RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 19.2B] Clues (HX-12 II Crashed Ship)

Derelict Bridge

Natsumi could gather a lot of information from looking at the dead astronaut's uniform. She saw the suit had a nametag on it labeled "CMDR Alessandra Bekele," and that the space suit had a pre-Yamataian, Uesureyan-looking tricolor flag on it and a unit patch that read "Special Exploration Division." There didn't seem to be a clean place to place the deceased skipper.

There was a flash followed by wisps of smoke from the bridge station as Takeyu tried to give it power without checking the label, despite it being written in English. After a second, the control station actually burst into flames.

Sienna watched as Takeyu floated up to the access panel, envious of the Nekos' antigravity abilities in this crushing gravity. She stayed quiet as he produced a cable from his power armor, her brow dropping in a puzzled frown. She wasn't very familiar with Yamataian technology, but it certainly looked like a power cable to her; surely he wasn't about to try and supply electrical power to an access point marked "Computer Access." She held her tongue for a moment, trusting that the engineer knew what he was doing, at least until she heard a faint, low hum. "Hey, uh," she said tentatively, "you ain't trying to juice the--"

A sudden spark and puff of smoke made her go wide-eyed, and her hands defensively flew up before her face on reflex. "Holy sh--" she remarked. She cursed herself for not saying something before. "Damn it, that's a computer terminal, not a jumper dock!" she snapped.

Acting on impulse, she did the first thing that came to mind -- start flinging the rotting muck above her head at the now-on-fire console, hoping to extinguish it before it spread.

Stupid.. stupid.. STUPID... Takeyu cursed himself out for being an idiot and making a rookie mistake. He should've checked the console over, checked that label first, before going on ahead with his plan.

He joined Sienna in putting the fire out and, once that was done, decided to CHECK the labels this time to see 'where' he plugged in to provide power.

Much to their dismay, Takeyu and Sienna quickly realized that the bio-muck itself was flammable. As the globs they threw impacted the bridge station and then fell to the pool of muck surrounding them, it, too, began to start burning. And while the room now finally was well lit, it was also now filled with a smoky haze that limited visibility to about a meter.

"Shit!"

Sienna's singular, frantic curse didn't do enough to accentuate her frustration and horror upon realizing that they were now standing in a gigantic broiler. Though her suit protected her from the heat for now, the sight of the spreading flames was frightening enough, and she didn't want to find out just how much the AMES could withstand before she found herself burnt to a crisp along with the rest of the dangling skeletons.

There wasn't time to figure out how to extinguish the fire; doing so in the first place had made it much, much worse. This ship wasn't going anywhere ever again anyway. She looked back in the direction she remembered coming in, but the smoke made it difficult to see. "The hell with this place, let's get outta here before it spreads!" she shouted through the comm, and started to trudge as fast as she could push through the viscous fluid back to the hatch. Hopefully the others were smart enough to follow her; she had no delusions about dying as a hero.

Ramiro, who had continued to watch the rear of the group, peaked over his shoulder curiously. He looked just in time to see the two try to extinguish the fire and manage to make it bigger. Shaking his head, he recalled once wondering whether shields were airtight. He figured now would be as good a time as any to find out. Clunking over in his armor, he took a deep breath as he stepped up to the flaming station.

"Stand back."

Getting close enough for the panel to be within reach of his shields, he instructed his system and modules to form a spherical shield with as large of a radius as the armor could manage. His hope was the shields would choke out the fire; he hoped.

Natsumi took in the information she was able to gather from the quick visual inspection she was able to do while trying to find somewhere to lay the deceased Captain to rest.

"This ships been here for a while" she said, more to herself than anyone else at the moment. "Commander Alessandra Bekele, pecial Exploration Division" she read the name placard on her space suit. "Um...Uesureyan?" she was not overly well versed in pre-Yamataian factions or history.

Then, though, other things required her attention. There was a sudden burst of activity as it seemed the others had set the bridge on fire. She quickly followed Sienna out of the compartment. There was no need for her to get in the way while Ramiro and Takeyu dealt with the sudden blaze.

Once she was out in the next space she looked back, black acrid smoke was billowing out of the bridge and the flames had spread to the sludge.

"Oh great, that stuff burns too" she sighed and set the Commander down as respectfully as possible. There was no where proper to put the dead woman, she knew the sludge would absorb her in a few moments. "I'm sorry, Commander Bekele" she said as she let the corpse go.

"Get ready to get out of here, back to where we came in a moment if the fire cant be contained" Natsumi said to Sienna, then to the others; "Are you going to be able to contain that? If not we need to go now, this whole place is gonna burn to a crisp!"

Unfortunately, Ramiro's attempts failed so completely that the shield broke the entire control station off the floor and sent it falling into the sludge where the fire spread out instantly and engulfed the entire bridge. With the fire now everywhere, the other control stations began to melt and the other deceased crew ignited. The away team was covered in the burning muck.

Sienna didn't believe what she was hearing. "Frack the fire!" she shouted through the radio. "Consider it a formal cremation! Now let's go!"

