TRANQUILITY PART 13 ( 'What was that?' )
POSTED BY: SHADOWcaptain
UPDATED: Thursday, March 4, 2010 04:33
VIEWED: 24944
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Here's how it all started:
TRANQUILITYS journey Part 1
'Genesis'
Be part of my virtual firefly crew
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On board TRANQUILITY, WASH picks up ALLIANCE troops moving towards SHADOW, SHINY and OREO.
"Cap, I think it's an ambush. I'm coming to get you."
SHADOW calls out to SHINY and OREO as they are heading out to the assignment:
"Get back here you two! ambush!"
The 2 turn back and run towards SHADOW, just as 4 ALLIANCE battalions pour out of the warehouse that OREO and SHINY were headed to.
TRANQUILITY races towards him from the other direction.
The 2 get to SHADOW 1st.
SHADOW:
"Quick, we may have time to save the mule!"
The 3 run to the mule, uncover it and drive it towards TRANQUILITY ahead of the gunfire.
SHADOW:
'com:
"Barn swallow WASH!"
WASH picks them up on visual, opens the bay doors and scoops the mule up.
A loud explosion is heard coming from the ground as the ship begins ascent.
Then a loud 'THUMP' against the ships hull.
"what was that?"
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The ship sat on the asteroid with minimal power signatures coming from it. The sensors seemed to show a large impact site beneath the starboard wing.
‘Missile impact?’ Wisp thought to himself studying the sensor data in front of him. It looked pretty fresh from the thermal traces around the edges of the hull. His best guess was this must have been the ship he heard cortex chatter over back on NILO.
“Great more Alliance trouble” Wisp muttered to himself. That was a bad habit he’d developed recently. Long periods by yourself make you a little crazy. “Ok Wisp turn off the sensors and disappear into the mist again”
His hand hung between the Communication panel and the Navigation. His inward mind battled as to whether to do the clever thing or the right thing. A few years back he wouldn’t have hesitated but he’d had a lot of bad luck doing the right thing and he knew it would only end in trouble.
Still his hand hung there.
“You’re going to regret this” His hand picked up the microphone and he keyed in a wide broadcast to the ghost of the ship. “Unknown Firefly Class vessel this is the ISSCV Epsilon do you need assistance?”
No answer. Could be their comms are down. Could be they’re afraid I’m an alliance type out to earn a reward. Could be they’re all dead.
“Firefly Class vessel I am not an Alliance vessel do you require aid?”
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TRANQUILITY'S emergency systems are activated
from the semi-crash landing on a nearby asteroid.
A computerized female voice echoes in the background over the PA:
"Emergency. Oxygen level critical!
Use of oxygen mask imperative."
[Message repeats in Chinese]
The ships computer system, T.O.B.I., comes back online after being briefly knocked offline by the hard landing
after losing attitude control, due to the surface-to-air missile hitting the starboard wing.
______________________________________________
EMERGENCY P.O.S.T. REBOOT.......
TRANQUILITY: 03-K64-FFF-00
Keel laid: August 2459
Registry: 404-E-132-4FE274
Firefly Engine: 2 Blue Sun 6V4-178-B31
Trace Compression Blocks
36 RCS Thrustersall
Standard Radion Accelerator core
Awaiting further authorization inputs for NavComp,
Flight Systems are in automatic mode.......
HULL BREACH!
All remain power being diverted to life support.
SEALING ALL AIRLOCKS.......
VACATE COMPROMISED AREAS IMMEDIATELY.
DOORS WILL REMAIN SEALED UNTIL BREACH IS CONTAINED.
SENDING AUTOMATED DISTRESS SIGNAL.......
SCANNING FOR CREW VITALS.......
FAINT READINGS ON MOST.
NO READINGS ON OTHERS - INSUFFICIENT DATA.
