>>6131428

You stride forward confidently, practically dragging the tox-unit behind you as he nervously holds down the trigger on his sprayer.
You're completely engulfed in a cloud of neurotoxin and ethylene glycol, to the point where even if it weren't pitch black in here, you'd still be totally invisible.

"Boss, come on... i really don't feel good about this one!" The tox-unit whispers over the short-throw radio.

You need to be quiet right now, so your helmet speakers are silenced.

"You don't need to feel or think anything, just listen to what i tell you, otherwise you're gonna die." You growl.

"Oh, gods, oh fuck..." He whimpers.

It doesn't take long to reach the end of the tunnel, and through your helmet's thermal cameras you can see past the fog and into the room beyond.
The bugs don't seem to have noticed your presence yet, so you pull back just beyond their vision and order tox-boy to stay put.

If you can help it, you're going to let that fog roll into the room on it's own without you having to enter.

And that's exactly what you do.
You sit there for a good five minutes, just watching him hold down the trigger.

The tanks empty, and you slowly and carefully replace them without making any noise.
After the second tank, his lines start to frost up. However, you have an easy solution for that.

You let him spray toxin all over your gloves, and use it to lube up the lines.
The ethylene glycol used as fogging solution, ironically enough makes for a great de-fogger.

It's also keeping the lines from freezing up on the inside right now.
Another five minutes pass, and you replace the tanks once again. This is the last set you have, so you'll have to get new ones from the nearest resupply station.

But it's a large room, and you don't know how well this fog is traveling.
You can't see it clearly through the thermals, and the only way to tell for sure would be to use your headlamp and go in there.

It probably wouldn't hurt to peek your head around the corner though.
If the bugs are convulsing on the floor, you'd know it's at least having some effect.

The fact that no insects have come in here to attack you so far is probably telling, though.

>Peek in and see if the poison is working. If it is, you can bring the others and move ahead.
>Just head back for now and wait it out. You're content to give it time to work it's magic.
>If you really wanted to achieve maximum damage here, you could lure any bugs left alive into the tunnel by making some noise...
>Write-In?

>>6131429
>Peek in and see if the poison is working. If it is, you can bring the others and move ahead.

>>6131429
>Peek in and see if the poison is working. If it is, you can bring the others and move ahead.

We better hurry.

>>6131429
>>Peek in and see if the poison is working. If it is, you can bring the others and move ahead.

>>6131429
>>Peek in and see if the poison is working. If it is, you can bring the others and move ahead.

>>6131429

You want to hurry this along, so you take the slight risk of peeking your head around the corner.
It's a little hard to tell through the thermal camera, but... you think the neurotoxin is working. Really well, actually.

The insects that were scattered about have all stopped moving, and aren't even twitching.
The higher dosage must have really fucked them up.

Even the ones on the walls have fallen down and splattered themselves.
Ordinarily an unusual sight for a bug, but these guys aren't little. It'll hurt when they fall, even in station gravity, as long as it's from far enough.

...Ah, but there's a problem. The ones on the ceiling are still moving around, albeit slowly.

The toxin has probably gotten to them a bit, but it's heavier than air, so it's collecting mostly along the bottom.
However, there's only a few of them up there. You could handle it yourself if you needed to.

>This is the perfect opportunity to test your theories. Go in alone and see if they can detect you through the fog.
>This is also the perfect opportunity to test what your bolter would do to one of them...
>Just bring everyone in and use them as target practice. You don't have time to be fuckin' around.
>Write-In?

>>6132019
>>Just bring everyone in and use them as target practice. You don't have time to be fuckin' around.

These guys need the confidence boost.

>>6132019
>This is the perfect opportunity to test your theories. Go in alone and see if they can detect you through the fog.

>>6132019
>Just bring everyone in and use them as target practice. You don't have time to be fuckin' around.
Shooting gallery and they get practice with thermals

>>6132019
>>Just bring everyone in and use them as target practice. You don't have time to be fuckin' around.
Don't see why these have to be mutually exclusive

>>6132019
>>Just bring everyone in and use them as target practice. You don't have time to be fuckin' around.
They need this victory

>>6132019
>>This is the perfect opportunity to test your theories. Go in alone and see if they can detect you through the fog.

>>6132019

Rather than waste time playing around or testing out theories, you decide to call this a good result and bring in the rest of the squad to clean up.
You find the raiders dutifully standing guard just outside of the fog, some distance back in the tunnel.

After informing them of your success, you guide them through the fog, and have them take turns shooting at the remaining insects on the ceiling with their thermals on.
It's a little added layer of difficulty that a bit of experience can help with in the future.

The gyro-rifle doesn't have this issue, though.
The computer in them will provide a clear aiming reticle, assuming you have a HUD. When wearing armor, you'd even be able to aim accurately from the hip.

You don't know when SHODAN will finish coding that, though.

The bugs stuck to the ceiling do make some effort to fight back, but they were already having difficulty moving.
After getting shot at, they dropped to the floor, sometimes injuring themselves... and directly exposed themselves to the thickest part of the fog.

It didn't do them any favors, and the raiders quickly cleaned up whatever was left.

However, you're pretty sure there's still one or two up in that hidden room on the ceiling.
You can't shoot up into there, but you have something for it.

"How are we gonna get 'em, boss?" One of the raiders asks, looking up at the hole above you.

You pull the pin on a frag grenade and aim it carefully.
The low gravity on stations really fucks with your aim at times like this, but it makes throwing straight up much easier.

"Cyl, if i miss this throw, blast it with buckshot on the way down."

She sighs.

"Okay, but do we really have to-"

Before she can start complaining, you chuck the grenade overhead and manage to get it in the hole.
Bonus, it doesn't come tumbling back out.

"...Damn, he's good at that, isn't he?" One man whispers

"Must have been luck. I don't think anyone can throw something that far..."

BOOM.
The grenade explodes, and you hear a brief shriek that quickly gurgles out.

Followed by a thin stream of yellowish bug-blood that drizzles down from the hole and splatters all over the ground.
Must have been a direct hit... poor bastard probably went right up to it.

"Was that an explosive?!" The guy standing next to you yells.

"Yep." You reply, walking off.

"What if you missed?! It would have fallen right back down!"

Man, it's like nobody listens to anything you say.
Whatever, you're not repeating yourself.

With the room thoroughly cleared out, you take the time to inspect one of those piles of... stuff.
It's still pretty foggy in here, but you can see clearly enough right in front of your face.

Pulling a ball of the pile, you see it's about the size of an apple, and it's... grainy. Grainy and fibrous.
Even in person, you can't completely tell what this stuff is.

But you do know it's mixed with lots of of fuel wax. You recognize it as the stuff from those vines up in the greenhouse.

...Wait a minute. Uh oh.

>>6132787
Ruh roh!

>>6132787
So we are in a tinder box, are the bugs smart enough to set up an ambush?

Look out, Gunny Busters!

We're calling these guys the Gunny Busters, right? That's still a thing?

>>6132787

You feel the problem before you see it.
Not with any of your senses. You simply come to understand.

"Is that supposed to be happening?" One of the men calls out.

Yep, there it is.

Turning around, you see a stream of fire pouring down out of the ceiling.
It's coming from the hole where you just tossed a grenade, and you distinctly remember a particularly large pile of this shit being located.

...A grenade isn't a very good firestarter, honestly. It shouldn't have done this.
There's no fucking way. Was it a hot shard of metal? Is that enough to burn this shit?

"Oh, god... damnit." You cuss under your breath, watching the stream of burning fuel pour onto the ground and spread out.

"Everyone on me! We're leaving right the fuck now!" You order.

"So that's not supposed to-"

"MOVE!"

...

You don't expect the fire to get huge. It'll consume all the oxygen in the area and then snuff itself out, most likely.
However, you don't want to get burned up, or to be in an oxygen-free environment after the fact.

Working together with Cylia, you collect your little group of dodos, and keep them between the two of you.
With you at the front and Cylia at the back, ensuring nobody fucks off or gets lost on accident.

The tunnels ahead are unmapped, but you know there's gonna be bugs in them, since what just caught fire was probably their food storage.

Ideally you'd like to make your way to a resupply station, but those are all in distant tunnels where bugs weren't found to be active.
Right now though, you're just trying to make some distance from the burning shitheap.

And you do... for a minute.

"What the fuck is this?!" You cuss.

You've come up to a dead end of sorts.
Not really a dead end, but definitely difficult terrain.

At the end of this tunnel is a goddamned crevasse. A big one, too.
It trails off into the darkness on nearly every side, including above and below. You have no idea how deep it goes.

The edges of the crack are as sharp as you'd expect broken metal to be. Did this happen when the asteroid was cooling, or while they were mining it out?

["David, smoke!"] Cylia calls out over the radio.

A few moments later, you see sooty black smoke billowing along the tunnel ceiling.
Fuck, you guess it doesn't matter right now.

