hm... link formatting trouble. Should be https://questden.org/kusaba/graveyard/res/1064679.html#1064824

>>1120410
>Before Paprika can, her girlfriend's gloved hand blurs into place on her arm, heedless of the fire. "Please. It's not worth hurting yourself."
All of Paprika's fire, which had even started creeping up the handle of her spear, winks out in an instant. She's crying.

"Nat I'm sorry! Did I burn you? I'm so sorry...I don't know what to do! Should we run?"

>>1120411
>That pink fuzzy stuff in Last Call's almost-fully-healed wound... you've seen it before, or heard of it at least.
Paprika starts pointing at the approaching mimicbot and rambling on about meeting a slug who asked her to set a house on fire. Seems like her fury has fully reversed into panic.

rolled 5, 7, 3, 1, 20, 4, 7, 17, 15, 3, 16, 17, 17, 3, 17, 2, 18, 10, 16, 1 = 199

---

>>1120413
>I'm so sorry...I don't know what to do! Should we run?"
"I believe in you."

>Did I burn you?
Ah. That would have been hypocritical of her, wouldn't it? Thank goodness for fireproofed armoring cloth.

>what do
Going to take a recovery roll and proc Understanding while we let Last Call close to within Paprika's tether. When Paprika goes on the offense, Natalina's going to follow with Phase Sprint, and focus on drawing attacks.

rolled 6 + 3 = 9

---

Recovery roll.

rolled 12, 19, 10, 20, 10, 5, 11, 9, 10, 18, 7, 18, 9, 4, 10, 7, 15, 1, 11, 3 = 209

---

>"I believe in you."
Paprika's suddenly all steel and confidence again. She retreats back to the ship with Nat and Cricket, ready to lure Last Call into melee range.

Change of change of plans! For the sake of record keeping, after some discussion and in response to Nat's intervention, I'm going with Nanotech Defense after all.

Gonna cut this thing into room temperature chunks. No flame shroud, but effort applied in all the same places.

rolled 13, 20, 9, 20, 6, 6, 6, 15, 11, 5, 3, 9, 5, 18, 6, 1, 10, 2, 5, 14 = 184

---

>>1120424
Not sure if there's an "aid" roll? Cricket just wants to help back up Paprika and Natalina. At the very least, Paprika can gain a +1 from working with her.

rolled 17, 11, 19, 19, 10, 14, 2, 15, 12, 9, 14, 7, 12, 10, 14, 13, 17, 6, 11, 16 = 248

---

After a few rounds of trying to get something deadly on this ship working, Reiko taps into comms and blares things out.

"Bad news! I couldn't get the weapons systems online! Do you need me to come tank, or should I keep the engines warm?"

Just then, Reiko notices the pink goop. Roll to recall how to subvert it and relay sabotage orders that the girls can conduct. [Disable Device, 2 Effort]

The three of you stride forward as one, steady and confident.
>>1120417
Natalina raises her sword in a duelist's salute, leans slightly left to dodge a projectile, reverses her grip as if to re-sheathe the blade, then advances two more quick steps. Last Call swings at her with a lanky pseudo-mechanical arm, almost long enough to drag on the ground. Just before the impact, blip, she's suddenly behind it, facing away and upside-down, reverse-gripped blade plunging into the spot where a power core ought to be.
Last Call's overextended swing reaches through that same transient portal, grazing Nat's knee on the way to a more solid impact with the back of its own head.
>>1120424
Paprika clamps down on the sharp, isolating fire that's been her constant companion, drawing on contentment and connection with such deliberate, desperate force that it's like cranking back a heavy crossbow inside her own heart. Nearby lights on the metal mesh walkway flicker, and a tracery of frost forms on the thin clear-synth tube that borders the airless void outside. Just as Last Call's eyes dilate, adapting to low-light conditions while sweeping side to side (having lost track of Nat - as everyone but Paprika sometimes will), her restrained blaze is released in a brief, blinding flash. Before those optical shutters can close again, they're jammed by a spearpoint, hammered home thanks to Last Call's fist impacting the back of its own head.
>>1120516
Cricket Moon's battle-choreography isn't as polished, since she hasn't been together with the group as long, but her dark water and shining feathers smoothly fill the gaps between Paprika's flames, keeping Last Call's pratfalls synchronized with the plan, preventing it from regaining its balance. Once it's down, and Natalina has begun the work of methodically hacking it into smaller pieces while Paprika's perfume anti-cauterizes the open wounds, Cricket guards the approach, keeping mimic-slugs from merging with Last Call's remains to revive it, or worse yet, sneaking past to infest the ship.

At last, it's done. The lumpy, mangled heap of contaminated self-replicating materials has stopped trying to reform. A gleaming emerald roughly the size and shape of a mango floats to the top, debris refusing to cling to it, flawless apart from a thumb-switch which you think will trigger some sort of intense but repeatable psychic data-dump.

Nat's battered and exhausted - fighting toe-to-toe with a monster whose legs are each the size of your entire body is a hard workout, even when you win - but probably nothing that can't be fixed with a good night's sleep, a few meals, and a long hot bath.

>>1120522
Paprika's fireproofing artifact, however, seems to have some more serious problem. Rather than the familiar soft chirp and misty spray, it just produces an angry honk. Reiko looks it over, runs some tests, figures that catalytic reagents inside it were overstrained, forced to process too many doses too quickly over the course of suppressing Last Call's pyro-orogeny. Fortunately that'll be quite easy to repair... once the ship's molecular loom is restarted. Which needs to be done anyway! Ongoing blood transfusion has already been a great help on that front, pushed back globulin polymerization enough to spin up secondary and tertiary diagnostic encabulators, which revealed... well, the short, non-technical version is the ship is very hungry / thirsty, and that pond you encountered earlier - though toxic to humans - looks to be exactly the right sort of soup to nourish it. Land on top of that, slurp, problem solved. Probably.

Life support seems to be working fine, and the easiest low-energy orbit would have you grazing the upper atmosphere in about fifteen hours, which is quick enough (and interior is spacious enough) air wouldn't go noticeably stale even if the ship had no life support at all. Could dive faster, if you want to risk warming up the main engines, or delay if you'd rather rest and explore the ship's interior a bit more before bracing for re-entry.

rolled 5, 16, 20, 15, 20, 15, 2, 18, 11, 7, 1, 8, 14, 8, 9, 19, 12, 5, 2, 6 = 213

---

Reiko orders the ship to start up, but while the four are having a conference, she votes on a delayed re-entry. Everyone needs to triple-check the hull for any hint of a structural failure; one microscopic flaw, and entire modules will be set ablaze. Maybe even the core...

