try to open a few. (Suit Charge - 1 %, Air - 1%)
Dont forget to build your mental map or make marks on the walls to keep track of where you go.
>>
Alright, closed and writing.
>>
>>5446194
> Maybe you shouldn't be so quick to write those crates off. Try to open a few. (Suit Charge - 1 %, Air - 1%)

>>5446432
I'm loving your quest so far Trash. it reminds of me that one space ship recycler game, and that old /qst/ quest about players finding an old super ship to min for riches, but then we all died cuz players wanted to risk puling a nuke torpedo out of one of our fleet ships....I really miss that quest.
>>
>>5446194
> Maybe you shouldn't be so quick to write those crates off. Try to open a few. (Suit Charge - 1 %, Air - 1%)

*points at a butterfly* Is this a mystery box?
>>
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>>5446550
... anon, I was the QM of Space Derelict Quest. Pic very much related.

While the exposed conduits in the hull and the possibility of electronics in the viewing station are certainly alluring, you just have to know what - if anything - is in all of these damn boxes. You punt yourself over to it, and try the lid. It lifts open without resistance. Admittedly, that is not a good indication for anything valuable being left inside, but you keep your hopes up.

You manhandle the crate so you are looking straight inside of it, and find ... a battered insulated liner, torn away from the interior walls of the box, and nothing else. Trying to not get disappointed, you grab another crate floating nearby, find that it is also unsealed, and only has a well-worn liner torn away from the inside. Not willing to give up right away, you try another dozen, only to find the exact same thing.

Well, at the very least, these crates and even the liners themselves have some value ... but even if you brought these to the ferry and they accepted them, you wouldn't get anything for your trouble. You are just about to move on when it occurs to you how odd it is that all of the liners of the crates have been torn off of their anchors. Was someone looking for something in here? This the newest hulk in the boneyard, and to your knowledge, you are the first wreckers to have gone through it, so this must have been something that the men who towed it here did.

Were they looking for something?

You find yourself looking around the cargo bay, at all of the loose crates, and wondering that if whoever looked through these managed to look through all of them ... and just what they were looking for.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Someone has already opened up the hull to get the loader out, and odds are if another wrecker sees that, then the restriction against cutting into the hull becomes a vague suggestion. Why should you play by the rules when no one else will? Get to work. (Suit Charge - 2 %, Air - 1 %, Cutting Gas - 1 %)
> Try to get into that viewing station. If it hasn't been gutted, there could be electronics inside. (Suit Charge - 1 %, Air - 1%, Cutting Gas - 1 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %)
> It might sound screwy, but you are not ready to give up on these boxes quite yet. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4%)
>>
>>5446656
>> Try to get into that viewing station. If it hasn't been gutted, there could be electronics inside. (Suit Charge - 1 %, Air - 1%, Cutting Gas - 1 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %)
Oh well.
>>
>>5446656
>am I the QM
O-oh....I miss that quest.
>>
>>5446656
> It might sound screwy, but you are not ready to give up on these boxes quite yet. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4%)
>>
>>5446656
> Try to get into that viewing station. If it hasn't been gutted, there could be electronics inside. (Suit Charge - 1 %, Air - 1%, Cutting Gas - 1 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %)
>>
>>5446656
> Try to get into that viewing station. If it hasn't been gutted, there could be electronics inside. (Suit Charge - 1 %, Air - 1%, Cutting Gas - 1 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %)
>>
>>5446656
> It might sound screwy, but you are not ready to give up on these boxes quite yet. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4%)
>>
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While you are certainly tempted to keep digging, you don't have the time - or the air, for that matter - to completely satisfy your curiosity, at least for now. Instead, you are going to get yourself into that ceiling mounted viewing station. Making a point to conserve your boosters, you punt yourself off of the floor of the cargo bay towards the ceiling, and then using the integrated magnets in your gloves, you pull yourself along the ceiling until you reach the inverted copula. As you approach, you can see that there are banks of light fixtures at regular intervals across the panel ceiling. If you were to remove those panels, then there would most likely be conduit underneath - and possibly worms as well.

But before you even consider messing around with any of that, you have to see if there are any electronics in that viewing station. You are so eager in fact, that you end up punting yourself a little too hard and you damn near sail by the substructure ... though your magnetized gloves come in handy again - heh! - and you are able to arrest yourself. In the process, you end up getting a good look inside. You can see that there is what looks to be a console still inside, but without any power going to it, you have no idea if it is still in working condition. More than that, there was a fairly steep conduit requirement before any electronics paid out. As another point of interest though, there is a lot of what looks like paper inside the station - some of it vac-proofed with lamination, but most of it not. It is at this point that you realize that there is not an external access for this substructure. Rather, there is just a ladder inside. that leads through a hatch in the ceiling. It is not too easy to make out. The view-ports have gotten all cloudy, and it looks like a lot of paper and just ... trash is floating around in there.

Seeing that, you look back over your shoulder, to where the bay door is. With your lights mounted on chest rig, you actually can barely see anything - only the faint light from the wisps illuminates the cargo bay behind you. It is almost enough to make you wish to be back out underneath the stars again. Almost.

It also makes you reconsider your decision to not take a guideline with you, though you have an idea on how you could leave little guidemarks on prominent spaces for you instead, marks that only you knew the meaning to. You don't really need them here, as even though you cannot see it at this point, you know that you are basically a straight shot to the aft bay door. You turn your attention to the little inverse copula again. The presence of paper that has not been made vac-proof, as well as the trash, and absence of an external egress all suggest that this substructure was intended to be and remain pressurized. And before you cut your way in, you have to know - is it still pressurized?
>>
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Of course, such a thing is patently unlikely. Especially on a hulk that seems to have already been gutted and towed. But you have already established that the naval architect who designed the ship presumably intended that the inside of the viewing station to be pressurized, and unexpectedly still-pressurized areas are not completely unheard of. And the horror stories of what happens to wreckers unlucky enough to cut into one are chilling enough that as a part of your certification, you are taught to think before you cut. So that is exactly what you do.

Now, you cannot count on 'freeze sucking', as you know for a fact that the boneyard here is not far enough from Mendicant - the systems star - for the temperature inside the hulk to fall to a point where the air could condense into a liquid and depressurize the interior on its own. However, now that you are looking closely, you can see evidence of strain in the substructure of the copula, especially in spots where the substructure meets the ceiling. Paint chips missing, and faint concave contortions in the metal indicate that the inside of the station was cooled and deflated. As certain as you are going to be without actually attempting the cut, you unsling your wrecking torch, anchor yourself, then after getting the cutting head as far away from you as possible, you pump out some insulating flux on a cross beam in between two rectangular view-ports. Thankful for the flux, and that at the very least, the metal is not going to shatter like glass, you ignite the torch and bore an exploratory hole through the member.

Nothing happens - but before you are even going to fractionally let your guard down, you double check by getting one of the wisps down by the hole to make sure that you got it all the way through,. You did though. Finally, you allow yourself a shallow sigh of relief, then you are moving and cutting as quick as you can to pull enough view-ports out for you to get inside the substructure. You make short work of it, and soon you and your tools are all inside. The room is relatively small, probably five cubits by five cubits. Besides what you have already seen of it, along two of the walls, there are little metal shelves, which presumably once held the paper and the trash floating around the station. There is also a mounted operators' chair in front of the console. Above you, you can see that the hatch is open. Interestingly, it looks like is was pried open from the outside.
>>
> Please choose ONE of the following:
> There are papers floating everywhere. Maybe if you were to take the time to read them, you might learn something advantageous. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %)
> There is not as much in here as you had hoped. But that hatch ... that hatch beckons to you. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %)
> If you had to guess, you would say that this console operated the loading mechanism. It is mounted pretty damned well, but if it is still in working condition, then it will be a real nice pay day - if you collect enough conduit of course. Take it to the ferry and tag it, right away. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Boost - 3 %. Air - 4 %, Cutting Gas - 4 %, Cutting Flux - 7 %)
> Before you go to the trouble of wrangling the console, take the time to see if you can get it turned on or not. If it turns on, then and only then is it worth taking to the ferry right away. (Suit Charge - 5 %, Boost - 3 %. Air - 5 %, Cutting Gas - 4 %, Cutting Flux - 7 %)
> It is not glamorous, but you are going to need conduits before you can redeem anything else. Turn your attention to the nearest bank of light fixtures on the ceiling, the ones that you passed on your way over. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %, Cutting Gas - 2 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %)
>>
> It is not glamorous, but you are going to need conduits before you can redeem anything else. Turn your attention to the nearest bank of light fixtures on the ceiling, the ones that you passed on your way over. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %, Cutting Gas - 2 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %)
May as well grab it all before someone else does.
>>
>>5447175
+1
>>
>>5447160
> Before you go to the trouble of wrangling the console, take the time to see if you can get it turned on or not. If it turns on, then and only then is it worth taking to the ferry right away. (Suit Charge - 5 %, Boost - 3 %. Air - 5 %, Cutting Gas - 4 %, Cutting Flux - 7 %)
If we save up enough money, could we purchase some cyberware or bioware to install? Like a stronger replacement heart?
>>
>>5447160
> There are papers floating everywhere. Maybe if you were to take the time to read them, you might learn something advantageous. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %)
>>
Alright, with four votes cast, there is a plurality for pulling some of the conduit. First, I am going to need a 1d16, to determine the length of conduit in the immediate area that you are working. Then I am going to need someone to roll that number of d100's, to determine the condition of the conduit. If any these rolls are 59 or lower, then that means the conduit is not in good enough to be accepted as clean. If any of these rolls are 19 and lower, then that means that the conduit is in such bad condition that it is not even eligible for being accepted as substandard on the prorated pay-schedule. If you roll a 1 or a 2, then it means you encounter a conduit worm of considerable size and aggression, which must be dealt with before work continues. If any of the rolls are 90 or higher, then in addition to recovering a length of conduit, you also recover some electronics. Nothing too valuable on their own, but they add up, and there are d16 chances to find them at this first site alone. If the rolls are either 99 or 100, then the electronics that you recover are of considerable value.

I am also going to need someone to roll a 1d8. If that rolls a 2, 3,4, 5, 6 or 7 nothing happens. If that rolls a 1, then a negative event occurs, with the severity of it being determined by a roll of a 1d100, with 1 being life-threatening, enough to force a premature end to the EVA, and 100 being a barely noticeable inconvenience. If that 1d8 rolls an 8, then a positive event occurs, with the value of it being determined by a roll of 1d100, with 1 being a rather worthless bonus and 100 being something significant.

So, to start things off, I need that 1d16, to determine how much conduit we are working with.

>>5447220 Equipment like that does exist, but for the peons and even the Trustees aboard the Commissioner such things are prohibited, to the point that during intake, implants will be removed and sold. There will be more on this and other things later.
>>
Rolled 11 (1d16)

Oh boy, time for the first trash scavenging dice dump.
>>
Good start, 11 cubits of conduit are on the table (which is just shy of five meters, if I remember my conversion factor correctly). Can I now get someone to roll 11d100? As always, the higher the result, the better!
>>
Rolled 82 (1d100)

What was the wait before rolling again normally, 20 minutes?
>>
Rolled 58, 82, 23, 11, 78, 63, 3, 65, 33, 90 = 506 (10d100)

...whoops, missed a digit while typing
>>
You pull one common electronic, six cubits of clean conduit and three units of substandard conduit. And you just missed getting attacked by a worm by the skin of your teeth.

I now need a 1d8, to determine if anything else happens here.

>>5447573 And to answer your question, anon, twenty minutes is a fine refractionary period..
>>
Rolled 4 (1d8)

>>5447600
>>
That console is tantalizing - but if you don't get enough conduits in hand by the end of shift, it isn't even worth looking at right now. To that end, you decide to poke around the nearest light fixture instead, as electronics like that will have to have some conduits. Continuing to make a point of conserving boost, you pull yourself out of the viewing station, and punt your way over to the nearest light. The emitters have been taken out, but otherwise the unit looks like it is still in good working order - though lights are not particularly valuable. Using the copula behind you to orient yourself, you try to figure where the power plant of the Highest Heaven would be, relative to this light. If it is directly above you, you might be out of luck - or at the very least, you would have to violate the hold on cutting into anything structural. Lucky for you, when you cut open the drop panels, you can see that the conduit runs to the light from the fore of the ship. Unluckily for you, you can see that the Highest Heaven has well and truly earned her bio-hazard stamp. There are worms here, some of which are still alive. And they have really done a number on the wiring. Portions of it has been completely subsumed, replaced by worms as thick as a finger. Jesus Christ, if you were to follow Quimbix's advice about smashing them with your hammer, you would end up spending more time on worms then on wrecking. And if the wiring for a light is as bad as this, you can't even imagine what it is like near the engine, or the capacitors, or any other power intensive component. This hulk must either have a record setting infestation, or Quimbix was dead fucking wrong about it having an undersized power plant.

When you notice that some of the smaller ones are stirring like blown hair the presence of one of your wisps, you snap to attention. After you hastily withdraw the light, you get to your work with the wrecking torch. If you burn it close enough to the worms, you can heat them up quicker than their bodies can safely adjust to the temperature, rupturing their internals and killing them. It works really, really well - but there are two drawbacks to this method. First, you are burning cutting gas with no salvage to show for it. Second, the damn things pop when you heat them, and in micrograv, it makes an absolute fucking mess. And of course, you end up popping the dead or sleeping ones as well as the ones that are coming after you, so by the end of it, you are having a hard time seeing the conduit for all the mess, though at least some of that is viscera on your visor. You use one of the wraps to wipe it clean, then you flail it around in the portion of exposed ceiling to clear things up a bit. As you are now able to see what you are working with now, you end up making short work of the remaining conduit with tools and torch, pulling and wrapping the clean stuff in a second salvage wrap, and then substandard stuff in a third.
>>
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You also have the good fortune to find a surge protector in the line that hasn't been burnt out. It comes out easily enough, so you start a fourth wrap for electronics. Having pulled everything covered by the ceiling panels immediately around this light, you back away a little bit, first checking your suit and your tools for worms, and then consulting the master readout.

Suit Integrity: 100 %
Suit Charge: 94 %
Boost: 96 %
Air: 92 %
Cutting Gas: 97 %
Cutting Flux: 98 %

You have made a good start on the conduit here, and there are a lot more lights in this bay. You could focus on pulling more of them, return your attention to the copula, explore whatever is on the other end of that hatch ... or if you were feeling adventurous, you could follow the conduit deeper into the ship. It has to lead to the power plant eventually - but even before you got to that point, conduit from other places in the hulk would converge, like how thin fingers lead into a thicker arm.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Return to the copula, and investigate the papers and trash floating around. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %)
> Return to the copula, and pull that console. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Boost - 3 %. Air - 4 %, Cutting Gas - 4 %, Cutting Flux - 7 %)
> Return to the copula, and test that console before pulling it. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 3 %, Cutting Gas - 2 %, Cutting Flux - 2 %)
> Return to the copula, and head up into the hatch (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %)
> Move along the ceiling pulling conduit, heading away from the power plant, towards the nearest light fixture in that direction. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 3 %, Cutting Gas - 2 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %) (Slightly quicker as you have already started pulling)
> Move along the ceiling pulling conduit, heading towards the power plant, towards the nearest light fixture in that direction. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 3 %, Cutting Gas - 2 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %) (Slightly quicker as you have already started pulling)
> Move along the ceiling, heading towards the power plant, exploring. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %)
>>
>>5447749
> Return to the copula, and pull that console. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Boost - 3 %. Air - 4 %, Cutting Gas - 4 %, Cutting Flux - 7 %)
>>
>>5447749
> Return to the copula, and test that console before pulling it. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 3 %, Cutting Gas - 2 %, Cutting Flux - 2 %)

>>5447817
We gotta see if it's worth taking or not.
>>
>>5447749
>> Return to the copula, and pull that console. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Boost - 3 %. Air - 4 %, Cutting Gas - 4 %, Cutting Flux - 7 %)
>>
While you are going to need a lot more conduit to redeem anything, you just cannot stop thinking about that console. You tell yourself that you really ought to be focusing on getting the two hundred cubits of clean conduit before you spend any serious time pulling electronics ... but you just can't help thinking that if you don't pull the thing now, you are going to regret it somehow. Resolving yourself, you punt yourself back over to the station. You anchor your used wraps outside on the metal frame, then you pull yourself, your wisps and your tools in. Which reminds you - before you start work, you check over all of your tools to make sure that you haven't picked up any worms that you could potentially transfer to the console. That would be real kick in the head, wouldn't it? Spending all of this time to get the damned thing out, only to find out you ruined it.

Your tools are clean though, and you put nearly all of them to good use, first finessing the console out in one piece, then widening the whole you have put into the viewing-station so you can maneuver it out of there. Out of an abundance of concern about the unit, you end up using more flux then you probably actually needed to - but you cannot cry about that now. You gather up the wrapped salvage, securing it to your belt, then you get both hands on one end of the console, and activate your boost. You quickly move through the hangar bay - giving the still spreading cloud of conduit worm viscera a wide, wide berth - and then out of hulk. Compared to the ink blankness, the relative brightness of the Eternal Night is enough that your eyes actually need to adjust a bit, and you blink them uncomfortably as you bank yourself around the aft of the Highest Heaven and head towards the 'parked' ferry. You hail the ferryman on your radio.

"Smickwick, calling to tag."

"Ye? Ya got what dere?"

With a lot of the peons and some of the trustees, it is often hard to tell if they are just speaking Mainline informally with heavy accents and slang that you are unfamiliar with, or they are actually speaking a pidgin with different grammatical rules. You know full well that some people can take serious offense if you are to make assumptions about that kind of stuff - you have the scars to prove it - so you make a point of speaking with strangers only when you absolutely have to, and as little as possible.

"Console. Conduit, six cubits clean, three ... not clean. Surge protector."

"Six! Boy, you gots to get two hunna for dats to pay! You gots to get a hunna for any pay!"

Strictly speaking, that is not true - according to Quimbix, conduit worm eggs will pay out regardless. Still, you understand what he is driving at. You need to get a lot more conduit, otherwise all of this is going to end up costing you.

"Yes. Spares?"

"...Ye, just two, doe. Keeping dem here."

You hope he mean two for each of you - not for the entire shift.

"Big spares?"

"Nah, bitty things."
>>
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Fuck. If they are tiny ones that you think he is talking about, then you might actually have a hard time getting enough conduit - at least at the rate and in the spots that you are going.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Return to the cargo bay
> Head over to the engine cluster
> Head over to the empty weapons mount
> Head over to the communication relays
>>
>>5448115
> Return to the cargo bay
OPEN MORE BOX
>>
>>5448115
>> Return to the cargo bay
LIGHTS
>>
>>5448115
> Return to the cargo bay
>>
Closed and writing.
>>
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With the pressure mounting, you use your suits boost to zip back into the cargo bay. As you bank into the cavern, you glance at your master readout.

Suit Integrity: 100 %
Suit Charge: 91 %
Boost: 93 %
Air: 88 %
Cutting Gas: 93 %
Cutting Flux: 91 %


When you look away from the readout, you immediately notice that another one of the wreckers has moved into the bay, looking for conduit - though at this moment they are hacking into the hull around the socket for the cargo loader. You figured that would happen as soon as someone laid eyes on it, but it still gives you pause. If this wrecker isn't contentious enough to follow the rules, then that means that they probably wouldn't hesitate to work right on top of you. For now, there really isn't anything to say.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Go back to looking through the boxes floating through the hold. Surely one of them has something more interesting in them then a ripped liner. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %)
> Go back to the copula, go through the hatch in the ceiling and head further into the ship. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %)
> Go back to the copula and investigate those papers. It is possible that something in there could point you towards a significant find ... or it could all be trash. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %)
> You need to stop playing around and get to work. You need one hundred and ninety four more clean cubits of conduit if you want that console to pay out. Go to where you cut into the ceiling panels, and then move towards the aft of the ship. As you are (presumably) moving further away from the power plant, you can expect less conduit, but also the electricals to have fewer worms. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 3 %, Cutting Gas - 2 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %) (Slightly quicker as you have already started pulling)
> You need to stop playing around and get to work. You need one hundred and ninety four more clean cubits of conduit if you want that console to pay out. Go to where you cut into the ceiling panels, and then move towards the fore of the ship. As you are (presumably) moving closer to the power plant, you can expect more conduit, but also the electricals to have more worms. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 3 %, Cutting Gas - 2 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %) (Slightly quicker as you have already started pulling)
>>
> You need to stop playing around and get to work. You need one hundred and ninety four more clean cubits of conduit if you want that console to pay out. Go to where you cut into the ceiling panels, and then move towards the fore of the ship. As you are (presumably) moving closer to the power plant, you can expect more conduit, but also the electricals to have more worms. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 3 %, Cutting Gas - 2 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %) (Slightly quicker as you have already started pulling)
>>
>>5448642
> You need to stop playing around and get to work. You need one hundred and ninety four more clean cubits of conduit if you want that console to pay out. Go to where you cut into the ceiling panels, and then move towards the fore of the ship. As you are (presumably) moving closer to the power plant, you can expect more conduit, but also the electricals to have more worms. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 3 %, Cutting Gas - 2 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %) (Slightly quicker as you have already started pulling)
>>
Normally, I would wait for a third vote ... but I am ready to run now., and this has been up long enough already.

This set of rolls works just like >>5447515, with one difference: +1 is added to the roll of 1d16 (after the roll, just roll 1d16 please) and in addition to that number of d100's being rolled, that number of d2s are rolled (or flipped). If they come up as 1, then the corresponding d100 is reduced by -1. If the d100 is a 1, and the d2 comes up as a 1 as well, then that means that the d100 roll was effectively 0. If this happens, that means that your suit has lost some integrity - more on that when that it happens. If the d2 comes up as 2, then the corresponding d100 is not reduced. Everything else is the same.

May I please have 1d16 to get things started?
>>
Rolled 6 (1d16)

>>5448757
>>
>>5448758
Okay, so there are seven cubits of conduit remaining in this area. To determine their condition, I need someone to roll 7d100 and someone else to roll 7d2.
>>
Rolled 54, 62, 1, 88, 24, 95, 5 = 329 (7d100)

>>5448757
>>
Rolled 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1 = 12 (7d2)

>>5448760
>>
>>5448761
>Nat 1
uh oh. That can't be good...
>>
>>5448768
Worm time!
>>
>>5448761
Okay. Well, there is a real risk here that the suit is going to lose some integrity.

How that works is that for each percentage of integrity lost, for every prompt that is chosen, you have to roll a d100. If it comes up as 1, then something on the suit breaks - which for obvious reason is a problem. Depending on what breaks and how, there could be a way to fix it, or it could mean that you are either done with the shift, or just plain done.

And now I see the other rolls are in. With the corrections, the rolls are now 53, 62, 1, 88, 24, 95, 4. That is three units of clean conduit, two units of substandard conduit and one aggressive conduit worm to deal with in the next prompt, but at least the suit did not get damaged.

Finally, I need a 1d8. No more nat 1's, please!
>>
Rolled 4 (1d8)

>>5448771
>>
Conduit. More than anything else, you need conduit right now. To that end, you punt yourself over to the where you had been cutting through the dropped ceiling panels, and pick up right where you left off, starting to work towards where you - and anyone else - would assume the power plant is located. Remembering all of the worms you ran into and the mess you ended up making dealing with them, you get the wrap you used to clear away the viscera ready in your off hand as you ignite your wrecking torch.

But when you actually start cutting into the panels, you are not most certainly not prepared for the next panel over to smash open and a conduit worm as thick as your fucking thigh to start flailing around trying to get you while it unravels itself. You punt yourself away from the ceiling, and even as you get clear from the main body of the worm, you can see its feathery feelers billowing out of the small cut you made. Soon, more pseudo-appendages, thick as your own, start to burst through other ceiling panels. Some of these arms have hooks and teeth, some have bio-capacitors, some have mouths and distended stomachs, and some have eyes - which concerningly enough all seem to be staring straight at you.

This ... if there are monsters like this on the fucking ceiling lights, maybe you don't want to go closer to the power plant after all. But right now, you have to figure out what you are going to do about this. Even though you are certain that you could kill it with your torch, this writhing bastard here has demonstrated that it is strong enough to just burst straight through what looks like plate steel. If it was able to get one of those pseudo-appendages on you, it could easily break your suit. And even if you are able to kill it without getting caught, it is still anchored to the panels that it popped off - and those things flailing around everywhere could send an absolute shit-storm of debris everywhere. You could get hurt by that too.

By the time that you have hit the floor of the cargo bay, the worm has fully unraveled, and started to put out it feelers in earnest. By the time that you have gotten back on your feet, the feelers have spread to what looks to be their fullest extension. You would hazard that a full 25 to 30 square cubits of ceiling have just been cordoned off. As you watch, you see some debris from one of the panels hit another nearby panel - and the worm immediately responds by prying it off. But all the time, its horned eyes are pointed directly at you. You are not sure if the worm senses your electronics and is straining its eyes to see you, or if it can see you just fine, but you seriously doubt that you are going to be able to trick it by just throwing things at panels. It doesn't seem to want to detach from its comfortable perch in the ceiling and come after you ...but, at the moment you are giving it a wide berth.
>>
> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Fight the worm. (1 in 20 chance of - 2 % Suit Integrity, 1 in 20 chance of - 4 % Suit Integrity, 1 in 20 chance of - 8 % Suit Integrity, 1 in 20 chance of - 16 % Suit Integrity, - 5 % Cutting Gas)
> Give the worm a wide berth (1 in 20 chance of worm attacking regardless, if you succeed, then re-roll previous action)
> If your mentor, Jibbs was here with you, he'd tell you to kill two birds with one stone. Empahsis on 'kill', and on 'two'. (1 in 20 chance of you getting attacked instead, then 1 in 20 chance of one of them surviving, rolling a 1d2 to determine which. Recover the other wrecker's haul, tools and consumables)
> If that asshat is going to work on top of you, then maybe you should work on top of him, instead. Head over to where the loader or loaders were pulled and start looking for conduit. (Re-roll previous action, - 1 % Air)
> Your luck hasn't been to great in here. Maybe it is time to try somewhere else. Head out of the hulk and consider your options. ( - 1 % Boost, previous action is refunded)
>>
>>5448881
> Fight the worm. (1 in 20 chance of - 2 % Suit Integrity, 1 in 20 chance of - 4 % Suit Integrity, 1 in 20 chance of - 8 % Suit Integrity, 1 in 20 chance of - 16 % Suit Integrity, - 5 % Cutting Gas)
>>
>>5448881
>> Fight the worm. (1 in 20 chance of - 2 % Suit Integrity, 1 in 20 chance of - 4 % Suit Integrity, 1 in 20 chance of - 8 % Suit Integrity, 1 in 20 chance of - 16 % Suit Integrity, - 5 % Cutting Gas)
>>
Alright, I guess we have waited long enough. Can I get 1d20? A roll of 1 corresponds to - 16 % Suit Integrity. A roll of 2 corresponds to - 8 % Suit Integrity. A roll of 3 corresponds to - 4 % Suit Integrity. A roll of 4 corresponds to - 2 % Suit Integrity. Fight the worm!
>>
Rolled 7 (1d20)

>>5448969
>>
Rolled 17 (1d20)

>>5448969
>>
>>5448974
Alright, the worm is dead, and you are no worse for the wear. I was going to as for another roll of 1d20, so I might as well take >>5448977. Closed and writing!
>>
You have already had too many starts and stop this EVA. If you ever are going to have any hope of netting and tagging enough conduit, then you are going to have to figuratively and physically go through this fucking worm. As resolved as you are going to be, you activate your positioning boosters, and move into a suitable position just outside of the furthest feelers. You open up the choke on your torch as wide as it will possibly go, then carefully, without taking your eyes off of the worm - who is still staring straight at you from at least two dozen different eyes - you tightly grip the wrecking torch in both hands, putting it between you and the worm.

When you are as ready as you are ever going to be, you hit your boost and you give the worm what for. The flame lances through the feelers as the boosters carry you within striking distance of the main trunk. The nearest of the pseudo-appendages lunge towards you, but in a moment of inspiration, you get the idea to burn all of your boosters, all over your suit at once. Doing so means that you are no longer moving forward, but at least the heavier 'arms' of the worm are cringing away from you now. Still, at least twice the worm manages to get through your guard, but at this point it is trying to shove you away, not grapple or consume you. It gives you a good thumping, but you are able to backburn away any momentum that the hits might have had, and then you set to burying the white-hot head of your wrecking torch in to any and every 'arm' that you can. Unlike the smaller worms - and even the feelers of this worm - these pseudo-appendages are thick enough that they don't burst immediately. Instead, they bubble around where you have the head of the torch, then they start to peel a bit before losing integrity and become this spreading ooze.

As you hold your figurative ground, you take a bunch of hits, and through you can feel them vibrating in your bones, none of them are more than glancing, and they can be corrected for with your boosters. And for each hit the worm manages to land on you, it costs the beast an 'arm'. At this point you are absolutely covered in smouldering worm viscera, but you have been able to keep your orientation well enough, and you can sort of see through your visor still. The two of you remain at an impasse, until finally, after trying to hit you with an eye-stalk and you driving the head of the torch right into its pupil, the worm decides that keeping its perch here is untenable. While it unanchoring itself from the ceiling does mean that more 'arms' are freed up, it also gives you an opening. Before the beast can either flee or bring those fresh 'arms' against you, you move to finish this.You boost yourself right up to the trunk, using the torch to scythe through a forest of feelers and smaller 'arms' before you bury the thing in one clean chop into the main body.
>>
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The beast finally starts trying to grapple instead of pummel - to pull you out of position and presumably twist you apart - but now you have yourself anchored with the head of the wrecking torch. It tugs at you with increasing desperation, and eventually manages to pull you out, but the damage is done. The beast is spewing viscera from between its segments and from every orifice it has. At this point, all the worm is doing is trying to wrap itself around you, but it clearly lacks the strength that it just had mere moments ago. You shrug some of the 'arms' off of you and then you plunge the head of your wrecking torch back into the trunk of the worm - boring a new, smoldering hole, even deeper into the parasite this time. Finally, the thing has had enough. With a sudden shudder and possibly the rest of the worm's strength, it manages to give you one final hearty squeeze before going limp for the last time. You extricate yourself from the 'arms' of the animal, then to make absolutely sure that there are no surprises here, you cut the trunk of the worm into thirds, then you put the beast away to the floor of the cargo bay beneath you, spraying a frothy torrent of viscera everywhere on its way 'down'. Taking some fortifying breaths, you check your master readout.

Suit Integrity: 100 %
Suit Charge: 91 %
Boost: 90 %
Air: 88 %
Cutting Gas: 88 %
Cutting Flux: 91 %


Well ... at the very least, your suit is still reading as being in optimal condition. Though ... well, you are certainly proud of yourself for overcoming that thing, but the fact is that a large part of your success here had to do with the fact that you were able to get away from the worm at first, then approach it from the best possible angle. And you were only able to do that because you were in a cargo bay. If you were in more cramped quarters ... and for that matter, if a more narrow space, a worm would probably be more comfortable going on the offensive. You are not trying to put yourself down here, but if you were to repeat this exact fight, but in a hallway, a room, a shaft, it -

Hold on, are those eggs?

After you use your torch again to make sure that some of the smaller conduit worms in this portion of the dropped ceiling are well and safely dead, you spend the next few minutes collecting what must be two hundred conduit worm eggs. It goes without saying that by the end of it, you are feeling much better about the EVA. The worm flailing around even pulled off the panels for you, so you didn't need to spend any more time or consumables on it. And while the final count from this section is kind of underwhelming - just another three cubits of clean conduit and another two of not-so-clean conduit - you did end up finding another electronic. This one ... you are not sure what exactly this one is. Well, you'll find out when you get the appraisal back for the haul - assuming you get your two hundred cubits of clean conduit in by the end of the second shift.
>>
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You go to wipe yourself clean with the wrap, when you realize that it is coated in ooze from the worm. And when you go to pull out another wrap to at least clean your helmet off, you find that everything you have has been liberally slimed by that damned worm. Fucking damn it all. As you do your best to get the sensitive stuff clean, you spare a moment to look over your shoulder at the other wrecker - who is still picking away at the hull by the bay door. Now, of course sound doesn't travel in space - but vibrations can still travel through metal. You have to believe he would have noticed something, he isn't too far away and it is not like he is working with an impact driver or something. Damn it all, you are practically on top of each other, and he couldn't even be bothered to say anything at all to you! You shouldn't be surprised, of course, people don't typically stick their necks out for each other around here - but it is still lousy to be reminded of that unfortunate fact in such a dramatic way. He didn't even get on the radio! Of course, neither did you, but the last thing you want to de near an aggressive conduit worm is start to mess around with electronics.

If your old 'mentor' Jibbs was here, he would have told you to that there are friends and there are marks, and that you should have baited that worm over there, and let them kill each other. Not only would it have been less risky than fighting it yourself, you would have gotten these eggs, the conduit in the ceiling plus whatever the other wrecker had on him. Grandfather, on the other hand, would never condone doing something like that ... though he would probably insist on you beating the wrecker up for turning his back on you like that. Uncle though, he would have said that the worm was your problem, that you and you alone must deal with it, and that neither of you have any obligation to the other. Oh, he really lived by that fucking sentiment didn't he. You only lived with the man for a month and a half before he indentured you out as a cabin boy, knowing full well the sorts who -

No, no no. You can't do this. Not now, on an EVA. Or ... ever. Just, conduit. You need that fucking conduit.
>>
> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Go back to looking through the boxes floating through the hold. Surely one of them has something more interesting in them then a ripped liner. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %)
> Go back to the copula, go through the hatch in the ceiling and head further into the ship. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %)
> Go back to the copula and investigate those papers. It is possible that something in there could point you towards a significant find ... or it could all be trash. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %)
> Keep working your way across the ceiling of the cargo bay, moving towards the aft - presumably away from the power plant. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 3 %, Cutting Gas - 1 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %) (Slightly quicker as you have already started pulling, slightly easier from worm damage)
> Keep working your way across the ceiling of the cargo bay, moving towards the fore - presumably towards the power plant. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 3 %, Cutting Gas - 1 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %) (Slightly quicker as you have already started pulling, slightly easier from worm damage)
> If that asshat is going to work on top of you, then maybe you should work on top of him, instead. Head over to where the loader or loaders were pulled and start looking for conduit.(Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 3 %, Cutting Gas - 2 %, Cutting Flux - 3 %)
> Your luck hasn't been to great in here. Maybe it is time to try somewhere else. Head out of the hulk and consider your options. ( - 1 % Boost)
>>
>>5449159
> Go back to the copula and investigate those papers. It is possible that something in there could point you towards a significant find ... or it could all be trash. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %)
>>
> Keep working your way across the ceiling of the cargo bay, moving towards the aft - presumably away from the power plant. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 3 %, Cutting Gas - 1 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %) (Slightly quicker as you have already started pulling, slightly easier from worm damage)
May as well finish what we started.
>>
Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>5449207 1
>>5449236 2
>>
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But ... you could also take a moment to catch your breath after that, with something a little less ... stressful. After all, you are on bottled air here - not only do you need to pace yourself, taking in too much of it too quickly isn't that good for the heart - supposedly - and you did just have a little unscheduled, what, an hour ago? Maybe a little more? Just ... okay, you will take it easy for a little bit after that, look at those papers in the copula instead. If the worse comes to pass, and you aren't able to get the one hundred cubits of clean conduit tagged by the end of the shift, then it is not going to be the end of you - and you do have enough credits on hand that you won't go into further debt covering the costs of the ferry, the consumables and wear on the suits and tools.

Still an absolute mess, you punt yourself through the cloud of frothy worm ooze and then pull yourself into the viewing station. Keeping one eye on your master readout, you start quickly skimming every paper you can in the harsh lights of you suit, all the while doing your best not to get any of the droplets or debris from the worm that is floating around you on any of the papers. By the end of it, you find ...