The tunnel does continue directly across from you, but it's a good fifteen foot gap, and you don't know if all of the raiders can make that jump.
Alternatively, there are the occasional ledges and shelves where the semi-crystalline metal has broken off in straight lines.
Even more alternatively... well, you could drop a rope and hope it's long enough to reach the bottom here.

>Jump to the other side. Whoever can't make it will have to stay at the tunnel entrance and hope the oxygen holds out.
>Ledges are good. They might even hold your weight, and you can pick a different, non-burning tunnel somewhere along the way.
>Going down is easier than climbing up. Drop a rope and hope for the best.
>Write-in?

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>>6133286 #
>toss 'em
It's low grav, you could probably toss them across quite easily. Tie them if you have to before throwing them, if safety is a concern.
Please excuse the file name, phone posting in a foreign country right now

>>6133290
Brother, the tumblr we knew has been dead for many years.
The war's over, you can come home.

>>6133290
>Toss em.

This sure is looking kind of like a trap that we've sprung .

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>>6133294
;_;7

>>6133327
If this is indeed a trap, then that just means we haven't yet applied enough firepower. Bring me the thermobarics!

>>6133286
>toss 'em
+1 for yeeting the aliens

>>6133286
>>Toss 'em
Maybe leave critical gear on this side of the ledge if the point is to escape the burning and oxiloss

>>6133286
lads get tossed

>>6133294
I was thinking, maybe you should end it when the carrier is complete. Giving you a fresh place to come back if you ever do.

If its negatively affecting your mental health, then now is a good place to end it.

Literal cliffhanger. Also since he forewarned us, it still very much counts as having never flaked.

>>6133286

"We're jumpin' it!" You shout.

"What?! Look how far that is!" Someone yells back.

"Gravity's low and you all passed the fitness test, you should be able to make it!"

"What if we don't?! Are we using safety ropes or...?!"

You watch as an increasingly thick plume of smoke pours out of the tunnel, engulfing your men.
No time for safety ropes, no time to argue, no time to think.

You grab the complainer by the hard plates of his armor, around the back of his neck and the small of his back.
Picking him up, you feel the suit's artificial muscle and servomotors kick into action, giving you a temporary burst of strength.

"What the fuck?! Woah-!" He cries.

You swing him around once, and then twice, building up momentum... and you fuckin' toss him.
He flies in an arc across the gap, screaming all the while, and lands less than gracefully on the other side.

"Are you fucking crazy?!" He yells, but you ignore him.

"Either jump across or i'll throw you!" You announce, pointing to the other side.

Several of the men are hesitant, but one doesn't seem to have any confidence issues.
It's the guy with the tesla pack, who also happens to have on a pair of exoskeletal legs.

"Out of my way, i'm jumping it!" He yells, clearing a path.

The men immediately move for him, and he gets a running start before leaping across.
Not only does he easily make the jump, he even manages to land on his feet and slide to a stop without toppling over.

You don't remember what race he is underneath that armor, but it must be a relatively agile one.

"You can make it! Jump across!" He yells back.

"Come on, let's go!" You also say, trying to encourage them.

That demonstration was enough for most of them, it seems.
One by one, they start lining up to make the jump, and most of them manage it without too much trouble.

Almost all of them fall after landing on the other side though, as they're making the jump with everything they've got.

Three men however, refuse to jump.
Two of them tell you straight up that they know they can't make it, and the third is probably thinking the same but won't admit it out of shame.

But that's alright, because you have a solution for that.
They end up flying pretty well. It turns out that the three of them are actually much lighter than the first guy you threw.

The lack of muscle mass probably has something to do with their inability to make the jump.

The last ones across are you and Cylia, by which point burning liquid wax has pooled into the tunnel, and flames are licking at the ceiling above you.
Cylia shakes burning fuel off her boot and scrapes it against a rock like she stepped in shit.

It doesn't go out easily, though.

"Ladies first?" You ask, ignoring the flames licking against your own suit.

"How about we go together?" She chuckles nervously.

Taking her hand, you both take a few steps back into the smoke and flame-filled tunnel before jumping across the gap, fire trailing behind you as you fly.

>>6133980
Cool guys don't look at explosions.

Cute. Also awesome

I'm imagining spacesuit wearing David and his cool cat wearing sunglasses as they jump out of the way of an explosion.
Kawaii

>>6133980

For the two of you, it was never a question of whether or not you'd make the jump.
However, when you land on the other side with smoke rolling off your suits, it puts some questions into the minds of your men.

"We're not gonna make it, are we?" One of them questions aloud.

"They walked into the fire..."

"Can our armor do that?"

That last one, that's actually a good question to be asking.
The answer is yes and no.

The unpowered armor is largely made up of carbon-based artificial muscle fibers, with some hard plates for structure and defense.
So while it won't melt or anything and it has some insulative properties, it also won't keep the heat from getting to you eventually.

You might last a few minutes inside an inferno like that before you start to get burns.
Problem is, you'd keep getting burned after the suit's heated up, because it doesn't have heat rejection systems built in like your powered armor does.

Their helmets also have a small air filtration system built into them, but without power they can't crack carbon dioxide, so they've only got a few minutes of air in an oxygen-free environment.
You suppose that's a good thing, since they'd pass out around the same time they start getting cooked alive.

Telling them that won't be helpful, though.

"No, it can't." You inform them.

Looking back at the cave you came from, you see plumes of superheated soot and smoke farther inside, indicating all the oxygen has been used up.
Then, at the mouth of the cave, it bursts into flames as soon as it hits the oxygen outside.

Liquid wax dribbles down into the canyon below, burning and lighting up the walls at it goes.
It goes down really far, actually. You don't think you've got any one rope long enough to make that distance.

"Look, up there!" One of the men says, pointing up into the crack above you.

Smoke is pouring out of other cave mouths higher up.
Although you didn't notice any other paths in the tunnels you'd been through, there must have been some.

As you watch the smoke billow, insects start to pile out of the tunnels one after another, with some being knocked off the edge by those behind them and falling into the darkness below.
There are plenty of flying insects with burned wings, and some whose wings are still burning.

Their wings flit rapidly to try and beat out the fire, but their shells and wings are coated in that same wax.
It won't go out. The beating of their wings just fans the flames, until they break off and float into the air as burning ash.

Unfortunately you do see a number of burning worker insects running around as well, but there's nothing you can do about that.
This fire might end up smoking out the whole colony in this area...

"Woah!" A raider cries out suddenly.

One of the flying insects makes a desperate jump across the chasm, landing hard against the broken wall next to him.
It clings to the wall, buzzing it's half-burnt wings aggressively as it turns toward him.

>>6134698

>An extermination is an extermination. Kill the stragglers as they come out.
>They'll probably die from their burns anyways, just retreat back into the tunnels and avoid fighting for now.
>You bet you could finish the job by collapsing the tunnel exits. You happen to have plenty of C4 on hand...
>Write-In?

>>6134699
>An extermination is an extermination. Kill the stragglers as they come out.
We're not currently being threatened. Conserve ammo, send Cylia with a team to scout ahead in case we need to get out of dodge (oxygen issues, etc.)
How well would C4 work on nickel-iron? From previous description it sounded like the chasm was sheared like metal being pulled apart or stress fracture

>>6134699
>They'll probably die from their burns anyways, just retreat back into the tunnels and avoid fighting for now.

Always have a way out.

>>6134699
>>An extermination is an extermination. Kill the stragglers as they come out.

>>6134699
>>An extermination is an extermination.
No such thing as overkill

>>6134709
It is largely metallic, but it's also very brittle, almost crumbly.
You'd have to try it to find out.

>>6134699
>An extermination is an extermination. Kill the stragglers as they come out.

Marksmanship competition lads!

>>6134698

Taking hold of your rifle, you fire a round straight down the middle of it's face. It immediately goes limp and falls into the darkness.

Turning 90 degrees, you take a few shots at the other insects as they flood out of the tunnel, clinging desperately to the walls of the canyon.
Your shots hit home, and the already injured bugs lose their footing as they seize up from the damage, falling off into the darkness below as well.

"I feel kind of bad for them..." Cylia sighs. "But they'd just suffer from their burns if we left them."

Cylia raises her rifle as well, taking especially careful aim.
Knowing her, she doesn't want to miss and cause any unnecessary suffering.

To you, they're just bugs.
You know they don't even have brains, no different from a cockroach back on earth.

They might be capable of responding to injury, but they can't process pain like a person does.

Still, your shots don't miss.
Not because you don't want them to suffer, but because you're a better shot than that.

What would your men think if you couldn't hit a bug the size of a person at this distance?

Seeing you and Cylia firing on the bugs, several of your men line up at the entrance and begin firing as well.
Even the tesla unit makes his way over and starts arcing across the gap, making quite a display in the dark canyon.

The arc doesn't kill them of course, but it electrifies the surface of the asteroid wherever it hits, shocking two or three bugs at once.
And of course, when their legs tense up, they fall off the wall.

