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“What about EVAs? I’m all good for those, right? And heavy duty too?”

He just stares blankly at you. If he is impressed that someone as young as you has been certified for EVAs, then he is hiding it pretty well. After several moments have passed, he sighs, and looks away.

“If it was me, I’d take a week off, at least. Working outside, or even downstairs – the Gs, the exertion, the thin air – that’s no good for a heart that just had a bit of misfire. But it is your prerogative, and if the worse comes to pass, then it is your funeral.”

What an absolute jackass. You have debts to pay – and as far as you can tell, you’re more likely to die of delinquency then of a heart attack. That said, you do have enough saved up that you could take it easy for a few days without running into the red or having to ask for some … accommodation, which would come with costs of its own.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Follow the “doctors” orders, at least for this next shift. It is not glamorous, and it certainly doesn’t pay well, but report to the Recyclers for second shift anyway.
> Take the middle ground and work heavy-side on second shift. It is even less glamorous than sorting duty, but it pays better, and you at least get to work at your own pace. Sort of.
> You are going to clear your debts or die trying. Report to the Hangar for second shift and suit up.

As for my other quests: I’ve got the stuff planned out for the foreseeable future in The Graverobber’s Daughter, and I have rewritten the thread to my satisfaction, but unfortunately, I am not going to have the two to two and half hour blocks in my daily schedule that I typically need to write updates for the Quest, at least until mid-December. Rather than step away from QMing completely, I have decided to return to the Starsector-inspired world of Space Scrapper Quest, as had promised to do when that quest ended a little more than two years ago now. Unlike The Graverobber’s Daughter (and Collapsing, for that matter) I can keep the size and scope of this quest narrow enough that I can still run it.

>>5444797
>> You are going to clear your debts or die trying. Report to the Hangar for second shift and suit up.

>>5444797
>> You are going to clear your debts or die trying. Report to the Hangar for second shift and suit up.
Wageslave orbital worker a go!

>>5444797
>> You are going to clear your debts or die trying. Report to the Hangar for second shift and suit up.

>>5444797
> You are going to clear your debts or die trying. Report to the Hangar for second shift and suit up.
Bills gotta be payed, work gotta be done.

>>5444797
>> Follow the “doctors” orders, at least for this next shift. It is not glamorous, and it certainly doesn’t pay well, but report to the Recyclers for second shift anyway.

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Your business concluded here, you leave the medical station, and head over to the Hangar.

If what you had been told was true, when she was first laid up, the Commissioner had eight hangars. Three absolute caverns for the landing craft, two modestly sized ones for scouts, fighters, bombers and fighterbombers, an even smaller one dedicated one for drones, and then two more modestly sized bays for the lifeboats. But it has been a long, hard road for her, and after the Port Authority recommissioned her as a prison ship, you are not sure how many of those hangars haven't been removed or converted into something else. Currently, there is only one hangar that peons and trustees are allowed in, so you all refer to it as the Hangar.

Judging from the relative quiet of the staging area, you figure that you must be at least ten minutes out from the first call. That suits you fine enough - unlike the vast majority of your fellows, you don't need the postings read to you. Currently, there are three on the board, corresponding to the three different stacks of time-cards sitting on a table underneath them. Obviously, you can only work one.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> While all EVA work is inherently dangerous, some of it is safer (though less rewarding) than others. The safest is 'net duty'. Pretty self-explanatory. You get a magnetic net and an augmented boost tank, and you just trawl around the hulks collecting castoffs. Just ... don't stray too far.
> There is a pull-job up on the board. Looks like the Comptrollers have found a buyer for ... some torpedo tubes? That is going to be a real hack job, getting those out of a hull in one piece. Hopefully whatever fuel residue is left inside the tubes has been cleaned out... or at least isn't explosive.
> What is more dangerous than working outside of a broken down hulk? Working INSIDE of a broken down hulk. The listing indicates that you are going to be recovering conduit and electronics from enclosed and potentially unstable areas. But it also says that overtime is available, as is the hazard differential.

>>5444916
> While all EVA work is inherently dangerous, some of it is safer (though less rewarding) than others. The safest is 'net duty'. Pretty self-explanatory. You get a magnetic net and an augmented boost tank, and you just trawl around the hulks collecting castoffs. Just ... don't stray too far.

Welcome back QM.

>>5444916
> What is more dangerous than working outside of a broken down hulk? Working INSIDE of a broken down hulk. The listing indicates that you are going to be recovering conduit and electronics from enclosed and potentially unstable areas. But it also says that overtime is available, as is the hazard differential.
BIG BUCKS

>>5444916
>> What is more dangerous than working outside of a broken down hulk? Working INSIDE of a broken down hulk. The listing indicates that you are going to be recovering conduit and electronics from enclosed and potentially unstable areas. But it also says that overtime is available, as is the hazard differential.
Megacredits here we come.

>>5444916
>> While all EVA work is inherently dangerous, some of it is safer (though less rewarding) than others. The safest is 'net duty'. Pretty self-explanatory. You get a magnetic net and an augmented boost tank, and you just trawl around the hulks collecting castoffs. Just ... don't stray too far.

>>5444916
>> What is more dangerous than working outside of a broken down hulk? Working INSIDE of a broken down hulk. The listing indicates that you are going to be recovering conduit and electronics from enclosed and potentially unstable areas. But it also says that overtime is available, as is the hazard differential.

>>5444916
> What is more dangerous than working outside of a broken down hulk? Working INSIDE of a broken down hulk. The listing indicates that you are going to be recovering conduit and electronics from enclosed and potentially unstable areas. But it also says that overtime is available, as is the hazard differential.
We are not going to be getting out of here before we turn 60 if we play it safe.

>>5444916
> What is more dangerous than working outside of a broken down hulk? Working INSIDE of a broken down hulk. The listing indicates that you are going to be recovering conduit and electronics from enclosed and potentially unstable areas. But it also says that overtime is available, as is the hazard differential.
Hey, Trash, how's it going, I hope this quest goes well, I'll have the proverbial candle in the window for Collapsing but this one is pretty cool so far

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You look at the piles of time-cards, and you cannot help but sigh. Part of you knows that you are already taking enough of a risk by simply doing an EVA the same day that you had an unscheduled heart attack. On the other hand, you have only had the EVA certification for a little more than two months now, and while you incurred new debts to get it, you have finally started to make some serious dosh. Well, at least, serious for a seventeen year-old peon who didn't have a trade going in. You would never admit it to anyone - partially because you don't have anyone to talk to about things like this - but ... you are a little scared of losing your momentum here, as silly as it sounds.

So without too much hesitation, you pick up the time-card for the high-paying interior work, and head on over to speak with the foreman, a freeman by the name of Quimbix. He is competent and pleasant enough to speak with, which makes you think that he must have either gotten on the wrong side of someone, or refused grease the wheels (and hands) of Personnel. You really cannot think of any other explanation for why he'd be down here with you.

"Sir, Smithwick checking in. I'll take the interior work, please."

"You got a real leg up on everyone, by being able to read, don't you, kid?"

"It has come in handy at times, sir."

He snorts in vague amusement at that, and then signals to some of his peons, and they start to pull together your equipment for your shift. The suits hang on frames that have been welded onto flat-bottomed carts, so the equipment loadout for the shift can be gathered up into one place. As they work, you glance around the Hangar. Besides the equipment, suits and the board in the staging area, the place is empty. To be sure, the place is always empty, the docking and refueling equipment for whatever craft belonged in this bay were removed a long time ago, and you don't even know if the bay doors work anymore, as you have only even entered and exited through the airlocks on either side of the doors. But typically, there are more people here - and for that matter, the air is usually warmer. You are beginning to think that you are a lot earlier than you originally thought. You consider asking Quimbix, but you decide against it. The shift begins when the shift begins. It is not like you have anywhere better to be.

One of his flunkies rolls your suit for the day over to you, and immediately, you are surprised to see that it is a newer, slim fitting model. Not just, no patches or repairs new, but ... out of the box new, maybe. Quimbix sees your reaction, and snorts again.

"Before you thank me, let me just say that this isn't a kindness, this is a necessity. We keep these new-model suits in reserve for work like this. Setting aside the integrity issues of the standard issue suits, odds are good that you are going to be in spots that are simply too small for the motley to fit in."

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You must have some sort of look on your face, because he starts chuckling.

"And that isn't even the worst of it. That new hulk that you are working on, the Highest Heaven? Her chitty has a class three bio-hazard stamp. The bitch has worms."

Just what you fucking needed. You have seen conduit worms before - or rather, bits and pieces of them coming down the conveyor back when you worked recycling, and persevered specimens when you were learning for your EVA cert, but you have never been wrecking on the inside of a ship that was infested. And of course, you are salvaging conduit and electronics, which is exactly where those fucking parasites live and feed. You are beginning to question if you made the right decision when Quimbix stops chuckling to himself.

"Now you don't need to worry yourself about it. The Highest Heaven is just a modestly-sized tender, and on top of that, she has an undersized power plant for her displacement. And as the size and fecundity of conduit worms scale with the system that they are feeding on ... well, you shouldn't have anything too serious to deal with in there. More than that though, on top of the bonuses, overtime and hazard pay available, there is a bounty on their eggs. A damned good one. I'd go out there, if I could."

"You would, eh? Still, that posting didn't say a damned thing about worms, sir."

Quimbix makes a dismissive gesture with his hand.

"I was going to tell everyone at first call, but you jumped the gun. Besides, I told you now, didn't I? Wait, are you getting cold feet? Kid, the hulk was hauled here, she hasn't been running in half a year. Without any juice, most of the damned things will be dormant or dead as a door-nail by now. And the ones that are still up are going to be sluggish. Just keep them away from the electronics, smack them away with your prybar, bash them with your sledge. I'm telling you, you will be fine."

You look at the suit that has been made available to you for the shift. While you cannot be certain without a manual or schematics, the suit appears to have all of its electronics shielded ... but of the equipment in the cart underneath, of the ones that are electronic, none of them look shielded. In fact, more than exposed wiring, you can actually see exposed copper on some of them.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Ask Quimbix if you could get better equipment, on account of the worms.
> Ask Quimbix for permission to tinker with the equipment, to try to improve its shielding.
> Accept the equipment, then tinker with it, to try to improve its shielding.
> Accept the equipment as is. Do not do any tinkering.
> Ask if you could take one of the other jobs.

>>5445133
>> Ask Quimbix for permission to tinker with the equipment, to try to improve its shielding.

>>5445133
> Ask Quimbix for permission to tinker with the equipment, to try to improve its shielding.
Wouldn’t hurt to try.

>>5445133
>> Ask if you could take one of the other jobs.

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"Er ... would you mind if I ... you know, tinkered with the tools a bit, get them a little shielded."

He laughs at that. Not a snort, not a chuckle, but a full, throaty laugh. The peons that are working with him are smirking as well, which really gets under your skin. Though before you can get too sore about it, Quimbix calms down enough to explain himself.

"Smithwick, you are good kid, a good worker. And more than that, you can read, and when you speak it is always polite and formal - which really puts you head and shoulders above most of the other peons. Some of them I can barely understand one word in three, if I am being honest. You are going places, I guarantee it. But what you got to understand is that right now, all you have an EVA wrecker certification. And that is it. You are not an engineer, you are not a mechanist, a machinist or even a technician. You want to try to 'tinker' with the electronics, get them shielded. With what? Odds and ends that you can get your hands on before the start of second shift? Is that the plan?"

Admittedly, you hadn't even thought that far ahead yet, but yes ... that probably would have been your plan. When you don't immediately answer, Quimbix continues.

"What if you break the thing before you head outside, what then? Am I supposed to just give you another, and possibly end up short for someone else? Let you go out there without one? And what happens if your quick fix fails while your inside the hulk, and you end up needing that tool to do your work ... or God forbid, to get out. What the Hell then? Or what if your tinkering manages to last this shift, but then next shift the tools go to someone else, and then they fail on them. I'm not the kind of person who looks for scapegoats, but ... if I was outside, and the stuff I was using broke on me, inconveniencing me at best and endangering me at worse, then I found out that a shift or two previous, some one without proper certification or tooling was fiddling with them, then to be honest, I'd say that it is that person's fucking fault. And of course, Supply would have to get involved to replace the damned things, and the less any of us have to deal with those assholes, the better."

These are all very reasonable points. Perhaps this wasn't your best idea ... or perhaps you should have figured that any foreman worth their wage wouldn't want a semi-skilled laborer 'tinkering' on communal tools. Might have been better to just do it, you know forgiveness instead of permission?

"Listen, kid, you didn't know the full story when you picked up that time-card. So the way I see it, even if you are so concerned about what is left of those worms, there is absolutely no shame in it if you went back to the board, and picked one of the other cards."

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> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Accept the equipment as it is, and suit up for the start of second shift.
> Accept the equipment, but once Quimbix is distracted, do what you can to improve the shielding on the tools. Be careful!
> Return to the table in front of the board, and grab a different card.

>>5445331
>> Accept the equipment as it is, and suit up for the start of second shift.

Doods been on the level, be wrong to lie.

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>>5445331
A corollary to this post, for those voting for the first or second options only - do you want to work alone this shift, or do you want to find others to work with? There is safety and efficiency in numbers, but the more people you are working with, the more material you are going to have to bring back. The way that a recovery job like this works is that to get the base pay for the EVA, every worker is required to retrieve a required amount of something - in this case conduit and electronics - at a specified quality. Certain bonuses (and overtime) kick in if the workers manage to reach certain milestones beyond the required amount (for example, a bonus at two times the required amount). So the more people that you work with, the more material in decent enough condition you are going to have to find. And if you find something really special, having more people means you have to split it more ways ... and not everything splits evenly.

Or at all, for that matter.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> You will work alone, as you usually do.
> You will try to find someone reliable to work with.
> You will try to find a small group to work with.
> You will try to assemble the largest possible group.

>>5445334
>> You will try to find a small group to work with.

Are you >>5445339 this >>5445332 anon, anon? If not, make sure to vote for both.

Regardless, I am going to get some sleep. I'll close this when I get up.

>>5445334
>> You will try to find a small group to work with.

>>5445334
> You will try to find someone reliable to work with.
One person to work the tools, the other to keep an eye out for works and defense the tools. The less people working together, the greater our shares.

>>5445331
> Accept the equipment as it is, and

>>5445339
>>5445345
But then we might have to share the muny, plus some of them will probably be too dumb to help by the foreman's description of our fellow peons.

>>5445331
>>5445339
>>5445340
>> Return to the table in front of the board, and grab a different card.
Failing that,
> Accept the equipment as it is, and suit up for the start of second shift.

>>5445334
> You will work alone, as you usually do.