Reiko spends a few hours speaking with the ship, using stored multi-error-correction codes to fine-toothed comb the programming for software bugs generated by para-static. Once she's finally certain the self-diagnostics are stable, she runs the program once, then sets it to auto-scan until entry while she looks at anything on the ship with a stat out of place, even if it's a hundredth outside of the margin of error.

[I dunno what to roll so just apply maximum effort until her intelligence pool is reduced to half)

rolled 6, 16, 13, 7, 7, 17, 1, 17, 20, 7, 15, 7, 17, 4, 10, 17, 12, 15, 7, 13 = 228

---

Paprika kneels at Nat's side, carefully cradles Nat's head, runs her fingers through Nat's hair. "Babe, that was spectacular." Paprika stays with her girlfriend until the transfusion is done and Reiko has removed the tube from her arm. Then she gently lifts Nat, bridal style, and carries her to the ship's showers.

Performing a healing task, which mostly involves soothing Nat's bruises and scratches with her first aid kit, and tenderly cleaning all the mimic slime out of Nat's hair and off her body. Healing two points from each depleted pool - difficulty 4 task. Spending two levels of intellect effort and using the first aid kit in Natalina's inventory to ease the task to difficulty 1. Here's the math for my pool expenditure:

5 (two levels of effort) - 2 (edge) = 3 intellect points spent

After a long shower...

>>1125488
>while the four are having a conference, she votes on a delayed re-entry
"You're the expert, Reiko. And I think we could use a little time to recover from that fight."

>>11254841
Natalina falls to her knees in exhaustion and relief, not even able to muster the effort to begin wiping off her coating of spattered slug-slime. Ooh. That speed stim combined with being too tired to move is... tingly.

>>1125507
>Paprika kneels at Nat's side, carefully cradles Nat's head, runs her fingers through Nat's hair. "Babe, that was spectacular."
Natalina leans into the embrace, and gives Paprika a slow, slightly loopy smile. "You were beautiful, yourself. Landing an almost literal bullseye with effortless grace. You found yourself again."
>Paprika stays with her girlfriend until the transfusion
Resting sounds very good at the moment.

>Paprika is visibly very excited to show Nat the two-person shower.
>Then she gently lifts Nat, bridal style, and carries her to the ship's showers.
Being carried off for post-combat aftercare and shower time with her girlfriend sound too nice for Natalina to even feel embarrassed out.
>After a long shower...
Rolling 2d6 + 6 for Natalina's 10 minute and 1 hour recovery rolls.

>>11254841
>A gleaming emerald roughly the size and shape of a mango floats to the top, debris refusing to cling to it, flawless apart from a thumb-switch which you think will trigger some sort of intense but repeatable psychic data-dump.
"...not it. I know I've developed a track record for talks-with-machines, but I have no desire to chance a mental encounter right now."

>>1125488
>Reiko votes on a delayed re-entry
Seems reasonable. If nothing else, there are salvage sites we passed by to get to the ship. We could harvest some or all of those before heading back to down. (Well, less "we" and more "people other Natalina", as she's going to resting for a bit).

rolled 4, 4 + 6 = 14

---

>>1125515

>>1125507
>rolled 6
Paprika brings one of the translucent pink hockey-puck things into the shower (along with a small basket of other stuff) having mistaken it for a bar of soap. Under the warm spray, it puffs up like biscuit dough being baked, and without thinking Natalina takes a bite.
It's not the most delicious thing she's ever tasted - that would be two and a half years ago, medium-rare steak in white sauce paired with a '63 Rokeg pear brandy, paid for by a weasel-ish man trying to distract her from his syndicate's inferior tool-and-die work - but that shiver up her spine says it's easily hit top ten. Still sorta bland and chalky, but apparently something in there is exactly what Nat's body needs at the moment.

Mechanically speaking, five points restored by Paprika's medical care.

>>1125488
Sensor tusks are working, now. Passive scan yields a superb map of the night sky, and two-meter pixels across the earth's surface, while even at minimal power, active scans pick out sub-millimeter detail, along with esoteric resonances which can be interpreted as clues about molecular structure, from literal miles away. Even through some types of walls! Starting to dial up scan intensity further triggered an "are you sure?" prompt, warning how that type of 'missile lock' may be interpreted as a hostile act by twitchy military types - including, at full power, at least an order of magnitude further away than the Moon.
>rolled 5
Due to impatient idle tapping on an initially unresponsive button, the queued results of a dozen nested "zoom and enhance" commands have taught Reiko far more than she ever really wanted to learn about the inside of her own nose.
>rolled 16, 20, 15, 20
The ship's condition is... still far from ideal, but basically stable. Patched seals on the hangar bay door will burn through during re-entry, no question, but they'll retain air until then, proper aerodynamic orientation should be able to keep dangerous amounts of plasma from leaking in, Cricket or Paprika could provide a backup, and even if they fail, vital systems are rated to survive hangar bay interior being on fire for several more minutes than it should be physically possible for high-speed atmospheric compression to last. Well, at least, assuming you land in water or deep snow afterward. https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2016-10-08 How hard can that be? Dozens of miles around the intended destination are snowed-in to adequate depth, and even if you 'miss the barn,' rest of the planet is more ocean than not.

Scan For Iotum channeled through those sensors quickly spots some good loot within easy reach: ten units of Smart Tissue among Last Call's pulverized remains, and nine more Azure Steel, six Pliable Metal, 15x level-one Io in the terapede husk. Not to mention more Parts than you could reasonably carry. Signs of other good stuff elsewhere in Zone Ivory, and enough interference from those layers of scrap that you're fairly sure there's still more being overlooked.

Nowhere near enough Responsive Synth to rebuild a terapede's guts, though. Upwards of a hundred units would be necessary.