Splat.

There's only enough room for about five men to shoot at once, so whenever one of the raiders fires a few shells, they swap out and let someone else shoot, as if they were at the range.
This is more or less what they trained for, after all.

They aren't terribly accurate, but since they're firing buckshot it doesn't really matter.
There's enough room for it to spread out, and while not every shot drops a bug, most of them do.

Which is good. Saves you and Cyl some ammo.

The occasional bug does attempt to jump the gap, but with you and Cylia there, it's not happening.
They seem to be more aggressive right now, though whether it's due to their injuries or the nest being disturbed, you're not sure.

If that place was a food store or something, you wonder if there might have been a nursery nearby.
You'd like to know if some of the eggs are mutated in this area, too.

They probably are. They'll all taking from the same food sources, it seems like.

But god, there's a lot of them.

The caves burn for half an hour before bugs finally stop crawling out from their holes.
By then, it's died down a little, but it'll probably smoulder for weeks.

The canyon has also started to fill with smoke, though it's little more than a light haze.
This crack must be huge, you wonder if it's dangerous? It might be affecting the structural integrity of the station as a whole.

>>6135387

>Ask SHODAN about the crack. She might have some insight.
>You burned through some ammo there, make your way towards the nearest supply station.
>Technically you'd say your job is done... you killed a lot of bugs today, albeit on accident. Time to head home.
>Write-In?

>>6135388
>Ask SHODAN about the crack. She might have some insight.
>Send some of the droids in - the ones that left the caches.

>>6135388
>Ask SHODAN about the crack. She might have some insight.
>You burned through some ammo there, make your way towards the nearest supply station.

>>6135388
>Ask SHODAN about crack. She might have some insight.

Heh.

>>6135387
>This crack must be huge, you wonder if it's dangerous? It might be affecting the structural integrity of the station as a whole.
Unno, I don't think things in space have somewhere to fall to. If anything the gargantuan grav gen is keeping it together
>Resupply

>>6135387

"Hey, SHODAN? You there?" You ask.

You know she's particularly busy managing the other hunting squads right now, on top of everything else.
But she hasn't been saying much lately regardless.

["I am, Captain."]

"You see this crack, right? Did you know this was here?"

["I see it. I was unaware, Captain."]

"...And?"

You wait a good few seconds, but SHODAN doesn't reply.

"...You good, SHODAN?"

["...Yes, Captain."]

Something feels off, but who the fuck knows what it is.
AIs are weird to begin with, you don't really know what she's thinking.

Rather, she's usually the one who knows what you're thinking.

Whatever.

"So what do you think, then? Is this fresh? Is it dangerous? What are we looking at?"

["Please take a closer look at the edge of the crack."]

"Alright..."

Leaning down over the edge of the chasm, you point your helmet cam at the line where the surface separated.
The edge looks sharp to you. If you fell on it, you'd probably slice yourself open.

["Crystal growth patterns indicate the asteroid was entirely molten at one point, and cooled extremely slowly. This formed large cystals of mixed metal, creating brittle laminate layers."]

...So it was a big glob of metal that probably cooled out in space over the course of... who knows? thousands? millions of years?
Some of these metal crystals are bigger than your whole body. But all of this, you'd already more or less guessed.

["The lack of oxidation indicates the crack occurred fairly recently, at least within the past year. The most likely cause is probably the rapid cooling of the station after losing power."]

"Ah, shit... that makes sense."

The air in the station cooled pretty rapidly, along with most of the surfaces in contact with it.
But the itself asteroid is huge, basically a gigantic nickel-iron heatsink with enormous thermal mass.

And iron actually sucks at conducting heat, so the inside is probably still pretty warm.

You can kind of feel it. The deeper you go in these tunnels, the warmer it seems to get.
Just slightly. It's still cold, but less so.

So what happens when something cools off or heats up too quickly and unevenly?
Thermal shock. The material expands or contracts at different rates, and in brittle materials like glass or, in this case asteroid iron, it can crack.

The same thing is happening here that happens to a hot coffee pot when rinsed under cold water.
Just on a much larger scale.

"Jesus, it pulled apart this far from just that?" You whisper to yourself.

["I currently see no other suitable explanation, Captain."]

"Do you think it'll keep getting worse?"

["So long as the station continues to cool, cracks like these are likely to continue forming, and possibly worsen over time."]

...That's bad. That's real bad.

A big enough crack could cause a ward to collapse, or worse, depressurize the station if it formed in the outer shell.
Shit. You gotta heat things back up in here, fast.

>>6136158

...

Currently, you're still exactly where you were an hour ago.
It's not like you've gone very far, but the raiders just don't have a lot of stamina, so you took the opportunity to let them rest.

The cave you've jumped into is fairly wide, enough for everyone to comfortably sit down to eat and drink.
Although the smoke is irritating some of their lungs a bit, it's also dispersed quite a lot in the past hour.

A couple men are still on watch in case any stragglers wander by, but you haven't seen anything since the fire.

You haven't been looking either, though.
Instead, you've been in a meeting with your crew.

"Yes, i realize it's an energy issue..." You sigh.

["Well what the hell do you want me to do about it, kid? Do i look like i shit antimatter?"]

"It'd be nice if you could."

["...Using earth's technology, it should be possible to create a nuclear power plant with magnitudes higher power output than those currently on the station."] Nena suggests.

["It would be a hundred times more complicated, too. We can't make something like, we don't have the engineers for it..."] Kyla says

"Actually, not true. I mean, the actual engineers aren't specialists in the field, but they can do the job. However, i also brought a nuclear scientist along. Smithfield, i think his name was."

["Two engineers and a scientist are supposed to build an entire earth-scale nuclear reactor?"] Kyla questions.

"...I mean, two scientists and three engineers, counting you and Sanig."

["I'm more of a weapons expert, kid. I've just lived long enough to have some experience in other fields."]

"All the better, really."

"What are they talking about over there?" One of the raiders whispers to another.

"I don't know, sounds series..."

"You mean serious."

"Yeah, that."

["Anyways, none of that is going to be possible when the industrial fabs go down. When does that license run out, again? A week, two weeks maybe?"] Sanig tells you.

["The timer's encrypted, we can't see it exactly... but the old shipwright said it would probably run out soon."]

Damn, that's a problem.
The fabs have to phone home in order to function, but since the station's QED has been disentangled, there's no connection to the wider galactic net.

Of course, you can't be sure they'll work just because they have a connection either, but a lot of them have shut down already due to license expiry.
It's made doing anything on the station a lot more difficult. The remaining fabs are all backed up from the extra load, and it can take days to get what you need.

If the industrial fab used for making ship parts goes down too, the whole station's industry is just kind of fucked.

>>6136637

>I have a temporary solution for the power problem. We can bring the carrier over here and tie into it's reactor.
>We wouldn't have a problem building the reactor if our QED was working. Is there any way we can get some kind of connection going?
>None of this would be a problem if we had enough antimatter for the station's reactor. ...Have we considered just stealing it?
>Write-In?

>>6136638
>>Write-In?
CONTACT (find out what happened) dARKSTAR NIGGERS

>>6136638
>None of this would be a problem if we had enough antimatter for the station's reactor. ...Have we considered just stealing it?
Would honestly solve a lot of problems quickly, allowing us to worry about other things

Also this >>6136640
, I guess. They've been quiet for far too long

>>6136640
>+1 They might have ideas too.

>>6136638
>I have a temporary solution for the power problem. We can bring the carrier over here and tie into it's reactor.
Immediate solution but need to figure something out long term.

>>6136638
We could hit up clank perhaps? put out the feelers to our homies

>>6136638
>>We wouldn't have a problem building the reactor if our QED was working. Is there any way we can get some kind of connection going?

>>6136637

You blow air through your teeth before clicking your tongue.
This is really annoying.

You've been getting small shipments of antimatter from Thekia already, thanks to Clank.
But that's an emergency reserve. If you used it normally, you'd burn through it in under a day.

It's not possible to get much more than that through legal, or even the normal illegal means, either.
There are limits on how much antimatter you can buy as a pilot, since it's obviously possible to use as an explosive.

All that shit is tracked pretty carefully, meaning a person can be banned from buying antimatter or even have a bounty put on their head for trafficking in an instant.
Likewise, there are strict limits on how much antimatter can "go missing" from official shipments to stations.

If the numbers don't add up, officials start asking questions, and in a worst case scenario you could end up with feds knocking at your door, or even have the station banned from importing antimatter.
Which is equivalent to the death of the station, since you'd end up in the exact situation you're facing right now.

And that's all if you have the money for it, which you don't.
Fuckers. How do they produce so much antimatter, anyways?

Well, the fact that there isn't a single bootlegging operation tells you all you need to know about your chances of starting up your own antimatter generator.
Nuclear is inefficient by comparison, for sure, but it's far and away better than any other option you've got.

Problem is, you can't build shit, no less a nuclear reactor, without your fabs.

