SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE

[Szeth Pancakes he/they]

20 minutes ago, Ookla the Lad said:

Schevin and Azgard were offline from all lightspeed communication: the engine, of course, was no place to have such signals bouncing about.

Arkin continued typing. “Heading down to engines for routine check.” Au took the last bite out of his burger and pressed the button on au wristpad to hail an innercab.

Quote

Edit: yes, this happened at the same time as the investigation. Why? Coincidence.

Edited December 1, 2021 by Ookla the Confused

[Channelknight Fadran]

The engine was quiet.

All the thrusters and main generators were in the cold vacuum of space: all they could hear in here were the faint tremors from what little friction made its way through from the heat. The DM/Fusion engines--as well as all the hardware--were surrounded with joint-alloy glass, so they couldn't hear any of that either.

"So..." Schevin looked around. "If I were a vanished robot... where would I be?"

Quote

BUWF ep 9: DM/Fusion engines. Turns out dark matter (DM) has a really low heat tolerance, so cold fusion with them is possible. They're incredibly energy-efficient, and can be drawn from the cold heart of space in a pinch. It's a cheaper fuel compared to some other sources, but it's certainly more reliable.

BUWF ep 10: Joint-alloy glass. It's reinforced glass that can absorb vibrations without dispersion or shattering. 

 

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

Maxxie's chat privileges had been revoked after she spammed it with obscenities as a joke. Nova blasted engineers couldn't take a joke. She could still read, so she did, but she couldn't type anything. 

[Szeth Pancakes he/they]

The innercab chugged along, and Arkin flipped through some messages on au wristpad. Au had finished au burger a while ago - au was beginning to wish au had brought another. As the innercab neared the back of the ship, the surroundings became less polished, silvery metal, and more black, industrial-looking material.

[Frustration]

E-IS-315k followed Schevin, his sensors had to be turned down quite dramatically in here, he didn't like that it dropped efficency significantly.

His caution score had been moved up to three, he would watch for the time being.

 

[Szeth Pancakes he/they]

In Ieli, the black material was called aerkai. It was extremely durable - the most durable material in the known universe, in fact. It was excellent for making high-intricacy machines that would break if scratched. It was hard to manufacture on a large scale, so it was fairly expensive, but it was worth it if you needed something to last a while. Arkin guessed there must be 816,000 cubic meters of the stuff in this section of the ship - ((2000 meters * 20 meters * 4 sides) + (2000 meters * 2000 meters * 2 sides)) * 0.01 meters (aerkai walls don't need to be very thick). That must have been expensive, considering just one cubic meter of it (more than enough for most of au engineering projects) cost 2,500 credits*.

*1 credit is equivalent to approximately 1.437 US dollars.

[Channelknight Fadran]

9 hours ago, Ookla the Confused said:

*1 credit is equivalent to approximately 1.437 US dollars.

Quote

I was gonna go into an in-depth study of the universe's economy, actually. We'll go with this for now, though.

 

[Frustration]

As the group made their sweep through the engine, they came upon two engineer driods, that had been taken apart with near surgical precesion, and left with the parts neatly arranged.

[Channelknight Fadran]

Schevin frowned. "Uhm... what?"

[Szeth Pancakes he/they]

10 hours ago, Ookla the Lad said:

I was gonna go into an in-depth study of the universe's economy, actually. We'll go with this for now, though.

Quote

Whoops, sorry.

The innercab ground to a halt. Arkin powered down au wristpad, and started walking towards the engine sector. Au assignment today was to do a check on everything in the left processor subsector - if au was in charge, that would take au about fifteen Standard minutes, but Management had au do about twenty different redundant diagnostics on every single piece of equipment, just to make sure they caught anything wrong about ten years before it would actually start being a problem. So, au was going to be stuck in the subsector for a good portion of the Standard day. With no wirstpad. Au should have brought a book or something.

@Ookla the Lad @Ookla the Ferric @Ookla the Frustrated

Edited December 3, 2021 by Ookla the Confused

[Frustration]

"It would appear, that these units have been decommisioned, though it is a safety hazard to do so in the engine room."

[Szeth Pancakes he/they]

@Ookla the Lad  @Ookla the Ferric

Quote

I will get this thread active - even if I have to force you to post!

 

[Channelknight Fadran]

"Did someone just... systemically assassinate a bunch of service bots?" Schevin scratched his head.

[Szeth Pancakes he/they]

The innercab ground to a halt and Arkin stepped out, au boots clunking against the aerkai flooring. It had let au out closer to the reactor core than the left processor, since it didn't go through the main part of the engines, so au still had a bit of a walk ahead of au.

Edit: @Ookla the Ferric

Edited December 5, 2021 by Ookla the Confused

[Knight of Iron she/they]

"Huh."

[Szeth Pancakes he/they]

@Ookla the Lad @Ookla the Frustrated

Quote

Arkin could not have realistically done anything in the time it took Az to say "Huh."

 

[Channelknight Fadran]

Quote

If we aren't in the same place then time synchronology isn't that important.

 

[Szeth Pancakes he/they]

1 minute ago, Ookla the Lad said:

If we aren't in the same place then time synchronology isn't that important.

Quote

Yeah, alright. In that case, I'll save myself the trouble and just have Arkin pass through the core now.

Arkin strode into the reactor core subsector. Schevin, Az, and a bot were standing with their backs to au. "Oh, hey," said au. "What'cha doing here?"

[Channelknight Fadran]

Schevin, after jumping only slightly, turned around then gestured to the disassembled robots. "Take a look."

[Knight of Iron she/they]

“This is very odd,” Az said, looking around at his friends. “How you doing, Arkin?”

[Szeth Pancakes he/they]

"Hm," au said, staring at the disassembled bots. "I think my day just got a whole lot more interesting."

Edit: @Ookla the Lad

@Ookla the Ferric

Edited December 6, 2021 by Ookla the Confused

[Channelknight Fadran]

"Usually robots don't go out of commission like this." Schevin noted.

[Szeth Pancakes he/they]

Arkin leaned down to study the disassembled pieces. "Who- or whatever did this knew how to separate the two halves of the hydraulic suppressor properly. An ordinary layperson wouldn't know how to do that, especially with the left-right threaded screw in there."

Quote

Left-right threaded screws are screws that screw counterclockwise then clockwise.

Obviously.

 

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

Quote

Is that even physically possible?

 

[Channelknight Fadran]

Quote

You could probably put a little space in the middle to make the change. Whether or not that would need to exist is beyond me.