Incy Wincey DSRV

Posted on Thu Sep 21st, 2023 @ 6:59am by The Narrator & Lieutenant Commander TaijanSuda ch'Thulhu & Lieutenant JG Fox Jasper

2,444 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: The Icarus Files
Location: The Wreck, The Scrimshaw Star
Timeline: Alongside - Close Enough To A Plan

Crushing it like a tin can... those words reverberated in the pilot's mind as Fox swept the space around them with every sensor he and the DSRV still had to play with. While Suda had instructed him to 'shut the fuck up', Fox wasted no time in breaking their mutual silence as soon as all the information came flooding unhappily back in.

"Starboard-rear optical sensor down," the pilot said, matter-of-factly. "So looks like more than one of them. Ambient radiation maintaining at medium and all our proximity sensors are going off...." Fox had turned the volume down and shifted the set-up to vibration-mode so that neither he or Suda were deafened by the protests and warning signals the DSRV was dutifully relaying to him. "We need to move," the pilot suggested, his tone calm but infused with a clear sense of an urgent desire for survival. "We're gonna get chewed to pieces if we stay here."

"Already on it," Suda said through the comms. The hiss of the emergency aft airlock announced his departure. "Cleared the interior airlock. Looking at junk now." It was true that space debris filled the bulk of his view. "Call out additional damage points."

The sensors seemed to have difficulty targeting the space vermin, so Suda knew he would have to use damage reports to seek and destroy hostiles.

"Deploying to aft." Suda activated the magboots and ran as fast as the magnetized attraction to the hull would let him. It was still more of a rapid high stepping march than a sprint, but he still made good time. The first creature was in sight, digging away with talons and teeth at whatever could be clenched. "Made contact. Firing!"

Things tended not to vaporize in space so much as splatter due to the depressurization, but this creature did not appear to have pressurized vital systems. Made sense, given its apparent invulnerability to the cold vacuum environment. Even so, there was a definite squishy quality to its de-atomization.

"Target down. Seeking more."

The words were barely out of his mouth before he saw a dozen more scurry out of the shadows and curvature of the hull directly toward him.

"OH SHIT!" Suda called into the comm. "If you got any fancy tricks, junior, now's the time!"

Colours blinked up in response to the deactivation of the aural warnings and Fox called out locations about the DSRV's exterior as they'd practised together previously in simulations. His least favourite thing about piloting was not being able to physically assist in the external pyrotechnic acrobatics, but his focus right now was purely on keeping them both alive and intact.

As Suda fired, Fox picked up on the multiple signals, Suda's own 'blue' point of reference surrounded by multiple 'red' hostiles. With no prior experience of their foe, they were both playing it by ear as to how to react, but it was really good to see that first critter vanish from the sensors. The knot of concern beneath the adrenaline rush eased and Fox's focus tightened further.

"Aft vents," the pilot called out. "One contact. Then underbelly by the exhaust panels on both sides - port and starboard. Nacelles - internal edge, both sides." Fox swore with a colourful confidence in the Andorian's ability, then heard Suda curse and internally steeled himself. He could launch into a series of fancy flying manoeuvres and try to shake them, but that would also test Suda's ability to remain attached while dealing with multiple aggressive foes, so this was relegated to Plan B.

"Ionising hull plating," Fox said, switching instantly across to that option and re-checking his sensors. He could 'hear' the motion on the hull shift frequency, but Suda was the real judge of its effectiveness. "Better or worse?"

There had been only a matter of heartbeats between Fox's warning and the activation, the hissing of vented atmosphere as the DSRV disengaged from the docking collar being his only warning. Suda deactivated the maglock on his boots and kicked off the hull as hard as he dared. The scampering spiders let out silent shrieks as the ionization coursed through their bodies and turned them to dust. A few spiders had lunged for Suda, but whatever their makeup that allowed them to traverse space and mineral blocks turned against them. Electromagnetic fingers arced up from the hull and lit up the aerial spiders until the surge disintegrated them.

Suda found himself free floating in a very precarious angle that would send them adrift in short order. He secured the grapple from the waist of his EV suit, affixed it to the armored wrist of his free hand, and aimed it for the shielded deflector. When the grapple made purchase, Suda recoiled the cable and let himself be towed back to the ship.