...You have a few ideas for how to handle this in the short term, but you need a real fix.
The reactors you already have are keeping the station just barely alive, but they're relatively small and low-powered.

That's a necessity given the people operating them can't be exposed to even the slightest bit of radiation.
It's more safety-focused than output-focused.

The reactor in your carrier however, is a different story.

It's a big boy, enough to power a small city by itself at maximum output.
That's only possible due to massive amounts of shielding, and the fact that it's designed to be maintained by a human crew, who can tolerate a little exposure.

Supposedly the carrier is mostly functional at this point, enough that you could fly it over here anyways.

If you tied the carrier's reactor into the station grid and fired it up, you'd have enough juice to keep the station warm... probably.
That would also tie the carrier down here, though.

It's been built in secret so far, out in a patch of empty space, away from anything or anyone.

If you bring it over here and use it as a power source, it's not gonna stay a secret for long.
However, it'll also be protected by the station's guns in addition to it's own, so that's something.

The alternative, honestly, is to finish building the carrier in a hurry and use it to raid federation transport fleets.

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>>6137205
>The alternative, honestly, is to finish building the carrier in a hurry and use it to raid federation transport fleets.
https://youtu.be/Z8UXpkL6VVo?t=180

>>6137205

You don't know if it's even possible or not, but maybe you could take an entire antimatter hauler for yourself and be golden for a while.
You'd probably need more than just the carrier to get away with that, though.

The Metal Gear's one thing, but it would be great if you had the Star Fall with you, too.

Where the fuck is Gron? He was supposed to be moving his people over here, but you swear you haven't heard shit from him in ages.
It's not like you're his babysitter or anything, so you haven't been keeping tabs on him, but damn.

"Has anyone seen hide or hair of Dark Star recently?" You ask.

["Nope."] Kyla denies.

["Not since we got back, kid."]

You look to Cylia, who just shrugs.

"SHODAN, when was the last time the Star Fall docked here?"

["Three days before we left for earth."]

...Well that ain't good.

["Well that ain't good."] Sanig grumbles.

"Did they leave a message, or any indication of what they were doing?"

["Intranet communications indicate they intended to visit several stations and outposts to collect their people, who'd been scattered around in search of work opportunities."]

"So, raid targets and street thuggery."

["Yes, Captain."]

"Does it make sense for them to take this long, though? Has nobody come from their main base?"

["No ships known to be under Dark Star control have entered port since the last stated date, Captain."]

...Yeah, that's weird.
You know they were eager to leave that rock they were basing on.

They had a dozen smaller ships and even a couple larger ones, it makes no sense for them not to have at least ferried over the civilians by now.
You got a bad feeling about this. Maybe you should have noticed sooner...

"Shit." You cuss.

>Make your way to Dark Star's home base, check out what's going on there personally.
>Send out some feelers. Clank should have more information than you, since he's still in contact with other stations.
>Just let it go. You weren't all that keen to share the station anyways, and besides... way you see it, you did most of the work in taking it anyways.
>Write-In?

>>6137756
>Make your way to Dark Star's home base, check out what's going on there personally.

Lets check ourselves with the Metal Gear.

>>6137756
>Send out some feelers. Clank should have more information than you, since he's still in contact with other stations.

>>6137756
>>Send out some feelers. Clank should have more information than you, since he's still in contact with other stations.
It's true that david took the station by himself but he will need the know how of pirates

>>6137756
>Send out some feelers. Clank should have more information than you, since he's still in contact with other stations.

>>6137966
basically this, we still have a sort of pact. There could be serious or casual reasons for them not honouring it.

>>6137756
>>Send out some feelers. Clank should have more information than you, since he's still in contact with other stations.

>>6137756

You can't go there on your own right now without calling off the extermination, at least for your squad.
But what you can do, even from in here, is send out some feelers.

Clank, god bless him, should have a lot more information than you do, since he's still in contact with the other stations.

Letting him do whatever he wanted over there has been one of the better decisions you've made, you feel like.
Even though you also feel like you haven't actually seen him in ages. You wonder how he's doing.

He always responds quickly to your requests, and you haven't heard of any problems coming from Thekia, so...

Regardless, it'll be a few days until you hear anything back from him, simply for the fact that someone has to run the message over there and back by ship.
That takes a while, even for a high-speed vessel, which takes a lot of dark matter, dark energy and antimatter to function.

Apparently there are efficiency losses above a certain point.
You don't know. You don't know shit about warp drives, man. All that geometry, it fucks with your head.

Maybe that's what aliens feel like when you try to teach them math and chemistry at the same time.

...

....

...

A day passes without much of interest going on.
It seems you walked pretty much right into a nest from the start, and most of the tunnels around it are just empty.

There were a few cool tunnels, rooms and formations here or there, including a big crystal of pure iron that looked like it squoze it way out of the wall, but that's it.

You see now why the scout droids were so easily able to set up encampments deeper inside.

Speaking of...

"Captain, there it is." The tesla unit, a man you now know to be named "Marth" informs you.

He points ahead, and you see a dim light illuminating the tunnel wall.
You went through about a million dead ends to get here from where you were, but you also mapped out a good section of this area in the process.

Taking the lead together with Cylia, you check out the area.

It's a somewhat large room, just a bubble that formed in the molten iron as the asteroid was cooling.
But in the center, there are four droids in the fetal position, powered off and huddled around a stack of supplies, and a power station.

"Room's clear!" You announce.

Everyone else enters, and most of them just sit down with a sigh of relief.
You've been walking for hours today, and they're still tired from yesterday.

Opening up one of the crates, you find it full of bullets.
Another contains pre-packaged food and drinks... and another one contains canisters of pressurized liquid for the tox-pack.

There's more, but you were looking for the canisters in particular.

You toss them to Oulr, the tox unit, who immediately removes his pack and begins working on it.

"Is there food in that pile?" Someone asks.

You toss them each a bag of dried meat and trail mix, along with some energy drinks.
They've never had either, so they're reluctant... until someone takes the first bite.

>>6138286
A caffiene free Tribute Cherry flavor? What hath God wrought?

>>6138286

While they're happily chewing away at their gas station slop, you take the time to remove your helmet and plug it in to recharge.
A lot of it's features put a drain on the battery, and while spacertech is great, it's not omnipotent.

That's what the "power station" here is, literally just a big battery.

You went back and forth over whether to use some kind of generator or even an RTG, but a lack of nuclear fuel and the safety issues involved made it a bad idea in general.
In the end, you decided a big fat battery was good enough. You'll probably only use this thing once, anyways.

"I almost forgot he looks like that." One of the raiders whispers.

"Weird, ain't it? Why's his skin so pink?" Another replies.

You get that reaction a lot.
It's because of your blood.

Lots of aliens have fur, scales or heavily pigmented skin.
Those that don't, like humans, usually have pallid grey or brown skin.

Because their blood is blue or green, using copper to carry oxygen.
All that red, iron-rich blood makes you pink, an unusual color amongst aliens.

You'd turn grey too though, if you bled out.

You know Cylia's blood is red. Sanig's too.
You're not sure about Kyla or Gildur.

It's a trait of highly evolved predator species.
And most life on earth.

Earth sucks though.
Too many problems there.

Lots of problems here, but violence solves most of them.

"Well, that's about all i'm good at." You sigh to yourself.

"Huh?" Cylia asks, taking a seat on the ground next to you.

"Nothin'. How you holding up?"

"Fine. The pace is slow for us, isn't it?"

"Yeah." You agree, taking a sip of water. "They're not doing bad though."

"...Do you think Gron and his family are alright?" She asks.

That's kinda out of nowhere.

"How should i know? That's why i put in the request with Clank, ain't it?"

"I know..." She says, pulling her arms around her legs. "I was just thinking about them. I hope they're okay."

"Mmm." You grunt.

Well, most of them are just untrained civilians.
If someone started shit with them, it might no go well for Dark Star.

It can be hard, if not impossible to defend a large group when you're under attack.
But again, you don't know what the fuck they're doing. They could be fine for all you know.

"What about you, David? Are you doing okay?" She asks.

"Yep." You reply tersely.

"...We can always talk if yo-"

You pull her into a headlock and give her a noogie.
It's just about the only way you can shut her up in a hurry.

"Ah, hey!" She protests

"I'm fine, Cyl. All good, no problems."

Nothing's a problem as long as you decide it isn't.
So your mental state isn't a problem, simple as that.

What would be a problem is talking about mental problems in front of your men.
You worry that she wouldn't get that if you just gave her a look.

She probably would. She's pretty good at reading you, but you'd rather it just didn't happen.

"Come on, David... you know it takes forever to get my hair in a bun, don't go messing it up!"

>>6139236

The hair on her head is somewhat stiff and rough.
Much less soft than human hair, but it's still quite fluffy.

You get the impression that it would do well at keeping the sun off if you were in a desert, but it's also a bit difficult to style as a result.