>>5445334
>> You will work alone, as you usually do.

Alright, lets look at the tally:

On the question of the equipment:
>>5445332 >>5445353 Accept the equipment as is.
>>5445355 Return to the board and grab another card.

On the question of working alone or with others:
>>5445361 >>5445389 Working alone
>>5445352 Look to work with someone else
>>5445345 >>5445339 Look to work with a small group

I am going to leave this for another hour or so, and if there is not a tiebreaker for the second vote, then I am going roll for it.

>>5445331
> Accept the equipment as it is, and suit up for the start of second shift.
>>5445334
> You will work alone, as you usually do.

>>5445488
Okay, closed and writing.

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"No, it - it's fine. I'll do the interior work."

With that, you hand over your time-card, and he stamps it.

"Okay. To get the base pay, you need clock back in at the end of the shift with one hundred cubits of conduit, in lengths no smaller than two cubits. And on top of that, it needs to be in good condition - scuffs and cosmetic damage is alright, but anything more than that isn't going to make the grade. The bonus is incremental for every fifty cubits on top of the first hundred. You are eligible for the time worked - or what you kids call 'overtime' - if you bring back three hundred and fifty. At five hundred cubits of clean conduit, you will be eligible for a prorated rate for the substandard stuff, the ones that are either too short or too damaged, which pays out every two hundred cubits."

"What about the electronics, how do they pay out?"

"Appraised lot by lot, though you have to have two hundred cubits of clean conduit, otherwise they won't pay out at all."

You try to hide your excitement at that by quickly asking another question.

"What about the stuff inside of the conduit, does any of that pay out?"

"No, and they don't want it pulled out either, just leave it in there. Supposedly it will make the exterminators job easier."

"Fine, then. And how much conduit do I need to pull before I am eligible for worm egg bounty?"

"Actually, that one isn't gated. The eggs are laid in clusters about the size of a fingernail. You get a bonus for each cluster, with a little extra every time you make a dozen. They really, really want this ship clean. Hell, if I didn't know better, I'd think they were considering recommissioning it. Maybe they are. Right now, there is a restriction against cutting through the hull or anything structural ... but then again, that is typical for a new arrival here, isn't it? "

"Yes, I suppose it is, sir. And ... uh, the hazard differential?"

"All you need to earn that is to clock in."

When he sees that there are no more questions forthcoming from you, he nods cordially.

“Alright then, if you think of anything else, I'll be going over all of this with everyone in half an hour or so for the first call."

Half an hour! You really did jump the gun, didn't you. Oh well. Just ... think of it as more time to prepare. You roll your new-model suit off a little way and suit up. As you do, you take a look at your equipment. Most of it is simple hand tools; vac-grade ratchets, screwdrivers, pliers, wrenches, and hammers. And the selection of bars: crow, pry, and breaker, each with their own cheater. There is some more advanced equipment as well, though. Shears, a driver and a drill, the wrecking torch, the grease gun, several pieces diagnostic equipment. And of course, a number of lights. Towing all of this behind you - and the conduit - is going to be a real tricky situation, especially if the Highest Heaven is as cramped as Quimbix has said.

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While you typically work alone, maybe you should … no, no, not this shift. Not with electronics appraised by lot. The only time the bosses do that is when a hulk arrives that has not been completely gutted out yet … which means that you stand to really rake it in, if you can find something juicy enough. You are going to get the two hundred cubits of conduit, then you are going to pull every electronic you possibly can before your tanks run dry. Why would you split up your payday with a partner, when odds are you are going to be doing most of the work anyway? But now that you have decided to work alone, you have to decide if you are going to use a guideline or not.

When working in a hulk, especially one that no one has been into before, many solo-wreckers like yourself will use guidelines. You mount the anchor of the line to the outside of the hull before you go in, then you unwind the spool of guideline as you make your way through the ship. Once you are ready to leave, you simply rewind the spool to find you way out of the ship. The issue with guidelines stems from how the haul of a recovery or a salvage job is determined. You don’t get any credit, any compensation for finding the requested articles – you have to get them onto the ferry. So there have been times, quite a few times, that you have found a lot of what is being looked for, only to end up with someone else working right on top of you, making off with a good chunk of what should have been yours.

And there really isn’t much you can do about it. You have only been certified for two months – you and the others from your graduating class are still the new kids on the block. And while you have made a point of being respectful to the more senior wreckers, you get the sense that they see you more as mark than as coworker. They haven’t taken things that you have actually pulled yet … but you could certainly see that happening. Especially with all of the talents on the table this shift. If they stopped you on your way to the ferry with a load in tow, what the Hell could you do besides hand it over, really? The radios that they give you aren’t ever able to get through the hulls, there are barely any cameras in the boneyard, and none of them are inside any of the hulks. And everyone knows that wreckers have a brutal … turnover.

On the other hand, without a guideline, you stand to lose a lot of time trying to find your way in and out of the hulk. And that time could be better spent recovering electronics. Of course, it also goes without saying that if you get lost bad enough, then you could end up running out of air in there.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Use guideline.
> Do not use guideline.

>>5445626
> Do not use guideline.
I’d be cold and dead in the ground before I even let the possibility of someone stealing my work.

>>5445626
> Do not use guideline.
Fuck no lmao

>>5445626
> Do not use guideline.
What we can do is punch small holes in walls, make large scratches, or paint walls to indicate where we have been, and the way out. We can make areas with # to determine the way back out, ÷for places that have been fully searched by us, X for potential hazard, S for works, % for worm eggs, and @ for places we are currently search but have yet to finish. We can also simple put < > v ^ markers in halls to indicate ways out or combine with other markers to point out directions and hazards.

Or very own cheat sheet.

>>5445626
>> Use guideline.

>>5445626
> Do not use guideline.

+1 for subtle marks.

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You decide against using the guideline. Maybe it costs you time. Maybe it even costs you your life. But you are not a fucking mark. No one but you is entitled to what you find out there, regardless of whatever the Hell the rules say. You -

You stop yourself, and after making a point of taking several deep breaths, you remind yourself how this is simply not the time and place to get worked up – over this, over any of your other grievances, over anything-at-fucking-all. Realizing that you are still a little worked up, you take another set of several deep breaths. Before you can have a fully-fledged meltdown, you get the suit on, and run the built-in diagnostics to check that you got a good seal. When that comes up clean, you check the levels in the tanks – the air tank, the tank for the suits’ boosters, and the torches’ twinned tank, one which has the gas, and the other which has the flux.

When you get the readouts you were looking for from the tanks, there is nothing left to do but wait. You sit down on the cart and just stare at the airlocks. At several points, you get the sense that someone is watching, but when you look at the growing crowd in the staging area, some of which have also suited up already, you cannot see anyone staring. Eventually, it is time for the first call. Rather than listen to stuff you already know, you head across the Hangar to the locks with your tools. Several other wreckers have managed to suit up already and are heading over as well. One of them is wearing one of the new-model suits, which presumably means that they are going to be working in the Highest Heaven, though because of the tinting on the visor, you cannot tell if it is another newly certified wrecker, or it is one of your seniors. Well … does it matter? You aren’t working with them either way.

It is probably another ten minutes before enough wreckers have suited up and made their way over to the lock for there to be a full load for the ferry. The kiosk for the time-cards lights up, indicating that the ferry is ready to go. You are the first to punch your card, the first to receive your tags, the first to get in the lock, and once it has cycled, you are the first to get onto the ferry.

For the safety of the Commissioner, the boneyard is kept at a distance, so it takes a minute or so for all of you to get out there. On arrival, those who have elected to do net duty disembark and start puttering around as their shimmering nets trail behind them like sinuous tails. Before you know it, the ferry is moving again, and the trawlers are getting swallowed up by the enormity of the hulks that they are flittering around, just as the hulks are getting swallowed up the enormity of the Endless Night.

You look away, down at your hands. As much as you like working EVAs, you have to admit that there is something deeply unsettling about space, completely separate from its inherent danger. Something that is best left unsaid, unarticulated.

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You run another diagnostic check, though you know full well that everything is in perfect working order. You only look up once the ferry begins to decelerate. The first thing that jumps out at you is another ferry, synchronously stationed in front of … holy shit. That must be the Highest Heaven, because there is simply no other hulk in the boneyard quite like it. She has wings. Not hardpoints or struts that have been aesthetically done up to look like wings, no, those are functional. So then, she has to be atmosphere-capable craft.

Now, for a space-bound tender, she would be rather modestly sized. But for something that is capable of landing on and taking off of a planet, she is massive. As you get off the first ferry and boost over to the second, you can’t take your eyes off of her. You have never seen anything like her. You have never heard of anything like her. And she supposedly has an undersized power plant? Wait, undersized for a typical ship of her displacement, or undersized for an atmospheric ship of her displacement, because atmospheric ships need a lot more power than a purely space-bound vessel does.

Jesus Christ, if it is the latter, then the conduit worms could turn out to be a serious problem after all. Well … there is nothing that you can do about that at this point. You are a man, after all. You have made your bed, now you are going to lie in it. To that end, you are going to need to decide where you are going to start poking around. Remember, you are not alone. There are ... ten, twelve other wreckers here, and you have no doubt that they are all as eager as you are.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> There seems to be a cargo bay towards the rear of the ship. See if you can slip inside there, and get a better sense of the ship.
> There is an engine cluster straight ahead. Stands to reason that there would be conduits and electronics nearby.
> There is a spot on the wings that looks like an empty weapons mount. Surely, there would have to be some conduits and electronics left behind.
> There looks like there is not one, but two communication relays. If the rest of the ship is as overbuilt as that, then you might have stumbled onto one Hell of a payout, even accounting for damages from the worms.

>>5445748
> There seems to be a cargo bay towards the rear of the ship. See if you can slip inside there, and get a better sense of the ship.

> There is a spot on the wings that looks like an empty weapons mount. Surely, there would have to be some conduits and electronics left behind.

>>5445748
> There looks like there is not one, but two communication relays. If the rest of the ship is as overbuilt as that, then you might have stumbled onto one Hell of a payout, even accounting for damages from the worms.

You have made your bed, now you are going to die in it.

>>5445748
> There seems to be a cargo bay towards the rear of the ship. See if you can slip inside there, and get a better sense of the ship.

Closed and writing.

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While it is very tempting to just head over to somewhere you know there should be conduits and start pulling, you want to get the best possible sense of the Highest Heaven before you start hacking away. To that end, you are going to see if whoever 'parked' the hulk here left an access hatch open in what you wager to be a cargo bay at the aft end of the hull.

You double check that your toolkit is tethered, and that it is sealed shut. Once you are satisfied, you quickly grab handlers, wraps and hauling chain off of the second ferry, as the first speeds off to the third jobsite. With everything you are going to need in hand, you boost on over to the hulk, and swing over to the aft, looking for a bay, a hatch - Hell, you will even take a fueling or charging port if you have to.

It turns out that you don't have to. There is one big bay door on the back of this thing, and it is wide open. Smiling broadly, you turn your suits lights from low up to medium, then pull out a couple wisps and hook them into the accessory ports of your suit. These little drones are like floating light bulbs - while they do pull a tiny amount of fuel and charge from your suit through their twinned umbilical cord, they are really handy when exploring inside a hull, as they ensure that a much broader field is illuminated for you. The final thing you do before accelerating into the gaping door is switch your suits diagnostics to the master readout.

Suit Integrity: 100%
Suit Charge: 99%
Boost: 96%
Air: 98 %
Cutting Gas: 100%
Cutting Flux: 100%

Jesus, it is going to be hard going back to wearing suits of motley after this, where you have to keep track all of that information separately - or in some cases, just guess. With the wisps puttering ahead of you and your toolkit and recovery gear trailing behind, you slip into the metal cavern. The first thing that you can see is that there are still crates in the cargo bay, but as they are all floating around, unsecured, you doubt that they have anything in them really worthwhile. The next thing that you notice is that it looks like there was some sort of loading mechanism by the door, that has been removed. Parts of the hull have been cut into, from here you can see ... conduits! You are about to punt yourself over there, but then you remember that Quimbix specifically said that there is a restriction against cutting through anything structural or the external hull itself. Frustrated, and seriously considering pulling them anyway, you take another glance around the bay, and notice that in the back, jutting down from the ceiling there seems to be some sort of viewing station that overlooks the whole bay.

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> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Maybe you shouldn't be so quick to write those crates off. Try to open a few. (Suit Charge - 1 %, Air - 1%)
> Someone has already opened up the hull to get the loader out, and odds are if another wrecker sees that, then the restriction against cutting into the hull becomes a vague suggestion. Why should you play by the rules when no one else will? Get to work. (Suit Charge - 2 %, Air - 1 %, Cutting Gas - 1 %)
> Try to get into that viewing station. If it hasn't been gutted, there could be electronics inside. (Suit Charge - 1 %, Air - 1%, Cutting Gas - 1 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %)

>>5446194
> Maybe you shouldn't be so quick to write those crates off. Try to open a few. (Suit Charge - 1 %, Air - 1%)

>>5446194
> Maybe you shouldn't be so quick to write those crates off. Try to open a few. (Suit Charge - 1 %, Air - 1%)
Okay but hear me out,
MYSTERY
FUCKING
BOX.

> Maybe you shouldn't be so quick to write those crates off. Try to open a few. (Suit Charge - 1 %, Air - 1%)
Lootbox time!

>>5446194
> Maybe you shouldn't be so quick to write those crates off. Try to open a few. (Suit Charge - 1 %, Air - 1%)
Dont forget to build your mental map or make marks on the walls to keep track of where you go.

Alright, closed and writing.

>>5446194
> Maybe you shouldn't be so quick to write those crates off. Try to open a few. (Suit Charge - 1 %, Air - 1%)

>>5446432
I'm loving your quest so far Trash. it reminds of me that one space ship recycler game, and that old /qst/ quest about players finding an old super ship to min for riches, but then we all died cuz players wanted to risk puling a nuke torpedo out of one of our fleet ships....I really miss that quest.

>>5446194
> Maybe you shouldn't be so quick to write those crates off. Try to open a few. (Suit Charge - 1 %, Air - 1%)

*points at a butterfly* Is this a mystery box?

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>>5446550
... anon, I was the QM of Space Derelict Quest. Pic very much related.

While the exposed conduits in the hull and the possibility of electronics in the viewing station are certainly alluring, you just have to know what - if anything - is in all of these damn boxes. You punt yourself over to it, and try the lid. It lifts open without resistance. Admittedly, that is not a good indication for anything valuable being left inside, but you keep your hopes up.