Maybe Natalina could sell that Scalar Boson Rod to the University of Doors for considerably (approx. 10x) more than fair market value, via some tricky contract language? "Oh, we only need enough Responsive Synth for this one little project... don't worry about courier costs, we'll head right over to Banded Mesa ourselves, make the trade at your outpost there, and the entire device we're trying to fix would easily fit inside the vehicle we'll be riding."

rolled 20, 1, 1, 2, 7, 15, 12, 11, 5, 4, 20, 18, 13, 4, 16, 10, 11, 16, 13, 14 = 213

---

Reiko spends some time querying the ship's logs, trying to find out how the repair crews used to work, and asks the ship to give her a runtime of all footage from its main camera. From her perspective, it starts out blurry, but Reiko talks to the ship to remove and edit frames to give a single continuous animation from a relatively stable standpoint. It's blurry and inaccurate, but the logs mooshed together give a general understanding of how life went before the Eighth blew up, and a few post-apocalypse movies after that.
Down on the ground the passengers and repair crews looked like ants, but Reiko manages to find the occasional large package being de-packaged in the hangar, with large plates then carried over to the ship.

Reiko rallies any teammates who aren't busy and explores the area that most of the crates of plating came from. With luck, she might be able to find a means of reinforcing the doors even further, or at least a repair manual.

A few scans for iotum along the way probably won't hurt. 2 effort each time to minimize the strain on her cyberware.

rolled 10, 20, 8, 16, 4, 4, 5, 8, 5, 1, 19, 7, 12, 9, 9, 2, 8, 13, 12, 6 = 178

---

>>1125515
>Being carried off for post-combat aftercare and shower time with her girlfriend sound too nice for Natalina to even feel embarrassed out.
Cricket Moon definitely isn't writing stories about the heroic encounters they've just gone through, or any steamy aftermaths. That journal is strictly for studying strategy to work better with everyone.

Long slow re-entry, with the goal being to head towards the chemical pool? What do we roll to make it happen? Presumably it's an intellect task, so, spending max effort on that, probably in concert with Reiko. Seems like something we'd really like to avoid getting wrong.

rolled 15, 8, 4, 10, 2, 4, 18, 12, 18, 15, 2, 14, 3, 6, 4, 5, 4, 15, 6, 16 = 181

---

>>1125515
>You found yourself again.
"I couldn't have done it without you, Nat."

>Being carried off for post-combat aftercare and shower time with her girlfriend sound too nice for Natalina to even feel embarrassed out.
Once Nat's fully pampered and tucked in somewhere comfy, and provided with hockey pucks and tastier snacks from the supplies we brought, Paprika gets dressed and reapplies her makeup. "I'm gonna go see if Reiko needs a hand. Take it easy, ok? I'll be back to check on you again soon."

>>1126029
>Reiko rallies any teammates who aren't busy and explores the area that most of the crates of plating came from.
Paprika will mostly act as an extra set of hands and eyes for Reiko, though she'd also like to do a little more exploring if Reiko and Cricket are up for it. Sweeping the crew quarters (lower maze) seems like a good idea:

>>1119790
>Sweeping the lower deck with certainty will take a lot longer, and probably at least three people.

I'm guessing I never found my way to cold storage?

rolled 20, 5, 11, 17, 13, 15, 9, 2, 14, 1, 17, 17, 9, 16, 10, 13, 10, 11, 16, 13 = 239

---

After a lengthy and relaxing couple's shower, Natalina swaps her brilliance cloth outfit over to a comfortable set of pajamas and fluffy bathrobe.

>A gleaming emerald roughly the size and shape of a mango floats to the top, debris refusing to cling to it, flawless apart from a thumb-switch which you think will trigger some sort of intense but repeatable psychic data-dump.
>Scan For Iotum channeled through those sensors quickly spots some good loot within easy reach: ten units of Smart Tissue among Last Call's pulverized remains
"Would someone like to help me claim our hard-won spoils, before we rest for the night or head back down?"

Headed back out to salvage Last Call's remains (applying Learned for temporary training and Understanding for an asset), with whoever's around and willing to accompany her (she's hardly going to disembark alone after all that). Reiko or Cricket would probably be the most useful, if someone else is going to make a second salvaging attempt to exhaust it.

>>1126151
>salvage Last Call's remains
>rolled 20
In addition to the described Smart Tissue, and level 5 Nachant Key artifact, Nat finds two units of Mother Marrow, and forensic traces implying that Last Call may have been created deliberately by that vector-algebra squidbot as part of discouraging or misdirecting pursuit.

>>1126117
>I'm guessing I never found my way to cold storage?
>rolled 15
In the center of the lower-deck labyrinth there's a roughly cylindrical block with notably thicker floor and ceiling, clear passages all around but only one entrance: a heavy vault door of reddish-orange metal that almost seems to glow in the dark. Some automated system keeps trying to close the door, but it's been wedged open with an incongruously ordinary hunk of wood, about the length of your forearm - irregularly curved and polished the way you'd expect from driftwood washed up on the beach, but intensely dry to the touch, despite lacking salt or char.
When you pick it up, underside of the hunk of wood turns out to be carved with the name of your lost hometown.

Interior of the cold-storage vault is laid out on a hex grid. Central pillar seems to be control panels, six hexes of open space around it, five short passages (plus the entrance) equally spaced around the perimeter, each leading to a walk-in closet with five alcoves. Each of the 25 alcoves seems to be a stasis coffin designed for a four-meter tall humanoid. None are currently occupied.
Those mummified folks from the elevator could probably be stuffed in here, with better results than just burying them in snow.

>>1126072
>rolled 10, 20
Cricket identifies an elliptical route which will allow initial stage of aerobraking to be followed by a stopover at Branu's Kiss, a 30-mile-wide distant relative of the Eye of the Sea (from back in Thread 1) in sun-synchronous orbit. That's an opportunity to validate water-cooling strategy before fully betting all your lives on it, plus the place looks beautiful and would be fascinating to see close-up.

>>1126029
>rolled 20
Terapede carcass has been transferred to the ship's cargo hold relatively intact - decision of whether to restore it or break it up for scrap can be postponed.
>rolled 1, 1
Proposed intrusions:
a) Scan has tentatively identified a source of Quantum Foam deep inside Zone Black; it's actually the environment suit worn by a neutron star dweller. Only plausible way to win a fight with one of those involves the ship's main gun.
b) Incident report and deep archive inquiries have drawn the attention of an ancient architect's datasphere remnant. If you fire the main gun into the station again, or maybe even nearby, it'll become hostile.

rolled 8, 4, 13, 17, 17, 10, 16, 15, 7, 8, 15, 12, 7, 1, 2, 15, 20, 16, 17, 13 = 233

---

>>>1126181
>forensic traces implying that Last Call may have been created deliberately by that vector-algebra squidbot as part of discouraging or misdirecting pursuit.
When Paprika hears about this, the air around her gets notably hotter and there's an intense gleam in her eye. Contrary to its intentions, everything the squidbot does just seems to make Paprika more ferociously eager to follow it to the end of the universe.