The hair on her tail is much softer, except for the tuft of fur at the end, which is the same as her head hair.
Well, she usually keeps her tail wrapped around her waist though, so you don't get to feel it all that often.

Shame, that.

"Those two sure are close, huh?' One of the raiders grins.

"They're definitely banging." Another nods.

"No way, man. Caithans are all frigid. They don't date outside of their species at all, trust me."

"Oh, like you would know? When's the last time you even talked to a woman?"

"I'm talking to one right now, Storn."

"You're both freaks." Another man interjects. "Nobody wants to hear about your interspecies fetishes!"

Conversation seems lively amongst the men.
That's good, you were worried they'd be in a shitty mood after so much walking and no action.

After letting them rest a while, you lay out everyone's gear and take the time to restock properly.
Then, it's time for a proper rest.

Everyone except you has had a good few naps along the way, basically a necessity for alien species, but they need proper sleep.
And you could do with a bit of sleep as well. It's been over 24 hours at this point.

Fortunately, you've got some spare droids here to act as night guards. Not that you expect anything to show up.

All it takes is one command, and within a minute or two, the four dormant droids who brought in all this equipment awaken, now piloted remotely by someone on the station.
They, along with Cylia, take up defensive positions at the three entrances to this room, giving you and the men a chance to catch some real sleep.

Normally, it's hard for you to sleep deeply in a situation like this.
Even if you do sleep, your mind remains alert. You never fall into deep enough of a sleep to dream, but... this time it's different.

You feel yourself slipping away.
Your head hurts.

And then you start to dream.

It's bright.

You see burning ships above earth. Metal rains down in streaks over the skies of new york.
There's a burning world that's unfamiliar to you. And another. And another. Countless ships flee the inferno.

New colonies on a world you've seen before. A windy place without people or animals.

Something gigantic, that looks similar to a black hole... but isn't.

You see wraiths pouring out of an enormous portal by the millions.It's pure frenzy and chaos. They're eating eachother.
You see familiar sigils and burning white light without form. It feels hot.

You see time passing rapidly, a sea of stars dancing and floating away from you.

You see yourself and Cylia together.
She looks the same as ever, but your hand looks awfully thin.

She smiles and leans in for a kiss.

Again, your vision is filled with light.

Then... what?
Bodies?

>>6139448
>She looks the same as ever, but your hand looks awfully thin.
AIIIEEE the ending of fate sakura route when the MC's body is destroyed but he survives and gets soul-transplanted into a puppet

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made by a certain meganerid

>>6139448
Thin hand? Sounds like the effects of time dilation like on wraith-world. Maybe that longevity booster would be a good idea after all.

>>6139492
that or Cylia does not "age" 'till they get 120 yrs old. She has said so before

>>6139448

Lots of bodies. People you know. People you don't.
Gron is there, bound by chains.

They force rods through his ribcage, and electrocute him.
He grits his teeth against the pain, but remains silent.

His body goes limp.

You see Lumi's face, she's holding your head in her hands.
It's bright again.

In a momentary flash, you see one last thing.
The face of a grey. Someone other than Sanig.

["Captain."]

Your eyes shoot open.
You were sleeping hard just now, but you feel wide awake...

["I have lost contact with Lumi. Her blue box is active, but not responding."]

"...Yeah. I think she was showing me something." You mumble.

SHODAN and Cylia reply almost simultaneously.

["What?"]
"What?"

"I was dreaming... i saw something. Not sure what it means, but..."

You do your best to memorize what you saw before it slips away.

"What i saw at the end, i think Gron's in trouble."

["Captain, may i..."]

SHODAN stops herself.

["Never mind."]

"What did you see, David?"

"...I think he's been captured by greys."

...

.....

...

After explaining what you saw to Cylia and SHODAN, you hold another meeting with the crew.

["How can you be sure it's even real, kid?"]

You scratch at your scalp.

"What the fuck do you want from me, gramps? Documentation? It's a fucking dream, i don't know."

["Then i don't see what you want us to do about it."]

"I wasn't planning on letting him die, so helping might be an idea."

["So based off a random dream, you want to... what, go raid a grey installation and get him back? You don't even know where he is, kid. And even if you did, it ain't worth it."]

"I might not know exactly, but i got an idea. I know where one grey installation is around here at least."

"What do you mean it's not worth it, Sanig?" Cylia asks.

["I mean it's suicide. There's no such thing as a backwater grey outpost. It'll be heavily guarded, no in or out without their say-so. No hiding from sensors, no knocking down doors with just power armor..."]

"Then we'll use explosives." You counter.

["Then you'll get a hole blown in you by a mounted railgun, or fatally dosed with radiation. Worst case scenario they blow the whole damned station, you understand?"]

"You saying the Mk1 can't tank it?"

["Probably not, kid. And besides, we got more important shit to worry about, don't we? So what if pebblenuts kicks it? That just means you get the station to yourself, don't it?"]

Your mind turns to the image of him writhing in agony.
Then to the piles of bodies. Civilians, mostly. Women. Children.

You don't like it.
You really don't fucking like it.

>Sanig's right. You can't save everyone, and you need to focus on getting the station up and running for now.
>Lumi showed you that shit for a reason, even if you don't understand it right now. You're going, you don't want to let them die.
>Just wait on Clank to get back to you for now. Maybe he'll have some information that could help.
>Write-In?

>>6140100
>Lumi showed you that shit for a reason, even if you don't understand it right now. You're going, you don't want to let them die.

>>6140100
>>Lumi showed you that shit for a reason, even if you don't understand it right now. You're going, you don't want to let them die.
CARRIER TIIIME
I must say, station stuff never interested me. On the other hand, assaulting greys (the most vile of factions, followed closely by feds) to save a comrade? Fighting not for pragmatism but for the intangible, now THAT is motivating!

>>6140161
in fact why not just gloss over the station stuff
>The now not-so amateur pirates are left on the station
>Miraculosly they are not as shit as we make them to be
>They manage to control the ant infestation and Lyna is able to neuter most of their tendencies, creating a worker-only cleanning strain
>Humanity's ingenuity is useful for once and all those men you ferried to the station get shit running making S P A C E Lathes. The second nuclear power plant is half done and plans for a third (larger even) are underway.
>Clank not able to do much from his position arranges constant shipments of fuel and people
>Pirates, criminals and useless (to the feds) treat this station as a safe hub for their criminal activities so they force themselves to be peaceful and conduct their bussiness in peace.
>A new addictive drug, called "spice" is introduced to the market. It's MSG

>>6140164
>A new addictive drug, called "spice" is introduced to the market. It's MSG

Next HFY quest should be of a human chef who goes on to open the galaxy's most popular restaurant chain.

>>6140100
>Write-In?
Clank is going to take a while to get back to us, how long does it take to get to Dark Star's old base? Good starting place for investigating.

>>6140190
sounds like a good idea. We can find out how long ago dark star was hit, what were they attacked with, traces of radiation or particular toxins... at least some degree of warning of what will they shoot us with.

>>6140100
>Lumi showed you that shit for a reason, even if you don't understand it right now. You're going, you don't want to let them die.

Ho

>>6140100
>>Lumi showed you that shit for a reason, even if you don't understand it right now. You're going, you don't want to let them die.

>>6140100
>Lumi showed you that shit for a reason, even if you don't understand it right now. You're going, you don't want to let them die.
>Speak further with Lumi and SHODAN to discuss [[implications]]
>CLANK ANSWER ME

>>6140164
if it's OK with QM, it's good with me. Nena is still a wonder.

File: 2b-eye.gif (2.87 MB, 540x320)

2.87 MB GIF

>>6140100
SHODAN's been acting weird. We need to have a talk with her and find out what's going on when we have literally any second of privacy.

>>6140100
>Lumi showed you that shit for a reason, even if you don't understand it right now. You're going, you don't want to let them die.
If the gray's are interested in Gron/Dark Star, then it's most likely for one of two possible reasons:
>1. They want to find the location of the dark matter star
>2. They want to find us/Earth

Which means this could potentially be a trap, with Dark Star as the bait. Let's face it, there really isn't that much that's special about Dark Star for them to be interesting to the grays. My question is, how does Lumi, SHODAN, and potentially Lyna (she has been working with human DNA) factor into all this, and wraiths too.
If we're going, I think we should bring all three of them (Lumi, SHONDAN, and Lyna) with us, and as much firepower as we can spare.

>>6140400
She's overworked like everyone else on this station

>>6140580
>Which means this could potentially be a trap
A trap is something attractive. We have no idea where Gron is and the greys have not been broadcasting it either.
David should sex SHODAN. But our tired AI has to stop overseeing everything for those two hours so the experience is enjoyable for her

>>6140100

Yeah, that's right.
If you don't like it, you shouldn't put up with it.

Lumi was showing you something, you think. And she did it for a reason.
You might not be able to make sense of it all, but you don't need to either.

