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Empty credsticks, of course. the nuar chuckles.
Jaraduk turns and heads to the Southern door (to A3) and opens it.
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Guess? barks commands at Zivix, "Good, you've come to your senses! Now, get down from that bunk, pick up that gun back up (it's worth a few creds and we have a 'leave no loot behind policy') and follow us. We're getting you and your colleagues off this sinking... uh... thing!"
And before Del has a chance to open the door, Guess? repeats the previous actions by moving up to the door and flinging it open for her!
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Melissa does what she can to interpose her ears between the fish and the dissection table...
"Aww its ok. I'm not going to hurt you. " she puts a hand up on the lever " Do you want to get out of here and go back to the ocean? Out? Come on, use your words... "
Assuming the telepath doesn't freak out when she starts to open the tank she'll let the fishies out into the ocean. "be free Willies."
"No wait we named the last one willies..."
Del
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"be free Willies."
"No wait we named the last one willies..."
"FREE ALL THE WILLIES!"
"Sounds like they're wet Willies."
Strek continues piloting the submersible, only mildly disappointed that it doesn't make cool motorboat noises.
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"FREE ALL THE WILLIES!""be free Willies."
"No wait we named the last one willies..."
"I am SO glad the coms are audio only right now... "
"Mister Shelly and mister seven. If mister zivixix has put the gun down and guess? is relatively decent... Can You bring mr Zivixix his scuba gear from his locker? "
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Jaraduk, trying his hand at the door lottery once again, opens up another door to find another nondescript hallway. At least this one was dry, until the water poured in around the nuar's ankles.
Akh, loot in hand, continues to walk towards the main room. Melissa, receiving no communications from the fishies besides the general sense of anxiety, presses the button to release the tank to the open ocean. The outer wall pulls open, and the fish begin to swim away! The sense of anxiety is immediately replaced by one of joy. Unfortunately... a few seconds after the airlock is triggered a crack appears in the aquarium wall! The crack spreads, until water begins to pour through!
Strek moves the ROV to corridor A3b, making quiet raspberry noises in his helmet. Dev just lays in the corner, catching his breath.
In the last room, Zivix begins to shake in place even as he picks up his weapon. "I, uh, I don't have any armor! And I'm not so good at breathing underwater. I'm not going anywhere until I have armor!" Though his logic is incredibly unsound, his panicked passion is quite strong. Guess?, continuing to lead from the front, opens the next door for Del: the facility's common room. Two feet of water covers the floor, though there are no apparent leaks. This utilitarian room’s benches fold out from the walls, and one wall has a large vidscreen mounted on it. The screen is on, showing a pair of kasathans running through curved corridors with looks of terror on their faces. The movie appears to be a horror flick, judging by the soundtrack. A low table even with the surface of the water sloshes over the floor. More important than all that, however, are the human and brenneri women carefully examing the far wall. The human's head whips back towards you and she calls out in a taut voice, "Who are you? State your business on Terra 5." The brenneri turns slower, her face breaking out into a grim smile. "Chill it Kaia. These are friends." Her eyes tighten. "I assume. Strek with you? I recognize you from the pictures." She specifically points to Del when she says this, then moves her finger to Guess?. "I'm guessing this one is the mysterious Captain." She waves around the room. "There's some sort of microfracture in this room. We need to find it, and stop it. If we methodically move through the facility, room by room, we can slowly drain this place and keep it from going kabloom."
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Melissa turns off her coms balbllop and whispers to Akh "It was like that when we got here. Or I'm blaming your tail" " badabloop "Strek there's n. A small leak over here to the north west when you get a chance. Follow the sound of the fish going "Wheeeeeeee" "
"Mr. Zivix do you have armor or gear when you go outside? If not we have a gem that can encase you in air. It would work better if everyone was in the same room though. Does that make everyone accounted for? "
Strek, hearing Shan's familiar, nasally and chipper voice, hops onto the comms.
