RP: The Fringe [Chapter 2.0] - Salvage

Shuttle Bay - Inside the Shuttle

Shrie sat in the darkness. There was no more reply. It made her worry a bit. Were they really salvagers of some sort? Pirates? Will they just leave her here. That would be bad. Really bad. Or they might just kill her. Or they had to do was cut a small hole into the hull. Vacuum would take care of the rest. That would be ironic, as soon as Shrie got some hope to survive, that hope would turn into her own bane. That would be typical Shrie-luck.

Then she noticed it. A small beam of light going around the shuttle bay, she could not see it directly, just something shining around the big hall. The tall fyunnen got up and then thuds could be heard as someone walked up on the top of the shuttle. Well now it was clear, they came for Shrie, but who came and what will they do to her, that was still a question.

With a sigh, Shrie took a flashligh and shined it on the ground, making the insides of the shuttle a lot more iluminated. Now it was clear that the very very tall woman was standing inside the shuttle. The darkness still covering some of her with shades. She wore her old black suit, covering her whole body, the typical cloak of hers was thrown over the chair of second pilot. All she had on her belt was a knife. With all that she waved to the person that peeked in the through the windown.

Shuttle Bay

Amelia squatted down, still looking down at the cockpit of the shuttle, trying to see if anything was really amiss; The light from the flashlight would be more than enough to obfuscate her the vision from anyone inside, preventing them from seeing her, or at least someone 'normal.'. If the person in there was really stranded inside, and alone, then she could easily get inside and assess it better. Her gaze switched to the occupant, looking for any kind of concealed weapons. "Cycle out the airlocks on the cargo area, I'm jumping in," the astrogator said to the occupant, "and don't do anything funny," she added.

Shuttle Bay - Inside the Shuttle

Shrie simply gave a nod to the person behind the glass. She then went and closed the doors to the cockpit, making sure they were sealed tight. Then sitting back in the pilot's chair, Shrie played with the life support control. It took her a bit to find what to do, but she activated cycling air out of the back. She kept her eye on the oxygen levels in the cockpit though. Once the air would be cycled out, Shrie would open the clamshell gate in the back of the shuttle and let the person in, closing the gate behind her again, cycling air back in and unlocking the doors to the cockpit once it would be all done.

Shuttle Bay - Inside the Shuttle

Amelia hoisted herself down from the top and entered the shuttle from behind once she saw the clamshell airlocks opened, only to find herself standing on the cargo compartment of the shuttle, with the door leading into the cockpit some feet in front of her. The only sound she could hear for a while before the air cycled back in was her breathing, giving the whole situation a very eerie feeling when it all cycled back but no one left the cockpit. Her right hand quickly unclasped the pistol on her leg holster, keeping the hand hovering very close to the gun as she waited for something, anything to happen.

Suddenly the lights in cargo bay lighted up and cockpit doors opened. Through it a tall woman walked in. She had to lean it to get under the doorframe. On her was an old looking suit, wrapping around her whole body. The scabbard for knife, which hung on her belt was empty. Shrie left the knife in the cockpit to not look threating. Of course when you are 7 feet tall and made of muscles, it is hard to not be intimidating. The tall woman smiled at the girl in the DUSK suit, though that probably was no a great idea. Shrie's face was a bit of a mess after all, a web of scars covering her right side of face, her right eye being pale white, the eye also blinked a few times more often then the other one. It was clear her head suffered some nasty trauma in past. There was also a tip of large scar, starting on her forehead and receding up the skull, where it was hidden by Shrie's hair. The woman also limped slightly on her right leg.

"H-hello," Shrie said, her voice surprisingly gentle, though it was clear she had trouble with the language. Her eyes, clearly going down, noticing Amelia's hand, near her gun. Blinking, Shrie raised her hands and put them behind her head. "I just want to be saved. I won't make any troubles." She said, her eyes drilling into the visor of Amelia's helmet. The technician could see that the fyunnen woman, became a bit more stiff, but she was breathing calmly, her voice not showing any fear.

Derelict - Passageway

Oreza frowned as he read the flickering screen. "There's some power here, just a little" he commented. "Also looks like the compartment beyond is sealed with air in it"

The Nepleslian tapped at the panel's keypad and input a text message for whoever might be on the other side.

Shuttle Bay - Inside the Shuttle

Seeing the original occupant emerge from the cockpit made Amelia take a cautious step back once she finally took in the massive size of the survivor. She stared at the tall woman with some awe, and then surprise when she noticed the scars; The idea of the occupant being and ID-SOL crossed her mind, but she quickly brushed the thought aside once it was more than clear by the one of the other's voice that they were female. Her hand drifted away from the pistol, but she didn't clasp the holster shut again even though she imagined that the other woman could probably chew up her pistol and spit the bullets back at her.