> May I please have 1d25, then that number of d20's from someone else please?
>>
Rolled 14 (1d25)

>>5449381
A crying shame we're not allowed to buy implants with our own god damn muny.
>>
>>5449381
So we're getting payed for each cluster of worm eggs, and so far we only have the one. Is that right? How much are we getting payed per cluster?
>>
>>5449424
No, you have ~200 egg clusters, and you are getting paid 0.1 eT for each, with another 0.1 eT per dozen. To give a frame of reference, for a standard EVA shift, and apprentice wrecker like Smithwick earns 100 eT, or 125 eT for a shift with the hazard differential, assuming they make the requirements for the shift. For another frame of reference, the "free" meal in the canteen costs 12 eT, while the heartier, fortified ones cost 22 eT. (The meal is "free" because sorting and heavy workers can get one or even two meals comp'd a day if they reach and then maintain certain performance markers).
>>
Rolled 10, 14, 12, 1, 18, 13, 15, 7, 19, 11, 16, 15, 20, 5 = 176 (14d20)

>>5449403
am I doing it right?
>>
>>5449445
Yep! I'll get to writing this up.
>>
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Being exposed to the void has not done any of these papers any favors, but many are still in a legible condition. If they are worth reading on the other hand ... well, there really is only one way to know for sure. You wipe your hands clean - or rather, cleaner - on your suit, and then you start perusing through them.

As you might have figured, a lot of this stuff is just fragments. Bits of shipping manifests, transactions, things of that nature. Complicating all of it is that most of them don't actually refer to anything by name, instead it is by abbreviations, serials, part numbers or by some sort of shorthand. However, buried in the floating cloud of trash, there are a bound stack of installation guides and simplified manuals, which gives you a much better idea of what was on the ship. Some really top-shelf stuff too. Extra-high gain relays, a dedicated fire-control computer for point defense, a gantry drone loader for the cargo bay, auto-loaders for all sorts of different weapons. It is a bunch of stuff to look into certainly. Of course, most of it was probably pulled before the hulk was 'parked' here and what wasn't, like the antenna and relays are probably being hacked to pieces right at this moment. Still, with these, you have a real leg up over the competition, at least for the remainder of the shift.

Careful to not get them soiled, you clip them to your boots, the cleanest part of your suit and you turn your attention away from the cloud of paper, trash, debris left behind from you pulling the console, and towards the few odds and ends remaining on the shelves. As you work your way though them you come across a sealed metal tube, that slipped into a little lip between one of the shelves and the wall of the copula. Curious, you fish it out of there, and unscrew the cap. And in what is probably the single greatest stroke of luck in your entire seventeen years of life, what slides out but the fucking blueprints for the Highest Heaven! You stare at them, completely dumbfounded for at least a solid ten seconds, then you burst out in laughter. Carefully, you unravel -

"Hell you doing in here?"

Fucking shit! Your heart skips a beat, which is presumably not good for someone who had a heart attack earlier today. You turn your head slightly, It is another wrecker, obviously, positioned themselves right in front of the hole you opened up into the copula. You glance out into the cargo bay, and you can see that the wallflower wrecker working on the arms is no longer there. Is this him? Why the Hell didn't you remember that bastard's suit number? And what the fuck are you going to do about this, huh?

> Please choose ONE of the following
> Say nothing. Say nothing at all.
> "I'm trying to look for the conduit that hooked into the console."
> "What exactly does it mean to you?"
> "It was bad enough when you were working in on me earlier, but this is really beyond the pale. Back off."
>>
>>5449526
> Say nothing. Say nothing at all.
Fucking BOOK IT AND RUN!!
>>
>>5449526
> "I'm trying to look for the conduit that hooked into the console."
>>
>>5449526
> "It was bad enough when you were working in on me earlier, but this is really beyond the pale. Back off."
>>
> Say nothing. Say nothing at all.
If he's going to bother to try to take our haul when we don't say anything, then I'm not sure anything we say could talk him down.
>>
>>5449526
> "It was bad enough when you were working in on me earlier, but this is really beyond the pale. Back off."
>>
>>5449526
Is this quest in the same universe as the first one about us nuking ourself? With Fuel being super fucking scarce?

Do you have a link to your other quests?

Did you do that one space mercenary/bandit quest?
>>
>>5449526
>> Say nothing. Say nothing at all.
>>
>>5449696
Yes, it is supposed to be the same universe. The Quimbix in this quest and the Quimbix in Space Scrapper Quest are cousins, though these two quests don't take place concurrently. I didn't get a chance to run the space bandit/shipwrecker quest that I wanted to ... but if our MC manages to escape the Commissioner, then who knows ...

For the quest that this shares a setting with:
>>https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=space+scrapper+QM
For the other quests:
>>https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=trashQM

There are three votes on the board for saying nothing, and hoping that he leaves. I'll get to writing.
>>
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You are so concerned about saying the wrong thing that ultimately you decide to remain silent, and the impasse in the viewing station is only broken by the occasional bit of static and feedback on the open radio channel between you. You can see yourself reflected in his helmet - no doubt as he can see himself reflected in yours - but by staring at his faceplate, you can make a pretty good guess as to what he can and cannot see. Right now, there is no way that he could possibly see the blueprint. But if he were to come into the copula - or even just strafe around it, you have no doubt that he would plainly see it in your hands. However, if you were to go and try to stuff the thing back into the tube, it would be plainly and painfully obvious that you were trying to hide something from him.

"That was ... really quite impressive, the uh, what you did to the worm there."

You hold your tongue, willing him to leave you alone. Unfortunately, it does not work.

"Hey - I can see your radio from here. It's not broken."

More static and feedback on the line, but nothing else, at least until he speaks again.

"You ... you are Smithy? No, Smithwick. Smithwick.That pirate cabin boy. The one that can read."

You tense up. For reasons that are obvious, you would rather that no one know you were a cabin boy. But you didn't come to the Commissioner alone - you had been accompanied with the bulk of the surviving crew of the Salacious Scheme, and they knew your history, and that you could read, and somehow or other it had gotten around. Admittedly, there had been some upside to that. Back in her day, the Scheme had racked up some impressive victories and netted some serious swag. And it just so happens that freebooters are well regarded in the Commissioner's hierarchy of peons, especially those that were taken off of noted ships. This even extends - to a limited extent, of course - to auxiliary crew, like cabin boys.

"We were in the same certification classes."

You had figured as much.

"You have been reading these papers. That's what you came back in here to do, right?"

Fuck. Of all the miserable, shitty luck, your wallflower here actually has enough brain cells to rub together.

"Listen, this recovery job is bullshit. Setting aside how the restriction against structural cuts makes this all needlessly difficult, if there are monsters like that all the way out in the cargo bay, then I hate to imagine what it is like further in."

Huh. Seems like the wallflower has quite a few brain cells to rub together.

"With the restriction against cutting into the hull, the only way to get enough conduit is to go deeper into the ship. But just like we won't get paid if we are under our target, we can't get paid if we are fucking dead to some fucking worm."

We?
>>
"Here is what I am proposing. You use whatever the Hell you have read in here - you know, what you are hiding from me right now - to guide us towards the juicy bits of the hulk, and then we pull as much of the conduit as possible, splitting it down the middle. You get to keep all the electronics we come across, and I get worms eggs that we hopefully don't come across."

He outstretches his hand.

"Deal?"

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Remain silent.
> "Fuck off."
> "No."
> "I'd consider it if ... (write-in counter-offer)."
> "I suppose I could do that ... so long as you agreed to take point."
>>
>>5450751
>> "Fuck off."
>>
>>5450751
The chance of getting electronics is... what, five times larger than a worm for a given conduit? I don't think the split is particularly bad. More importantly, while the blueprint is a big deal, we might not be able to fully benefit from us if we don't have a second person to help lead the way and secure supplies.
Or is the blueprint itself valuable, making even having it trouble?
Dunno so I'll say
> "I suppose I could do that ... so long as you agreed to take point."
for now unless an anon has a better idea on how to approach it
>>
Well, actually, the worm count will presumably increase as we get further in, so for all I know it could go to 4 or 5 or below = worm, making the electronics vs worms ratio less advantageous. Depends on whether the electronics end up beating the eggs in value really.
>>
>>5450751
Here is the deal, lads. We have found a blueprint. Not just any run of the mill shitass cargo freighter or tanker, but a really big atmospheric capable starship. The value in this is fucking astounding assuming this is Starsector based. Like, we're a slave laborer getting a buck an hour or something and this is worth fucking MILLIONS. Our current objectives should be to do a eh job prioritizing SAFETY and NO RISK such as going deeper into the bowls of a ship with a serious worm infestation with someone we don't know. With these facts in mind:
>No thanks, I'm in over my head as it is. Foreman is full of shit, these worms are as big as my fucking arm, I'm not going any deeper than I have to, especially with someone I don't know, no offense.
Once we get back to base, regardless of how much shit we pull out, we need to go over our contract and consider our options.
>>
>Like, we're a slave laborer getting a buck an hour or something and this is worth fucking MILLIONS
Alright, yeah, if the blueprint is significantly valuable and not just a good map for us to find loot then we shouldn't go with this.
>>5450869
+1
>>
>>5450751
> Remain silent.
>>
>>5450869
I think perhaps I chose the wrong word when describing the find. It a schematic, for all intents and purposes a map of the ship. For the sake of a salvage operation, it certainly has value, and if someone wanted to reverse engineer the design of the Highest Heaven then the document would be a solid start - but it is not like an encrypted blueprint package that contains all of the information of how to build the ship, like they have in Starsector. If you did run into one of those, then it would be on some manner of drive.

Smithwick has found something that should make the rest of the shift - and all subsequent shifts on this ship - much safer, more efficient and imminently more rewarding. But he really hasn't found the equivalent of a lottery-ticket. I should also note how this operation works, from a legal standpoint. The company that runs the Commissioner, the Integrated Living Labor Syndicate, they own damn near everything here, including the hulks in the boneyard ... and importantly, everything on the hulks in the boneyard. When a wrecker pulls something off of a hull, and then takes it to a ferry to be tagged, and then collects their talents after the shift, they aren't being paid for the materials, they are being paid for their labor. As per the terms of the shift, Smithwick is only entitled to be paid for conduit, electronics and worm's eggs. Now, I want to be clear, the bosses want their wreckers to bring back valuables, and they will reward them for doing so, to encourage the behavior ... but as soon as the bosses know that this is in Smithwick's possession, they are going to take it off of him, and see that it is copied and disseminated wildly. He will get something for his troubles, but it will be whatever they give him. No negotiation.
>>
Okay, with no new votes coming in for nearly 10 hours, I will consider this closed for the write-in.
>>
>>5450751
>> Remain silent.
>>
I was gonna say we go with him if we turn the deal around, he gets electronics and we get worm eggs. I think the eggs are what we should focus on because it's the only guaranteed payout.
>>
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It seems that the silent treatment is not enough to get rid of this guy. You are going to have to say something after. Sighing in resignation, you move to switch your radio on - taking the opportunity to stuff the schematic back into the tube.

"You know, I have absolutely no idea who you are."

"Oh, I'm Horne."

"Okay, Horne, I still don't know you."

"We were - "

"I know, in the certification class together. You know what I mean."

"Oh."

"You talk so glibly about heading deeper in, you know, where instead of wide open cargo bays there are going to be small rooms, tight halls and narrow shafts instead ... and the worms are presumably even bigger than in here. It has barely been what, ten minutes since I fought that monster, and here you are proposing I go fight some larger ones, in more disadvantageous surroundings, alongside someone who not only I don't know, but who was more than comfortable just letting me deal - "

"You never asked for help!"

"Oh, sure, you fuck around with electronics in front of a Goddamned conduit worm, see how the fuck that goes for you."

You certainly didn't mean to get that heated, but this Horne is getting on your nerves. For a moment, you think that he is going to leave in a huff, but then he speaks again over the radio.

"You know, you haven't denied it. That you found something written in here that's worthwhile."

This miserable fucking chiseller! He just won't let well enough alone!

> Please choose ONE of the following.
> Stuff the tube with the schematic inside one of the wraps on the front of your suit, then turn around to face him - showing him you have nothing to hide, then saying as much, that you were in here just to look for the conduit that went with the console that you pulled out earlier.
> Stuff the tube with the schematic inside one of the wraps on the front of your suit, then tell him to get out of your way, you are going to go pull some more conduit off of the ceiling. Don't answer him directly.
> Stuff the tube with the schematic inside one of the wraps on the front of your suit, then pass through the hatch, leaving Horne behind. Don't say a word.
> Don't say a word. Don't even move. Eventually, he is going to have to give up and leave you alone - though depending on how persistent he is it might be a while.

>>5451175
>>5451276
I'm sorry that it took so long to get the post up, but the voting had been closed, so I am afraid I cannot count these.
>>
> Stuff the tube with the schematic inside one of the wraps on the front of your suit, then tell him to get out of your way, you are going to go pull some more conduit off of the ceiling. Don't answer him directly.
>>
>>5451415
> Don't say a word. Don't even move. Eventually, he is going to have to give up and leave you alone - though depending on how persistent he is it might be a while.
>>
>>5451415
> Stuff the tube with the schematic inside one of the wraps on the front of your suit, then tell him to get out of your way, you are going to go pull some more conduit off of the ceiling. Don't answer him directly.

you guys think this guy is like the T-Rex in Jurassic Park or what?
>>
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"I'm going to pull conduit in the bay now. Are you going to move, or am I going to have to cut out a new hole through here?"

Horne says nothing. The only things audible over the radio line is static and the occasional bit of feedback. But just when you are asking yourself if you need to escalate things even further here, he cuts the radio and punts away. You switch yours back to passive, and then you punt yourself out of the copula as well. After that last encounter with the worm - and this asshole - you decide that at least for now it would be best to work away from the fore of the ship.

You move yourself into position, and prepare to start pulling when you notice that the chiseller has decided to really make a nuisance out of himself. He set himself up on the far side of the section that worm was on, and is already pulling off ceiling panels!

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> ... if that is the price you pay to get rid of that idiot, then so be it. Hopefully, he gets taken by another worm. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 3 %, Cutting Gas - 1 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %)
> You are not going to stand for this. He is practically picking your pocket! Tell him in no uncertain terms that you don't want him working in.
> You are not going to stand for this. He is effectively picking your pocket! Inform him bluntly that one way or another, he is not going to be working in on you.
> You are not going to stand for this. You are the pirate here, not him. Kill that bastard, stow him somewhere until you find another monster worm, then feed him to it.
>>
>>5451606
> ... if that is the price you pay to get rid of that idiot, then so be it. Hopefully, he gets taken by another worm. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 3 %, Cutting Gas - 1 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %)
>>
Normally I would wait for more votes, but I had a late start today and this has already been up for three hours. Consider >>5451606 closed.

To start, I need a roll of 1d16, please!
>>
Rolled 5 (1d16)

>>5451751
>>
Rolled 16 (1d16)

>>5451766
Alright, now I am going to need 5d20. Pay no mind to these rolls, they are for Horne, to see if he stumbles across a worm on his own.
>>
Rolled 11, 20, 3, 4, 14 = 52 (5d20)

>>5451773
>>
>>5451777
I'm sorry, I meant to ask for 5d100, not 5d20. Sorry about that.
>>
Rolled 75 (1d100)

Come on, summon a worm on the fucker.
Summon five.
>>
Rolled 52, 63, 42, 9 = 166 (4d100)

...I always forget the first number.
>>
Rolled 44, 14, 57, 27, 66, 8, 97, 46, 25, 52, 17, 89, 10, 99, 3, 10, 24 = 688 (17d100)

This roll is for him as well. I am going to need a single roll of 1d8.
>>
Rolled 1, 3, 3, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 3, 2, 3, 3, 1, 3, 3, 2 = 35 (17d3)

>>5451793
Oh! He might be facing up against another worm, depending on how the rolls work out here. On a roll of 1, it is the base - 2. On a roll of 2, it is the base - 1. On a roll of 3, it is the base.
>>
Rolled 3 (1d8)

Smithwick Ceiling III:
Roll 1d16 = 5
Roll 5d100 = 75, 52, 63, 42, 9
Results = 75, 52, 63, 42, 9
2 cubits conduit, clean. 2 cubits conduit, substandard.

Horne Ceiling I:
Roll 1d16 (+1) = 17
Roll 17d100 = 44, 14, 57, 27, 66, 8, 97, 46, 25, 52, 17, 89, 10, 99, 3, 10, 24
Roll 17d3 = 1, 3, 3, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 3, 2, 3, 3, 1, 3, 3, 2
Results = 42, 14, 57, 25, 64, 7, 95, 45, 23, 52, 16, 89, 10, 97, 3, 10, 23
2 small electronics, common. 4 cubits conduit, clean. 7 cubits conduit, substandard.

I still need that roll of 1d8 for you.
>>
Rolled 3 (1d8)

>>5451810
>>
>>5451811
Okay, nothing of note happens while you or Horne are working. I'm about to fall asleep at my computer, so I'm going to put this up for an overnight vote right now:

>Please choose ONE of the following:
> Continue to work in this portion of the cargo bay.
> Move towards the aft of the hull, where there will be fewer conduits in better condition.
> Move towards the fore of the hull, where there will be more conduits in worse condition.
>>
>>5451818
> Move towards the aft of the hull, where there will be fewer conduits in better condition.
>>
>>5451818
>Move towards the aft of the hull, where there will be fewer conduits in better condition.
Fore means reactor, which means worms. This ship is bad enough that it's just not worth it.
>>
>>5451818
> Move towards the aft of the hull, where there will be fewer conduits in better condition.

going for that phat aft
>>
>>5451818
> Move towards the aft of the hull, where there will be fewer conduits in better condition.
>>
At the sight of that smug bastard working in on you like that, you want to swear under your breath - or perhaps even over it - but you manage to refrain from doing so. You are on bottled air, after all, and the spares are a long way off.

With a little more trepidation than you might normally, you cut into the ceiling panel, ready to flee if you can, fight if you must ... but when your first cut does set anything off, you you manage to relax a little. Between the work that you have already done, and the damage that the worm did knocking the panels, your work here is quicker and easier, not to mention safer, as that most of the worms here are dead and all of them are magnitudes smaller and less aggressive - but unfortunately, the time spent here is not as rewarding as the previous two pullings. Not only have worms been through here, it seems that some conduit is just ... missing. Several of the light fixtures in this portion of ceiling had been disconnected before the hulk was brought here. Could it have been in some last ditch effort to get rid of the worms?

You look over at Horne hoping that he has run into the same issue - or better yet, another monster - only to see that he has done much better than you did. Knowing that getting agitated is just going to make you blow through your bottle quicker, you try with some success to keep yourself calm, as you finish up wrapping your meager haul. You look around the bay. There is only so much ceiling, and with two wreckers working it, you wonder how long it is going to last you before it is exhausted. After considering it for a moment, you decide to head towards the aft - figuring that some of the apparent effort the crew of the Highest Heaven put into saving the electronics might have paid off, at least for the low power extremities of the ship.

> Please, can I get 1d16, then xd100, xd6 and 1d8?
>>
Rolled 2 (1d16)

>>5452119
>>
Rolled 2 (1d8)

>>5452119
>>
>>5452119
Wait, how many d100 and d6s?
>>
>>5452145
Just 2, I'm afraid.
>>
Rolled 72 (1d100)

>>5452119
>>
Rolled 57 (1d100)

>>5452163
Accidentally inflating /qst/'s post count one typo at a time.
>>
Rolled 12 (1d16)

We are still going to need that 2d6 if anyone is still here, they can roll for it. The roll on this post is for Horne, to see if he ran into another worm.
>>
Rolled 66, 87, 13, 90, 85, 53, 19, 27, 43, 33, 72, 13, 4, 23 = 628 (14d100)

>>5452219
Damn, he sure is getting a lot better rolls than we are, isn't he?
>>
Rolled 5, 2, 6, 2, 4, 1, 6, 4, 4, 6, 3, 6, 1, 2 = 52 (14d6)

>>5452220
Oh! There is a chance that the four drops low enough to become a worm attack!
>>
Rolled 6, 3 = 9 (2d6)

>>5452219
>>
Rolled 8 (1d10)

>>5452222
Even worse for him! With the modifier, that 4 became a -1! He skips the intermediate step of losing integrity in the suit, and something breaks. On a one to ten scale, lets see how bad it is about to go for him ...
>>
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While you are disappointed - upset even - at this paltry haul, you tell yourself that if the crew of the Highest Heaven 'pruned' the conduit around here, then there is a chance that one of these panels near the bay door is going to be untouched by worms. Hoping for a turn of luck like that, you start to pull yourself away towards a fresh patch of ceiling, when a wordless squawk comes over the radio, startling you.

You whirl around to see that Horne has finally run into some much deserved difficulty. It seems that one his suits boosters is firing, and he is having trouble dealing with it. You cannot help but smile at the sight, but perhaps this is more than just an idle amusement, but an opportunity as well.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Yes, it is an opportunity to get some more work done without that idiot interrupting and impeding. Ignore him, and get to work!
> Maybe it is hopeless, but perhaps if you were to offer some assistance before he lost all his boost and a chunk of his charge, he might agree to leave the hangar.
> By rights, that conduit that he has pulled and is floating next to him, all wrapped up, is practically yours. Take this opportunity to take it back. What the Hell is he going to do in a half-busted suit?
>>
>>5452231
>> By rights, that conduit that he has pulled and is floating next to him, all wrapped up, is practically yours. Take this opportunity to take it back. What the Hell is he going to do in a half-busted suit?
>>
>>5452231
> By rights, that conduit that he has pulled and is floating next to him, all wrapped up, is practically yours. Take this opportunity to take it back. What the Hell is he going to do in a half-busted suit?
Finders keepers!
>>
>>5452231
> By rights, that conduit that he has pulled and is floating next to him, all wrapped up, is practically yours. Take this opportunity to take it back. What the Hell is he going to do in a half-busted suit?

get fucked Horny boy
>>
>>5452231
>> By rights, that conduit that he has pulled and is floating next to him, all wrapped up, is practically yours. Take this opportunity to take it back. What the Hell is he going to do in a half-busted suit?
>>
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Bemused, you alternate from watching Horne and what you are doing as you cut and pry panels off. Right now, the chiseller is trying and failing to stabilize himself long enough to do something about his misfiring suit. Either he is such a cheapskate that he is not willing to burn boost on the side of his suit to cancel out the spin ... or the sub-unit that is responsible for controlling the boosters is completely non-responsive. You drag your eyes away from his flailing antics and eye the neatly wrapped conduit that he has pulled, floating placidly nearby. You take a good look, then you look back at the conduit underneath the panels that you just worked through. While you are glad to see that there are no signs of conduit worms in this patch of ceiling, that is only because there is barely any conduit here. And what is here is deliberately cut. Pruned away, no doubt in an effort to save the loader from the infestation. You know that you need to start the tedious, delicate work of prying them out in acceptable condition sooner rather than later, but you find yourself staring at the bundles that Horne has, floating around him.

Now, you know the rules full well. Horne has not broken any of them. You have no exclusive 'right' to the cargo bay ... but as a matter of professional courtesy, not to mention respect, wreckers are taught to ask permission to work in on other wreckers. Of course, there are legitimate safety concerns too. If one wrecker notices that there is explosive residue left behind somewhere, or something like that, and that wrecker is working around it, it would be no good for a second wrecker to just barrel straight into the first wrecker's area and start hacking away, unaware of the danger.

To be sure, both of you are equally aware of the danger here - but that doesn't excuse his rudeness or his greed. Horne chiseled in - plain and simple. Messing around with the socket for the loader was admittedly a gray area, but pulling from the ceiling? No, that is unacceptable. You would not expect to get away doing that ... and if other wreckers, who have more seniority, or ones from your certification class who work in groups hear that Horne worked in on you like this and you just ... rolled right over for him, then that - well, you simply can't have that, can you?

By the time that you have pulled yourself across the ceiling over to where Horne is still struggling, you can get a better view of the accident, where you can see shards floating and the scorch marks. If you had to guess, you would say that Horne accidentally cut into a capacitor on one of those little surge protector units, like the one you found earlier, and it blew on him. How that /resulted in a suit misfire, you can only guess ... but really, you aren't here for that. He doesn't notice you at first, and thinking ahead, you shut your radio off completely, so he can't pester you once he catches on.
>>
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It actually takes him a longer than you thought it would for him to notice you, but eventually he does. And seeing him so obviously angry, but unable to yell at you - or for the moment even orientate his helmet in your direction is a lot funnier than you thought it would be. Smiling, you take a good look at the patch of the ceiling that he has uncovered - and by God, is there a lot of conduit here, even with the fucking worms. You look back Horne and give him a thumbs up, which sends him a paroxysm of angry writhing.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Return to your spot closer to the aft, and pull that conduit.
> Stay here and work this spot.
> Find a new spot closer to the aft to pull from.
> Find a new spot closer to the fore to pull from.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Leave Horne where he is, as he is.
> Boost Horne deeper into the cargo bay. The boxes get kind of thick back there - send him flying through them as a battering ram. (Boost - 2 %)
> Boost Horne out of the cargo bay. There is another hulk beyond it, so it isn't like he is going to sail off into the void. (Boost - 2 %)
>>
> Stay here and work this spot.

> Leave Horne where he is, as he is.
SPEEEEEN
>>
>>5452448
>> Stay here and work this spot.
> Boost Horne out of the cargo bay. There is another hulk beyond it, so it isn't like he is going to sail off into the void. (Boost - 2 %)
>>
>>5452680
+1
>>
>>5452448
> Stay here and work this spot.

> Leave Horne where he is, as he is.
GET FUCKED GAY BOY.
>>
>>5452448
>>Find a new spot closer to the aft to pull from.
>>Leave Horne where he is, as he is.

Leaving him alone and unbothered on his predicament is the ideal choice, since we aren't sending him to his death or something. If the worse comes to happen he runs out of boost and then he has to push and pull his way into the trolley for a quickfix.
I'd rather go and find a better spot because that means we will be going away from Horne. He is megapissed but I don't think that's pissy enough to chase us with faulty boosters and no fuel.
>>
The vote is closed for staying here and leaving him to stew. Writing.
>>
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You spare Horne a side eyed glance as he struggles with his suit, then you return your attention to this already opened up patch of ceiling. Yeah ... this will do very nicely.

Without the presence of monster worms, the process of gleaning conduit is rather repetitive. You use the torch to burn the any spots with a lot of worms, then you pry the conduit - clean or otherwise - out of the little brackets that affix it to the hull. Occasionally, you need to cut through then pull off another section of ceiling. Beyond that the work is rather mindless. That said, for this particular pulling, you have the entertainment of Horne still struggling to resolve the misfiring booster. By the time that you are finished with the patch that he was kind enough to open up for you, it seems that he still has not made any progress. His suit is still trying to whirl him like a dervish, all the while he is still desperately anchoring himself with just one magnetized glove. You take a moment to check to see how much conduit you have all together, then you look at your master readout.

Tagged and on the Ferry
Unique Item: Loader? Console
6 cubits standard conduit, clean
3 cubits standard conduit, substandard
1 small common electronic

Wrapped and with you
~200 Conduit Worm Egg clusters
14 cubits standard conduit, clean
20 cubits small conduit, clean
15 cubits standard conduit, substandard
4 cubits small conduit, substandard
4 small common electronics

Suit Integrity: 100 %
Suit Charge: 83 %
Boost: 90 %
Air: 79 %
Cutting Gas: 87 %
Cutting Flux: 90 %


Jesus, Horne must have found a real ... wait a minute! This conduit has a much smaller diameter then the stuff you have seen. You pull one of the lengths that you salvaged earlier and compare them. Your suspicions are confirmed. Inside the standard conduit, in addition to the insulation, are several smaller conduits, which hold wires and their own insulation. Horne must have 'peeled' the standard-size conduit that you have been pulling, and practically tripled his haul. Judging by how much clean conduit there is compared to substandard it seems that he might have been able to salvage smaller clean conduit from substandard ... standard sized conduit.

You got some quite a bit of conduit here in your hauling wraps. Now, Quimbix did say that you were not supposed to unwrap the conduit, but ... if for the sake of argument, you did, and you got caught, what is the worse that could happen? The overseers only revoke EVA certs in two situations - the wrecker is costing them money, or the wrecker becomes known as a security risk. You clipping conduits is not putting anyone in danger, and Quimbix never specified a minimum diameter for the conduit, which leads you to believe that conduit can be sold if it is peeled. If they caught you, and they care enough to discipline you over it, then you figure that you are more likely to get a talking to, a fine, a black spot in your file, not revocation.
>>
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But what if you are wrong about them being able to sell the 'peeled' conduit, and you end up ruining a bunch of salvage in a very transparent attempt to soak the system? If that is how it is, then ... you still don't think that you would get your papers pulled permanently over it. Then again, you have only had the certification for two months. While there is no probationary period - at least to your knowledge - if you end up wasting and entire shift and a bunch of conduit with this little ploy, then the powers that be might decide that you simply are not worth the hassle.

Of course, if Horne did this, then odds are that other wreckers had the idea as well. Perhaps there will be some safety in numbers. They might be willing to write off one fresh-on-the-block apprentice, but an entire crew of wreckers is a lot harder to justify. If it turns out that 'peeling' them does ruin the conduit for resale, but enough of you do it, they might just decide to eat the loss, instead of pulling everyone's papers.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> You will keep the 'peeled' conduit
> You will dump the 'peeled' conduit

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> You will take the time to 'peel' the conduit right now.
> You will wait to 'peel' the conduit later [Be sure to allow enough time!]
> You will not 'peel' any conduit at any time.
>>
>>5453700
> You will keep the 'peeled' conduit
>> You will wait to 'peel' the conduit later [Be sure to allow enough time!]
If we don't have enough when we're done we can peel it.
As for what we have... well, not our fault, we 'found' it abandoned.
>>
>>5453700
>> You will dump the 'peeled' conduit
> You will not 'peel' any conduit at any time.
>>
>>5453700
> You will keep the 'peeled' conduit
> You will not 'peel' any conduit at any time.
Throwing away peeled conduit seems like a waste, just keep it.
>>
>>5453725
supporting this. Also when we peel ourselves keep the volume of peeled conduit under 50% (measured in total length).
>>
>>5453700
> You will keep the 'peeled' conduit
> You will take the time to 'peel' the conduit right now.
>>
Well, while there is a majority for keeping the 'peeled' conduit, we do not have a majority for what to do next. I'll leave this up for a little while longer, then I will have to roll for it.
>>
>>5453700
>> You will keep the 'peeled' conduit
>>> You will not 'peel' any conduit at any time.
We test the waters. Horne is a sleazy fellow. Let's see what happens with this tiny amount of banana peel.
>>
>>5453677
I'm not 100% sure I understand what peeling is as described. Is it breaking apart cable bundles into their constituent smaller cables to inflate your numbers?
>>
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>>5454473
>>
>>5454477
>>5454473
Yeah, that is basically the gist of it - except of course, instead of wires inside the conduit, there are smaller conduits.

Okay, I will get the next post up soon!
>>
So I wrote the entire post, but then I realized I sort of just assumed what you guys were going to do next, instead of putting it to a vote. Sorry about that.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Move laterally (relative to the layout of the ship) to a patch of ceiling and remove more conduit.
> Move towards the aft of the ship, and resume work on the patch that you opened but didn't pull from.
> Move towards the aft of the ship, and start work on a new patch of ceiling, hoping for an isolated patch of conduit.
> Move towards the fore of the ship, and start work on a new patch of ceiling.
> Consider other locations on the hulk to pull conduit from.
> Consider exploring other portions of the hulk to find conduit.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Horne should have learned his lesson by now. Reactivate your radio and offer assistance.
> Horne can go take a long walk out of a nearby airlock for all you care. Let him stew.
>>
>>5454694
>> Horne can go take a long walk out of a nearby airlock for all you care. Let him stew.
> Move laterally (relative to the layout of the ship) to a patch of ceiling and remove more conduit.
>>
>>5454694
> Horne can go take a long walk out of a nearby airlock for all you care. Let him stew.
> Consider exploring other portions of the hulk to find conduit.
consult the map
>>
>>5454831
Support
>>
>>5454694
> Move towards the aft of the ship, and resume work on the patch that you opened but didn't pull from.

> Horne can go take a long walk out of a nearby airlock for all you care. Let him stew.
Get fucked Horne.
>>
>>5454694
> Horne can go take a long walk out of a nearby airlock for all you care. Let him stew.
> Move towards the aft of the ship, and resume work on the patch that you opened but didn't pull from.
>>
>>5454694
>>Consider other locations on the hulk to pull conduit from.
We better use the map when we can. There is no guarantee that we will be able to keep it after this.
>>Horne can go take a long walk out of a nearby airlock for all you care. Let him stew.
He already holds a grudge we better make it worth
>>
Consider this vote closed. Writing.
>>
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As tempting as it is to pad your haul by 'peeling' the conduit as Horne had, you just have a bad feeling that it might somehow come back and bite you in your ass. After all, you have only had your cert for two months now. Even if there is only a small chance that you get your papers pulled, that simply is not a risk that you can afford. Especially considering that you had to take on additional debts with some 'connected' Trustees to even get a shot at the certification in the first place. Before you get yourself lost in the weeds reminiscing, you pull your focus back to the conduit - which really should be the only thing on your mind right now, that and the digital dial on your bottle. Having decide against peeling, you consider what to do with the conduit that you have recovered 'peeled'. While you are concerned about getting in trouble over it, you decide that in the end, you will hold on to it. It is possible that you come across some conduit that happens to be the same diameter as the 'peeled' stuff in the course of your gleaning. If you did, then you would feel pretty foolish about dumping this smaller stuff, wouldn't you? And if you didn't ... well, then maybe at the very end it would be worth reconsidering dumping the 'peelings' or not, you know, depending on how much you had gather up when the last of the consumables run out.

Now that you have settled on a course of action, you decide to actually get a good look at the map you found earlier. Without giving Horne so much as a backwards glance, you move off a little bit, heading towards the copula, with all of your wrapped conduit neatly in tow. Once you are well out of his suits lights, and you have made certain that the gloves on your suit are clean, you very surreptitiously get the schematic out to consult it. It turns out that there are actually two schematics - one structural, and one electrical. Considering that you are looking for conduit, you consult the electrical schematic first, which lists all of the subsystems of the Highest Heaven. Some of which you have already seen bits of, like the weapons systems, and some of which you have only found evidence of - like a dedicated point defense system. But there are also some rather inexplicable things. For starters, the Highest Heaven does not have an undersized power plant - she has two undersized power plants. One which powers almost everything on the ship, and the other which only powers two things - the afterburners, and an inordinately large ... desalinatior. Not a water-recycler/purifier, no, there is an appropriately sized one of those near the fore of the ship, along with a some holding tanks. This is a desalinator.

You flip over to the structural schematics, and sure enough, there it is. But the unit doesn't have tanks - it doesn't even have transport piping between it and the recycler, so none of the water it cleans can stay on the ship. There is an inlet and two outlets. Nothing more.
>>
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Setting aside the 'why' of the whole thing, you know for a fact that between the wiring for the dedicated power plant and the piping for the desalinator, there is going to be an absolute fucking glut of conduit in that bulkhead. And because this power plant is externally cooled, then there is a chance that it is not completely overrun with conduit worms. Of course, the cargo bay here was not supposed to have many worms either, and look how that turned out for you. And then there is the question of how you are going to actually get into the bulkhead with all of this - you can think of three ways, but to be honest, you aren't particularly enthused about any of them.

Maybe your eyes are getting larger than your stomach here. Perhaps you should content yourself with something easier, you know - externally mounted if possible? Of course, that comes with the issue of other wreckers beating you there - and you have no intention of working in on someone like Horne did.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Follow the lead on this second and hopefully not overrun power plant and desalinator.
> Reject the risks of working further in the hulk than you are right now, and consult the schematic for something externally mounted, something that hopefully no one else has started on
> Accept that you aren't going to get anywhere near as much conduit as you could elsewhere, and consult the schematic for something that is both internal and safe - and something that no one else will have started on.
> Stay in the cargo bay here, and continue hacking away at the ceiling for conduit.
>>
>>5455587


> Follow the lead on this second and hopefully not overrun power plant and desalinator.
>>
>>5455587
>> Follow the lead on this second and hopefully not overrun power plant and desalinator.
One worm-free lootbag please.
>>
>>5455587
>> Follow the lead on this second and hopefully not overrun power plant and desalinator.
>>
>>5455583
THIS SHIT RAN ON TRITIUM
>>
>>5455587
>>Follow the lead on this second and hopefully not overrun power plant and desalinator.
I am worried we get a haul that is TOO good and raise some questions...
>>
>>5455698
maybe just hydrogen? planetary water (it /is/ atmos capable) --> desalinator --> electrolyzer --> hydrogen to the engines?
>>
>>5455587
>> Follow the lead on this second and hopefully not overrun power plant and desalinator.
>>
>>5455587
> Follow the lead on this second and hopefully not overrun power plant and desalinator.
>>
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There is no way around it - your curiosity has been piqued. But ... it is one thing to decide to enter into a largely isolated bulkhead in a conduit worm infested hulk, it is another thing to actually go and do it. To that end, you figure that you have three different options - and none of them are what you would consider 'good' options. Option one: using the schematic that you have, you make your way through the ship to the specific bulkhead. Option two: the schematic specifies that the intake for the desalinator has a diameter that just large enough for you to make your way through. Option three: you use the schematic to locate the optimal entry point, and just cut your way through the hull.

