RP: Cirrus Station [Episode 10] Cumulocirrus

Blake wondered through the corridors slightly behind the rest of the squad, playfully drawing shapes in the ice on all the walls of the halls they passed through. When they emerged into the larger room, however, the young man's whimsical nature left him in exchange for stark amazement. It seemed like the shaft was larger than the station itself, although that couldn't be true.

And there was Administrator Montreal! She looked so adorable in her parka to Blake, so he just couldn't help himself but warm up to her. The young artist leaned in close as he took the place of one of the departing members of Squad 11, and peeled off his helmet. It really wasn't that cold to him.

"Well, hello Administrator Montreal!" He said cheerily, fog oozing from his mouth and nose, "I think I should mention just how attractive you look peeking out from inside that adorable parka!"

"As attractive as a pit viper in a fuzzy clay pot, Blake," Noboru said in a sarcastic tone of voice, rubbing his forearms through the suit. His entire brain was focused on how goddamn cold it was, and being attuned to the temperate climates of Yamatai, where it was usually quite warm, this sudden drop in temperature made him groggy. Compounded with his natural state of poor health after the Spacer food incident, Noboru was not a happy camper at the moment.

He crossed his arms and looked at Cassifin, then at Kokuten. "So, what's the plan?"

"Huh?! What?!" Cassefin quickly shrunk away from Blake as he slunk next to her, a look mixed with surprise and worry plaguing her face as she eyed him suspiciously. She placed her hand gingerly in between her face and his, as though she were expecting him to vomit something vile onto her should he have the chance. "I... thanks? I guess?" Cassefin smiled weakly as she took a step back from him, readjusting her parka on her shoulders.

Cipher said:

He crossed his arms and looked at Cassefin, then at Kokuten. "So, what's the plan?"

Click to expand...

"Plan?" The Head Administrator asked with a tilted head, glancing over between the two Savtechs between them. Kess and Mimi returned shrugs of their own, apparently also in the dark as to why there had been summoned. "Oh... right," Cassefin said, a flash of realization crossing her eyes as she lightly tapped the palm of her hand against her forehead. "No, there's no plan. You all are just taking over Squad 11's assignment until they're done helping the maintenance team out with the atmo-unit here. Some ice has formed in the maintenance shaft and 11 is clearing it out," she explained plainly, pointing out the window towards the platforms. "You'll mostly just helping the loading crews move some of the small things. The wolverine teams will handle the large crates. This is just until they fix the unit, afterwards you all can return back to your previous duty."

Cassefin's description of their assignment took Tweak away from her pondering of wing warming units.

Wait, she didn't bring us down here to fix it? That was disappointing. What was causing the malfunction? Tweak wondered, looking back at the Elysian's wings while she went down the list of possible causes.

Coolant leak, thermal sensor malfunction/damage, someone left a heat source near a central regulator sensor, computer damage, a prank (that kinda got out of hand) reprogramming of the environmental controls, or maybe someone actually wanted it that cold and no one thought to ask them to turn the temperature back up?

Snow was a bit excessive, though.

Tweak kept her suit sealed against the outside environment with only her helmet visor open just enough to allow a bit of outside air in at a time, her naturally high body temperature keeping the interior of her CSS suit comfortably warm. Too bad she couldn't pipe some of that heat to others, some of them really looked miserable.

Bringing her thoughts back to the mission at hand, Tweak glanced over at the squad captain, waiting to see what her assignment was.

"Well hell, dear. I don't want your beautiful wings to get ruined. Here, Serra." Claire slid out of her coat, and walked over to the Elysian. "Fold your wings hon. I know they're beautiful but you're gonna have to tuck them in for now. Otherwise I won't be able to get this coat around them." Claire shivered a bit, the curvy woman already stretched the fabric of her shirt a bit, making it a little less resistant to the chill. She silently urged Serra to hurry up so she could put it on and proceed to try and warm herself. (Thank god for her gloves)

When Cassefin explained their mundane assignment, the immediate question of 'what are we moving' popped into her head. She silenced herself on that one though, certain that perhaps the captain might be curious enough to sate it.

Knowing what they needed to was nice change of pace for the day, and it sounded normal enough. He looked over at Blake, who had his helmet off, trying to chat things up the administrator. At that the Captain waked over to the man tapped his knuckles against the man's bald head, rather roughly, and then tapped his own helmet, with similar roughness. With that, the leader regarded the man with a cold silence, his only following words being the green glow behind his visor disappearing every now and then with his blinks. He turned his helmet in Cassefin's direction.

"Any reasons why it was allowed for the ice build up to get this bad?" the Captain crossed his arms, finally speaking once more. "Mimi tells me it's been like this for five days, and for that matter, what exactly are we carrying?"

