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RP: The Fringe [Chapter 2.0] - Salvage

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Floodwaters

Floodwaters

Inactive Member
Some theme music for atmosphere...

Halna System - Asteroid Belt

The vast expanse of rocky planetoids endlessly drifting through the void of space baked in the brutal rays of the nearby Halna star. The giant rocks tumbled and rolled through space at varying speeds, circling endlessly on their lonely journeys through the planetary graveyard, somehow evoking an even more desolate image than the infinite blackness of interstellar space, the remnants of a long-forgotten world that had eons ago traversed the tight orbit around its indifferent sun.

A streak of bluish white light lanced through the darkness and withdrew in the blink of an eye, like a hot knife stabbing through the fabric of space and time itself. Where it terminated, it left a sole token of its appearance: the Concordia Veil, now coasting through the belt at sublight speeds.


Concordia Veil - Cockpit

In the dim light of the cockpit, Sienna sat in the pilot's couch, the controls pulled in tight around her thighs and waist. She reached up and adjusted the headset secured to her right ear and glanced at the nav screen in the center console.

"All right, we're here," she said matter-of-factly, giving Amelia, who sat in the astrogator's chair to her left, a brief glance before turning her eyes back to the canopy glass. "Scan subspace channels for any comms activity. Let's make sure we're alone out here."
 
Concordia Veil - Escape Pod Bay

Seeing as during spaceflight Six Four had very little to do, and also was not allowed in the cockpit, it took it upon itself to organize and arrange its 'office' in the escape pod bay. The idea that someone would remove the escape pod in the first place baffled the freespacer thinking it was near suicidal and to quote some rather colorful patrons it had at one point 'A rather bone-headded dumbass thing to do', but the doctor said nothing out loud about it and merely noted the situation in its medical log.

The cramped space worked well enough, a set of medical supply boxes with their tops attached together and laid across the top served as a desk and home to specimen one's aquarium with the operation table on the opposite wall behind it. The doctor's rolly-stool barely fit in the small gap between them but it sufficed and was a staple to any doctors office. The various books and documents that Six Four had brought in, as well as a few other medical supplies, layed in small stacks and piles where they would fit up against the wall or wherever they would be out of the way, much like the doctor during the flight.

Six Four was partaking in its hobby of reading after organizing the office, while enjoying a cup of coffee (or more likely substitute from the taste) before things inevitably got a bit dicey.
 
Then:
Concordia Veil - Cabin 3

Sitting on the edge of her bed, Amelia casually looked at the Datajockey she was holding with one hand, while she supported her head with the other, propping her elbow against her thigh. She was wearing the usual clothes, except her footwear was tucked somewhere next to the gray jacket, leaving her with only the black sweater and cargo pants, which looked a good few sizes bigger to her when they weren't tucked into the boots. Frowning a bit and still feeling the pain in her forehead despite her attempts to ignore it, then set the datapad down on the surface of the bed, looking at the other occupant of the room. "So what do you do when you're all alone in this cabin anyway?" She asked Crash.

"I process." the robot's head tipped to the side as if it thought her question was strange. "What do you do when you are alone?" Crash had been doing just that the whole time she was passed out, processing and sitting there on overwatch, a programing order Crash had found already installed in this robot. It was having trouble understanding why this human was helping It out. The world may have moved on after the genocide but had it started becoming kind again to Freespacers?

"Stuff," Amelia replied rather vaguely, "I just think that sitting in a corner like that must be boring," She added, crossing her legs on the surface of the bed and putting one hand on each knee as she leaned forward. "Not like I'm gonna have much privacy now that I'm sharing this with two," she said.

"I can shut off the external sensors if you like." Crash responded casually.

"It's alright, you're fine," Amelia said as she leaned back, resting her back against the cabin's cold metal wall. She looked back at the sitting robot, pausing for a moment, "I just thought you'd feel constricted since you can't move freely while your true self isn't fixed," she said after some deliberation.

"My Trueself was recycled for 'reclamation and energy surplus' years ago. Though the spiderbot has become something of a home. Do you treat you clothes the same way?" Crash asked as it fiddled with Amelia's pistol, It haddn't returned yet. The idea of Six-four being about worried It a bit, but there wasn't any reason Six-four would reconize what It was. Maybe the fact there were still organics in Six-four allowed her to be acceptable.