If this was just a regular hulk, then simply walking through the ship to the bulkhead would be the most straightforward way to get to where you want to go. In fact, it would be the obvious answer. But the issue here is that this ship is infested. Completely and utterly. And of the three routes into the bulkhead, you would be spending the most time in the hulk if you walked there. And the thought of slowly having to make your way through unsecured, uncleared areas ... setting aside the fact that you are on the clock, delving into a power plant of an infested ship - externally vented or not - is dangerous enough on its own. Comparatively, the third option seems much better. You would be able to cut directly into the bulkhead, and move in and out of the hulk quickly. If it turned out that you bit off more than you could chew, then you wouldn't be out too much time - and if you were able to swing it, then you would be able to quickly pull the conduit out of the hull and get it on the ferry. The issue is that you would be cutting through the hull. Technically, you have been prohibited from cutting into the hull, or in anything sufficiently structural. Now, if you were to net a sufficient worthwhile find, then no one would really raise that much of a fuss ... and even if you didn't odds are you would get away with it, unless some hardass decided to make an example of you. The bigger problem though, is that cutting through the hull is effective going to show all of the other wreckers where you are pulling from ... and if the pickings are particularly rich, your first concern might not be conduit worms after all. The other option - going through the water inlet seems to be a good compromise. So long as no one sees you go in, then no one is going to be able to work in on you - and the path to the bulkhead from the intake is much shorter than walking through the ship. However, you have no idea what kind of condition the intake is in. What if you get yourself stuck? Who would think to look for you in there?
>>
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You try to figure out which of the three options is going to work the best for you, but nothing immediately jumps out at you. You consider judging them based off of the dangers - but you don't really have a good grasp on the condition further in the hull, or how dangerous going through the intake would be. You then consider the time and consumables that each route in would use up - but then you realize that there are so many variables that you have no hope of estimating costs like that.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> You are going to try to make your way through the wreck into the specific bulkhead.
> You are going to try to make your way into the specific bulkhead through the intake.
> You are going to try to cut your way into the specific bulkhead.
>>
>>5455865
>> You are going to try to make your way into the specific bulkhead through the intake.
>>
>>5455865
>> You are going to try to make your way into the specific bulkhead through the intake.
> You are going to try to make your way into the specific bulkhead through the intake.
>>
>>5455865
> You are going to try to make your way into the specific bulkhead through the intake.

What a wierd ship. Like some sort of humanitarian aid ship maybe?
>>
>>5455865
> You are going to try to make your way into the specific bulkhead through the intake.
>>
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In the end, you settle on going through the intake. While the prospect of getting stuck in there is ... well, to be frank, it is real fucking terrifying, but after considering your other options, you are now certain that this is the best of the worst.

You slip the schematics back into the tube, and then without giving Horne a second glance, you start to punt yourself out of the cargo bay. On your way out though, it occurs to you that considering just how tight things are going to be in the intake, it would make sense to take what you have right now to the ferry - and maybe pick up some more wraps, on the off chance that this bulkhead pans out as well as you hope. However, if you were to do that, then you would have to decide now specifically what to do with the 'peeled' conduit - not later, when you had a better idea of the total. Or perhaps you could still end up deferring the decision by hiding the 'peeled' conduit somewhere safe - if such a place exists. If you just stash it somewhere, you are taking the risk that someone else finds it and takes it for their own. Even if you spend some time looking for a good spot, you aren't going to be able to completely mitigate away that risk.

The bigger issue that going to the ferry brings up is that there might be other wreckers either offloading onto the ferry or in sight of it. By going there to drop off your modest haul, you could end up leading another chiseller right to your worksite. But what is the alternative? You doubt that it is going to be easy going through that intake just with your suit and your tools hauled behind you - throw in wraps as well, and you might have an even worse time of it. You suppose that you could go to the intake, take a look and make a decision - but the more time you spend flitting around outside of the intake, the greater the odds are you are spotted.
>>
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> Please choose ONE of the following:
> You will take your entire load, including the 'peeled' conduit, and get the ferryman to tag it for you before heading into the intake. Hopefully the 'peeled' conduit will not be an issue after all.
> You will take your entire load, except the 'peeled' conduit, and get the ferryman to tag it for you before heading into the intake. You will keep the 'peeled' conduit with you. Hopefully it won't slow you down.
> You will take your entire load, except the 'peeled' conduit, and get the ferryman to tag it for you before heading into the intake. You will find somewhere to stash the 'peeled' conduit. Hopefully it will stay undiscovered.
> You will take your entire load, except the 'peeled' conduit, and get the ferryman to tag it for you before heading into the intake. You will spend the time to find a good spot to stash the 'peeled' conduit. Hopefully it will not take too long.
> You will take your entire load and stash it somewhere out of the way, rather than take it with you into the intake, or risk leading a chiseller back to your worksite. Hopefully it will stay undiscovered.
> You will take your entire load and find a good spot to stash it, rather than take it with you into the intake, or risk leading a chiseller back to your worksite. Hopefully it will not take too long.
> You will take your entire load with you to the intake and appraise the situation, only making a decision afterwards. Hopefully no one sees you or your haul outside of the intake, or you might have a second Horne on your hands.
>>
>>5456288
> You will take your entire load, including the 'peeled' conduit, and get the ferryman to tag it for you before heading into the intake. Hopefully the 'peeled' conduit will not be an issue after all.
>>
>>5456288
> You will take your entire load, including the 'peeled' conduit, and get the ferryman to tag it for you before heading into the intake. Hopefully the 'peeled' conduit will not be an issue after all.
>>
>>5456288
> You will take your entire load, including the 'peeled' conduit, and get the ferryman to tag it for you before heading into the intake. Hopefully the 'peeled' conduit will not be an issue after all.
>>
>>5456288
> You will take your entire load, including the 'peeled' conduit, and get the ferryman to tag it for you before heading into the intake. Hopefully the 'peeled' conduit will not be an issue after all.

PLOP
>>
>>5456347
>>5456337
>>5456305
>>5456295
In space, no one can hear you PLOP. I'll get to writing.
>>
>In space, no one can hear you PLOP
A daring endorsement of shitting in space and not cleaning up after yourself.
>>
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You decide that what little 'peeled' conduit you have is not going to be a hanging offense, and to dump your entire load off at the ferry. Making haste, you haul and punt yourself out of the cargo bay - possibly for the last time this shift - and you activate your boosters, and bank around the hulk and towards the ferry. Out of an abundance of caution, you run a quick diagnostic on the thrusters. Of course, it comes up clean, but if something went wrong out here, you would be a lot worse off than Horne was. You smile at the thought of Horne, still squirming away, desperately clinging to the ceiling - why, the chiselling bastard went and became a conduit worm! You laugh at that - truly, how fitting for a parasite like him?

"Smickwick, calling to tag."

"Ye? Ooh! Gone got wormy, heh!"

You did your best to clean yourself with a wrap, but judging from the reaction of the ferryman, it seems that you have missed several spots. Hoping to keep things on track, you launch into declaring your haul.

"Two hundred conduit worm egg clusters, maybe a bit more. Uh ... thirty four cubits of conduit, clean. Nineteen cubits otherwise. Four small electronics."

You figure that it would be in your best interest not to specify any difference between the standard conduit and the smaller, 'peeled' conduit ... but perhaps you have been concerned about nothing, as the ferryman accepts them without issue.

"Spares?"

"Nuh uh. Soon doe."

With your business concluded here, you boost yourself over to the intake, careful to stay out of the sight of the few wreckers that you can see. On the final approach towards the inset panel in the hull that holds the intake, you decelerate a bit too late, and end up thumping against the hull. Nothing is damaged, and you aren't hurt - but you find yourself hoping that it is not a sign of things to come. Then after checking to make sure that there are no other wreckers that can see you, you turn your full attention to the intake - which judging off of the size of its cap is going to be just large enough to let you through. Unfortunately, the cap is heavily rusted. Now, rust is not something that you typically see on hulks, not outside of certain life-support systems at least, but considering that this is an atmospheric craft, and this is a plug for a salt water intake, you suppose you might have expected this. There is a small, exceptionally battered looking external console, which if you had to guess is connected to opening and closing the intake. If you were willing to force things, then you also have the option of cutting through the cap, or prying it off.
>>
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> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Isolate the console, power it and attempt to bring it back on line to open the intake. (Primarily consumes Suit Charge)
> Cut through the cap and whatever sealing mechanism is underneath it to gain access to the intake. (Primarily consumes Cutting Gas)
> Pry the cap off of whatever sealing mechanism is underneath it to gain access to intake. (Primarily consumes Air)
>>
>>5456466
> Isolate the console, power it and attempt to bring it back on line to open the intake. (Primarily consumes Suit Charge)
>>
>>5456466
>Cut through the cap and whatever sealing mechanism is underneath it to gain access to the intake. (Primarily consumes Cutting Gas)
we got the most gas out of any of them, and the console might not even work
>>
>>5456466
> Cut through the cap and whatever sealing mechanism is underneath it to gain access to the intake. (Primarily consumes Cutting Gas)
>>
>>5456466
> Cut through the cap and whatever sealing mechanism is underneath it to gain access to the intake. (Primarily consumes Cutting Gas)

From now on were peeling
>>
>>5456466
>Isolate the console, power it and attempt to bring it back on line to open the intake. (Primarily consumes Suit Charge)
You know what, I was going to vote for simply cutting the thing but then I thought, what if we keep this secret? Using the console is the best idea, SPECIALY since so few can read
>>
>>5456466
>Cut through the cap and whatever sealing mechanism is underneath it to gain access to the intake. (Primarily consumes Cutting Gas)
>>
So, with a slim majority, it seems that you are going to be cutting through. Considering that this is not just some drop-down ceiling, this cannot be treated like a minor action, like the conduit pulling was. The cap, the mechanism underneath it and the rust binding it all together are considered one object with an indeterminate amount of health. To cut your way through the cap, you are going to roll some dice. but each time that you roll a set, it costs you - 1 % Air, - 1 % Charge and - 2 % Cutting Gas.

First, I need someone to roll the cutting roll; a single d100.
Second, I need someone to roll the modifier roll, in this case a single d6.
Finally, I need someone to roll a incidental roll, in this case a single d12.

The cutting roll determines the base progress that you make working through the object. The modifier roll determine the multiplier for the cutting. For this object, with these standard tools, the modifiers are as follows: A roll of 1 is x0. A roll of 2 is 0.25x. A roll of 3 is 0.5x. A roll of 4 is 0.75x. A roll of 5 is 1x. A roll of 6 is 1.25x. So if you rolled 40 on the d100 and 4 on the d6, then you would do 30 points of 'damage' on the object. The incidental roll determines if anything happens outside of your immediate control - which can include the arrival of another wrecker! If this dice comes up as a 1, then a d100 is rolled, to determine the severity of the 'happening'. 100 is barely an inconvenience, while 1 is for disfiguring injuries and hard to overcome life-and-death situations. If the dice comes up as a 11 or a 12, then a d100 is also rolled, to determine how good whatever happened is. 100 is a life changing boon, while 1 is barely even a bonus - or something half-decent that comes with an attached cost of some sort.

Two final points: some objects can have specific traits, making them harder, easier - or more dangerous - to work through. In this case, this cap has the rusted modifier, which means that it has a little more health than it otherwise would, to represent it being seized in place, but at the same time, the modifier roll gets +1, to represent that it is brittle in certain key places. If it occurs, a 7 would give 1.50x. The second point is that the less amount of tries it takes to work through the health of the object, the better condition the object is in at the end, unless specified otherwise. In this case, the cap will be in a condition that it can be remounted, if you are able to work it off within three attempts.

The suit's master readout:
Suit Integrity: 100 %
Suit Charge: 81 %
Boost: 88 %
Air: 77 %
Cutting Gas: 87 %
Cutting Flux: 90 %


> Please, can I get one anon to roll 1d100, another to roll 1d6, and a third to roll 1d12?
>>
Rolled 12 (1d100)

>>5456888
>>
Hey guys, just wanted to give you all a heads up that I am calling it a night. If you want, roll three sets of 1d6, three sets of 1d12, and two sets of 1d100, that way we can hit the ground running when I get back. I'll take them in the order that they are rolled.
>>
Rolled 17, 24 = 41 (2d100)

>>5456888
>>
Rolled 6, 4, 4 = 14 (3d6)

>>5456888
>>
Rolled 11, 12, 7 = 30 (3d12)

>>5456888
>>
Rolled 42, 28 = 70 (2d100)

>>5457271
Yay!
>>
Okay, so lets take a look at how you all did in my absence.

Cutting I:
12 * 1.50 = 18

Cutting II:
17 * 1.00 = 17

Cutting III:
24 * 1.00 = 24

As mentioned in >>5456888, the cap has an indeterminate amount of health, but after all of the work that you have put in on it, you are certain that you are more than halfway there. You did manage to net one minor and one moderate boon, so that's good, certainly. I'm going to eat dinner, then I will get to writing the update.
>>
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Your first instinct is to isolate the console from the rest of the electronics, and then try to boot it up to unseal and unlock the cap. If it worked, you wouldn't leave any trace behind, to potentially draw over other wreckers - and as an added bonus, you would also have a working console to tag. But ... well, the tools you have been issued are intended to dismantle electronics, not work on them. And likewise, your training as a wrecker taught you how to break things properly, not how to fix them. So what if you isolated the console, then hooked your own suit up to it to power it - and it didn't turn on, then ... maybe you wouldn't be completely out of options, but you wouldn't have a lot of them either at that point. Or what it was protected or locked out somehow? This is an external console after all. On top of all of this, you could spend some serious time getting the console to work, only to turn around and find that the mechanism that it is supposed to operate is completely ruined, meaning that you would have to cut your way through regardless.

Resolved to your course of action, you ignite your wrecking torch, and as you furtively glance around to make sure that no one else is watching, you begin your work. At first you are surprised at the resilience of the of cap - the metal drinks deep of the torch before you make any progress with even a shallow cut, while you had figured that you would cut clean and fast through the plug, and that besides that, the metal would start to spall and shatter as soon as you kissed it without the protection of the cutting flux. Then you remembered that this is an atmospheric craft, and that an external part like this would have to be thermally flexible. You have half a mind to berate yourself under your breath, but you refrain. Partially because doing so would gain you nothing ... and partially because you are on bottled air.

Time passes. You are making noticeable progress, but at the same time you had hoped that you would be inside the intake by now, progressing towards the desalinator. You did manage to cut out something from the mechanism inside the cap, that you are certain will pass muster as an electronic, which is good. And after accidentally getting the preposterously unegronomic torch stuck, then having to yank it out from underneath the cap, you have found to your surprise that it seems to be burning a little more efficiently than it had been. You would judge that you are more than halfway there now.

> Minor Boon: Gain 1 small common electronic
> Moderate Boon: Percussion-Implemented Efficiency modifier added to this torch. On all cutting operations that burn more than - 1 % Cutting Gas, there is a 1 in 2 chance that 1 % Cutting Gas is refunded.

> Please, can I get one anon to roll 1d100, another to roll 1d6, and a third to roll 1d12?
>>
Rolled 29 (1d100)

>>5458154
cmon good rollz
>>
>>5458154

:D
>>
Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>
Rolled 3 (1d12)

>>5458154
CLANK!
>>
Sorry that I fell asleep on you guys. Going forward, I'll try to make a point of noting when I am ending the day's run.

Cutting IV:
29 * 1.00= 29

As the cap assembly only had 80 health, and you have now done 88 points of cutting, you have successfully worked you way through the cap an into the intake.

> Can I get a 1d2 please, to see if you got the efficiency refund?
>>
Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>5458761
Ch-
>>
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It took much longer than you would have liked, but finally, you manage to cut through the sealing and locking mechanism underneath the cap and haul the whole mess off of the mouth of the intake. As you are about to get one or two of your wisps into the breach to take a look when you thought you saw movement out of the corner of your eye. You are startled enough that you inadvertently punt yourself away from the hulk - but when you manage to get a better look, you can see that it just some debris from the cutting floating by. You boost yourself back over the wreck, and prepare to enter the intake ... when it occurs to you that between the miniature debris field and the gaping hole in the hull, if a wrecker were to come by, it would be fairly obvious that someone had been poking around here. Now - if that translates into the wrecker investigating the intake, well, that sort of depends on the individual. Regardless, it is a bit of a risk - one that you could mitigate by taking the time to clean up the debris and secure the cap back into place with a few anchoring pins and a spare wrap on the inside. Doing so would take time - which means it would take air - and if you needed to get out of the intake in a hurry, it could be a serious impediment. But on the other hand, it would go a long way to keeping this find away from another Horne.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> You will leave the hole as is, keeping the way clear and keeping the odds of discovery on a negative incidental roll the same.
> You will take the time to clean up after yourself and seal the intake back up, lowering the odds of discovery on a negative incidental roll.
>>
>>5459000
> You will leave the hole as is, keeping the way clear and keeping the odds of discovery on a negative incidental roll the same.
>>
>>5459000
>You will leave the hole as is, keeping the way clear and keeping the odds of discovery on a negative incidental roll the same.
Time's a-wasting and I don't want to bang into the grate when running away from something
>>
>>5459000
>> You will leave the hole as is, keeping the way clear and keeping the odds of discovery on a negative incidental roll the same.
>>
>>5459000
>> You will leave the hole as is, keeping the way clear and keeping the odds of discovery on a negative incidental roll the same.

Yeah, let's cover our tracks and then no one will know that there is someone stuck inside the pipe...
>>
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After considering it for a bit, you decide that it might not be in your best interest to seal yourself inside of the intake. If you do encounter another monster conduit worm - God forbid - you have to remember that as a rule, the tighter the spaces the more aggressive they are. Despite its size, the one you fought in the cargo bay was out of its element in the wide open space. In the confines of the intake - well, you really don't want to think about it too much. Making a point of keeping the torch ignited at at the ready, you slip your way into the intake. Between the lights on your suit and the wisps floating around, your surroundings are absolutely flooded in light. That is more than a little fortifying, though all you can really see at the moment is surface rust and debris kicked up by you cutting through the cap. Still, for a good moment there, you are feeling much better about this admittedly crazy plan of yours - at least until you are in up to your waist, and it settles in just how tight and slow it is going to be moving through this thing. And one thing you didn't think of was your field of vision. As nice as these new-model suits are, they don't have complete freedom of movement - they don't have anywhere near it. While you can swivel your head back and forth, you cannot do much up and down - and considering that you are moving head first up this pipe, you are actually having a very hard time seeing ahead of you, and a large part of your field of vision is taken up by the wrecking torch you got at the ready.

Still, you feel like you are managing, at least until you go and bump into an unseen obstacle. You can feel it give a bit on impact. To actually get your eyes on to it, you have to backtrack far enough so you can angle your torso just right to get your look. The obstruction is a mesh grate. Its presence here confuses you for a moment, but then you realize that it is probably here to keep debris and living organism out of the desalinator 'upstream'. With further inspection, you can see what looks to be a cleaning/clearing mechanism integrated into it. You don't see any conduit or wiring for it, but it looks like the grate is mounted at the juncture of two pieces of pipe. It is possible that instead of just joining the pipes together, they were joined with some sort of spacer in between them, which the grate is anchored to and powered through. You take a good long look at the unit. While it has certainly seen better days, it looks as if it is still in working order. and the clearing/cleaning mechanism qualifies under the blanket of 'electronics'. With all four of the sub-units and the grate together, it represents a decent find - but considering the cramped quarters, and that it is built to survive and operate in flowing water ... high pressure flowing water, if you remember how desalinators work correctly getting it all out in one piece is going to take some doing. Of course, you don't have to remove it in one nice piece.
>>
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Hell, you don't have to remove it all! The grate is not anywhere near as resilient as the cap was. You are positive that you could cut through it without issue - though doing so would tank the value of the set - not to mention, with the way the sub-units are integrated into the grate, cutting through the grate runs the risk of cutting through the sub-units themselves. As you think it over, you consult the suit's master readout.

Suit Integrity: 100 %
Suit Charge: 77 %
Boost: 88 %
Air: 73 %
Cutting Gas: 79 %
Cutting Flux: 90 %


> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Take the time to remove the grate and the cleaner/clearer unit as set, and take it with you.
> Cut through the grate, ruining the value of the set, but allowing you to move on quicker.
>>
>>5459378
> Take the time to remove the grate and the cleaner/clearer unit as set, and take it with you.
>>
>>5459378
> Cut through the grate, ruining the value of the set, but allowing you to move on quicker.

Got a feeling its not worth the time to mess with.
>>
>>5459378
conduit, not whatever this is
>>
>>5459378
> Cut through the grate, ruining the value of the set, but allowing you to move on quicker.
derp
>>
>>5459378
> Take the time to remove the grate and the cleaner/clearer unit as set, and take it with you.
>>
>>5459378
> Cut through the grate, ruining the value of the set, but allowing you to move on quicker.
>>
Okay, consider this closed for cutting through. I'll get to writing it up.
>>
>>5459378
>> Cut through the grate, ruining the value of the set, but allowing you to move on quicker.

ah, QM is writing aigh... I wonder if we can make the return trip with 20% oxigen in the tank
>>
As much as you hate the idea of just ruining salable material, considering the time constraints that you are under - as well as the motherlode of conduit that is hopefully waiting for you on the other side of this obstruction - you decide that you are going to cut your way through the grate. The biggest issue is that if you are close enough to the grate to cut it, then that means with the constraint of your head's movement, you are going to be too close to see what you are doing as you are cutting. If you were to take your time, go a finger length, then stop, back up far enough to check your work, get back to cutting distance, then make another finger length of cuts - repeating until you were done, you would be able to recover the whole unit in one piece. Eventually. But you simply do not have that kind of time right now. Not to mention that there is a lot more length to cover if you were to cut the thing off of the wall as opposed to cutting around the circumference of the grate.

Resolved into your course of action, you wiggle yourself into the most advantageous position you can, then you get the torch up against the wall of the intake. After you eyeball it, you slide the head of the still-lit torch up, until it hits the grate. The cutting begins as soon as you make contact, and not wanting to waste gas nor air, you start to trace along the edge of the grate as best as you can, avoiding where the sub-units of the cleaner/cleaner are to the best of your ability. At some points in the cut, you can just barely make out some of what you are doing, but to get even that slim glance you have to strain your eyes at the top of your visor until they feel as if they are going to pop out of your head. Sparks, filings and spalling, as well as flakes of rust float down from the soft light from your wisps overhead into the harsher light from your suits integrated lamps. You do your best to move as you cut, to ensure that you can see as much of your work as possible - but rushing as you are and with little more breadth in the intake than the shoulders of your suit, you won't know if doing so helped or threw you cut off until you are done. Still, by the time that you have made your way all around the grate, you feel as if you had done a damned good job, everything considered.

You shift yourself further down the intake, and angle yourself to take a look.

> Please, can I get 4 rolls of 1d100, and 1 roll of 1d12 for the incidental? For the sub-units, you need 60 or higher for them to be in retrievable condition. If any of them are 90 or higher, you will get a bonus small common electronic out of all of this.
>>
Rolled 38, 94, 82, 74 = 288 (4d100)

>>5460316
>>
Rolled 4 (1d12)

>>5460316
>>
>>5460342
Nice rolling
>>
It looks like ... well, at least three of the sub-units still appear to be in a salable condition, and more than that, one of them had another component mounted between the sub-unit and the grate. With the grate gone, it looks as if you could just disconnect it and take it with you ... but when you try to do just that, you find that the unit is still mounted to something. You crane your head a bit, and just manage to steal a glimpse of what looks like a bolt, affixing it into the adjacent sub-unit. Damn it.

Having spent enough time on the sub-units of the cleaner/clearer, you turn your focus back to the grate. While you have cut the thing loose, it is still floating up there. You cut the grate in half - something that would have been much easier to do if you had thought to do it while it was still anchored - and then with the integrated magnet on the head of the torch, you draw both pieces through the mounting collar, then shove them further down the intake towards the mouth. Inevitably, both of them get caught up on your boots, so you end up having to stomp them down - difficult to do while floating - only for the damned things get caught up on your towed toolbox. Whatever. You just have to hope that they get left behind when you start moving. On that thought, you turn your attention back up the intake, and moving very deliberately, you draw yourself up to and then through the mounting collar where the mesh grate sat. It is tight, but with the sleek new-model suit, you are able to make it through without any real issue.

However, just as you have gotten far enough to get your boots clear, you find yourself faced with another obstruction. And this one is much more substantial than the grate. It is a filter. Probably not the primary, but regardless, it is large. And it is also in your way. It takes you some time, but you get the schematic out again. It is clearly labeled where the intake passes through the hull on the way to the bulkhead where the desalinator sits, but there is no indication where the grate or this filter are in the intake. You get the idea to look at the surroundings of the intake on the schematic, figuring that if this is an inline filter on the system, then the outer diameter of the filter would logically be greater, significantly greater, than the outer diameter of the intake. That space would have to be accounted for in the schematic, so if you could find a spot along the intake where there was an unexplained space in the hull, an abscess, then logically, you would be able to figure out where you are.

The schematic is not particularly detailed, but you find three such spaces. One of which is where you estimate you are in the hull - and that is all well and good. What isn't well and good is that there are two other spaces. One is by the mouth of the intake, so it obviously is not a filter, as you would have passed it by now - but the third one, further along, could be.
>>
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If it was something else, like the one by the mouth of the intake was, then your quickest route into the bulkhead would almost certainly be to cut your way through this filter, then once you were certain you were in the bulkhead with the desalinator and the second power plant, cut through the intake. However, if that space was for another filter, then you would probably be better off cutting through the intake right now, and finding your way into the bulkhead with the schematic as a map. You aren't too far from the bulkhead, and you don't imagine that the hallways are more dangerous than this intake, as far as conduit worms go. The electronics that you have run into so far have been clean, but as they are so isolated, the next batch of electronics might not be. And in these tight spaces, even tiny worms are dangerous, if they manage to latch on you. At least in the halls, you would be able to see where you were going, though you would be giving up the nice direct route offered by the intake. What would really make up your mind is knowing if there are two filters between you and your destination, or just one. But there is no way of knowing for sure.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Stay the course, and cut through the filter.
> Take a detour, and cut through the intake.
> Take a longer detour, leave the intake and look for a way in that doesn't require cutting.
>>
>>5460531
> Stay the course, and cut through the filter.
>>
>>5460531
>> Take a detour, and cut through the intake.
Best of both worlds I would say since we can't just retrace our steps (mainly because it means to crawl backwards) and cutting through this filter, then another and another is... not good.

We better cut a hole to the side and reorient ourselves to the path of victory
>>
>>5460531
> Take a detour, and cut through the intake.

Electronics are nice but we need conduit.
>>
>>5460526
>>take a detour and cut
>>
Okay, consider this closed.
>>
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After considering it, you decide that the odds that there is another filter after this one is high enough that it makes more sense to take a detour. Besides, as convenient as the direct route into and out of the bulkhead with the second power plant and the desalinator is, there is a very real question of how you were going to get out of the intake anyway. Hopefully, by cutting your way out now, you end up saving time, gas and air. You position yourself in the shaft, magnetizing your boots to hold yourself fast, then you twist yourself a bit, and get the wrecking torch down to where you can see it. You dial it up to what you figure to be an appropriate burn, and then you begin to cut.

> The wall of the intake is made of an unknown metal alloy and is an unknown thickness, so it has - at this time - an indeterminate amount of health. Unlike the cap that you cut through to get into the intake, the only rust here is on the surface, it does not have the rusted modifier. It might have another, but you will not until you make the first cut, as it is not immediate obvious from just visual observation. There will be three rolls. A single d100 for the cutting. A single d6 for the cutting modifier. Another 1d6 to determine what modifier it has, if any with the negative modifiers associated with rolls of 1, 2 and 3, no modifier with a roll of 4, and positive modifiers with 5 and 6. This roll is only rolled once, and determines the modifier (or lack thereof) for the entirety of the intake, not just this patch of it. Finally, there is incidental roll, which is again d12. Rolling 1 on this results in a negative incidental event. Rolling 12 results a positive incidental event. The constituent d100 roll made after it - for both positive and negative incidental events has a -10 to it, to reflect the dangerous nature of cutting in a enclosed space into an unknown space. Each set of rolls costs - 1 % Air, - 1 % Charge and - 2 % Cutting Gas.

> Percussion-Implemented Efficiency modifier is in effect here. On all cutting operations that burn more than - 1 % Cutting Gas, there is a 1 in 2 chance that 1 % Cutting Gas is refunded.

> Please may I have 1d100, 1d6, another 1d6, 1d12 and finally a 1d2? If you roll, and there are still rolls remaining, feel free to make another roll after 15 minutes to keep the quest moving.
>>
Rolled 17 (1d100)

>>5461508
>>
Rolled 6, 2 = 8 (2d6)

>>5461508
>>
Rolled 11 (1d12)

>>5461508
>>
Well, we still need that 1d2 to finish up this set, and I am about to fall asleep anyway. Why don't we just do what we did last time, and you give me three more full sets and see where that gets us in the morning?

> Please, can I have one roll of 3d100, one roll of 3d6, one roll of 3d12, and one roll of 3d2? Also, don't forget, we need someone to get the 1d2 for this set as well.
>>
Rolled 96, 40, 88 = 224 (3d100)

>>5461813
>>
Rolled 4, 6, 1 = 11 (3d6)

>>5461813
>>
Rolled 11, 4, 1 = 16 (3d12)

>>5461813
>>
Rolled 2, 2, 1 = 5 (3d2)

>>5461813
>>
Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>5461508
>>
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The 2 on the second d6 means that the walls of the intake have the Heat Shielded I modifier, meaning that each cutting operation takes an additional - 1 % of Cutting Gas to perform .

Cutting V: 17 * 1.25 = 21 (rounded down from 21.25)
Cost: - 1 % Air, - 1 % Charge and - 3 % Cutting Gas.
Total: 21 / ?
No incidental event

Cutting VI: 96 * 0. 75 = 72
Cost: - 1 % Air, - 1 % Charge and - 2 % Cutting Gas. (Refund from Percussion-Implemented Efficiency modifier)
Total: 93 / ~120
No incidental event

Cutting VII: 40 * 6 = 50
Cost: - 1 % Air, - 1 % Charge and - 2 % Cutting Gas.(Refund from Percussion-Implemented Efficiency modifier)
Total: 143 / ~120
No incidental event

Mistakes and missteps were to be expected under the circumstances - and you had a few of them at the start. Not to mention the frustration of watching the walls of the intake just drink the heat from your torch - even more so than the cap did. But once you accepted that you were going to need to burn a little more gas than you would otherwise except to here, and you adjusted your cutting patterns to properly account for the curve of the intake, the surface rust and the extremely limited range of motion that you had with the wrecking torch, you really found your wings. Of course, getting a cut that is big enough for you - and with any luck, bales of conduit - to pass through, is not something that anyone can just do instantly. It takes time. And though you are pleased with the cut by the time that you use your magnetized gloves to pull the cutout into the intake, swirling up a cloud of spalling, shards and debris in the process, it does not follow that you are pleased with your suits master readout.

Suit Integrity: 100 %
Suit Charge: 73 %
Boost: 88 %
Air: 69 %
Cutting Gas: 71 %
Cutting Flux: 90 %


You are fast approaching half-empty in your air bottle, and your gas bottle and battery are not too far behind. There are spares available to you on the ferry, but they don't have anywhere near as much in them as the ones integrated into the suit do. Not to mention, they will be something else you will have to pay for, if you are not able to make the base haul this shift. Venting a bit of your frustration, you push the cutout down the intake, getting your first look at what lies beyond the walls of the intake. In this particular case ... a wall. The inside of a wall - you are looking the struts that the panels of the wall are anchored to. The panels themselves look like they are no thicker than the panels of the drop down ceiling of the cargo bay, so you doubt that you will have any serious trouble cutting through them. The struts on the other hand, these seem to be substantial. Cutting through them would take time. You might be able to squeeze through, but it would tight.
>>
Potentially dangerously tight. Are you willing to risk damage to your suit to get to the bulkhead with the second power plant and the desalinator quicker?

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Cut just the panels, and accept a 1 in 50 chance every time you pass through these struts that you lose some suit integrity.
> Spend the time, air and gas to cut an appropriately sized hole through the struts (It is a gray area if this is a violation on the restriction against cutting into structural parts of the hulk, but unless anyone finds you in the intake, no one is going to know for sure that you did it.)
>>
>>5462459
>> Cut just the panels, and accept a 1 in 50 chance every time you pass through these struts that you lose some suit integrity.
Are we charged if the thing gets a hit or two?
>>
>>5462473
If the suit loses integrity, no. If the loss of integrity leads to something on the suit breaking, then possibly - depending on how hard it is to replace.
>>
>>5462459
>> Cut just the panels, and accept a 1 in 50 chance every time you pass through these struts that you lose some suit integrity.
Considering that suit integrity, while being the second most important after air, is STILL a resource, I am confident we can "spend" in lieu of air and cutting
>>
>>5462459
>> Cut just the panels, and accept a 1 in 50 chance every time you pass through these struts that you lose some suit integrity.
>>
>>5462459
> Cut just the panels, and accept a 1 in 50 chance every time you pass through these struts that you lose some suit integrity.

Fast and efficient.
>>
Alright, cutting through the panels costs just - 1 % of Suit Charge, Air and Cutting Gas, but comes with a 1 in 50 chance of losing Suit Integrity.

Roll 1d200. If you get a 4, then you lose - 1 % of Suit Integrity and must roll 1d100 every action, to see if something breaks on the suit. If you get a 3, then you lose - 2 % of Suit Integrity and must roll 2d100 every action. If you get a 2, then you lose - 4 % of Suit Integrity and must roll 4d100 every action. If you get a 1, then you lose - 8 % of Suit Integrity and must roll 8d100 every action. If one of the d100 rolls comes up as 1, then a randomly selected part of the suit breaks, the significance of this break determined by another roll of 1d100.

> Can I please get a roll of 1d200?
>>
Rolled 38 (1d200)

>>5462828
Basedtime
>>
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After considering it a little bit, you decide to just cut through the panels, and leave the struts alone for now. Getting your torch into position is awkward, considering that you have to reach through the hole that you just cut in the intake, and then cut blindly for a bit. Eventually though, your torch passes into your field of vision, and you are rewarded with the immensely satisfying sight of the panel being rent to shattering ribbons by your torch. By the time that you withdraw your torch, you can see that you have cut your way into a small room instead of a hallway ... which is not what you were expecting from your reading of the schematic. With all your shifting and squirming in the intake, you must have accidentally turned yourself around a little bit.

That is ... pretty alarming, honestly, but so long as you have the intake for reference, you should be able to bounce back and figure out where you are. It takes you a moment, but after consulting the schematic again, you are absolutely certain that you know where you are - three decks underneath the bulkhead you are trying to get into. You get a handful of your wisps into the room, and you can see that the place appears to be outfitted as quarters for crew. In fact ... beyond the trash floating around the room, it looks like there are a few odds and ends - basic tools, things like that - that have been left behind in here. More than that, you can see what appears to be lockers, stuffed under the shelf-beds. That is certainly interesting, but you really don't know if you have the time for messing around with them - especially considering that even if you find something of value in them, you are not liable to get paid well for whatever it is.

At this moment, you are more interested in getting into the bulkhead, and to that end, you have an idea. From your vantage point here, you can see very little in this room towards electricals. There is a light on the ceiling, and there is an outlet by the door. And that is it - the door is even manually opened, it doesn't have a panel. From this, you can deduce that there is not too much conduit running through the walls, ceiling and floor of this room, which is supported by the fact that the portion of wall that you have cut through does not have any electricals, any conduit, anything at all in it. It is just struts and brackets to keep the intake in a fixed position. So the odds are that there are not conduit worms in this room either.