Serra folded her wings against her back as close as she could. When Claire helped her into the coat, it... was a bit of a struggle. The added bulk of her folded wings, added with the difference in Serra's and Claire builds made the coat both too tight to close and stuck Serra's arms out a bit to the sides.

She knew it wasn't going to really fit, but it was better than nothing. The heavy coat was draped around Serra's shoulders and fit the best she could, at the very least able to cover up her wings. Claire patted her shoulder after she fit it on the best she could. "Bout the best I can do hon. Sorry. If nothing else, it'll keep your pretty feathers from falling off."

With another shiver she unslung her weapon and held it in a relaxed stance once more, wandering over to the captain and giving him a cocked head to signify her curiosity about the three stooges routine he was starting with Blake.

Kokuten said:

"Any reasons why it was allowed for the ice build up to get this bad?" the Captain crossed his arms, finally speaking once more. "Mimi tells me it's been like this for five days, and for that matter, what exactly are we carrying?"

Click to expand...

Cassefin turned to Kokuten with a tired sigh, scratching the bottom of her chin idly as she began to explain. "We haven't allowed the ice to accumulate willingly. There was a short in the climate control system that affected all of the oxygen processors and air regulators at once; we are having to go into maintenance ducts around the module to reset the devices manually before we can reset the entire system back to normal," Cassefin rubbed at her arms as she shivered slightly, a brisk, brief gust billowing in from the vent high up in the corner of the room. "As for what you're going to be carrying... I'm not really sure," the Head Administrator admitted with a curious look about her face. "Pullroy can tell you though. Pullroy?"

One of the Cirrus Station crewmen watching the lifts from the large glass pane turned. He was wearing the light gray one-piece zip-up work suit that the maintenance crewmen were known for, complete with a simple white handkerchief tied around his neck and a set of earmuffs to weather the breezy chill. Pullroy, as Cassefin called him, turned to Squad 35 with a smile and a nod before looking down at the datapad in his hands. "Uh... looks like aluminum paneling, resin boarding, caulk, tiles, a few hundred thousand feet of carpeting..." Pullroy read off the list in his hand. "Mostly construction equipment, for the renovation four floors down."

"Ah, right. Vanderhuge has been pushing for a renovation of the storage wing," Cassefin said in agreement. "Ever since the walls got torn from that 'mishandling' his science team accomplished with the Wolverine last month. Last I recall, mishandling and destruction while inebriated off of contraband were two different things. But I thought we had to postpone construction until this climate issue was solved?"

Pullroy nodded once along with Cassefin's question. "Well, technically all the work has been at a standstill for the last several weeks. But we're still bringing the supplies down so that they'll be ready once the renovation kicks back up."

It's hard to nod when one is replacing one's helmet, as Blake managed to find out while awkwardly bumping his forehead on the visor coming down. Still, he felt the need to show he was paying attention after Kokuten's rather uncomfortable signal. Still, underneath the visor, Blake was smiling earnestly in spite of himself. Whether he somehow secretly got off to nervousness or was perhaps trying to secretly gain the Head Administrator's fear was unknown.

Without waiting for any further orders, Blake went straight for the offending boxes and began plying them from the ice for movement.

'What a simple assignment!' His mind exclaimed, 'I can't wait to see what goes wrong!'

"Alright, we know what we're looking for now. If that's all we need to do and then we'll get to it." said Kokuten, his attention on Pullroy, before looking back at Cassefin. He shifted his weight a bit, showing little chill in the cold. In fact, the Captain was as if he were in his element, gracefully handling the temperature as if he were walking in normal conditions. It seemed he was rather attuned to it. To continue his point, his hand gestured to the side, as he got out a boorish 'Then,', before his finger and wrist joints locked up.

He stared at the frozen hand for a moment, and then back at everyone else, and then back at the hand. The free, unfrozen hand on his other lifeless arm began to fiddle with his locked up cybernetic. Though, it was quickly apparent that this fault was a little worse than he had imagined, as his prodding, pulling, and attempted bending showed no signs of success.

"Son of a bitch..." growled the Captain in a spiteful mutter, as he attempted to turn his wrist. His frustration started to show. "...god damn it..."

Crick... Came somewhat metal sound, muffled in a way that almost made it sound like bone, and then...

KhhhkLAK, K-K-KRUK

"Augh!" wailed Kokuten. His wrist had twisted about 135 degrees into an unnatural position following that almost sickening sound. Normally, one would easily tell that his joint was made for that kind of turn, but with the ablatives over his arm, it would like he nearly twisted his own hand off. His fingers were still locked up, but now in a much worse position.

The sound made Tweak wince. She weaved between her squadmates to get to Kokuten and grabbed the malfunctioning hand.

"Hey...hey, calm down," she said quietly over the team channel. "It might be frozen, you can't force frozen machinery. Makes it worse...Ice can be stronger than metal, you know." This was a surprise, though. There must have been loads of water in the air to make that happen. Or, they must have continued pumping more water vapor in to counteract the water lost in the ice formations, which would create more ice, and so on.