"Shan, the legs are collapsing underneath us. Ain't gonna matter how many cracks you fix, this place is gonna be a tomb if we don't get outta here now!"
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Strek, hearing Shan's familiar, nasally and chipper voice, hops onto the comms.
"Shan, the legs are collapsing underneath us. Ain't gonna matter how many cracks you fix, this place is gonna be a tomb if we don't get outta here now!"
"We probably shouldnt NEED the otter sized sack and a tranq gun but we have one just in case "
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Akh peeks back around as Melissa creates a fresh, new, life-threatening breach in the station's already pockmarked hull. He ushers her through the doorway to the lab and closes the door shut behind her. "At least we got everything important in there." He then heads over to join the rest at the common room, closing and sealing another door to the flooding sections of the station as he does.
While Melissa goes on ahead, Akh gets his coils stuck in one of the narrow corridors and he's late to arrive to see Shan and her coworker. He wastes no time in echoing Strek "You could say this place is already delightfully tomb-like already, what with the kalo decorating the place. Based on comms I think there might also be a suicidal shirren who's interested in joining them when the place goes 'kabloom', like you said Shan. And that should be any minute now. The morlamaw outside said we're overdue for some sliding into the abyss." He nods "There's probably even some deadly spikes at the bottom."
Del bustles into the room, with a shake of her head, "Well, of course we're friends! Your mother sent us to save you. But I'm sorry, hon, this place is going down. Literally. Like they said, we're about to careen into the abyss, so it's time to go, fractures or no! Come on, shoo. Scoot. Move it. Talk later."
She spends the rest of her time trying to corral them out the door. With a nod at the far door she asks, "What's back there? Does anyone else need help?"
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Zivix, his breathing finally slowing, responds back to Melissa. "Obviously I need armor! I'm not trusting your magic!" He continues to rock back and forth, falling onto the bed. Melissa swims down the hallway behind Akh, who closes as many doors as he can reach. In the corridor over, Strek's ROV shrinks the leak.
Shan calls back onto the public comms, now that Zivix's hyperventilation is finally done. “Strek! Came crawling back for me, eh? Well, I haven’t exactly moved up in the world, have I?” She grunts. "Strek, I know you and I worked together in the grimy underbellies of machines like this one before. But I know this craft. She's mine. If we can keep the water out, she won't give up on us. The legs are stronger than they know." But, Del's words sway the pair. Kaia looks over and sets her hand on Shan's shoulder. "Come on. Even we need to admit when we're beat." Begrudgingly, the pair follow you out of the room. "Back there? That's the galley! Beyond it is the power bay. Shouldn't be any crew in there." Shan interrupts. "Have you seen the others? I see Zivix crying in there. How about Brishae? Righteous? Dev?"
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"Strek we can just duct tape you to that thing and have you keep running it from the outside with that wifi remote up your..nostril right? We can get everyone out and keep trying to save the place. "
"Mr Zivix if you can get up and head to the moonpool we can start getting your armor on. My friends are going to help you with that. BLADOOP "maybe get him a pacifier while you're at it... would that even work on a shirren between the mandibles and the telepathy.. "
Move over here to the armor, whistle our press crew over.
"Someone needs to grab this human, I think his calcium supports are broken. I'll keep playing skipper until then to buy us some time."
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“Strek! Came crawling back for me, eh?”
Guess? chimes in gleefully, "Yep! Strek came crawling back to you alright! Kekeke... seems like there's a story there that I haven't yet heard!"
Guess? then replies matter-of-factly, "Brishae is fine and trying to stabilize the walking legs. They're severely damaged and won't last forever. When they fail, this place is falling down an abyss. Dev is with Strek and will be fine - well at least he's alive. Jaraduk found Righteous dead, unfortunately. We haven't had a chance yet to recover the body (or his loot...).
"So look, we gotta get everyone together, grab whatever valuables we can, and get out of here ASAP - in that order!