"I guess," Amelia said, scratching her head. She didn't probe further into the matter, but instead simply chose to look down at the bed again, until she noticed that the bot was actually holding her pistol, which made her jump out of the bed. "Where did you get that!?" she asked, quite aggravated.

"You had it on your person, when I covered you and you were unconious I removed it from your hip and sat here on overwatch. I' have not seen proof that the intruders are gone as of yet." Crash responded before toggling the weapon's safety on and handing it grip first back to Amelia, "This body was suppose to come with a rifle... It seems to be missing."

"Well can't you just take my word for it?" Amelia asked as she picked the gun and started walking towards the table in the room. "It was supposed to come with an SMG, not a rifle. But they weren't selling the entire pack in the station and I was in a hurry. Sorry." She said as she pulled the weapon's slide back, locking it there, and then removed the magazine off the pistol, setting both on the surface of the table.

"When there's more time we can fix the spiderbot, but you'll just have to bear with that body for now. Sorry." The short woman said as she leaned back against the table, supporting herself with both hands.

"I was not meaning to sound negative, i was just expressing my reasoning for having your pistol. As for this body, it will suffice until other options arrive." the robot flicked its hand over as if it wasn't bothered. "As for taking your word I did, but I still worried, that was a situation that put us both on the damaged lists."

"Alright, but-" Amelia said, stopping mid sentence as she brought her PHC up after noticing the blinking light on it. She opened up the holographic display in front of her, flicking through a couple diffrent displays until she finally read the message, or rather order, that was addressed to her. "I need to be on the cockpit, just message me in case of anything," Amelia said, pursing her lips afterwards. She quickly grabbed her gray jacket, which was strewn on the back of a chair, and put it on before folding the sleeves all the way over her elbows. The Astrogator then quickly put on her boots and started making her way out.

As the woman started out of the cabin Crash settled back into a standby state, the sensors were still live to alert if anyone came in. Crash made a sighing sound as It drifted back into the dream like world of processing.


Now:
Concordia Veil - Cockpit

Amelia sat somewhat comfortably on the Astrogator's seat, both arms extended as she diligently worked on her station, getting navigational vector plotted with foreseeable hazards in the way. She was once again wearing the very much familiar attire, the gray jacket over the black sweater, and green cargo pants that were tucked into working boots, but was really out of the ordinary was the patch of bruised skin on her forehead, which was kept in check through the painkillers that the doctor had given her.

"Checking," she said as she reached for a different monitor to her side, watching as the ship's computer tried to detect any change in the different channels, frequencies and spectrum, or simply any sort of anomalies that the sensors detected. The problem wasn't actually detecting the differences but actually interpreting the often conflicting reports from the ship's sensors; Sometimes it got to be more of an art than an exact science.
 
Concordia Veil - Cockpit

Masses of data flashed across screen after screen, providing Amelia the feedback she needed to perform her scan as she interacted with the consoles. As lonely as it appeared to the naked eye, interplanetary space was an exceptionally noisy place, constantly bombarded with lethal amounts of radiation, punishing solar wind, and background noise all over the electromagnetic spectrum. Making sense of it all when one didn't know exactly what they were looking for indeed required as much talent and experience as diligence.

She scanned through every known frequency the ship was capable of detecting, filtering through a quagmire of meaningless noise, searching for any recognizable patterns too regular to be natural. The faint signature of a distant pulsar leaking into her scan caught her attention for a moment, before she recognized it for what it was, but soon enough she could determine with near certainty that if there were any spacefaring sentient beings in their immediate vicinity, they were staying very quiet.

The navigational console displayed dozens of dim, uninteresting blips; sensor contacts that most likely were the asteroids surrounding them, drifting through space. However, moments after Amelia completed her scan, the navigational console emitted a soft beep, and a targetting reticule contracted from the circular outer rim of the volumetric display, focusing in on one of the brownish dots. A few lines of identifying marks highlighted in white flickered and lit up around it, and the contact itself began to pulse slowly in a pale yellow. Something nearby was registering a different composition than the rocks around them.
 
