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[monk12]

STAR BRICK

Help Conan get back out into the *normal* parts of the ship before scattering back out into the various scattered sections of the ship.

[5]

Grateful for Conan's timely rescue, Kit leads the new crewmate through the larger of the Tensarian halls to a long-abandoned room, largely stripped of useful materials, apart from the teleporter pad. The teleporter pad was never cannibalized because it is defective.

Kit doesn't share the "defective pad" trivia with Conan; it would only upset him. The pad works perfectly fine for anyone wanting to leave the room. Those who want to warp back to this room, however, usually arrive as a homogenous jelly of organic material. Fortunately, there are safeguards in place to keep the pad off the network; all Kit has to do is quickly deactivate them, bid Conan farewell as he pops off to wherever he feels like going, and then reactivate them to prevent any unfortunate accidents.

A neat job, and well done too.

Follow the kittens back outside, then go the cargo bay. The violent shudders we've had are sure to have made a mess of the stuff I carefully organized.

[2]

Conan appears on the deck of the Cargo Bay, the single largest room on the Star Brick and one of Conan's primary duty stations. The far wall of the Cargo Bay is a pair of enormous steel doors, currently locked closed for various safety and structural reasons. When the Star Brick begins a salvage operation, Conan is responsible for opening the doors and operating the lasers and cutters which reduce ruined hulls, abandoned orbital defenses, mineral-rich asteroids, and anything else to large to fit through the doors into bite sized chunks for the Omnicrush, Skirri's duty station.

The Omnicrush resembles nothing so much as a Othernian Ambush Slug, or perhaps a Terran Sand Lion. An array of robotic arms and hooks guide the salvage into the maw, where it is further broken down and passed into the main bulk of the Omnicrush. There it is rent asunder by a combination of powerful gravitic, kinetic, and chemical forces powered by a pair of independent reactors and reduced to its base elements, commonly referred to as Scrap. Scrap is used as raw material for all manner of matter fabrication and as a result is commonly accepted as the monetary standard of the galaxy, even ahead of Imperial Credits.

Of course, the Star Brick isn't scrapping anything just yet. Instead, Conan is here for the barrels and crates of fuel and supplies which litter the vast storage space. Litter is the appropriate word; as he suspected, the rough treatment of the ship has toppled and scattered much of the cargo. Worse, the neatly parked grav-lifts Conan had intended to use to restore order are buried in immensely heavy cargo containers- how will he clean up this mess now?

Skirri probably should have been alarmed that a century-old automated deathship was cheerfully considering murdering them if they didn't provide credentials they didn't have. Or concerned that the technician would at some point come on and give the order manually. Or that the Star Brick was falling apart in general.

Instead, what she was most focused on was the lack of fleshy hands to stop her from looting that ship.

Oh, sure, she was aware that there might be problems. She was also aware that she had no particular way to get to the frigate, no particular way to get through the frigate's shields, no particular way to get into the frigate, no particular way to harvest the frigate's parts, no particular way to get back to the Star Brick (though at that point it might be easier to hijack the frigate's systems, install some life support, and call it a day), and certainly no guarantee that the principle effect of her efforts wouldn't be overloading the Star Brick's systems and venting them all into space.

But it was free parts. Everything else was just a minor technical difficulty next to that singular, monolithic truth.

So... she had to get busy!

Okay, okay. First things first- is there any way to cloak the Star Brick from Ayleid Aelyrain AI sensors specifically?

[3]

Skirri is excited by the possibilities presented by the Aelyrain Frigate; a positive bevy of military-grade parts, ripe for the plucking, housed in a hull which would make excellent scrap material once it is bereft of its more sensitive (and valuable) components! Sure, maybe there is still someone or something using those parts and that hull, but if they can't properly pilot their ship or answer their comms then they probably can't use the rest of the ship anyway.

First things first; hiding the Star Brick from the Aelyrain sensors. Unfortunately, Skirri's homebrew cloaking device is in need of some rather expensive components before it can be considered "functional" or "safe to operate." Components which may in fact be on the Aelyrain frigate! A bit of a chicken and egg problem, but maybe Skirri can circumvent that.