"However, your crewmember Zivix doesn't seem to want to move and despite our best efforts seems to prefer drowning. Unless you know of a way to motivate him, I'm inclined to let him have his way..."
Dead serious, Guess? then says, "Now that everyone's accounted for, is there anything valuable around here that we've gotta grab before we depart?"
“Strek! Came crawling back for me, eh?”Guess? chimes in gleefully, "Yep! Strek came crawling back to you alright! Kekeke... seems like there's a story there that I haven't yet heard!"
"Nothing you haven't seen, though. With you lot, I only tend to lose one leg per fight. Back in the earlier days, jobs were twice as dangerous."
Listening in to the comms chatter, Akh suggests "Zivix doesn't trust magic, but maybe if he's small I can fit him inside my mouth. It's not waterproof of course, but after that spooks him, he won't be in a position to argue against getting a magical air supply."
He follows Jaraduk to the east end of the facility, looking to investigate the power bay that Shan's friend mentioned.
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The water pump kicks on again, and you breathe a sigh of relief as some of the rooms completely dry out - soft vacuum noises coming from the floor vents. Strek keeps working on the corridor he's on, further closing up the gap. Two more rounds of this work and the leak will equalize with the facility pump. Behind where Strek works, Dev hobbles to his feet. "It's alright, it's alright. My head has stopped ringing, I think I can get around soon."
Kaia's face goes white when she hears Guess?'s words. "Righteous? Gone? No, no, this can't be!" Shan's face goes serious. "Can't think about that now. We need to save who we can." She yells around the corner, "Zivix! Get off your lazy behind and go put your suit on! What do we practice emergency protocols every month for if you're just going to sit there and cry?" She looks to Del and nods. "If you know a safe way back to the moonpool, we'll head there and get our armor on as -" She is cut off by a loud, ominous creaking noise, followed by a BOOM! as an explosion of water rushes into the room when part of the wall gives way. Kaia yells, "We're all going down! Run! Close the hatches!" She sprints out of the room. Whether it's the leak, the dry floor, or the screaming teammate, Zivix follows her down the hallway. Seeing the flooding increases, Shan shouts, “If we don’t stop the flooding, the struts will give out and we’ll all die! I can feel them buckling!” She walks through the door and beckons to Del. "Come on! We need to close these hatches! And somebody tell Strek he was right. We need to get out of here."
Del hesitates a moment, not wanting to leave any room unsearched, but decides to trust Shan's headcount. She rushes after the others, closing hatches as she passes through so long as there's no one left behind her.
"Leaving right away? Excellent. Any last items that need to be picked up along the way? Anyone see anything accessible?"
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"And somebody tell Strek he was right."
Strek does his awkward hillbilly chuckle over the comms, "Shan knows that's the phrase I want on my tombstone."
Then he looks down at Dev, "Speaking of which, I guess you're comin' with me."
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"CHITTER the armor. Get to the moon pool and take the life bubble. Shan, you're the last one out. don't lose more time with the doors than It will cost you. Human, we'll fix your legs in a minute this isn't the information ages. Other human, As soon as I can see all of you and the otter I'm casting a spell. Don't resist it. GRAB your gear but we do NOT have time to put it on. "
"Mister shelly, Mister Seven Head out. "
"Akh, half of these rooms have exploded or put more water in, Its not worth it and your enormous rump is gonna get stuck in the hall. Come over here and prepare for operation waterbug. "
"Time to listen to grandma. Fill your cheekpouches and GTFO"
Head up to help strek drag the guy she's she's the one not squeezing in the halls.
"Enormous rump? I think someone's projecting." Akh huffs. "Alright, but I'm going to see if we can recover that credstick near the big drill from the outside." He weaves his way over to the moonpool and gets ready to help the hapless NPCs get out.
Jaraduk approaches the moon pool with Akh.
Are we forgetting anyone? Anyone living, that is... he remarks, remembering Righteous.
