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Ceres Station MidSpin, Corp Decks Wether's wasn't exactly the last place to go for a job, but it came close. His dingy poorly lit office concealed the fact that he was basically a stationary computer at this point, more broken down cybernetics than man. He still had contacts though, and those contacts had contracts which was the important part. If you needed a job fast, Wether was still your reasonable facsimile of a man. "This one came down today." His voice was clanking and metallic. "The Outsiders diverted a water comet and lost spin on it before they could get it into stable orbit, now its drifted in Belter territory. I can lend you a pair of heavy lifters on the Outsiders tab if you can get them in place and hold off any Belter retaliation. They may view the comet as a hostile incursion, it wouldn't be the first time the Outsiders have used a KBO as a weapon." Everybody who's spent time in the belt remembers the Vega incident, where a comet smashed into the side of the asteroid and nearly destroyed it, destabilizing the Belter government. The two factions have had bad blood between them ever since. "Anyway, pay's usual scale plus hazard, although if you're lucky you'll catch the comet before the Belters get their own units out there, Ceres is currently closer to the rock than the fast attack yards are. Needless to say, clock is ticking, the longer this takes the harder it is and eventually the Belters will just obliterate the comet, and its resources, entirely." Oh hey, there's two things you need to decide out of character as it were. The first is your team name, very important, it's how companies contact you to get jobs. The second is who is in charge of what, logistics, combat, negotiations, etc. You can communal all this if you want but it's less efficient and takes more time if you have to vote on everything. Also can I get your character sheets in your first posts.
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Jan 17, 2018 17:16
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Abhiram Singh Ceres - most of it, anyway - was Singh's kind of place. Crowded, noisy, and busy. Most refugees stayed away, it was too easy to get pressed into some drat work, finding some lead or catching an opportunity that you couldn't let go of. It was never that easy, and most folk knew that. Most folk. Singh enjoyed all that, though there was an air of desperation that he could do without. Not like he wasn't generating some of that himself, checking his account balance this morning reminded him he could use a job. Like, immediately. In Wether's, Singh leans back in the chair, nodding. It sounded easy, and the need was immediate. "What are the chances someone stakes a claim on it, wants to mine it due to some jurisdiction crap? Hope the Outsider boys filed the right claims, they have a window of legality." I'm posting first so I want the most exciting job, logistics. quote:
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Twobirds fucked around with this message at 01:34 on Jan 23, 2018 |
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Jan 18, 2018 01:21
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Livvy Tons of people crammed onto a small asteroid means precious little personal space to go around. For all buildup done to the rock, what with new habs and agri-domes, there's no getting around the lack of real estate. Or privacy, for that matter. Seems like everyone's nosing around in everyone else's business. Makes sense. Everyone's out for themselves and them alone. Makes sense. This might be neutral territory, but that doesn't mean everyone's friendly. They can just gather on Ceres Station without fear of an open assault. But that just means there's plenty of people out there who sell services in covert assault. But the task at hand, should they choose to accept, blah blah blah... was to escort a rock. Someone's math was off and now the team had to bail them out before they created an "incident", which is what they call it when people end up dead out here. "What, you looking to make a quick buck on top of hazard? We dragging the thing back here or do we hold it until the Outies get there?" I'd suggest recon for Liv since she's grumpy enough to not play well with others. It'd suit her attitude and her mech is the fastest. Out of combat, she can presumably go over intel reports and give an idea of what they're facing. quote:
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Jan 18, 2018 07:18
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Carl Belyshniak The scarred pilot scowled as the mission was spelled out: All too often he’d had to deal with people who saw the Vega incident as inspiration for their own small-time, small-scale atrocities. There wasn’t a nationalist bone in his body, but some things were undoubtedly beyond the pale, at least for his tastes. That, and Ceres was a little too much planet for his Beltborn tastes, he always felt a little too closed in and crowded on this, the biggest rock between Inner and Outer. He waited for Livvy’s question to be answered, holding his own counsel for now. There would be a catch, there would always be a catch, but like as not they wouldn’t catch wind of it here. Carl is the pilot, possibly quartermaster given his tech-savvy.    quote:High Concept: Belter Ex-Pirate betrayed once too often   quote:Mech: XK450 'Juggernaut' heavy assault SRAU AJ_Impy fucked around with this message at 09:44 on Jan 22, 2018 |
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Jan 18, 2018 16:10
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Wether's "If you encounter any wildcat miners I doubt you'll have to do more than announce your presence to scare them off. Any legal Belter operation stays on the plane of the ecliptic and you'll be well above at intercept time. "The heavy lifters will grab the comet and move it back into Outsider space for them to harvest. Your job is just escort and guard dog duty." The cyborg clankily moved an arm to light a cigar. "It's 10 kilometers worth of ice and mixed organics, barely valuable to anybody. The only reason this merits an escort is because the projected course takes it right into a populated hab and nobody wants a repeat of Vega."