The astrogator shifted her weight awkwardly from one feet to the other, still staring back at the other woman although the helmet from her Dusk suit pretty much concealed her face, no wonder that they didn't simply take one of the emergency EVA suits and left, they probably didn't even fit. "Alright," she started to say biting her lower lip in thought as she took her hand away from the holstered gun and rose in clear view, "Where are the controls for the docking clamps?" She asked.

Shrie watched the other girl for a bit, clearly thinking, before slowly moving her hands down again. She turned sideways and pointed to the cockpit. Amelia now could see the single small wing, protruding from the suit on Shrie's back. It seemed, that the wing has seen better time, some of feathers were gone and it seemed they never grew back. But with this it was clear that Shrie was in fact a Lorath.

"The Controls. In cockpit." Shrie responded in her own way, short sentences. Well not even a true sentences at a time. "I tried, they don't let go. Maybe if you go out, cut hydraulics. I do not know."

Shuttle Bay - Inside the Shuttle

Amelia mulled over the words for a bit more and, without a reply, started moving towards the cockpit. The docking clamps might not actually be working like it was said but she had to see exactly what was the problem, then she could think about the best solution for it. She found her way into the small compartment and eased herself into the pilot's seat, studying it for a second to locate what she wanted exactly. Upon finding the controls for the docking mechanism, she checked for any of the warning lights or telltale signs that should give her any idea of the problem before she tried to disengage them again.

"What happened with this ship?" Amelia asked Shrie as she worked.

Shuttle Bay - Shuttle Cockpit

By all appearances, Shrie had been entirely correct. Although the shuttle was running on minimal power, the control console had already run a full diagnostic, and every critical system that was powered up displayed a status of "OK." The comm relay showed a fault of some sort, and although it wasn't clear from here what the problem was, it was clear that it was completely non-functional. The only other pertinent message Amelia could find was the expected "DOCKING CLAMPS ENGAGED" in solid yellow text, and every attempt she made to release them from where she was was met with no change in the situation.

"I not know," Shrie responded, frowning. She kept her distance from Amelie, standing by the entrance to the cockpit. Shrie did not want the girl to be threatened. "I was here, putting things into the shuttle. Then loud noise, air escapes. I close the gate in time then.... loose myself. When I wake up, no radio on shuttle, no way to call help. No other alive. That was two sundowns ago." It was easy to see that Shrie had a bit of a problem talking for so long. She had a bit of a trouble with trade language obviously.

"Who are you?" Shrie then asked, trying to get a bit of information back. "My name is Shrie."

Shuttle Bay - Shuttle Cockpit

Amelia studied the message given for a moment, already thinking of a couple of possibilities that were keeping the shuttle from undocking, and to confirm either of them she would have to go out and check the mechanisms herself. Her head twisted back from where she was, staring back at the tall woman, "Amelia," She responded, getting off her seat with an inaudible grunt; her head had started to bother her again, making her grimace. "Anyway, I'm gonna have to go out again and check the clamps myself," the astrogator said after some deliberation, moving out of the cockpit and into the cargo area again, "so cycle out this area, please."

Shrie swapped her position with Amelia, letting the girl go back into the cargo bay. Then she smiled at the dusk-clad nepleslian. "I am glad you are here Amelia." Shrie said to the girl with a nod. "I will let you out now." She added and locked the doors into the cockpit. She then went and cycled the air out of the cargo bay again, opening the clamshell gate once it was done.

Derelict, Medbay
Dylan heard a soft beep. The signal that a message had been sent. " Huh? I didn't know that still worked." He said to himself. He read the message. " Someone's out there? Perhaps the captain survived. No, I don't think so. No one would survive such a explosion."

He tapped the console, giving back a reply:

Shuttle Bay - Shuttle Cockpit

Amelia nodded, her lips twitching behind the helmet in a faint smile after she heard the first comment from the Lorath. She heard the air around her slowly hiss until the only thing she could hear again was her breathing, the quietness of being in the vacuum on space was something unique in itself, and she quite liked it. The astrogator started moving again once the rear doors opened, grabbing the edge of the clamshell-shaped airlock and maneuvering herserlf out, then pushing away from it until her feet were firmly planted against the deck of the cargo/shuttle bay, the magnetic pads in her suit keeping her from floating back up.

She started moving around the ship, inspecting the clamps for any signs of external damage. She also bet, as she started to move around, that there must have been some kind of manual override for the clamps, as well as power since the docking clamps were still working.

Derelict - Shuttle Bay - Outside the Shuttle

Amelia had to brush away a few stray pieces of floating debris on her walk-around, and the solitary beam from her headlamp made searching for and examining the docking clamp system a painfully slow process. Much of the decking was marred, warped, rusted, iced-over, and blackened in erratic, unpredictable patterns, and it was next to impossible to tell whether it was age, neglect, or whatever disaster had befallen the operation that was to blame.

