RP: SNV Gam'trosha [Chapter 4.1] Into a Den of Trouble Part 2!

[Shuttle Bay]

As soon as the message came through his communicator, Ry'ken was racing for an answer. But the kit spoke first, and surprisingly he agreed.

The My'leke gingerly pressed the communicator with his tail."I would have to agree with Keri" simply put, it was amazing how intelligent the child was. Still stunned his mouth began to speak for him, "I am in the Shuttle Bay at the moment, it would not take more than a second to ready myself. Since, um, he is 'out on a walk.' " Did I really just say that? He cringed internally at the remark. He shimmied out from the craft and quickly brought his tools along with him. Hopefully it something more internal than mechanical. Surely it not something that would put to engineers out- side the hull. He caught himself be he could say the phrase again. To be outside the Hull... not something I would d-Oh! "I will be awaiting orders ma'am" Almost forgot.

Planetside

Ross turned to Kil'nda at the sound of his voice. He looked at the object the other kit was trying to move with an empty look in his eyes, as if distracted by something. He quickly shook his head and approached, moving to the other side of said object to assist Kil'nda. "Yes... Yes, of course." He mumbled absent-mindedly as he grabbed the object, hoping to quicken the process of unloading.

External Hull

As Keri looked through the antenna's and their connectors, he'd soon find two of them - the longest of the antenna's - that were bent downward at a fifty five degree angle, because they were the longest part of the array - they had clearance lights on them which were presently not functional. The bent portion of the antenna's were mixed in with the rest that were functioning fine, making it to where the damage wouldn't have been noticed on the outside of the vessel.

Engineering

Quin sighed, folding her arms over her chest as she spoke. "Using lasers might work, a bit archiac, but not like we'd have a choice. What about reconfiguring one of our communications drones to serve as a kind of booster?"

Ground

"Whose in charge here?" a man, wearing a full body suit with a scientific emblem on the side, spoke as they approuched the shuttle.

Ground

Shar was just walking from the shuttle with box in her hands. Her rifle hanged on a sling at her side so she could get to it if needed. She put the box on the ground and walked the man in body suit.

"I am in charge of security. Lexicon is in the shuttle." Shar said to him and activated her communication line. "Lex there is a guy asking for a boss. We are in front of the shuttle."

"Thanks, Kil'nda said as the Kit came to help unload. He helped hold the heavy container up as they carried the supplies out to set off to the side so they ouldn't get in the way of unloading any other cargo, personale or vehicles. Any weapons, if needed eeded would be the last things to come out for security reasons Though currently from Kil'nda's perspective it seemed they might only need the explosives incase of a cave in at the mines

Surface

Once the shuttle had touched down and the door open, Dar'tagnan released his restraints. At Shar's command he headed out and took a position from which afforded him the best field of operation. He held his weapon at the ready and kept an eye on the shuttle doorway as well as the surrounding area.

Def'leor exited the shuttle with Elza'beth walking behind her. She surveyed the area trying to get a feel for the situation. So far things appeared as they had been briefed. She did a quick check of her communications, and saw that her communicator was unable to achieve a direct link to the ship. She switched to the shuttles frequency. "Relay this to the Gam'trosha. Shuttle down safely at landing zone. About to make contact with the locals. Lexicon."

She walked around the nose of the craft, close enough to still feel the heat of its entry. She spotted Shar and walked up beside her. Def took notice of the person standing in front of her crewmate. "I am O'Eytene Def'leor Vail'ant, Lexicon of the Gam'trosha. Who might you be?" she asked.

Elza'beth had watched Dar charge out to take up a defensive position. She was grateful when no sound of weapon fire followed. She stood up and followed the Lexicon out of the shuttle. She adjusted her sight goggles to compensate for the conditions. She remained silent as the Lexicon introduced herself.

[SNV Gam'trosha Engineering Hallways]

"It is possible to reconfigure one of our droids to boost the signal. I would have to strip it almost completely down though." He stumbled over one of the support ribs blocking a ladder to the normal crew decks. I would have to grab a few more tools and diagrams he though silently. "We have a spare, the power supply is gone though," including several other important components. "The A.I. is faulty to the point of removing the core, but sense we are basically by-passing everything to use the homing relay and beacons it will not be problem." I would have to have a close enough range or a more powerful signal... "I do believe those are your options ma'am, I am going to gather extra supplies for both."