You manhandle the crate so you are looking straight inside of it, and find ... a battered insulated liner, torn away from the interior walls of the box, and nothing else. Trying to not get disappointed, you grab another crate floating nearby, find that it is also unsealed, and only has a well-worn liner torn away from the inside. Not willing to give up right away, you try another dozen, only to find the exact same thing.

Well, at the very least, these crates and even the liners themselves have some value ... but even if you brought these to the ferry and they accepted them, you wouldn't get anything for your trouble. You are just about to move on when it occurs to you how odd it is that all of the liners of the crates have been torn off of their anchors. Was someone looking for something in here? This the newest hulk in the boneyard, and to your knowledge, you are the first wreckers to have gone through it, so this must have been something that the men who towed it here did.

Were they looking for something?

You find yourself looking around the cargo bay, at all of the loose crates, and wondering that if whoever looked through these managed to look through all of them ... and just what they were looking for.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Someone has already opened up the hull to get the loader out, and odds are if another wrecker sees that, then the restriction against cutting into the hull becomes a vague suggestion. Why should you play by the rules when no one else will? Get to work. (Suit Charge - 2 %, Air - 1 %, Cutting Gas - 1 %)
> Try to get into that viewing station. If it hasn't been gutted, there could be electronics inside. (Suit Charge - 1 %, Air - 1%, Cutting Gas - 1 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %)
> It might sound screwy, but you are not ready to give up on these boxes quite yet. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4%)

>>5446656
>> Try to get into that viewing station. If it hasn't been gutted, there could be electronics inside. (Suit Charge - 1 %, Air - 1%, Cutting Gas - 1 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %)
Oh well.

>>5446656
>am I the QM
O-oh....I miss that quest.

>>5446656
> It might sound screwy, but you are not ready to give up on these boxes quite yet. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4%)

>>5446656
> Try to get into that viewing station. If it hasn't been gutted, there could be electronics inside. (Suit Charge - 1 %, Air - 1%, Cutting Gas - 1 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %)

>>5446656
> Try to get into that viewing station. If it hasn't been gutted, there could be electronics inside. (Suit Charge - 1 %, Air - 1%, Cutting Gas - 1 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %)

>>5446656
> It might sound screwy, but you are not ready to give up on these boxes quite yet. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4%)

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While you are certainly tempted to keep digging, you don't have the time - or the air, for that matter - to completely satisfy your curiosity, at least for now. Instead, you are going to get yourself into that ceiling mounted viewing station. Making a point to conserve your boosters, you punt yourself off of the floor of the cargo bay towards the ceiling, and then using the integrated magnets in your gloves, you pull yourself along the ceiling until you reach the inverted copula. As you approach, you can see that there are banks of light fixtures at regular intervals across the panel ceiling. If you were to remove those panels, then there would most likely be conduit underneath - and possibly worms as well.

But before you even consider messing around with any of that, you have to see if there are any electronics in that viewing station. You are so eager in fact, that you end up punting yourself a little too hard and you damn near sail by the substructure ... though your magnetized gloves come in handy again - heh! - and you are able to arrest yourself. In the process, you end up getting a good look inside. You can see that there is what looks to be a console still inside, but without any power going to it, you have no idea if it is still in working condition. More than that, there was a fairly steep conduit requirement before any electronics paid out. As another point of interest though, there is a lot of what looks like paper inside the station - some of it vac-proofed with lamination, but most of it not. It is at this point that you realize that there is not an external access for this substructure. Rather, there is just a ladder inside. that leads through a hatch in the ceiling. It is not too easy to make out. The view-ports have gotten all cloudy, and it looks like a lot of paper and just ... trash is floating around in there.

Seeing that, you look back over your shoulder, to where the bay door is. With your lights mounted on chest rig, you actually can barely see anything - only the faint light from the wisps illuminates the cargo bay behind you. It is almost enough to make you wish to be back out underneath the stars again. Almost.

It also makes you reconsider your decision to not take a guideline with you, though you have an idea on how you could leave little guidemarks on prominent spaces for you instead, marks that only you knew the meaning to. You don't really need them here, as even though you cannot see it at this point, you know that you are basically a straight shot to the aft bay door. You turn your attention to the little inverse copula again. The presence of paper that has not been made vac-proof, as well as the trash, and absence of an external egress all suggest that this substructure was intended to be and remain pressurized. And before you cut your way in, you have to know - is it still pressurized?

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Of course, such a thing is patently unlikely. Especially on a hulk that seems to have already been gutted and towed. But you have already established that the naval architect who designed the ship presumably intended that the inside of the viewing station to be pressurized, and unexpectedly still-pressurized areas are not completely unheard of. And the horror stories of what happens to wreckers unlucky enough to cut into one are chilling enough that as a part of your certification, you are taught to think before you cut. So that is exactly what you do.

Now, you cannot count on 'freeze sucking', as you know for a fact that the boneyard here is not far enough from Mendicant - the systems star - for the temperature inside the hulk to fall to a point where the air could condense into a liquid and depressurize the interior on its own. However, now that you are looking closely, you can see evidence of strain in the substructure of the copula, especially in spots where the substructure meets the ceiling. Paint chips missing, and faint concave contortions in the metal indicate that the inside of the station was cooled and deflated. As certain as you are going to be without actually attempting the cut, you unsling your wrecking torch, anchor yourself, then after getting the cutting head as far away from you as possible, you pump out some insulating flux on a cross beam in between two rectangular view-ports. Thankful for the flux, and that at the very least, the metal is not going to shatter like glass, you ignite the torch and bore an exploratory hole through the member.

Nothing happens - but before you are even going to fractionally let your guard down, you double check by getting one of the wisps down by the hole to make sure that you got it all the way through,. You did though. Finally, you allow yourself a shallow sigh of relief, then you are moving and cutting as quick as you can to pull enough view-ports out for you to get inside the substructure. You make short work of it, and soon you and your tools are all inside. The room is relatively small, probably five cubits by five cubits. Besides what you have already seen of it, along two of the walls, there are little metal shelves, which presumably once held the paper and the trash floating around the station. There is also a mounted operators' chair in front of the console. Above you, you can see that the hatch is open. Interestingly, it looks like is was pried open from the outside.

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> Please choose ONE of the following:
> There are papers floating everywhere. Maybe if you were to take the time to read them, you might learn something advantageous. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %)
> There is not as much in here as you had hoped. But that hatch ... that hatch beckons to you. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %)
> If you had to guess, you would say that this console operated the loading mechanism. It is mounted pretty damned well, but if it is still in working condition, then it will be a real nice pay day - if you collect enough conduit of course. Take it to the ferry and tag it, right away. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Boost - 3 %. Air - 4 %, Cutting Gas - 4 %, Cutting Flux - 7 %)
> Before you go to the trouble of wrangling the console, take the time to see if you can get it turned on or not. If it turns on, then and only then is it worth taking to the ferry right away. (Suit Charge - 5 %, Boost - 3 %. Air - 5 %, Cutting Gas - 4 %, Cutting Flux - 7 %)
> It is not glamorous, but you are going to need conduits before you can redeem anything else. Turn your attention to the nearest bank of light fixtures on the ceiling, the ones that you passed on your way over. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %, Cutting Gas - 2 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %)

> It is not glamorous, but you are going to need conduits before you can redeem anything else. Turn your attention to the nearest bank of light fixtures on the ceiling, the ones that you passed on your way over. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %, Cutting Gas - 2 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %)
May as well grab it all before someone else does.

>>5447175
+1

>>5447160
> Before you go to the trouble of wrangling the console, take the time to see if you can get it turned on or not. If it turns on, then and only then is it worth taking to the ferry right away. (Suit Charge - 5 %, Boost - 3 %. Air - 5 %, Cutting Gas - 4 %, Cutting Flux - 7 %)
If we save up enough money, could we purchase some cyberware or bioware to install? Like a stronger replacement heart?

>>5447160
> There are papers floating everywhere. Maybe if you were to take the time to read them, you might learn something advantageous. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %)

Alright, with four votes cast, there is a plurality for pulling some of the conduit. First, I am going to need a 1d16, to determine the length of conduit in the immediate area that you are working. Then I am going to need someone to roll that number of d100's, to determine the condition of the conduit. If any these rolls are 59 or lower, then that means the conduit is not in good enough to be accepted as clean. If any of these rolls are 19 and lower, then that means that the conduit is in such bad condition that it is not even eligible for being accepted as substandard on the prorated pay-schedule. If you roll a 1 or a 2, then it means you encounter a conduit worm of considerable size and aggression, which must be dealt with before work continues. If any of the rolls are 90 or higher, then in addition to recovering a length of conduit, you also recover some electronics. Nothing too valuable on their own, but they add up, and there are d16 chances to find them at this first site alone. If the rolls are either 99 or 100, then the electronics that you recover are of considerable value.

I am also going to need someone to roll a 1d8. If that rolls a 2, 3,4, 5, 6 or 7 nothing happens. If that rolls a 1, then a negative event occurs, with the severity of it being determined by a roll of a 1d100, with 1 being life-threatening, enough to force a premature end to the EVA, and 100 being a barely noticeable inconvenience. If that 1d8 rolls an 8, then a positive event occurs, with the value of it being determined by a roll of 1d100, with 1 being a rather worthless bonus and 100 being something significant.

So, to start things off, I need that 1d16, to determine how much conduit we are working with.

>>5447220 Equipment like that does exist, but for the peons and even the Trustees aboard the Commissioner such things are prohibited, to the point that during intake, implants will be removed and sold. There will be more on this and other things later.

Rolled 11 (1d16)

Oh boy, time for the first trash scavenging dice dump.

Good start, 11 cubits of conduit are on the table (which is just shy of five meters, if I remember my conversion factor correctly). Can I now get someone to roll 11d100? As always, the higher the result, the better!

Rolled 82 (1d100)

What was the wait before rolling again normally, 20 minutes?

Rolled 58, 82, 23, 11, 78, 63, 3, 65, 33, 90 = 506 (10d100)

...whoops, missed a digit while typing

You pull one common electronic, six cubits of clean conduit and three units of substandard conduit. And you just missed getting attacked by a worm by the skin of your teeth.

I now need a 1d8, to determine if anything else happens here.

>>5447573 And to answer your question, anon, twenty minutes is a fine refractionary period..

Rolled 4 (1d8)

>>5447600

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That console is tantalizing - but if you don't get enough conduits in hand by the end of shift, it isn't even worth looking at right now. To that end, you decide to poke around the nearest light fixture instead, as electronics like that will have to have some conduits. Continuing to make a point of conserving boost, you pull yourself out of the viewing station, and punt your way over to the nearest light. The emitters have been taken out, but otherwise the unit looks like it is still in good working order - though lights are not particularly valuable. Using the copula behind you to orient yourself, you try to figure where the power plant of the Highest Heaven would be, relative to this light. If it is directly above you, you might be out of luck - or at the very least, you would have to violate the hold on cutting into anything structural. Lucky for you, when you cut open the drop panels, you can see that the conduit runs to the light from the fore of the ship. Unluckily for you, you can see that the Highest Heaven has well and truly earned her bio-hazard stamp. There are worms here, some of which are still alive. And they have really done a number on the wiring. Portions of it has been completely subsumed, replaced by worms as thick as a finger. Jesus Christ, if you were to follow Quimbix's advice about smashing them with your hammer, you would end up spending more time on worms then on wrecking. And if the wiring for a light is as bad as this, you can't even imagine what it is like near the engine, or the capacitors, or any other power intensive component. This hulk must either have a record setting infestation, or Quimbix was dead fucking wrong about it having an undersized power plant.

When you notice that some of the smaller ones are stirring like blown hair the presence of one of your wisps, you snap to attention. After you hastily withdraw the light, you get to your work with the wrecking torch. If you burn it close enough to the worms, you can heat them up quicker than their bodies can safely adjust to the temperature, rupturing their internals and killing them. It works really, really well - but there are two drawbacks to this method. First, you are burning cutting gas with no salvage to show for it. Second, the damn things pop when you heat them, and in micrograv, it makes an absolute fucking mess. And of course, you end up popping the dead or sleeping ones as well as the ones that are coming after you, so by the end of it, you are having a hard time seeing the conduit for all the mess, though at least some of that is viscera on your visor. You use one of the wraps to wipe it clean, then you flail it around in the portion of exposed ceiling to clear things up a bit. As you are now able to see what you are working with now, you end up making short work of the remaining conduit with tools and torch, pulling and wrapping the clean stuff in a second salvage wrap, and then substandard stuff in a third.

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You also have the good fortune to find a surge protector in the line that hasn't been burnt out. It comes out easily enough, so you start a fourth wrap for electronics. Having pulled everything covered by the ceiling panels immediately around this light, you back away a little bit, first checking your suit and your tools for worms, and then consulting the master readout.

Suit Integrity: 100 %
Suit Charge: 94 %
Boost: 96 %
Air: 92 %
Cutting Gas: 97 %
Cutting Flux: 98 %

You have made a good start on the conduit here, and there are a lot more lights in this bay. You could focus on pulling more of them, return your attention to the copula, explore whatever is on the other end of that hatch ... or if you were feeling adventurous, you could follow the conduit deeper into the ship. It has to lead to the power plant eventually - but even before you got to that point, conduit from other places in the hulk would converge, like how thin fingers lead into a thicker arm.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Return to the copula, and investigate the papers and trash floating around. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %)
> Return to the copula, and pull that console. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Boost - 3 %. Air - 4 %, Cutting Gas - 4 %, Cutting Flux - 7 %)
> Return to the copula, and test that console before pulling it. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 3 %, Cutting Gas - 2 %, Cutting Flux - 2 %)
> Return to the copula, and head up into the hatch (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %)
> Move along the ceiling pulling conduit, heading away from the power plant, towards the nearest light fixture in that direction. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 3 %, Cutting Gas - 2 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %) (Slightly quicker as you have already started pulling)
> Move along the ceiling pulling conduit, heading towards the power plant, towards the nearest light fixture in that direction. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 3 %, Cutting Gas - 2 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %) (Slightly quicker as you have already started pulling)
> Move along the ceiling, heading towards the power plant, exploring. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %)

>>5447749
> Return to the copula, and pull that console. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Boost - 3 %. Air - 4 %, Cutting Gas - 4 %, Cutting Flux - 7 %)

>>5447749
> Return to the copula, and test that console before pulling it. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 3 %, Cutting Gas - 2 %, Cutting Flux - 2 %)

>>5447817
We gotta see if it's worth taking or not.