This place will be flooded if they warm it up too quickly.

Cassefin gave Kokuten a peculiar look as his fought with the mechanisms in his hand, her brow wrinkled in slight concern. Whether it was for Kokuten or her own well-being, should his hand sudden formulate free will, was uncertain. She seemed particularly worried when Tweak gave it her mechanical analysis, but didn't stay fretful for long as she gazed at the two of them exchanging words, clearing her throat and turning back to look out of the window.

Foreman Pullroy also seemed a little worried, but not enough to keep him from getting his job done. "Well, you all have a couple minutes before my platform arrives. We'll be going a few floors up, loading up the goods, then bringing them back down a couple floors," the man explained, clasping his hands together and rubbing them to brush himself up some warmth. "Easy peasy, Yamateasy."

Almost instantly after Pullroy had finished his recap of the evening's events, another Cirrus Station Savtech appeared off to the other side of Cassefin. Squad 35 hadn't seen her before, but this wasn't very surprising; Station Savtechs usually kept to their assigned teams or personnel, rarely needing to communicate between others. This particular Savtech appeared a bit older than both Kess and Mimi, sporting shoulder-length, curly dark brown hair and a slender, petite figure. Cassefin instantly turned to the newly-appeared Savtech as she gave the Head Administrator a short, polite bow.

"I'm sorry for interrupting ma'am, but we've hit a teensy snag with resetting this auxiliary box," the Savtech stated. Cassefin groaned in displeasure, holding her forehead in her palm for a moment. "Eeugh... what is it Rita? What else could possibly go wrong? Like I don't have enough stressing me up the wall already?"

The Savtech Rita shook her head side to side with a dismissive smile. "Oh no no no, it's nothing like that ma'am. Just a minor hitch is all," she attempted to explain. "It seems our mechanic has a very strong case of claustrophobia... and my squad has cleared a way to the atmo-regulator's maintenance panel, but the passage is very narrow and he is having a hard time mustering the will to approach the panel to reset it. The squad has tried going in themselves, but... we'll, they're all very well-built boys and would be impossible for them as is. It will take several more hours to clear the ice out wider; it's taken several already just creating this passage. Squad 11 and I were wondering how we should approach this."

Cassefin released a heavy sigh, her head still held in her single hand as the stream of condensation left her mouth in wispy waves. She remained motionless for a moment, breathing deeply as she attempting to silently find a solution to the problem. After a while, Cassefin glanced up from her hand towards Squad 35, giving each of them a quick once-over. "So," she said suddenly, casually crossing her arms as she gave Kess and Mimi a pleading glance. "Would any of your squad be willing to give them a hand for a moment, Kess? Mimi?"

The two Savtechs glanced at each other quizzically, knowing that Cassefin's question was merely conjectural. Kess and Mimi, in turn, glanced over at their squad, hoping for them to give the Head Administrator an answer instead.

"Hey...hey, calm down," she said quietly over the team channel. "It might be frozen, you can't force frozen machinery. Makes it worse...Ice can be stronger than metal, you know."

Click to expand...

"These arms are almost three years old. The cleaning mechanisms are likely going out." commented Kokuten, responding over the team channel as well, frustrated and unsettled by having his hand paralyzed. "Though, it's hard for the servo-sweepers to function when the arms are concealed as they are." He thought on this for a moment, trying to figure out just what exactly to do. The arm seemed to shake a bit. "It feels like it's messing with my atmospheric sensors, it's like I have frostbite, or something."

Meanwhile, he kept an ear open to Cassefin, listening in as one of the Savtech reported in. He paid no less attention to his hand, as it still was locked up. It seemed the Squad was going to have yet another task, another that divided their unit up. He began looking at his other members, already trying to pick out a few of the more able for a task like that.

"So," she said suddenly, casually crossing her arms as she gave Kess and Mimi a pleading glance. "Would any of your squad be willing to give them a hand for a moment, Kess? Mimi?"

The two Savtechs glanced at each other quizzically, knowing that Cassefin's question was merely conjectural. Kess and Mimi, in turn, glanced over at their squad, hoping for them to give the Head Administrator an answer instead.

Click to expand...

"Akio, Winters, you two go with Tweak to take care of the secondary problem. Drakon, Morris, Evangelle, and myself will handle the primary." declared the Captain, before looking down at Tweak. "When you three finish over there, come help us out in the main area, alright?"

While everyone was talking, Blake had managed to free a few of the boxes from their stiff, frosty resting places on the floor of the bay and moved back to his spot with the team. After all, they had to wait for the platform, so that was supposed to be a while anyhow. Instead, Blake focused on Kokuten's arm.