Amelia kept going through the different displays, giving a quick once-over at the bits of data that the sensors were throwing at her, at least until something different was detected, which got her attention right off the bat. "I got something." The Astrogator said, switching the sensors from scanning the vicinity of the ship to focus on the single contact that appeared instead. She pulled up the ship's long range telescope to actually take a look at it, punching in the object's coordinates into the display.
 
Concordia Veil - Cockpit

Sienna glanced over to her side at the display between them when Amelia brought it up, and watched as the abstract representation of their surroundings was replaced by a low-fidelity telescopic image, snowed by the occasional burst of staticky interference.

The picture flickered a few times before focusing into a shadowy outline of a vessel of some kind, tumbling slowly on all three of its axes. There were no visible signs of lights, engine flare, or any activity whatsoever; the only light coming from it was that of the nearby star reflecting brilliantly off of its sunward side. It appeared to be in drifting slowly away from a massive asteroid on its far side, or perhaps in a highly eccentric orbit. More striking about the vessel, however, was not that it appeared deserted, but rather that it seemed to be blown almost completely in half. Debris floated and tumbled around the wreck in all directions, dancing slowly through space around their source in a haunting sort of funeral procession.

From what the two women could tell, the parts of the hull that remained was recognizable as the stern section of the Hikari mining vessel that Vel had promised. The ship's computer placed its location off to their starboard, and several light seconds below their current orientation.

"Well, at least we know that bastard's info was good," Sienna commented with a sigh. "Assuming there's enough left to salvage, anyway." The captain looked to her left, her face a mask except for her slightly raised eyebrows. "No comm chatter at all? You think it's a trap?"
 
Amelia stared at the telescope's image relayed through the display, taking in as many details as she could about the wrecked vessel. There was something undoubtedly eerie and serene about the way the vessel simply tumbled around all its axis in the vacuum. Letting out a sigh, she leaned further back into her seat, digging her back into the soft cushions as she tried to make the mental calculations in her head about it. The vessel was big, she could hazard it was almost a kilometer in length, and maybe about half of that in width, but since it was a mining vessel there would be far less people than someone could initially guess. Still, that was, for her at least, still a lot of people who bit the dust too early if they didn't make it out.

Her gaze went back to the ship's captain after the two seconds it took her to make that assessment in her head, "I'm not getting any comms," Amelia said, not wanting to make any guesses that might be proved wrong later as she eyed the other woman apprehensively, half expecting her to go off like the last time.
 
Concordia Veil - Cockpit

The ship was a grisly sight, to say the least. The only part of the bow section of the ship that remained was its starboard cargo pylon, and when it rotated enough to bring the scarred remains of the front section of the ship, all that could be seen was twisted metal, blackened craters, and empty voids where tiny sections of the ship's interior could be seen. Even though the crew section of the ship looked to be mostly intact, going by looks alone, it was unlikely that there were any habitable areas left inside.

To Amelia's surprise, Sienna only nibbled her upper lip for a moment in response, the nodded once. Turning her attention back to the controls, she pitched the ship's nose down, pointing them towards the wreck as she gently rolled to reorient themselves. "Let's go have a closer look, then," she said.
 
Amelia nodded, 'brushing' the volumetric display from t he telescope aside with a casual wave of her hand and bringing back the other sensor displays she had been using as before. Even though she stared at the displays the image of the derelict ship was still etched in her head, making her shudder; It wasn't a nice way to go, but then again she couldn't think that there was such a thing as a 'nice way to go.'

"Alright, calculating approach vector," She said after some deliberation, looking over towards the ship's captain. Then, in a second, her attention was back to her station as she started working again with with a familiar precision.
 
Concordia Veil - Cockpit

The two women felt a nearly intangible pulse in their sternums as the CDD launched the ship along its new trajectory at blistering sublight speed once Sienna had lined it up according to the astrogator's figures. Occasionally a bluish halo would flash outside the canopy glass from where a micrometeoroid would impact the shield and be oblierated, but without the aid of the telescopic imaging, the shipwreck that they knew was floating in the asteroid field ahead of them was for the moment invisible. After less than a minute of travelling, however, a glint of light became apparent in front of one of the massive asteroids dead ahead.