"Gobbammit! Didn't have time to loot the place! Well, let's not die down here. Everyone GO! GO! GO! GO!"
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Shelly the Shobhad and Sigma Seven don't waste any time getting out. "Don't need to tell us twice." They pause in the airlock, waiting for others to get in before cycling it. Shan calls into the mic, in response to Akh, "Yeah, we've each got some credsticks in our trunks." Del and Guess? see Shan eyeing the metal boxes welded to the floor in front of each bed in the bunk room. Dev interrupts, "Anybody grab my 21 Special Reserve? Gods, I could use a drink right now; it's time for the good stuff." Shan groans. "I don't care about your expensive tastes, Dev! I am more concerned about the bite out of our paycheck The Company is going to take for losing those power cells. Those things are spendy..." She looks at the water around her feet. "Though I suppose there's not much hope for our last paycheck anyway..."
When Akh asks if he has time to explore further, the group thinks about the situation.
If you hadn't repaired the struts supporting the station, you're confident the weight of the water currently inside the station would be close to breaking them. Only a few more rooms. But thanks to your repairs, you think the legs can handle the weight so long as almost every room isn't entirely flooded.
Akh is confident that either a good pilot or a good swimmer could make it through the dangerous area surrounding the drilling bay from the outside to save Righteous' body and it's accompanying credstick. Of course, (as our melancholy android friend is happy to point out) anyone inside that area would be pulled down along with the facility if it happened to go at that poorly timed moment...
The human and shirren crew members run at full speed ahead of Guess?, eager to get to the safety of their suits. Shan moves more deliberately, stopping at the doorway to wait for Del. You realize that, for the first time since you've stepped into the facility, the water around your feet isn't rising.
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" No need to worry about that they're gonna take your entire paycheck and the next six ones after it as a fine for this fiasco either way. You wana die for the difference between nothing and a lot less nothing? Sheesh its like you've never worked industrial before. "
Melissa helps the human down to the edge of the hall and peeks her head around the corner at the large Sarcasean double squeezing through the hall.
HURRY Del. SQUEEEEZE. Come on, what would your sister say if she saw you now? Melissa doesn't care if that's encouragement or a desire to get to the ysoki and strangle her as long as it gets her down here faster.
Del gets an extra move action this round.
"d'oh...we could totally call the psycic fish a F eel. "
Now that Strek has the opportunity to see the rest of the facility outside the one engineering bay, he pauses for a moment.
"Y'know, I think we might have enough time after all," Strek says as he gestures to the slow trickle of water. "I think so long as every room isn't entirely flooded, we're good. It's gonna happen eventually, but we got time at least to grab those lockers and that liquor."
"Hmmm, so long as we don't let more water in? That means not opening any of the doors into sections we know are totally flooded." Akh ponders "Let's make sure all these people get out first, so uh, they don't go down when we're inevitably wrong."
Akh ushers people out the moon pool and into the water once they're life bubbled up or in their pressure-resistant suits. "Also, can't help noticing that there was something about power cells. Something something, company really needs them? What's that about?" He asks the crew as they exit.
"Akh, it means go into that power room and grab the power cells! (And maybe the bottle of 21 reserve in the pantry as well...)" says Guess? urgently as he abruptly U-turns and makes a beeline back for the metal boxes containing credsticks.
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"Oh for the love of.. there's plenty of credits in the universe and even more spoiled grape juice. There's no point getting killed over any of them"
"Oh and shan? I wouldn't worry about your next check. Those kalo were here to tell you you're fired. I'm not sure if they were going to escort you out with a little cardboard box full of your stuff or in a little cardboard box full of you, but no point sucking up now. Also, there were kalo. And Hi, I'm Melissa nice to meet you"
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"Oh for the love of.. there's plenty of credits in the universe"
"Yeah but the universe is a big place. Too spread out. What matters is the regional density of credit clusters. AKA, money in our hands."