_______________________________________________
Mid-bulk Transport Standard Radion Accelerator core. 03-K64-FFF-00
ONLINE Tuesday, March 25, 2517 - 19:50
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Wisp managed to land the Epsilon at the rear entry of the Firefly class ship despite the uneven surface of the asteroid fighting against him. From the looks of the surrounding landscape the vessel had come in far too fast and left a trail of bumps and grooves for around a half mile behind it. Wisp had to extend the soft air lock several times around the docking hatch before he got a hard seal and even then he didn’t really trust it. The high rate of spin of the asteroid combined with the uneven ground made the risk of a decompression high and the last thing he wanted was to die in agony as his lungs exploded due to a minor rock slide breaking the air seal.
Wisp tentatively examined the air pressure on the Firefly’s hatch and was surprised to see it reading barely above the red. He theorised to himself that the gaping wound in the vessels side must not be properly sealed leading to a dangerously low atmosphere throughout the ship.
“Well that complicates matters” said Wisp to no-one but himself as he headed back from the flimsy plastic seal to the much safer metal airlock of his ship. He cast his mind back to his lectures back in his youth on procedure for entering an unknown decompressed atmosphere. Of course it was always implied back then that you would have a full compliment of marines doing the dirty work for you. Trust the alliance never to think of a one Samaritan rescue effort; it was hardly their style. He walked back into the cargo hold to survey the equipment he had on hand.
The Epsilon was originally designed as a short range troop shuttle that Wisp had come into ownership of 2 years prior back on Santos after he and his friends had come under siege and had to part ways suddenly to separate ends of the verse. He’d spent most of his time since then trying to find them which had involved him doing serious retrofits to the vessel. Usually he took great times of his solitary repairs insulting the ships poor design and his misfortune to be stuck wandering the verse in it, but on this occasion he counted his blessings that he was on this ship. Part of its original use had been for high orbit marine drops and therefore it contained 16 high grade combat space suits. Of course he’d sold 15 to pay for his various parts and upgrades but had kept the final one for a situation such as this.
He donned it slowly checking every seal and valve twice before turning back towards the airlock before he stopped himself. One thing he had remembered from his incomplete education had been that under no circumstances should you enter an unknown vessel unarmed. This was a sound piece of advice but left Wisp with another decision to make. He walked across to the weapons locker and entered the access code revealing a very sparse looking rack of weapons. As the ship had originally housed 16 Marines the locker contained space for many conceivable weapons, but as Wisp had been flying solo most had been sold long ago. He still had more than one man could ever carry and was very careful to keep a wide selection of arms for every eventuality. The decision he pondered now was which of these weapons should he carry?
The safest choice was a modified 12 Terra Watt pulse rifle that he’d obtained very illegally. The weapon was favoured by the Expendables and created a very threatening profile. This however was the problem, to carry in such a weapon gave any crew members the instant impression that he was here to deprive them of their wordy goods and perhaps their souls in the process. As much as he would have felt very safe carrying it he decided against it. He decided the safest option would be a stun rifle, not as intimidating as a deadly weapon and therefore less likely to create an aggressive image but still able to disable any Reavers in case this was a trap.
“Reavers..” Wisp said to himself. The word sounding even more eerie through his headset. He mentally punished himself for not thinking of this situation previously. This did stink of a Reaver trap. He briefly reconsidered his choice in firearm then decided he should be mo
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On the edge of consciousness, Shadow pulls himself up from the floor and leans against the control panel on the bridge.
He looks to his right and sees Wash unconscious at the helm.
After multiple attempts to revive him, Shadow decides to get help from the crew.
He 'coms the crew but the 'com is dead.
He runs to leave the bridge but the airlock is sealed.
[sarcastically]
"Shiny."
Shadow is already running out of the precious little oxygen left on the bridge.
[breathlessly]
Shadow goes back to the helm and has T.O.B.I. play back the last moments before the crash.
The ships' computer plays back all the video from all the cameras in each of the ships' sections.
[Thinks]
We've come a long way from the
'little black boxes' of the airplane era.
The 1st camera replays video from the cargo hold.
It shows Shadow putting 2 children, a boy and a girl, into a cryo-box and setting the controls.
Then it shows him running [out of frame] towards the bridge.
The 2nd camera angle shows Oreo securing Shinyfrye's room door. Then it shows Oreo running towards the engine room.