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Jan 18, 2018 17:41
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Livvy "Vega was a political quagmire biting itself in the rear end. You had every power group in the Belter Nations arguing over who had jurisdiction and they screwed the pooch. By the time their response team went out, it was too late. 18 nation-states and nobody could make a move to save their own skin without sanctions and declarations." It's not hard getting a new society formed out of something so fractious. There's way too much political power at risk. The Belters working the asteroid fields and gas giants harvest resources on a scale nobody can match since the war began. Belt industry was just too entrenched to undermine, so to speak, but too valuable to all sides to be targets and the Nations knew it. But since they were originally work colonies free-floating on the larger rocks, the Nations were too scattered to have the stability of even the Outer Planets or Outsiders. At least they had predictability. But Livvy would dare anyone to try and get stable diplomatic channels and comms between 18 colonies among randomly-flying hunks of rock and metal, with powerhouses on both sides of the Belt. Just doing a bit of worldbuilding. Feel free to contradict and I'll edit.
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Jan 20, 2018 12:09
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  Ceres is the kind of place Teresa Kurita-Steiner would thrive. The plots, the schemes, the opportunities. The chance to play one rival off another. The perfect place to start anew. "It's so quaint what people who haven't lived in the deep space habs consider tangled politics," Teresa says, amused, from where she's sitting on the edge of Wether's desk. "This lost comet might be a mistake. But even if it is, be assured someone is playing the angle to embarrass a rival." She hops back down onto the floor. "It should be fun. Sign us up." It probably makes sense for Teresa to handle negotiations and combat given her skills and stunts, not to mention her demeanor. Character Sheet posted:Teresa Kurita-Steiner Comrade Gorbash fucked around with this message at 02:44 on Feb 1, 2018 |
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Jan 21, 2018 03:21
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Ezekiel Osborne "Do we know for certain that this was an accident in first place? Credits are credits, but I'd really rather not accidentally spark a solar system wide conflict." It's a job, Kai. Take it so you can afford some decent food for a change. The amount of nutrition gel you consume is disgusting. The rider cocks his head while listening to HERA give her opinion of the whole situation through the earbud she "sits" in. It's a common enough gesture that the rest of the company are unfazed by it, having grown accustomed to his eccentricities. Ezekiel's time on Ceres has been rough, seeing as this was the closest large station to his childhood home. When he's not working or maintaining Argus, he spends most of his time gambling or staring out into the vast depths of space. Character sheet:https://goo.gl/7xg6M5
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Jan 22, 2018 06:19
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Carl He regarded Ezekiel with more than a little discomfort, but some things needed putting to bed before they could take root. "Look, 'It's an accident' is a polite conceit, something everyone can tell each other so that they can walk away from this when it's tidied up. Best keep it that way. People aren't stupid, everyone has people capable of doing the math, and when things like this happen it's one of the first things they do. Do you know the odds of an object accidentally getting kicked out of the Kuiper Belt on an inbound path impacting on a rock, any rock, on its path toward the sun? Do you know the odds of one off the solar ecliptic plane impacting any rock at the singular points it crosses that plane? Do you know the odds of it hitting an inhabited rock? The Belter govs do, the Outer govs do, anyone who can punch the numbers into a navicomp can get that answer in very short order. It's precisely because each side knows all that and most folks don't want to spark a systemwide conflict that we look at this, nod our heads sagely and say, 'Yup, that's an accident all right, Stuff happens, better send some folks to clean up the mess.' That's where we come in, nice and simple, 'guard dog and escort duty'." He nodded towards their cyborg fixer, puffing away. "That said, we wouldn't be doing our diligence if we didn't make our final approach hot, with everyone locked and loaded, just to be on the safe side. Not everyone is against lighting a spark."
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Jan 22, 2018 10:24
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Singh "It doesn't need to be perfectly on target to get folks riled up and accusing the Outsiders of plotting something." Singh shrugs, though he's not so naive that he doesn't assume there isn't some angle for someone somewhere. Either way, the ex-pirate was right, someone might just be trying to stoke tensions. "These heavy lifters, are they insured? Typical transponders? If we're really worried there's something fishy we'll just keep an eye on them. Otherwise yeah, come in loaded, do our job. Maybe get paid in a currency we can use, this time." Thanks for the logo Comrade!