>underside of the hunk of wood turns out to be carved with the name of your lost hometown.
Even after all the time and space brainfuckery Paprika's experienced so far, this was enough to shake her. After a minor freakout, she finds something else to use to wedge the door open and brings the hunk of wood back to show her friends, also bringing up the stasis coffins.

"What do you all make of this? You think it could have something to do with that dimensional husk we ran into outside Jackson's Launch? It feels like a message."

rolled 6, 11, 17, 18, 12, 11, 16, 20, 1, 1, 19, 10, 9, 15, 4, 3, 1, 17, 16, 3 = 210

---

>forensic traces implying that Last Call may have been created deliberately by that vector-algebra squidbot as part of discouraging or misdirecting pursuit.
Natalina sighs. "That's frustrating, but with much trouble the misdirection was, I am glad to have defused and avoid conflict with the cephalodroid around civilians. No permanent harm done, at least."

>level 5 Nachant Key artifact
>you think will trigger some sort of intense but repeatable psychic data-dump
The arkus is inclined to leave that for a later date, when her pools are less depleted.

>underside of the hunk of wood turns out to be carved with the name of [Paprika's] lost hometown.
>"What do you all make of this? You think it could have something to do with that dimensional husk we ran into outside Jackson's Launch? It feels like a message."
"If it is, I don't know what it means. 'We were expecting you'? 'We know where you came from'? ...if you think it's important, you may want to store it somewhere safe, as you cannot currently fireproof it."

Natalina can try to check if it's like the dimensional husk; applying training in dimensional travel and perception to see if that curving and polishing could be indicative of interdimensional travel. (Could also try cross-referencing Natalina's training in history or trying to look Paprika's hometown up in the atlas- but that's unlikely to help. If there was a well-known Beanstalk-climbing hero from thereabouts, they'd know!)

rolled 13, 16, 12, 18, 14, 19, 16, 14, 20, 7, 9, 7, 10, 11, 8, 16, 17, 3, 8, 7 = 245

---

"Uh, girls? I may have, um..." Reiko's ears fold, and she looks to the side as she twiddles her fingers. "provoked the station's cybersecurity."

"Sorry," she squeaks. "Also, something dangerous is in Zone Black. I... don't think we're ready to fight it."

>underside of the hunk of wood turns out to be carved with the name of [Paprika's] lost hometown.
"That can't be good. But we should concentrate on getting out of here. Throw the wood in heavy storage, I'll check if it's a mimic later."

Reiko does a quick survey of the cold storage vault, tries to see if it might be possible for her to disassemble and reassemble it on the ship, or if the design can be reverse-engineered. If it's too fragile she'll leave it be.

>>1126272
>If it's too fragile
More the reverse - it's very thoroughly integrated into the ship. Reinforced structural elements double as passive shielding, subfloor conduits feeding the showers are tapped as redundant heat exchangers. Moving it around would be like trying to surgically relocate somebody's lungs into their feet.

rolled 8, 14, 11, 5, 19, 7, 4, 4, 1, 16, 7, 17, 12, 16, 6, 20, 18, 5, 2, 14 = 206

---

>>1126251
>"I am glad to have defused and avoid conflict with the cephalodroid around civilians. No permanent harm done, at least."
Paprika's grin is showing a few too many teeth as she stares intently at Last Call's remains. She seems a little distant. "Uh huh. Always good to avoid conflict."

>"If it is, I don't know what it means."
"Me neither, Nat. But it can't be a coincidence! Right?"

>>1126272
>"Sorry," she squeaks.
Paprika's all gushy over seeing Reiko act anxious and apologetic. "Reiko, what are you sorry for? It's amazing what you've done with those computers so far. We'd be lost without you. Is this going to interfere with our re-entry plans?"

>"Also, something dangerous is in Zone Black. I... don't think we're ready to fight it."
"Can I go say hi?"

>"Throw the wood in heavy storage, I'll check if it's a mimic later."
Paprika stows the hunk of wood somewhere safe where Reiko can access it.

(from discord)
>could try scrounging for reponsive synth in chainpod-accessible sections of Zone Black
Suddenly restless and a little manic, Paprika borrows a chainpod to check out Zone Black while the others are resting or making ship repairs.

>>1126279
>rolled 8,
Eight miles out along the transit rail, so chainpod air supply still at 97%...
>14, 11,
...you come to a thicker chunk of the station's structure,
>5,
...about 500m in diameter (bigger than the ship, but smaller than Zone Jaune) with four other tensegrity cables splayed out from the far side.
>19
Reiko's initial survey says it's mostly solid - too thick and irregular in composition to clearly resolve the interior, which is really saying something when you're talking about active scanners designed to help mine asteroids - but there's an intact-looking airlock on the side, leading to a hollow pocket with...
>7, 4
...intriguing signs of life and/or a large quantity of responsive synth.

Unfortunately, as soon as you've cycled through the airlock and opened up your chainpod to have a look, it turns out to be the oily mass of nanites known as "strut ooze," which lunges toward the scent of fresh organic matter intending to destructively analyze and collect data for some long-forgotten purpose.

>4, 1, 16
Interior is only about fifteen meters in diameter. Machinery embedded in the back wall seems to be continuously extruding more strut ooze, as well as keeping local air breathable, but could potentially be reprogrammed to secrete usable responsive synth instead. Assuming the ooze doesn't eat your face first.

Fire will probably work. Based on what the innkeeper-abbot told you, strut ooze isn't particularly heat tolerant, it always tries to avoid direct sunlight.

>Cricket identifies an elliptical route which will allow initial stage of aerobraking to be followed by a stopover at Branu's Kiss, a 30-mile-wide distant relative of the Eye of the Sea (from back in Thread 1) in sun-synchronous orbit. That's an opportunity to validate water-cooling strategy before fully betting all your lives on it, plus the place looks beautiful and would be fascinating to see close-up.
"An excellent idea, Cricket."