"SHODAN, how are the other hunting parties doing?"

[There are few casualties so far, Captain. It seems that Pickle and Mister Masterson have largely taken the initiative themselves, while other squads are moving slowly.]

"Find any nests?"

[Seven other colonies have been cleared out so far. Ronnie's group in particular has eliminated two, while many others have yet to encounter anything.]

So it's working.
And your group doesn't even have the highest killcount.

Well, that might not be true... one colony of bugs might be larger than another.
You didn't count the bodies, but you feel like that fire and the subsequent culling killed a lot.

Either way, work is getting done with or without you.
That's good. You don't feel so bad about this, then.

"I'm calling off the hunt." You announce.

"Huh?" One of the raiders replies.

"Just for our squad. We're heading back, something came up."

"Are you sure?" Cylia asks. "If you want to head back, i could..."

"No, i want you with me."

You quickly grab your helmet and lock it into place with a hiss.

"Everyone get your shit together, we're leaving in half an hour!"

...

.....

...

It doesn't take long to get back.
Since you were at a a rest point, the way there and back had already been mapped out.

And the path was clear, since the scouts specifically avoided areas where bugs had been tracked.

From where you were, it was only about three hours.
And another twenty to get back to an area of the station that's still intact.

You had a truck come to pick you up.

Half the men seemed disappointed, while the others were relieved.

The truck drops you and Cylia off at the ship before continuing on, bringing the raiders back to the merchant's quarters.

...

"What are you doing, kid?" Sanig asks.

"I... heh, i really don't know!" You chuckle.

Sanig watches as you check the ship's fuel reserves, flipping switches here and there.

"What the hells do you mean?"

You smile at him.

"I dunno, man. The longer i live, the more i realize i don't really have anything figured out. My whole life has been a rollercoaster, and i'm just going with the flow."

"...Is he having another breakdown?" Sanig whispers.

"I don't know. How can you really tell with him?" Cylia sighs.

"Kid, are you all there right now? Do i need to worry about you or not?"

You pause momentarily, turning to glance at him with a smile before going back to your pre-flight checks.

"Are we gonna do something about this?" Sanig asks, turning to Cylia.

She shrugs at him and walks away.

"Kid, you're not really gonna attack a grey outpost, are you?"

"Not yet. I want to see Dark Star's outpost first. Make sure i'm not crazy."

"So you might be crazy. You don't even know."

>>6140874
Let's gooo

>>6140874
Crazy doesn't want what we got.

>>6140874

You turn your chair to stare straight at him.

"That's why i'm going to check. To make sure i'm not."

Sanig seems taken aback for some reason.
Maybe the look in your eye.

"Kid, i think you might be sick. What the hell happened? Something's wrong with you."

You lick your lips and look around the cockpit, pausing for a moment as you try to find the right words.
Turning your chair back around, you continue speaking.

"I dunno how to explain it, gramps. Something changed. Something's urging me to do this. I want to do it, but i also feel like i need to. I can't explain why."

"...Bit-brain, you can read his brainwaves through the translator implant, can't you?" Sanig asks quietly.

["His readings indicate extremely high delta wave values, but i cannot determine any significant pattern."]

"You're tellin' me he's just being emotional?!"

["No. Heightened emotional states correspond with specific wave patterns that i have thoroughly mapped over the course of the past three years. There is no pattern here."]

"Then what the hell's wrong with him?!"

["I do not know. His neural activity is normal. There is no physical evidence that anything is wrong with him."]

"Physical..." Sanig grumbles.

He leaves the room and returns a few moments later with some handheld device.
You recognize what looks like a very large subspace crystal sticking out the top of it.

He jabs it into your side, and it starts beeping.

"What the fuck is that?" You question, halfway ignoring him as you go through equipment logs to ensure your ship is fully stocked.

"It's a ghost detector." He tells you, in a completely serious tone.

That gets you to stop for a second.

"What."

"It detects wraiths, dark matter and energy in general... crudely, but it works." He explains.

"And?" You ask, focusing on your list again.

"There's enough dark matter in your system to kill a normal person..." He sighs. "But no more than usual. No dark energy either, so it's not a wraith."

"Just let it go, gramps. I'm gonna do what i need to do."

"I don't want to attack a grey outpost with you, kid. I'm telling you right now, it's not just stupid. You're gonna die. You haven't even planned anything out, have you?!"

>...Don't you think they'd have some more of that de-aging serum on the station? How old are you, again?
>I need you with me, gramps. I don't know what's going to happen, we might be able to talk things out.
>Stay on the station, then. I won't force you to fight if you don't want to.
>Write-In?

>>6141324
>Write-In?: "I already told you we aren't going to a grey outpost, we are going to Dark Star's outpost. And if we do need to go to a grey outpost, well the carrier needs a test run anyways. You wouldn't miss it's madien voyage would you Sanig?"

>>6141347
He's aware of where you're going.
But if something did happen, he also knows where your next few stops would be and what you tend to do with people you don't like.

>>6141324
>>...Don't you think they'd have some more of that de-aging serum on the station? How old are you, again?

>>6141324
>"Wait, wait, wait, you MADE a GHOST detector? Do you have other ghost stuff?"

>>6141324
>...Don't you think they'd have some more of that de-aging serum on the station? How old are you, again?
Is he the type to rot away on a bed somewhere, or go out in a blaze of glory (there being no other option)?

>>6141324

"...How old are you again, gramps?"

"I've watched stars burn out, kid. What's it got to-"

He pauses, and the look on his face shifts slightly.
You grin.

"Bet you they got some, don't they?"

"...Maybe. Maybe not. But it doesn't matter if i'm too dead to use it."

"So what? You die if you fight, you die if you sit on your ass. Maybe sooner, maybe later."

You kick gently at his leg, and he twinges in pain.

"You were about to kick it when we first met, weren't you? Even now, you can't walk without that fuckin' suit. So what if you live another hundred years? You want to do it in that condition?"

Sanig's bulbous eyes narrow to a dangerous glare, and he grits his teeth.
But you continue.

"Do it, old man. Even if you ain't got a dick, you can still prove you got some balls. Enough to die on your feet, stealing time away from God."

Sanig practically spits at you as he turns and walks away without a word.
But he turns towards the cargo bay, rather than the airlock.

That's all the answer you need.

You finish checking your inventory, the ship's systems and everything else you can think of.
Just one last thing to check on, something that's not in the system.

...Well, you'll leave it be for now. Sanig's in there with it at the moment, and you don't want to pester him.

You're sure it'll work if you end up needing it, though.
SHODAN designed it. There's no way it won't.

Kyla enters the cockpit as you begin warming up the engines.
Ship's been sitting a while, so you need to flush the coolant loops and fuel lines.

"Hon, are we going somewhere?" She asks.

"Fraid so, babe. Nowhere good, either."

"Where are Pickle and Redbone?"

"Busy with the extermination. They'll take care of things here while i'm gone, don't worry about it."

"And your family?"

"...They definitely don't need to come on this one. It's better if they stay here."

"So it's dangerous?"

"You could say that." You sigh. "I uh... just need you to check the carrier's systems, if we end up using it. You can take the Metal Gear back to Xebric then."

Kyla grins.

"Mmm. Maybe, we'll see."

"No, you don't need to be involved in this either..."

She wraps her stubby little arms around your neck, pulling your chair back to look down at your face.

"Hon, i don't even know what you're up to, but it don't matter. You need someone to look after you, or who knows what trouble you'll get into."

She plants a kiss on your forehead before letting you go.

"Ride or die, huh?" You whisper.

"Ride or die." She nods.

"Well fuck it, let's ride then."

Flicking a few switches, you hear the loud screech of the Metal Gear's bootleg arcjets kicking on.
There's a subtle, almost imperceptible change as you start moving, though the momentum is cancelled by your ship's gravity generator.

Turning the ship around, you manually fly through the station's airlock, watching the shields light up as fragments of destroyed ships bounce off it.

"SHODAN, are you locked in?"

["Yes, Captain."]

>>6141776
ALRIGHT

>>6141776
>Jek'na have a concept similar enough to Ride or Die that it translated perfectly
What the fuck are they doing over there on the fungus planet...

>>6142036
>What the fuck are they doing over there on the fungus planet...
WAAAAGH

>>6142036
WAAAAAGH

File: 40keks.jpg (174 KB, 780x780)

174 KB JPG

>>6142078
>>6142306
WAAAAAAAAAGH

>>6141776

"Punch it." You order.

The warp shutters close as the drive kicks in, and moments later you feel the slight acceleration from the ship moving.
At maximum speed, it shouldn't take that long to arrive.

Although you remained on alert for the duration of the trip, it remained uneventful.

Instead, problems arose the second you dropped out of warp.
The ship is rocked slightly, a sensation you've come to associate with the feeling of matter being ejected from the space you now suddenly occupy.

"Shields?"

["98%, Captain."]

And you were right.
The shutters open, and you're greeted by the sight of a cloud of dust and small rocks.