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Jan 23, 2018 01:32
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Livvy "I'm sure you can pick through them when you get a minute. I doubt they'd miss a few redundant parts here and there. Let's just get on with this. I'm starving." Well, more ravenous than anything. It's been two hours since Liv had anything to eat. Ever since they plugged her into the Cherub and first heard its voice she's been more and more aggressively hungry. Maybe they can order out if this meeting's going to go on much longer.
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Jan 23, 2018 17:58
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Docking Bay Z94 The arrangements finalized, handshakes made (both physical and electronic), and supplies loaded aboard the transport, the Five Body Problem checked their SRAUs and went over the navigation plot one more time to be sure it was clear. The transport would reach the heavy lifters, two MRM-class Whirlwinds, well before the final rendezvous with the comet, temporarily designated IBC261, and from the initial meet point all three vessels would begin a hard burn to match course and velocity with the comet. Shipboard movement is typically prohibited for safety during a hard burn or a combat burn, so the only thing to do during the burn is to just rest as best as they can under several Gs acceleration. Based on the data forwarded, both heavy lifters would need to be at least 70% capacity in order to pull the job off. Anything below that thrust impulse and the comet won't clear the ecliptic. However they only have enough fuel for a one way trip, being little more than glorified missile chassis under computer control. As long as the job gets done, the client doesn't care what shape the fusion reactors are left in. That said, unless you can crack comets into fuel and food you only get one shot at this, and even if you can through some miracle of nanotech the comet hits inhabited space a week after you arrive.
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Jan 24, 2018 03:54
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Singh Singh gives a muffled groan in his crash couch. It wasn't quite a complaint, mostly a reaction from someone who's done it a million times and finds it more annoying than anything these days. "Who gets to try and talk down any visitors that show up?" he says. "Teresa, you on deck this time?"
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Jan 25, 2018 02:14
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Carl In the pilot couch, Carl was weathering the high Gs as best he could, keeping his eyes on the scopes and readouts. He expected trouble, because he always did. So far, burn was progressing well, but there was plenty that could go wrong.
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Jan 25, 2018 05:45
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Livvy "Last time I talked it ended with in a brawl. Good times." Of course, that was with the Inner Planet Expeditionary force. Livvy's reputation as the low-brow highborn had already spread among the rank and file. Her little "incident" with her SRAU going AWOL to follow her wasn't exactly a secret. Words were exchanged, not entirely under one's breath, and she'd needed to counter the negotiator's argument with a stiff rebuttal of her own. She laughs at the memory, a dry mirthless thing, and tears open a ration pack, her third in the past hour. Thank god mommy and daddy still left her enough to buy food after shaming them so badly.
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Jan 25, 2018 07:34
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Singh Singh laughs. "You almost had them, you know, but things went a little poorly when you asked that captain whether the truce before the meeting included the myriad of life growing between his rear end and the chair he was, as you said, welded to."
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Jan 27, 2018 19:17
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 "Depends," Teresa replies to Singh. "On whether you actually want to talk. But yes, I'll handle that." She's at the ops station, working the sensor systems and comms to get an idea of what they're flying into. "We should seed the target with repeaters. That way we don't have to worry about line-of-sight for tight beam comms. With us on defense, we'll lose the advantage of initiative, but a prepared position can be a force multiplier of its own." Comrade Gorbash fucked around with this message at 02:43 on Feb 1, 2018 |
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Jan 28, 2018 01:49
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Singh "I'll queue up some relay drones for repeater duty once the burn's over. We have a full complement; could afford that at least." "If they're from the Belt, they're here under a false assumption. I certainly think it's worth trying to talk to them in that case." He rolls his head around in the chair with difficulty, looking at the others. "We are in agreement on that, right?"
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Jan 30, 2018 02:19
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Livvy "Oh, don't even try to pin that on me. He started it. Kept asking where my tits were and what time I started dancing. loving prick. At least he won't be bothering the girls anytime soon." Between massive bites of the ration, Livvy keeps an eye on the sensors. Smooth sailing so far. No pings to worry about. Still a good idea to keep the SRAUs fired up. Everyone's trigger happy these days. Any force involved in military action seems to be in shoot first and don't question it mood, and this is just the kind of incident that could go down the shitter.
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Jan 30, 2018 04:37
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Carl Glancing over to Ops, Carl queried, “Any sign of the lifters or their burn trace on the deep scan yet, Teresa? Wouldn’t quite be a record speed double cross if they’re absent, but not far off...”