After an aggravatingly long search, she finally located two long metal bars connected to an intricate system of servos, armatures, and pistons on either side of the shuttle. They could only be the docking clamps holding the shuttle in place, but so much filth-encrusted ice had formed over them that on her first pass she'd mistaken it for part of the shuttle's hull. It appeared that the shuttle was quite literally frozen in place, but after a moment's consideration, Amelia knew instinctively that the powerful hydraulics should be little more than inconvenienced by even the thickest encasement of water ice... assuming that the ice was indeed formed from water vapor. Which, of course, it could very well not have been, but she had neither the means nor the know-how to figure it out.

A closer examination of the clamps revealed an oddity in the one clasping the port side of the shuttle. While the opposite one was relatively straight throughout the majority of its length, this one was misshapen and bent. It appeared that something very heavy had impacted it some time ago, but how it had managed to only damage the clamp and leave the shuttle unscathed was somewhat puzzling.

Derelict - Shuttle Bay - Outside the Shuttle

Amelia grunted once she saw the damage done to the magnetic clamp. She didn't know the ship layout, and Shrie didn't seem to know about any of the external controls either; she even doubted that they would work at that point after the damage taken by the clamps. She paused, staring at the frozen piece of machinery keeping the small shuttle trapped in place, until some sort of plan had formed on her mind. This was a mining ship after all, and even though the ship did most of the job of mining she was still pretty sure that there should be more than enough tools lying around whenever the crew had to do some work that required more finesse.

The astrogator started moving away from the shuttle, her helmet lamp swinging around in almost any direction as she looked for anything, floating or otherwise, that might be of use.

Derelict - Shuttle Bay

There were so many crates, tools, and machinery parts floating adrift in the shuttle bay that going through every single one by herself would have taken hours, and required far more maneuvering in zero-G than her Dusk Suit had the fuel capacity to perform without being recharged. There were even more things still in the cargo bay below her, but a fair amount of it had drifted up into the shuttle bay through tears in the decking as well as the holes where the service lifts had once operated. Prioritizing her search targets, Amelia set to work.

After fifteen minutes or more of searching through parts, tools, and materials at whose purpose the astrogator could only speculate, at last she came across what appeared to be several cases of thermite, and a tank-fed torch. The pair of tanks were big, unwieldy, and old; under normal gravity Amelia wasn't sure she'd have been able to move them on her own. But after a few moment's planning and thought, she wrapped the hoses and torch wand around them, and managed to maneuver them over to the shuttle with a series of carefully directed shoves. The thermite canisters were easy enough, and were clearly labelled on how to open them. Now the trouble would be figuring out how best to set about the task before her. The fuel tanks gauge was broken, so she couldn't be sure how much fuel was left inside, and applying the thermite to anything in the open would difficult in zero-G, if not impossible.

As she was moving the materials back to the shuttle, something big caught her eye as her headlamp beam brushed across it. A long tube of some sort, rounded on one end, floating a few dozen feet away from her, near the ceiling. It was colored differently than the rest of the miscellaneous stuff scattered about, and very obviously not intended for a mining operation.

Derelict - Shuttle Bay

Amelia inspected one of the cases of the thermite upon dragging everything next to the shuttle. Her gaze varied between the case of the powerful pyrotechnic to the faulty magnetic clamp several times, each time she repeated the process due to her scraping the plan she had made on her head about how to solve the issue. She wasn't a chemist, let alone a demolitions expert, but having a basic knowledge of chemistry was more than enough to know that thermite could more than easily melt through metal like it was butter; when a plan was finally picked, the raven-haired woman made her way closer to the clamp, a canister in each hand.

Even though she didn't have all the tools she would need to make the job perfectly it still didn't mean she couldn't improvise, however, something made her freeze and let go of the canisters, leaving them floating close to the faulty magnetic clamp as her gaze turned back to the tube-shaped object that she had seen. The astrogator couldn't explain why it had caught her attention like that, but the 'damage' had been done, and with a very fast motion she propelled herself again towards the object in the same fashion as before.

Derelict - Shuttle Bay

Amelia drifted across the empty space, swatting a few floating wrenches and rags out of her flight path. The nearer she drew to the strangely out-of-place object, the more of it her headlamp illuminated for her to see. It measured more than twenty feet long, and perhaps two feet in diameter. At first, it looked like it could have been some sort of case for an enormous drill bit, or perhaps some kind of drone. Of course, these were only conjecture; she had no practical experience with any sort of mining operation, so she wasn't really qualified to accurately presume anything. It looked to have been painted at one time, but exposure to the intense radiation of solar wind had stripped it down to mostly bare metal, leaving only flakes of paint behind.

Just a few feet before she reached the spot on the ceiling to which she had launched herself, she noticed what looked like an advanced propulsion system, and although she couldn't tell for sure from the surface, she guessed from its design that the device had FTL capabilities as well. Suddenly the realization set in. This thing couldn't possibly be designed for use as a mining tool.

This was a torpedo.