The other cameras show nothing significant.
[Computerized Female voice]
"Oxygen levels critical.
Deploy oxygen masks at once."
[Repeats in Chinese.]
=Breathe slowly.=
The last video screen shows the main viewer.
A long, hard, bouncy landing.
Shadow reaches over to the unconscious Wash, slaps him on the shoulder, and says:
"Nice work. Anyone else crashes us."
Then, a loud bang from the rear of Tranquility echoes throughout the ship.
Then a series of quieter bumps.
Then a hissing sound.
Shadow looks at the video screen and sees a man entering from the stern of their home.
[Gasping]
=Almost out of air.=
=Last chance.=
Shadow types in the code to unlock the airlock on the bridge...
[Falls to the floor unconscious...]
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Wisp stepped through the airlock into the dark and cavernous cargo hold of the firefly vessel. Although the bay was usually well lit with life support failing it was now barely illuminated by emergency lighting creating eerie shadows clawing at the walls. Wisp activated two powerful lamps on the shoulders of his suit thrusting twin shafts of light into the grey unknown. In the centre of the bay lay a hover mule clumsily run into the far stairs as if it had approached at far too great a speed. Around the edges the usual assortment of boxes and crates lay tied down as one expected to see in such a ship.
The Firefly class, Wisp thought to himself, the staple work horse of galactic trade. Cheap to run and repair they served as carriers for all sorts of small goods across the verse. Shaking himself from his ponderings he looked checked his external atmospheric gauge. It’s needle was firmly planted in the red indicating no breathable atmosphere in the room.
“Probably where the atmospheric leak is then” Wisp spoke into his helmet. The microphone giving his voice an electronic echo with his head. He thrust his mind back to the last time he’d been aboard a firefly and remembered there should be a cargo terminal somewhere to his left near the stairs. Swinging his upper body the torches ran a course to a terminal exactly where it should have been. Walking over Wisp saw it had powered down probably to conserve energy in the dying ship. He reached down to one of the thigh pockets on his suit and extracted a small power cell which he placed onto the screen of the console causing it to light up with a low atmosphere message.
“Now were in business”
Touching the screen a core menu appeared with the heading ‘T.ranquility O.n B.oard I.nteractive computer === T.O.B.I’.
“Hello TOBI I’m Wisp nice to meet you” Wisp liked computers. He was a computer wizard, he could make them sing and dance like a Broadway star on Earth-That-Was. Looking at the menu he saw a status report option which gave him a schematic of the ship showing oxygen levels. The cargo hold showed up in a strong red colour at 2% whilst the rest of the ship hung in a yellow somewhere in the teens. The crew quarters were fairing the best but not by far. This was the problem with the old class of ships, in the event of loss of pressure a series of hatches closed to maintain atmosphere in the rest of the ship. However the hatches only functioned at 100% if they were closed BEFORE depressurisation. The rest of the time they only served to slow the rate of loss. Add to that the general lack of repairs done to emergency seals and you had the current emergency.
Wisp gathered his bearings from where he saw the impact on the hull and made his way to the corresponding walkway inside. The hole was around a foot in diameter with various shards of metal pointing into the ship. Wisp didn’t know it at the time but the rocket had been making a very accurate path to the ships engine before a sudden movement caused it to plough into the hull instead. Wisp placed his stun rifle on the floor and removed his backpack unzipping its contents. He had made a good estimation of the damage from the exterior and was therefore well equipped to seal the breach. It wasn’t going to be a permanent fix but all he needed was an air seal so he could start recreating the atmosphere.
His first task was to even out the injury, he couldn’t apply a patch with spokes of jagged metal jutting out at him. Extracting and lighting a portable plasma arc he began gently severing the bent hull until he had a pretty even surface. After a quick glance at his oxygen reserves he removed a polymer seal and began unfolding it. The seal had a square of magnetised metal at each of its four corners which Wisp placed over the opening pulling the plastic tight. Then setting the plasma arc on its lowest setting he began melting the edges onto the internal hull. As he finished the last inch of melting he was rewarded with a suctioned pull as the vacuum of space pulled on the sheet. Walking back to the computer terminal he ch
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As Shadow lay on the floor, he regained consciousness slightly, as a small pocket of oxygen wafted past his face.