They bounce off your shields, some at low speed, some much faster. All in random directions, almost like you're in a blender.
The cloud isn't that dense, but it's incredibly dense as far as open space goes.

It's like you're in a blender right now.

"Is this gonna cause a problem?"

["None of the debris is particularly energetic. It will cause a slow drain so long as we remain in the area."]

"Then let's make some distance."

...You manually pilot the ship, making an effort to avoid the denser pockets of gravel as you worm your way out of the cloud.
There isn't much of a sensation of running into anything. There aren't too many large pieces for you to avoid...

But there's only one place this debris could have come from, and if it's in this many pieces, that doesn't bode well.

["Captain."] SHODAN calls out, displaying an image from one of the ship's cameras over your window.

It's hard to see what she's showing you at first, but there's a ship there. One you recognize.
It's not the Star-Fall, but another large ship. The civilian vessel you attacked back then... and it's broken in half.

Moving closer to it, you see deep laser scars burned into it's hull.
But more than that, it's just full of holes, like swiss cheese.

And each and every one of them goes through and through.

"That's railgun damage." You surmise. "Gotta be."

["It would appear so, Captain."]

You haven't had to deal with railguns yourself, but you've seen the damage they can cause. This looks like that, more or less...
But the holes are too clean. Too perfect.

Either the slugs were extremely high velocity, or their shields were already down by the time they got bombarded.

"Anything on sensors? Subspace? Radar, anything?"

["Radar is next to useless amongst this debris. I am detecting zero subspace disturbances, Captain."]

"Not one ship?"

["Only the ripples left behind by our entrance."]

...

You eventually manage to move far enough out of the cloud to get an overview.
There's nothing. Every single asteroid over a hundred meters has been obliterated, for as far out as you can see from here.

>>6142482

>Search the broken ship for remains, sensor data, anything you can find.
>Maybe there are still faint traces of ships jumping in or out. Search the area carefully, see what you can find.
>This is all the evidence you need. You don't know what exactly happened here, but whatever Lumi showed you was real.
>Write-In?

>>6142483
>Maybe there are still faint traces of ships jumping in or out. Search the area carefully, see what you can find.
Smells like a trap.

>>6142483
>Maybe there are still faint traces of ships jumping in or out. Search the area carefully, see what you can find.

Greys are next level, like us.

>>6142483
>>Maybe there are still faint traces of ships jumping in or out. Search the area carefully, see what you can find.

>>6142485
what part of this is a fucking trap you dumbass?? The greys came, saw, fucked shit up, it rains, it pours.
>>Faint traces

>>6142526
The neatly bisected ship waiting to be investigated or looted. It's bait, son. Either trapped or ambush bait.

>>6142527
What did you wanted, a not so neatly bisected ship? Everything is scraps

>>6142483

The density of debris here indicates that this basically just happened. Maybe minutes ago, maybe hours, you don't know.
But if it was only that long ago, you should should still be able to detect some remnants of their passing, maybe even figure out which direction they went.

Sweeping the area, you let SHODAN do her thing, mapping out ripples in gravity and changes in dark matter and energy fluctuations...
And what you gather almost immediately is that it was a chaotic scene.

It's practically impossible to tell in this mess, but at least a few ships must have blown up. Detonated the antimatter bottle or something.
There's an actual fuckton of dark matter and energy contamination in the area as a result, which is probably going to draw in wraiths before long.

That also makes it much more difficult to find the trails you're looking for.

And then, as you're passing through a thin debris field, following a dark energy trail, you see a flash of light and the ship is rocked violently by an explosion.

"What the hell was that?!" You demand.

You don't see anything on the sensors. No lasers, no ships, nothing.
But something almost punched a hole in your shields just now. They're down to less than 30% from whatever it was.

["I believe it was a mine, Captain. There is a small hull breach in the cargo bay."]

"Fuck. Kyla?" You call out over the radio.

["Already on it! Sanig, get me the duct tape!"]

["What about the expanding foam?"] You hear him say in the background.

["Tape first, foam second!"]

["What happened?!] Gildur yells in confusion.

You turn off the radio and focus on the debris field in front of you.
After floating gently in place for about five minutes, your shield caps have recharged, and you spot what you're looking for.

Floating gently amongst the rocks, there's a few suspicious little metal objects that happen to have a notably grey aesthetic to them.
Far too small to be a normal bomb, they must have a miniature antimatter bottle inside, like the ones you use for your Mk.1 armor.

However, you watch them bounce around and get struck by pieces of asteroid several times, and yet they never go off.

"You see it, SHODAN? Reckon what sets them off?"

["They may be triggered by electromagnetic fields, such as those generated by engine thrust or our shields."]

Well, you can think of a few ways to test that theory.
It's hard to spot them amongst all the floating debris, though.

>Just do your best to avoid them and keep searching.
>Throw a magnet at one of the mines, see what happens.
>This whole place is a death trap, you should probably just leave before the wraiths show up.
>Write-In?

>>6143298
>Just do your best to avoid them and keep searching.

More explosions won't help our search.

>>6143298
>>Just do your best to avoid them and keep searching.

>>6143298
>This whole place is a death trap, you should probably just leave before the wraiths show up.
UNNO MAAAN...

>>6143298
>Throw a magnet at one of the mines, see what happens.
We'll have to know. These mines were placed here for a good reason, and if we're going to continue on this path we're certain to encounter similar devices.
>Grays using illegal weapons to nobody's surprise

Rolled 9 (1d100)

Rolling

>>6143298

You're torn between whether or not to poke at those mines or just get the fuck out of here before any wraiths show up.

"David?" Kyla calls out to you from behind.

"What's up, Ky? I'm a little busy."

"I think we got hit with some shrapnel... i closed the hole, but look at what we found in the floor."

Saying this, she hands you a slightly warm chunk of metal. It's roughly shaped like a ball, but seems slightly deformed.
despite being the size of an aggie, it weighs at least half a pound.

It's clearly made of warp metal.

So the bombs are made using antimatter and warp metal.
Yeah, alright. Sure. Warp metal for shrapnel, why not.

"They're cheating. That's fucking cheating." You grumble.

The carrier could take it no problem, though.
It doesn't matter what the shrapnel's made of... although it might dig deeper than it should, given the weight.

["Captain, i am detecting a minor coolant leak near the starboard heatsink array."

"Shit." Kyla cusses before running off.

This poor ship, it really wasn't made for combat.

You toss the warp metal fragment up into the air once or twice before stuffing it into your pocket.
A reminder not to let any more of those things hit your ship.

Chances are low, but not zero, that it could kill someone instantly.
Maybe you, maybe the crew.

For the next hour or so, you carefully follow the rapidly fading trails left behind by other ships, mainly using the extremely sensitive subspace crystals SHODAN created as sensors.
Several times, you come close to accidentally hitting a mine, and one or twice you actually do.

One mine nearly rips your shields apart, but doesn't seem to hit the ship. At least not anywhere noticable.
Fortunately you also get some data regarding the explosion.

All hull footage of the explosion itself is totally useless, just a bright flash... but sensor data and video of the aftermath do reveal a few things.

They're basically the exact same as the missiles on the Metal Gear, flak rounds meant to saturate shields.
And most likely, there's only a few warp metal balls in each explosive device, while the majority of them are used to weaken the shield by striking it at multiple points simultaneously.

You'd think that warp metal would be great against shields, but apparently not.
According to SHODAN, they're rejected by shields extremely well and so do very little damage despite being heavy and fast-moving.

You guess that makes sense. It's used for everything from gravity generation to warping space, all through electromagnetic stimulation... you think.
And the shields are effectively just a strong electromagnetic field, filled with ionized plasma... and dark matter and energy, when you fire up the warp drive.

Which you might have to do here soon.
You keep getting a tingle at the back of your neck, a familiar sensation that you're not particularly fond of.

Wraiths are coming, you can feel them.

And the only way to keep wraiths out of the ship is by maintaining a warp bubble.

>>6143629

Normally that's not a problem, but you need to keep your shields up the whole time.
Injecting dark matter and energy into the shields to form a warp bubble weakens it, and these bombs are already nearly enough to collapse the shields as it is.

So you wait. You wait until the last moment before you put up the warp bubble.

One more bomb ends up putting another tiny hole in the ship, narrowly missing Gildur in the process.
He's pretty shaken up by it, while Kyla and Sanig work to quickly patch the hole with tape and foam.

Fortunately the shrapnel is small enough that tape can still do the job just fine.

["Captain, this trail appears significantly larger and more pronounced than the others."] SHODAN informs you.

"Reckon this is it?"

["No requisite data available."]

"Just say you don't know if you don't know.

["I do not know, Captain."]

"Better."

This had better be the trail you're looking for.
The hairs on your neck are standing up, and you've got that feeling like the devil's on your tail.

Then, what do you know, it starts to snow.

["Extremely high concentrations of dark energy detected, Captain."]