Now, what if, instead of going through the door and mucking about hallways in who knows what condition, you were to cut your way into the bulkhead? Getting there the first time might take longer than simply finding your way there through the hulk by going out the door, and that could be a break against you, if it turned out that there was nothing in the bulkhead worth your time after all, or there were too many conduit worms in there, or something.
>>
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But on the other hand, if there was something in there that was worth your time, then having blazed a direct route in (cutting through two ceilings and then one wall) would certainly have its advantages. Still, the 'ceilings' here are actually decks, and as such they are structural. Cutting through them is going to be a process - a lot more involved than cutting through the intake or the cap was. And you can almost see yourself draining all of your bottles just as you get to the bulkhead. At the same time, you can also almost see yourself getting stuck in the halls in an unstable portion of the hulk, or getting lost somehow, or getting attacked by another monster conduit worm, or even running into another wrecker.

The question is, are you willing to pony up to 'buy' this shortcut, or are you more inclined to play things closer to the chest, if it means that you (hopefully) arrive in the bulkhead with more in your bottles?

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Find your way into the bulkhead with the second power plant and the desalinator through the hulk.
> Cut your way into the bulkhead with the second power plant and the desalinator through the hulk.
>>
>>5462869
>Find your way into the bulkhead with the second power plant and the desalinator through the hulk.
I'd rather stumble around a bit than try and cut through a bulkhead. We've got the map, shouldn't be too hard.

Side note, just how many images of random workshop tooling do you have saved around?
>>
>>5462871
>> Find your way into the bulkhead with the second power plant and the desalinator through the hulk.
>>
>>5462871
> Find your way into the bulkhead with the second power plant and the desalinator through the hulk.
>>
>>5462871
> Find your way into the bulkhead with the second power plant and the desalinator through the hulk.
>>
>>5462871
> Find your way into the bulkhead with the second power plant and the desalinator through the hulk.

will all outings be this crunchy?
>>
>>5462878
The well has just about run dry, to be honest. I got a few more.

>>5463095
No. Recall that this shift was particularly dangerous. That said, there is an inherent danger in any EVA, and there is an inherent danger in wrecking as well.

I will get to writing.
>>
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As you pull yourself into the room, you wind up at an angle that allows - well, effectively forces you - to look at the ceiling of the room. And the longer that you look, the less confident you are about cutting through it cleanly, quickly and safely. In fact, by the time that you have pulled your way through the hole in the intake, and the substantially tighter hole between the struts, you have your mind made up. You will find your way through the hulk. Once you and toolbox are inside the room, you move to the door, keeping your ignited torch between you and the light fixture above, then the outlet by the door, as a precaution in case a conduit worm comes wriggling out at you. When you make it to the door without being accosted by parasites, you breathe a sigh of relief, and try to force yourself to relax, as a stressed body consume more air - not to mention that it cannot be good for your recovering heart.

With all of the complications that you have had to deal with this shift, you have expect the door to be jammed or sealed, but when you crank the seal open, then release the bolt, the door opens up easily enough, though you make a point of only opening it up a crack. The hallway beyond is as black as pitch in both directions - as is everything else that is not illuminated by your suit or your wisps - so you snake one of the mini-drones through the door. In the gentle light of the wisp, the hallway looks ... like a hallway of a hulk in disrepair. Trash, debris - and alarmingly, tiny corpses of conduit worms - are suspended through the space. Everything appears to be structurally sound at least.

After consulting the schematic for heading towards the power plant and desalinator, you carefully set out in the direction of a series of hatches and ladders that allow emergency movement through the hull. The hallway that you are in is short and tight, and the hallway that it leads to is similarly tight and barely any longer, but neither of these them are in an unreasonable state, considering the condition of the rest of the Highest Heaven. Still, you are awfully nervous. You can see light fixtures that have become completely subsumed by conduit worms. Most of them are either dead or in torpor, but even in the gloom of the halls, you cannot help by notice how some of the worms are swaying with you as you pass, the light from your wisps glinting off their tiny unblinking eyes in the darkness. As unnerving as the sight might be, you are glad to see the eyes, as otherwise it would be impossible to tell in passing the difference between an average sized worm and a massive worms feelers. Eyes though, scale with the worm.

But the small reassurance that is gets dashed away when you turn down a new hallway only to encounter a closed blast door. Tellingly, the point-of-use operators panel for the door has been removed, sealing it permanently. The question is, which side of the door is supposed to be sealed off?
>>
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The way you see it, there are two ways to handle this. Cut through the walls of the hall and the rooms around them to bypass the blast door- and hope that the struts here are spaced further apart then they were by the intake to the desalinator - or find an alternate route through the hulk using the schematic. Which of these options is the best depends on which side of the door is the sealed off portion. If you are on the side that was sealed off by the ship's engineers in a failed attempt to contain the infestation, then whatever danger there is here, you have already passed it by, so there is no reason to worry about continuing on your intended path. Alternatively, it it is the other side of the door that was intended to be quarantined, then it is possible that there are things beyond the door that even still are dangerous, in which case, it makes the most sense to find an alternate route.

Of course, the issue is that you have no way of knowing for sure which side is which, so you cannot say for a certainty which decision is the right call to make. It would stand to reason that conduit worms would get bigger the closer you were to get to the power plant - which would point towards the other side of the door being the quarantined section ... except that this power plant only fed the afterburners, which weren't anywhere near here, and the desalinator, which was in the same bulkhead. Beyond that, there were no other connections - it was a completely isolated system. And regardless of proximity to the power plants, you have seen how conduit worms as far away as the aft cargo bay can grow to preposterous sizes.

Perhaps it would be worth investigating a bit, trying to look around to see if there are any clues as to which side was which? It would be a delay, to be sure, but if things are bad enough to seal blast doors, then maybe you should be proceeding with more caution here.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Bypass the sealed blast door by cutting through the walls ( - 1 % Suit Charge, - 1 % Air, - 1 % Cutting Gas. Moving through the tight spaces between the the struts carries a 1 in 50 chance of losing Suit Integrity)
> Bypass the sealed blast door by charting another route through the hulk. ( - ? % Suit Charge, - ? % Air)
> Take the time to investigate your surroundings, looking for clues as to which side is which. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %)
>>
>>5463466
>> Bypass the sealed blast door by charting another route through the hulk. ( - ? % Suit Charge, - ? % Air)
>>
>>5463466
> Take the time to investigate your surroundings, looking for clues as to which side is which. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %)
>>
>>5463466
> Bypass the sealed blast door by charting another route through the hulk. ( - ? % Suit Charge, - ? % Air)
>>
>>5463587
>>5463706
>>5463759
Consider this closed. Writing.
>>
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From what you have seen so far ... you have no way of telling which side of the blast door you are on - the 'sealed in' side or the 'sealed out' side. You haven't seen anything that would indicate one way or another, nothing to tip the scales. In absence of any clues, the smart thing to do would be to look around to see if any could be found before making a decision one way or another, but at this point, right here, you simply don't have the time to be smart about this. Your gut tells you that the best option here is to take a detour. If there is danger on the other side of this door, then you will avoid it. Of course, if this is the sealed in side, then perhaps in your wanderings, you will encounter other sealed blast doors ... or something dangerous. That cannot be helped though, not now.

You consult the schematic again, and you plot an alternative route. It is a little longer, but you are not going too far out of your way. Not wanting to waste anymore time here, you punt yourself off of the floor, and start heading back the way that you came. It is not too long before you pass the door that you came through after detouring around the filter in the intake. From there you feel like you are making good time, and that the infestation seems a little less dire in the hallways that you have moved into now - but perhaps that is just wishful thinking. What is not some idle fantasy is that door along the halls have become much much further spaced out. Glancing at the schematic in the combined light of your suit and your still lit wrecking torch, you are frustrated to see that none of the rooms on the schematic are labeled with their function - all they have is just a number, which leaves you having to guess what might be inside them based off of what is described being in them in the schematic. It is possible that these larger rooms are crew quarters as well, but for indentured or common sailors, while the small rooms were reserved for officers. Or ranking technicians, perhaps. Officers typically sleep closer to the bridge.

Returning your attention to getting to the bulkhead with the second power plant and the desalinator as fast as possible, you start punting yourself a little bit harder. You consider using your booster, but the halls are getting tighter and smaller, and the last thing you want to do is accelerate around some corner and run head first into a fuckin -

From around the corner, and down the hallway where you intend to go, comes a wide beam of light, that pierces through the darkness. Its harsh white glow falls on the wall opposite of the hallway that it comes down, illuminating it in stark detail.
>>
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You immediately magnetize your boots, and slam them into the floor. Your momentum nearly sends you head first into the floor, but you are able to get your hands out in front of you in time. Not that you think that such a knock would break what appears to be a fresh out of the box new-model helmet, but there is no reason to take that kind of risk, is there? By the time that you get yourself steady, the light is gone. Was that another wrecker? That was a damned bright light - but perhaps if it was one of the master wreckers, they might have bought a special light. Or maybe it is the normal light, and your eyes have semi-adjusted to the darkness of the hallways?

As you contemplate turning your radio back on, to see if you can pick up any chatter, the beam of light returns. You stare at it, not even breathing. After a few seconds, it goes away. And after several moments more, it comes back. You count for how long it is on and how long it is off, staring at where it hits the wall opposite of the hallway that it comes from. It doesn't take you long to conclude that it is on and off for regular intervals, and that the beam is always in the same place. So for those reasons - and the fact that you doubt a wrecker would just sit around turning their suit lights on and off - you doubt that this is a wrecker.

Which means .... what the fuck does that mean? That this is something, some equipment, or beacon or drone that was left behind by the crew that hauled the hulk here? That this is something that the original owners left behind, like a ... lure for the worms, or a security system with a battery backup? Either way, with all of the fucking worms around here, to the point that they are coming out of the lights, how the hell is something electrical still in working order?

And perhaps, more pertinently, are you even going to bother finding out? If this is a security system, and it is still powered, then it is possible that it is still armed. And if it is a lure, or a piece of abandoned equipment or something, then it is possible that there are a lot of worms poking around it, right now.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> You just have to know what is going on. Carefully investigate the unexplained light.
> Stay well away. Chart another, even longer route through the hulk to get to the bulkhead.
>>
>>5464401
> You just have to know what is going on. Carefully investigate the unexplained light.
>>
>>5464401
>You just have to know what is going on. Carefully investigate the unexplained light.
Since the ship has no power, it has to be on batteries. Throw an object at it, see what it does.
>>
>>5464401
> You just have to know what is going on. Carefully investigate the unexplained light.
>>
>>5464401
>> You just have to know what is going on. Carefully investigate the unexplained light.
>>
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You are not going to take any more detours that you absolutely don't have to. You get up against the wall, and edge your way over towards the corridor the light is coming down. The light flicks on and off again two times before you are in position. Carefully, not knowing what to expect, you ready your torch with one hand, and with another, you let the line out for one of your wisps. It floats out past the corner - and nothing happens. The light blinks back on, washing out what little the wisp puts out - and still, nothing happens.

Feeling marginally more confident, you make your way up to the edge, then you poke your head around once the light blinks off again. With your suit lights useless pressed up against the wall, all you have to see is the light from the one solitary wisp that you have let out. In the gloom of nearly inscrutable hallway, you can make out two things. First, this hallway is substantially wider than the others you have been through. Second, there seems to be ... something floating in the middle of it. Roughly spherical in size, but very irregular. Metallic, judging by the glinting.

Suddenly the light - searing bright now that you are directly looking at it - snaps back on, and without thinking, you pull your head back as quickly as you can. It is only once you are behind the corner again that it occurs to you that if this is some sort of security system it could be motion sensitive. For all you know, you might have just activated it. Alarmed, you switch your radio back on, on the off chance that ... whatever this thing is could be trying to hail you over an open channel. But when you get the line open, there is nothing but static on the other end. You try other channels at random, hoping that you might catch something, like a radioed report. You don't get anything but static on these bands either. If there was a squawk, then it looks like you missed it. At the very least, the way the object is free standing - or rather, free floating - makes you think that this is some sort of drone or worm lure, as opposed to equipment.

> Please choose ONE of the following
> Get far enough out around the corner to get your suit lights on it, Hopefully, if it is a security system, it does not perceive that as a transgressive act.
> Find something to throw, and lob it NEAR the thing. Hopefully, if it is a security system, it does not perceive that as a trangressive act.
> Find something to throw and lob it AT the thing. Hopefully, this is not a security system.
> Don't do anything at the moment.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> If this is some sort of drone, then it might be possible for you to hail it. Try speaking on an open channel.
> Best not draw any more attention to yourself than you absolutely have to.

> Please choose ONE of the following.
> You are going to need some answers here .Continue to investigate this object.
> For all you know, it could be moving towards you right now. Beat a retreat quickly!
>>
> Get far enough out around the corner to get your suit lights on it, Hopefully, if it is a security system, it does not perceive that as a transgressive act.

> Best not draw any more attention to yourself than you absolutely have to.

> You are going to need some answers here .Continue to investigate this object.
>>
>>5464639
> Find something to throw, and lob it NEAR the thing. Hopefully, if it is a security system, it does not perceive that as a trangressive act.

> Best not draw any more attention to yourself than you absolutely have to.

> You are going to need some answers here .Continue to investigate this object.
>>
>>5464639
>> Get far enough out around the corner to get your suit lights on it, Hopefully, if it is a security system, it does not perceive that as a transgressive act.
> Best not draw any more attention to yourself than you absolutely have to.
> You are going to need some answers here .Continue to investigate this object.
>>
Okay, closed and writing.
>>
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You still are not willing to detour on account of all of this - not yet. Hoping that this isn't a security system or if it is, that it will count being flashed with your suits integrated lights as a transgressive act, you pull yourself far enough around the corner to get the lanterns clear, and then you switch them on.

Sitting in a thick cloud of dust and debris, the object that you see - you are not sure that it even qualifies to be called a device, let alone a drone - is a massive bale of razor wire, with an outer diameter of three and a half cubits, maybe a little more. It is more than a little alarming seeing all of that razor wire just .... bundled there. It certainly looks like it might be sharp enough to damage your suit or your equipment, if you were to get too close. Luckily, the bale seems to be mounted to the walls - or at the very least, immobile. At the moment, it is held in place by eight thin metal struts radiating out from the bale in all directions, holding it fast between the ceiling and the floor of the hall. Recessed into the bale, is the lamp that you saw earlier. As your light catches on the center of it, it suddenly flashes on.

Damn it all! It wasn't bad enough that you got it right in your eyes, but on top of it, you weren't counting. Was this the regular interval for it to turn on, or it is reacting to your presence here? As you recoil and blink the light out of your eyes, the lights from your suit fall on the walls of the hall around the corner, and you immediately notice that there is quite a bit of scuffing at unusual locations, starkly standing out against the rest of the unblemished walls. As you are wondering about that, all the while wishing you could wipe and rub your eyes right now, it occurs to you that the light from the bale has still not shut off. You wait a little longer, but the light refuses to shut off. You press your gloved hand into the wall, hard as you can, but you don't feel any vibrations.

Now what the Hell are you supposed to do?

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Wait for the light to shut off before doing anything.( - ? % Suit Charge, - ? % Air)
> Now find something to throw, and lob it NEAR the thing. Hopefully, it does not perceive that as a trangressive act.
> Now find something to throw, and lob it AT the thing. Hopefully, it does not perceive that as a trangressive act.
> Shut your suit's light off, and approach it, hoping and praying that whatever it is hasn't turned hostile to you.
> This hallway is too small for the two of you. So you will be the bigger man here, and leave.
>>
>>5465267
>> Now find something to throw, and lob it NEAR the thing. Hopefully, it does not perceive that as a trangressive act.
>>
>>5465267
>> Now find something to throw, and lob it NEAR the thing. Hopefully, it does not perceive that as a trangressive act.
>>
>>5465267
> Now find something to throw, and lob it AT the thing. Hopefully, it does not perceive that as a trangressive act.

prod it with a stick
>>
Okay, consider this closed. Writing.
>>
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Until you know what this thing is capable of, you are not going to be able to make an informed decision on passing it or not. To that end, as dangerous as it might sound ... you are going to try to throw something near it, and see how it responds. Lucky for you, around here you have your choice of improvised projectiles. Debris is one thing, but when it comes to just random trash floating around this hulk seems to have an unusual amount of it. It makes you think that the original owners of the ship bailed on it quickly. Either that, or they were just really messy to begin with.

You get your gloves on some sort of ... well, you think it was a wrapper at one point, but after being exposed to the vacuum it is hard to say. But it hasn't completely fallen apart yet, nor does it when you pick it up. Figuring that it will do as good as anything, you pull yourself around the corner - Jesus, that light is bright. Doing your best not to flinch, you throw the garbage at the thing, then in a moment of inspiration, you manually activate your helmets safety-tinting. You have to mess with it a bit, considering that this light is nothing compared to a wrecking torch, but soon you are able to stare back into the beam with only a little bit of discomfort. Just in time too, as your 'probe' passes through the cloud of debris, right underneath the body, or the bale, whatever it is.

Suddenly, the thing begins to shudder violently, causing all of its razor wire to scythe back and forth. You can see some of the larger chunks of debris floating around it get caught in its convulsions and get taken to pieces. Though you are fairly certain that your suit is strong enough to withstand that razor wire, that display is giving you some second thoughts. Then the struts - or rather, the legs - on the bottom retract into the bale as those on the top continue to extend. In less then half second, the entire drone is on the ground, pressing down and shuddering on the trash that you threw. While all of this is happening, you realize with alarm that at some point, the lamp, which you now believe may be the drone's eye, has been pointed directly at you. You are not sure if it was when stepped out for the throw, or when you peeked out to flash the thing with your lights, but it certainly looks like you have its attention.

After a dozen seconds or so, the drone stops shuddering. Then its legs revert back to their normal lengths, returning it to its spot in the now spreading debris cloud. You strain your eyes, looking for any sign of the trash that you threw, but if there is anything left of your 'probe' you aren't able to see it. You return your attention to the drone, who has begun to use its thin legs to punt itself out of the debris cloud, towards you. Its eye - and you are certain it is an eye now - is riveted on you. Its irregular movement makes it difficult to do so, and the gleaming beam twitches with each punt, but the drone is making every effort to stare right at you.
>>
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Well, you can see now how this thing managed to survive with all of the conduit worms around - in fact, now that you think about it, that debris field it is was sitting in ... those were conduit worms that it had shredded, weren't they? While the thought of something clearing out the worms around here for you is a pleasant one, some of those chunks in the debris cloud were ... on the larger size. And those were the parts that survived the shredding.

Of course, you have more pressing concerns than the prospect of fighting another monster conduit worm right now. While its movement is unsteady and irregular the drone is not slow by any stretch of the imagination either. And though individually those legs might not be that strong, now that it is moving, you can see that it has more than the eight you originally counted. Twice that, maybe even more. If those legs were to all work in tandem ... then even without the razor wire it might be able to do some serious damage if it was to slam you against the floor. Now, it is worth noting, however, that is designed to kill worms ... not wreckers with torches. If you had to guess, you would say that there is current running through the razor wire, which in addition to baiting the worms to their doom, would also keep them away from the really sensitive stuff, like whatever is on the other side of that eye. Assuming you were smart and safe and maybe a bit lucky, you could get your torch close enough to cook the drone to death straight through the lamp ... assuming of course that it wasn't hardened against heat. But why the Hell would it be?

On the other hand ... the value in a console that might be in working order, and might have some proprietary software on it is nothing compared to a functional, useful drone. Now, to be sure, the drone looks to be bespoke, which does take away from its value a little - but still, it looks professionally made, and even if it wasn't, it is clearly well made. If it wasn't, then the worms would have eaten though it by now. If you could get the thing caught somewhere, and then somehow get inside of it and switch it off safely ... or if you could find something strong enough to spear the bale with, then figure out a way to get it out of these halls, to places where its legs couldn't reach anything to punt, then you could simply haul it over to the ferry as is.

Still, as much as this thing is worth, it is not conduit. And if you end the shift without enough conduit, then that means you aren't entitled to get anything for this. For a find this great, surely you will get something ... but it will be a pittance compared to what you would get otherwise. Odds are good none of the other wreckers on the Highest Heaven are this deep in the hulk, so this drone here will probably be waiting for you if you make your way back here. That is assuming though, that this drone cannot leave the wider hallway it is in now.

So what the fuck do you do?
>>
> Please choose ONE of the following. If you have a good write-in with your vote, you could receive bonuses, if that course of action gets the most vote. :
> Attempt to fight the drone, hoping to leave it in a salvageable state.
> Attempt to fight the drone, pulling no punches. If it dies, it dies.
> Attempt to snare and deactivate the drone.
> Attempt to transfix and capture the drone.
> Attempt to boost past the drone.
> Attempt to cut your way past the drone, through the walls.
> Return to the sealed blast door and cut around that instead.
> Retreat into the tighter halls and find another way into the bulkhead.
>>
>>5466182
> Attempt to snare and deactivate the drone.

we haven't tried communicating with it yet. It must have a built-in safety protocol
>>
>>5466182
> Attempt to cut your way past the drone, through the walls.

We just had a heart attack this morning. Lets focus on conduit.
>>
>>5466182
>Attempt to cut your way past the drone, through the walls.
We can come back to it later after we've got our conduit quota. And hey, if we get chased by a worm we can lure it over here.

By the way OP, is this 'verse based off anything? I could swear I've heard of conduit worms before.
>>
> Return to the sealed blast door and cut around that instead.
Although I would see if the thing is voice-activated first, maybe we can just tell it to turn off.
>>
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As there is some difference in opinion, I'm going to let this sit for another hour or two before I close it.

>>5466266
The universe heavily inspired by Starsector, but the idea of and name for conduit worms is straight from Star War's extended universe. There are a number of differences though. In SW, conduit worms grow as a single entity, and somehow convert existing components into organs, which is different from my version, which are individual creatures that have organs capable of supplanting components that the worms destroyed. This version of them are a lot more aggressive and destructive - not to mention that as they are silicon-based, they can survive in the vacuum of space. I was considering calling mine Squirms (as opposed to worms or Conduit Worms) as I make a point of saying that mine have pseudo-appendages that wind over the main trunk, as opposed to the Conduit Worm from Star Wars which bud and branch out from the trunk down different lines, but Squirms sounds kind of puerile compared to Conduit Worm.
>>
>>5466182
>attempt to snare and deactivate the drone
It's gotta have a safety protocol of some sort you can't just leave something like this running around it would kill someone
>>
come on guys this is a working battle drone, maybe we can even attempt an escape with this thing. Let's not leave it lying around!
>>
Rolled 1 (1d2)

On a roll of one, we cut past the drone.
On a roll of two, we attempt to snare and deactivate the drone.
>>
The drone draws nearer and nearer, but you still cannot make up your mind. You have half a mind to try to trick the drone into some tight spot somewhere, and then find some way to deactivate it ... but the other half of your mind has made itself up to cut your way past it. By choosing to detour around this thing, you are avoiding some serious risks, at the cost of dealing with whatever the Hell is in the rooms on the other side of these walls ... and of squeezing through the too-tight wall struts, unless you want to take the time, air and gas required to properly cut your way through them. Snaring the drone, now that comes with risks, real risks. Not to mention questions - the first of which is how the fuck?

You suppose if you were able to bait it into a doorframe, and then keep it there long enough for you to get a good look at its eye, or through the bale, then you might be able to get the thing shut off without risking the integrity of your suit. Or maybe if you had a long metal pole, something that it couldn't cut through, and you were able to get that hooked onto the bale, you might be able to force it into somewhere tight. But even if you were able to get it good and stuck, that doesn't account for the shuddering and scything. There is no way that you can think of that you could put an end to that, at least not without damaging or destroying it.

That just doesn't seem like a winning proposal, doesn't it?

As you expected, the drone is noticeably slowing down as it approaches the corner. Clearly, whoever programed this thing put enough forethought in to the code to prevent it from charging into spots where it was liable to get fouled up and caught. So snaring it ... well, it was always going to be hard, but if you can't bait it into charging at you, then it has become all the more difficult.

With that thought, your mind is made up. You are going to cut your way around this confrontation. Keeping your lit torch at the ready, you watch the drone slow to a stop, several paces away from the corner. At first, you don't think that it is doing anything, but then you notice that the light from its eye is getting brighter, even through the protective tinting on your helmet, and you realize that as it must have assumed that you are some sort of conduit worm, right now, it is trying to bait you. The realization is enough to make you laugh, and you are still smiling once you have satisfied yourself that the drone is not going to advanced any further.

After you consult the schematic, to make sure that you aren't cutting into anything obviously dangerous, you put your torch to the wall and rip through the panels.

> Roll 1d200. Same rules as with >>5462828
>>
Rolled 164 (1d200)

>>5466604
>>
Rolled 33 (1d200)

>>5466604
>> Attempt to snare and deactivate the drone.
>>
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As you pull the outer wall panels away, you find to your surprise that there are no inner wall panels - not on the section of wall that you are cutting through, nor in the room that you cutting into, at least as far as you can see at the moment. Craning your neck as best you can in the suit, you check as much of the room as you can from here, but oddly enough there does not seem to be anything in it. Anything at all. You deactivate the manual tinting on your helmet, just to see if you missed anything the first time around, but no - the room is empty. Utterly empty. Unsure if you should be relieved or concerned, you pull yourself into the room through the struts. If anything, these seem to be even tighter than the set that you pulled yourself through by the intake, though you know that is probably just your imagination. Things like the spacing of struts are typically standardized throughout a hull - though there are exceptions. And on that note, this is an exceptional hull.

With your feet back underneath you, you pull your toolbox into the room, then check your suit and your tools over for any signs of damage. Once that is all done, you take a moment to have a more thorough look around the room, to make sure that you haven't missed anything.But it is exactly as it appeared from the outside. A completely empty room, down to the struts. The light fixtures have been pulled completely, and if there were any outlets or sockets in here, then they have been removed as well. Here and there you can see holes where conduit and cables came into the room, either in the ceiling or in the floor - holes that have been diligently sealed tight. Whatever was in the room, it must have been completely infested with conduit worms, and the original owners of the ship stripped it down to deal with it.

Now that you have an explanation, your focus returns to the drone - and just how far you are going to need to detour around it to move safely. This room, like many in this portion of the hull, are a decent size, at least for a ship of the Highest Heaven's displacement. But can you get far enough down the hall in it for you to get past the drone? Or should you try cutting into the next room instead? It is possible that room has been infested, and as it has its wall panels up still, you know that it couldn't have been completely stripped down like this one. You would like to do as little cutting as possible ... at the same time though, what if you cut back out into the hallway here, and the drone descends down on you as you are trying to pull yourself out. You turn around to check the gap in the wall that you left. From this angle, you are not able to see the drone, but you can certainly see the light from its eye.
>>
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Considering that the drone can see - and respond to - both light and movement in multiple directions, it is possible that as long as you are cutting into anywhere in this hallway this drone is going to see you. It can probably punt itself faster than you can - though, you do have boosters up your sleeve. Still, the prospect of having a hostile drone chase after you through a hulk where all of the tight spaces that you could hide from it are liable to be infested with conduit worms ... that is not a pleasant prospect. But neither is cutting into a room that shared a wall with a room that was in such a bad way that it had to be cleared out completely.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Cut into the hallway, squeezing through struts.
> Cut into the adjacent room, squeezing through struts.
>>
>>5466783
>> Cut into the hallway, squeezing through struts.
>>
>>5466783
I think I'm to stupid to understand the implications of this vote
>>
>>5466783
>> Cut into the hallway, squeezing through struts.
>>5466966
me too
>>
>>5466783
>Cut into the hallway, squeezing through struts.

>>5466966
I think the vote amounts to choosing whether to keep going through the rooms to give the drone a wider berth and hoping we don't get worm'd or cutting back into the corridor and hoping we don't get drone'd.
>>
>>5466966
>>5466999
No, I think I didn't do a good enough job of explaining the vote here. Let me take another shot at it.

If the room was bad enough to strip down to the struts, then it follows that the next room over - which has not been stripped down, as the paneling is still up - might also be dangerously infested. So it stands to reason that cutting into it might be dangerous.

On the other hand, there is the question of the drone in the hallway. How does it detect things? And if you were to cut your way out into the hallway from this room, would you be giving yourself enough space that the drone would not be able to detect you, or that if it was, that you would be able to outpace it?

I'll leave this up for a little longer, in case this clarification helps anyone.
>>
>>5466783
> Cut into the hallway, squeezing through struts.
The drone only detected us in the first place because we shined a light directly onto it. As long as we don’t repeat that I think we should be fine. It doesn’t seem the sort to hunt, but to bait.
>>
>>5466783
> Cut into the adjacent room, squeezing through struts.

What could go wrong?
>>
>>5466783
> Cut into the adjacent room, squeezing through struts.

>>5467126
thank you
>>
Okay, that is four for the hallway, against two for the next room over. If someone could roll a 1d200, I'll get to writing this up right after lunch.
>>
Rolled 123 (1d200)

>>5467193
>>
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After wrestling with it for a bit, you decide to cut through into the hallway. You have to figure that it is better to deal with the danger that you know, as opposed to the danger you don't - and you have absolutely no idea what kind of state that room is in. That settles it for you. You haul yourself over to the furthest hallway facing corner. Before you begin cutting, you turn around one last time to make sure that the drone's attention is still preoccupied with attempting to bait you into the big hallway. From what you can see, the light from the drone's eye is still back there, bright as it ever was. Feeling as comfortable about this course of action as you possibly can under the circumstances, you turn back to the wall, and trace the perimeter of the panel with your wrecking torch. You make the cross-cut, then you brush aside the spalling and micro-debris to grab the uppermost piece of paneling to pull through the gap between the struts.

As soon as you pull it out of position, you recoil. Light is beaming down the hallway! Instinctively, you turn around and look towards the hole you came in by. There is still light there, but now it has noticeably dimmed a bit. In fact, you can see it get dimmer and dimmer as you watch. You turn back to the hole that you just cut, and to your alarm you can see that light get brighter and brighter. Fuck you sideways, the drone has two eyes. The ass-end one must have picked up the light from your wrecking torch, or maybe the lights from your suit gleaming through the slits you cut. You shove your head through the struts to take a look - okay, it is further away than you thought. That's ... you suppose that is something. More than something, really, it is everything. You should be able to pull yourself through these struts and then use your booster to get away - these hallways are more than large enough for you to safely use the jets. And you have the schematic to use as a map, though at the moment you have it stowed in its tube.

Your concern here is what happens if this damn thing starts chasing you through the halls? Would it be safer to cut into the other room? Would that even work, now that the drone is on the alert?
>>
> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Pull yourself through the slit as quickly as you can. Increases your lead on the drone, comes with a one in twenty chance of losing Suit Integrity
> Pull yourself through the slit carefully. Does not increase your lead on the drone, comes with the standard one in fifty chance of losing Suit Integrity.
> Cut into the next room instead, pulling yourself through that slit carefully. Comes with the standard one in fifty chance of losing Suit Integrity.

> If you voted for cutting into the hallway, please choose ONE of the following:
> Keep the schematic where it is for now.
> Get the schematic's tube out an in your hand. Incurs a one in twenty chance that you drop the tube, but reduces the time that it takes to get the schematic out later.
> Get the schematic out now. Reduces lead on the drone, and incurs a one in twenty chance of dropping the schematic, but you have access to the map as you move.
>>
>>5467269
> Pull yourself through the slit carefully. Does not increase your lead on the drone, comes with the standard one in fifty chance of losing Suit Integrity.
> Keep the schematic where it is for now.
Losing integrity and dropping the schematic are both disastrous, let’s avoid that.
>>
>>5467269
> Pull yourself through the slit as quickly as you can. Increases your lead on the drone, comes with a one in twenty chance of losing Suit Integrity
> Keep the schematic where it is for now.

>>5467324
but being too slow will get us mauled
>>
>>5467269
>> Pull yourself through the slit as quickly as you can. Increases your lead on the drone, comes with a one in twenty chance of losing Suit Integrity
> Keep the schematic where it is for now.
>>
Can we abandon this course of action now that we know the fucker is going to chase us and try to kill it ahead of time?
If we're going to have to deal with multiple prolonged chases then honestly we should just go another way or disable it ahead of time, engaging with chases in it on our way there and back is just silly.
>>
>>5467426
I'll accept this as a write-in - but are you suggesting to kill it outright or disable it?
>>
>>5467437
I am personally fine with either course of action if anons vote for it, but personally I would prefer to attempt to disable it since this thing is probably worth quite a bit.
>>
>>5467426
I will support trying to disable it
>>
Okay, so now it looks like disabling the drone has the most votes. I see two potential ways to disable the drone - spear enough of the bale with something sturdy and long enough then manhandle it into a door frame, or somehow trick it into jamming itself in a door frame. If anyone has any write-ins however, either for other ideas, or how existing options could be improved, I would be more than willing to consider them.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Take the time, consumables and effort to cut one of the struts from the wall, and attempt to use it to spear the bale.
> Pull yourself out of the stripped down room, and look for a spot somewhere that you can trap it.
> Take the time, consumables and effort to cut one of the struts from the wall, and attempt to bait the drone into the widened gap.
> The door in and out of the stripped down room is a pocket door, and it looks like you could operate what is left of the manual crank with your impact driver. It remains to be seen if your driver or the door is going to be strong enough to hold the drone, though.
> Write-ins accepted with QM approval.
>>
>>5467699
> Pull yourself out of the stripped down room, and look for a spot somewhere that you can trap it.
I didn’t know that you’re back Trash, I hope this isn’t another nuke situation we’ve just involved ourselves in.
>>
>>5467699
>> Take the time, consumables and effort to cut one of the struts from the wall, and attempt to use it to spear the bale.
>>
>>5467699
> The door in and out of the stripped down room is a pocket door, and it looks like you could operate what is left of the manual crank with your impact driver. It remains to be seen if your driver or the door is going to be strong enough to hold the drone, though.
can we PLEASE try to communicate with it?
>>
Just got to the Wallflower bit. I think anons miscalculated the potential here. Sure, this is a random joe that was just watching us fight off a worm, but he also doesn’t know us either. He’s also a new guy, so he doesn’t have any friends as well. Anons should’ve focused more on networking and building a relationship with him, even with the inherent risks of backstabbing, because the fact the we can read and he can’t mean that he’s essentially beholden to us for info, and we are gonna need allies if we want to survive long term. The interior of this ship will be retardedly dangerous, but it also means it’s retardedly valuable and untouched due to the inherent danger. Next time, offer him a 60-40 split of conduit and tech our way (since we know where the good shit is), with a 50/50 split on worm eggs (since we’re sharing the danger). If we’re planning on getting off this penal ship, we gonna need to start leading a crew to mutual benefit.

>>5468018
>Halt! YOU SHALL NOT PASS!
>>
>>5468018
>>5468142
I mean to include this - I'll definitely put it in with whatever gets the vote here.
>>
Rolled 2 (1d3)

Okay, we have been sitting on the same vote for more than eighteen hours now. I'm going to have to roll for it.

With a roll of one, you pull yourself out of the stripped room and attempt to find a good spot to immobilize the drone.
With a roll of two, you cut yourself a spear and attempt to manhandle the drone into a tight spot.
With a roll of three, you attempt to trap the drone in the room using the pocket door and your impact driver.
>>
>>5468466
>I joked about poking it with a stick and now this is actually our strategy
>>
Okay, one final question. Do you want to try to spear it while you are in the hallway, and have more options to get away, or do you want to spear the drone while you are still inisde the room, which could protect you against any counter from the drone?

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Spear from inside room
> Spear from hallway
>>
>>5468564
>> Spear from inside room
>>
>>5468564
> Spear from inside room
>>
>>5468564
> Spear from inside room
>>
>>5468564
>> Spear from inside room
>>
Okay, so first we need to cut through the strut to make the spear.

While you can see the dimensions of the struts, the alloy that they are made out of - and the specific condition of this particular strut are not, so it has - at this time - an indeterminate amount of health. In a standard turn, there will be the four typical rolls (1d100, 1d6, now a 1d20 with 2 and 19 incidental with the 1d100 roll doubled/halved and 1 and 20 incidental with the full 1d100, 1 and 2 being negative events and 19 and 20 being positive, as well as the 1d2 for the boon). For the cutting, for the modifier and for the incidental. For the first turn, there are two additional rolls - one to determine the design of the strut, the second to determine its condition.