Groggily, he stood up and stumbled to the small locker on the bridge that held the O2 masks.
In all the commotion, he hadn't thought of doing this earlier. There wasn't enough time to anyway.
His last moments of consciousness was spent trying to revive Wash, before they were both 'out' again.
This time he donned the mask and went to the helm to work on fixing life support, when he noticed
activity near the engine room on the monitor.
=Thinks=
=Intruder!?=
Shadow draws his weapon and quietly makes his way to the engine room.
= If I know Oreo, and he's awake on the other side of that door, my bullet will soon be this guys best friend.
That half-reaver's gonna give him a real 'Tranquil' welcome. =
Maybe out of compassion for the interloper, Shadow sneaks up behind the man whose full attention is on getting into the engine room,
taps him on the shoulder with the barrel of his pistol and says:
"Hi..." 
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Wisp walked to the back of the cargo hold and gets to the door to the passenger quarters. Despite the emergency seals being deactivated the door still held fast and required a large dose of brute force and ignorance to pry open. ‘Damn this suit’ Wisp thought to himself. Although the combat suit offered great armour and oxygen reserves it was unwieldy and slow. He made a mental note to himself that when this was all over he was going to get himself something sleeker for his space walks.
The living area was deserted and in a terrible state of disorder with everything not bolted down thrown towards the front of the ship. He took a quick look into the med bay but found it in more of a mess than the seating area. He thought about starting to look through the passenger rooms but decided against it. The best thing he could do for now was get enough oxygen flowing around so anybody who was still here would wake up. With that in mind Wisp turned up the stairs and headed for the engine room.
Upon reaching the door he again encountered it stiff and unmovable. Grasping the handles with both hands he begins pulling with all his might to shift the steel bolts. So caught up in his task he didn’t notice the crewman exit the bridge and step behind him. There’s a certain way you get when you’ve been alone for a long time, you kind of forget other people exist. But when you step onto an abandoned ship your always looking out for people. Unfortunately in Wisps focus on opening the door his brain shifted to the first way of thought rather than the second, so when the voice came out of nowhere Wisp in one very classy movement jumped out of his skin, tried to turn around and ended up falling back against the door in a seated position. Needless to say the crewman did not expect this to occur and had a slightly surprised expression at the general failure he had just witnessed.
His heart pounding in his mouth Wisp managed to move it aside long enough to shout:
“You’re ALIVE! Somebody’s still alive on this Gorram Ship!”
Unfortunately Wisp hadn’t keyed on the external microphone on his suit so the gentleman infront of him heard it as a muffled sound through his glass face plate. Noticing the mans puzzled expression Wisp quickly rectified himself turning on the speaker and repeating himself.
“You’re Alive! I thought everybody would be dead. Not that I came here to go stealing from you sir I just...You’re Alive!”
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"And you're dead - less'n you tell me a happy story as to why you're pokin' around on my ship."
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“Sorry didn’t mean to be rude. Err. Well” Wisp had been caught off guard and he really didn’t like it. He had around 3 seconds to do the math and start talking before his gallant attempt to do his daily good dead would find him dead. So the math.
They weren’t Reavers which was one call for relief and they weren’t dead so after they’d gotten over the breaking and entering they owed him their lives. Unfortunately This gentleman didn’t seem too happy about him being on his ship so it was time to start singing.
“I was flying past on my merry when I saw your vessel powered down on this asteroid. I hailed you a few times and got no answer so I thought you may be in need of some help. I came in through your cargo bay and talked to your computer a spell. I put a field patch over your hull breach and managed to restore an atmospheric seal over the ship. I was just on my way to you engine room to try and prise some more power out of your life support when you came up behind me and scared the living Go se out of me” Wisp paused for breath. “I’m Wisp by the way and as much as im sorry for coming aboard without permission you do owe me”
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