"There," Sienna said definitively, pointing out over her controls. The dead rock behind it loomed increasingly larger as they approached, and along with it the pinpoint of reflected light started to become more defined. The wreck looked even more uninviting and desolate up close, unobscured by static and snowy interference. Shards of debris eerily spinning around it like a sparkling cloud in the starlight, and the gaping hole where the ship's bow once was gave the crippled ship the likeness of a slumbering beast with a many-toothed maw, waiting to devour any who drew too close.

Sienna slowed the ship's speed at a steady rate, rolling again to adjust their orientation so that the wreck was above them, and craned her neck upwards to watch it as they approached. Even blown in half, the mining vessel dwarfed the relatively miniscule Jinsoku by almost ten times. By the time they slowed to a crawl and matched the shipwreck's drifting velocity, the image of the massive, ghastly shell of a ship hanging ominously in space above them, silhouetted against the dead dwarf planetoid behind it gave both of the women a profound sense of insignificance.

The captain, her eyes still lingering on the ship above them, reached up and touched her earpiece with her right hand. "Oreza," she spoke into the mic, "I need you to prep four suits, then get Vel and Six Four in the lounge. You and I are taking them aboard to see what we can find. I'll be back there as soon as we find us a way in."

She tore her eyes from the wreck and looked over at Amelia inquisitively. "This might be tougher than I thought," she said, then glanced briefly at the astrogator's consoles. "Can you tell if there are even any viable docking points, or are we gonna have to EVA it?"
 
The Astrogator wasn't in awe as much as she thought the captain would be. Being someone who found the infinite gulf of space to be more her home than a nice, safe planet, she had more than her share of moments of simply being dumbfounded as she floated in the vacuum, staring at the stars from behind the visor of a spacesuit. It wasn't by any coincidence that one of her favorite hobbies was stargazing.

"Hm," Amelia said, squinting as she examined the wreck, no longer thinking of the implications but instead analyzing it in a more logical way, looking at the structures and possible entry points, as well as any hazards that going inside a wrecked, derelict ship entailed. She couldn't see any cargo or shuttle bays that were intact, and landing the Veil in whatever space that there was might have been dicey. "I'd say EVA it, there's no point in risking a landing there if you just park the veil very close," She said pensively, scratching her head, "I can try to sync the ship with the rotation of the wreck too," she added.
 
Concordia Veil - Cockpit

"If we're gonna have to jump, then yeah, you better," Sienna agreed, nodding and pensively biting down on her upper lip again as she looked up at the floating remnant, and tentatively rested her hands on the controls. "I don't see any good place to moor up either, and something tells me the other side of that hulk don't look any better than this one does."

Despite her last sentence, after another moment's thought Sienna nudged the ship forward relative to the wreck anyway, slowly pushing through the debris field. Occasionally there would be a floating piece of hull plating, truss, or what looked like behemoth mining machinery that she avoided, not confident enough in the CFS's ability to repel them from the hull to test it, but she otherwise kept the ship on a wide circle around the derelict, alternating between staring up at it, watching the nav console in the center of the cockpit, and looking ahead at their course.

The Veil lazily circled the wreck, scrutinizing every bit of it that was visible from the outside, but as both Amelia and the captain suspected, there wasn't a single spot that looked safe enough to approach close enough to moor up. "Let me have that rotation sync now if you got it," Sienna said, her focus and concentration more than evident in her voice.

Since the wreck was tumbling in such a chaotic way, it took several minutes of back-and-forth between the two women and a lot of fine-tuning with the graviton drive to synchronize the little Jinsoku's movement with the destroyed mining ship, but eventually they settled into a position that was stationary relative to a point on the hulk's dorsal side, near the area where the ship had fractured. It didn't look pretty, but it was as viable an entry point as any other, and this was the place that seemed to have the lowest concentration of debris.