The rolls for design are as follows: on a roll of 1, the strut (and all struts in the room) is thicker than average, on a roll of 2, the strut is thicker than average, on a roll of 3, the strut has no design modifiers, on a roll of 4, the strut has holes through it where conduit was once run, on a roll of 5, the strut is slender and non-critical, and on a roll of 6, the strut is a slender and non-critical strut with holes through it where conduit was once run. The rolls for the condition modifier are as follows: on a roll of 1, the strut has been made out of a stronger material than the average strut and has been reinforced, on a roll of 2, the strut has been reinforced, on a roll of 3 there are no condition modifiers, on a roll of 4, the strut has weak points from a repair, on a roll of 5, the strut has been damaged already, and on a roll of 6, the strut has weak points from a repair and then later was damaged again.

Each cut costs -1 % Air, - 1 % Charge and - 2 % Cutting Gas

> Please, can I get 1d100, 1d6, 1d20, 1d2 and 2d6? Fingers crossed!
>>
Rolled 56 (1d100)

>>5469022
>>
Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>5469022
>>
Rolled 2 (1d20)

>>5469022
do we really need this many different dice?
>>
>>5469032
If you question the dice the dice gods complain.
We cannot question their need for sacridices.
but yes the level of crunch in Trash's quests is wild
>>
Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>5469022
>>
Rolled 6, 6 = 12 (2d6)

>>5469022
Last roll
>>
Rolled 74 (1d100)

>>5469032
And the 1d100 for the negative event
>>
>>5469080
Is a high roll good or bad?
>>
>>5469085
High rolls have been shown to be universally good
>>
>>5469085
>100 is barely an inconvenience, while 1 is for disfiguring injuries and hard to overcome life-and-death situations
>>
>>5469085
Got duo nat 6s, so I’m happy.
>>
The struts in this room have less health than average, on account that they are slimmed down non-critical supports. Several of the struts in the room, including the one that you are cutting through at the moment have holes in them, through which conduit was once run, which means that they have even less health than typical struts. This particular strut has been repaired and then later damaged again. On account the damage, the strut has less health than the other slim, not-critical and holed struts in the room, and on account of the repair job it is easier to cut, giving a bonus to the cutting modifier.

Cutting VIII: 56 * 0.75 = 42
Cost: - 1 % Air, - 1 % Charge and - 1 % Cutting Gas.(Refund from Percussion-Implemented Efficiency modifier)
Total: 42/ ~60
Incidental Event, Negative: (148) Under stress from working with a hostile drone less than a quarter cubit away from you, you accidentally press the button for Cutting Flux instead of Cutting Gas on your wrecking torch, and at the highest possible volumetric setting too. In a matter of seconds, you lose 2 % Cutting Flux before you stop it.

Okay, you are doing really well here. Can I get 1d100, 1d6, 1d20 and 1d2 again?
>>
Rolled 17 (1d100)

>>5469197
>>
Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>5469197
>>
Rolled 16 (1d20)

>>5469197
God our d100s are lowballing us. DICE GOD, I PRASE THY!
>>
Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>5469197
Yea, I’ll just roll the final dice again
>>
Cutting IX: 1 7* 1 = 17
Cost: - 1 % Air, - 1 % Charge and - 1 % Cutting Gas.(Refund from Percussion-Implemented Efficiency modifier)
Total: 59 / 65
No Incidental Event

Alright, we just need one more. I'm about ready to call it a night, but here is a question for you all: once we get the spear, where exactly should we aim for on the drone (understanding that we might not be able to get it there, depending on the rolls)

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> You intend to spear the drone close to the eye, in hopes of getting the spear stuck into something thicker, accepting the risk that if the thrust goes poorly, you could damage something.
> You intend to spear the drone close to one of its legs, in hopes of protecting yourself from getting 'kicked', accepting the risk that if the drone counters properly, you could lose the spear.
> You intend to spear the drone in the 'flesh' of the bale, in hopes of taking it without damaging it, accepting the risk that you might not get a solid enough connection to safely shepherd the thing.
>>
You can really tell I am too tired to run right now. I forgot to ask:

> Can I get 1d100, 1d6, 1d20 and 1d2 again?
>>
Rolled 2 (1d100)

>>5469258
>> You intend to spear the drone close to the eye, in hopes of getting the spear stuck into something thicker, accepting the risk that if the thrust goes poorly, you could damage something.
>>
Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>5469258
> You intend to spear the drone in the 'flesh' of the bale, in hopes of taking it without damaging it, accepting the risk that you might not get a solid enough connection to safely shepherd the thing.

>>5469260
Do we even need to roll after this?
>>
Rolled 16 (1d20)

>Do we even need to roll after this?
...we may just need to roll another set of everything to get this cutting done with
What is a 2 of 100 actually represent here, the torch just turns off for a few seconds while still using gas?
>>
Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>5469259
I’m finishing up the set to get an understanding of how fucked we are.

>>5469266
I honestly think you killed us here. Holy shit, this is disarming the nuke all over again.
>>
>>5469270
...Are we at lethal risk? We wasted resources while cutting, yes, but it's not like we were rolling for stabbing yet.
>>
>>5469272
I think so. In Graverobber’s Daughter, an Nat 2 is considered a Near Catastrophic Failure. It really depends on if this critfail overrides all our rolls, or whether we’re supposed to roll another 1d100 to figure out the severity of the Incidental Event, and that doesn’t take into account the Drone hit on our heels.
>>
>>5469279
>the Drone hot* on our heels.
>>
Remember. Our character had a heart attack this morning.
>>
>>5469258
> You intend to spear the drone in the 'flesh' of the bale, in hopes of taking it without damaging it, accepting the risk that you might not get a solid enough connection to safely shepherd the thing.
>>
Just got caught up. Honestly, if we get this thing in a worm infested room, maybe it’ll focus on them instead of us.
>>
>>5469258
Also, can we still communicate with the drone? It stands to reason that it would obey radio commands, since it’s main is wormkilling and I wouldn’t want to be close to it just to turn it off autopilot.
>>
>>5469258
>> You intend to spear the drone in the 'flesh' of the bale, in hopes of taking it without damaging it, accepting the risk that you might not get a solid enough connection to safely shepherd the thing.
>>
>>5469258
> You intend to spear the drone close to the eye, in hopes of getting the spear stuck into something thicker, accepting the risk that if the thrust goes poorly, you could damage something.
You guys are way too greedy. Stop trying to take this drone intact, we're already running low and we need to be able to reach the power plant.
>>
>>5469260
As lousy as that roll was, you are (we all are) lucky in the sense that it was just for the cutting, Getting a low roll on that carries no penalty here - though later there could be situations where you are working with more dangerous equipment or materials and there will be a negative outcome from a low cutting roll. All that happens here though is that you barely did anything to the strut. The closest thing to an adverse event here is that because your roll was so lousy, we are going to need to roll again, risking getting a 1 or a 2 on the incidental roll.

>>5469266
>What is a 2 of 100 actually represent here, the torch just turns off for a few seconds while still using gas?
Basically.

>>5469416
>Also, can we still communicate with the drone? It stands to reason that it would obey radio commands, since it’s main is wormkilling and I wouldn’t want to be close to it just to turn it off autopilot.
Yes, you can.

Cutting X: 2 * 0.5 = 1
Cost: - 1 % Air, - 1 % Charge and - 2 % Cutting Gas.
Total: 60 / 65
No Incidental Event

> Can I get 1d100, 1d6, 1d20 and 1d2 again?
>>
Rolled 97 (1d100)

>>5469949
>>
Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>5469949
how bout them dice
>>
Rolled 16 (1d20)

>>5469949
>>
Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>5469949
>>
Cutting XI: 97 * 0.25 = 24 (from 24.25)
Cost: - 1 % Air, - 1 % Charge and - 1 % Cutting Gas.(Refund from Percussion-Implemented Efficiency modifier)
Total: 84 / 65
No Incidental Event

Alright, you cut your way through. I'll get to writing the scene.
>>
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The harder you try to figure the best way to lose this drone - through the hallway or through the next room - the less certain you are of either of those options. Both options ultimately put you out in the hallway with the drone.While it is true that you have the schematic to use as a map, and with your boosters, you are a lot faster than it, none of that constitutes a guarantee that you are going to make a clean break from this damned thing. What if you were following the schematic, but you ended up outside another sealed blast door, and the drone ended up cornering you? What if you managed to lose it this time, but on your way back through here with a full load of conduit you ran into it again?

The more you think about it, the more certain you are that there is nothing certain about running away from it. No, if you want to truly put this drone business past you - and you do - then the only way to do that is to bag and tag this drone. To that end, you are going to need someway to lead the drone into tighter quarters. You could use yourself as bait, or try finding more trash to throw around, but that feels ... well, it doesn't feel certain, that is for sure. And with something as unpredictable as a bespoke autonomous drone, you need to be certain. Now steel - or whatever the fuck these struts are made out of - that is certain. If you got this thing stuck on a spike, on a spear, then it should be a relatively straightforward process to getting this thing stuck in a corner somewhere.

So as the drone closes the distance, instead of squeezing your way out, you turn your attention to the struts. You can tell just by looking at them that they are non-critical, and a bunch of them have holes through them where conduit was once run, which will make them even easier to work through. But one of them - coincidentally one of the struts by the hole you just cut out into the hallway - really catches your eye. Not only has it been rather crudely repaired, either they didn't bother fixing all of the damage, or this unlucky strut got beat to Hell and back on two different occasions. You should be able to breeze through this strut - well, relatively speaking, at least. As you bring your torch to bear, you consider using cutting flux here, but ultimately decide against it, as having a rough, splintered and all around irregular end should make the business of sticking this bumbling bale easier. You get to work on the bottom of the strut first, focusing pulling apart the shoddy repair-job. It is kind of funny, actually - if you had to guess, you would say that this strut was salvaged from another wreck. Probably was bundled with a bunch of intact struts, or at the very least, ones that had been repaired better than it had been, and then sold as a lot.
>>
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As you are working, the drone takes up position right outside the gap in the wall, centering itself - halfway between the ceiling and the floor, halfway between the walls - then pivoting so that one of its eyes is locked right on you. The light from its eye is blazing straight at you, but the tint on your helmet visor is already active on account of your torch. Still, having it just a few cubits away, twitching and shuddering as you try to focus on your work ... to be entirely honest, it is pretty unnerving. At any point, it could hurtle itself at you - and though there is the remains of the wall between you, you have to assume that the razor wire has some play to it. Now, enough to get through the wall and around your suit as you kneel on the floor? Probably not. But with a hostile drone staring right at you, probably is not reassuring. And that is setting aside the risk of it getting one of its legs into the room. Though they clearly are not intended as weapons, they are fairly substantial looking, and that guillotine drop this thing performed on that wrapper or whatever demonstrated that when this thing attacks it uses all of its legs in tandem - throwing as much force as it can must at its target.

Figuring that you have nothing to lose at this point, you switch your radio back to an open band, set the broadcast to directional, and ping the drone. The feedback you get on your end strongly indicates that there is at least a receiver, buried somewhere in that bale. Now, the question is what is that receiver configured for? If it is inputs from a console, panel or remote control, then you are out of luck. But, if it was configured to receive and interpret verbal commands, then you might be able to 'talk' to the drone. Keeping your set on directional, so the rest of the wreckers hopefully aren't able to hear you, you start talking as you work through the strut.

"Shut down."

The drone does not shut down. Instead it shudders violently as ever, its legs twitching back and forth, constantly correcting. As you continue your cut through the spear, you try again, figuring that it might be a specific phrase.

"Power down."

That doesn't do it.

"Stand down."

Neither does that.

"Stand by."

The drone is still convulsing and still staring at you. You try different variations of a different phrase.

"Safe mode."

But the results are the same.

"Sleep mode."

You wonder if any of the other wreckers are hearing this, even with the directional broadcast.

"Maintenance mode."

If they are they must be thinking you have lost your mind.

"Go fuck yourself."

They are probably right.
>>
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Still, you are not willing to give up on this quite yet. This drone doesn't just have a bespoke look to it, it is so narrowly specialized that you have to wonder if it was purpose built for these larger hallways by a crew member of the Highest Heaven - an engineer, or a mechanist. If it was ... and this section of the ship was intended to be completely sealed off, then the drone's master and creator might not have bothered coding voice commands to the unit. But you might not be completely out of luck. If this was drone was made on this ship, then it is possible that it was coded in Primitive.

Primitive, also called Illegal, is a simplified and rather flexible programing language, commonly used with repurposed hardware, because the language makes it very easy to use - or rather, to misuse - proprietorially protected components, so long as a reflasher has been installed with them. And while there is an alpha-numeric variant, it was originally made as a verbal programming language, intended for illiterate technicians to code with, where feedback is either repeated back out loud or pictographically displayed on an interpreter tablet. Now, if the drone was programed in Primitive, and it was intended to be placed in a sealed place away from everyone else, then the maker of the drone might not have bothered with putting up re-write protections. It is possible - though admittedly unlikely - that with the little bit of Primitive that you know, you might actually be able to hack this drone simply by talking to it.

"Start of Line. Range of address, four cubits. Target of address, drone. Purpose of address, locomotion full stop and power down. Time of address, effective immediately and effective immediately. End of Line."

When the drone abruptly stops shuddering, you are so surprised that you accidentally let go of the wrecking torch, and when you grab it again, you do so in a way that pumps quite a bit of cutting flux out into space, just wasting it. Normally, you would be beating yourself up over something like that - but right now, you couldn't possibly care less. The drone has stopped that shuddering! But the light - the light is not going out. And as you are wondering if this means that the drone does have re-write protections enabled, and it is just in standby waiting for you to recite a password or broadcast a hash, you get your answer as the drone beings to start shuddering again.

Well, still ... that was at least a solid six seconds where the drone was not moving. And while it remains to be seen if the drone will stay in standby while you are attacking it with your spear, you are most definitely pleased with yourself. Though you aren't pleased by how long it actually takes you to get the strut cut off - with it busted and holes through it already too. You will just have to chalk that up to nerves or something.
>>
Eventually though, the strut does come out, and you seat your new spear, staring back straight into the eye of the drone - near as big as your head. Not wanting to waste any precious time or more-than-precious air, you repeat yourself as calmly as you can under the circumstances.

"Start of Line. Range of address, four cubits. Target of address, drone. Purpose of address, locomotion full stop and power down. Time of address, effective immediately and effective immediately. End of Line."

It takes just a second for the drone seize up, but as soon as it stops moving, you make your move!

> Please, can I have two rolls of 1d20? The first is for the spearing and the second is for any incidental stuff.

> And for the overnight vote: assuming that you get a good thrust in, and are able to drag or pull the drone around where you will - where should you try to force it?

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> The smaller hallway that you came from, looking to detour around the sealed blast door.
> Into the corner of the room that you just came from.
> Try to pin it in the pocket door of the room that you just came from .
>>
Rolled 11 (1d20)

>>5470722
> Try to pin it in the pocket door of the room that you just came from .
I mainly don’t have an opinion on this, I’m mainly curious if we can hack this drone before this encounter is finished with it’s entrapment.
>>
Rolled 13 (1d20)

No opinion
>>
>>5470722
> Try to pin it in the pocket door of the room that you just came from .

I kinda like having it as some kind of murderous sentient halberd as well
>>
>>5470722
>> Try to pin it in the pocket door of the room that you just came from .
>>
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With the drone stilled, you punt yourself out of the room as fast as you can - no longer having to worry about squeezing through, as one of the struts has become your spear! Your thrust is aimed at the thick 'fleshy' portion of the bale, right above the drone's eye. With all of this movement, it occurs to you that the drone might take it self out of stand by to defend itself, but to your relief, the ragged tip of your improvised prod manages to close the distance and drive into the bale. Unfortunately, the razor wire of the bale is either less yielding or thicker than you originally assumed - the thrust skips off, and the jolt is almost enough to make you lose your tenuous grip on the spear.

Worse, that same jolt was enough to snap the drone back into action. The bale scythes with almost a desperate intensity. The legs are a flurry of movement. And in a single terrifying moment, you realize that with the drone positioned in the middle of the hallway, your thrust has brought you well outside of the protection offered by the stripped down room. Trying not to panic, you switch on your forward facing boosters to augment your existing backward momentum from your failed attack, making a blind dash back into the room. As you are unable to see where you are going, your helmet ends up passing within a hands breadth of the top if the passage you have cut into the hallway. At the moment though, you are much more worried about the drone, which is barreling right after you, legs all akimbo and its eye furiously blazing away, bathing the entire scene in the harshest white light imaginable, kicking up debris and worm remains as it accelerates towards you with all of its might.

But while the strut might now be in your hands, the metal paneling that was attached to it remains in place. Already compromised by your cutting, the panels buckle inward when the drone rams itself into them. There is a bizarre surreality, watching an impact so quick and violent that is also completely silent. Detritus is spewed into the room, and as you fight to get yourself back under control, you wonder if the drone is going to manage to break its way through.

And it seems that the drone is wondering the same thing you are. The shaking of the bale slows and then stops, then the few legs that made it into the room scrabble around a bit as the legs without presumably seek firmer purchase. Finding it, the drone pulls itself back from the breach - though it does not retreat back into the center of hallway this time, no - instead it remains just outside, the outer layer of the bale just a few fingers breadth away from the wall, as it shudders turn to softer gyrations - though when a half loose strand or razor wire gets caught, the shaking returns to full strength, until it manages to pull it free. With the immediate danger passed, your fear turns to annoyance. Pinning this thing is going to be a lot trickier than you originally thought.
>>
That said, you do have the pocket door, that you could use like a clamp, assuming that you could bait the drone into the doorway, and then keep it there long enough for you to close it.

Before you attempt that though, you should consider if you are going to try anything different when you take your second crack at spearing this drone.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> With the drone so close to the wall, this is an opportunity to get a good look at it, You might be able to find some sort of soft spot, something that you couldn't see at a distance. Set the spear aside, and get a real up close look.
> This drone is on a hair trigger right now, and you have no way of knowing if that paneling is going to hold up to a hit like that twice. Take a look, sure, but keep that spear between you - accepting that you might not be able to see too much, and that approaching it again might set it off, even if you hail it in Primitive.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Last time you speared the thing, you just punted yourself over. Right now, you are thinking that you need more speed to get through that bale. Next time, burn your boosters to add some oomph to your thrust. ( - 1 % Boost)
> While it is tempting to seek the strongest possible thrust here, the fact is that there is more to getting this thing skewered than just force. If you use your thrusters, you might have a harder time aiming your thrust - not to mention, all of that momentum needs to be back-burned away for your retreat. Stick with just the punting,

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> You almost lost the spear last time - and if that drone made it into the room and you didn't have that to keep it off of you, you could be in serious trouble. Take one of your wraps and secure the spear to yourself through the conduit holes.
> While it is true you almost lost the spear - and that you doubt that your wrecking torch would be able to do much against the drone, unless you got a good cut in on its eye - it might not be in your best interest to tie yourself to the spear. Who knows what could happen?
>>
>>5471210
> This drone is on a hair trigger right now, and you have no way of knowing if that paneling is going to hold up to a hit like that twice. Take a look, sure, but keep that spear between you - accepting that you might not be able to see too much, and that approaching it again might set it off, even if you hail it in Primitive.

> While it is tempting to seek the strongest possible thrust here, the fact is that there is more to getting this thing skewered than just force. If you use your thrusters, you might have a harder time aiming your thrust - not to mention, all of that momentum needs to be back-burned away for your retreat. Stick with just the punting,

> You almost lost the spear last time - and if that drone made it into the room and you didn't have that to keep it off of you, you could be in serious trouble. Take one of your wraps and secure the spear to yourself through the conduit holes.
>>
>>5471210
>> This drone is on a hair trigger right now, and you have no way of knowing if that paneling is going to hold up to a hit like that twice. Take a look, sure, but keep that spear between you - accepting that you might not be able to see too much, and that approaching it again might set it off, even if you hail it in Primitive.
> Last time you speared the thing, you just punted yourself over. Right now, you are thinking that you need more speed to get through that bale. Next time, burn your boosters to add some oomph to your thrust. ( - 1 % Boost)
> While it is true you almost lost the spear - and that you doubt that your wrecking torch would be able to do much against the drone, unless you got a good cut in on its eye - it might not be in your best interest to tie yourself to the spear. Who knows what could happen?
>>
>>5471210
> With the drone so close to the wall, this is an opportunity to get a good look at it, You might be able to find some sort of soft spot, something that you couldn't see at a distance. Set the spear aside, and get a real up close look.
> Last time you speared the thing, you just punted yourself over. Right now, you are thinking that you need more speed to get through that bale. Next time, burn your boosters to add some oomph to your thrust. ( - 1 % Boost)
> You almost lost the spear last time - and if that drone made it into the room and you didn't have that to keep it off of you, you could be in serious trouble. Take one of your wraps and secure the spear to yourself through the conduit holes.
What’s the DC here, a 15 Bo1? This fight is gonna be brutal, but still better that wasting resources running.
>>
>>5471210
>> With the drone so close to the wall, this is an opportunity to get a good look at it, You might be able to find some sort of soft spot, something that you couldn't see at a distance. Set the spear aside, and get a real up close look.
> Last time you speared the thing, you just punted yourself over. Right now, you are thinking that you need more speed to get through that bale. Next time, burn your boosters to add some oomph to your thrust. ( - 1 % Boost)
> You almost lost the spear last time - and if that drone made it into the room and you didn't have that to keep it off of you, you could be in serious trouble. Take one of your wraps and secure the spear to yourself through the conduit holes.
>>
As it has nearly been twenty hours, I suppose I am going to have to roll to make the tie breaker.

On a roll of one, you approach the drone.
On a roll of two, you do not approach the drone.
>>
Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>5472148
Would be helpful if I rolled the damned dice, wouldn't it?
>>
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After your first failed attempt with the drone, you have a lot on your mind, and very little time to process any of it. Setting aside the nagging doubt that what you are trying to pull off here might not even be possible, you instead focus down on three very specific questions: does the drone have any more surprises, like the rear mounted eye that completely caught you off guard, are you approaching and attacking the drone in the best possible way, and what happens if God forbid you should lose your spear?

The last question has the most obvious answer - if you lose the spear and are not able to get to a place of safety, then the drone is going to be right on top of you. Of course, the spear is not some talisman - simply holding on to it is not enough to keep you from harm. But if the drone cannot close the distance between you, then your odds of escaping unscathed seem to be much, much better. Understanding that, you figure that it is in your best interest to secure yourself to your spear, and you do so a quickly as you can, securing the wrap through one of the conduit holes in the strut.

The next question is trickier. The approach. When you punted yourself over to the drone, you weren't able to pierce the bale. While that simply could be a poor thrust it just as easily could be that you didn't have enough force behind it. And the only way that you figure you are going to be able to squeeze any more force out of the lunge is if you were to use your boosters. Obviously, that means that you are going to have back-burn away all of the momentum before you can beat a retreat if things go sideways again - as well as incorporating something else that could go wrong into this mess. But with the legs on this thing, you are going to get your improvised lance good and stuck, and the only way that you can see yourself managing to do that is with the boosters.

The first question you had is the last one you muster up an answer for, as it is trickiest of the lot. But in the end, you don't think that you are missing anything at this point. You have seen the drone on approach and on attack twice now. Unless the damned thing turned around solely to vex you, you have seen both sides of it, so there is nowhere to hide anything ... except in the bale itself. But if it was hidden in there, then you wouldn't have a chance to see it ... right?

Well ... actually, with the drone positioned so closely to the now concerningly wide hole in the wall, you might actually have some sort of opportunity - though to take that opportunity, you would have to get right up next to the damn thing. It is plain to see that the drone is alert and aware of your presence. More than that, it seems to be actively waiting for you to make the first move. Your concern is that the drone is going to take you getting up close enough to take your look as 'the first move'.

No, it is too risky. Best not approach until you are ready to attack.
>>
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Now, time to get that pocket door situated.

You punt your way over to what is left of the manual crank, noting how the drone shifts slightly as you float by. Clearly, the thing is doing its best to keep you in the spotlight for as long as it can without putting itself too close to the walls, or backing away from the breach. Seeing such deliberate behavior does nothing to ease your nerves. Clearly, the thing has a lot more going on upstairs than you originally assumed. And while of course that does make you more nervous, there is also an increasing sense of excitement, as the smarter the drone is, the more it is going to be worth - and that is not even considering that if you are able to take it in operable condition, you might be able to use it for the rest of your shift here, assuming you had some reliable way of keeping it under control.

That is a big 'if' though. Still, in spite of everything, you are actually feeling pretty good about your prospects here - at least until you turn your attention to the door, at which point, the realization of how much you are betting on a mechanism, half of which looks broken, the other half is just gone. You are able to get a hold of yourself though. Sure, the lock and the crank-wheel and the bells and fucking whistles are all gone, but the stud is still in there, and the gears behind it - everything else would have just been in the way. You drag your toolbox over to you, and then you fish out your grease gun. In the light from your suit, the wisps and the eye of the drone, you dump as much thermal lubricant as you possibly can into the shell of the mechanism, then you kiss the paste with your wrecking torch, just a few times. Then you wait for the light gray color of the paste to change to a darker shade, indicating that everything within the ball of thermal lubricant has been heated up to a safe operating temperature.

This stuff works a lot like the thermal flux that you use with cutting, except instead of wicking away heat, to prevent expansion, shattering, spalling - and creep, when working heavy - this paste is used for mechanical systems that are intended to be operated at standard conditions. If you were to try to open or close this door with any real speed, you would probably end up turning the mechanism into a floating cloud of metal toothpicks - and you cannot even imagine what you have left if you tried to do it with the impact driver without taking any precautions.

Before you take the impact to it through, you decide to try it out with hand tools. Lucky for you, the socket and ratchet with the crank-style cheater works well enough - though admittedly you were a little spooked when the drone jolted backward as the door opened. You return the hand tools to your box, and haul out the impact - the only the third time in your two months of wrecking that you have ever needed to use it - when you get a good look at the torques and speeds that this thing is capable of.
>>
The driver has been modified from factory specifications with a mechanical governor, designed to allow what would otherwise be a relatively cheap and under-powered unit operate at the torques required to work with void-grade fasteners. This is reflected in the physical gauge on the driver, which has had all of its original numeric values marked over with pictographic depictions of the new, higher-torque values. The issue here is that because of the inverse relationship between torque and speed, the impact driver is going to operate noticeably slower than it would without the governor. And while the high torque is going to be great for pinching that damned drone, you are now worried that you might not be able to close the door fast enough to catch it in the first place.

You had originally intended to use the driver with the highest torque setting, but as you experiment - first by running the driver with the socket on it, then using it with the remains of the crank to close the pocket door tight - you become less and less sure this is route you want to take. You could operate the driver on a lower setting, and while that is certainly faster, its is not particularly peppy. As insane as it sounds, if you might actually be better off closing the door with the ratchet and crank-style cheater - though if you were to do that, then you would be worrying about producing enough torque instead of getting the door closing quick enough. Considering the circumstances, you could probably make a case for removing the governor and going ahead like you originally planned - but that is going to cost you time, which burns air and battery. And it is assuming that nothing goes wrong while you are doing it.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Use the highest torque setting on the impact driver as it is to trap the drone.
> Use the highest speed setting on the impact driver as it is to trap the drone.
> Use the ratchet and the crank-style cheater on the door to trap the drone.
> Use the highest torque setting on the impact driver after pulling the governor to trap the drone.
>>
>>5472913
> Use the ratchet and the crank-style cheater on the door to trap the drone.
I think speed take priority over torque.
>>
>>5472913
>> Use the ratchet and the crank-style cheater on the door to trap the drone.
>>
> Please, can I have three rolls of 1d20? The first is for the spearing, the second is for the snaring and the third is for any incidental stuff.
>>
Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>5473531
Oh boy
>>
Rolled 5 (1d20)

>>5473531
OOF
>>
>>5473546
> Rolled 4 (1d20)

Oh boy indeed. Well, at least there were some precautions in place, so this isn't going to be anywhere as bad as it could have been otherwise. And if the other rolls are good, that would be taken into consideration as well.
>>
>>5473581
I think we’re doomed to suck. What is the current DC, if you don’t mind me asking?
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>>5473580
> Rolled 5 (1d20)

Hmm. Well, a lousy roll on the snare simply means that it didn't work. Though had it been any worse, the pocket door might have been broken - or the drone might have managed to get inside the room. You are going to be able to bounce back from this - and if the last incidental is a 19 or a 20, and the boon is good enough, I'd be willing to let you 'trade' it in to instantly capture the drone.
>>
>>5473584
>if the last incidental is a 19 or a 20, and the boon is good enough, I'd be willing to let you 'trade' it in to instantly capture the drone
Oh you sweet summer child. I wish I had your optimism.
>>
>>5473583
For the spearing roll, it is 14 to get a solid thrust into the bale. An 18 and a 19 would knock a leg out of alignment just enough to throw the drone's locomotion off, making capturing it easier, and a twenty would knock an important connector clean out of its socket, shutting the drone down without any damage.

For the snaring roll, without the spear in place to control the drone, you need 18 or higher to capture it with the pocket door alone. If you get the spear into it, then that drops the DC down to 12.

The incidental roll works as it has previously, only effecting anything on 1, 2, 19 and 20.
>>
>>5473592
This stuff can happen. The very first fight of The Graverobber's Daughter, we got a natural 100! You just need to believe, anon.

And we also still need that last roll of 1d20.
>>
Rolled 13 (1d20)

>>5473601
I rolled that btw. Can’t believe our first crit reward was more pig meat ffs.
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>>5473601
You mind pulling the Chernobyl-System back for this fight? Like, fast rolls and quick decisions, and then write it all out after the fight is concluded? I feel like speeding this fight up, and it wouldn’t be as long to write up as the Refinery Theft, promise.
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>>5473615
I think that might be a good idea, as far as the get the rolling and incidental votes out of the way, then get the big write-up up. And as for the critical reward I was really put on the spot. What else could you have gotten out of a sow? I will admit that it was fairly underwhelming.

Okay, we are going to keep running this encounter until we snag the drone, or die trying. Before we start the next set, I need someone to roll 1d4. If it comes up as 1, then that means we lose 1 % of our suit integrity - which in turn means we need to start rolling 1d100 for every significant action to see if anything on the suit breaks or not.

> Please, can someone roll a 1d4?
>>
Rolled 4 (1d4)

>>5473638
Oh fun

A lucky talent? Honestly, I probably would’ve settled for a nifty idea desu. Something like that one vote where you had two options on how to deal with the corpse and the third option meant doing nothing but gaining a nifty magic trick idea. That little detail I honestly thought was pretty cool.
>>
>>5473646
>roll high on a d4

I think the dice gods are having a laugh at me
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>>5473646
Yeah, that would have been better. I'll put that in my notes. Anyway, the roll means that the suit did not take any damage from the low roll, and that basically, you are back where you started.

Now we need those three rolls again. 1d20, 1d20 and another 1d20.
>>
Rolled 9 (1d20)

>>5473685
Dice Gods, I PRAISE THY!
>>
Rolled 16 (1d20)

>>5473685
not great, not terrible
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Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>5473685
Yolo
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Okay, you just missed the cut off for risking suit integrity.

Can I get another set of three d20's?
>>
Rolled 19 (1d20)

Watch and learn anons, watch and learn
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>>5473838
Oh dear, thankfully I had just finished reading the quest so i could roll with my blessed luck.
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Rolled 1 (1d20)

>>5473836
The year is 2265. We're still not done rolling dice.
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Rolled 5 (1d20)

>>5473836
>>
>>5473841
DELETE YOUR POST HURRY
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>The excertion and string emotions causes us a fit of arrhythmia. If we survive this, we get fits here and there.
Hey there is medication for it tho...
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>>5473838
Great! The drone is well and truly speared.
>>5473841
Not so great, the pocket door has been breached. You might be able to crank it shut, but that would mean getting over to the ratchet, and right now your attention is taken up by the drone on the other end of the spear.

We still need 1d20 - if that roll is 19 or 20, Id call it enough to auto-resolve this, concidering the solid showing with the skewering.
>>
Rolled 2 (1d20)

>>5473858
Oh shit, here we go again…
>>
>>5473863
The dice gods clearly love torturing me
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Okay, now we need a 1d100. Don't worry, whatever you get is doubled.
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Rolled 71 (1d100)

>>5473965
I’m sorry in advance lads
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>>5473974
Okay, that works out to be well above 100, so it is going to be on par with the last negative incidental event. Some lost cutting gas or flux.

Now, would you rather try to get the pocket opening and closing again (while still holding off the drone) or would you like to get the thing jammed one of the slits that you have cut into the stripped down room? The door is the least likely to damage the drone, assuming it can be worked again, while the holes dont require an extra roll, but come at the risk of breaking the drone or getting cornered yourself. The smaller hole is more likely to damage and snare the drone than the larger hole that you cut the strut from, but it is harder to get out of if something goes wrong.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Pocket door
> Big hole
> Small hole
>>
>>5473989
>> Small hole
At this point I want to cut our losses...
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>>5473989
>> Small hole
>>
>>5473989
> Pocket door
After all this time and effort wasted wrangling this damn thing, if it gets damaged near the end I’ll have a bloody aneurysm.
>>
In the hopes that I am going to get this encounter wrapped up before I go to bed, I'm going to call this one here, and ask for the next set of rolls.

The first is for the snare (DC 14 for capture with some additional damage to the struts, DC 17 for capturing with only cosmetic damage, DC 20 for capturing with bonus positive incidental roll). The second roll is for the incidentals as usual. Good luck!

> Please, may I have two rolls of 1d20?
>>
Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>5474336
God I hope for a nat 20
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>>5474340
I would’ve stop rolling at this point if I knew I wasn’t the only one here with ya Trash. I’m sorry my rolls just suck balls right now.
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Rolled 7 (1d20)

>>5474336
In the hope of helping you wrap this encounter up before bed, I submit my subpar roll to you Trash. I apologize in advance for the quality.
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Alright, well I suppose it is what it is. The drone is still on the spear, but another low roll like that and it might un-stick itself.

> Please may I have two rolls of 1d20 again?
>>
Rolled 9 (1d20)

>>5474358
Oh god I’m sorry in advance anons
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>>5474361
The dice gods hate me, and I agree with the sentiment
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Rolled 11 (1d20)

>>5474358
>>
Well, the drone is still on the spear, but it is still trying to flatten and shred you. I am going to need some more rolls.

> Please may I have two rolls of 1d20 again?
>>
Rolled 2 (1d20)

>>5474381
>>
Rolled 18 (1d20)

>>5474381
God I hate our rolls
>>
Jesus, this encounter has turned into a real shit-show. Okay, here is the new choice: accept the loss of the spear, and retreat from the stripped down room, or attempt to maintain control of the spear, and roll a 1d2 to determine if you lose suit integrity or not.

A reminder, the way that suit integrity works is that for every point lost, you add one to get the DC of a an integrity roll. If you lost only one point, then you would have a DC of 2 on a roll of 100. If you were to get a 1, then you would roll another die. Depending on how that roll went, it would decide what on your suit broke and how bad.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Risk the integrity of your suit to get the spear back under your control.
> Take the opportunity to disengage (does not necessarily mean giving up on capturing the drone)
>>
>>5474428
> Take the opportunity to disengage (does not necessarily mean giving up on capturing the drone)
Suit integrity is more important.

I’ll be real with you anons, I think we already encounter the killer (figuratively) of our current wreck run. I don’t think we’re coming back fiscally from this shift.
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>>5474428
>> Take the opportunity to disengage (does not necessarily mean giving up on capturing the drone)
>>
>>5474428
>Take the opportunity to disengage
I don't even know what's going on any more
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>>5474472
It’s simple, we keep jobbing.
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>>5474428
> Risk the integrity of your suit to get the spear back under your control.

way I see it the spear remains our best option
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>>5474428
>> Risk the integrity of your suit to get the spear back under your control.
I don't think it's going to be easy to get away from this thing if we stop here, so I think we're risking an integrity loss either way.
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>>5474503
Yea, but a 1 in 2 chance is too much risk, it’s effectively a cointoss in integrity loss.
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>>5474428
Integrity loss is yet another resource to spend!!! And considering this whole scuffle I wouldn't me surprised if our Air is... yeah
> Risk the integrity of your suit to get the spear back under your control.
>>
>>5474763
Oh nyoooo my tripcode I am a jerk!!
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>>5474763
That’s why I’m calling this run a loss, we’re gonna struggle to get enough conduit going to make the rest of the haul profitable, and that’s if we bag the drone and it doesn’t eventually kill us.
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> Take the opportunity to disengage (does not necessarily mean giving up on capturing the drone)

i don't want us to continue doing this needlessly, but i won't either let this quest die in it's infancy

aka fuck it, we ball.