Surface

"Dui'uiye Tuy'iii. Supervisor for this expedition," the man - a Daur - spoke as he turned his attention toward the nearby cave that had black smoke wafting out of it. "Glad to see your face and those of your crew," he said and took a step back and then turned onto his side. "I know we requested supplies to be delivered but if its possible can your crew help out with the recovery? We have two people trapped in the cave and sadly we lack the equipment the get them out," the man sighed and placed a hand on his hip.

Near the cave, a group of Laibe were presently trying to drill through the tough rock - a moment later a curse could be heard as one of the drills broke.

Gam'trosha

Quin thought about what Ry'ken had said and nodded her head. "Do it," he said to Ry'ken. "Modify the drone and see if we can get it to work how we want it."

Surface

Ross sighed deeply as he assisted Kil'nda with another crate. "I must confess... I wasn't quite expecting to do a lot of lifting in this scenario." He dryly commented as he flexed his sword hand. It darted to the hilt of said sword upon noticing the Duar reach for his hip. Shaking his head, he quickly dismissed the perceived threat, switching his gaze over to the Laibes upon hearing their failing activities. "Ah, I would think explosives would benefit those fellows greatly. Despite that, and I will say I'm not educated extensively on the subject, that there may be a chance of a cave-in as a result. What do you think?" He voiced to Kil'nda. He was the engineer here.

Shar listened to the supervisor and frowned. She looked at Lexicon and then back at the man. Finally she called out to her men.

"Oy Kil'nda, get your tail over here." She called the combat engineer.

"Well Ma'am," Shar looked back at Def'leor. "We do have some explosives and Kil'nda is an expert. But we will need to be extra careful to not make the cave-in worse and to not blow-up the people stuck in there.

"Do you have communication with the two inside?" Shar asked the expedition leader. There were several things they could do. They could travel back up to Gam and try to get some heavy equipment that could deal with the rocks, they could look for another entrance to the caves or they could use explosives. All these were a bit risky and would not assure success.

"Welcome to.. *huff* The navy." Kil'nda said as they lifted the next container. "Were you normally have to lift very heavy things all the time." he said as the younger of the two complained. Hearing the claim he might know how to solve the cave in with explosives "If that's the route they go It'll take me time. I'll need to meet with at least someone that knows the mines." That's when they heard the call for him from Shar. "One moment Ma'am!" He called as he couldn't just drop the container down on Ross's foot. They got the container off the ship and Kil'nda nodded to him as if passing off the torch of unloading to him. He made his way to Shar with a salute. "You called Ma'am?"

Gam'trosha Hull

Keri only half-listened to the ongoing exchange regarding the use of comms drones as a signal booster over the engineering comms channel. It might work -- it would largely depend on how powerful the interference was and if the drones comparatively smaller and less capable comms system could be sufficiently modified to overcome that handicap -- even if it only had to transmit over a fraction of the same distance as the Gam'trosha. Another possibility occurred to Keri as well, so he added his thoughts aloud for the engineer working on getting the drone ready.

"Another modification you could do is to reconfigure the comms systems aboard the ship, the booster drone and the shuttle's comms to automatically repeat each transmission several times and then amalgamate the repetitions to weed out errors caused by the interference. This will lower the data transfer date and may cause a couple seconds of delay for each audio message -- but those messages will probably be a lot clearer and less garbled."

The kits blue-green eyes narrowed on the offending sensor antennae and he swore colourfully under his breath. "Xeui'na, the two largest antennae of the aft sensor array are bent," Keri exclaimed incredulously. "They are pointed at a 50-60 degree angle at the drisa hull."

Peering closer, Keri examined the spot where the antennae had warped, trying hard not to wince. "How the?! Blast it all into the empty night... I'm going to have to detach and lug both these things back inside so they can be repaired. I'll also need to fabricate several internal components as well -- no way they're all still in one piece."

The kit wondered how the damage had occurred. Had some idiot in a work-pod bumped the hull along this section? Sabotage? How it occurred mattered little at present though. Keri's main concern was getting the problem fixed as soon as possible.

With a mournful sigh, young Keri mag-locked his tool-kit to the hull and extracted the tool he needed to decouple the first of the array antennae from amongst its companions. At least being in zero-g meant he'd have no problem physically carrying the component so long as he didn't let the thing fumble out of his grasp. Thinking preventively, the platinum-haired engineer opened a comms line to the bridge -- addressing whoever might still be present inside in a cautious, hesitant tone.

