((Might want to separate that quote.
Also, I find it very ironic that the drones I grabbed are the only ones surviving. And the ones Flint put on record. That's what like, 9 drones?))
Record that part about light on my wrist-pad.
"From what I gather, it should be more or less safe to go inside. I should be able to find my way back by radio, right?"
Slowly get into the fog, using a metal pole (Standard adventuring quipment!) to feel the way ahead of me. Don't try to hit the wall the drone encountered, just get into a thicker part. If anything weird happens, get out OR do an interrupt action.
Once inside, first get a better sample of the fog.
Then, sample the ground.
Then, sample the root-like thingy. With a knife/some other cutting instrument I assume?
Any more information about the area and roots I uncover whilst inside?
If everything goes smoothly, get out via radio.
(It's not about light. The phrase "Comes to light" means that something is discovered or uncovered. A scandal that came to light because of a reporter's investigation, for instance. It's one of those weird, not quite grammatically correct English phrases. Probably wasn't explained well on my part...)
You move slowly into the fog, pushing the pole out ahead of you. It becomes rather obvious that the drone didn't hit a wall so much that the fog just gets thicker as you go in. At some point the drone's sensors must have reached their threshold and began registering the thicker fog as a solid. True enough; as you get deeper in, it becomes like walking through water; the fog is so thick and viscus around you that it slows your movements and, combined with the squishy-ness of the ground, makes walking a rather exhausting process.
You take another sample of the thicker fog, and carve out a chunk of the ground, but you're still a while away from the closest "branch". The hole the ground sample came from starts oozing some sort of fluid.
Okay, now for some really bad news: The base's entire antenna array, including communication and sensors, is melted. Communication will be suit-only unless we can jury rig something, and when the Sword comes, we probably won't be able to contact it ourselves. And it's a shame that it was only high-value things that appear to be destroyed, but at least we have habitability and supplies enough that you won't starve here, those of you that require food. Damn metabolic wastes that you are.
But one especially concerning thing is that we have very specific, and limited, capability for repairing anyone who gets hurt, so let's not do anything stupid that would have inconvenienced before while you got put in a robot suit like me, but will kill, permanently, now. That means you, anyone who's out exploring instead of assisting with cleanup and repairs back here at base.
See if I can find the frequency that our radios and other transmissions operate on.
The frequency your radios operate on is fairly easy to find. It's displayed in the radio screen on your HUD, all nice and simple so that even an idiot could dial up their friends without issue.
"I think our first order of business (after we get the base in order and heal anyone who needs it) is to fix the comms and macguyver a shuttle. Much as I like this planetoid, I wouldn't like to be stuck here for the rest of my life."
Continue putting things in their right place around the base, gathering scrap and generally helping with repairs when necessary.
EDIT: Oh, and get a sample from the edge of the crater before it solidifies.
You get a bit of a sample from the crater before finishing your work in the kitchen. You right the shelves and put all the drawers and pots and pans and various utensils away before moving on to the CCR. It's still pretty much the same as before the blast, sheltered by the buildings around it and lacking much to knock over. You put the chairs back in place and disconnect a cracked monitor, depositing it in a pile of scrap thats accumulating over near the garage door.
keep transferring stuff, harbour deep resentment toward resident butterfingers.
You finish transferring the supplies, creating a little hospital corner in the barracks, but you're going to need some help when it comes to transferring the actual diagnostic and surgical machinery; the ones that can be transferred, that is. Some are very much built into place, but even those that can be moved are too big and heavy for you alone.
"Wow."
Salvage anything useful from the armory, including bits of what used to be walls. Go grab a torch from the garage if I need to cut bits off.
[handi:4-1]
You slice up and scavenge the structure as best you can, carving out semi randomly and piling the odd shaped and sized chunks up near the garage.
"Well this crater could be a problem"
Create a bridge out of various pieces of base, melt it together with rifle then move across carefull
[handi:5-2]
You gather some scraps from the infirmary and hastily weld together what could generously be called a bridge. It takes the entire laser rifle battery and even then it comes out looking...kinda crap.
"May the gods preserve us."
Lars wandered into the fog. "With the light of Steve guiding us and the shielding hands of Algis preserving us, we shall persevere."
Follow the leader into the fog. Stay a bit back and watch to see if anything odd happens.
You follow vich into the fog, staying a few feet behind him as you both half swim through the fog. You mutter a constant string of prayers and blessings as you go, unconsciously fiddling with your rifle like a rosary.
"Got some good and bad news for the garage. Bad news: We're leaking fuel from one of the tanks, the large shuttle looks like it's been vaporised, 2 minishuttles are wrecked, 1 rocket bike is the same, we've lost a good amount of tools and the box of drones and there's a fucking missing wall. Good news is that the last minishuttle is basically untouched somehow, I can probably repair 1 rocketbike to working condition so we have 2 bikes and we still have a surplus of tools.
So we've been fucked over, but it could have been worse and the fuel tanks haven't exploded. So that's something."
Immediately seal the leak in that fuel tank, then take stock of the structure of the garage and what I could do to fix it.
[handi:6+1]
You seal every hole in the tank with surgical precision. Unfortunately this includes the valve by which the fuel is normally accessed. Well...at least it's safe now.
Continue doing minor repairs and cleanup wherever I can. Anything that's a one-man job and isn't currently being done.
You search around for something minor you can do. Most jobs seem to be handled though, at least the small ones. So you head to the new medbay in the corner of the barracks and start arranging things as they should be; breaking down big piles into little, organized ones.
"I'll take some unskilled labor off of base's hands if you guys want, and go on an exploring trek."
Help with moving medical supplies, and gather supplies for myself and any other explorers.
You help with the slow process of moving the medical equipment from the remains of the medbay to the barracks. It's difficult work, especially navigating the umbilical from med to CCR. Shoving a heavy medical device into a room thats actively depressurizing because you're opening the door onto hard vacuum isn't easy.
Try to force the door from CCR to the garage open.
You set Gilgamesh down and examine the door to the CCR. Your mechanical eyes run from it, down to your unresponsive arm and back. You think you could do it but...well..the door is stuck because it's bowed outwards, away from you. You can't fix that from the inside of the garage, so the only way to unstick the door is to just brute force break the thing. And thats gonna put the CCR in hard vacuum until that door is fixed.
Sure you wanna do that without even knocking?
Wait for mud to dry then enter base.
One more turn or so. Molten rock is slow to cool.
"...uuuughhhhh..."
Continue battling the forces of bloodloss.
You're probably gonna be out a while, until someone gets blood into you or gets you stabilized at the temporary infirmary. One way or another. Although, if it takes too long, you will wake up in there, probably feeling like crap.
Crap that got a limb forcefully amputated.