>>1126272
>"Uh, girls? I may have, um..." Reiko's ears fold, and she looks to the side as she twiddles her fingers. "provoked the station's cybersecurity."
>"Sorry," she squeaks. "Also, something dangerous is in Zone Black. I... don't think we're ready to fight it."
"Well, better to know it's there than to stumble across it unawares? Perhaps it will have relaxed by the time we return."

rolled 10, 2, 3, 1, 17, 5, 12, 16, 15, 18, 5, 11, 11, 11, 4, 16, 5, 4, 2, 15 = 183

---

>>1126369
Flame Shroud up! I'll use Fleet of Foot to move over to the machine and try to figure out a way to turn it off without breaking it. One intellect effort. Math:

3 Intellect points - 2 edge = 1 point spent

rolled 12, 13, 8, 1, 6, 12, 13, 4, 12, 15, 11, 7, 11, 12, 11, 13, 11, 10, 17, 2 = 201

---

Reiko instinctively goes for her arm. She quickly punches in a few commonly-known 'Factory Reset' and 'Sleep Mode' codes and sends the signals out across the zone, hoping that whatever accounts as a controller for this metallic goo will shut down. Best-case scenario, they might even be re-programmable. (Good thing these aren't the shutdown codes for the chainpods... right?)

[Disable Device 2 Effort]

Hiss of equalizing pressure as the chainpod unseals, pseudopod extruding itself in pursuit of an unfamiliar chemical gradient, together yield the momentary instinctive impression of a serpent lunging out of the shadows - but a heartbeat later, shadow and serpent both are revealed to be the same single nanomotile mass.

Paprika sprints across pockmarked nickle-steel walls (gravity here feels like it's barely more than a polite suggestion) curving above the vertical shore of an oily pond, dodging inquisitive tentacles all the way.
>>1126487
>rolled 12, 13, 8

Reiko's voice is in Paprika's mind, claiming to be able to see through her eyes. Burbling zen-garden waterfall - oilfall? - from which more strut ooze is continuously emerging, opposite the airlock, is surrounded for at least three or four meters on all sides by a control panel https://jayeaton.site/Art/RttS/Comics/BugFerretTerminal that looks like it was primarily designed for entertaining hyperactive alien children: smooth corners, oversized gripping surfaces, chunky stylized patterns in oversaturated colors from a palette slightly wrong for the human visual range.

>>1126470
Reiko explains that this isn't a totipotent fabricator, but the type of responsive synth they need in order to repair the terapede has a strict subset of strut ooze capabilities. Already uploaded a revision worm with deliberately flawed blueprints, but direct hardware access is necessary in order to clear ALL the local caches at once, prevent what's informally known as the 'three most terrifying...' https://thecodelesscode.com/case/225
>rolled 10
>inability in crafting numenera, salvaging numenera, and understanding numenera
Paprika is still hung up on how they're even talking. https://www.egscomics.com/comic/2016-03-03 Isn't there too much hard vacuum? She couldn't hear anything at all outside the chainpod on the way here.

Reiko says that's not important right now, Paprika just needs to pull the reset lever. Not that...! Yes, over there, teal-and-orange candycane stripes.
>rolled 2
>trained in all Speed defense tasks
Paprika is pretty good at dodging tentacles, but that expertise has limits when she's sufficiently distracted. Seven damage from the impact, reduced by armor to five.

>rolled 3, 1
>specialized in jumping
Likewise, acrobatics with knee-deep mud, even if it weren't actively pulling her in deeper. Fire slows it down, but doesn't make it let go. Has it covered her face, or is that just billowing oily smoke? Smoke should feel hot, should be stinging her eyes, coughing and choking, but there's only a faint tickle like she can't decide whether she needs to sneeze.

Is that the correct lever, in her hand now? Feels like the right shape, maybe, but Reiko was really insistent about colors, and right now Paprika can't see a damn thing.

Can barely hear Reiko's voice over the hissing. That spot on Paprika's elbow, where she gave blood to the ship, is itching like crazy, spreading out, like something's crawling up and down inside her arm.

Hiss isn't the airlock leaking. It's an argument. Natalina would know what the words [?] mean, but she's miles away. From the tone... "Give it back!" "I saw it first!" "the Boss likes me better!" "Viridian heretic!" That sort of thing. Demons, haggling over a lost soul. Presumably her own.

When somebody gets caught by strut ooze, sinks all the way in, usually there aren't even bones left afterward.

>rolled 17
>remote assist from Reiko
Time continues to pass.

Within Paprika's mind, vision and consciousness stop angrily avoiding each other. Their frantic reunion spawns a pounding headache.

Apparently that was the right lever. Room looks a lot more spacious with all the ooze gone, but smoke's still so thick, air is barely breathable.

Wordless hiss tapers off, coalesces into a glimmer: that oily thing couldn't [destructively analyze / eat] her because the ship called dibs.
Not sure if comforted.

rolled 2 + 5 = 7

---

Reiko takes a moment to catch her breath... did she forget to do that? She'll need a nap when they find a way out of this.

Reiko helps Paprika back into the chainpod and seal the door so they can all take a breath.

>How they're even talking.
"Oh, that was pretty awesome. You got some nanotech splattered around your face, and it started eating you at the microbial level, so I was poking shutdown commands left and right-" Reiko stops, realizing Paprika can't see her AR display. "sorry. Basically, I used my implant to order a few clusters of nanomites on your face to shut down, but then I realized I was somehow sending them direct, complex orders and they followed with precision! Which meant I could order one particular cluster of the goo to stop eating you and vibrate words instead. And the problem was I could only give commands to around three or four clusters at a time, and there were around five hundred thousand that I could see. And I tried to replace the nanomachine printer's schematics with bacteria-sized plushies but that only stopped further reproduction. I needed you to, well, 'attack the mainframe' to get the big machine to brainwash every visible nanomite cluster and then some!"

>Air's filling up with smoke
"Uh-oh."

rolled 8, 18, 5, 11, 9, 5, 1, 17, 15, 17, 3, 11, 16, 5, 20, 13, 8, 9, 12, 11 = 214

---

>>1126223
Cricket mutters, half to herself tracing the wood with a finger

"This whole thing feels like a trap. These "crew quarters" are unlike any barracks I'm familiar with. They seem more like some sort of holding cells. Reinforced floor and ceiling? Single entry? This vessel was for mining? Maybe the crew were not sent willingly? I am familiar with the practice of press-ganging for hard labor. Criminals, dissidents, foreigners... you all were press ganged yourselves, more or less, were you not? Perhaps this is a sort of poem. See how you now, crew of this vessel, have become trapped within its walls, forced to dangerous work, as the occupants before."