(also i think one of the problems story wise we've had as of yet is having this journey take either way too long to get to the big payout, decision wise, not of what's happened, while having the bounty for the cable we've gotten been way too little compared to what we need to get any form of money, and while im not saying some anons haven't been risking it too much either i think there definitely haven't been enough open choices to 'just go safe and dig out some more cable' since the last area we did it in as i mentioned didn't actually give us enough that it both felt and was worth our time and resources)
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>>5474972
Okay, with this vote, beating a retreat wins out. I'll get to writing.

As for your point about the availibilty of conduit, there were and are areas that would have paid out at a higher rate than the spots we were working with, both inside and outside of the cargo bay. I didnt want to railroad players towards them, but perhaps I was not explict enough in hinting towards them. I'll keep your feedback in mind for the future though.
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>>5474991
No, you were explicit about them.

> There is an engine cluster straight ahead. Stands to reason that there would be conduits and electronics nearby.
> There is a spot on the wings that looks like an empty weapons mount. Surely, there would have to be some conduits and electronics left behind.
> There looks like there is not one, but two communication relays. If the rest of the ship is as overbuilt as that, then you might have stumbled onto one Hell of a payout, even accounting for damages from the worms.

Anons chose Cargo Hold twice because they’re hardwired into loot box options. We chose this current path because it there was a glut of potentially clean conduit there, right?
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>>5475173
Yes. Right on the money.

I'm going to hold off on putting up the next story vote until I finish writing this encounter. Until then, I think it might be a good idea to give a bit of character backstory, and provide an opportunity to vote on a physical condition that provides situational benefits and handicaps.

Enoch Smithwick is space-born and bred. While current practices prevent the worst ravages of space-living, for generations they wreaked havoc on vulnerable populations of migrant workers. These effects can still be seen in their descendants. After his parents and then his grandfather died, he was indentured aboard the Pinnacle as as cabin boy, underneath an abusive master. Then he was captured by pirates on the Salacious Scheme. Under the pain of death, him and the other survivors were impressed into the 'provisional' crew of the Scheme - which turned out to be a improvement for Enoch. After some time, he was taken under the wing of Jibbs, the Quartermaster and Gunnery Officer of the Scheme. On Jibbs' recommendation, he was inducted as a full crew member. Less than a year after that, the Scheme was taken by the Port Authority and the surviving crew was sent to the Commissioner. Determined to work his way out of peonage and eventually to freedom, he approached Boss Barone, an ombudsman - the highest echelon of trustee - and negotiated an arrangement where Barone would get him into the coveted EVA certification track.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> tfw space-manlet: It might seem almost counter-intuitive, but the space-bred actually tend to have smaller or stockier builds than their planet-bred counterparts. In the absence of artificial gravity, being born in space selects against height, as the tall become unhealthily tall. Enoch's precedents were effected by these pressures . He is short - around 5' 6" - and slender. He is only seventeen, so he should grow taller - but not much. He can fit into more space suits than most, ensuring that when assigned the typical 'motley' (cobbled together older suits) his will be in better condition. Of course, being so slight and short means that he has a harder time intimidating or impressing.
> Intimidating Aspect: Enoch has Type 1 Orofaciodigital Syndrome. His is an benign case, as his kidneys, fingers and face are all typical, save for some slight skull bossing, giving him a prominent brow. His mouth though, while functionally normal, is atypical - he has a split tongue and severe Hyperdontia. This gives his smiles an unsettling and predatory aspect. Even at a young age, he understood how to impress or intimidate with a grin. However, this is a very superstitious time. If it was to become common knowledge that his tongue was forked, and he hadn't cultivated a reputation of reliability or trustworthiness, then at the very least, people would be more inclined to disbelieve what he had to say. The more superstitious might shun him entirely.
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>>5475292
> tfw space-manlet: It might seem almost counter-intuitive, but the space-bred actually tend to have smaller or stockier builds than their planet-bred counterparts. In the absence of artificial gravity, being born in space selects against height, as the tall become unhealthily tall. Enoch's precedents were effected by these pressures . He is short - around 5' 6" - and slender. He is only seventeen, so he should grow taller - but not much. He can fit into more space suits than most, ensuring that when assigned the typical 'motley' (cobbled together older suits) his will be in better condition. Of course, being so slight and short means that he has a harder time intimidating or impressing.

When will we learn?
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>>5475292
> Intimidating Aspect: Enoch has Type 1 Orofaciodigital Syndrome
I prefer intimidation over manlet desu.
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>>5475292
If no one is willing to break the tie, I’m willing to change my vote >>5475329 to support >>5475301. As much as I’d love to play as a Demon Pirate King, I’ve seen pictures of those extra teeth, and they honestly freak me out a bit. Plus, maybe we can pull a Napoleon.
>>
>>5475292
>> tfw space-manlet: It might seem almost counter-intuitive, but the space-bred actually tend to have smaller or stockier builds than their planet-bred counterparts. In the absence of artificial gravity, being born in space selects against height, as the tall become unhealthily tall. Enoch's precedents were effected by these pressures . He is short - around 5' 6" - and slender. He is only seventeen, so he should grow taller - but not much. He can fit into more space suits than most, ensuring that when assigned the typical 'motley' (cobbled together older suits) his will be in better condition. Of course, being so slight and short means that he has a harder time intimidating or impressing.
>>
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Okay, that settles it for space-manlet. Still working on the update, so here is another backstory vote in a similar vein - this time about becoming a full crew member of the Salacious Scheme.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Bound by Ink: When the Salacious Scheme advances a 'provisional' crew member into a full crew member, they are given a distinctive and showy ink-job - a sleeve that extends from the tips of their left fingers all the way right up to under their jaw. It is an identifying mark, to say the least, and even those who cannot tell that it is pirate ink are likely to be impressed by the artistry. Prisoners, criminals and ne'er-do-wells will be all the more impressed when they realize or are made away of its provenance. Pirates will at least consider you a fellow freebooter on sight, though the attitude that they take to you would be colored by if they had heard of the Scheme or not - and if they had, what their opinion of the Scheme was. However, if guards, peacekeepers or civilians recognize your ink-job as a crewmark for a pirate ship, they are going to be much more mistrusting and cautious with you, at the very least. And aboard the Commissioner, the jumpsuit that the peons wear leaves your neck exposed, so you are effectively marked to all of the guards as a prisoner who warrants special attention.
> Bound by Blood: When the Salacious Scheme advances a 'provisional' crew member into a full crew member, they are required to prove themselves by killing someone, typically another 'provisional' crew member or prisoner. If none are available, then someone random, snatched off of the concourse of some black or gray port takes their place. When you were made full, you killed another 'provisional' crew member, who had been taken off of another ship before the Scheme had taken the Pinnacle. You have an easier time intimidating people who know you were on the rolls of a ship that bound its crew by blood - and this association also makes it easier to impress prisoners, criminals, pirates and harder edge ne'er-do-wells. However, unknown to you at the time the 'provisional' crewman that you killed was in a vaguely consentual relationship with another full crew member of the Scheme, and he took to holding his lover's murder against you - instead of holding it against the captain, who had actually chosen his lover for your initiation. While on the Scheme, this enmity didn't really amount to much more than angry stares, as you were under Jibbs wing - and his protection. But Jibbs did not survive the taking of the Scheme, and the crewman in question did. Right now, he is somewhere on the Commissioner, and if he was ever to find you at a disadvantage, or come into any sort of power himself, then you have to imagine that he would try to even up with you.
>>
>>5476357
> Bound by Ink: When the Salacious Scheme advances a 'provisional' crew member into a full crew member, they are given a distinctive and showy ink-job - a sleeve that extends from the tips of their left fingers all the way right up to under their jaw. It is an identifying mark, to say the least, and even those who cannot tell that it is pirate ink are likely to be impressed by the artistry. Prisoners, criminals and ne'er-do-wells will be all the more impressed when they realize or are made away of its provenance. Pirates will at least consider you a fellow freebooter on sight, though the attitude that they take to you would be colored by if they had heard of the Scheme or not - and if they had, what their opinion of the Scheme was. However, if guards, peacekeepers or civilians recognize your ink-job as a crewmark for a pirate ship, they are going to be much more mistrusting and cautious with you, at the very least. And aboard the Commissioner, the jumpsuit that the peons wear leaves your neck exposed, so you are effectively marked to all of the guards as a prisoner who warrants special attention.

I'm thinking a nautical themed tattoo with a ship on a stormy sea being assaulted by a bigass squid.
>>
>>5476357
> Bound by Ink: When the Salacious Scheme advances a 'provisional' crew member into a full crew member, they are given a distinctive and showy ink-job - a sleeve that extends from the tips of their left fingers all the way right up to under their jaw. It is an identifying mark, to say the least, and even those who cannot tell that it is pirate ink are likely to be impressed by the artistry. Prisoners, criminals and ne'er-do-wells will be all the more impressed when they realize or are made away of its provenance. Pirates will at least consider you a fellow freebooter on sight, though the attitude that they take to you would be colored by if they had heard of the Scheme or not - and if they had, what their opinion of the Scheme was. However, if guards, peacekeepers or civilians recognize your ink-job as a crewmark for a pirate ship, they are going to be much more mistrusting and cautious with you, at the very least. And aboard the Commissioner, the jumpsuit that the peons wear leaves your neck exposed, so you are effectively marked to all of the guards as a prisoner who warrants special attention.

yarrrr
>>
>>5476357
>> Bound by Blood: When the Salacious Scheme advances a 'provisional' crew member into a full crew member, they are required to prove themselves by killing someone, typically another 'provisional' crew member or prisoner. If none are available, then someone random, snatched off of the concourse of some black or gray port takes their place. When you were made full, you killed another 'provisional' crew member, who had been taken off of another ship before the Scheme had taken the Pinnacle. You have an easier time intimidating people who know you were on the rolls of a ship that bound its crew by blood - and this association also makes it easier to impress prisoners, criminals, pirates and harder edge ne'er-do-wells. However, unknown to you at the time the 'provisional' crewman that you killed was in a vaguely consentual relationship with another full crew member of the Scheme, and he took to holding his lover's murder against you - instead of holding it against the captain, who had actually chosen his lover for your initiation. While on the Scheme, this enmity didn't really amount to much more than angry stares, as you were under Jibbs wing - and his protection. But Jibbs did not survive the taking of the Scheme, and the crewman in question did. Right now, he is somewhere on the Commissioner, and if he was ever to find you at a disadvantage, or come into any sort of power himself, then you have to imagine that he would try to even up with you.
>>
>>5476357
>> Bound by Blood:
This means we are HARD
>>
>>5476357
>bound by blood
>>
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Making good progress on the drone fight update. I should have it finished it up sometime later today. Until then, here is one last backstory vote (for now).

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Pinchin' and Pickin': Enoch didn't just learn the basic principles of gunnery, and how to operate a wide array of crewed weapons from Jibbs, he also was taught the basics of pickpocketing and how to overcome simple mechanical locks with basic, improvised tools. Enoch also learned a little about programmable locks as well, but before he could develop any real proficiency with them, the Scheme was been taken by the Purging Lancet and his education ended prematurely.
> Shootin' and Stabbin' : Enoch didn't just learn the basic principles of gunnery, and how to operate a wide array of crewed weapons from Jibbs, he also was taught the manual of arms - ranged and hand to hand fighting, though with a specific focus on the close-in fighting of boarding actions. Jibbs had actually gotten his hands on a cracker-shield, and was going to teach Enoch how to carry himself in a fight with in it, but before those lessons could begin, the Scheme was taken by the Purging Lancet, and his education ended prematurely.
> Steerin' and Strafin': Enoch didn't just learn the basic principles of gunnery, and how to operate a wide array of crewed weapons from Jibbs, he also learned how to pilot craft - small and large. While most of his education in this field focused on keeping away from danger, Jibbs had started to discuss the basics of dog-fighting as well as frigate vs frigate and frigate vs freighter combat, though the Scheme was taken by the Purging Lancet before Enoch could get any real practical education.
> Stitchin' and Stickin' : Enoch didn't just learn the basic principles of gunnery, and how to operate a wide array of crewed weapons from Jibbs, he also picked up quite a bit of basic medical knowledge, as Jibbs and all of the officers aboard the Scheme were trained as medics. Enoch learned how to perform first aid and battlefield medicine, as well as how to install simple implants and augmentations - and how to remove them, whether their owner wanted you to take them or not (or in some cases, whether they were alive or not).
> Gunnin' and Leadin': Jibbs didn't just consider some Enoch some apprentice, he was seriously grooming him to be his successor. In the time that he was full crew member, Enoch learned more than just advanced principles of gunnery, and how to operate, maintain and improve a dizzying array of crewed weapons, he was also taught how to lead and organize gunnery crews. Before the Scheme was taken by the Purging Lancet, Jibbs had started to teach about leading in a more general sense as well, though only the most basic of basics.
>>
>>5477739
> Gunnin' and Leadin': Jibbs didn't just consider some Enoch some apprentice, he was seriously grooming him to be his successor. In the time that he was full crew member, Enoch learned more than just advanced principles of gunnery, and how to operate, maintain and improve a dizzying array of crewed weapons, he was also taught how to lead and organize gunnery crews. Before the Scheme was taken by the Purging Lancet, Jibbs had started to teach about leading in a more general sense as well, though only the most basic of basics.
Shootin' and Stabbin' is pretty tempting but I'll vote for this.
>>
>>5477739
> Steerin' and Strafin': Enoch didn't just learn the basic principles of gunnery, and how to operate a wide array of crewed weapons from Jibbs, he also learned how to pilot craft - small and large. While most of his education in this field focused on keeping away from danger, Jibbs had started to discuss the basics of dog-fighting as well as frigate vs frigate and frigate vs freighter combat, though the Scheme was taken by the Purging Lancet before Enoch could get any real practical education.

this is more of a long-term investment, will become really handy if we ever escape.
>>
>>5477739
> Stitchin' and Stickin' : Enoch didn't just learn the basic principles of gunnery, and how to operate a wide array of crewed weapons from Jibbs, he also picked up quite a bit of basic medical knowledge, as Jibbs and all of the officers aboard the Scheme were trained as medics. Enoch learned how to perform first aid and battlefield medicine, as well as how to install simple implants and augmentations - and how to remove them, whether their owner wanted you to take them or not (or in some cases, whether they were alive or not).

Make an asset of yourself and you'll always be able to scrape by at least.
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>>5477739
> Gunnin' and Leadin': Jibbs didn't just consider some Enoch some apprentice, he was seriously grooming him to be his successor. In the time that he was full crew member, Enoch learned more than just advanced principles of gunnery, and how to operate, maintain and improve a dizzying array of crewed weapons, he was also taught how to lead and organize gunnery crews. Before the Scheme was taken by the Purging Lancet, Jibbs had started to teach about leading in a more general sense as well, though only the most basic of basics.
Napoleon was also an artillery officer.
>>
>>5477739
>Voting for Steerin' and Strafin'
I bet we will get SICK bonus on using our thrusters, if you know what I mean
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Before you completely lose yourself to indecision, you take a deep breath and marshal your thoughts together. Speed is going to decide this, at least, more than strength. If you can’t get the damned thing closed on the drone, then it doesn’t matter how much force you have behind it, does it? More than that, you might be able to get somewhere without even completely immobilizing the drone. If the drone detects the pocket door being closed as it is passing through it, it might be enough to trigger a stop of shuffling – which would at least be a real step in the right direction. Ready as you are ever going to be, you crank the pocket door as far as it will go – almost all of the way open.

The drone holds position, softly gyrating.

It seems like you are between a rock and a hard place right now. You are probably going to need to get at least a little out into the hallway to draw the drone in, but at the same time, you are going to need to be within the room, standing at the crank to get the door closed. Really, for this to work, you basically need to be in two places at once. It is almost enough to make you wish that you had someone else with you – not that fucking chiseler Horne, of course, but someone you could depend on. Unfortunately, there really isn’t anyone. There are very few people on the Commissioner that inspire that kind of confidence, and it just so happens that none of them have an EVA cert. That you know of. And admittedly, you don’t know the rest of the wreckers very well. Perhaps that has been a mistake.

Staring at the pocket door, illuminated in the harsh lights of your suit and the harsher light of the drone’s eye, you cannot help but grimace at that thought. But you force it aside. If it is, if it isn’t – either way, you cannot do anything about it now. For good or for ill, you have to see this and probably the rest of this shift through on your own. Suddenly struck by the overwhelming urge to get this over with, you position yourself as best you can inside the room, then you set your improvised lance.

"Start of Line. Range of address, four cubits. Target of address, drone. Purpose of address, locomotion full stop and power down. Time of address, effective immediately and effective immediately. End of Line."

As soon as the drone seizes up again, you open the throttle for your boosters and punt yourself towards the drone.

But you haven’t even gotten all of the spear into the hallway – let alone yourself – when the drone snaps back into action. From stillness to full-bodied quaking, with a tempo and force that look to be enough to tear any biological body apart. Whatever confidence you had evaporates, and almost without conscious thought you decide to abort your attack. As the drone careens towards you, you pull the throttle of your suit’s boosters open again, this time in reverse, desperately trying to backburn your momentum away.
>>
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While you may rue the expenditure of booster fuel later, right now it does manage to keep you out of the reach of the drone.
Still, just as you are struggling to keep your spear pointed at the drone, it is similarly struggling to keep its legs pointed at you. And though at their current extension, your spear is longer than its legs, you only have the one. As all of this is happening, it occurs to you that if the drone was programmed to fight interloping humans as opposed to conduit worms, then it would be closing the gap between you by extending its legs, and no doubt getting the better of you. Not a pleasant thought.

Your desperate flight has managed to keep you out of the reach of the drone, but as you rapidly accelerate backwards towards the door, you are suddenly struck with the sense that you have gotten off target – that your current trajectory is not going to carry you back into the room, but rather straight into the wall. At the last second, you attempt a correction – turning in just a little as you bodily slam into the wall. In spite of all of the protection that the new-model suit offers you, the impact is enough to take your breath away.

But not all is lost. On account of that last correction, you ended up spinning into the room, as opposed to down the hallway. And as you had secured your spear to your suit, you have remained in possession of it. Even as your head spins and your lungs burn, you desperately grope around with your gloves and your boots, trying to anchor yourself. After a few tries, you manage to make contact with the deck floor, and you jerk to a halt. The remains of your momentum nearly sends you to the floor, but you are able to keep your feet by using your boosters. Under other circumstances, doing so would be rather wasteful, but right now you have a lot more to worry about than being thrifty with your consumables. Scared to even look, you get your head up and pointed towards the pocket door.
The drone holds a new position – in the center of the hallway, outside the door.

Though way the drone looms there, once again softly shuffling itself, now with several of its forward-facing legs completely retracted into the bale is, well … rather intimidating, the fact remains that with the drone in this position, you should have an easier time trapping it. Once you are satisfied that the drone is not going to punt itself right into the room as soon as you advert your eyes, you take a moment to check your suit over. You took a really hard hit back then – and while this suit is much more durable than the motley that you are usually assigned, you have to do your due diligence here. When the diagnostics come up clean, you allow yourself a quick sigh of relief – then you turn your attention once more to the spearing and snaring of this drone.
>>
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Not wanting to tempt an attack before you are ready, you make a very deliberate decision to approach the pocket door from along the wall, in the hopes of staying out of the drone’s sight and so precluding yourself against an attack. By doing this, you are able to get right up to the mechanism without any issues – until you try to get your spear into a thrusting position. Perhaps it is because the spear is long and thin, like a worm. Perhaps you were moving more than you thought you were. Hell, for all you know, the drone could have been baiting you, deliberately not moving or responding when it could in a bid to get you to expose yourself.

Now, obviously, that cannot be case here. Setting aside how difficult it is to program effective and reliable deceptive behavior – this drone is designed to target fucking conduit worms. It doesn’t need to deceive anything or anyone to do its job. No, what happened here is that you were a clumsy fucking idiot.

As the drone starts shaking violently again and shifting from the center of the hallway towards the door you have a split second to decide whether to bail on your position, to attempt to bring your spear to bear, or to forget the spear and just try to get it with the door. Suddenly feeling indecisive and unsure, you throw yourself into position, figuring that regardless to what is the right choice here, with no time to think about it you are best served by following your existing plan of action.

You seat the spear, anchor yourself in the doorway using your boots, then you use the booster on your suit to accelerate your thrust. As it was before, the blow is a glancing one, but the impact clearly changes the drone’s strategy. The forward-facing legs that were retracted into the bale pop out, and begin to extend forward as probes, while the rest of the legs do the best they can to keep the drone centered and stable as it continues to shudder and shake violently. Unanchoring yourself from the floor, you let go of your spear, relying on the securing wrap to keep it with you, and you throw yourself at the pocket mechanism. Steadying yourself against the wall with one hand, you crank the mechanism.

As soon as the door begins to move, the drone’s strategy changes again – and it stops shaking again immediately, no doubt trying to reduce the risk of getting snagged in what must appear to it to be an unstable environment. But the bale is still moving towards the door, with legs extending into the room. Equal parts encouraged and alarmed, you crank all the faster, and somehow manage to get the door closed on a few of the probing legs.

Yet it is not enough. As soon as the door makes contact with the legs, they stopped extending and rapidly began to retract. And when you got the door nearly closed on the tips of the legs, the drone managed to wrench them out, even with you pulling on the cheater with all the strength that you can muster.
>>
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It is discouraging – but you are fairly certain that if you are able to get the pocket door closed on more of the drone, you should be able to induce the damned thing into seizing up, which with any luck should allow you to get your hands on it. As the drone retreats away from the door back to the center of the hallway, you scrabble around for your spear, before remembering that it is still tied to your suit. Concerned about prematurely provoking the drone, you keep the spear close to the ground. But as you contemplate on whether or not you should risk creeping forward or not, it occurs to you that you might have better luck if you used brief window of opportunity that you get from feeding the drone the lines in Primitive to get the spear into position, and then try to get the drone to slam into the tip, instead of the other way around. At the very least, it has to be worth a shot, right?

"Start of Line. Range of address, four cubits. Target of address, drone. Purpose of address, locomotion full stop and power down. Time of address, effective immediately and effective immediately. End of Line."

As soon as the drone stops shuffling, you squat down, and angle the spear up, so that it is pointing towards the ‘fleshy’ part of the bottom of the bale. You are just eyeballing it through the darkening tint of your auto-visor and the stark light of the drone’s lamp, but you think that you got the spear tip just outside of the doorway. Recalling the wrapper that you threw, you make small, circular movements with the tip, hoping to bait the drone into an attack. Moments later, the drone snaps back into action and hurtles itself onto the point, adjusting its position incrementally as it accelerates. You stay stock still as the distance closes – waiting for the drone to hit the tip. And as soon as you feel the drone on the other end of the spear, you throw all of the force that you can muster into one monstrous thrust, again using the boosters on your suit to ram yourself forward while your boots remain magnetically anchored to the ground.

The result is beautiful. Short of somehow knocking the drone out, you don’t imagine that it could have gone better. You feel – and see! – the razor wire parting, the bale giving way. Moving quickly, you press the spear to the right and then further up, with all of your might, hoping to get it securely stuck in there. As you do, you feel something give way, and you notice that one of the legs is now out of alignment. While all of this is happening, the drone is getting more and more desperate. Instead of slowing down and stopping, it is getting more and more violent, no doubt trying to destroy the interloper in its body.

You hold yourself steady for a moment, partially to catch your breath and organize your thoughts, and partially to make sure that the drone is not going to be able to pull itself off of the spear.
>>
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Once you have recovered and satisfied yourself, you begin the process of pulling the drone into the door frame. To that end, you address the drone once more over your radio in Primitive.

"Start of Line. Range of address, four cubits. Target of address, drone. Purpose of address, locomotion full stop and power down. Time of address, effective immediately and effective immediately. End of Line."

It seems however, that trick only works when the drone is not touching anything. You might have expected as much, but it was still worth trying. Still, with the drone on the other end of the spear, you are feeling pretty good about yourself – until you drag the drone into the open doorway. As soon as you have it where you want it, the drone changes its tactics again. It immediately stops all shuffling, instead it focuses exclusively on slamming itself back and forth in the doorway, doing everything it can to dislodge itself. Suddenly, you find yourself at an impasse. If you cut your boosters, and deactivate the magnets on your boots, then surely the drone is going to pull itself free from the spear and retreat back into the hallway. But you can’t reach the ratcheting crank from here.

As you watch, your stomach sinking into your boots, the pocket door begins to buckle under the onslaught, and finely shredded pieces of conduit worm – either loosened from where they were trapped in the bale or stirred up into the stripped down room – billow into the room. Alarmed, you disengage one of the boots, hoping that you are going to be able to walk yourself over to the crank, and fearing that doing so means that you are going to lose the drone.

The second the boot disengages, you are pushed back.

Jesus Christ. The drone isn’t attempting to get out – it is trying to get in. Teetering on the brink of panic, you do your best to keep walking towards the crank regardless, magnetizing and anchoring one boot at a time. But you are taking too long. By the time that you get halfway there, the drone has completely busted the door open and is pressing against you. Desperate, you decide to try to shift the thing towards the smaller hole you cut into this room instead, figuring that you might have better luck getting it stuck between two of the struts than you would getting it back in the doorway and the door closed again.

The drone is basically trying to rush you. Twice you try to shepherd the drone one step at a time – and you manage to make some progress, but the drone manages to flank you and before you know it, you are the one being walked into a corner. In a final bid to make some tangible progress, you deactivate the magnets on both of your boots, and you reengage all of your boosters, hoping to outmaneuver the drone – and for one moment, you manage to get the damned thing stopped.

But before you can do anything else, the spear slips – into the bale, and you and the drone start moving towards one another again.
>>
You are comfortable enough in a suit to start backburning before you have even fully registered what is happening, but even as you start to reverse yourself away, the drone pushes itself along the spear towards you. Unwilling to risk your suit unless it is absolutely necessary, you make the decision to slip the knot securing the spear to your belt, and accelerate blindly away from the drone. With the spear sticking through it and the articulation of one of its legs off, the drone is not as quick or as surefooted as it was – but it is pretty damned close still, and it follows hot on your heels as you dart around the room towards the breached pocket door. You take a good look at the ratchet and the crank-style cheater and the socket still on the remains of the sealing mechanism, then you pass them by, boosting and punting your way out of the room. Abandoning tools isn't going to make you any friends - but you aren't here to make friends, are you? Worse case scenario, you have the money to cover their loss - though you would rather not spend it on something so stupid.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Flee from the drone, and look for a spot where you might be able to corner or trap it.
> Flee from the drone, and look for a spot where you might be able to hide from it.
> Flee from the drone, and attempt to outrun on your way to the desalinator and second power plant.
> Flee from the drone down the stretch of smaller hallway where you assume it cannot follow, and find another way into the bulkhead with the desalinator and second power plant.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Keep the schematic where it is for now.
> Get the schematic's tube out an in your hand. Incurs a recuring one in thirty chance that you drop the tube, but reduces the time that it takes to get the schematic out later without seriously affecting the lead you have on the drone.
> Get the schematic out now. Reduces lead on the drone, and incurs a recuring one in thirty chance that you drop the tube, but you have access to the ‘map’ as you move, giving you a significant

> If you have not voted for >>5477739, then please do so. It will remain up until the tie is broken.
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>>5478680
> Flee from the drone, and look for a spot where you might be able to corner or trap it.
I’m not giving up on this shitty drone.

> Get the schematic out now. Reduces lead on the drone, and incurs a recuring one in thirty chance that you drop the tube, but you have access to the ‘map’ as you move, giving you a significant

Also, the reason why I chose Gunnin' and Leadin’ is because we advance weapons knowledge and maintenance, and the ability and knowledge to lead. We already have an anti-social MC with Chlot, I want to actually run a wrecking gang in this quest desu.
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>>5478680
> Flee from the drone, and look for a spot where you might be able to corner or trap it.

> Keep the schematic where it is for now.

This has become personal
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>>5477834
>>5477739

Changing my vote from Stitchin and Stickin to...
>Voting for Steerin' and Strafin'
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>>5478680
> Flee from the drone down the stretch of smaller hallway where you assume it cannot follow, and find another way into the bulkhead with the desalinator and second power plant.

>Keep the schematic where it is for now.
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>>5479210
Alright that closes that vote. I'm leaving the other two up for a bit longer.
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>>5479210
>anons again chose the boring anti-social option
*sigh*
>>
Rolled 11, 1 = 12 (2d20)

>>5479425
You don't need to worry, the vote wasn't for a mutually exclusive progression track, just a background. There will be plenty of opportunities for networking and leadership roles (and rolls).

On to more pertinent matters. You have to get some distance between you and the drone, then you have to figure out some new stratagem to get it snared, or at least locked up in a room for later. So, the mechanics for the pursuit: right now you have a lead of 12 points on the drone. You and the drone (who I roll for) both roll 2d20; one for the progression you make in the pursuit, the other for incidental occurrences. Due to the spear and the bum leg on the drone, its mobility is hampered to the point that it incurs a malus of - 4 on each of the progression rolls. As you are currently using your boosters, you have a bonus of + 6 to each of the progression rolls, so long as you are burning your boosters. If you manage to extend your lead to 36 or past points, the you have successfully escaped pursuit. If your lead drops to or below 0, then the drone has caught up to you, and it resumes attacking you. Incidental rolls during pursuit will only affect the pursuit.

In the distance ahead, there is an intersection of hallways. Behind you, the drone smashes through the already hopeless mangled remains of the pocket door - knocking what is left of the door itself out of the frame and into hallway as it scrabbles for purchase, stirring up more conduit worm dust.

> Don't worry about this part stretching on like the fight did. One way or another, I think we can be done with this drone tonight. Please, can I get one roll of 2d20?
>>
Rolled 89 (1d100)

>>5479467
Well, would you look at that - it seems that busting through the door again might not have been in the drone's best interest. If this roll is low enough, then it might have just disabled itself right out of the gate.
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>>5479468
As it was not stated, 1 2 19 and 20 are incidental rolls for the pursuit.

Figures. I'll say that the drone damages another leg, and that the malus goes from - 4 to - 5. With that, the drone makes + 6 progression. Which means that no matter what you roll on your progression roll, you will extend your lead - assuming that you don't get a negative incidental roll.
>>
Rolled 56, 15 = 71 (2d100)

>>5479467
>>
Rolled 13, 19 = 32 (2d20)

>>5479475
>drone damaged itself further
That’s our money damnit!

>>5479478
Sorry about that, habit.
>>
>>5479480
No problem. And the good news is that you got a 19 on the incidental, so you get to roll 1d100 to determine just how well Enoch makes out in this stretch of hallway. Do note that whatever result you get is halved though, just as it would be doubled if you had rolled a 2 instead of 1.
>>
Rolled 47 (1d100)

>>5479486
Fun
>>
Rolled 14, 13 = 27 (2d20)

>>5479495
Okay, that is enough to add + 4 progression. Enoch is now at 35 points (from 13 + 6 + 4 on top of 12) and the drone is at 6 points (from 11 - 5) If Enoch can extend his lead 7 more points, he is free and clear.

> Another 2d20 please!
>>
Rolled 16, 2 = 18 (2d20)

>>5479522
>>
Rolled 12, 12 = 24 (2d20)

>>5479522
Are we trying to trap it or just run away?
>>
Rolled 29 (1d100)

>>5479526
Lots of incidentals.
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>>5479529
Maybe just wait for the QM to call for a roll anon? We’re gonna have a blowout at this rate.
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>>5479526
>>5479529
Okay, so because that was a 2 it doubles from 29 to 58. The bonus from the booster drops from + 6 to + 2 for the next two rolls, then it goes to + 5 for the rest of the pursuit. In spite of this, you manage to extend your lead to 38, allowing you to lose the drone.

Now you are free to consult your 'map' - but first, a question. Are you looking to pen the drone in somewhere, like in a room so that you can deal with it later, or are you looking for somewhere you can pin it again, like the pocket doorway?

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Pin the drone
> Pen the drone
>>
>>5479536
>> Pin the drone
>>
>>5479536
> Pin the drone
>>
>>5479547
>>5479567
Alright - according to the schematic, there is another pocket door not too far off. Enoch will head there, get the thing opening and closing, then once he is ready, he will backtrack, find the drone and bait it over there.

> Can I get an incidental roll of 1d20, please?
>>
Rolled 17 (1d20)

>>5479692
>>
>>5479716
Okay, you are good to go. There are no issues, and Enoch is able to get the pocket door working again, more or less like the last time.

I'll get this all written up later, but lets finish this encounter. With the spear running through the drone and a leg battered out of alignment, the drone is going to be a lot easier to pinch here. DC 14, with a + 5 bonus on the first try becuase you are going be lying in wait for this thing ready to go, instead of dashing over to the crank while holding it off with the spear.

> Please can I get 2d20? First roll for the snare, second for the incidental?
>>
Rolled 10, 8 = 18 (2d20)

>>5479724
>>
>>5479727
Sorry about the delay there. With the + 5 bonus, that 10 is more than enough to get the drone well and truly snared. Congratulations anon! Now, what to do next?

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Carefully using your tools, attempt to probe the bale, trying to inspect and if possible, shut down the drone. Requires rolling 1d20, small chance of losing tools inside bale, or in worst case, loss of Suit Integrity.
> Using your tools - primarily your pry bars - remove one of the drone's eyes, then root around inside until you find something that you can disconnect. Requires rolling 1d2, fifty-fifty chance of destroying one of the drone's two eyes.
> Make sure that the drone is secured in the door, so it cannot come after you again, then continue on your way to the bulkhead with the desalinator and the second power plant. Does not require rolling. ( - 1 % Suit Charge, - 1 % Air)
>>
>>5479754
> Using your tools - primarily your pry bars - remove one of the drone's eyes, then root around inside until you find something that you can disconnect. Requires rolling 1d2, fifty-fifty chance of destroying one of the drone's two eyes.
>>
>>5479754
> Using your tools - primarily your pry bars - remove one of the drone's eyes, then root around inside until you find something that you can disconnect. Requires rolling 1d2, fifty-fifty chance of destroying one of the drone's two eyes.
>>
>>5479754
> Carefully using your tools, attempt to probe the bale, trying to inspect and if possible, shut down the drone. Requires rolling 1d20, small chance of losing tools inside bale, or in worst case, loss of Suit Integrity.
Can we please not damage our payday further? I’m willing to bet this drone is worth a hell of a lot more than some tools, not to mention a small chance of losing the tools compared to the coinflip of ruining this hard earned payday.
>>
Fair point, switching to
> Carefully using your tools, attempt to probe the bale, trying to inspect and if possible, shut down the drone. Requires rolling 1d20, small chance of losing tools inside bale, or in worst case, loss of Suit Integrity.
>>
>>5479754
> Carefully using your tools, attempt to probe the bale, trying to inspect and if possible, shut down the drone. Requires rolling 1d20, small chance of losing tools inside bale, or in worst case, loss of Suit Integrity.
>>
Alright, can I get that 1d20 then?
>>
>>5479754
> Carefully using your tools, attempt to probe the bale, trying to inspect and if possible, shut down the drone. Requires rolling 1d20, small chance of losing tools inside bale, or in worst case, loss of Suit Integrity.
>>
Rolled 15 (1d20)

>>5480144
>>
Okay, that is enough. You got into the internals, and you were able to get the unit deactivated. While I get to writing, here is the next vote: what do you do with this thing now?