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Jan 30, 2018 11:32
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Ezekiel "All I know is, I'm glad I'm standing behind you during any engagement...far behind." Ezekiel interjects from his position over at the weapons display. "If we are double-crossed this early, you'll be happy to know that we're at full ammo, and the SRAUs are fueled up and ready for action." FewtureMD fucked around with this message at 02:48 on Jan 31, 2018 |
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Jan 31, 2018 02:24
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"Scanning," Teresa replies to Carl. "Give me a moment." ECM/ECCM (Scanning): 4dF+3 5 Comrade Gorbash fucked around with this message at 02:43 on Feb 1, 2018 |
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Jan 31, 2018 14:54
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It's a Comet, All Right LIDAR pulses sweep over the comet as drones encircle it. No sign of any claim jumpers or the remains of any wildcat strikes, it was unlikely with the comet's current position anyone even knew it was there who wasn't specifically looking for it. As the team's transport closes on the comet, the heavy lifters perform their final course adjustments and fire their net anchors, encasing the comet in carbon fiber netting to prevent it from breaking apart under strain. Passive scans put the nearest ships at several days hard burn away, so unless someone is coasting or hiding everything is clear...
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Jan 31, 2018 22:00
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Carl "Hmm. Don't like it, it's been too easy so far. Where's our blind spot? What are we missing?" Carl's paranoia was a well known foible, but if nothing else it was a shield against complacency. He kept his hands on the controls, his eyes on the dials... until suddenly, his pupils widened. "Theresa, I think it would be a really, really good idea if we had a solid sense of what was inside that iceball, or at least a good density/gravitimetric chart of it. Say, if there were a few SRAU-sized masses or voids tucked into its depths, far below any superficial surface activity. Humour me, if I'm wrong, I'm wrong."
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Feb 1, 2018 00:59
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Singh The Belter grunts. "Everybody gets worried when things are easy. Just once I'd like to make some coin without explosions or gunfire." He sighs, like he doesn't believe it's going to be easy either. "I'll check the lifters. They'll know if the weight distribution seems off, and their cameras might see something." He brings up the utilitarian controls for the lifters, and they respond in a brief, inquisitive series of robotic barks.
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Feb 1, 2018 02:59
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Livvy That was something that was also gnawing at Livvy's gut. Well, that and hunger pangs. But the fact that nothing was out there this close to the rogue comet... "You want I should suit up and stand by? We might need a fast response if there's an ambush out there."
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Feb 1, 2018 04:07
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Singh "My vote's on yes. If something goes after the lifters, we're in deep poo poo."
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Feb 2, 2018 01:23
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Carl "Agreed. One in the pipes, rest of us ready to quick-pop if we have to. How's the Vulgar Display's weapons readiness?"
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Feb 2, 2018 02:01
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Livvy "Yes!" Everyone was free to move about the cabin for a while now, ever since they stopped burning hard to get up to cruising speed, but there was no need to. Now there is, and Livvy swings out of her grav couch to head to the bay for suit-up, already pulling her shirt over her head. Modesty was not a high priority for her. Being partly a living organism, the Scorpion Dreaming turned slightly to focus its eyes and sensors on the bay doors when Liv arrived. This close she can feel its anticipation in the sudden tension in her own body, the sympathetic twitch as its techno-organic muscles flex and that odd rolling motion in her shoulders as the rocket pods ready a salvo. "Hey, sweetie. You miss me?"
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Feb 2, 2018 04:44
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Or is it? The heavy lifters clamp onto the comet and begin their burn. The gauges climb steadily as it lays on the Gs of acceleration, barely moving from the perspective of the Vulgar Display of Power. The onboard computers monitoring the maneuver begin spitting out caution signs. The comet is significantly heavier than it should be for something made of ice and rock. A quick density calculation indicates this comet has a core of solid armor laminate, which is impossible because the exterior is at least 5 billion years old and there's no signs of drilling. Either someone managed to sink a SRAU into a comet using some unknown technology, or there's an alien artifact that predates the system inside.
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Feb 4, 2018 18:42
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Carl "drat it, I knew it! The one spot we haven't had a chance to check, right inside the drat thing. We need to know what the hell is in there, and we need to know five minutes before we took this damned mission!" The paranoid pilot scowls angrily, running the calculations on what the burn would need to be with the extra mass, and what the extra mass is most likely to be in terms of distribution.