"Bridge, this is Severem -- currently EVA on the ships hull performing sensor maintenance. I'd just like to ask for a little warning before anyone engages in... let's say... a course change. Or evasive action. Thank you... and that is all I wanted to say." The kit then returned his full concentration to his work, carefully starting to remove the outer housing of the first antennae where it connected to the ship.

Surface

Dui'uiye Tuy'iii placed their hip and glanced at Shar. "Think carefully on that plan, we estimate at least twenty feet or more of the cave collasped where our two collegues are currently. Their life readings are faint," he brought up a datapad and tapped it, causing a holographic image of the cave to appear - there were two green dots, signifying the trapped workers, along with a large red blob that showed where the cave in was. "I'm open to any idea's you have on clearing that debris."

"Also, do you have anyone here who has medical experience?" he asked.

Gam'trosha

"Don't worry youngling, we'll keep the ship stable," a voice spoke into Keri's suit as the ships lateral menuvering thrusters engaged briefly to stop the ships slow spin and bring it to an almost near complete 'stop' in terms of rotation.

Surface

Def'leor listened to Tyu'iii and the proposal from their own team. "Shar, have Kil'nda do a visual on the passageway. We need to assess how stable before we consider using explosives. The shock wave could collapse everything. " She turned to Tyu'iii, "Are there any air shafts for ventilation, and do we have any equipment to monitor the atmosphere in the cave? Demolitions would be the last thing we should try if it turns out that the cave is filling with volatile chemicals."

Dar'tagnan approached looked at Shar and Def; "Perhaps we could use our weapons to bore holes into the stone and then Kil'nda could put shape charges. They would be small so less change of a cave-in, but they would accelerate the process of making a new passage." He offered.

Surface

"Good thinking," Shar said to Dar'tagnan. She liked the My'leke more and more. He kept calm in any situation it seemed and she needed people like that in her team.

"Kil'nda go get visual on the cave-in and be careful. Get someone to take you there." The infantry leader said to the demo expert and turned back to the Dui'uiye.

"I got one more question, did you map the surrounding, how about another way we could get inside. Small vents anything? Do you have anyone who scouted the place?" She asked, still not giving up on another ways to do this rescue mission, should the cave-in prove to be too unstable to use explosives.

"Ma'am" Kil'nda said with a nod at his orders. He turned then to the Miner they had been talking to. "I'm going to need anyone here with the most familiarity with the mine and to look over a map as well as what we can of the shaft to determine the best corse of action." he said.

At the moment all he really could do was survey, plan and reveiw. He wouldn't use the explosives till everyone was sure what the best corse of action was and he then recived orders with the go ahead. The moment he was pointed to his expert on the mines he would make it to them to discusss the rescue mission"

"We have plenty of equipment that is used for surveying and scientific data gathering," Tuy'iii gestured toward the open tent nearest the cave entrance. "Initial scans of the cave showed a few rather narrow shafts that could carry air but I doubt they are big enough to be sufficient." The man, hearing Kil'nda's request, turned toward a group of rough looking indivisuals standing a few feet behind him and gestured for them to come over.

"Give this soldier your utmost cooperation please, we need to our collegues out," he said.

"Of course sah," one of them, a Laibe that was eight feet tall and looked to be built like a brick, flexed his fingers for a moment and then cracked them against his neck. "What do you need of my miners and I?" he asked Kil'nda in a rough tone.

Gam'trosha Hull

Keri breathed a small sigh of relief, before continuing his work in decoupling the first of the damaged array antennae. After he managed to separate it, he secured it to the hull so it wouldn't float off into the void while he was busy retrieving the second broken antennae.

A few minutes of work, the platinum-haired kit had both antennae slung under his arm and secured to his vacuum suit by cables normally used to tie oneself to the hull. He began pacing across the hull back to the airlock, his mind mostly occupied by contemplating what sorts of repairs he would have to perform to get the damaged hardware he carried back to full working order, once he had access to a parts fabricator.

Def'leor listened to the scientist. "Then you should see about running hoses down some of those shafts and pump air down. That should help give them more time for us to get to them."

Kil'nda looked to the group of miners he was directed towards. A rather big one spoke up for the group asking waht was needed of them. "I need someone that's an expert on the mines to help me with the set up. I need to know How stable the mines are out side of the collapse and a layout of the mines including where the trapped workers are. The exspolsives we have can be rather powerful so I'll need as much information as I can before We an attempt a rescue mission." he said