Taking careful note of the targeting frequencies of the Aelyrain autoturrets, Skirri pops down to Shield Control and begins wildly altering the modulation of the shields of the Star Brick. Soon, she achieves success- of a sort. The good news is that the shields are now vibrating through a series of frequencies which disrupt the automated targeting system of the Aelyrain missile turrets, preventing them from achieving a target lock on the Star Brick. The bad news is that the waste energy has depleted the Star Brick shields to dangerously low levels; nothing that a bit of love given to the Shield Control console can't restore (really, in a situation like this it would be appropriate to wring as much energy out of the Shields as possible.)

As long as the Star Brick doesn't do anything dangerous in the next minute or two- say, for example, plowing through a debris field at irresponsible speeds- then everything will be alright.

Get to work on that escape. Then feel the vibrations of the consoles. Try to discern more about the anomalous thing - what do the sensors say?

[1]

Captain Someone takes little notice of Skirri's actions; since the Star Brick will take quite some time to evade this negative space wedgie, Someone sees no point in waiting and sets the ship on an escape trajectory before turning her attention to the ship scanners.

[2]

Something about the anomaly itself resists active scanners, but Someone can infer the nature of the anomaly from ambient clues. Though the anomaly is quite small (in the range of a large asteroid or perhaps a small dwarf planet) it exerts a meaningful gravity field at a radius commonly reserved for stellar bodies. Part of the reason for this effect is because the gravity field demonstrably violates the inverse square law, according to orbital data of minor rocks and debris within the field.

All of this shows that the anomaly covers an area far larger than it possibly could if it were a naturally occurring phenomenon, which in turn suggests that the gravity field is artificial. Since the only obvious purpose of this gravity field is "to be really big," it is most likely a DSJ Interdiction System of some kind; essentially, a trap or speed bump designed to return ships to regular space, where they can then be examined, interrogated, let free, or annihilated, depending on the intent of the interdictor. DSJ Interdiction is not the sort of thing you usually find randomly in deep space far away from everything and anything of importance, but hey, if nobody is waiting to attack you, it's pretty easy to escape.

Suddenly, the Star Brick rocks violently! Captain Someone's damage indicators flail at her face wildly. [6] The ship's Medbay has sustained damage, [5] but fortunately it has not lost structural integrity. Some minor subroutines will need repair, and it's probably a horrific mess in there, but the Medbay remains functional.

A quick query of the ship's sensors reveals the problem; apparently, just as the engines of the Star Brick kicked in, someone in Shield Control started messing with the shields, dropping them to 6%. This was not sufficient to repel the damage taken when the Star Brick streaked through the debris field in front of the Aelyrain Patrol Frigate on its initial burn. [6] Fortunately, the Star Brick is fully clear of the debris field and any other hazards; shields are down, and the escape course has been altered, but not significantly.

Spoiler: Star Brick Status (click to show/hide)

Credits: 100
Fuel: Full
Provisions: Full
Shields: 0%
Hull: 85%

Rooms of Interest:

Life Support
Engine Room: GRAVITIC ENGINES ONLINE DSJ CAPACITOR 25% CHARGE
DSJ Reactor: MAIN REACTOR ONLINE
Weapon Control
Shield Control: SCRAMBLING TARGETING LASERS
Medbay: LIGHT DAMAGE
Bridge (Captain Someone's Quarters)
Sensor Control: PASSIVE SENSORS ONLINE ACTIVE SCANNERS OPERATIONAL
Cargo Bay: CARGO SEVERELY DISORGANIZED
Conan's Quarters: BOOKS ORGANIZED AGAIN
Skirri's Quarters

[IronyOwl]

Skirri swayed slightly with the rest of the ship on impact. Clearly that had nothing to do with her, but just to be on the safe side, maybe she should boost the shields into existence. Just in case.

Try to boost shield power without compromising blur effect.

[Harry Baldman]

Signal to the appropriate station that a shield improvement would be wonderful to have, and instructions on how to optimally perform the needed adjustments.