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Feb 4, 2018 19:01
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Teresa's hands are already flying across her console as she brings the ECM/ECCM suite fully on line. She jams the lifter's long range coms, then she sends a tight beam alter to them, telling them to hold position and wait for instructions, using the emergency signals that were intended for combat situations. "I'm jamming comm traffic," she tells the others, though at this point she's already moving on to focusing the scan on the unidentified object. "This may be a set up, but it's not that kind of set up." "Initial analysis - comet is definitely extra-solar in origin, 5.5 billion Julian years old, plus or minus 500 million. No sign of ingress point or disturbance to surrounding matrix. Overwhelming probability the ice accreted around the anomaly. Anomaly is therefore at least as old as the comet, and between .4 and 1.4 billion Julian years older than our solar system." She assigns the anomaly a designation on the board - Intruder 1. "It's an alien spacecraft. The question is, who else knows it's there. Because whoever controls this immediately becomes the most important people in the system - and the ones with the biggest target on their backs." ECM/ECCM (Jamming): 4dF+3 2 If a 2 isn't good enough, I'll invoke An Outsiders Perspective and spend a fate point to make it a 4.
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Feb 5, 2018 00:03
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Livvy Climbing back into the Scorpion Dreaming is like sinking back into the arms of someone you've known your whole life and know on a deep and personal level. The SRAU biomech is a mostly-living being and the DNI implant puts Livvy on the same wavelength, so to speak, as her lab-created partner. The psychic handshake completes with a wave of sensations. Hunger, nervous energy and a desire to prowl flow into her and mix with Livvy's own anxiety and eagerness to launch. But the new over the comms puts a damper on that. "Wait, say that again? We've got a prehistoric something out there?"
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Feb 5, 2018 09:45
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"Prehistoric is the least of it," Teresa replies. "Whatever is down there, it's been there since before our sun was more than a slowly condensing cloud of gas and dust." "This is why the Outsiders lost spin; the comet is far more massive than it should be. The question is, did someone find this and try to acquire it secretly, or did they really just happen to target a random body with an impossibly ancient alien artifact inside it. I think for now we should assume someone knows about this and is coming for it, and prepare accordingly." "But while we're at it... Singh, do we have anything that can bore an entrance through a comet nucleus, or should I start asking the lifters?" While she waits for an answer, she leans closer to her screens, tapping the indicator. "How did you get here, little stranger?"
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Feb 5, 2018 14:57
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Singh The readouts from the lifters gives Singh a brief catatonic moment, flaring red with improper weight distributions and a series of warnings about exceeding equipment capacity. He can't help but immediately think of whatever habitat might get struck by it. This wasn't an easy job anymore. He forces himself into regular breathing, listening to the others report their conclusions. He closes his eyes at Teresa's question, pausing his breath, then opens them. "It would take a while, even assuming the equipment holds up. Melt or carve the ice in a tunnel, and it's gotta go somewhere. The first few dozen meters and you're okay, it's efficiently vented into space. After that and you'd be in a cloud of steam that's trying to refreeze around you while also trying to blow you out of the hole. Maybe some of the SRAUs could do it, but it would take time." "But here's another thought," he says, getting excited. "The lifters are made for long-term ice transport. They're loaded with explosives made for breaking up the ice into manageable chunks - standard sizes for loading into big vessels and stations. It's just saving them some time while moving ice to market. We could try to set up shaped charges the same way miners use them, but crack this ice cube in two. Then we get rid of... whatever that is inside ourselves, and let the lifters move the ice."
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Feb 6, 2018 02:35
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Carl The pilot curtly replied, "Whatever's inside has the same intrinsic velocity as the ice. We need to counteract its inertia or we have exactly the same problem."
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Feb 9, 2018 03:21
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Emergency The lifters stop just short of their initial burn, clamps hovering mere centimeters above the icy surface and the cold black coils of carbon fiber netting loosely draped over the comet. There's still a few hours before a burn must be made to avoid comet impact, but the window to hit the orbit the client specified is closing fast. The computed meter of lifter spare capacity keeps going down while the required Gs for the entry maneuver keeps going up. With the extra mass from the alien artifact, there's about an hour left before the burn cycle will require more fuel than the lifters are carrying.
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Feb 9, 2018 04:08
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Livvy Oh, poo poo. That's not good. "Uh, guys? We're not getting any momentum with the lifters. You want me to go give 'em a push?"
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Feb 9, 2018 04:13
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Carl "They're stopped short. Fire them up and we can still hit schedule."
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Feb 9, 2018 04:16
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Singh Singh grunts and flicks the new burn schedule back into the lifter commands, though he doesn't initiate them. "You're saying there's evidence of a suspiciously... alien object inside this ice cube, and we're just going to hand it back to the nutty Outsiders - no offense - who didn't bother to mention it in their contract?" My mistake, I guess... I thought the implication was that the extra mass meant the lifters couldn't move it and we needed to come up with a way to divide-and-conquer the comet.
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Feb 10, 2018 03:02
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