"Worse," Suda grunted in reply. "The first wave of contacts are eliminated, but the ion field is attracting larger rocks in the field that are crawling with the little shits. Deionize the hull and bring us about and out of the way before they get to jumping distance!"

Red blips vanished with a satisfyingly swift exodus in the wake of his choice, yet Fox didn't crow for victory just yet. Suda's life was the one hanging in the balance out there, not his currently and that deserved his concentration and focus rather than a customary whoop of success. The pilot played close attention to the shift in the sensor readings, the area immediately around the DSRV and the Andorian's position relative to it.

"Fuck..." muttered Fox at the same time as he deionised the hull. "Done," he confirmed for Suda's benefit. "Lock onto the hull and I'll get us out of the way," he 'ordered', and waited for that confirmation clunking sound and responding happy blip of sound to prove said boots were back in a safer place. Not until Fox had both visual and system responses that the Security Chief was 100% back in place did he alter their main trajectory. While he waited, the pilot also proximity-ionised the nearest uninhabited rock and with a further gentle nudge from the DSRV itself, sent it spinning in the opposing direction from his own intended path.

"Sending out a lure," Fox noted. "Hold onto your ankles, we're backing off now." The flip and burn probably spun Suda's head about some, but zero-G training would have handled him way worse. "How we looking now?" Called the pilot as he found them a far less inhabited looking piece of vacuum.

"Clear," Suda reported as he double-checked the power charge of his magboots. The crew might never find him if the maglock gave out during a barrel roll. "Bring us back around to the docking collar but don't reattach just yet." He swept his phaser rifle to and fro, trying to cover every field of fire by his lonesome without backup. His weapon's tactical sensor wasn't going to be any more helpful than his trained eye at this point.

"Nice work, old man," praised Fox with an air of friendly sarcasm. "Never doubted you for a second." Scans set to continually update on the quarter second, the pilot focused most of his attention on geography around him, the flying side of his current multi-tasking being the easy bit. Competitive nature another factor to his personality, Fox pinged up Suda's hit/death ratio and total spidery death toll for the security chief to see on his HUD. "Not bad, but I think you could be faster," he cajoled lightly, taking the DSRV back in an indirect route towards the wreck and then setting the craft into a very gentle spin. "No targets..." Fox reported, but he hadn't relaxed on that score either. He highlighted a wireless chargepoint but didn't activate it yet. "Wanna grab a boot charge-up while we wait for the next wave?"

"Probably a good idea. Coming aboard." The external airlock hissed as Suda made his way back inside.

Back at the helm, though, the readouts blinked for a second, so quickly it was as if it almost didn't happen. Systems continued to read as normal. The interior door opened to admit Suda back into the cockpit. Before he had time to remove his helmet, though, a myriad-limbed lifeform lurched out of the console straight for Fox's head.

Suda, still amped from his spacewalk, quick-drew his phaser and fired at the attacking creature. It disintegrated mere centimeters from Fox's face.

"We're in deep shit," Suda said.

Rapid breathing was followed by a muttered swear-word as Fox's brain leapt directly from animal-fight-or-flight reaction to ease-down-threat-neutralised. That was instantly followed by verbalisation as the pilot's gaze scoured the shuttle console before him.

"Definitely deep shit," Fox deadpanned. He didn't turn to regard Suda yet. "That didn't even show up on the scanners," he confirmed what they both already knew. "But," he continued, checking back on the logs. "There was a glitchy half-second just before it happened. I can work with that..." Fingers tripped swiftly over the console, updating settings and heightening every sensitivity marker, then he turned back around to face Suda.

"Behind you!" Called Fox, his own phaser following his gaze in a swiftly lethal response to the 'spider' behind and up above the Andorian. "Shit..." the pilot continued. "We need the team outta there fast or they won't have a ride home. I'll move us further away from the wreck," he half-suggested, the shuttle already back in motion as Fox spoke the words. "And I'll sweep through some frequencies, see if we can find a noise they don't think is an advert for free candy."