Then get on with the whole escape thing.

[Lenglon]

re-scatter myself throughout the ship, carefully, and see what i see.

[Pancaek]

Conan will use his barbarian strength to lift these heavy objects and organize them.

[monk12]

STAR BRICK

Conan will use his barbarian strength to lift these heavy objects and organize them.

[3]

Seeing the mess of work before him, Conan prepares to focus the very essence of his being on the problem at hand; the mind of a spacefarer, the strength of a barbarian.

Many of the containers collapsed about the Cargo Bay measure several tons, but those littering the grav-lifts are full of foodstuffs, and designed to be readily accessible. They still weigh hundreds of pounds, but Conan's great strength is equal to the task. With a great deal of sweating, grunting, and heaving, he manages to roll away enough containers to get at a grav-lift. As soon as he can get at the controls for it, it's a simple manner to lift the rest of the containers clear of the deck.

Before long, Conan has once again reorganized the Cargo Bay deck, with everything in its place.

re-scatter myself throughout the ship, carefully, and see what i see.

[3]

Kit returns to the catacombs of the Star Brick, awaiting the next disaster by assessing the damage of the previous one. Some of the hallways adjacent to the Med Bay have had their blast doors sealed; likely due to a minor hull breach. It is nothing too severe, and does not impede Kit's ability to scamper about the ship.

Other than that, the rest of the ship seems to be in good condition.

Signal to the appropriate station that a shield improvement would be wonderful to have, and instructions on how to optimally perform the needed adjustments.

Then get on with the whole escape thing.

[2]

Vibrations flow from the bridge into the computer system as Captain Someone dictates instructions on how to restore maximum shields to the Star Brick. Step by step instructions, with handy lights and whistles to guide the way.

[1]

Someone turns her attention to the helm, directing power to the main engines and launching the Star Brick once more into the void. Curiously, she notes that rather than continuing on with the prelaid course, the ship instead seems to corkscrew wildly, falling back toward the Aelyrain Patrol Frigate and the debris field.

It doesn't take long to learn why; though their heading had seemed unchanged after the collision, in fact the Star Brick had been given an enormous amount of spin. A significant failure on Someone's part, since checking the inertial dampener reports or the vector of the maneuvering thrusters would have revealed the problem, but at least the shields will be online before the ship hits the debris field for the third time.

Skirri swayed slightly with the rest of the ship on impact. Clearly that had nothing to do with her, but just to be on the safe side, maybe she should boost the shields into existence. Just in case.

Try to boost shield power without compromising blur effect.

[2]-1

Skirri is a big believer in coincidence. Sometimes things happen to explode at just the moment she removes a sensitive component. And sometimes the test firing of her latest creation happens to coincide with broad power loss on the rest of the ship. Sometimes, the ship rattles like a tin can regardless of the shield status or the Star Brick's proximity to hostile ships or inanimate objects.

It still might be a good idea for the shields to say something other than 0%

Skirri looks at the bewildering shield console with bemusement; to her knowledge, the ship has never actually lost all of its shield charge before. Fortunately, the shield console lights up with a series of instructions on how to raise shields. Skirri taps buttons, throws levers, and opens throttles as quickly as she can, trusting the console to know what needs to be done.

Nothing happens.

Frowning, Skirri takes a closer look at the shield startup instructions. Well, here's the problem; step four assumes a unified coherence field at the projector tip! Didn't the console know Skirri randomized that part to help keep the ship from being destroyed by missiles?

[8] Suddenly, the ship rumbles violently! Automated damage control announcements across the ship drone out a call to Sensor Control; [5] internal sensors register minor damage, and no hull breach or fire.