"Would you like me to bend it straight for you, Captain?" Blake asked, cocking his head to one side, "So you could get it out of the sleeve more easily? Then we could maybe flush some antifreeze over it and use some of the lubricant for the Wolverines on it? Or something like that."

"Sweet christmas, an assignment where I get to do one of my favourite things, liftin' heavy shit? I love you, boss, even if I do suspect you're the reason a certain lab girl gave me the cold shoulder."

Stovaa rubbed his arms and flexed, eager to keep his joints warm in preparation for lifting stuff. He winked towards Claire before returning his attention to Cassefin.

"No real problem though, I was just glad to help. And besides, plenty of other laboratory lovelies heard how nice I'd been to her, asking if there was any way I could repay them."

Whether or not he was telling the truth wasn't shown on his face, what she could see of it with his helmet on.

"I'm fairly certain that I don't know what you mean, Drakon," Cassefin said, her snout lifting slightly into the air with indignation, not really helping out her case as she "We'll just see how popular you are..." the Administrator added, barely above a whisper as she turned her head back over to the rest of the group, heaving a sigh.

---

Meanwhile, Rita looked over Tweak, Noboru and Claire, noting their respective physiques and nodding in approval as she chained her gaze from each one. Her brow furrowed a bit however as her eyes fell upon Ms. Winters, her head tilting to the side as she began to fidget behind her back. "Ah... Miss Claire Winters? I appreciate that you want to help, but I'm afraid it might be a little... difficult? You look about, say, 5'10, but your..." Rita cleared her throat and lowered her voice, her volumetric image sliding closer to the woman for a more private exchange. "I'm sorry ma'am, but your abundant assets would make traversing the intended route near impossible."

George Resetti, who had been sitting silently off near the window, was listening in on Rita's little explanation of Claire's plethora of curvacious issues. At first her simply cleared his throat and attempted to look busy, putting a rough elbow into Lenny's waist to jostle the titanic man out of his fascinated stupor of observing the rising platforms. Of course, Lenny couldn't feel a thing; the difference in mass was far too great, and actually cause George himself to move back in recoil instead. After a minute of rubbing at his elbow, however, George's eyes lit up in epiphany.

"Oh, yo, cap'n!" George said through his helmet's radio, raising his faceplate up as he spoke to get a more sincere word in. "Rita says Claire's butt's too big to fit in the duct. I volunteer to replace her though," the man said, looking somewhat proud of himself now that his unusually short stature was of use to him rather than a detriment. "I should be just the right size."

Claire seemed a bit relieved when George offered to take his place, though a smirk played across her face when Rita tried to explain the problem. "That's ok, I'm a bit claustrophobic myself. As much as I'm sure people would like to see me squeeze through tight spaces..." She looks to Kokuten, "It wouldn't be very effective. Unless you, like, want me to watch everyone else or something."

"I'm not that weak, I could help you with the lifting. I am a geshrin soldier after all." Claire gave an easy smile to the captain. "Not arguing with your orders or anything, just double checking what it is you want me to be... helping with."

She only then glanced back, pausing briefly to give George a murderous glare.

"It doesn't help that we have good deal more large people then short people." noted Kokuten with a light grunt, the sensations of feeling returning to his fingers felt like pin-needles being pushed into a cushion. The Doctor grimaced as his finger slowly began to move again, and his wrist was becoming able to turn. He gave a short sigh before flexing his hands.

"George can take Claire's place." he affirmed, before lifting his visor, exposing a sullen face. "Does anyone have any questions? Or can we get this 3rd Class duty over with?"

George pumped his fist in victorious triumph, trotting over to the ventilation duct and standing at the edge, looking over at Tweak and Noboru and waiting for them to catch up. "Looks like it's just the three of us, yeah?" George said with a smile, glancing over at Tweak for a moment before turning back to the maintenance duct.

Rita smiled and nodded her head in approval. "I'll inform Squad 11 of your arrival. Just follow the duct down and you'll reach them in a couple of minutes."

The opening of the maintenance shaft belied the a spacious tunnel of polished metal, short handlebars protruding from one side to speed along the process of traversing through the confines of the tunnel. From the entry point at the observation room, the three of them would spot a turn farther down the line, obscuring their vision of the remainder of the maintenance duct.

---

Mimi giggled at the exchange Rita, Claire and George had, holding her hands to cover her mouth, while Kess simply rolled her eyes. Cassefin, for what it was worth, looked positively peeved... but for another reason entirely. She turned her head towards Kokuten, clearing her throat harshly to garner his attention. "3rd class duty? I figured you all would be happy to have some simple tasks for once, so you've been getting them," Cassefin said, most likely referring to the past few days since they had returned from their outing on Fortuna. The woman placed her hands on her hips, seemingly unphased by Kokuten's sullen expression. "What, having a change of heart?"