"I can see that, SHODAN." You grumble.

You flip a switch on your control panel, manually toggling the dark matter injectors.
The bluish hue of your shields fades to a blackish purple, and the "snow" filling your cockpit starts to fade as what's coming from outside is rejected, and what's inside is sucked into the shield loop.

Kyla rushes into the cockpit, looking panicked.

"David, what the hell was that?!" She demands.

"Just a little dark matter snow. Shields are up, don't worry about it babe." You reply.

Just as you say that, you feel a sinking sensation in the pit of your stomach.
Almost instinctively, you rotate the ship about 45 degrees, to look at whatever you're feeling directly, through the cockpit glass.

You see a portal, almost like the one you encountered on the wraith planet... but much, much bigger.
It forms slowly from a central point, like a swirling mass of black flames that flattens out and expands into a disk.

Your gaze is transfixed on it as it opens wide.
Beyond it is just blackness, somehow darker than the infinite void of space around it.

And then, well...

It's almost like that inky blackness inside starts to spill out.
Slowly at first, but it begins to speed up as it's edges blur into a fog.

It's moving.

["Warning, dangerously high dark energy concentrations detected ahead. Power fluctuations detected in the shield emitter."]

>...You bet whatever that is, it's got a really big crystal inside of it. Try to lure it into one of the mines, maybe the warp metal shrapnel will take it out.
>Get the fuck out of here, now. You don't know where the trail you found goes, but it's better than here. You just hope it doesn't chase you.
>That thing doesn't seem to have noticed you yet. Maybe you can inch your way out of here under impulse power.
>Write-In?

>>6144307
>>Get the fuck out of here, now. You don't know where the trail you found goes, but it's better than here. You just hope it doesn't chase you.
By process of elimination we can tell the trail does not go straight to the greys so it might be another ship that escaped, or another place where the greys went. Either way, if this is the (or one of) most recent trail... it's as good as it gets.

>>6144307
>...You bet whatever that is, it's got a really big crystal inside of it. Try to lure it into one of the mines, maybe the warp metal shrapnel will take it out.

>>6144307

>Get the fuck out of here, now. You don't know where the trail you found goes, but it's better than here. You just hope it doesn't chase you.

Set engines to Warp Nope!

>>6143629
The mines aren't for people are they. They're for the Wraiths. I wonder if the Ayy's are watching
>Get the fuck out of here, now. You don't know where the trail you found goes, but it's better than here. You just hope it doesn't chase you.

>>6144405
Warp metal shrapnel anti-matter mines? Yeah... the greys are surprisingly ethical when it comes to soul eating demons from hell

>>6144307
>...You bet whatever that is, it's got a really big crystal inside of it. Try to lure it into one of the mines, maybe the warp metal shrapnel will take it out.

>>6144307
>Get the fuck out of here, now. You don't know where the trail you found goes, but it's better than here. You just hope it doesn't chase you.
We have time for demon slaying later, right now we have a rock to save.

>>6144307
>Get the fuck out of here, now. You don't know where the trail you found goes, but it's better than here. You just hope it doesn't chase you.

Roll me 1d100, best of 3.
First DC:50
Second DC: 75

Rolled 86 (1d100)

>>6144713

Rolled 97 (1d100)

>>6144713

Rolled 28 (1d100)

>>6144713
uh oh... do we roll high or low? I forgor

>>6144713
>>6144738
>>6144756
>Time to rip and tear, it's big evil so it has big guts!
>>6144766
Higher be better my dude.

>>6144307

Without a second thought, you turn the ship towards that dark matter trail and prepare to go to warp.

Almost the second you start to move, that black cloud starts twitching.
Just bits of it, here and there. They pull inwards rapidly, then slowly expand back out.

You already have a pseudo warp bubble up, that'll cut down on the time it takes to jump.
But unlike just dumping dark matter into the field, it needs a few seconds to tune and stabilize, which takes a bunch of energy from the caps.

There's a familiar hum right before you make the jump, and as soon as it starts, the black cloud flies out of the portal like a swarm of birds or insects.
It's headed straight for your ship.

You punch the engines, accelerating to relativistic speeds in mere seconds... but are you clear?
It's not safe to look outside. Your eyes are closed while you wait for the shutter to close as well.

You hear the metal curtain lock into place.
The cameras are just black. They can't see out into the void at all when you're at warp.

"Are we good?" You ask, hoping SHODAN will have some kind of sensor data that could inform you.

["...I do not believe so, Captain. There is a massive dark energy signature behind us, approaching slowly. No spacial rippling detected, it's not a warp drive."]

Moments after she says that, you feel it.
A pressure coming up from behind you. Pressure, but it feels like it's pulling you in.

It's like looking over the edge of a cliff, into a dark hole.
You don't want that thing to catch up to you.

"Can we go any faster?!" You ask, a slight tone of panic creeping into your voice.

["Captain, "Faster" is not quite the relevant term. We are already at maximum impulse, though more energy may be applied to the Alcubierre field-"]

"Save the explanation, just fucking do it!"

The cockpit lights dim, and you hear the warp drive grind and hum ominously.
Your ship has a fuckton of capacitors in it, mainly for the lasers, but it can be dumped into whatever you need.

When it comes to a temporary burst of speed, the Metal Gear is probably second to none.

...And yet, it's not enough.

You feel the pressure on your back recede for a moment, before it starts coming back again.

"SHODAN!"

["I apologize, Captain. Passing any more energy would overheat the superconducting wires in the core, destroying them instantly."]

"Is there ANYTHING else you can do?!"

["We could attempt to distract it by ejecting the large dark matter crystal you collected."]

...Your trophy?

"Anything ELSE?!"

["...It is not recommended to alter dark matter flow through the core once active, however, i may be able to increase the expansion of space behind us to create more distance."]

About this time, the lights in the cockpit begin to flicker.
You hear a whispering in your ear that seems to come from nowhere, and the sounds of various alarms start to fade.

"Do it." You order.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBxDnrAZxWw
a little S T R E T C H ?

>>6145218
>There is a massive dark energy signature behind us
Where's that space whale when you need him?

Rolled 3 (1d100)

>>6145334

>>6145334
funny you mention that

>>6145218
damn, this is the good result too

>>6145218

At your order, the ship begins to shudder as a wave spreads out from the warp core.
You've seen this happen once before, and it's just as unpleasant the second time.

Space expands and contracts oddly as SHODAN messes with the flow while the warp drive is running.
You shiver as it washes over you, but after it passes nothing more happens.

That's the problem, though.

The entity behind you isn't quite catching up anymore, but it's not falling behind, either.
No, that's not quite true...

It's hard to tell for sure, but you think it's still catching up slowly.

"It's still there!"

["I am aware, Captain. I apologize, but my bag of tricks is empty."]

You can't believe the Metal Gear isn't fast enough.
Goddamnit. Is it the arc thrusters? They don't put out quite as much as the grey-tech ion thrusters the ship came with.

Shit. What are you gonna do?

Your thoughts turn to the lump of warp metal in your pocket.
If you ejected the antimatter bottle from your power armor, taped some warp metal scrap to it... maybe you could improvise a mine of sorts.

It would be hard to set it off, though. Remote detonators wouldn't work, the electronics would pop before it ever reached the damn things.
You don't have time to fabricate anything from scratch either.

Your best bet would be to try and shoot the bottle after you release it...

But if you miss, you just lost the warp metal and the scrap for nothing.

...While you're trying to think up a solution, something weird happens.
The ship starts to vibrate.

Not shudder, or jerk around... it just... vibrates.
It's slight at first, but as it gets worse, you start to hear something.

["Captain, i am detecting a large energy signature from... the starboard bow?"]

You can't remember ever hearing confusion in SHODAN's voice before.

"What the hell is it?!"

["I do not know, Captain. I cannot see outside."]

As you contemplate opening the shutter and taking a look for yourself, you hear an absolutely deafening noise that rumbles in your chest.
You can see Kyla clasping at her ears and screaming, but you can't hear her at all. It's completely overwhelming.

And it sounds a lot like a whale song.

It lasts for several seconds, and then it's just silent...
Well, your ears are ringing like hell, but it's quiet.

And that quiet is almost immediately broken by the sound of a woman screeching at the top of her lungs.

...It's not Kyla, though. In fact, you aren't sure where it came from.
It seems to echo around the room, getting louder and fading away at the same time.

"Oh, gods! What was that noise?!" Kyla asks, rubbing at her ears.

"You hear it too?!" You ask.

"How could i not hear it?!" She complains. "It was the loudest thing i've ever heard in my life!"

"No, not that! The screaming! Don't you hear the screaming?!"

Kyla looks at you like you're crazy.

It's intensifying, bouncing around... and then it's just gone. It disappears like a speaker was shut off somewhere.

"It stopped!"

>>6145656
Yummy

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25 KB JPG

>the space whale right now

>>6145656
Brain jigglin.