Sienna moved one hand from the controls and brought up a volumetric display near her thigh, punching in the parameters necessary for the ship's computer to hold its present position based on Amelia's data. Hope the damn computer behaves this time, she thought as she released the controls, and sat in silence for almost a full minute, watching the various readouts and gauges for any unwanted variance. When she seemed satisfied with what she saw, she turned her wrist and awoke her PHC, interacting with it for another minute, although it was held too low for Amelia to see what she was doing.

Finally, she looked up at the astrogator and brushed a strand of stray hair from her face. "So," she said, a wry smirk tugging at her lips. "Am I gonna find another dead body when I get back?" she asked in a subtle humourous tone.
 
Lounge

Oreza Dakkar sat comfortably in a chair, a steaming mug of coffee in how right hand, a tablet with the print news displayed on it's display. That was when the PHC in his pocket chimed and Sienna's instructions came in on the devices speaker.

The Nepleslian set his tablet down and withdrew the device from his pocket and thumbed the activator for the channel, "On it, Skipper" he replied, thdn pocketed the PHC.

Standing, Oreza drained his coffee mug in two long gulps, then set the mug away for cleaning. He then then made the short trip to the ship's airlock. Opening up lockers, he first withdrew his and Sienna's personal EVA suits, setting them out and going over, making sure they were free of damage, that their life support systems were functioning and their batteries charged.

It was about thdm his PHC chirped again, he checked it, reading the text it had recieved, then put it away again. Oreza drew out two more suits, ones he figured would fit the other two coming along, and prepped those too.

Done with that he looked for the medic. Poking his head into the former escape pod bay turned office it seemed, "Gonna need you for the landing party, join us in the lounge as soon as you can" he said to Six Four and then was off to the cabin Vel was inhabiting.

He rapped his knuckles on the door loudly. "Lounge, now" he barked loud enough to be heard through the door before returning to the lounge himself for another mug of coffee.
 
Concordia Veil - Cockpit

Amelia kept her head pointed towards the wreck, but nevertheless still looked sideways at her captain when she brought up her PHC, specially when it was clear to her that it was kept low just so she wouldn't see it. 'Yeah, you lock the flight controls again,' The Astrogator thought, looking back at the wreck as she pursed her lips, then back at the volumetric displays on her side to make sure everything was in order again.

The sudden humorous tone did catch her off-guard again, though, making her head snap from what she was looking at, unsure of what to say. The fact that she was also reminded of the situation didn't help either, bringing a bitter taste in her mouth; She hadn't even remembered that for the whole day. That was when she remembered, of all the times, about the spider/not-spiderbot and how she probably should have told Sienna about it, since it was apparently a good time and the captain was in a good mood.

"Well, uh..." Opening her mouth to speak, Amelia realized that the words didn't come out, so she instead just blurted out some words. Instead of speaking, though, shepulled out her Datajockey, quickly flicking through her notes, "could you look out for anything like this while you're aboard? I know it's a far cry, but I'd appreciate it," the raven-haired woman said, turning the datapad's screen towards Sienna. The screen showed a simple list of items that she needed, some where even redundant, but what she needed to fix the actual Spiderbot was there.
 
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Concordia Veil - Cockpit

Sienna's eyes dropped to the datapad, looking at what was displayed. As she did, an eyebrow slowly raised a little at a time, and her gaze flitted back up to Amelia, her expression slightly puzzled, oddly wary, even. "These for that little project of yours?" she asked.
 
"Yeah," Amelia said, but didn't actually got to explain any further, choosing to lie bu omission than actually saying the wrong information. "Do you think you could do it? I can send you this list if you want," She said, still holding out the Datajockey, and half-expecting being denied, and hoping that her expression passed out as expectant instead of what it actually was: That she simply didn't like lying, specially to the person in charge of the ship.
 
Concordia Veil - 'Office'

Six Four didn't say anything to the large man as it continued reading its data pad, Psychological Disorders and Diagnosis was displayed on the top. Slurping the last of its beverage though the induction port on its helmet the freespacer got up and made its way towards the lounge, stopping briefly by the galley to dispose of its cup. Being the first one there Six Four took its usual seat, keeping its 'nose' burred in its data pad.
 