>>5447749
>> Return to the copula, and pull that console. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Boost - 3 %. Air - 4 %, Cutting Gas - 4 %, Cutting Flux - 7 %)

While you are going to need a lot more conduit to redeem anything, you just cannot stop thinking about that console. You tell yourself that you really ought to be focusing on getting the two hundred cubits of clean conduit before you spend any serious time pulling electronics ... but you just can't help thinking that if you don't pull the thing now, you are going to regret it somehow. Resolving yourself, you punt yourself back over to the station. You anchor your used wraps outside on the metal frame, then you pull yourself, your wisps and your tools in. Which reminds you - before you start work, you check over all of your tools to make sure that you haven't picked up any worms that you could potentially transfer to the console. That would be real kick in the head, wouldn't it? Spending all of this time to get the damned thing out, only to find out you ruined it.

Your tools are clean though, and you put nearly all of them to good use, first finessing the console out in one piece, then widening the whole you have put into the viewing-station so you can maneuver it out of there. Out of an abundance of concern about the unit, you end up using more flux then you probably actually needed to - but you cannot cry about that now. You gather up the wrapped salvage, securing it to your belt, then you get both hands on one end of the console, and activate your boost. You quickly move through the hangar bay - giving the still spreading cloud of conduit worm viscera a wide, wide berth - and then out of hulk. Compared to the ink blankness, the relative brightness of the Eternal Night is enough that your eyes actually need to adjust a bit, and you blink them uncomfortably as you bank yourself around the aft of the Highest Heaven and head towards the 'parked' ferry. You hail the ferryman on your radio.

"Smickwick, calling to tag."

"Ye? Ya got what dere?"

With a lot of the peons and some of the trustees, it is often hard to tell if they are just speaking Mainline informally with heavy accents and slang that you are unfamiliar with, or they are actually speaking a pidgin with different grammatical rules. You know full well that some people can take serious offense if you are to make assumptions about that kind of stuff - you have the scars to prove it - so you make a point of speaking with strangers only when you absolutely have to, and as little as possible.

"Console. Conduit, six cubits clean, three ... not clean. Surge protector."

"Six! Boy, you gots to get two hunna for dats to pay! You gots to get a hunna for any pay!"

Strictly speaking, that is not true - according to Quimbix, conduit worm eggs will pay out regardless. Still, you understand what he is driving at. You need to get a lot more conduit, otherwise all of this is going to end up costing you.

"Yes. Spares?"

"...Ye, just two, doe. Keeping dem here."

You hope he mean two for each of you - not for the entire shift.

"Big spares?"

"Nah, bitty things."

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Fuck. If they are tiny ones that you think he is talking about, then you might actually have a hard time getting enough conduit - at least at the rate and in the spots that you are going.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Return to the cargo bay
> Head over to the engine cluster
> Head over to the empty weapons mount
> Head over to the communication relays

>>5448115
> Return to the cargo bay
OPEN MORE BOX

>>5448115
>> Return to the cargo bay
LIGHTS

>>5448115
> Return to the cargo bay

Closed and writing.

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With the pressure mounting, you use your suits boost to zip back into the cargo bay. As you bank into the cavern, you glance at your master readout.

Suit Integrity: 100 %
Suit Charge: 91 %
Boost: 93 %
Air: 88 %
Cutting Gas: 93 %
Cutting Flux: 91 %

When you look away from the readout, you immediately notice that another one of the wreckers has moved into the bay, looking for conduit - though at this moment they are hacking into the hull around the socket for the cargo loader. You figured that would happen as soon as someone laid eyes on it, but it still gives you pause. If this wrecker isn't contentious enough to follow the rules, then that means that they probably wouldn't hesitate to work right on top of you. For now, there really isn't anything to say.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Go back to looking through the boxes floating through the hold. Surely one of them has something more interesting in them then a ripped liner. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %)
> Go back to the copula, go through the hatch in the ceiling and head further into the ship. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %)
> Go back to the copula and investigate those papers. It is possible that something in there could point you towards a significant find ... or it could all be trash. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %)
> You need to stop playing around and get to work. You need one hundred and ninety four more clean cubits of conduit if you want that console to pay out. Go to where you cut into the ceiling panels, and then move towards the aft of the ship. As you are (presumably) moving further away from the power plant, you can expect less conduit, but also the electricals to have fewer worms. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 3 %, Cutting Gas - 2 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %) (Slightly quicker as you have already started pulling)
> You need to stop playing around and get to work. You need one hundred and ninety four more clean cubits of conduit if you want that console to pay out. Go to where you cut into the ceiling panels, and then move towards the fore of the ship. As you are (presumably) moving closer to the power plant, you can expect more conduit, but also the electricals to have more worms. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 3 %, Cutting Gas - 2 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %) (Slightly quicker as you have already started pulling)

> You need to stop playing around and get to work. You need one hundred and ninety four more clean cubits of conduit if you want that console to pay out. Go to where you cut into the ceiling panels, and then move towards the fore of the ship. As you are (presumably) moving closer to the power plant, you can expect more conduit, but also the electricals to have more worms. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 3 %, Cutting Gas - 2 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %) (Slightly quicker as you have already started pulling)

>>5448642
> You need to stop playing around and get to work. You need one hundred and ninety four more clean cubits of conduit if you want that console to pay out. Go to where you cut into the ceiling panels, and then move towards the fore of the ship. As you are (presumably) moving closer to the power plant, you can expect more conduit, but also the electricals to have more worms. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 3 %, Cutting Gas - 2 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %) (Slightly quicker as you have already started pulling)

Normally, I would wait for a third vote ... but I am ready to run now., and this has been up long enough already.

This set of rolls works just like >>5447515, with one difference: +1 is added to the roll of 1d16 (after the roll, just roll 1d16 please) and in addition to that number of d100's being rolled, that number of d2s are rolled (or flipped). If they come up as 1, then the corresponding d100 is reduced by -1. If the d100 is a 1, and the d2 comes up as a 1 as well, then that means that the d100 roll was effectively 0. If this happens, that means that your suit has lost some integrity - more on that when that it happens. If the d2 comes up as 2, then the corresponding d100 is not reduced. Everything else is the same.

May I please have 1d16 to get things started?

Rolled 6 (1d16)

>>5448757

>>5448758
Okay, so there are seven cubits of conduit remaining in this area. To determine their condition, I need someone to roll 7d100 and someone else to roll 7d2.

Rolled 54, 62, 1, 88, 24, 95, 5 = 329 (7d100)

>>5448757

Rolled 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1 = 12 (7d2)

>>5448760

>>5448761
>Nat 1
uh oh. That can't be good...

>>5448768
Worm time!

>>5448761
Okay. Well, there is a real risk here that the suit is going to lose some integrity.

How that works is that for each percentage of integrity lost, for every prompt that is chosen, you have to roll a d100. If it comes up as 1, then something on the suit breaks - which for obvious reason is a problem. Depending on what breaks and how, there could be a way to fix it, or it could mean that you are either done with the shift, or just plain done.

And now I see the other rolls are in. With the corrections, the rolls are now 53, 62, 1, 88, 24, 95, 4. That is three units of clean conduit, two units of substandard conduit and one aggressive conduit worm to deal with in the next prompt, but at least the suit did not get damaged.

Finally, I need a 1d8. No more nat 1's, please!

Rolled 4 (1d8)

>>5448771

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Conduit. More than anything else, you need conduit right now. To that end, you punt yourself over to the where you had been cutting through the dropped ceiling panels, and pick up right where you left off, starting to work towards where you - and anyone else - would assume the power plant is located. Remembering all of the worms you ran into and the mess you ended up making dealing with them, you get the wrap you used to clear away the viscera ready in your off hand as you ignite your wrecking torch.

But when you actually start cutting into the panels, you are not most certainly not prepared for the next panel over to smash open and a conduit worm as thick as your fucking thigh to start flailing around trying to get you while it unravels itself. You punt yourself away from the ceiling, and even as you get clear from the main body of the worm, you can see its feathery feelers billowing out of the small cut you made. Soon, more pseudo-appendages, thick as your own, start to burst through other ceiling panels. Some of these arms have hooks and teeth, some have bio-capacitors, some have mouths and distended stomachs, and some have eyes - which concerningly enough all seem to be staring straight at you.

This ... if there are monsters like this on the fucking ceiling lights, maybe you don't want to go closer to the power plant after all. But right now, you have to figure out what you are going to do about this. Even though you are certain that you could kill it with your torch, this writhing bastard here has demonstrated that it is strong enough to just burst straight through what looks like plate steel. If it was able to get one of those pseudo-appendages on you, it could easily break your suit. And even if you are able to kill it without getting caught, it is still anchored to the panels that it popped off - and those things flailing around everywhere could send an absolute shit-storm of debris everywhere. You could get hurt by that too.

By the time that you have hit the floor of the cargo bay, the worm has fully unraveled, and started to put out it feelers in earnest. By the time that you have gotten back on your feet, the feelers have spread to what looks to be their fullest extension. You would hazard that a full 25 to 30 square cubits of ceiling have just been cordoned off. As you watch, you see some debris from one of the panels hit another nearby panel - and the worm immediately responds by prying it off. But all the time, its horned eyes are pointed directly at you. You are not sure if the worm senses your electronics and is straining its eyes to see you, or if it can see you just fine, but you seriously doubt that you are going to be able to trick it by just throwing things at panels. It doesn't seem to want to detach from its comfortable perch in the ceiling and come after you ...but, at the moment you are giving it a wide berth.

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> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Fight the worm. (1 in 20 chance of - 2 % Suit Integrity, 1 in 20 chance of - 4 % Suit Integrity, 1 in 20 chance of - 8 % Suit Integrity, 1 in 20 chance of - 16 % Suit Integrity, - 5 % Cutting Gas)
> Give the worm a wide berth (1 in 20 chance of worm attacking regardless, if you succeed, then re-roll previous action)
> If your mentor, Jibbs was here with you, he'd tell you to kill two birds with one stone. Empahsis on 'kill', and on 'two'. (1 in 20 chance of you getting attacked instead, then 1 in 20 chance of one of them surviving, rolling a 1d2 to determine which. Recover the other wrecker's haul, tools and consumables)
> If that asshat is going to work on top of you, then maybe you should work on top of him, instead. Head over to where the loader or loaders were pulled and start looking for conduit. (Re-roll previous action, - 1 % Air)
> Your luck hasn't been to great in here. Maybe it is time to try somewhere else. Head out of the hulk and consider your options. ( - 1 % Boost, previous action is refunded)

>>5448881
> Fight the worm. (1 in 20 chance of - 2 % Suit Integrity, 1 in 20 chance of - 4 % Suit Integrity, 1 in 20 chance of - 8 % Suit Integrity, 1 in 20 chance of - 16 % Suit Integrity, - 5 % Cutting Gas)

>>5448881
>> Fight the worm. (1 in 20 chance of - 2 % Suit Integrity, 1 in 20 chance of - 4 % Suit Integrity, 1 in 20 chance of - 8 % Suit Integrity, 1 in 20 chance of - 16 % Suit Integrity, - 5 % Cutting Gas)

Alright, I guess we have waited long enough. Can I get 1d20? A roll of 1 corresponds to - 16 % Suit Integrity. A roll of 2 corresponds to - 8 % Suit Integrity. A roll of 3 corresponds to - 4 % Suit Integrity. A roll of 4 corresponds to - 2 % Suit Integrity. Fight the worm!

Rolled 7 (1d20)

>>5448969

Rolled 17 (1d20)

>>5448969

>>5448974
Alright, the worm is dead, and you are no worse for the wear. I was going to as for another roll of 1d20, so I might as well take >>5448977. Closed and writing!

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You have already had too many starts and stop this EVA. If you ever are going to have any hope of netting and tagging enough conduit, then you are going to have to figuratively and physically go through this fucking worm. As resolved as you are going to be, you activate your positioning boosters, and move into a suitable position just outside of the furthest feelers. You open up the choke on your torch as wide as it will possibly go, then carefully, without taking your eyes off of the worm - who is still staring straight at you from at least two dozen different eyes - you tightly grip the wrecking torch in both hands, putting it between you and the worm.

When you are as ready as you are ever going to be, you hit your boost and you give the worm what for. The flame lances through the feelers as the boosters carry you within striking distance of the main trunk. The nearest of the pseudo-appendages lunge towards you, but in a moment of inspiration, you get the idea to burn all of your boosters, all over your suit at once. Doing so means that you are no longer moving forward, but at least the heavier 'arms' of the worm are cringing away from you now. Still, at least twice the worm manages to get through your guard, but at this point it is trying to shove you away, not grapple or consume you. It gives you a good thumping, but you are able to backburn away any momentum that the hits might have had, and then you set to burying the white-hot head of your wrecking torch in to any and every 'arm' that you can. Unlike the smaller worms - and even the feelers of this worm - these pseudo-appendages are thick enough that they don't burst immediately. Instead, they bubble around where you have the head of the torch, then they start to peel a bit before losing integrity and become this spreading ooze.

As you hold your figurative ground, you take a bunch of hits, and through you can feel them vibrating in your bones, none of them are more than glancing, and they can be corrected for with your boosters. And for each hit the worm manages to land on you, it costs the beast an 'arm'. At this point you are absolutely covered in smouldering worm viscera, but you have been able to keep your orientation well enough, and you can sort of see through your visor still. The two of you remain at an impasse, until finally, after trying to hit you with an eye-stalk and you driving the head of the torch right into its pupil, the worm decides that keeping its perch here is untenable. While it unanchoring itself from the ceiling does mean that more 'arms' are freed up, it also gives you an opening. Before the beast can either flee or bring those fresh 'arms' against you, you move to finish this.You boost yourself right up to the trunk, using the torch to scythe through a forest of feelers and smaller 'arms' before you bury the thing in one clean chop into the main body.

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The beast finally starts trying to grapple instead of pummel - to pull you out of position and presumably twist you apart - but now you have yourself anchored with the head of the wrecking torch. It tugs at you with increasing desperation, and eventually manages to pull you out, but the damage is done. The beast is spewing viscera from between its segments and from every orifice it has. At this point, all the worm is doing is trying to wrap itself around you, but it clearly lacks the strength that it just had mere moments ago. You shrug some of the 'arms' off of you and then you plunge the head of your wrecking torch back into the trunk of the worm - boring a new, smoldering hole, even deeper into the parasite this time. Finally, the thing has had enough. With a sudden shudder and possibly the rest of the worm's strength, it manages to give you one final hearty squeeze before going limp for the last time. You extricate yourself from the 'arms' of the animal, then to make absolutely sure that there are no surprises here, you cut the trunk of the worm into thirds, then you put the beast away to the floor of the cargo bay beneath you, spraying a frothy torrent of viscera everywhere on its way 'down'. Taking some fortifying breaths, you check your master readout.