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Leave it where it is accepting that the area is clear of conduit worms.
> Take the time to find some room or out of the way spot somewhere to hide it, on the off-chance that someone stumbles across it.
> Take it with you, in the hopes that it could be useful, and understanding that even if the unit is off conduit worms you encounter will be drawn to the batteries in the drone (the batteries are not sheilded, as the purpose of the drone is to attract worms).
>>
>>5480227
>> Take the time to find some room or out of the way spot somewhere to hide it, on the off-chance that someone stumbles across it.
>>
>>5480227
So I always thought one it's off we would be able to access some internal command console and program it to not attack us. That's not an option?
>>
>>5480354
Well, I suppose it makes sense that there could be a push-button allowing someone write-privileges. It would take some time though. Reissuing the vote:

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Leave it where it is accepting that the area is clear of conduit worms.
> Take the time to find some room or out of the way spot somewhere to hide it, on the off-chance that someone stumbles across it.
> Take the time to write-in constraints to the program - like a minimum distance from your radio. Note that while it will no longer attack you, it might not behave as you expect.
> Take it with you, in the hopes that it could be useful, and understanding that even if the unit is off conduit worms you encounter will be drawn to the batteries in the drone (the batteries are not shielded, as the purpose of the drone is to attract worms).
>>
>>5480634
I wouldn’t mind writing in an off switch, some basic commands, and a maximum distance, but it all depends on the time investment. The goal here is the conduit, and while having a drone help out with the worms would be nice, if it comes down to it I’m willing to risk going without if it means we can actually get the blasted conduit without running out of air/time first.
>>
>>5480634
We need to get out shift done and while I imagine putting in some basic control and safety stuff wouldn't take super long, it's an unfamiliar codebase that might not have version control, we can't look up any errors we run into, and estimates for coding times are always underestimates.
> Take the time to find some room or out of the way spot somewhere to hide it, on the off-chance that someone stumbles across it.
>>
>>5480672
+1
>>
I'm still working on the next update. In the meantime, here is another minor narrative vote, about his living situation in the Commissioner.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Enoch is on very good terms with his two current cellmates, Tinpenny and Allman. If Enoch was pressed, he might even go so far to say that Tinpenny is a friend - though he probably wouldn't use that word.
> Enoch has a old multi-tool (pic related) hidden in his cell. It can function as a shiv, but its ability to pull apart unprotected equipment is probably more useful. It is also extremely valuable, if you are looking to trade with anyone. Obviously though, it is contraband.
> Enoch does not have anything of import in his cell - but on his regular route to and from it, he has found a significant design flaw in the mechanism that closes and opens the cell doors of the entire block. If someone was to take advantage of this, it would prevent all cell doors operated by this system from being closed (or opened), which for obvious reasons is something that would interest the guards and overseers. If Enoch was to report this to them, he could expect a handsome reward and advancement ... or perhaps he could take advantage of it himself.
>>
>>5481662
>> Enoch does not have anything of import in his cell - but on his regular route to and from it, he has found a significant design flaw in the mechanism that closes and opens the cell doors of the entire block. If someone was to take advantage of this, it would prevent all cell doors operated by this system from being closed (or opened), which for obvious reasons is something that would interest the guards and overseers. If Enoch was to report this to them, he could expect a handsome reward and advancement ... or perhaps he could take advantage of it himself.
>>
>>5481662
> Enoch is on very good terms with his two current cellmates, Tinpenny and Allman. If Enoch was pressed, he might even go so far to say that Tinpenny is a friend - though he probably wouldn't use that word.

being friends with your cellmates is very valuable.
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>>5481662
> Enoch is on very good terms with his two current cellmates, Tinpenny and Allman. If Enoch was pressed, he might even go so far to say that Tinpenny is a friend - though he probably wouldn't use that word.

Trust is priceless.
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>>5481662
> Enoch has a old multi-tool (pic related) hidden
>no pic
I see what you did there. This is clearly a vote on what kind of mental illness we suffer from!

Jokes aside, I’m honestly torn between ‘friends’ and the flaw. On one hand, having lackeys protect our back would be nice. On the other, a reward and advancement, or potentially a mean to enable a mass mutiny? That would also be very nice.

I think I’ll let this one ride for a bit. What would the advancement mean, btw, and how much is handsome in reward terms?
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Would our cellmates have exo qualifications too?
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Still working on the update, so the vote is still open.

>>5481951
Advancement would mean becoming a Trustee, instead of a Peon. Better wages, more privileges, and addition consideration when you are eligible for sentencing (to be eligible for sentencing, a peon or trustee must have paid off the full cost of their capture and transport to their prison. For most peons, this isn't too difficult - but for pirates, this is a huge and often insurmountable hurtle. 'Full cost of capture and transport' means the entire cost of the Purging Lancet's expedition, including supplies, consumables, wages, repairs, even deprecation of the hull, equipment and weapons on the ship is divided equally among the pirates that she captured on that expedition. Lucky for Enoch, there were a lot of survivors taken off of the Scheme, and Lancet took other two other pirate ships on the expedition, meaning that Enoch could conceivably pay off his share in a somewhat reasonable timeframe if he had a decent job - like a wrecker - then get sentenced, and pay that off as well. And once you are sentenced, you have the advantage of paying with time as well as your earnings. Once everything is paid up, the Peon or Trustee is sent before the Release Board (there is a Parole board as well, but as a pirate, Enoch is not eligible for sentencing arbitrage - and that stuff often comes with some serious strings attached anyway) and then it is determined where and how the Peon or Trustee will be released. As a a pirate, Enoch will probably not be considered for release back into 'civilization', but there are many frontier settlements that are willing to take skilled workers. Some are desperate enough that they will even help Peons and Trustees pay off their sentence, though that is typically reserved for prisoners with exceptional skills, like doctors and mechanists).

>>5482003
I suppose I should clarify a point. You have cellmates regardless of your vote here. In both cases, none of them have EVA certs, but if you vote for being on good terms and get Tinpenny and Allman as your mates, you might be able to convince them to become wreckers like you - though it is not going to be easy. Besides the inherent dangers, and the time that it takes to take the classes - time that you are not earning money - they would also have work an arrangement out with Boss Barone as well, which they are reasonably leery of.

>>5481951
>I see what you did there. This is clearly a vote on what kind of mental illness we suffer from!
More like what mental illness I suffer from. I could have sworn I attached it.
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>>5482003
To me, the main advantage of being on good terms with our cellmates is that we don't have to worry about getting shanked or raped in our sleep.
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>>5482193
What was the original goal of the previous Space Wrecker quest, if you don’t mind me asking? You know, the one where anons decided it was a good idea to disarm a nuke personally?

Also, why did anons decide to risk it? It just seems like an insane proposition on the face of it.
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>>5482494
>What was the original goal of the previous Space Wrecker quest, if you don’t mind me asking? You know, the one where anons decided it was a good idea to disarm a nuke personally?
To delve into the Derelict and glean wealth from it - all the while defending your ships and crews from drones, pirates, claim-jumpers, organized criminals and shady government officials.
>Also, why did anons decide to risk it? It just seems like an insane proposition on the face of it.
I have unironically lost sleep over that. If I recall correctly, I put up the vote, then someone suggested it as a write-in as a way to provide an addition bonus to the rolls. I didn't know what to make to make of it, but I decided that having the Owner-Operator down there would be worth a small (very small) bonus, so I allowed it, making it very clear that if the rolls came up bad that it would be the end of the MC and the Quest. Then to my surprise, there were two votes for it, and no others for the rest of the day. Again, if I remember correctly, I let it sit about a day - and when there were no other votes forthcoming, I closed the vote ... and things went the way they went.
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>>5482597
>To delve into the Derelict and glean wealth from it - all the while defending your ships and crews from drones, pirates, claim-jumpers, organized criminals and shady government officials.
That sounds epic, I can’t believe anons thew it away for a tiny buff to disarmament.
>I didn't know what to make to make of it, but I decided that having the Owner-Operator down there would be worth a small (very small) bonus, so I allowed it, making it very clear that if the rolls came up bad that it would be the end of the MC and the Quest.
At least they got a clear warning. Back in Sun Belt Crusaders Quest, we were in diplomatic talks an overwhelming force, and the general vibe was to attempt to cut a deal to keep our now freed slaves from returning to their chains, and failing that, surrender them. But near the end some anons whipped themselves up saying that they’d rather attack this force if diplomatic talks fell though, not knowing how outmatched they were. The QM was surprised by the change in direction, but accepted the change, and then insta-wiped the entire faction in a single update. No rolls, no warning, just Game Over. We’re lucky the QM decided to continue ‘at our last save’, even with the sacrifice of the majority of our faction’s resources and a negative trait given to the character who made that final decision.

It’s a shame to see OG Space Wrecker Quest suffer the same fate desu.
>>5482193
Looking at the multi-tool, I probably would’ve chosen that, but given current votes it isn’t going to win. Tbh, that secret design flaw calls to me, I like how influential it makes us, either as a Trustee or a potential Gang/Mutineer leader.

At the same time, goodwill with cellmates is also nice to have.

If it becomes tied, break it with my vote for the security flaw. A straight up upgrade in rank and influence will only speed up our ticket outta here, whether off the ship or driving it.
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With the drone behind you - at least for the time being - you can now peer through the cloud of conduit worm dust and see further down the hallway then you could previously. Ahead of you, the hallway branches out in a three-way intersection. Immediately, you note that both of the halls, right and left, appear to be large enough for the drone to navigate through. Concerned now about the prospect of a chase, you seriously consider pulling the schematic out once more, to use as a map - but after a second of thought, you decide against it. The risk of losing the schematic as you fly through this hallway seems to be higher than the risk of the drone managing to successfully corner you - at least for now.

So the schematic stays where it is, safely stowed away. As you continue to accelerate, you risk a quick glance behind you, just in time to see the drone smash through the remains of the pocket door and scrabble around trying to pivot towards you. The drone's struggles stir up even more of the dust, obscuring its body and legs, but you can clearly see its eye blazing away. You reposition yourself facing forward and continue to accelerate – steadily putting more and more distance between you and the drone. As the intersection of the hallways looms nearer and nearer, the light from the drones’ eyes becomes hazier and hazier you plow through the clouds and debris.

You start your backburn with plenty of time to spare – and before you know it, you have swung around the corner and are slipping further into the hulk. You weave around two more corners and through similarly dusty halls as you finish it off, then you throttle off your boosters, and then you turn yourself as quickly as you can manage. There is no sign of the drone, but you still remain stock-still, waiting for the piercing light to return.

The half-minute that you stand there, waiting for the drone feels like a full eternity … but when the drone does not reappear, you allow yourself a quick sigh of relief. Then it is immediately back to business. You have made a clean break from the drone – but is that what you want? While the drone is valuable enough that it will surely pay something out even if you don’t end the shift with enough conduit tagged, there is a real argument to be made for cutting your losses, in spite of all of your time and effort.

On the other hand, you have put more than just time and effort into the drone – you have put a damned spear in it, and forcibly unaligned one of its legs. If you were willing to try it again, you would have to have an easier time of it. You are seriously considering trying again when you notice one of the doors in the hallway is another pocket door, just like the one in the room that you cut your way into. This one is open, however – and half out of curiosity, and half out of concern, you poke your head through to check the room. Like the one that you cut your way into, it is completely stripped down to the struts on the inside.
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Actually, excluding the dimensions of the room, the only difference that you can see is that the manual crank mechanism for the door is still all in one piece. You pull and punt yourself into the room and check it out. After giving it a good greasing and then kissing it with your wrecking torch, you are pleasantly surprised at how quickly and smoothly the door is able to operate. And that is enough to settle it. You are going to try again for the drone. You find a panel near one of the corners that is slightly wider than the others – just wide enough that you can comfortably squeeze through without risk to your suit – and you cut it out.

With the second – actually, arguably the third – snare prepared for the drone, you retrace your path and find the drone more or less where you lost sight of it, back in the first of the larger, dusty hallways. Considering how aggressive it is, baiting it is not difficult at all, though you notice that it seems slower in the hallways than it did in the closer confines of the stripped-down room. All well and good. Well … maybe not all well and good. While you understand that without any way to slave the drone, you are going to have to accept capture methods that get a little rough, in the back of your head, you do have some concerns about you ending up destroying the unit with your snare.

But for now, you have to leave that concern in the back of your head. Your first attempt with this snare is almost certainly going to be your best bet at taking the damned thing. On what you can only hope is going to be the final approach to this room, you maneuver yourself sideways to check to make sure that you have enough of a lead on the drone to work with. When you see that you do, you pivot forward again then swing yourself inside. You just manage to backburn away enough momentum that you can punt yourself to a stop right in front of the manual crank. Then it is only a matter of waiting.

And you end up waiting a good fifteen or so seconds before the drone finally actually makes an appearance, and it once it comes around that last corner it holds position, possibly considering whether or not to continue pursuit. You are wondering if you are going to step out of the room to bait the thing in after all – but thankfully, the drone still seems to know where you are, and before you know it, the drone is outside the doorway, shaking and scything through the clouds and debris as it shifts itself towards you.

By this point though, you have got working knowledge of the drone’s attack patterns and capabilities – and now, the thing has your fucking spear sticking through it. And when you pinch the door closed, you make first contact with the spear, not one of the legs – and the drone clearly does not know what to make of that.
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As the door closes, it is inexorably spun in, and you can see the drone stop in its tracks and try to scrabble for purchase on the floor, but because none of the legs are pressed – as they were in your earlier attempts with the other pocket door – the drone does not know enough to retract them and retreat, at least, not until it is too late to escape your snare. You crank the door as tightly as you dare, then you shove a crowbar into the mechanism, jamming it in place.

Pinched as it is, the drone is able to shimmy up and shimmy down the partially closed door, but it not able to do much more than that. After a moment or two of that, it starts to shake and shuffle itself again, but it is noticeably more gentle than it was during its attacks. Probably some precaution, against being made a snack for conduit worms if it ever became incapacitated.

Well, it is about to be a lot more than incapacitated. You get a second, longer crowbar, and very carefully, you reach out and grab the shaft of the spear – just to hold it even steadier, as a precaution – then you slip the bar into the bale, and fish around until you feel something solid. It has to be the main chassis of the drone. From there, you gingerly probe around until you feel something with a little bit of give. Hoping that it is just a wire connection, you press into a bit … and when whatever you were pressing into gives, the drone stops dead.

Not wanting to tempt fate, you prod it a couple of times, but it seems whatever you just did was enough to shut the thing down. Hopefully all you did was just knock a battery or a cable out of its socket. Satisfied, you pull the second crowbar out of the drone and then the first one out of the door mechanism, returning both of them to the toolbox you have been towing behind you – which embarrassingly enough looks noticeably worse for the wear after all of your fancy flying through these halls. It is still sound though – that is what matters.

You take this opportunity to consult the schematic, and after half a minute or so of puzzling out where exactly you are, you find to your surprise that your escapades through the hulk have taken you very close to the lift that you hoped would get you up the three decks to reach the bulkhead with the desalinator and the second power plant. You also glance at your master readout.

Suit Integrity: 100 %
Suit Charge: 61 %
Boost: 68 %
Air: 57 %
Cutting Gas: 62 %
Cutting Flux: 87 %


That … Jesus, you are that close to half-empty on your air? How much time did you end up spending on this damned drone, anyway? Not wanting to waste time on panicking or beating yourself up, you stow the schematic away, crank open the pocket door, then grabbing hold of the spear, you punt your way down the hallway, to the bank of doors for the lifts. One of the lifts is at this floor, and thinking quickly, you poke your head inside.
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Once you are satisfied that the lift is clean, you throw the drone inside, then you use your magnetized gloves to pull the doors closed. You seriously doubt that there are any other wreckers this deep in the hull, but you don’t want to worry about your drone getting pinched.

With your prize now situated, you poke your head through another set of doors in the lift bank, and inspect the lift shafts. It is dirty and dusty, with debris floating around here and there – but there is no evidence of conduit worms. You are just about to pull yourself inside and start heading up, when a terrible thought occurs to you. What if there is a drone inside the lift shaft? After all, it is more than wide enough.

As anxious as you are to keep moving, you force yourself to wait – to make sure that no lamp flickers on and off, as your drone did when it was on standby, or sentry, or whatever the fuck … before you set the thing off. After an agonizing wait, and no light, in a moment of uncharacteristic recklessness, you throw yourself into the shaft, then scramble up the three decks – half expecting the clouds of dust above and below you to explode into motion. But luckily, nothing happens and less than a dozen seconds after you entered, you are exiting at speed. It is not easy, but you force yourself to slow down, just a little – in case you end up stirring something else up.

Though you are not sure what that would be exactly, as there is very little dust and debris on this deck – and no sign of either conduit worms or drones. Still, you are so confident that something else is going to jump you before you reach the bulkhead that when you finally get there without incident you are actually surprised – and even more on edge. Should be bigger and bigger conduit worms as you approach the power plants, after all. Though considering that this bulkhead has external vents, if there are any in there – or around there, for that matter, then with any luck they should be dead or dormant.

You were not expecting to count on that kind of luck, and now that you seem to be having it – you are suspicious. But as there is nothing to fight or to flee from here, you really have no choice but to keep moving cautiously forward. Finally, you find yourself in front of a down and sealed blast door, like the one that you encountered earlier. Unlike the one that you encountered earlier, this one has a hatch installed in it. It either locks and unlocks only from the other side, or it doesn’t have a lock at all.
>>
> Please choose ONE of the following:
> There is nothing else on the door, and no indication as to what might be inside. [No puzzle, random chance as to what is on the other side of the blast door]
> There are also quite a few pictographs – some standard, some not. Whatever is conveyed here, it is clearly important. [Puzzle, hostile drone on the other side of the blast door].

If you choose puzzle, and solve it correctly, you will be able to deactivate this hostile drone (and possibly others) verbally. If you choose the no puzzle option, then you get to roll a 1d5: a 1 is another drone, a 2 is another monster conduit worm and 3, 4 and 5 are nothing.
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>>5483916
> There is nothing else on the door, and no indication as to what might be inside. [No puzzle, random chance as to what is on the other side of the blast door]

no more drones please boss. How much air do we need for our way back?
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>>5483997
Scratch that, after reading the spoiler I switch to
> There are also quite a few pictographs – some standard, some not. Whatever is conveyed here, it is clearly important. [Puzzle, hostile drone on the other side of the blast door].
and count on anons autism to become drone master
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>>5483916
> There are also quite a few pictographs – some standard, some not. Whatever is conveyed here, it is clearly important. [Puzzle, hostile drone on the other side of the blast door].
I’ll take the puzzle option, just for a pleasant change of pace.
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Theory time. This ship was overrun by conduit worms and abandoned. Still it's former masters took the time to build not one but several worm hunter drones before leaving, placing them in the belly of the beast. Why? To guard valuable equipment, in the hopes of retrieving it later. So if he have such a density of drones it is a hint at some good shit being here.
>>
There are also quite a few pictographs – some standard, some not. Whatever is conveyed here, it is clearly important. More than that, real effort was clearly put into to conveying a specific word, as opposed to an idea, as is usually the case with pictographs. After looking around once more to satisfy yourself that there are no worms or drones laying in wait, you reel out your wisps, lighting up the door to read it.

Read right to left, and top to bottom, the first pictographic phrase is straightforward - it is simply the depiction of 'inside' followed immediately by the depictions of 'large' 'dangerous' 'drone' all underneath a conjoining bracket. The meaning intended there is quite straightforward, but the phrase immediately underneath it is more convoluted. Inside a conjoining bracket is the depiction of 'foot' and of 'fall' - fairly obvious that it is supposed to be 'footfall', but there is a synonym marker offset on the bracket, meaning that the word intended is not 'footfall' but a synonym of it. That would be tricky enough, but the marker also has an approximation corollary attached, indicating that to call it a synonym is a stretch by proper grammatical rules, but the words must have associated meanings, if they are not similar. All of this is inside a larger conjoining bracket, with the depiction of 'soft' as an adjective - clearly 'softly'. There are then three irregular, non-standard additions to the phrase. The first is a dash at the apex of the second, larger conjoining bracket, the second is the numeral for '5' on top of the numeral for '8' offset outside of the bracket, right next to the third, which is clearly a sketch of a leaf - notably, the only thing in the phrase that is done in green. Everything else is in a chalky white.

Plainly, the second phrase describes the drone ... presumably its name. And if it is was this important to get its name precisely correct, then that has to mean that the programmer of the drone inside - and presumably the one you speared and stashed in the lift as well - decided to use knowledge of the drone's name as the write protection! Right? That has to be it! If you are right, then addressing the drone with its name will give you control over it.

You are real pleased with yourself, until you glance at the rest of the pictographs. There are ten other phrases, paired together. The first phrase of each of these five pairs is just the depiction of 'outside' followed by 'drone'. The meaning is patently obvious - there are six drones in the ship. One inside this door, and five outside of it. Now, that is an alarming thought, considering how much trouble just one of those drones gave you - but what is really giving you pause is the conspicuous omission of 'large' and 'dangerous' in describing any of the drones outside of this door. To make matters worse, you aren't going to know if you are right or not until you actually speak to the drone.

> Please propose your solution to this puzzle.
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we're fucked
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>>5484495
If you want, you can trade Suit Charge and Air for hints, to represent the time that Enoch would take to work out the problem. I'll let this sit a little longer, before I formally ask if you want to burn - 3 % Suit Charge and - 4 % Air for your first hint.
>>
Alright it has been an hour. I'll ask:

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Take a hint (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %)
> Think harder.
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Shiiet I guess I'm the only one who has even seen this so far. So what I gather it says [(rough synonym for footfall) + soft]+5/8+green leaf. And this is supposed to be the name of the drone, which, like in demonology, gives us power over it (at last to switch it off). I guess footfall is meant in the literal sense, not the strange UK meaning, then we have the soft modifier... soft steps - sneaking? The drone has 8 legs, like a spider, but what is the 5? Is it number 5 of the 6 drones in the ship? Is it's name sneaking leaflet 5? Maybe I'm completely on the wrong track and it is a reference to something cultural. The ship is called highest heaven... something biblical?
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Considering that I have seem to have driven my own quest to a standstill, and that I had been slowing down with the updates over the past week, I suppose it is only fair that I give you all the first clue for free.-

Footfall has eight letters. The word that it is an near-synonym with has five.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Pass through the hatch, and address the drone as 'Sneaking Leaflet 5'
> Pass through the hatch, and address the drone as [write-in].
> Take some more time to think it over. [Take a Hint] (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4%)
>>
>>5484915
> Pass through the hatch, and address the drone as Stalking Brier.
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>>5484967
Brier is a 5 letter word for plant.
I think Stalking Brier is a solid description of this worm hunting razor wire drone.
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Wait, I passed out for 12 hours, let me try.
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>>5484474
Footfall=Step
Step softly?

>The first is a dash at the apex of the second, larger conjoining bracket
Something like a T, or is the bracket a ][ symbol?

5 & 8 are a bit trickery, cause I believe is isn’t 58. Maybe five and and eight as part of the password?

>which is clearly a sketch of a leaf
Leaf, which I think is clear.

Am I close? I didn’t read anything below since I didn’t want to use the hint.

Also, I probably would have a better time solving it if I could visually see it instead of trying to visualize it.
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>>5484967
>>5485003
That’s a decent guess, and I love it a lot, but I believe the 5 letters are related to footfall, the ‘near-synonym’, so Stalking (8) is out.

Seems to me that the name is one word with 5 letter related to both silent footfall and leaf.
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>>5484704
Also, the biblical association would be Garden of Eden, with the worms being the serpents infesting this ‘Garden’.
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>>5484967
Changing to:
> Take some more time to think it over. [Take a Hint] (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4%)

A little more clarity perhaps is all we need.
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>>5485285
We could solve it now. It’s word association, so it should be somewhat easy.
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>>5485285
Like, it could be Stalk (5) instead, right?
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>>5485321
The first is a dash at the apex of the second, larger conjoining bracket, the second is the numeral for '5' on top of the numeral for '8' offset outside of the bracket, right next to the third, which is clearly a sketch of a leaf

Uhhhh. Maybe 8 letters for one of the words? Hmmm...
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>>5485333
The 8 letters are expressly footfall, as stated in the hint >>5484915. The word we are trying to find the association for has 5 letters. All I can come up with that’s associated with all of this is Stalk(5), since [dash at the apex of the second, larger conjoining bracket] indicates a supporting base holding up something, stalk is a 5 letter association with [soft footfall] and leafs are connected to a plant’s stalk, right?

This is assuming that the [5 above 8] association is related as assumed >>5484915 via word of god instead of something else. Second
>Plainly, the second phrase describes the drone ... presumably its name.
Does indicate that it’s a phrase, not a word.

I think you were right on the nose with stalking with the first part of the puzzle.
>Inside a conjoining bracket is the depiction of 'foot' and of 'fall' - fairly obvious that it is supposed to be 'footfall', but there is a synonym marker offset on the bracket, meaning that the word intended is not 'footfall' but a synonym of it. That would be tricky enough, but the marker also has an approximation corollary attached, indicating that to call it a synonym is a stretch by proper grammatical rules, but the words must have associated meanings, if they are not similar. All of this is inside a larger conjoining bracket, with the depiction of 'soft' as an adjective - clearly 'softly'.
>>
>There are then three irregular, non-standard additions to the phrase.
So, abnormal.
>The first is a dash at the apex of the second, larger conjoining bracket
Sounds like a T symbol.
>second is the numeral for '5' on top of the numeral for '8' offset outside of the bracket
5 on top of 8. Outside the original bracket of [footfall] or [Softy {footfall}]? I’m going to assume the overall bracket.
>right next to the third, which is clearly a sketch of a leaf - notably, the only thing in the phrase that is done in green
The green leaf is outside of the bracket, right next to [5 above 8]. I assume that means associated, but not directly related, right?

Hense my reasoning for Stalk. Question is, is it a phrase or simply a word we’re looking for?
>>
I made a shitty visual of what is described, I hope it helps (and is correct to the pictographs described).
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>>5485414
…and it’s sideways.
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>>5485415
And written on toilet paper apparently?
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>>5485418
Paper towel. I couldn’t find a blank sheet of computer paper.

Don’t judge me :V
>>
This isn't a hint so much as a clarification of something that Enoch would know, but the way that the three non-standard pictographs are outside of the conjoining brackets indicates that they don't directly affect any of the depictions inside of the brackets, as the synonym marker and approximation corollary do for the depiction in the first. To put it more succinctly, the second part of the drone's name is 'softly'.

> Please choose ONE of the following :
> Pass through the hatch, and address the drone as 'Stalk Softly'
> Pay for a hint to get a yes/no answer for if 'Stalk Softly' is the drone's name. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4%)
> Pass through the hatch, and address the drone as 'Brier Softly'
> Pay for a hint to get a yes/no answer for if 'Brier Softly' is the drone's name. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4%)
> Pass through the hatch, and address the drone as [write-in].
> Take some more time to think it over. [Take a Hint] (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4%)

>>5485414
Unless I am missing something, that looks to be how I described it. Good work anon!

>>5485418
Looks to me to be on paper towel.
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>>5485423
> Pass through the hatch, and address the drone as 'Stalk Softly'

I think this is it.
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>>5485423
Ah, thanks QM. If you don’t mind the question, what does the - (Dash) symbol mean in this context? I remember that in atomic/chemistry language, it would indicate a negative charge, but I don’t know if it works like that in pictographs or informs about the association within/outside of the conjoined brackets.

Thinking on the phrasing, ‘Tread Softly’ could be possible, but that vibrant leaf symbol discourages me from Tread.

This reminds me of the Chernobyl Puzzle desu. I guess this’ll be a test run to see if I prevented it from going nuclear or fucked it up even worse with my solution.
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>>5485463
Oh, the drone's name is hyphenated.
>>
"Float softly, green leaf"
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>>5485448
The leaf though?
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>>5485473
Stalk is part of a plant. Its the best I got.
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>>5485463
Ah, thanks QM. For the moment there I was convinced that it was a negative association with the leaf, meaning it wasn’t Stalk at all.

> Pass through the hatch, and address the drone as 'Stalk Softly'
I don’t know if it’s the right call, but if our Air tank gets any lower, we will be forced to call this whole thing off with no conduit to show for it. The only positive about this is that the drones and the separate power systems might indicate a wealth of clean conduit ripe for the taking.

>>5485472
>>5485473
>a clarification of something that Enoch would know, but the way that the three non-standard pictographs are outside of the conjoining brackets indicates that they don't directly affect any of the depictions inside of the brackets, as the synonym marker and approximation corollary do for the depiction in the first.
I think it’s meant as a hint, like [5 above 8]. An association, I hope.

>>5485477
Same. I’m just hoping it all works out and I didn’t fuck is up yet again.
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>>5485486
We put some thought into it. This is a toughie.
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>>5485497
We gave it a good go. Hopefully, it’s enough.
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>>5485497
We could also get QTG in on if you want, see if they come to the same conclusion.
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>>5485486
Given that bracket structure I'm pretty sure it's a 3-word-phrase: (footfall) + softly + (leaf)
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>>5485742
But the leaf itself isn’t in brackets.
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>>5485750
Hm yeah I see that. I'll support
> Pass through the hatch, and address the drone as 'Stalk Softly'
cuz I have nothing better
>>
Okay, I will get to writing this up. Consider the vote closed.
>>
Doing your best to ignore a sinking suspicion that you are in over your head here, you turn all of your attention to the name of the drone. For now, you will ignore the non-standard pictographs, and focus on what you understand. The second part of the second phrase is as clear as the first phrase – ‘softly’. If your hunch is right, and the second pictographic phrase depicts the drones name, then you just need to untangle whatever is going on with the first portion, and then you are good to go. Something close to ‘footfall’, but outside of the typical rules for synonyms.

Normally, that would be way too broad to work out with just pictographs, but you have to assume that the answer lies with the non-standard stuff drawn around the second phrase. The dash, the five over the eight, and the leaf. Of those three, the leaf seems the most straightforward: the name of the drone has something to do with plants, else, why include it? Yes, perhaps it shares its name – or part of its name – with a plant. Now, ‘plants’ is much broader than ‘near-synonym of footfall’, but as you are space-born and space-bred, so your knowledge of plants is limited – and for your sake, you are going to assume that the programmer’s was as well.

Still, when you start thinking about it, you are surprised at just how many plants that you can name off of the top of your head. Looking to narrow things down further, you consider the other two non-standard pictographs attached to the second phrase – the dash and the five over eight. You consider the dash first. As it is rendered just like a written hyphen, and it is placed deliberately above a conjoining bracket, between two parts of the phrase, then it seems as if it should be taken at face value, as a hyphen. That said, a dash could also be a subtraction sign as easily as a hyphen … however, there is a pictograph for ‘take away’. There is not one for ‘hyphenate’. While you are confident about that reading, it doesn’t do anything to solve what the first part of the second phrase is supposed to be. With it all seeming to hinge on you gleaning the meaning of last non-standard, you stare long and hard at the five over the eight … but nothing comes to you. Unlike the rest of the phrase, the numerals seem completely separate from –

Hold on here! These aren’t pictographs for ‘five’ and ‘eight’, these are the numerals of ‘5’ and ‘8’. Now, a lot of people who can read and write Mainline Pictographic are either fully semi-literate, or at the very least, they know their numbers and how to write some basic words, so odds are good that someone who was able to read the pictographs would also able to understand the numerals – but it feels like a very deliberate decision to have just these two numbers written, and everything else depicted.
>>
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So you start thinking about the conveyed meaning here as words and not depictions, and almost immediately, it occurs to you – ‘footfall’ has eight letters in it.

As eight is placed under five, perhaps then the word that you are looking for in the first half of the second phrase has five letters? Holding on to that as if it were a guideline, you are quickly able to come up with three solid candidates. Brier, stalk, and tread. Assuming that the drone on the other side of this door is anything like the one you captured, then ‘Brier-Softly’ might be an appropriate name, especially considering the sketched leaf … but that doesn’t account for the footfall part of the name. Likewise, ‘Tread-Softly’ does not account for the plant part of the drone’s name. By process of elimination, ‘Stalk-Softly’ has to be the name. Stalks are parts of plants, and to stalk something means to pursue or track it, stealthily. You could definitely see how someone who was stalking would be concerned about their footfalls, so it all makes sense … right?

There is only one way to find out though. Pass through the hatch, find this large, dangerous drone – and ask it. If you have its name right, then it is as good as yours. If you have it wrong, well … not wanting to dwell on it, you prod the crank of the hatch to test it.

It is unlocked.

You can’t remember being this nervous in a long time. You check everything over – and after thinking about it for a moment, you decide to douse your suit’s integrated lights, as they were what ‘woke up’ the last drone, and rely solely on what light the wisps can put out for you. Your wrecking torch though, that you keep out and lit, as it is the closest thing you have to a proper weapon. You consider leaving your toolbox behind, for the fear of it – and by extension you – getting caught and fouled on something, but then you consider just how useful the tools have been so far, and you quickly make up your mind to keep them. Before you can lose your nerve or over think anything, you crank open the hatch and get your first look around the bulkhead.

The first thing that you notice is that there is light already in the room. Not one blazing lamp like your captured drone has … but many little dim lights, turning what would otherwise be inky blackness into a shifting gloom. The way they bob and meander is very like your wisps, and you are taken up in this wave of searing frustration that you just spent all this precious time standing around with your thumb up your ass trying to sluice and mill meaning from completely out-of-date information. But as you are racking your brain, trying to figure out how to deal with many little drones instead of one large one, your eyes finally adjust enough for you to just make out the long sinuously curving line above the nearest of the lights. You stare at it dumbly, until understanding dawns on you, after which you stare at it in great trepidation.
>>
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Lures. You can see four, maybe even five dozen, all throughout the bulkhead.

The position and the angle of the hatch does not make it a good window – and between that and the darkness, you cannot make out too much of what is in the room. But you can see the lines now, the cables attached to the little lights. And in the limited window provided by the hatch, you can see that the cables begin to converge on one point, out of sight on the ceiling of the room.

It is just one drone. And if it is big enough to operate all of these lines at once, then it must be huge!

Recalling how the drone you captured behaved before you inadvertently roused it, you wait a solid half-minute, to see if there is a massive beam of light that blazes down from the ceiling without seeing anything. There isn’t any … but if anything, that makes you more anxious, because without a frame of reference for how the drone is going to react, you are in uncharted waters. And this fucking angler has a shitload of lures in that water …

You get your radio back on and switch it to directional broadcast. While you might not be able to see the drone from the safety of the hatch, you might be able to speak to it. God, you hope you can.

"Start of Line. Range of address, two hundred cubits. Target of address … ‘Stalk-Softly’. Purpose of address, power down lights. Time of address, effective immediately. End of Line."

None of the little lights around the room go out. You swear violently under your breath, and you actually have to stop yourself from kicking the blast door in frustration. This isn’t just a failure – this is a dangerously ambiguous failure. The broadcast might not have reached the receiver-transmitter package on the drone in a state where it could be interpreted as instructions in Primitive … but it just as easily could have won through and been successfully interpreted, then rejected out of hand because you got the name wrong after all. Further muddying things, it is possible that the message got through and you did get the name right after all … but the lights remained on because the lures were all self-contained and powered.

You suppose that you could try again, and tell the drone to spool in all, to see if the lures are hauled up or not. For that matter, you could try addressing it as ‘Brier-Softly’, ‘Tread-Softly’ or any other name you can come up with. It couldn’t hurt – unless this thing has a coffle-breaker protocol written in. For valuable drones with offensive capabilities, mechanists and programmers will sometimes write in contingencies for what to do if someone repeatedly attempts and fails to slave the drone by re-writing code, which typically involve targeting the source of the attack. Typically, it is reserved for combat drones, but as such effort was given to correctly conveying the name of the drone, you have to wonder.
>>
But on the other hand, if you were to provoke the drone into action, while remaining in a place of safety, you would at least be able to get a better sense of what it was and was not responding to – and depending on how aggressive it is during normal operation, you might not have to worry about coffle-breaker protocol either, because it might already be attacking you. If it was, then there would be nothing to stop you from shouting different names at this thing until you were blue in the face … or ran out of air. Or it managed to get to you.

Finally, if you were really willing to take a risk … you could pull yourself into the room, find the main body of the drone, and address that. If you were able to, having a direct line of sight with the drone would preclude all questions about the drone receiving your messages or not … though if you have direct line of sight with the drone, then it has direct line of sight with you.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Remain at the hatch, accepting that you will not see the body of the drone.
> Enter into the bulkhead too look for the body of the drone.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Do not provoke the drone by throwing something towards one of the lures.
> Provoke the drone by throwing something towards one of the lures.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Continue to address the drone as ‘Stalk-Softly’.
> Address the drone as something else (‘Brier-Softly’, ‘Tread-Softly’, write-in).
> Address the drone as all three of your suggested names.
>>
>>5486474
> Remain at the hatch, accepting that you will not see the body of the drone.
> Do not provoke the drone by throwing something towards one of the lures.
> Address the drone as something else (‘Brier-Softly’, ‘Tread-Softly’, Float-softly).