Spoiler: Star Brick Status (click to show/hide)

Credits: 100
Fuel: Full
Provisions: Full
Shields: 0%
Hull: 80%

Rooms of Interest:

Life Support
Engine Room: GRAVITIC ENGINES ONLINE DSJ CAPACITOR 25% CHARGE
DSJ Reactor: MAIN REACTOR ONLINE
Weapon Control
Shield Control: SCRAMBLING TARGETING LASERS
Medbay: LIGHT DAMAGE
Bridge (Captain Someone's Quarters)
Sensor Control: LIGHT DAMAGE PASSIVE SENSORS ONLINE ACTIVE SCANNERS OPERATIONAL
Cargo Bay: CARGO SEVERELY DISORGANIZED
Conan's Quarters: BOOKS ORGANIZED AGAIN
Skirri's Quarters

At least you guys roll well to dodge damage?

[IronyOwl]

At least you guys roll well to dodge damage?

((Well we're sure as hell not gonna be competent or well-equipped enough to avoid encountering it.))


Get those shields online properly! No more listening to consoles or warning labels; it's time for Skirri to get this done right!

[Execute/Dumbo.exe]

At least you guys roll well to dodge damage?

((Well we're sure as hell not gonna be competent or well-equipped enough to avoid encountering it.))


Get those shields online properly! No more listening to consoles or warning labels; it's time for Skirri to get this done right!

(Oh Jesus.
'To get this done right' is a death sentence for anything other than turning on an electric chair.)

[Lenglon]

((On ship status, you didn't update the cargo bay's organization))
I go back to my usual random wanderings, whilst I keep an eye on various critical systems around the ship, not messing with them though, and look at the sensors to find out what's going on with the ship.

[Harry Baldman]

Focus on taking this thing out of here in an orderly fashion.

[Pancaek]

Conan will wander around the various rooms on the ship, looking for more things to organize

[monk12]

STAR BRICK

Get those shields online properly! No more listening to consoles or warning labels; it's time for Skirri to get this done right!

Okay.

Okay.

Those are probably unrelated damage klaxons. In all likelihood, nothing is actually broken, there's just an error in the alarm system or something else completely unrelated to the continued absence of any sort of protective shield for the Star Brick. But just to be safe...

[6]

Now that Skirri knows which part of the startup sequence was flawed, it's a simple matter to restore the shields. Little green lights happily blink into existence on the console, indicating that the ship is now enveloped in a protective, debris deflecting, missile scrambling bubble of energy. Just for good measure, Skirri dumps the accumulated DSJ charge into the system to quickly raise them beyond minimal.

There, that's a job well done!

Conan will wander around the various rooms on the ship, looking for more things to organize

[3]

This ship is in a right state, it is.

Conan's wanderings take him to the Weapon Control room. A rather menacing console dominates the center of the room, right next to a bank of sinister red monitors taking passive sensor readings and determining the best way to blow up whatever they're scanning. Though there are several rows of monitors lit up to display the murdering potential of the Star Brick, only two of them are lit with actual weapons; the Hull Laser which is primarily intended to hack up derelict ships into pieces small enough to fit in the Cargo Bay, and the Plasma Mortar which insists that it is very deadly and dangerous and state of the art despite obviously not being any of these, not least since it isn't powered.

The entire room is covered in trash; old Spacey's Combo Meal wrappers and discarded pizza boxes for the most part, as well as some odd articles of clothing. Evidently this room was some previous crewmember's quarters at one point, and nobody has cleaned it since. Conan sets about cleaning up the trash, stacking the empty ammunition canisters (well, empty once the smutty magazines and toiletries are cleaned out of them,) and straightening the torpedo bay racks. It doesn't look like the Star Brick has any kind of torpedo (missile?) launcher, but in the event that they scrap one from somewhere and somehow also find ammunition to load it with they will have a place to store it.

Conan wonders if all of the rooms on the Star Brick are as derelict as this one, then dismisses the thought as silly; of course they are.

((On ship status, you didn't update the cargo bay's organization))
I go back to my usual random wanderings, whilst I keep an eye on various critical systems around the ship, not messing with them though, and look at the sensors to find out what's going on with the ship.

[5]

Kit's explorations turn up little of interest themselves, other than confirming that the ship is still rattling around more than it usually does. Something remains amiss.