Suit Integrity: 100 %
Suit Charge: 91 %
Boost: 90 %
Air: 88 %
Cutting Gas: 88 %
Cutting Flux: 91 %

Well ... at the very least, your suit is still reading as being in optimal condition. Though ... well, you are certainly proud of yourself for overcoming that thing, but the fact is that a large part of your success here had to do with the fact that you were able to get away from the worm at first, then approach it from the best possible angle. And you were only able to do that because you were in a cargo bay. If you were in more cramped quarters ... and for that matter, if a more narrow space, a worm would probably be more comfortable going on the offensive. You are not trying to put yourself down here, but if you were to repeat this exact fight, but in a hallway, a room, a shaft, it -

Hold on, are those eggs?

After you use your torch again to make sure that some of the smaller conduit worms in this portion of the dropped ceiling are well and safely dead, you spend the next few minutes collecting what must be two hundred conduit worm eggs. It goes without saying that by the end of it, you are feeling much better about the EVA. The worm flailing around even pulled off the panels for you, so you didn't need to spend any more time or consumables on it. And while the final count from this section is kind of underwhelming - just another three cubits of clean conduit and another two of not-so-clean conduit - you did end up finding another electronic. This one ... you are not sure what exactly this one is. Well, you'll find out when you get the appraisal back for the haul - assuming you get your two hundred cubits of clean conduit in by the end of the second shift.

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You go to wipe yourself clean with the wrap, when you realize that it is coated in ooze from the worm. And when you go to pull out another wrap to at least clean your helmet off, you find that everything you have has been liberally slimed by that damned worm. Fucking damn it all. As you do your best to get the sensitive stuff clean, you spare a moment to look over your shoulder at the other wrecker - who is still picking away at the hull by the bay door. Now, of course sound doesn't travel in space - but vibrations can still travel through metal. You have to believe he would have noticed something, he isn't too far away and it is not like he is working with an impact driver or something. Damn it all, you are practically on top of each other, and he couldn't even be bothered to say anything at all to you! You shouldn't be surprised, of course, people don't typically stick their necks out for each other around here - but it is still lousy to be reminded of that unfortunate fact in such a dramatic way. He didn't even get on the radio! Of course, neither did you, but the last thing you want to de near an aggressive conduit worm is start to mess around with electronics.

If your old 'mentor' Jibbs was here, he would have told you to that there are friends and there are marks, and that you should have baited that worm over there, and let them kill each other. Not only would it have been less risky than fighting it yourself, you would have gotten these eggs, the conduit in the ceiling plus whatever the other wrecker had on him. Grandfather, on the other hand, would never condone doing something like that ... though he would probably insist on you beating the wrecker up for turning his back on you like that. Uncle though, he would have said that the worm was your problem, that you and you alone must deal with it, and that neither of you have any obligation to the other. Oh, he really lived by that fucking sentiment didn't he. You only lived with the man for a month and a half before he indentured you out as a cabin boy, knowing full well the sorts who -

No, no no. You can't do this. Not now, on an EVA. Or ... ever. Just, conduit. You need that fucking conduit.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Go back to looking through the boxes floating through the hold. Surely one of them has something more interesting in them then a ripped liner. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %)
> Go back to the copula, go through the hatch in the ceiling and head further into the ship. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %)
> Go back to the copula and investigate those papers. It is possible that something in there could point you towards a significant find ... or it could all be trash. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %)
> Keep working your way across the ceiling of the cargo bay, moving towards the aft - presumably away from the power plant. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 3 %, Cutting Gas - 1 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %) (Slightly quicker as you have already started pulling, slightly easier from worm damage)
> Keep working your way across the ceiling of the cargo bay, moving towards the fore - presumably towards the power plant. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 3 %, Cutting Gas - 1 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %) (Slightly quicker as you have already started pulling, slightly easier from worm damage)
> If that asshat is going to work on top of you, then maybe you should work on top of him, instead. Head over to where the loader or loaders were pulled and start looking for conduit.(Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 3 %, Cutting Gas - 2 %, Cutting Flux - 3 %)
> Your luck hasn't been to great in here. Maybe it is time to try somewhere else. Head out of the hulk and consider your options. ( - 1 % Boost)

>>5449159
> Go back to the copula and investigate those papers. It is possible that something in there could point you towards a significant find ... or it could all be trash. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 4 %)

> Keep working your way across the ceiling of the cargo bay, moving towards the aft - presumably away from the power plant. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 3 %, Cutting Gas - 1 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %) (Slightly quicker as you have already started pulling, slightly easier from worm damage)
May as well finish what we started.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>5449207 1
>>5449236 2

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But ... you could also take a moment to catch your breath after that, with something a little less ... stressful. After all, you are on bottled air here - not only do you need to pace yourself, taking in too much of it too quickly isn't that good for the heart - supposedly - and you did just have a little unscheduled, what, an hour ago? Maybe a little more? Just ... okay, you will take it easy for a little bit after that, look at those papers in the copula instead. If the worse comes to pass, and you aren't able to get the one hundred cubits of clean conduit tagged by the end of the shift, then it is not going to be the end of you - and you do have enough credits on hand that you won't go into further debt covering the costs of the ferry, the consumables and wear on the suits and tools.

Still an absolute mess, you punt yourself through the cloud of frothy worm ooze and then pull yourself into the viewing station. Keeping one eye on your master readout, you start quickly skimming every paper you can in the harsh lights of you suit, all the while doing your best not to get any of the droplets or debris from the worm that is floating around you on any of the papers. By the end of it, you find ...

> May I please have 1d25, then that number of d20's from someone else please?

Rolled 14 (1d25)

>>5449381
A crying shame we're not allowed to buy implants with our own god damn muny.

>>5449381
So we're getting payed for each cluster of worm eggs, and so far we only have the one. Is that right? How much are we getting payed per cluster?

>>5449424
No, you have ~200 egg clusters, and you are getting paid 0.1 eT for each, with another 0.1 eT per dozen. To give a frame of reference, for a standard EVA shift, and apprentice wrecker like Smithwick earns 100 eT, or 125 eT for a shift with the hazard differential, assuming they make the requirements for the shift. For another frame of reference, the "free" meal in the canteen costs 12 eT, while the heartier, fortified ones cost 22 eT. (The meal is "free" because sorting and heavy workers can get one or even two meals comp'd a day if they reach and then maintain certain performance markers).

Rolled 10, 14, 12, 1, 18, 13, 15, 7, 19, 11, 16, 15, 20, 5 = 176 (14d20)

>>5449403
am I doing it right?

>>5449445
Yep! I'll get to writing this up.

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Being exposed to the void has not done any of these papers any favors, but many are still in a legible condition. If they are worth reading on the other hand ... well, there really is only one way to know for sure. You wipe your hands clean - or rather, cleaner - on your suit, and then you start perusing through them.

As you might have figured, a lot of this stuff is just fragments. Bits of shipping manifests, transactions, things of that nature. Complicating all of it is that most of them don't actually refer to anything by name, instead it is by abbreviations, serials, part numbers or by some sort of shorthand. However, buried in the floating cloud of trash, there are a bound stack of installation guides and simplified manuals, which gives you a much better idea of what was on the ship. Some really top-shelf stuff too. Extra-high gain relays, a dedicated fire-control computer for point defense, a gantry drone loader for the cargo bay, auto-loaders for all sorts of different weapons. It is a bunch of stuff to look into certainly. Of course, most of it was probably pulled before the hulk was 'parked' here and what wasn't, like the antenna and relays are probably being hacked to pieces right at this moment. Still, with these, you have a real leg up over the competition, at least for the remainder of the shift.

Careful to not get them soiled, you clip them to your boots, the cleanest part of your suit and you turn your attention away from the cloud of paper, trash, debris left behind from you pulling the console, and towards the few odds and ends remaining on the shelves. As you work your way though them you come across a sealed metal tube, that slipped into a little lip between one of the shelves and the wall of the copula. Curious, you fish it out of there, and unscrew the cap. And in what is probably the single greatest stroke of luck in your entire seventeen years of life, what slides out but the fucking blueprints for the Highest Heaven! You stare at them, completely dumbfounded for at least a solid ten seconds, then you burst out in laughter. Carefully, you unravel -

"Hell you doing in here?"

Fucking shit! Your heart skips a beat, which is presumably not good for someone who had a heart attack earlier today. You turn your head slightly, It is another wrecker, obviously, positioned themselves right in front of the hole you opened up into the copula. You glance out into the cargo bay, and you can see that the wallflower wrecker working on the arms is no longer there. Is this him? Why the Hell didn't you remember that bastard's suit number? And what the fuck are you going to do about this, huh?

> Please choose ONE of the following
> Say nothing. Say nothing at all.
> "I'm trying to look for the conduit that hooked into the console."
> "What exactly does it mean to you?"
> "It was bad enough when you were working in on me earlier, but this is really beyond the pale. Back off."

>>5449526
> Say nothing. Say nothing at all.
Fucking BOOK IT AND RUN!!

>>5449526
> "I'm trying to look for the conduit that hooked into the console."

>>5449526
> "It was bad enough when you were working in on me earlier, but this is really beyond the pale. Back off."

> Say nothing. Say nothing at all.
If he's going to bother to try to take our haul when we don't say anything, then I'm not sure anything we say could talk him down.

>>5449526
> "It was bad enough when you were working in on me earlier, but this is really beyond the pale. Back off."

>>5449526
Is this quest in the same universe as the first one about us nuking ourself? With Fuel being super fucking scarce?

Do you have a link to your other quests?

Did you do that one space mercenary/bandit quest?

>>5449526
>> Say nothing. Say nothing at all.

>>5449696
Yes, it is supposed to be the same universe. The Quimbix in this quest and the Quimbix in Space Scrapper Quest are cousins, though these two quests don't take place concurrently. I didn't get a chance to run the space bandit/shipwrecker quest that I wanted to ... but if our MC manages to escape the Commissioner, then who knows ...

For the quest that this shares a setting with:
>>https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=space+scrapper+QM
For the other quests:
>>https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=trashQM

There are three votes on the board for saying nothing, and hoping that he leaves. I'll get to writing.

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You are so concerned about saying the wrong thing that ultimately you decide to remain silent, and the impasse in the viewing station is only broken by the occasional bit of static and feedback on the open radio channel between you. You can see yourself reflected in his helmet - no doubt as he can see himself reflected in yours - but by staring at his faceplate, you can make a pretty good guess as to what he can and cannot see. Right now, there is no way that he could possibly see the blueprint. But if he were to come into the copula - or even just strafe around it, you have no doubt that he would plainly see it in your hands. However, if you were to go and try to stuff the thing back into the tube, it would be plainly and painfully obvious that you were trying to hide something from him.

"That was ... really quite impressive, the uh, what you did to the worm there."

You hold your tongue, willing him to leave you alone. Unfortunately, it does not work.

"Hey - I can see your radio from here. It's not broken."

More static and feedback on the line, but nothing else, at least until he speaks again.

"You ... you are Smithy? No, Smithwick. Smithwick.That pirate cabin boy. The one that can read."

You tense up. For reasons that are obvious, you would rather that no one know you were a cabin boy. But you didn't come to the Commissioner alone - you had been accompanied with the bulk of the surviving crew of the Salacious Scheme, and they knew your history, and that you could read, and somehow or other it had gotten around. Admittedly, there had been some upside to that. Back in her day, the Scheme had racked up some impressive victories and netted some serious swag. And it just so happens that freebooters are well regarded in the Commissioner's hierarchy of peons, especially those that were taken off of noted ships. This even extends - to a limited extent, of course - to auxiliary crew, like cabin boys.

"We were in the same certification classes."

You had figured as much.

"You have been reading these papers. That's what you came back in here to do, right?"

Fuck. Of all the miserable, shitty luck, your wallflower here actually has enough brain cells to rub together.

"Listen, this recovery job is bullshit. Setting aside how the restriction against structural cuts makes this all needlessly difficult, if there are monsters like that all the way out in the cargo bay, then I hate to imagine what it is like further in."

Huh. Seems like the wallflower has quite a few brain cells to rub together.

"With the restriction against cutting into the hull, the only way to get enough conduit is to go deeper into the ship. But just like we won't get paid if we are under our target, we can't get paid if we are fucking dead to some fucking worm."

We?

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"Here is what I am proposing. You use whatever the Hell you have read in here - you know, what you are hiding from me right now - to guide us towards the juicy bits of the hulk, and then we pull as much of the conduit as possible, splitting it down the middle. You get to keep all the electronics we come across, and I get worms eggs that we hopefully don't come across."

He outstretches his hand.

"Deal?"

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Remain silent.
> "Fuck off."
> "No."
> "I'd consider it if ... (write-in counter-offer)."
> "I suppose I could do that ... so long as you agreed to take point."

>>5450751
>> "Fuck off."

>>5450751
The chance of getting electronics is... what, five times larger than a worm for a given conduit? I don't think the split is particularly bad. More importantly, while the blueprint is a big deal, we might not be able to fully benefit from us if we don't have a second person to help lead the way and secure supplies.
Or is the blueprint itself valuable, making even having it trouble?
Dunno so I'll say
> "I suppose I could do that ... so long as you agreed to take point."
for now unless an anon has a better idea on how to approach it

Well, actually, the worm count will presumably increase as we get further in, so for all I know it could go to 4 or 5 or below = worm, making the electronics vs worms ratio less advantageous. Depends on whether the electronics end up beating the eggs in value really.

>>5450751
Here is the deal, lads. We have found a blueprint. Not just any run of the mill shitass cargo freighter or tanker, but a really big atmospheric capable starship. The value in this is fucking astounding assuming this is Starsector based. Like, we're a slave laborer getting a buck an hour or something and this is worth fucking MILLIONS. Our current objectives should be to do a eh job prioritizing SAFETY and NO RISK such as going deeper into the bowls of a ship with a serious worm infestation with someone we don't know. With these facts in mind:
>No thanks, I'm in over my head as it is. Foreman is full of shit, these worms are as big as my fucking arm, I'm not going any deeper than I have to, especially with someone I don't know, no offense.
Once we get back to base, regardless of how much shit we pull out, we need to go over our contract and consider our options.

>Like, we're a slave laborer getting a buck an hour or something and this is worth fucking MILLIONS
Alright, yeah, if the blueprint is significantly valuable and not just a good map for us to find loot then we shouldn't go with this.
>>5450869
+1

>>5450751
> Remain silent.

>>5450869
I think perhaps I chose the wrong word when describing the find. It a schematic, for all intents and purposes a map of the ship. For the sake of a salvage operation, it certainly has value, and if someone wanted to reverse engineer the design of the Highest Heaven then the document would be a solid start - but it is not like an encrypted blueprint package that contains all of the information of how to build the ship, like they have in Starsector. If you did run into one of those, then it would be on some manner of drive.