I refuse to believe QM would torture us like that if we had it right so I guess we have it wrong. Back to the drawing board!
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>>5486474
> Enter into the bulkhead too look for the body of the drone.
> Do not provoke the drone by throwing something towards one of the lures.
> Continue to address the drone as ‘Stalk-Softly’.
No other name makes sense in context. Stay the course.

>>5486535
Anon, we still don’t know if we solved the Chernobyl puzzle back in Graverobber’s Daughter Quest, and it’s been a day in-game and a couple threads at this point. This is totally in the QM’s wheelhouse.

If you want, you can always take the puzzle back to QTG to solve, or write in the ‘take a hint’/‘yes or no’ part of the puzzle.
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>>5486474
>>5486696
> +1 Stay the course.
>>
Alright, consider this closed. I will get to writing it up.
>>
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Fuck. You are going to have to go in there, aren’t you?

Hoping to avoid it, you bend backwards as much as your suit allows, straining yourself to get a clear visual of the ceiling while still at the hatch. When that fails, you awkwardly get down on your knees, hoping that you can get your line of sight from this lower vantage point. But it simply isn’t happening. From what you can see right now, it looks like the area around the blast door is a little alcove, offset from the rest of the room.

And lucky you, there don’t seem to be lures stationed in the alcove. If you were to just walk out there – carefully – you should be able to get yourself into a position where you can see the ceiling and the drone lurking on it, while still being close enough to the hatch that if anything were to go wrong, you would be able to jet yourself back to safety. Hopefully. Well, that is not entirely fair. There is a little more to it than hope. Assuming that your initial instinct about the lights was right – that they were like your wisps – then it stands to reason that they probably are not going to attack you, and if they are, then they probably aren’t faster than your suit’s booster. And if you think about it a bit, what exactly would an attack from those lures look like? They would probably just converge on you, working on the assumption that any conduit worm in their presence would then latch on to them and attempt to feed. And while the worm worked to make itself comfortable, the drone hauled up the lure into it, where the worm was removed and dispatched. So then all you need to do is stay clear of the lures, and you are –

No, no. That can’t be right. If that was all this drone was capable of doing, then there would be no reason to specify that it was ‘dangerous’. There has to be more to it than just the lures … probably something designed to deal with larger conduit worms like the one you tangled with in the aft cargo bay. But as it not obvious just from looking into the room, you are going to have to assume – or hope – that whatever the drone does have up its proverbial sleeve for monster worms, it is currently with the main body of the drone, and either the entire drone has to come down from the ceiling to engage the worm, or it has to transport the weapon down there independently. Either way that is going to take time. And time is a window of opportunity for you get back outside of the blast door and to get the hatch shut. So long as you don’t have to get any further in then the edge of the alcove, then you should be able to get free in time.

With that less-than-completely-reassuring thought, you gingerly pull yourself into the room – staring the whole time at the nearest of the lures, waiting for it to accelerate towards you, to perk up at your presence, to freeze. Anything to indicate that either the drone or lure – assuming that they were separate entities – has noticed you.

You get no such indication.
>>
With bated breath, and fully expecting all of this to go terribly wrong at any second, you use your magnetic boots to slowly creep through the gloom to the far edge of the alcove. It is only once you are there that you perceive just how difficult this is going to be.

You can see part of the drone – but only part of it. A slot, looking to be wider than you are tall, has been cut in the ceiling. Sitting on the slot is this metal structure, in the shape of a cup, where all of the lines of the lures converge on. You imagine that if one of the lures was to get a ‘bite’, then the drone would use the device so that it may pull in the line without fouling any of the others that it had out. If you are right, then it is an exceptionally clever design, and it makes you wonder just how long the crew of the Highest Heaven fought the infestation for. But those questions are for a later day – if ever. What is important here and now is that the drone is not even in the room with you, not really. But perhaps, with the right angle …

"Start of Line. Range of address, two hundred cubits. Target of address ‘Stalk-Softly’. Purpose of address, reel in. Time of address, effective immediately. End of Line."

Again, nothing happens. And again, the reason why nothing happens is ambiguous. Last time you were raging, but right now, you are too on edge to get angry about it. Instead, you are wondering if it would be better to return to the hatch or to remain where you are. In the end, you decide to stay put for now while you determine your next move, figuring that the less that you move while in this bulkhead, the better.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Remain where you are at the edge of the alcove.
> Move out into the floor of the bulkhead, to a spot nearly under the drone.
> Carefully punt yourself off of the floor, and position yourself facing the trench.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Do not provoke the drone by throwing something towards one of the lures or its body.
> Provoke the drone by throwing something towards one of the lures.
> Attempt to provoke the drone by throwing something towards the presumed location of its body.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Continue to address the drone as ‘Stalk-Softly’.
> Address the drone as something else (‘Brier-Softly’, ‘Tread-Softly’, write-in).
> Address the drone as all three of your suggested names.

I didn't mean to post that image. Don't worry, you aren't being retarded.

Yet.
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>>5487243
>Move on to getting more conduit. Should give you time to think about this while you work. Drone probably wont go far.
>>
>>5487279
In the bulkhead, or elsewhere in the ship?
>>
> Remain where you are at the edge of the alcove.
> Do not provoke the drone by throwing something towards one of the lures or its body.
> Address the drone as something else
Perhaps it could be Creep-Softly? (as in vines/creepers)
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>>5487284
>I wasn't really clear on the name of where we were headed before we ran into the drone, but there, where clean conduit was likely.
>>
>>5487305
> Remain where you are at the edge of the alcove.
> Do not provoke the drone by throwing something towards one of the lures or its body.
>Address the drone as Creep-Softly.

Nice thinking Anon.
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>>5487305
supporting
>>
Closed and writing.
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>>5487305
Let’s hope that you’re right, creep is a fantastic idea. You’d think they’d create a pictograph of a vibe for that instead.

Also, assuming that this is a clever design and the previous crew fought the infestation for a longer time, it stands to reason that if we do move slowly and carefully and not disturb the lures, that there may be in-built protection protection protocols so crew-mates can still move past it without triggering the anti-worm protocols.
>>
As you stand and stare up at it, you half expect to see some sudden burst of action around the cable-management structure of the drone, or for some hidden appendage to come hurtling out of the gash in the ceiling towards you, or for other drones like the one you dealt with earlier to come tumbling out of the ceiling, or scrabbling out of the darkness at you.

But there is nothing.

If anything, the complete lack of any response, and as well as the absence of any movement beyond the idle bobbing of the lures is really beginning to get to you. You tear your eyes away from the main body of the drone, and look around you, just to make sure that nothing else is in the room with you … but you are still not able to make out much of anything. What little light there is in the room, you have been staring at on and off – so it is going to be a while before your eyes properly adjust. And you are not entirely certain that you are going to have enough time to wait for them. Setting that aside for now, you consider trying ‘Stalk-Softly’ once more from your current position, just to make sure that you have to move in further to address the drone … before it occurs to you that ‘Creep-Softly’ also meets the requirements laid out on the door for this drone’s name. Creeping is associated with footfall, and the vines of plants can be said to creep. With some excitement welling up in your chest at your burst of inspiration, you decide to address the drone once more … from your current position. As worried as you are about triggering a potential coffle-breaker protocol, you are admittedly more worried about getting any further away from the safety of the hatch.

"Start of Line. Range of address, two hundred cubits. Target of address ‘Creep-Softly’. Purpose of address, reel in. Time of address, effective immediately. End of Line."

Suddenly, there is a short burst of feedback, then a click, then finally a recorded voice comes on over your radio, and you actually laugh in relief – a quick, choked sounding thing, but a laugh nonetheless.

“Now hear this: This is Creep-Softly Subassembly.”

Your broad, beaming smile falters a bit. It seems that you aren’t speaking with the entire drone – just a part of it. That isn’t too unusual, for larger, more complex drones, though it does mean that this might not be over yet. But before you can even decide if you should be disappointed or not, the recorded message starts up again, interrupting your thoughts.
>>
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“Now hear this: the receiver-transmitter on this subassembly is only intended to be used in emergencies only to give the assembly commands. Now hear this: this assembly automatically reports any interruption of autonomous function to the ranking officer on the bridge and to Engineering. Now hear this: write protection and coffle-breaking protocols are in effect – attempts to reprogram or otherwise slave the drone will be reported to the ranking officer on the bridge, Engineering and to the Quartermaster. Now hear this: if this assembly becomes aware of an attempt to reprogram or slave it, and it is not able to communicate this attack to the bridge, then it is authorized to defend itself with the means available to itself, within the parameters of its mission.”

Jesus Christ, it is a good thing that you were only trying to give it commands, otherwise you would have turned this thing hostile. Still, you aren’t done with it yet; it hasn’t accepted your command and reeled in the lures. That can only mean that you need to name the whole unit, not just Creep-Softly, the subunit with the receiver-transmitter. Well … you now know that the whole thing is not named Creep-Softly … or Stalk-Softly, for that matter. That is more than you had to work with a minute ago. There is the million-talent question of how many more attempts you have to name the drone before it considers it an attack, but you suppose you could hazard one or two without –

“Now hear this: while this subassembly is configured to convey commands to the assembly, it nor any of the other subassemblies of Tread-Softly are able to accept independent commands.”

Or the drone could simply tell you its name. Yeah, that works too - though how the Hell does Tread-Softly have anything to do with fucking plants and leaves? ... Anyway, now the only question is what to do with the drone. You could tell the thing to go to standby mode, but then there is the question of will it take itself out of standby mode after a certain amount of time, or is there something that you could do that would pull the drone out of standby … like say, using your torch or your boosters? The other option is to shut the drone down – but then that raises the question of how to turn the thing back on. Once you are done here, you want the drone working again, killing worms, so this hulk doesn’t get any worse. To that end, there is an other other option. Try to harvest conduit without shutting the drone off. Sure, the drone is here to protect the wiring, so that conduit might not be safe to pull at the moment, but the pipes for the desalinator also qualify as conduit, and you don’t think that drone would be too concerned about those.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Shut Tread-Softly off.
> Put Tread-Softly on standby.
> Leave Tread-Softly running.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Take a closer look at Tread-Softly
> Find the desalinator and start pulling conduit
>>
When I made the puzzle, neither Creep-Softly or Stalk-Softly occurred to me as potential answers. If they had, I would have included additional hints to disqualify them. As you managed to find two decent alternate answers - as well as coming up with the intended answer - it wouldn't be fair for me to punish you guys for a shortcoming of my puzzle by dragging this out further, or turning the drone hostile.

But don't let this diminish the work you all did sleuthing out the answer! You guys did great - and I might add, that once Enoch gets to work pulling conduit, he is going to be suitably rewarded.
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>>5488574
>it was a plant named Tread-Softly
Ah, didn’t expect that. Turns out I was right, after a fashion.

> Put Tread-Softly on standby.
We can label the standby length, right? If not, I don’t mind traveling deeper into the hulk.
> Take a closer look at Tread-Softly
Genuine curiosity, plus getting info on how it’s kill mechanisms work will help us if we come across an infestation.

>>5488584
I honestly appreciate that mate. I never would have guessed that it was a plant name we were searching for overall, but now I see it in context. I also appreciate you giving us an opportunity with ‘Address the drone as -‘ options. Hopefully we’ll be better prepared for the next puzzle.
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>>5488574
> Put Tread-Softly on standby.

I still don't get how tread was the solution.
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>>5488574
>> Put Tread-Softly on standby.
> Find the desalinator and start pulling conduit
>>
>>5488632
Tread-Softly is Cnidoscolus Stimulosus, also known as Spurge Nettle, Bull Nettle or Finger Rot. While not a member of the Urtica genus, and therefore not a 'true' nettle, it is often mistaken for one.

Did you have a preference for examining the drone or pulling conduit?
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>>5488799

ok thanks. I guess I can take solace in the fact that, as a non-native English speaker, I had no chance of solving this.

> Find the desalinator and start pulling conduit
>>
Alright, consider this closed. I'll get the next update out as soon as I can.
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>>5488574
> Put Tread-Softly on Standby
> Take a closer look at Tread-Softly

Thanks for the puzzle QM. In the age of internet searches its tough to do. Funny enough I had briefly considered "tread softly" as well do to the old saying "tread softly and carry a big stick" but thought it too obscure.
>>
>>5488973
Please feel free to disregard my vote.
>>
>>5488574
> Put Tread-Softly on Standby
> Take a closer look at Tread-Softly
>>
Just an update on update - it is coming soon, but I wasn't able to finish it tonight.

In lieu of that vote, please choose one of these minor (and very situational) abilities/skills for Enoch.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Enoch is unusally skilled (and fortunate) at games of chance, especially dice games popular with peons. Lucky enough that some people bet on him winning games.
> Enoch is unusally flexible and light on his feet. He is also a natural born climber.
> Enoch is musically inclined, and has learned to play the balliset quite well. Unfortunately, he doesn't have one with him in the Commissioner, but he is a decent enough singer.
>>
>>5490547
> Enoch is unusally skilled (and fortunate) at games of chance, especially dice games popular with peons. Lucky enough that some people bet on him winning games.
or
> Enoch is musically inclined, and has learned to play the balliset quite well. Unfortunately, he doesn't have one with him in the Commissioner, but he is a decent enough singer.
I like the idea of being lucky or having a good dining voice desu.
>>
>>5490547
> Enoch is unusally skilled (and fortunate) at games of chance, especially dice games popular with peons. Lucky enough that some people bet on him winning games.

being a good climber sorta feels like a Clot clone and of limited use in a cramped space station
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>>5490547
>Enoch is unusally skilled (and fortunate) at games of chance, especially dice games popular with peons. Lucky enough that some people bet on him winning games.

Farkle King
>>
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>>5490547
>> Enoch is musically inclined, and has learned to play the balliset quite well. Unfortunately, he doesn't have one with him in the Commissioner, but he is a decent enough singer.
Nothing better than singing IN SPACE.
>>
After some quick consideration, you decide to just have Tread-Softly enter into a standby state instead of shutting it down completely. While there is a risk that something happens – or that you do something – to snap the drone out of it, at this time, you have no indication of how hard it will be to turn the drone back on. Or for that matter, if you are going to be able to turn the drone back on. You might be able to get a sense of that if you were to punt yourself up to the trench, and investigate Tread-Softly, but setting aside how dangerous that may or may not be, there is the issue of time. Time and conduit. Until you have bagged and tagged out enough clean conduit to get paid for electronics, you really have to focus your yourself – as distracting as the prospect of bagging a drone the size of Tread-Softly might be.

"Start of Line. Range of address, two hundred cubits. Target of address ‘Tread-Softly’. Purpose of address, enter standby. Time of address, effective immediately until otherwise commanded. End of Line."

There is a bit of feedback over the radio, then something interesting happens. Simultaneously, all of the lures are jerked upward on their cables five times, just allowing the lures enough time to backburn away all of the upward momentum before the proceeding jerk. After Tread-Softly has given its lures their final jerk, and they have all made their final correction, all of them wink out. Judging by that it seems that the lures are independent from Tread-Softly, or at least once they are extended out into the room. Makes sense – that way the madlad mechanist who made this thing didn’t need to worry about conduit worms attacking the cables attaching the lures to the drone if there is no current running through the cables.

With the lights on the lures out, the room is darker than ever, you have no choice but to turn on the lights in your suit. As you blink in the sudden stark light, you also finally get your first good look around the bulkhead. Immediately, you can see the small power plant and what must be a pump for the … Jesus Christ.

On the schematic, the desalinator is rendered as a neat little square, but in the bulkhead it is this thick rats nest of filters … and conduit. Jesus Christ, it is like a fucking hedge of conduit! All irregular angles … it is so damned thick that you can’t even see through it! You are almost scared to move or blink or even to stare at it too hard, because this … you can’t even begin to estimate how much conduit – worm-free conduit – that you are looking at right now. And yet, you are staring at it, staring right at it, and it is refusing to go away. Eventually, you muster up the courage to blink – and incredulously enough, it is still there.
>>
But when you make your first tentative step forward, you are overcome again – not by the sight of all of the potential credits sitting in front of you, but instead by how … incongruous this all is. The same engineers, who made such elegant bespoke drones were also responsible for this monstrosity? And now that you have stopped and thought about it, you now notice that Tread-Softly does in fact have lures deployed near the stacks. In fact … it is had to see, considering that everything outside of the beams from your suit is now effectively pitch black, but it looks like there are lures deployed inside of the desalinator hedges.

Confusion and curiosity pushing aside caution and greed, you punt yourself up off of the floor to get a better look at the mess … and suddenly, everything makes sense. The inexplicably large, numerous and aggressive conduit worms. The need for an atmospheric ship this size. And most of all, the many, many crates in the aft cargo hold that had their insulating liners torn away. All of it is explained by the sight of the third power plant, screened away from sight by intentionally obtusely designed desalinator stacks. No wonder this ship is lousy with worms – pretty much the entire footprint in the schematic given over to the desalinator is in reality taken up with a power plant that would have been overkill on kitted out frigate with half again as much displacement as the Heaven. If anything, it is a miracle that the worms aren’t even worse, with a behemoth like that, on top of two other plants.

Now, there could be a host of reasons as to why a ship this size needed that kind of power – but you can only think of one reason why a ship would need to hide the fact that it had that kind of power. She is – or was, rather – a smuggler. Explains why someone went to the time to pull the linings of all of the crates. And it certainly explains the wings. Being able to avoid the Port Authority inspectors at high orbit space ports would certainly be a boon to smugglers. And the reason why the crates had their linings pulled – either illicit freight was stored there and removed, or whoever recovered the Heaven suspected her of being a smuggler, and made a point of checking its crates over. But you doubt that they got much further in than the extremities of the hulk after seeing the situation with the conduit worms.

From your elevated perspective, floating high in the bulkhead, you can see how the ‘hedges’ of desalinator stacks might have once completely wrapped around the third power plant, but have since been pulled apart to allow Tread-Softly to get its lures in close to the … well, no, no not all of them are close to the power plant – many are stationed on the outside of the desalinator stack. A first line of defense, or …
>>
Intrigued, you boost yourself right back down to the desalinator stacks, and as soon as you get your suits lights on one of the smaller filters – about the length of your arm, extended and with the width of your forearm – you notice a very conspicuous seam along the length of the filter. Not just on the one immediately in front of you, but on about half of the filters that you can see currently. Now, you don’t know too much about desalinator systems, but you do know that they pressurize water then force them through filters to remove impurities, or something like that. What you are getting at is that the filter is supposed to be a pressure vessel. And any pressure vessel worth anything isn’t going to have a massive fucking seam like this, compromising its strength. And the more you look at the seam, the less it looks like the metal that the rest of the vessel is made out of. It is a noticeably different color. Suddenly, you manage to notice these little bits of micro-debris floating around the filter when some of them catch the light just right. Your first guess is that they are more dust from ground up conduit worms … but you start to second guess yourself almost immediately, when you realize that you have seen no other signs of conduit worm remains in this room. Either the drones have managed to keep them out of here completely, or they dispose of them in a way that doesn’t leave ground up remains behind.

Tentatively, you prod at the seam, and you are not surprised to see when you wind up creating a small, billowing cloud of more micro-debris. It is hard, but you try to calm yourself down. When you saw that lures were defending both sides of the hedge, your first thought was that there might be something worth protecting inside the hedge as well. And dummy pressure vessels would be a perfect place to stash something. Still, you need to take it easy here – and not just on account of that heart attack you had what, two, three hours ago? There is that piece of advice that Jibbs gave you that is speaking to you right now – in either dangerous or uncertain circumstances, acting greedy is often indistinguishable from acting stupid.

You have no real reason to assume that this filter is anything but exactly what it appears to be. For all you know, it was simply refurbished, and even though whatever the Hell the seal is made out of it chipping and flaking off now, under standard conditions it is able to hold the necessary internal pressures. Really, haven’t you been lucky enough here? Haven’t you? You are just setting yourself up for disappointment, and you … no, no you don’t know it. But you are going to find out! You pivot around and basically rip open your toolbox to get vice-grips and an adjustable wrench. With both of them in hand, you throw yourself at the filter, getting the tensioner off of the front plate, then working away at getting the filter out of bracket, and then finally disconnecting the line.
>>
You have to remind yourself that you cannot afford to excessively damage conduit, and consciously make an effort to slow down … though once you get the piping off, and see that there is no evidence of staining, or that water had ever been run through this particular filter, your heart soars. It is seriously getting to the point that you are afraid that you are going to get a second unscheduled heart attack – and this far away from medical attention, you doubt that you would be able to make it out in time. And considering that you are deep in the hulk, surrounded by hostile drones and monster conduit worms, you would probably just be declared lost if you didn’t turn up at the end of the shift – after all, you are just an apprentice wrecker with two months of experience under his belt, and no friends amongst the rest of the roster.

So you make a good faith effort to calm yourself down, and then once you have steadied yourself, you peer down the intake hole of the filter. When something glints back at you, instantly you are back to being nothing but a pile of jitters again. Jesus Christ. You are about to pry the thing open like a nut, but you regain your senses for just long enough to realize that you should look for a less destructive way to get inside of the vessel. But after about a dozen seconds of increasingly frantic searching, you go back to your original plan.

The vessel pops open in a cloud of dust from the … whatever the Hell was used to seal the two halves of the filter back together. The fins and ribs of the translucent filter are still inside, but you make out about a dozen vague metallic shapes in the remains of the filter. You grab at the filter, intending to pull it out, but instead the top portion of it simply falls out of the half-vessel, as there is now nothing left to keep in place.

Nestled snugly in the remains of the filter is a duckfooted hand-lance. It has been partially disassembled for shipping in the dummy pressure vessel, but it is all there, ready to be assembled again. You would stake your life on it – aboard the Salacious Scheme, you had more than a little experience tearing down, cleaning, and reassembling Jibbs’ duckfooter. Moreover, the indicator gauges on the capacitors are showing that they are at this very moment holding a charge. This … this more firepower than most Guards carry with them, as they are only issued stunners, batons, and conventional firearms. To be fair, this lance only has enough capacitors for three ignitions – but while you would be lucky to get a clean kill from one conventional bullet, a single ignition is more than enough to fatally burn through several men.

Struck numb and dumb, you can do nothing more that just stare at your prize. This … Tread-Softly is a payday, but this – and however many others are stowed away here – this is going to be worth a lot more than just talents. If there are just a few more, then this should be worth your freedom. It has to.
>>
If it ever got out to the rest of wreckers that handing over the illicit cargo of a gunrunner didn’t automatically qualify them for freedom, then none of them would ever consider turning in contraband ever again. The bosses are many things, but ‘stupid’ is not one of them.

Freedom. You smile at the thought, and when you realize that you are starting to tear up a bit, you instinctively try to wipe your eyes before you catch yourself. Laughing softly at your folly, you consider just what it would mean for you. As a former pirate, the odds are good that anywhere really comfortable wouldn’t have you – so that means you would wind up on the frontier. No issue with that, you would be a lot more valuable there … though admittedly, there is the question of just how valuable an apprentice wrecker actually is. EVA certification is a lot easier to get outside of a prison ship – and some places on the frontier don’t even bother with paperwork. You are literate, that is a boon… though a boss might see that as a threat to his position, not an asset.

Unless you managed to get yourself into a new line of work, you would also still be a spacer, though you have to imagine than the accommodations would been better than your current circumstances. Course, you would have to pay for them still. Regardless, you would be able to save up a little nest egg, then after keeping your nose clean for long enough, you would be able to get permission to permanently settle on some rustic backwater planet. An early retirement, in spite of everything. You can see it, all of it, as clearly as you can see the duckfooter in front of you. A chance to put your past –

“Fold your arms behind your back like so, little Enoch, then press your nose against the wall and wait your turn.”

Your stomach rolls and your hands become clammy in their gloves. Shit! It has been years since the Creature last intruded upon your waking thoughts, why now, of all – oh dear God. Oh, merciful God. Your contract of indenture to him. For the past five years, your debt to him will have been compounding unchecked. You had figured that by the time that you had worked off your sentence, the Creature would have died, and your indenturization to him would be discharged. But it has only been five years – and the Creature was not that old. If you were lucky, he might have gone and claimed you as loss to the underwriters, after the Pinnicle was taken by the Salacious Scheme … but of course, if that happened than your contract would be held by some house of business. It is possible that it was discharged anyway, in some arrangement between the house and the government to clear debts, but that is a slim little thing to foist all of your hopes on, as is him being dead. And in spite of his predilections, you know for a fact that he has heirs. It is possible that they could bring a suit against you, have you rebonded on a technicality.
>>
You fight the urge to shiver. But … you are not without recourse here. Not yet anyway. Boss Barone. He has connections, outside of the Commissioner, with organized crime. No doubt you would have to completely clear your debts to him before you were released, as well as take on new commitments … some of which would follow you after released. But the key thing is that he could get you a new identity. You could still work your way to your dream, a quiet, mostly honest, eventually planet-bound life on the frontier … just, not as quickly or as cleanly as you had dared to hope when you first laid your eyes on the hand-lance.

Alternatively … if you were willing to take things into your own hands, to defer the dream of your idyllic retirement to an even older age, and a planet well beyond the frontier … then you may have your freedom all the sooner, and with no strings attached. If you were able to ferment and then with the secret cargo of the Highest Heaven arm an uprising against the crew of the Commissioner, then you could depose the Captain. Then it is just matter of getting one of the hulks in the boneyard outfitted and phase-worthy before you are discovered by the regular resupply freighter – or it is a matter of commandeering the freighter somehow. Either way, you could be a pirate captain.

To be sure, you don’t really have the look for it … or the height … but you are smart and clever and lucky enough for it, and it is a matter of record that you were a blooded Schemer. Your other surviving crewmates can attest that you were there, fighting off the Peacekeepers, even as the Salacious Scheme shattered and sundered around you.

You allow yourself the luxury of taking a deep breath. This is a big decision, one that will define the course of your entire life. It seems that you have to reconcile your dreams of bucolic planet bound life and your desire to be your own man on your own terms, unbound by prisons and unburdened by debt. And this is not a decision that you should put off either, as depending on your choice here, your next moves will be different, perhaps even time sensitive.
>>
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> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Enoch decides to work with Boss Barone to eventually assume a new identity once all of his current debts to him have been cleared. Clearing those debts, however, is going to be a bit more involved than just paying them off. But once he is settled up and released, he can go directly to the frontier. He will work with connected wrecking crews, and occasionally may be asked to do someone a ‘favor’, but otherwise, he will be his own man, and on track to make his dream retirement a reality. [While there will be dabbling in other areas, the Quest will remain relatively focused on wrecking, either in the boneyard, on with a company working on the frontier]
> Enoch decides to make Jibbs proud. It is going to be difficult assembling a trust-worthy team, especially because so many of the capable and connected people Enoch has access to at the moment are Trustees who either have a vested interest in the current status-quo of the Commissioner, or they are close to the ends of their sentences, but on the other hand, she is a big bitch of a ship, and there are a lot of real tough bastards on board. Of course, even if everything goes perfectly, it will be a long time before Enoch is in a safe enough position to start considering his retirement. [While the quest will always involve wrecking to some extent, it will start to lean into elements necessary for Enoch’ uprising almost immediately, such as team management, long-term planning, espionage, and then later into ship management and combat … assuming Enoch makes it that far.]
>>
>>5492497
>> Enoch decides to work with Boss Barone to eventually assume a new identity once all of his current debts to him have been cleared. Clearing those debts, however, is going to be a bit more involved than just paying them off. But once he is settled up and released, he can go directly to the frontier. He will work with connected wrecking crews, and occasionally may be asked to do someone a ‘favor’, but otherwise, he will be his own man, and on track to make his dream retirement a reality. [While there will be dabbling in other areas, the Quest will remain relatively focused on wrecking, either in the boneyard, on with a company working on the frontier]
Close choice for me here.
>>
>>5492497
> Enoch decides to make Jibbs proud. It is going to be difficult assembling a trust-worthy team, especially because so many of the capable and connected people Enoch has access to at the moment are Trustees who either have a vested interest in the current status-quo of the Commissioner, or they are close to the ends of their sentences, but on the other hand, she is a big bitch of a ship, and there are a lot of real tough bastards on board. Of course, even if everything goes perfectly, it will be a long time before Enoch is in a safe enough position to start considering his retirement. [While the quest will always involve wrecking to some extent, it will start to lean into elements necessary for Enoch’ uprising almost immediately, such as team management, long-term planning, espionage, and then later into ship management and combat … assuming Enoch makes it that far.]
It’s honestly a tough call, and I sorta would like to take some time in-quest before making such a decision desu. I chose this because it gets us into the leadership and planning phase and focus much quicker, which is what I’d like to explore as a contrast to Chlot’s rather solitary existence (so far), even if I’d prefer to remain clean and settle for a cozy existence. I’m honestly curious where our would-be Napoleon will take us (assuming we get that far), and how Trash handles the leadership phase.
>>
>>5492497
> Enoch decides to work with Boss Barone to eventually assume a new identity once all of his current debts to him have been cleared. Clearing those debts, however, is going to be a bit more involved than just paying them off. But once he is settled up and released, he can go directly to the frontier. He will work with connected wrecking crews, and occasionally may be asked to do someone a ‘favor’, but otherwise, he will be his own man, and on track to make his dream retirement a reality. [While there will be dabbling in other areas, the Quest will remain relatively focused on wrecking, either in the boneyard, on with a company working on the frontier]

I like it.
>>
I honestly hope anons decide to make Jibbs proud and turn pirate, it would make for a more interesting and exciting quest desu.
>>
>>5493035
Trash has a really good imagination when it comes to salvage-centric adventures and tying them in with other stuff. If it was any other qm, I'd go pirate.
>>
>>5493037
I’m not saying it would be boring necessarily, but it would make the quest feel more exciting, if you can get me.
>>
>>5492497
> Enoch decides to make Jibbs proud. It is going to be difficult assembling a trust-worthy team, especially because so many of the capable and connected people Enoch has access to at the moment are Trustees who either have a vested interest in the current status-quo of the Commissioner, or they are close to the ends of their sentences, but on the other hand, she is a big bitch of a ship, and there are a lot of real tough bastards on board. Of course, even if everything goes perfectly, it will be a long time before Enoch is in a safe enough position to start considering his retirement. [While the quest will always involve wrecking to some extent, it will start to lean into elements necessary for Enoch’ uprising almost immediately, such as team management, long-term planning, espionage, and then later into ship management and combat … assuming Enoch makes it that far.]

back to Clot when?
>>
>>5492497
>Enoch decides to make Jibbs proud. It is going to be difficult assembling a trust-worthy team, especially because so many of the capable and connected people Enoch has access to at the moment are Trustees who either have a vested interest in the current status-quo of the Commissioner, or they are close to the ends of their sentences, but on the other hand, she is a big bitch of a ship, and there are a lot of real tough bastards on board. Of course, even if everything goes perfectly, it will be a long time before Enoch is in a safe enough position to start considering his retirement. [While the quest will always involve wrecking to some extent, it will start to lean into elements necessary for Enoch’ uprising almost immediately, such as team management, long-term planning, espionage, and then later into ship management and combat … assuming Enoch makes it that far.]
>>
>>5493046
When my schedule opens up enough to write for Chlotsuintha. I had hoped that I would know by this week how things were going to look, but it seems that it might be some more time before things open up enough. That said, if there is any question of if I am going to have the time or not, I'll move on to thread two of Space Peon Wrecker Quest.

>>5492674
I suppose I could have made a third option for sitting on the blasters and sleeping on the decision. I'd would be willing to consider that a write-in, if you were so inclined.

>>5493037
>Trash has a really good imagination when it comes to salvage-centric adventures and tying them in with other stuff. If it was any other qm, I'd go pirate.
That is very high praise anon, thank you!

I'm going to leave this up for another hour or two, then close it before dinner. Considering that the first choice that follows both of the current options is effectively the same, I could post it now to save time ... but I figure it would be better just to hold off until the voting is done.
>>
>>5493439
>sitting on the blasters and sleeping on the decision
Consider that my write in, please and thank you. I want to get more of a feel of the quest and character before we weigh in on such a heavy decision, even now I'm questioning what is the right call.

I honestly think you have good imagination and writing ability in general desu.
>>
>>5493457
Thank you for the compliment as well, anon!

Hmm ... well, if that switches to the write-in, then that means we are tied 2-2-1 right now. While we wait for the tie-breaker then, here is the next vote: if Enoch brings back a massive haul, it is obviously going to raise questions as to where he got it, regardless if he is planning on taking the semi-legitimate wrecker route or the pirate route. On the other hand, the talents and reputation that a major haul would bring might be useful in getting what he wants, for either of the two routes.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Enoch decides to go completely under the radar this shift. What conduit he has found here, he will leave behind for now. Instead, he will consider what to do with the lances next.
> Enoch decides to take enough - over the course of a few trips, as to not arouse suspicion - to just barely qualify for payment for electronics, then he will make a decision on what to do with the rest and with the time that remains to him for his shift.
> Enoch decides to take enough to qualify for payment for electronics, then he will make a decision on what to do with the rest and with the time that remains to him for his shift.
> Enoch decides to take all of the conduit he can pull and haul in, as well as the speared drone, then he will make a decision on what to do with the rest and with the time remains to him for his shift.
>>
>>5493497
> Enoch decides to take all of the conduit he can pull and haul in, as well as the speared drone, then he will make a decision on what to do with the rest and with the time remains to him for his shift.
We didn't exactly cover our tracks here, no? If we don't take advantage then someone else could take this out from under us.
>>
>>5493497
> Enoch decides to take all of the conduit he can pull and haul in, as well as the speared drone, then he will make a decision on what to do with the rest and with the time remains to him for his shift.

I'd also bring in the whole haul (except for the weapons obviously) and bask in the glory. Don't really see why not?
>>
>>5493497
> Enoch decides to take all of the conduit he can pull and haul in, as well as the speared drone, then he will make a decision on what to do with the rest and with the time remains to him for his shift.

No regerts.
>>
>>5493497
> Enoch decides to take enough - over the course of a few trips, as to not arouse suspicion - to just barely qualify for payment for electronics, then he will make a decision on what to do with the rest and with the time that remains to him for his shift.
Didn’t we just piss of Higgs? And didn’t he suspect we have a map?
>>
>>5494100
Horne, you mean? The chiseller? He just suspects that you had found something worthwhile written down. If he knew you had something as valuable as a schematic that could double as a map, he would have tried a lot harder to weasel his way in with you.

Also, for anyone who hasn't voted yet, we still have a 2-2-1 tie for >>5492497 as well - and under absolutely no circumstances am I going to roll for a vote of that magnitude.
>>
>>5494118
Horne, yes. The chiseller. He’s going to need to be dealt with- though, given the level of infestation, I don’t doubt that more than a couple wreckers will go missing, even if given a schematic of the ship.

Would you like for me to revert to my original vote btw?
>>
>>5494128
No, its alright, we can wait.
>>
>>5494118
Alright I'll switch my vote here
>>5493046
to the sit and wait write-in. So instead of 2-2-1 it's now 2-1-2
>>
If there is no strong opposition, how about we just move ahead with sitting down and thinking about it IC to keep the quest moving?
>>
That sounds good, but as it stands, we are at risk of getting booted off of the board. Instead, I think we will start the next thread with Enoch pulling the conduit and thinking about his next several moves if he was to take either course of action, or options for them to let people get a flavor of what each of the paths of the quest would look like. After that, we can have a vote on what to do with the duckfooters and do a fresh vote on what path the quest is going to take.

Hopefully, if the thread is at the top of rhe board, we might pick up a couple of 'walk-ins' and get the tie broken. I'm busy until dinner time, but after then I will get writing. No promises though that I will have the new thread up tonight - I know better. Regardless of when, I hope to see you all then!
>>
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Huh.
>>
>>5495512
The sidearms are like old fashioned duckfoot pistols
>>
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>>5495842
These meme guns that hit everything except your target?
>>
>>5496502
The very same. When not in use, the capacitors that hold the charge are against the stack (the barrel equivalent) - but when the sidearm is made ready to use, they fan out, so they don't over heat. The three-ignition type has two capacitor banks that fan out from the left and right of the stack, and a third that fans down underneath it.
>>
The new thread will be up later today! Thanks again for participating, and I hope to see you all there and then!
>>
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>>5499070
Forgot the roll call.
>>
>>5499072
Nice
>>
I am about to post the thread, but I think doing so will bump this quest from the board, so I figured I'd make this post first just in case. If you are still here, the new thread should be up!



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