Finding the hatch they'd entered through, she waded now nearly chest-deep in the biomuck, pushing through the doorway and grabbed a hold of the hatch itself. She looked back inside just in time to see the control console break free from the "ceiling" and plummet into the lake of slop. Instantly the flames roared higher, spreading voraciously in their all-consuming, relentless hunger.

She screamed a mass of quick syllables that was half an amalgamation of curses, and half unintelligible. In seconds the fire would spread across the surface of the muck through the hatchway and engulf the rest of the deck. She only had one option if she was going to make it out alive, and she hoped the door was fireproof.

She gave an urgent, meaningful glance to Natsumi. It was either two of them, or all of them.

As Sienna passed through the hatch away out of the bridge, she was able to see through the smoke to spot a large red fire extinguisher that was mounted on the wall next to the hatchway. In fact, the opposite side of the hatch had one next to it as well.

Through the hatch she could see the bridge quickly becoming a swirling orange inferno.

Sienna noted the fire extinguisher even as she began to shove the door closed, the thick muck slowing her progress. But something made her stop, even though every instinct she had screamed for her to continue. Other attempts to put out the fire had only worsened their situation, and sealing Takeyu and Ramiro inside seemed like the only logical thing to do if she or Natsumi were going to get out of there alive. But for some reason a quiet, nagging doubt simply wouldn't let her proceed.

She hesitated for another brief instant before she swore again and ripped the fire extinguisher from the wall. "God damn it," she muttered as she aimed the extinguisher at the base of the nearest flames and pulled the lever, "if y'all get me killed, I swear to all that is holy you won't be able to take a crap without me haunting you till you're hopelessly insane."

Takeyu had to wonder if some diety was snickering somewhere, this day had only just gotten worse... Should've checked the muck but never thought of it, he scowled and looked quickly around.

"Out of the bridge now!" shouted the Taii as he pointed toward the exit and made his way toward it, but stopped short when he noticed the fire extinguisher, ripping it of the wall and aiming it toward the base in an attempt to either extinquish it or at least buy time for the others to get out of the room.

Natsumi kept pace with Sienna as she evacuated from the burning bridge. Once both of them were safely out she saw Sienna making an attempt to close the hatch and seal off the burning compartment with Takeyu and Ramiro still inside and keep the fire from spreading. She was about to step in and pull her away from the hatch, there was absolutely no way her shipmates would be left to burn to death.

Natsumi had to force back the sudden rush of anger at the thought that Sienna would just leave them to die in flames and was glad when the Nepleslian woman changed her mind before Natsumi made her own move to push the hatch back open.

"You're not going to die" Natsumi said to Sienna and grabbed one of the other fire extinguishers and began fighting back the flames that threatened to sweep from the bridge.

"You two better get the hell out of there now!"

Ramiro rolled his eyes as he watched the room and people around him start going to hell. Rolling his eyes, he looked around the room quickly and started grabbing anything that looked useful, starting with the body that Natsumi had been looking at, and throwing them over his shoulder. Clunking his way back out, he emerged from the inferno carrying two bodies over one shoulder and what remained of one one of the stations over the other shoulder.

"Alright, let's get out of here."

Using the fire extinguishers, they were able to put out the flames on each other and to keep the flames from passing through the bridge hatch. Once everyone was out, they were about to seal the hatch to let the fire burn itself out.

Through the haze of smoke and darkness, they could see each others' charred and dirty suits in the waist-deep sludge.

It took a moment for her eyes to readjust to the darkness, and until they did, all that Sienna could see was the vague outlines of the rest of the team barely illuminated by a hazy spot of light from her headlamp. With a deep sigh, she relaxed her arms, letting the weight of the fire extinguisher drop them back into the muck.

"So," she breathed as the others came into focus through the smoke, looking at each of them in turn. "We had enough excitement today?"

The fire was out. Natsumi breathed a sigh of relief. "Yes, I think this is enough for me" she replied. Now her thoughts turned to the one major obstacle that could force them to remain in the crashed starship. The sand storm.

Natsumi accessed the orbiting shuttle and queried the sensors for the local weather report. Hopefully the storm had subsided by now.

"Not leaving yet," said Takeyu as he stepped back onto the bridge, although more cautiously this time than before. "We still have to find out what happened to this ship and see if any of the terminals are still operational and weren't fried by the fire..."

He looked around, hoping that at least 'one' terminal was still active that they could access...

Natsumi looked through the hatch into the bridge, black inky smoke still billowing out of it. The situation looked dubious. "I don't think there is much left in there" she replied

Sienna did little to hide her nonplussed expression. "I--" she began, barely even sure she'd heard Takeyu correctly, "--you're joking, right? Everything's cooked in there."

She put her hands on her hips after resisting the urge to wipe off more of the film of sludge from her faceplate, knowing it wouldn't help. She wondered if single-minded tenacity was a common trait amongst Nekovalkyrja. "We were lucky to get out of that still raw," she continued. "Besides, I'm even less thrilled to be wading in an alien sewer now that I know this goop burns."

She refrained from commenting further. If she hadn't seen that fire extinguisher, she'd have been above ground, out of the muck, and waiting out the storm by now.