Smithwick has found something that should make the rest of the shift - and all subsequent shifts on this ship - much safer, more efficient and imminently more rewarding. But he really hasn't found the equivalent of a lottery-ticket. I should also note how this operation works, from a legal standpoint. The company that runs the Commissioner, the Integrated Living Labor Syndicate, they own damn near everything here, including the hulks in the boneyard ... and importantly, everything on the hulks in the boneyard. When a wrecker pulls something off of a hull, and then takes it to a ferry to be tagged, and then collects their talents after the shift, they aren't being paid for the materials, they are being paid for their labor. As per the terms of the shift, Smithwick is only entitled to be paid for conduit, electronics and worm's eggs. Now, I want to be clear, the bosses want their wreckers to bring back valuables, and they will reward them for doing so, to encourage the behavior ... but as soon as the bosses know that this is in Smithwick's possession, they are going to take it off of him, and see that it is copied and disseminated wildly. He will get something for his troubles, but it will be whatever they give him. No negotiation.

Okay, with no new votes coming in for nearly 10 hours, I will consider this closed for the write-in.

>>5450751
>> Remain silent.

I was gonna say we go with him if we turn the deal around, he gets electronics and we get worm eggs. I think the eggs are what we should focus on because it's the only guaranteed payout.

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It seems that the silent treatment is not enough to get rid of this guy. You are going to have to say something after. Sighing in resignation, you move to switch your radio on - taking the opportunity to stuff the schematic back into the tube.

"You know, I have absolutely no idea who you are."

"Oh, I'm Horne."

"Okay, Horne, I still don't know you."

"We were - "

"I know, in the certification class together. You know what I mean."

"Oh."

"You talk so glibly about heading deeper in, you know, where instead of wide open cargo bays there are going to be small rooms, tight halls and narrow shafts instead ... and the worms are presumably even bigger than in here. It has barely been what, ten minutes since I fought that monster, and here you are proposing I go fight some larger ones, in more disadvantageous surroundings, alongside someone who not only I don't know, but who was more than comfortable just letting me deal - "

"You never asked for help!"

"Oh, sure, you fuck around with electronics in front of a Goddamned conduit worm, see how the fuck that goes for you."

You certainly didn't mean to get that heated, but this Horne is getting on your nerves. For a moment, you think that he is going to leave in a huff, but then he speaks again over the radio.

"You know, you haven't denied it. That you found something written in here that's worthwhile."

This miserable fucking chiseller! He just won't let well enough alone!

> Please choose ONE of the following.
> Stuff the tube with the schematic inside one of the wraps on the front of your suit, then turn around to face him - showing him you have nothing to hide, then saying as much, that you were in here just to look for the conduit that went with the console that you pulled out earlier.
> Stuff the tube with the schematic inside one of the wraps on the front of your suit, then tell him to get out of your way, you are going to go pull some more conduit off of the ceiling. Don't answer him directly.
> Stuff the tube with the schematic inside one of the wraps on the front of your suit, then pass through the hatch, leaving Horne behind. Don't say a word.
> Don't say a word. Don't even move. Eventually, he is going to have to give up and leave you alone - though depending on how persistent he is it might be a while.

>>5451175
>>5451276
I'm sorry that it took so long to get the post up, but the voting had been closed, so I am afraid I cannot count these.

> Stuff the tube with the schematic inside one of the wraps on the front of your suit, then tell him to get out of your way, you are going to go pull some more conduit off of the ceiling. Don't answer him directly.

>>5451415
> Don't say a word. Don't even move. Eventually, he is going to have to give up and leave you alone - though depending on how persistent he is it might be a while.

>>5451415
> Stuff the tube with the schematic inside one of the wraps on the front of your suit, then tell him to get out of your way, you are going to go pull some more conduit off of the ceiling. Don't answer him directly.

you guys think this guy is like the T-Rex in Jurassic Park or what?

File: Wrecker Tooling V.jpg (38 KB, 550x199)

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"I'm going to pull conduit in the bay now. Are you going to move, or am I going to have to cut out a new hole through here?"

Horne says nothing. The only things audible over the radio line is static and the occasional bit of feedback. But just when you are asking yourself if you need to escalate things even further here, he cuts the radio and punts away. You switch yours back to passive, and then you punt yourself out of the copula as well. After that last encounter with the worm - and this asshole - you decide that at least for now it would be best to work away from the fore of the ship.

You move yourself into position, and prepare to start pulling when you notice that the chiseller has decided to really make a nuisance out of himself. He set himself up on the far side of the section that worm was on, and is already pulling off ceiling panels!

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> ... if that is the price you pay to get rid of that idiot, then so be it. Hopefully, he gets taken by another worm. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 3 %, Cutting Gas - 1 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %)
> You are not going to stand for this. He is practically picking your pocket! Tell him in no uncertain terms that you don't want him working in.
> You are not going to stand for this. He is effectively picking your pocket! Inform him bluntly that one way or another, he is not going to be working in on you.
> You are not going to stand for this. You are the pirate here, not him. Kill that bastard, stow him somewhere until you find another monster worm, then feed him to it.

>>5451606
> ... if that is the price you pay to get rid of that idiot, then so be it. Hopefully, he gets taken by another worm. (Suit Charge - 3 %, Air - 3 %, Cutting Gas - 1 %, Cutting Flux - 1 %)

Normally I would wait for more votes, but I had a late start today and this has already been up for three hours. Consider >>5451606 closed.

To start, I need a roll of 1d16, please!

Rolled 5 (1d16)

>>5451751

Rolled 16 (1d16)

>>5451766
Alright, now I am going to need 5d20. Pay no mind to these rolls, they are for Horne, to see if he stumbles across a worm on his own.

Rolled 11, 20, 3, 4, 14 = 52 (5d20)

>>5451773

>>5451777
I'm sorry, I meant to ask for 5d100, not 5d20. Sorry about that.

Rolled 75 (1d100)

Come on, summon a worm on the fucker.
Summon five.

Rolled 52, 63, 42, 9 = 166 (4d100)

...I always forget the first number.

Rolled 44, 14, 57, 27, 66, 8, 97, 46, 25, 52, 17, 89, 10, 99, 3, 10, 24 = 688 (17d100)

This roll is for him as well. I am going to need a single roll of 1d8.

Rolled 1, 3, 3, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 3, 2, 3, 3, 1, 3, 3, 2 = 35 (17d3)

>>5451793
Oh! He might be facing up against another worm, depending on how the rolls work out here. On a roll of 1, it is the base - 2. On a roll of 2, it is the base - 1. On a roll of 3, it is the base.

Rolled 3 (1d8)

Smithwick Ceiling III:
Roll 1d16 = 5
Roll 5d100 = 75, 52, 63, 42, 9
Results = 75, 52, 63, 42, 9
2 cubits conduit, clean. 2 cubits conduit, substandard.

Horne Ceiling I:
Roll 1d16 (+1) = 17
Roll 17d100 = 44, 14, 57, 27, 66, 8, 97, 46, 25, 52, 17, 89, 10, 99, 3, 10, 24
Roll 17d3 = 1, 3, 3, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 3, 2, 3, 3, 1, 3, 3, 2
Results = 42, 14, 57, 25, 64, 7, 95, 45, 23, 52, 16, 89, 10, 97, 3, 10, 23
2 small electronics, common. 4 cubits conduit, clean. 7 cubits conduit, substandard.

I still need that roll of 1d8 for you.

Rolled 3 (1d8)

>>5451810

>>5451811
Okay, nothing of note happens while you or Horne are working. I'm about to fall asleep at my computer, so I'm going to put this up for an overnight vote right now:

>Please choose ONE of the following:
> Continue to work in this portion of the cargo bay.
> Move towards the aft of the hull, where there will be fewer conduits in better condition.
> Move towards the fore of the hull, where there will be more conduits in worse condition.

>>5451818
> Move towards the aft of the hull, where there will be fewer conduits in better condition.

>>5451818
>Move towards the aft of the hull, where there will be fewer conduits in better condition.
Fore means reactor, which means worms. This ship is bad enough that it's just not worth it.

>>5451818
> Move towards the aft of the hull, where there will be fewer conduits in better condition.

going for that phat aft

>>5451818
> Move towards the aft of the hull, where there will be fewer conduits in better condition.

File: Aft Cargo Bay of the High(...).jpg (463 KB, 2383x1241)

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At the sight of that smug bastard working in on you like that, you want to swear under your breath - or perhaps even over it - but you manage to refrain from doing so. You are on bottled air, after all, and the spares are a long way off.

With a little more trepidation than you might normally, you cut into the ceiling panel, ready to flee if you can, fight if you must ... but when your first cut does set anything off, you you manage to relax a little. Between the work that you have already done, and the damage that the worm did knocking the panels, your work here is quicker and easier, not to mention safer, as that most of the worms here are dead and all of them are magnitudes smaller and less aggressive - but unfortunately, the time spent here is not as rewarding as the previous two pullings. Not only have worms been through here, it seems that some conduit is just ... missing. Several of the light fixtures in this portion of ceiling had been disconnected before the hulk was brought here. Could it have been in some last ditch effort to get rid of the worms?

You look over at Horne hoping that he has run into the same issue - or better yet, another monster - only to see that he has done much better than you did. Knowing that getting agitated is just going to make you blow through your bottle quicker, you try with some success to keep yourself calm, as you finish up wrapping your meager haul. You look around the bay. There is only so much ceiling, and with two wreckers working it, you wonder how long it is going to last you before it is exhausted. After considering it for a moment, you decide to head towards the aft - figuring that some of the apparent effort the crew of the Highest Heaven put into saving the electronics might have paid off, at least for the low power extremities of the ship.

> Please, can I get 1d16, then xd100, xd6 and 1d8?

Rolled 2 (1d16)

>>5452119

Rolled 2 (1d8)

>>5452119

>>5452119
Wait, how many d100 and d6s?

>>5452145
Just 2, I'm afraid.

Rolled 72 (1d100)

>>5452119

Rolled 57 (1d100)

>>5452163
Accidentally inflating /qst/'s post count one typo at a time.

Rolled 12 (1d16)

We are still going to need that 2d6 if anyone is still here, they can roll for it. The roll on this post is for Horne, to see if he ran into another worm.

Rolled 66, 87, 13, 90, 85, 53, 19, 27, 43, 33, 72, 13, 4, 23 = 628 (14d100)

>>5452219
Damn, he sure is getting a lot better rolls than we are, isn't he?

Rolled 5, 2, 6, 2, 4, 1, 6, 4, 4, 6, 3, 6, 1, 2 = 52 (14d6)

>>5452220
Oh! There is a chance that the four drops low enough to become a worm attack!

Rolled 6, 3 = 9 (2d6)

>>5452219

Rolled 8 (1d10)

>>5452222
Even worse for him! With the modifier, that 4 became a -1! He skips the intermediate step of losing integrity in the suit, and something breaks. On a one to ten scale, lets see how bad it is about to go for him ...

File: Schematic I.jpg (1.02 MB, 2671x2032)

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While you are disappointed - upset even - at this paltry haul, you tell yourself that if the crew of the Highest Heaven 'pruned' the conduit around here, then there is a chance that one of these panels near the bay door is going to be untouched by worms. Hoping for a turn of luck like that, you start to pull yourself away towards a fresh patch of ceiling, when a wordless squawk comes over the radio, startling you.

You whirl around to see that Horne has finally run into some much deserved difficulty. It seems that one his suits boosters is firing, and he is having trouble dealing with it. You cannot help but smile at the sight, but perhaps this is more than just an idle amusement, but an opportunity as well.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Yes, it is an opportunity to get some more work done without that idiot interrupting and impeding. Ignore him, and get to work!
> Maybe it is hopeless, but perhaps if you were to offer some assistance before he lost all his boost and a chunk of his charge, he might agree to leave the hangar.
> By rights, that conduit that he has pulled and is floating next to him, all wrapped up, is practically yours. Take this opportunity to take it back. What the Hell is he going to do in a half-busted suit?

>>5452231
>> By rights, that conduit that he has pulled and is floating next to him, all wrapped up, is practically yours. Take this opportunity to take it back. What the Hell is he going to do in a half-busted suit?

>>5452231
> By rights, that conduit that he has pulled and is floating next to him, all wrapped up, is practically yours. Take this opportunity to take it back. What the Hell is he going to do in a half-busted suit?
Finders keepers!

>>5452231
> By rights, that conduit that he has pulled and is floating next to him, all wrapped up, is practically yours. Take this opportunity to take it back. What the Hell is he going to do in a half-busted suit?

get fucked Horny boy

>>5452231
>> By rights, that conduit that he has pulled and is floating next to him, all wrapped up, is practically yours. Take this opportunity to take it back. What the Hell is he going to do in a half-busted suit?

File: Wrecker Tooling VI.jpg (13 KB, 300x300)

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Bemused, you alternate from watching Horne and what you are doing as you cut and pry panels off. Right now, the chiseller is trying and failing to stabilize himself long enough to do something about his misfiring suit. Either he is such a cheapskate that he is not willing to burn boost on the side of his suit to cancel out the spin ... or the sub-unit that is responsible for controlling the boosters is completely non-responsive. You drag your eyes away from his flailing antics and eye the neatly wrapped conduit that he has pulled, floating placidly nearby. You take a good look, then you look back at the conduit underneath the panels that you just worked through. While you are glad to see that there are no signs of conduit worms in this patch of ceiling, that is only because there is barely any conduit here. And what is here is deliberately cut. Pruned away, no doubt in an effort to save the loader from the infestation. You know that you need to start the tedious, delicate work of prying them out in acceptable condition sooner rather than later, but you find yourself staring at the bundles that Horne has, floating around him.

Now, you know the rules full well. Horne has not broken any of them. You have no exclusive 'right' to the cargo bay ... but as a matter of professional courtesy, not to mention respect, wreckers are taught to ask permission to work in on other wreckers. Of course, there are legitimate safety concerns too. If one wrecker notices that there is explosive residue left behind somewhere, or something like that, and that wrecker is working around it, it would be no good for a second wrecker to just barrel straight into the first wrecker's area and start hacking away, unaware of the danger.

To be sure, both of you are equally aware of the danger here - but that doesn't excuse his rudeness or his greed. Horne chiseled in - plain and simple. Messing around with the socket for the loader was admittedly a gray area, but pulling from the ceiling? No, that is unacceptable. You would not expect to get away doing that ... and if other wreckers, who have more seniority, or ones from your certification class who work in groups hear that Horne worked in on you like this and you just ... rolled right over for him, then that - well, you simply can't have that, can you?

