Faction Unseen Roadblock - Outbound Flight

[Kaia Starchaser]

Hyperspace. It was the bread and butter of what she did. And here? On the Outbound? Her skills were needed. The ship had reverted from one jump into stars unknown, and that meant the wayfarers were launched. She had her own shuttle but was feeding her telemetry to the others. Another test, it seemed. See how fast they could find viable paths and get the ship moving again. Some had already been doing this on their own, but putting their efforts into a concentrated task?

That was just good business. And she could charge the hours.

Profit was important, but not as important as helping right these maps. Her father was out keeping watch, and here she was, doing what he should have been doing, instead of being the war horse decades ago.

“Alright Drifter, bring us on a bearing of 270. Lets check this jump.” She nodded as her ship’s hyperdrive engine spooled up. It was tied into a Starchaser Path Engine, but she was only using that to ensure she got back to where she needed to be going. She could feel the obstacles in the way and started to smooth out her calculations.

“Now.” She said as the ship’s hyperdrive spooled up and… nothing happened.

“Wait, what?” Kaia looked at her probe droid and moved from her pilot’s chair to the navigator’s chair. That wasn’t supposed to happen. What was out there…

 

[Luke Montann]

⠀

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Locations⠀ Starchaser Ship
Objectives⠀ Help out.
Tags Kaia Starchaser

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀LUKE MONTANN.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Engineer.
"The stars are ours to see, the galaxy is ours to set foot on."
Follow the stars..

═ Earn The Paycheck⠀═

He was in high demand thus far on Outbound Flight. Despite some groveling, the Engineer had come aboard to aid the Starchaser in case of any mechanical or engineering disasters. However, Luke was less concerned with fixing something than slamming into an asteroid or a planet in the wrong spot. Charting hyperlanes was dangerous beyond belief, probably one of the deadliest things a spacer could do.

So, the anxiety of the hyperdrive whirring, stars bending-

Then nothing, tripled.

He opened his eyes, realizing he'd been clinching them. He sighed, standing up, picking up his tool bag and putting on his helmet. Blue light emanated from his helmet as he silently made his way from the crew area to the engineering bay. He crouched near the hyperdrive- and saw the multiple blown fuses and the damaged wiring. Far too dangerous to work under power. A hard fix, even on dry dock- but in space? Challenging, hard. And, most importantly, dangerous-

They'd have to shut off the entire power supply, and run out the power system to ensure that there wasn't any charge left in it. Otherwise, he'd blow the entire thing, or zap himself with force-knows how many watts of lightning. But the ensuing explosion, most importantly, could damage the ship, rip a hole in it, and space them all. Not a good end.

He pulled up his communicator, blue light indicating its use. Attached to his wrist, it beeped before he pinged back to the bridge with the local radio.

"I've got good news and I've got bad news."

He said, examining the issue, setting up his toolkit. Configured for zero-gravity situations, each tool was clicked into place into it's own slot, as well as magnetic locks on the bottom of the box that would ensure nothing floated away that wasn't supposed to.

"Fixable. Just not quickly, and definitely not under power. We'll have to cut the power to everything to fix this. Including life support."

Which meant that without oxygen being cycled and produced, they'd have- with a ship this size, a very limited amount of oxygen. Additionally, there'd be other tasks that Kaia and him would have to do. But one thing at a time.

 

[Atlas Drake]

Kaia Starchaser Luke Montann​

---

"Wandering Star can you read me?" a voice cut through the static on Starchaser's comlink, "This is the Quasar Ghost. Picking up a lot of anomalies in this sector. Nearly fried my hyperdrive."

Captain Drake ignored the anzellan engineer babbling frontier curses in his engine room. They were charting a region of space infamous for its dangers. Just a little bit of stormy weather couldn't stop the crew of Outbound Flight.

"We should drop some navigation buoys at sublight to chart a safe route ahead for the others."

The vintage ancient Republic starship passed into visual range of Starchaser's transport. Two faint points of light surrounded by dead space. The expedition might not hear a distress call in all the interference and pass them by. No guarantee of safe harbor within the range of their hyperfuel reserves. That was the risk of flying out in such deep black seas.

"Is that meknek of yours rated to program a beacon?"

 

[Kaia Starchaser]

This was the type of work she was made for. Kaia didn’t always like it, but figuring out why her ship wasn’t going anywhere, and how that was going to affect the whole mission? Yeah, having someone with the Starchaser name helped fix that. Call it a racial bonus.

“Take a look and see what you can do.."” Kaia called over her comms to the engineer.

“Hey Ghost. I see what you mean. Something’s acting up here.” She shook her head and looked at the maps, the old and the new. What was out here. “Same happening to me.” Clearly.

“I’ve got some buoys I can deploy, but they’re maybe not giving the range we’ll need.” She took a beat to listen to Atlas and nodded, swapping her comms to her tech.

“How long do you need? And whats your skill with beacons?” She took a breath and looked around. “Got some air reserves but we’ll need to get that back online fast.”

Atlas Drake Luke Montann

 

[Luke Montann]

⠀

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Locations⠀ STARCHASER SHIP!
Objectives⠀ Engineer it!
Tags⠀ Kaia Starchaser l Atlas Drake

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀LUKE MONTANN.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Engineer.
"The stars are ours to see, the galaxy is ours to set foot on."
Follow the stars..

═ Man's Gotta Earn a Living⠀═

"Beacons? Good, but that can come later."

Luke hobbled over to the massive generator and engine bay. It was a risky procedure as it was- disconnecting power supplies was dangerous in of itself. He took a deep breath from beneath his helmet, and looked up at the ceiling.

And pulled the switch down.

Cities worth of power were required to power ships, and that meant anything going wrong and he was fried, they were dead, and their expedition was cut short. The loss of power was immediate, and everything went offline. Life support, artificial gravity, the works- things floated, disengaged. Emergency lighting came over, red and orange hued lights flooding the cabin spaces.

He took out his toolset from his belt, connecting it to the power line. He took a deep breath, fogging up his visor before the cooling system inside his suit prevented it from seizing up too much. He didn't like the readings.

"Ship schematics say the fluctuation is starting at the engine- outside. Some kind of damage to the wiring harness leading to it out there."

A moment of sheer terror. He'd have to go outside to repair it. Racing against time. He checked his HUD and his timer on his wrist. Sixteen minutes of air. He spoke shakily into the comms-

"I have to go outside to fix it."

He hoped his magboots were up to the task. And him. If he wasn't, this ship was good as scuttled and jeopardized their scouting route. A ship left in a travel lane was dangerous- at any moment, any Outbound Flight ship could come cruising through sublight and shatter into them. Or worse, they'd leave it in a future hyperlane. That'd be even worse.

"Get the beacons ready. I have to go outside. Find some emergency oxygen- going outside will take most of whatever we got left."

He took a deep breath, and began the long trek to the airlock. No tether. No power. Racing against time. Another day.