A kitten tumbles into the Sensor Control room through an inconveniently high air vent. Though the first step is a doozy, Kit winds up atop a computer terminal, with easy access to the rest of the sensor consoles. Kit swipes at the controls with little fuzzy paws, running detailed diagnostics on shipboard sensors. The shields are back up, and rather strongly by the standards of the Star Brick, so that's good. DSJ charge is back to 0%, but their current flight plan means they won't need to jump for quite some time, enough to recharge a dozen times over. There are some minor rips and hull breaches roughly in the area of the Med Bay, but they are all contained by automatically closed blast doors, access hatches, and containment fields of various descriptions. Now that the shields are back up, the hull is in pretty good... huh.

Kit mewls to itself in confusion. Sensors indicate that there is a buildup of DSJ particles on the hull of the ship, almost as if the ship itself were inside some kind of enormous DSJ reactor. [4] Kit has actually heard of something like this in the latest quarterly Space Engineers Almanac; researchers in planetary public transit systems found that objects charged with DSJ particles can be induced to teleport along a predetermined path, allowing for intra-gravitic DSJs. Their methods were derived from similar techniques used in interplanetary transit systems and military-grade DSJ based tractor beams.

Why such a buildup would be occurring out here in deep space is something of a mystery, however. Kit forwards the readings to Captain Someone. She's an experienced captain, she probably knows what to do in this situation.

Focus on taking this thing out of here in an orderly fashion.

[2]

Captain Someone breathes a silent sigh of relief as the shields come back online, or to put it another way, she breathes a noisy, melodramatic, and somewhat rude sigh which she can't actually hear due to being a deafblind spacebard. Regardless of the manner of sighing, the Star Brick is once more adequately shielded from the ravages of open space, and thus is once more ready to sail off into the void.

Someone confirms her course, adjusts her maneuvering thrusters, and fires engines. The Star Brick arcs off into the distance, greedily accelerating as fast as her engines can carry her. They have spent enough time in this hole; there's scrap to be made, and the Star Brick needs to hurry to ensure no other scavengers get there first!

A trembling interface key alerts Someone to a new message from Sensor Control. Apparently, the Star Brick is accumulating quite a coating of DSJ particles. That's odd. Someone runs her own diagnostics from the bridge, confirming the growing number of-

Instantly, the Star Brick is clear of DSJ particles. In the same instant, the passive sensors warn that the Aelyrain Patrol Frigate is no longer being left in the ship's wake, and is instead directly in front of the Star Brick, possibly because the Star Brick has suddenly and inexplicably appeared back where it first entered this anomaly, which is to say it is about to plunge into that same damn debris field for the third time.

Spoiler: Star Brick Status (click to show/hide)

Credits: 100
Fuel: Full
Provisions: Full
Shields: 40%
Hull: 80%

Rooms of Interest:

Life Support
Engine Room: GRAVITIC ENGINES ONLINE DSJ CAPACITOR 0% CHARGE
DSJ Reactor: MAIN REACTOR ONLINE
Weapon Control
Shield Control: SCRAMBLING TARGETING LASERS
Medbay: LIGHT DAMAGE
Bridge (Captain Someone's Quarters)
Sensor Control: LIGHT DAMAGE PASSIVE SENSORS ONLINE ACTIVE SCANNERS OPERATIONAL
Cargo Bay: CARGO ACCESSIBLE
Conan's Quarters: BOOKS ORGANIZED AGAIN
Skirri's Quarters

[IronyOwl]

((Hue hue hue, no leaving for us now! That scrap's as good as ours!))


"Alright, shields up, check. Sensors scrambled, check. Method of crossing the void..." Skirri trailed off, glancing at a nearby piece of debris that was very nearly boat-shaped.

"...not check," she reluctantly concluded several seconds later.

Begin searching the ship for some method of getting from this one to that one. Aggressive docking procedures count!

[Harry Baldman]

Someone rumbles as she ponders the situation. Only one responsible thing to do now.

Commence aggressive, yet surreptitious docking procedures with the patrol frigate.

[Lenglon]

I take a moment to rest and think over what just happened, trying to figure out what's going on, checking the sensor readings for what might be causing this.