By the time that you have pulled yourself across the ceiling over to where Horne is still struggling, you can get a better view of the accident, where you can see shards floating and the scorch marks. If you had to guess, you would say that Horne accidentally cut into a capacitor on one of those little surge protector units, like the one you found earlier, and it blew on him. How that /resulted in a suit misfire, you can only guess ... but really, you aren't here for that. He doesn't notice you at first, and thinking ahead, you shut your radio off completely, so he can't pester you once he catches on.

File: Wrecker Tooling VII.jpg (19 KB, 474x403)

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It actually takes him a longer than you thought it would for him to notice you, but eventually he does. And seeing him so obviously angry, but unable to yell at you - or for the moment even orientate his helmet in your direction is a lot funnier than you thought it would be. Smiling, you take a good look at the patch of the ceiling that he has uncovered - and by God, is there a lot of conduit here, even with the fucking worms. You look back Horne and give him a thumbs up, which sends him a paroxysm of angry writhing.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Return to your spot closer to the aft, and pull that conduit.
> Stay here and work this spot.
> Find a new spot closer to the aft to pull from.
> Find a new spot closer to the fore to pull from.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Leave Horne where he is, as he is.
> Boost Horne deeper into the cargo bay. The boxes get kind of thick back there - send him flying through them as a battering ram. (Boost - 2 %)
> Boost Horne out of the cargo bay. There is another hulk beyond it, so it isn't like he is going to sail off into the void. (Boost - 2 %)

> Stay here and work this spot.

> Leave Horne where he is, as he is.
SPEEEEEN

>>5452448
>> Stay here and work this spot.
> Boost Horne out of the cargo bay. There is another hulk beyond it, so it isn't like he is going to sail off into the void. (Boost - 2 %)

>>5452680
+1

>>5452448
> Stay here and work this spot.

> Leave Horne where he is, as he is.
GET FUCKED GAY BOY.

>>5452448
>>Find a new spot closer to the aft to pull from.
>>Leave Horne where he is, as he is.

Leaving him alone and unbothered on his predicament is the ideal choice, since we aren't sending him to his death or something. If the worse comes to happen he runs out of boost and then he has to push and pull his way into the trolley for a quickfix.
I'd rather go and find a better spot because that means we will be going away from Horne. He is megapissed but I don't think that's pissy enough to chase us with faulty boosters and no fuel.

The vote is closed for staying here and leaving him to stew. Writing.

File: Wrecker Tooling VIII.jpg (31 KB, 474x446)

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You spare Horne a side eyed glance as he struggles with his suit, then you return your attention to this already opened up patch of ceiling. Yeah ... this will do very nicely.

Without the presence of monster worms, the process of gleaning conduit is rather repetitive. You use the torch to burn the any spots with a lot of worms, then you pry the conduit - clean or otherwise - out of the little brackets that affix it to the hull. Occasionally, you need to cut through then pull off another section of ceiling. Beyond that the work is rather mindless. That said, for this particular pulling, you have the entertainment of Horne still struggling to resolve the misfiring booster. By the time that you are finished with the patch that he was kind enough to open up for you, it seems that he still has not made any progress. His suit is still trying to whirl him like a dervish, all the while he is still desperately anchoring himself with just one magnetized glove. You take a moment to check to see how much conduit you have all together, then you look at your master readout.

Tagged and on the Ferry
Unique Item: Loader? Console
6 cubits standard conduit, clean
3 cubits standard conduit, substandard
1 small common electronic

Wrapped and with you
~200 Conduit Worm Egg clusters
14 cubits standard conduit, clean
20 cubits small conduit, clean
15 cubits standard conduit, substandard
4 cubits small conduit, substandard
4 small common electronics

Suit Integrity: 100 %
Suit Charge: 83 %
Boost: 90 %
Air: 79 %
Cutting Gas: 87 %
Cutting Flux: 90 %

Jesus, Horne must have found a real ... wait a minute! This conduit has a much smaller diameter then the stuff you have seen. You pull one of the lengths that you salvaged earlier and compare them. Your suspicions are confirmed. Inside the standard conduit, in addition to the insulation, are several smaller conduits, which hold wires and their own insulation. Horne must have 'peeled' the standard-size conduit that you have been pulling, and practically tripled his haul. Judging by how much clean conduit there is compared to substandard it seems that he might have been able to salvage smaller clean conduit from substandard ... standard sized conduit.

You got some quite a bit of conduit here in your hauling wraps. Now, Quimbix did say that you were not supposed to unwrap the conduit, but ... if for the sake of argument, you did, and you got caught, what is the worse that could happen? The overseers only revoke EVA certs in two situations - the wrecker is costing them money, or the wrecker becomes known as a security risk. You clipping conduits is not putting anyone in danger, and Quimbix never specified a minimum diameter for the conduit, which leads you to believe that conduit can be sold if it is peeled. If they caught you, and they care enough to discipline you over it, then you figure that you are more likely to get a talking to, a fine, a black spot in your file, not revocation.

File: Wrecker Tooling IX.jpg (108 KB, 628x844)

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But what if you are wrong about them being able to sell the 'peeled' conduit, and you end up ruining a bunch of salvage in a very transparent attempt to soak the system? If that is how it is, then ... you still don't think that you would get your papers pulled permanently over it. Then again, you have only had the certification for two months. While there is no probationary period - at least to your knowledge - if you end up wasting and entire shift and a bunch of conduit with this little ploy, then the powers that be might decide that you simply are not worth the hassle.

Of course, if Horne did this, then odds are that other wreckers had the idea as well. Perhaps there will be some safety in numbers. They might be willing to write off one fresh-on-the-block apprentice, but an entire crew of wreckers is a lot harder to justify. If it turns out that 'peeling' them does ruin the conduit for resale, but enough of you do it, they might just decide to eat the loss, instead of pulling everyone's papers.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> You will keep the 'peeled' conduit
> You will dump the 'peeled' conduit

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> You will take the time to 'peel' the conduit right now.
> You will wait to 'peel' the conduit later [Be sure to allow enough time!]
> You will not 'peel' any conduit at any time.

>>5453700
> You will keep the 'peeled' conduit
>> You will wait to 'peel' the conduit later [Be sure to allow enough time!]
If we don't have enough when we're done we can peel it.
As for what we have... well, not our fault, we 'found' it abandoned.

>>5453700
>> You will dump the 'peeled' conduit
> You will not 'peel' any conduit at any time.

>>5453700
> You will keep the 'peeled' conduit
> You will not 'peel' any conduit at any time.
Throwing away peeled conduit seems like a waste, just keep it.

>>5453725
supporting this. Also when we peel ourselves keep the volume of peeled conduit under 50% (measured in total length).

>>5453700
> You will keep the 'peeled' conduit
> You will take the time to 'peel' the conduit right now.

Well, while there is a majority for keeping the 'peeled' conduit, we do not have a majority for what to do next. I'll leave this up for a little while longer, then I will have to roll for it.

>>5453700
>> You will keep the 'peeled' conduit
>>> You will not 'peel' any conduit at any time.
We test the waters. Horne is a sleazy fellow. Let's see what happens with this tiny amount of banana peel.

>>5453677
I'm not 100% sure I understand what peeling is as described. Is it breaking apart cable bundles into their constituent smaller cables to inflate your numbers?

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>>5454473

>>5454477
>>5454473
Yeah, that is basically the gist of it - except of course, instead of wires inside the conduit, there are smaller conduits.

Okay, I will get the next post up soon!

So I wrote the entire post, but then I realized I sort of just assumed what you guys were going to do next, instead of putting it to a vote. Sorry about that.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Move laterally (relative to the layout of the ship) to a patch of ceiling and remove more conduit.
> Move towards the aft of the ship, and resume work on the patch that you opened but didn't pull from.
> Move towards the aft of the ship, and start work on a new patch of ceiling, hoping for an isolated patch of conduit.
> Move towards the fore of the ship, and start work on a new patch of ceiling.
> Consider other locations on the hulk to pull conduit from.
> Consider exploring other portions of the hulk to find conduit.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Horne should have learned his lesson by now. Reactivate your radio and offer assistance.
> Horne can go take a long walk out of a nearby airlock for all you care. Let him stew.

>>5454694
>> Horne can go take a long walk out of a nearby airlock for all you care. Let him stew.
> Move laterally (relative to the layout of the ship) to a patch of ceiling and remove more conduit.

>>5454694
> Horne can go take a long walk out of a nearby airlock for all you care. Let him stew.
> Consider exploring other portions of the hulk to find conduit.
consult the map

>>5454831
Support

>>5454694
> Move towards the aft of the ship, and resume work on the patch that you opened but didn't pull from.

> Horne can go take a long walk out of a nearby airlock for all you care. Let him stew.
Get fucked Horne.

>>5454694
> Horne can go take a long walk out of a nearby airlock for all you care. Let him stew.
> Move towards the aft of the ship, and resume work on the patch that you opened but didn't pull from.

>>5454694
>>Consider other locations on the hulk to pull conduit from.
We better use the map when we can. There is no guarantee that we will be able to keep it after this.
>>Horne can go take a long walk out of a nearby airlock for all you care. Let him stew.
He already holds a grudge we better make it worth

Consider this vote closed. Writing.

File: Desalinator I.jpg (133 KB, 1280x720)

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As tempting as it is to pad your haul by 'peeling' the conduit as Horne had, you just have a bad feeling that it might somehow come back and bite you in your ass. After all, you have only had your cert for two months now. Even if there is only a small chance that you get your papers pulled, that simply is not a risk that you can afford. Especially considering that you had to take on additional debts with some 'connected' Trustees to even get a shot at the certification in the first place. Before you get yourself lost in the weeds reminiscing, you pull your focus back to the conduit - which really should be the only thing on your mind right now, that and the digital dial on your bottle. Having decide against peeling, you consider what to do with the conduit that you have recovered 'peeled'. While you are concerned about getting in trouble over it, you decide that in the end, you will hold on to it. It is possible that you come across some conduit that happens to be the same diameter as the 'peeled' stuff in the course of your gleaning. If you did, then you would feel pretty foolish about dumping this smaller stuff, wouldn't you? And if you didn't ... well, then maybe at the very end it would be worth reconsidering dumping the 'peelings' or not, you know, depending on how much you had gather up when the last of the consumables run out.

Now that you have settled on a course of action, you decide to actually get a good look at the map you found earlier. Without giving Horne so much as a backwards glance, you move off a little bit, heading towards the copula, with all of your wrapped conduit neatly in tow. Once you are well out of his suits lights, and you have made certain that the gloves on your suit are clean, you very surreptitiously get the schematic out to consult it. It turns out that there are actually two schematics - one structural, and one electrical. Considering that you are looking for conduit, you consult the electrical schematic first, which lists all of the subsystems of the Highest Heaven. Some of which you have already seen bits of, like the weapons systems, and some of which you have only found evidence of - like a dedicated point defense system. But there are also some rather inexplicable things. For starters, the Highest Heaven does not have an undersized power plant - she has two undersized power plants. One which powers almost everything on the ship, and the other which only powers two things - the afterburners, and an inordinately large ... desalinatior. Not a water-recycler/purifier, no, there is an appropriately sized one of those near the fore of the ship, along with a some holding tanks. This is a desalinator.

You flip over to the structural schematics, and sure enough, there it is. But the unit doesn't have tanks - it doesn't even have transport piping between it and the recycler, so none of the water it cleans can stay on the ship. There is an inlet and two outlets. Nothing more.

File: Wrecker Tooling X.jpg (106 KB, 1500x1000)

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Setting aside the 'why' of the whole thing, you know for a fact that between the wiring for the dedicated power plant and the piping for the desalinator, there is going to be an absolute fucking glut of conduit in that bulkhead. And because this power plant is externally cooled, then there is a chance that it is not completely overrun with conduit worms. Of course, the cargo bay here was not supposed to have many worms either, and look how that turned out for you. And then there is the question of how you are going to actually get into the bulkhead with all of this - you can think of three ways, but to be honest, you aren't particularly enthused about any of them.

Maybe your eyes are getting larger than your stomach here. Perhaps you should content yourself with something easier, you know - externally mounted if possible? Of course, that comes with the issue of other wreckers beating you there - and you have no intention of working in on someone like Horne did.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Follow the lead on this second and hopefully not overrun power plant and desalinator.
> Reject the risks of working further in the hulk than you are right now, and consult the schematic for something externally mounted, something that hopefully no one else has started on
> Accept that you aren't going to get anywhere near as much conduit as you could elsewhere, and consult the schematic for something that is both internal and safe - and something that no one else will have started on.
> Stay in the cargo bay here, and continue hacking away at the ceiling for conduit.

>>5455587


> Follow the lead on this second and hopefully not overrun power plant and desalinator.

>>5455587
>> Follow the lead on this second and hopefully not overrun power plant and desalinator.
One worm-free lootbag please.

>>5455587
>> Follow the lead on this second and hopefully not overrun power plant and desalinator.

>>5455583
THIS SHIT RAN ON TRITIUM

>>5455587
>>Follow the lead on this second and hopefully not overrun power plant and desalinator.
I am worried we get a haul that is TOO good and raise some questions...

>>5455698
maybe just hydrogen? planetary water (it /is/ atmos capable) --> desalinator --> electrolyzer --> hydrogen to the engines?

>>5455587
>> Follow the lead on this second and hopefully not overrun power plant and desalinator.

>>5455587
> Follow the lead on this second and hopefully not overrun power plant and desalinator.

File: Wrecker Tooling XI.jpg (20 KB, 640x360)

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There is no way around it - your curiosity has been piqued. But ... it is one thing to decide to enter into a largely isolated bulkhead in a conduit worm infested hulk, it is another thing to actually go and do it. To that end, you figure that you have three different options - and none of them are what you would consider 'good' options. Option one: using the schematic that you have, you make your way through the ship to the specific bulkhead. Option two: the schematic specifies that the intake for the desalinator has a diameter that just large enough for you to make your way through. Option three: you use the schematic to locate the optimal entry point, and just cut your way through the hull.

If this was just a regular hulk, then simply walking through the ship to the bulkhead would be the most straightforward way to get to where you want to go. In fact, it would be the obvious answer. But the issue here is that this ship is infested. Completely and utterly. And of the three routes into the bulkhead, you would be spending the most time in the hulk if you walked there. And the thought of slowly having to make your way through unsecured, uncleared areas ... setting aside the fact that you are on the clock, delving into a power plant of an infested ship - externally vented or not - is dangerous enough on its own. Comparatively, the third option seems much better. You would be able to cut directly into the bulkhead, and move in and out of the hulk quickly. If it turned out that you bit off more than you could chew, then you wouldn't be out too much time - and if you were able to swing it, then you would be able to quickly pull the conduit out of the hull and get it on the ferry. The issue is that you would be cutting through the hull. Technically, you have been prohibited from cutting into the hull, or in anything sufficiently structural. Now, if you were to net a sufficient worthwhile find, then no one would really raise that much of a fuss ... and even if you didn't odds are you would get away with it, unless some hardass decided to make an example of you. The bigger problem though, is that cutting through the hull is effective going to show all of the other wreckers where you are pulling from ... and if the pickings are particularly rich, your first concern might not be conduit worms after all. The other option - going through the water inlet seems to be a good compromise. So long as no one sees you go in, then no one is going to be able to work in on you - and the path to the bulkhead from the intake is much shorter than walking through the ship. However, you have no idea what kind of condition the intake is in. What if you get yourself stuck? Who would think to look for you in there?