>>1126369
>>1126642
After Paprika's restless stunt leaves her at risk of permanently leaving the party, Cricket asks if there's any hold up to leaving? Maybe if we are going to get ominous messages and hounded on all sides by deadly space hazards, they could just... go somewhere else? You go off risking your life, not for honor but because you are stressed, yes? Maybe instead, come back, we can go off seeking adventure elsewhere, rather than run off alone into hostile environments without support? Please?

rolled 15, 9, 2, 12, 3, 13, 8, 4, 3, 12, 1, 1, 7, 5, 2, 19, 8, 19, 7, 5 = 155

---

>>1126756
>These "crew quarters" are unlike any barracks I'm familiar with. They seem more like some sort of holding cells.
"The smart-cloth privacy barriers seem unlike to hold anyone but me, and even then, only when unwisely trying to phase directly through." Natalina tries to reassure Cricket. "If anything, that the emergency medical area is so sturdy suggests compassionate or practical design."

>you all were press ganged yourselves, more or less, were you not?
"I suppose needing to avert planetary extinction is a form of duress. Though I do not believe it one our employeer is responsible for. That employment and repayment is offered at all, and that individual have been able to part from our company, feel like crucial differences."

>What's going on with Paprika
Bumping into Reiko later, the arkus is surprised and upset to discover something came distressing close to eating her girlfriend. Who may now be unable to return on her own, cut off across a long stretch of vaccum, preventing Natalina from running off after her, as her instincts immediately begin to clamor for.

Another chainpod docking in the same location would presumably be contaminated with the same smokey air. Can we rig up some kind of portable air canisters, or does the ship have some handy? An air purifier?

rolled 19, 1, 7, 5, 7, 13, 16, 11, 2, 17, 1, 15, 10, 9, 7, 5, 13, 19, 11, 11 = 199

---

>>1126642
Paprika focuses on the floor beneath her for a while. The rise and fall of her chest as she slows her breathing. "Reiko...thanks."

>Not sure if comforted.
Well, she's alive. If the ship also craves Paprika's supple flesh, she can cross that bridge when she gets to it.

>>1126697
>"Oh, that was pretty awesome. ..."
Paprika blanks out most of Reiko's explanation as she tries to ground herself. Something about plushies? She could use something to snuggle right now. "Uh...any idea why the smoke isn't making me cough? I feel weird."

>Bumping into Reiko later, the arkus is surprised and upset to discover something came distressing close to eating her girlfriend.
Paprika's gathered herself a bit by the time Nat comes into the conversation. "Reiko, can she hear me? Please tell her I'm fine. I don't want her to worry. And hey, now we'll have all the centipede guts we'll ever need!"

Can Paprika make heads or tails of the panel she just interacted with, now that she has a minute? Is the air replenishing, or is she on a time limit?

>>1126776
>Can Paprika make heads or tails of the panel she just interacted with, now that she has a minute? Is the air replenishing, or is she on a time limit?
>rolled 19
>inability at understanding numenera
>one level of intellect effort

Stuff Reiko said before is starting to make more sense. It's like... there's a printing press, but instead of paper, it prints on oil. Reiko sent a... hungry little caterpillar, through the datasphere, which snuck into the printer's office and stole letters out of the storage tray. Everything but the vowels, let's say. Had to pull that lever to break up the page currently being printed, so the burglar-worm could reach those last few consonants.

Now, when it tries to EAT YOU-EAT YOU-EAT YOU the closest it can get is EA O U-EA O U, and "O" is what you need to breathe, while "U-EA" is the stuff needed for rebuilding a terapede's guts.

Air does seem to be getting clearer... very, very slowly. Or at least it's not getting worse.

Maybe there's an air intake that's gotten clogged. You could speed along the cleanup process by swapping that clogged filter for a fresh one.
>rolled 1
...assuming you can find a fresh one. And don't accidentally break the machine by letting a big whiff of unfiltered smoke into its delicate innards.

rolled 6, 4 + 8 = 18

---

>>1126787
Paprika wants to meet this tiny burglar-worm.

>Air does seem to be getting clearer... very, very slowly. Or at least it's not getting worse.
"Reiko, I think I'm good to sit tight. I'm not in any immediate danger, but I may need a ride back. Just be careful, ok? The smoke...well, I feel fine, but it's pretty thick. I think that transfusion did something to me."

>And don't accidentally break the machine by letting a big whiff of unfiltered smoke into its delicate innards.
I won't risk breaking the air-giving machine.

Figure it's safe to say I brought water and snacks on this adventure, so I'm going to take both 10-minute and 1-hour recovery rolls while waiting for pickup.

Paprika sits down, carefully undoes her tight bun and lets her hair fall over her shoulders, down her back, long enough to touch the floor. She lets her mind wander to those couple days she spent in a maid dress, packed in a space elevator with that damn squidbot, and silly fantasies about it bringing her along and coercing her into cleaning its spaceship. "Let it go, girl. Gotta focus on saving the world. Wish I didn't get so hung up on things."

Making two recovery rolls!

rolled 12, 2, 17, 17, 16, 6, 17, 9, 20, 1, 15, 16, 14, 15, 18, 8, 8, 12, 10, 16 = 249

---

"Uh, Nat? We have a problem! And by we, I mean Paprika! She needs oxygen! I'm going to send her a chainpod with oxygen reserves, you and Cricket need to look for - I don't know, oxygen tanks and better maps of the ship, or something!"

Reiko links up to her chainpod and remote-drives it towards Paprika. She concentrates on driving unless the others come up with a better solution.

>>1126869
Reiko does not have a method for steering chainpods by remote control from multiple miles away. "Very long range" for Machine Bond is only about 500 feet, a tenth of a mile, and even within that range they're not well suited to fully remote piloting - lack of navigational sensors, for one.
>rolled 12, 2, 17, 17, 16
>trained in understanding numenera
She does however manage to drive to where Paprika is the old fashioned way, rig up a crude vacuum-driven fog machine out of a water barrel and a teakettle, leave it in the chamber's airlock, then manipulate airlock controls (from outside) into boiling the water, thereby eventually capturing most of the smoke in water droplets. Could end up with mold growing in there before climate control can handle all the excess moisture, but that's a problem for next week.

Air inside the chamber is now breathable unfiltered, and there might even be another chamber beneath that pile of rubble where the strut ooze used to be.