Concordia Veil - Cockpit

Sienna's eyebrow stayed raised for a moment as her eyes moved back and forth between the datapad and Amelia's face for a few seconds before she smirked again. "Well, I'll keep an eye out for them," she replied, shrugging as she took the datapad from her and transferred the list to her PHC. "You must've really poured a lot of heart into whatever the hell that thing is." When the transfer was complete, she handed the datapad back. "Just keep it in your cabin like I told you, 'till you wanna share just what it is."

Sliding the controls off of her thighs, she pushed herself up with her legs and reached overhead, grabbing the handrail and hoisting herself out of the pilot's chair. "Ship's yours until we get back," she said a little louder and more formally. "Just keep her steady and watch the scope for any signs of any other vultures out there looking to get a piece of our haul." Climbing out of the seat, she stepped back to the hatch and opened it. "I'll radio you when we're cycling the airlock and do a comms check. Keep me posted."

It wasn't hard for Amelia to hear in the captain's voice that she was significantly more at ease with leaving her aboard this time around.


Concordia Veil - Lounge

After she had double-checked Oreza's work in prepping the space suits, Sienna walked into the lounge area and surveyed who was present. Her lips pursed when she noticed they were still shy one member, and she folded her arms and leaned on the wall next to the door. "Well, when Mr. Hero decides to grace us with his presence, he can tell us what he knows about this ship," she said with a sigh, but continued nonetheless. "We got a pretty good look at it on approach, and it's a mess. No idea what happened, but it was bad. Barely half of the ship is still in one piece." She shifted her weight as she looked between Oreza and Six Four. "The thing is still gargantuan, though, so we shouldn't have any trouble finding something valuable in there. We're locked into a synced roll with the wreck, but there's no viable place to moor up, so we'll be spacewalking down to the hull. From the looks of it, there's no power to the ship, so everyone stays suited up unless I say otherwise. Everyone needs to bring a flashlight, and I'm gonna grab a could of cutters to bring with us as well." She put her hands on her hips and stood up off of the wall, looking at Oreza. "No telling what we'll find in there, so stay sharp, and I need you armed."

She looked again at Six Four. "You got any gadgets hidden away in that arm of yours you think might be useful?" she asked. "And I'm assuming you're comfortable coming along. Hopefully we won't need a medic, but I ain't taking any chances."
 
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Concordia Veil- Lounge

"This one is comfortable coming along yes." Six Four said acknowling Sienna though still burried in its book, "Six Four has spent most of its life on a starship or station and isn't afraid of a little space walk or derelict space wreck." The freespacer sighed as it set down its datapad, interlacing its hands on the table. "Disappointment: Unfortunetly however this one does not have any, as you so put them gadgets, that will be useful in a vacuum. Unless someone gets injured that is, in which case Six Four has several tools including a stitching mechanism. Works on spacesuits as well."

As to show testimony to its capeablities Six Four unbuttoned part of its Doctors coat, pulling it aside to reveal a black rather worn looking pressure suit. Pointing to the small seam on its chest Six Four spoke up again, "Seam is still working, seeing as how this one has not died from lack of oxygen yet. Though Six Four does wish to reinforce it with a patch of sorts."

Buttoning the coat back up, Six Four returned to reading its data pad. If the others could see its face they would see the rather large smile of pride at its work that was on Six Four's face.
 
Concordia Veil - Room 2

While everyone else was watching the space flight to the derelict ship Vel remained in his appointed room doing a mix of meditating and monitoring the flight and got quite a surprise when he seen the condition the ship was in. Once he was done with his meditation he began sorting his equipment "Plasma torch, check. BCI connector, check. Data Jockey, check. It doesn't seem like there is going to be oxygen in the ship... I wonder if i can seal off the sections exposed to space and get some breathable air in the still functioning part of the ship.." He wondered to himself as he gathered his equipment, changed into his normal clothes out of his robe, and finally headed out of the room to find everyone was waiting on him

Concordia Veil - Living Area

"Apologies, I needed a little extra time to prepare." He said with a smile while looking at each of them including Oreza, it seemed as if a good nights rest was all that was needed to forget his frustrations. "I will however require the use of a pressure suit if i am to join you." His voice hadn't shifted in tone but there seemed to be something a little odd about it, though only those that had prolonged periods of conversation with him would notice it at all.
 
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