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You try to figure out which of the three options is going to work the best for you, but nothing immediately jumps out at you. You consider judging them based off of the dangers - but you don't really have a good grasp on the condition further in the hull, or how dangerous going through the intake would be. You then consider the time and consumables that each route in would use up - but then you realize that there are so many variables that you have no hope of estimating costs like that.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> You are going to try to make your way through the wreck into the specific bulkhead.
> You are going to try to make your way into the specific bulkhead through the intake.
> You are going to try to cut your way into the specific bulkhead.

>>5455865
>> You are going to try to make your way into the specific bulkhead through the intake.

>>5455865
>> You are going to try to make your way into the specific bulkhead through the intake.
> You are going to try to make your way into the specific bulkhead through the intake.

>>5455865
> You are going to try to make your way into the specific bulkhead through the intake.

What a wierd ship. Like some sort of humanitarian aid ship maybe?

>>5455865
> You are going to try to make your way into the specific bulkhead through the intake.

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In the end, you settle on going through the intake. While the prospect of getting stuck in there is ... well, to be frank, it is real fucking terrifying, but after considering your other options, you are now certain that this is the best of the worst.

You slip the schematics back into the tube, and then without giving Horne a second glance, you start to punt yourself out of the cargo bay. On your way out though, it occurs to you that considering just how tight things are going to be in the intake, it would make sense to take what you have right now to the ferry - and maybe pick up some more wraps, on the off chance that this bulkhead pans out as well as you hope. However, if you were to do that, then you would have to decide now specifically what to do with the 'peeled' conduit - not later, when you had a better idea of the total. Or perhaps you could still end up deferring the decision by hiding the 'peeled' conduit somewhere safe - if such a place exists. If you just stash it somewhere, you are taking the risk that someone else finds it and takes it for their own. Even if you spend some time looking for a good spot, you aren't going to be able to completely mitigate away that risk.

The bigger issue that going to the ferry brings up is that there might be other wreckers either offloading onto the ferry or in sight of it. By going there to drop off your modest haul, you could end up leading another chiseller right to your worksite. But what is the alternative? You doubt that it is going to be easy going through that intake just with your suit and your tools hauled behind you - throw in wraps as well, and you might have an even worse time of it. You suppose that you could go to the intake, take a look and make a decision - but the more time you spend flitting around outside of the intake, the greater the odds are you are spotted.

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> Please choose ONE of the following:
> You will take your entire load, including the 'peeled' conduit, and get the ferryman to tag it for you before heading into the intake. Hopefully the 'peeled' conduit will not be an issue after all.
> You will take your entire load, except the 'peeled' conduit, and get the ferryman to tag it for you before heading into the intake. You will keep the 'peeled' conduit with you. Hopefully it won't slow you down.
> You will take your entire load, except the 'peeled' conduit, and get the ferryman to tag it for you before heading into the intake. You will find somewhere to stash the 'peeled' conduit. Hopefully it will stay undiscovered.
> You will take your entire load, except the 'peeled' conduit, and get the ferryman to tag it for you before heading into the intake. You will spend the time to find a good spot to stash the 'peeled' conduit. Hopefully it will not take too long.
> You will take your entire load and stash it somewhere out of the way, rather than take it with you into the intake, or risk leading a chiseller back to your worksite. Hopefully it will stay undiscovered.
> You will take your entire load and find a good spot to stash it, rather than take it with you into the intake, or risk leading a chiseller back to your worksite. Hopefully it will not take too long.
> You will take your entire load with you to the intake and appraise the situation, only making a decision afterwards. Hopefully no one sees you or your haul outside of the intake, or you might have a second Horne on your hands.

>>5456288
> You will take your entire load, including the 'peeled' conduit, and get the ferryman to tag it for you before heading into the intake. Hopefully the 'peeled' conduit will not be an issue after all.

>>5456288
> You will take your entire load, including the 'peeled' conduit, and get the ferryman to tag it for you before heading into the intake. Hopefully the 'peeled' conduit will not be an issue after all.

>>5456288
> You will take your entire load, including the 'peeled' conduit, and get the ferryman to tag it for you before heading into the intake. Hopefully the 'peeled' conduit will not be an issue after all.

>>5456288
> You will take your entire load, including the 'peeled' conduit, and get the ferryman to tag it for you before heading into the intake. Hopefully the 'peeled' conduit will not be an issue after all.

PLOP

>>5456347
>>5456337
>>5456305
>>5456295
In space, no one can hear you PLOP. I'll get to writing.

>In space, no one can hear you PLOP
A daring endorsement of shitting in space and not cleaning up after yourself.

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You decide that what little 'peeled' conduit you have is not going to be a hanging offense, and to dump your entire load off at the ferry. Making haste, you haul and punt yourself out of the cargo bay - possibly for the last time this shift - and you activate your boosters, and bank around the hulk and towards the ferry. Out of an abundance of caution, you run a quick diagnostic on the thrusters. Of course, it comes up clean, but if something went wrong out here, you would be a lot worse off than Horne was. You smile at the thought of Horne, still squirming away, desperately clinging to the ceiling - why, the chiselling bastard went and became a conduit worm! You laugh at that - truly, how fitting for a parasite like him?

"Smickwick, calling to tag."

"Ye? Ooh! Gone got wormy, heh!"

You did your best to clean yourself with a wrap, but judging from the reaction of the ferryman, it seems that you have missed several spots. Hoping to keep things on track, you launch into declaring your haul.

"Two hundred conduit worm egg clusters, maybe a bit more. Uh ... thirty four cubits of conduit, clean. Nineteen cubits otherwise. Four small electronics."

You figure that it would be in your best interest not to specify any difference between the standard conduit and the smaller, 'peeled' conduit ... but perhaps you have been concerned about nothing, as the ferryman accepts them without issue.

"Spares?"

"Nuh uh. Soon doe."

With your business concluded here, you boost yourself over to the intake, careful to stay out of the sight of the few wreckers that you can see. On the final approach towards the inset panel in the hull that holds the intake, you decelerate a bit too late, and end up thumping against the hull. Nothing is damaged, and you aren't hurt - but you find yourself hoping that it is not a sign of things to come. Then after checking to make sure that there are no other wreckers that can see you, you turn your full attention to the intake - which judging off of the size of its cap is going to be just large enough to let you through. Unfortunately, the cap is heavily rusted. Now, rust is not something that you typically see on hulks, not outside of certain life-support systems at least, but considering that this is an atmospheric craft, and this is a plug for a salt water intake, you suppose you might have expected this. There is a small, exceptionally battered looking external console, which if you had to guess is connected to opening and closing the intake. If you were willing to force things, then you also have the option of cutting through the cap, or prying it off.

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> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Isolate the console, power it and attempt to bring it back on line to open the intake. (Primarily consumes Suit Charge)
> Cut through the cap and whatever sealing mechanism is underneath it to gain access to the intake. (Primarily consumes Cutting Gas)
> Pry the cap off of whatever sealing mechanism is underneath it to gain access to intake. (Primarily consumes Air)

>>5456466
> Isolate the console, power it and attempt to bring it back on line to open the intake. (Primarily consumes Suit Charge)

>>5456466
>Cut through the cap and whatever sealing mechanism is underneath it to gain access to the intake. (Primarily consumes Cutting Gas)
we got the most gas out of any of them, and the console might not even work

>>5456466
> Cut through the cap and whatever sealing mechanism is underneath it to gain access to the intake. (Primarily consumes Cutting Gas)

>>5456466
> Cut through the cap and whatever sealing mechanism is underneath it to gain access to the intake. (Primarily consumes Cutting Gas)

From now on were peeling

>>5456466
>Isolate the console, power it and attempt to bring it back on line to open the intake. (Primarily consumes Suit Charge)
You know what, I was going to vote for simply cutting the thing but then I thought, what if we keep this secret? Using the console is the best idea, SPECIALY since so few can read

>>5456466
>Cut through the cap and whatever sealing mechanism is underneath it to gain access to the intake. (Primarily consumes Cutting Gas)

So, with a slim majority, it seems that you are going to be cutting through. Considering that this is not just some drop-down ceiling, this cannot be treated like a minor action, like the conduit pulling was. The cap, the mechanism underneath it and the rust binding it all together are considered one object with an indeterminate amount of health. To cut your way through the cap, you are going to roll some dice. but each time that you roll a set, it costs you - 1 % Air, - 1 % Charge and - 2 % Cutting Gas.

First, I need someone to roll the cutting roll; a single d100.
Second, I need someone to roll the modifier roll, in this case a single d6.
Finally, I need someone to roll a incidental roll, in this case a single d12.

The cutting roll determines the base progress that you make working through the object. The modifier roll determine the multiplier for the cutting. For this object, with these standard tools, the modifiers are as follows: A roll of 1 is x0. A roll of 2 is 0.25x. A roll of 3 is 0.5x. A roll of 4 is 0.75x. A roll of 5 is 1x. A roll of 6 is 1.25x. So if you rolled 40 on the d100 and 4 on the d6, then you would do 30 points of 'damage' on the object. The incidental roll determines if anything happens outside of your immediate control - which can include the arrival of another wrecker! If this dice comes up as a 1, then a d100 is rolled, to determine the severity of the 'happening'. 100 is barely an inconvenience, while 1 is for disfiguring injuries and hard to overcome life-and-death situations. If the dice comes up as a 11 or a 12, then a d100 is also rolled, to determine how good whatever happened is. 100 is a life changing boon, while 1 is barely even a bonus - or something half-decent that comes with an attached cost of some sort.

Two final points: some objects can have specific traits, making them harder, easier - or more dangerous - to work through. In this case, this cap has the rusted modifier, which means that it has a little more health than it otherwise would, to represent it being seized in place, but at the same time, the modifier roll gets +1, to represent that it is brittle in certain key places. If it occurs, a 7 would give 1.50x. The second point is that the less amount of tries it takes to work through the health of the object, the better condition the object is in at the end, unless specified otherwise. In this case, the cap will be in a condition that it can be remounted, if you are able to work it off within three attempts.

The suit's master readout:
Suit Integrity: 100 %
Suit Charge: 81 %
Boost: 88 %
Air: 77 %
Cutting Gas: 87 %
Cutting Flux: 90 %

> Please, can I get one anon to roll 1d100, another to roll 1d6, and a third to roll 1d12?

Rolled 12 (1d100)

>>5456888

Hey guys, just wanted to give you all a heads up that I am calling it a night. If you want, roll three sets of 1d6, three sets of 1d12, and two sets of 1d100, that way we can hit the ground running when I get back. I'll take them in the order that they are rolled.

Rolled 17, 24 = 41 (2d100)

>>5456888

Rolled 6, 4, 4 = 14 (3d6)

>>5456888

Rolled 11, 12, 7 = 30 (3d12)

>>5456888

Rolled 42, 28 = 70 (2d100)

>>5457271
Yay!

Okay, so lets take a look at how you all did in my absence.

Cutting I:
12 * 1.50 = 18

Cutting II:
17 * 1.00 = 17

Cutting III:
24 * 1.00 = 24

As mentioned in >>5456888, the cap has an indeterminate amount of health, but after all of the work that you have put in on it, you are certain that you are more than halfway there. You did manage to net one minor and one moderate boon, so that's good, certainly. I'm going to eat dinner, then I will get to writing the update.

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Your first instinct is to isolate the console from the rest of the electronics, and then try to boot it up to unseal and unlock the cap. If it worked, you wouldn't leave any trace behind, to potentially draw over other wreckers - and as an added bonus, you would also have a working console to tag. But ... well, the tools you have been issued are intended to dismantle electronics, not work on them. And likewise, your training as a wrecker taught you how to break things properly, not how to fix them. So what if you isolated the console, then hooked your own suit up to it to power it - and it didn't turn on, then ... maybe you wouldn't be completely out of options, but you wouldn't have a lot of them either at that point. Or what it was protected or locked out somehow? This is an external console after all. On top of all of this, you could spend some serious time getting the console to work, only to turn around and find that the mechanism that it is supposed to operate is completely ruined, meaning that you would have to cut your way through regardless.

Resolved to your course of action, you ignite your wrecking torch, and as you furtively glance around to make sure that no one else is watching, you begin your work. At first you are surprised at the resilience of the of cap - the metal drinks deep of the torch before you make any progress with even a shallow cut, while you had figured that you would cut clean and fast through the plug, and that besides that, the metal would start to spall and shatter as soon as you kissed it without the protection of the cutting flux. Then you remembered that this is an atmospheric craft, and that an external part like this would have to be thermally flexible. You have half a mind to berate yourself under your breath, but you refrain. Partially because doing so would gain you nothing ... and partially because you are on bottled air.

Time passes. You are making noticeable progress, but at the same time you had hoped that you would be inside the intake by now, progressing towards the desalinator. You did manage to cut out something from the mechanism inside the cap, that you are certain will pass muster as an electronic, which is good. And after accidentally getting the preposterously unegronomic torch stuck, then having to yank it out from underneath the cap, you have found to your surprise that it seems to be burning a little more efficiently than it had been. You would judge that you are more than halfway there now.

> Minor Boon: Gain 1 small common electronic
> Moderate Boon: Percussion-Implemented Efficiency modifier added to this torch. On all cutting operations that burn more than - 1 % Cutting Gas, there is a 1 in 2 chance that 1 % Cutting Gas is refunded.

> Please, can I get one anon to roll 1d100, another to roll 1d6, and a third to roll 1d12?

Rolled 29 (1d100)

>>5458154
cmon good rollz

>>5458154

:D

Rolled 4 (1d6)

Rolled 3 (1d12)

>>5458154
CLANK!

Sorry that I fell asleep on you guys. Going forward, I'll try to make a point of noting when I am ending the day's run.

Cutting IV:
29 * 1.00= 29

As the cap assembly only had 80 health, and you have now done 88 points of cutting, you have successfully worked you way through the cap an into the intake.

> Can I get a 1d2 please, to see if you got the efficiency refund?

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>5458761
Ch-