Paprika's been rescued. Keep digging, or depart?

rolled 18, 15, 4, 13, 15, 18, 13, 5, 18, 7, 8, 1, 15, 19, 6, 4, 8, 5, 16, 19 = 227

---

Reiko looks around at the new smog-mud splattered across the room. She walks up to the control panel, and attempts to download copies of the console's database of nanomachine schematics. Maybe she can figure out how to create the responsive synth they need from a different machine, as long as they have the blueprints to tell it what to produce.

Reiko also looks at her Rage Thrower, wondering if she could somehow apply it to the room to act as a further binding agent for the smog-mud.

After contemplation, Reiko tells Paprika that they should leave for now. One remote command could override their hack and print even more goo.

>>1126372
Tumbling through the endless night between Earth and the sun is a bubble of blue-green water about 30 miles (48 km) in diameter called Branu’s Kiss. A riot of green and blue plantlife fills the Kiss, so thick that it’s usually impossible for creatures inside to see more than a long distance (100'/30m) in any direction. Among the junglelike submerged growths of green and yellow, shoals of multicolored fish swarm and dart. With shimmering tails and golden fins, they evade darker, larger predatory shapes streaming translucent, flesh-absorbing shrouds. Thousands of tiny living creatures constantly swim through the Kiss, and as often as not, they tickle the back of an explorer’s neck or legs in their profusion.
A powerful automaton named Branu tends to the Kiss, seeing to the habitat’s welfare and protection like a gardener. Branu nourishes that which enriches the Kiss and eliminates that which it judges to be as useless as a weed. The automaton also protects the Crux, a massive device at the heart of the Kiss. The Crux maintains the environment within the bubble, constantly treating the water to make it breathable and scrubbing it so that toxins don’t build up. The Crux also extrudes new animal and plant species into the Kiss, though much of what the device produces eventually dies off. Still, biodiversity remains much higher than such a small environment would be able to evolve on its own.

On approach, Branu hails your ship and makes an olive-priority request - significantly higher than the ship seems to think is normal for traffic control directions, but a notch below full emergency - that you dock at a specific spot on the surface, before a specific time, which is less than an hour away. Achieving the specified rendezvous will require pushing the ship's maneuvering coils somewhat harder than you'd been planning to: first, accelerating forward when you were initially planning to slow down for a more cautious approach, then dodging through chaotic clouds of debris, then circling two-thirds of the way around to a spot on the opposite side, and finally a high-G "hook" to actually match position and velocity.

Nothing extraordinary if the ship were in good repair, but that first pass of aerobraking shook a lot of little things loose, and more than half the hull's surface is still noticeably hotter than it's supposed to be. Just keeping on top of routine maintenance is meant to be a full-time job for about twice as many people as you've got.

Good news is, the fluid inside Branu's Kiss isn't exactly pure water. Not only aerated to the point that unmodified humans can breathe it, but also significantly more compressible. If you miscalculate and crash, the ship will likely be structurally fine, and innocent people near the impact point might not even be all that badly injured by concussive force.

rolled 12, 10, 11, 15, 19, 11, 13, 20, 14, 17, 14, 8, 5, 6, 9, 4, 6, 10, 14, 2 = 220

---

Reiko sends a message back to Branu, asking if they can send spatial maps and move some debris to make the trip less likely to cause total biosignature failure.

Also:
"Gods, I need to get laid."

rolled 7, 14, 12, 17, 1, 10, 8, 15, 7, 20, 9, 20, 4, 16, 12, 7, 9, 2, 17, 1 = 208

---

>>1127124
>Reiko rescues Paprika
"Thank you, Reiko. Truly and sincerely, thank you."

>>1127218
>"Gods, I need to get laid."
...it would be very rude for gloat, especially to the person who rescued her girlfriend.

"I'm not sure islf the Kiss is inhabited with persons sufficient for a port call (despite the name), but we should hopefully be back in Jackson's Landing in a day? Surely someone there would be interested in a traveling hero."

>>1127200
Today, Natalina is dressed in an overlarge transparent synth raincoat, with with its exaggerated proportions providing an overlapping silhouette. (She's safe from splattered slug-slime today)! Her outfit underneath sports bright blocks of primary colors. Unfortunately, this was before laying eyes on Branu's Kiss.

"Is that habit entirely aquatic? I might need to change, a swimsuit might be more appropriate."

>On approach, Branu hails your ship and makes an olive-priority request - significantly higher than the ship seems to think is normal for traffic control directions, but a notch below full emergency
Could we might a polite request for more context or information? It seems reasonable to let airless-space control know that our bird is injured and we were planning to take things easier.

rolled 1 + 3 = 4

---

New day, 10 hour / sleep recovery roll.

>>1127218
>send spatial maps
None are readily available in compatible format, but approval is granted for full-power active scanning of the entire drift cluster, other than the masscon within 1% of the bubble's exact center.
>move some debris
Do whatever you like to debris outside the membrane, so long as it doesn't result in impacts with the membrane energetic enough to risk causing damage.
>"Gods, I need to get laid."
Branu does not see how that is relevant to the immediate navigational problem, but previously-observed consensus position among approx. 100 human residents involves at least rhetorical willingness to perform various outlandish and unpleasant acts in exchange for safe departure.

>>1127222
>polite request for more context or information?
>rolled 7
Someone who doesn't understand their own need for vacuum-rated protective gear is going to be passing through the membrane at approximately that time and place, whether there's a ship ready to catch them or not.

rolled 5, 8, 7, 3, 7, 9, 2, 8, 7, 6, 5, 7, 6, 8, 7, 8, 1, 8, 8, 2 = 122

---

>>1127229
Can we communicate to the caretaker that our ship is in disrepair, without enough crew, and that making it in time will likely push them beyond what their current crew can handle, potentially resulting in a crash? Saving people from hard vacuum seem worthwhile, but they'd really rather the gardener not prune them as an invasive pest.

>>1127229
>Someone who doesn't understand their own need for vacuum-rated protective gear is going to be passing through the membrane at approximately that time and place, whether there's a ship ready to catch them or not.
Part of Natalina's mind latches onto the implications of that message. A ruler who respects indepdent agency to the point they are unwilling to act to stop someone under their care from making a lethal error, but who nonetheless makes the effort to protect them from the consequences when possible? Or they're simply unable to prevent then from acting.