Del keeps hustling out to the moon pool. "Really?! You're stopping for credits NOW?" she shakes her head, muttering under her breath that she shouldn't be surprised.
"Not getting killed, Mel. Plenty of time. Strek said so. And you heard Shan. She said 'Strek is right'. And besides, more density of credits in our shipping business is sorely needed!"
Jaraduk scratches his chin as he ponders their debate.
How does the phrase go? "I'll give you my credstick when you pry it from my cold, dead hands"? Yeah, I think that's it.
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Dev, finally regaining control of his limbs, begins moving towards the main room on his own accord. "Hey, that's rotted wheat I'll have you know!" He makes it all the way, sloshing through the water, to the door to the main room before it closes in front of him! Kaia, on the other side, her hand still on the wall switch, looks through the door's port with a single tear in her eye. "I'm sorry, friend. We need to close the doors. I'll remember you." Then she turns and continues to slosh towards the racks of armor. Zivix, still manic, doesn't even spare a glance towards his now abandoned teammate as he hurriedly puts on armor. Melissa and Del, witnessing the affair from the other side, just look at each other confused. First, the water is only up to your knees! Second, Kaia didn't lock the door, so you can still open it easily It seems one of those two fleeing crewmates didn't listen to the evacuation training at all while the other may have taken it too close to heart.
While the rest of the crew is a bit too busy to answer Akh's question, Shan is happy too. "Actually Melissa's got the right idea. Y'all are saving my crews lives... even when I couldn't. Take the power cells for yourselves as a thank you, they should fetch a pretty penny. I'm not getting that paycheck either way." She follows Guess? back into the bunk room, stopping for a moment to unlock her chest. That's when the goblin notices the Simple Locks on each chest. The brenneri see's Guess?'s eyes and chuckles. "You've got thirty seconds before I leave you behind, Captain. My pal might be on your crew, but I'm not going to risk my team for your greed." She winks. "That being said, I didn't see nothing. Cowardly useless sacks, they turned out to be." Guess? notices the two locked boxes, besides the one Shan just opened, are labeled Kaia and Zivix.
The shobhad and android, seeing the rest of the crew pause, shrug and trigger the airlock. Salt water begins to fill the room, allowing them access to the ocean.
While the station crew are getting out to safety through the moon pool exit, Akh makes his way back to the east toward the power cells. Since it seems likely that there's be need of some engineering skill to remove them, he asks "Anyone have a step by step guide for removing power cells from a undersea station moments away from careening into an infinite (or close to it) abyss? Inquiring minds will need to know soon. Also, I could use some help."
He cycles the easterly door open, ready to close it again if there's too much water beyond. If not, he'll continue to open the next one into the power cell room.
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"I'm sorry, friend. We need to close the doors. I'll remember you.
"Have you ALL been down here breathing unrecycled oxygen for to long?" She presses the open button with her tail, spits out her life bubble gem and gets.. well at least dazed human, crazed human, and courage the cowardly shirren. If shan comes around the corner melissa can include her too but the otter isn't a priority when she's not sure she can herd three cats together at once.
(move door swift PTOOH the spell gem standard cast spell)
"That tears it. There are officially too many clusters in my clusterchitter cereal right now. deathtrap structure.. maaaybe risk it. Deathtrap structure and the people we're rescuing are nuttier than squox poo? Time to scurry."
Guess? grins at Shan and immediately gets to work on a lock while saying, "If you're ever hard up for a job or just need a place to lay your head for a while, there's always a bunk for you on our ship!"
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"Anyone have a step by step guide for removing power cells from a undersea station moments away from careening into an infinite (or close to it) abyss? Inquiring minds will need to know soon."
"We could ping Edge's patented 24-hour tech support, but waiting 24 hours before someone answers doesn't exactly fit the 'soon' timeframe."
Strek sloshes his way to wherever his engineering skills are needed most...