Suda wracked his brain for possible solutions. "Yeah, do that... and, uh, maybe modulate the, uh, main deflector to..." He couldn't think of the words. He was no scientist. Just a glorified doorkicker. "Fuck it, you know, make it harder for the slippery maggots to worm their way in with whatever space magic bullshit lets them move through solid matter!"

As Suda considered options, Fox vented some frustration and anxiety with a swift reel of cursewords then made their position at least partially known to the away team via the drone that still bobbed ahead of Javi. "Commander, we have a serious problem out here. Requesting your ETA."

The pilot made a face that implied Suda wasn't helping, but that Fox was still very happy he wasn't alone in this, then added. "Modulating frequencies of shielding through sonic and visual." His fingers danced across the console and he monitored the reactions of their foes closely. "Something has to work... If they can phase through solid matter, we need to alter the resonance of the structure some, at least at the outer surface. They can't be okay with every configuration, right?" The question was somewhat rhetorical, considering Suda's (and Fox's own) lack of both higher level science education and experience with this new foe.

From the drone com came the sound of their rescuee. "CLICK A problem?" Proximal. "CLICK I assumed you had pacified this medium suitably?"

"Situation's kinda... fluid," Fox replied, voice overly cocky just because he wasn't about to admit his failings to an unknown alien. "We're mobile, need update on ETA."

Still, Fox kept trying, sliding scales through every option available to him, with both the engines and the DSRV's outer hull wardrobe. "They loved the nacelles," he muttered, one hand slowed slightly by the fact he wouldn't relinquish his phaser. "So maybe the opposite will repel these bastards..."

"Sounds good to m-FUCK!" Suda cried out as a spider lurched out of the door panel and impaled him through his EV suit right in the back. Turning around to give Fox an angle of fire, he shouted, "Kill it! Kill it! Fucking kill it!"

He didn't need to be told three times, but Fox didn't comment on that, he just fired. "You're gonna need a new suit," he stated, the wry grin unavoidable at this point. "And some clean pants." But the humour was short-lived, cut short by their close proximity battleground. That and the sense of impending doom, as Fox spun slowly around, feeling unwelcome weight at his shoulders. As his own back became visible to Suda, it was like a scene from an old Indy movie, the pilot's back heavy with multiple spiders.

"How bad is it?" Fox asked, wincing.

"Don't... move..."

Suda leaned forward ever so slowly until he was within half of arm's reach. He poised his hand like a snake coiled to strike before snatching the spider right off of Fox's shoulders. Spinning around like a discus thrower, Suda let the spider fly straight against the wall and fired with another quick-draw of his phaser. The shot went wide by a several centimeters and he never got a chance for a second, as the spider phased right through the wall.

"Do whatever the fuck you were talking about before with the shields!" Suda ordered. "I gotta seal and patch my suit."

"I'm already doing it," muttered Fox, unhappily, cursing overtly with imagination. "Well, the DSRV is. Cycled through every combo. Nothing works... Not even the decoy rock. It's like we're attracting them whatever we do. We must just smell great..." He punched the inner hull to his right and exhaled. "We need to get outta here, but obviously we need to make the pick-up first. Maybe... maybe we go dark? Just drift until the Commander's in range?" That would be bad, but he was out of ideas.

McArthur's voice sounded from the drone. "Keep an eye on the rest of the group, Fox. We've got the rear covered."

"Yes ma'am," confirmed Fox, then muted the mike. "Eyes in the back of my fucking head," he said to Suda. "I drop power, we lose the link to the drone and my overwatch. But - brightside - we might just survive to pick them up." The pilot checked the drone's battery and nodded. "I can line us up, feed our drone via my suit comm, power down the DSRV until they're right next to the hatch and drift right up and in for a hot pick-up." He wasn't exactly asking for permission, but Fox did look to Suda for his opinion.

Suda grimaced at the plan, but he nodded. "In addition..." With great reluctance, he accessed the power cell to his phaser, ripped it out, and tossed it out the airlock. He removed a dueling knife from his EV suit's utility compartment where a technician might typically store a hyperspanner. "This should be a safer bet."

 

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