The larger portion of her focus is on the immediate issue, however. "I don't think we can in good conscience leave someone to die in an airless void simply because it would be safer or easier. I say we make the attempt."

rolled 11, 17, 9, 6, 7, 12, 20, 18, 14, 8, 6, 1, 2, 16, 16, 17, 5, 16, 7, 19 = 227

---

Reiko's dealt with enough trust fund teenage antics to realize why this is so important to a living demigod.
"Paprika, means that we'd better get paid because this is going to wreck our rig. Hoist the sails and fire up the afterburner!" She decides to mute outgoing comms so Branu doesn't hear them swearing and insulting him even more. "Either we do this, or we are as good as banned from this watermoon! I vote yes!"

Reiko quickly gets to work while linked to the ship. Together, they wire up a full scan minus the restricted area, looking for an alternative trajectory that doesn't involve the asteroid field.

"Come on come on, there has to be something! Okay, here's a list of stuff we need done! Pick one and work on it! Tap the list to get instructions!" Reiko has the ship display the list of maintenance tasks needed to reinforce the ship or enhance its evasion.

>>1127344
>full scan minus the restricted area, looking for an alternative trajectory that doesn't involve the asteroid field.
>trained in understanding numenera
>Interface. By directly plugging into a device, you can identify and learn to operate it as though the task were 1 level lower
>rolled 11

To a first approximation, Branu's Kiss is surrounded on all sides by "asteroid field." It's the most massive object in this drift cluster by a significant margin, and on such a stable orbit that the theoretical exact center of whatever gravitational doldrum produces the cluster spends more time inside the membrane than not. However, active scanning reveals a lot of open space between any rocks large enough to cause serious damage, and the ship's mind seems to be up to the task of mapping out expected trajectories. None of the options are perfectly safe...

A) That chunk of nickel-iron is roughly the same size as the ship, and already on a nearly parallel course. Could use the main gun to adjust its vector slightly by ablating part of the metal, then ride in its wake.
Advantages: least strain on maneuvering coils (less than the original planned course, actually! So much ferromagnetic mass to kick off of mostly negates the difficulty of that high-G 'hook' maneuver), chance to gather several tons of cheap but fairly sturdy building material
Disadvantages: strain on the main gun, significant quantities of molten iron in the cargo hold wouldn't be good for overall waste-heat situation (and might be a direct obstacle to sensor tusk interior access), risk of splashes hitting the Branu's Kiss membrane

B) Most direct route passes through a thin belt of... something the mineral database is having trouble IDing. Too many surface volatiles and embedded phosphates for a normal carbonaceous chondrite, not nearly acidic enough for plutonian ice, density suspiciously uniform overall but varying significantly within any given instance. Longest dimension of a given chunk is mostly in the 0.5 to 3 meter range, with a lot of narrow cylinders, and relative velocity is very low by orbital standards, so maybe it'll all just bounce off your nightcraft's outer layer of mechorganic blubber (supposedly equivalent to steel plate a meter thick, in the relevant spots) with minimal damage, but, if that stuff is sturdier than it looks, or contains some sort of Iron Wind spores...

C) Autopilot spits out a convoluted proposal which meets the scheduled deadline exactly.
Advantages: overall odds of collision with anything bigger than a paint chip or grain of sand are as low as mathematically possible, given the constraints
Disadvantages: autopilot seems to be a lot more optimistic than Reiko is about how much strain those maneuvering coils can take - may be assuming original spec, rather than checking current condition. Also, only just barely hits the time window Branu specified, with touchdown forceful enough to be taking full advantage of the membrane's flexibility. Wouldn't leave much slack if any sort of further rescue operation is needed on arrival.

rolled 19, 1, 20, 15, 19, 14, 13, 1, 20, 11, 7, 14, 18, 16, 19, 5, 1, 9, 19, 3 = 244

---

>>1127435
>C
"I distrust the third option; it depends entirely on a single piece of abused numenera performing optimally, and even if we do prove capable of making quick repairs in the even anything goes wrong, there will be no time to do so."

>B [...] something the mineral database is having trouble IDing
"Perhaps the problem is they are an unexpected configuration of materials. Is it possible those are something living? A swarm of void-faring machines or creatures?"

>A [...] iron in the cargo hold wouldn't be good for overall waste-heat situation (and might be a direct obstacle to sensor tusk interior access
"A pile of cargo in the way wouldn't stop my entry. Once it's cooled, at least. Phasing doesn't ward off energy, which heat is. Cricket might be able to provide a fluid heat sink?"

>use the main gun [on a] chunk of nickel-iron
"Paprika's Ray Emitter is likely too powerful, and wouldn't be able to track a moving target."

Natalina's of the opinion that between options A and B, it seems like the group has more tools respond to the possible problems of A. We're much-less well equipped to deal with B if the bogeys are hostile or a contact hazard. Given limited time, picking a course quickly may be more important, than picking optimally, however.

>>1127481
>Perhaps the problem is they are an unexpected configuration of materials. Is it possible those are something living?
>rolled 19, [...] 20
>You’re discerning, trained in all tasks related to perception, detecting differences
A thousand porcelain bowls, painted identically, broken uniquely.
>tasks related to knowledge of current events and history
One every few years since before Uxphon's founding. Further back than credible attestation of continuous human life anywhere in the Steadfast or Beyond.
>Datasphere of the Giant's Tomb
Nudge the object-recognition algorithm away from "minerals," over to "disaster relief," and suddenly it's as easy as a river flowing to the sea. Fractures at different points produce fragments with overlapping sections, identical semi-fractal internal patterns. Painted identically, broken uniquely. Fingerprints, where fingers can be found. Retinal veins, after correcting for distortion due to decompression and freezing. A four-meter tall humanoid - the same type this ship, chainpods, the Tomb, were all presumably built by and for. Broken uniquely, by essentially identical forces.

Once upon a time there was a girl, whose family had fallen from greatness. A machine-mind gave her a quest. "Will you pay me for such labors," she asked, "in some way that benefits my family's good name?"
"I cannot promise to explicitly commemorate your deeds," said the machine, "but a thousand statues, painted identically, would be no trouble at all."
Satisfied with her own cleverness, she marched boldly off the edge of the world.

More, than once, upon a time.
>rolled 1
Natalina is laughing and cannot figure out how to stop.

>Natalina can't stop laughing
"Hey Paprika? Can you do a quickie on Natalina in under a minute?"