Chapter 106
Stop to mine 53%
It wasn’t exactly a call Twilight wanted to make. Listening to that pony distress call playing over and over filled her with dread she could barely suppress. But however much she wanted to help, some rational part won out. They lasted this long, it doesn’t seem like two months will make a significant difference.
They diverted a few degrees, slowing well short of Proximus C to orbit a metal-rich asteroid that would give them everything they needed in the shortest possible time horizon. With a year and everything they’d figured out, Twilight suspected they could’ve had the Spikequinox in better shape than when it drifted out of space dock. But she couldn’t justify that kind of delay, and the losses that might come with it.
We are the last of our species. Those words haunted her while she worked, and they followed her in her dreams. She tried to imagine what an evacuation of all Equestria might look like, and she couldn’t. No matter how united the world became, the vast majority would still be left behind. The loss of life staggered her.
But while she struggled in silence, the rest of her crew worked.
Are there any accidents or other mishaps during the mining process? No.
Between the prospector and Apple Bloom’s new robots, the repairs proceeded rapidly. Twilight watched as the little spiders danced along the exterior hull, sealing new armor plates, welding supports into place, then casting back on thin tethers.
What would’ve taken even an expert like Rarity several weeks, they could do in one. For better or worse, there was nothing to fear from the machines doing what they shouldn’t, since Spike controlled them all.
Those who didn’t or couldn’t help with the mining could continue their personal projects. Rainbow was the first to call her, her voice boiling with excitement even over the radio. “Right now, captain! I’m in the bridge!”
“We’re not… under attack, are we?” Twilight put down the trowel, pushing off from the hydroponics tray. “I didn’t get an alert.”
“No,” Rainbow said. “And after what I did, we won’t be! You should probably just teleport up here.”
Twilight shuddered at the thought. After the things she’d seen and heard while teleporting around on this mission, she didn’t use the magic for casual transport anymore. Even if it had been a while since her last experience.
She arrived a few minutes later to see Rainbow at the weapons station, which had a few more green lights on the status display than last time.
“We did it!” Rainbow said, bouncing out of her chair and grinning proudly. “It wasn’t easy, don’t get me wrong. But after this, I think I might deserve a fieldcert in engineering.”
“You don’t want that,” Twilight said, flapping towards her in the zero-gravity. “Believe me. You don’t want an engineer’s duty roster. What’s the point of an increase in pay if there’s no Equestria to pay you?”
“Right.” She deflated, falling silent for a moment before gesturing over her shoulder at the computer. “Check it out!”
Twilight didn’t move. She couldn’t help but feel a little guilty to see Rainbow’s enthusiasm die like that. She was proud of what she’d done, and she should be. “You can just give me the report, I trust you.”
Rainbow needed no more encouragement than that. “Well captain, you already knew the point defenses were running. Without the lasers, we’d be pierced by little bits of space trash every few days. But those aren’t good against anything larger than half a kilogram at fairly close range.”
Twilight nodded. “I bet Spike is an even better shot than the programs used to be.”
“An order of magnitude better,” Spike said. “Seeing how they work, I’m amazed we arrived in one piece.”
Rainbow turned back to the terminal, gesturing at the joystick and keypad. “You’ll probably remember when we scraped our torpedo tubes and guidance systems. And the ammo, and…” she winced. “I know you had good reasons! But just because we haven’t needed them yet doesn’t mean we won’t. It wasn’t that hard to get the hardware replaced for one of the tubes. Lots of fabricator hours, with a little help from Node to replace the computer stuff… point is, we’ve got a tube. One of four. But that’s 25% of the way to fully repaired!”
“How much ordinance do we have?”
“We kept all the bombs,” Rainbow said. “But fabricating little rockets takes time. By the time we reach the planet, I can give you four shots.”
Four torpedoes, and one tube to fire them. It wasn’t much, particularly considering the odds stacked against them so far. But Twilight would take what she could get. “Excellent work,” she said, embracing her friend. “Keep working. I’ll make sure you’re not assigned to anything else until we get a second tube operational.”
“Don’t scrap my systems for spare parts next time,” Rainbow said, grinning.
A few days later, they were moving again, and Spike got her attention with a few quick flashes from the bridge’s guidance terminal. “Captain, we need to choose our final approach. Either way, it’s going to be some tricky flying.”
Twilight squinted down at the projections, going over them in her mind.
1. Proceed directly for the submerged vessel and attempt to dock with the Spikequinox.
2. Establish a distant orbit and send in a robotic probe.
3. Send a crew down in the Prospector.
(Certainty 205 required)
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I would say send the crew down. While a probe would be less dangerous, I feel that having some space-boots on the ground would enable more effective rescue options.
Safety first. Send a probe.
Also wow that hunger option.
Also can we PLEASE rewind a bit to when Node mentioned 'in the darkness, his machines will find yours and take them apart'? Because I think we glossed over something potentially VERY important there.
"Spikequinox"? Really? Silly Twilight, that's not how you portmanteau.
Well, you almost didn't, so...
Also, yay for Dash! One torpedo tube is indeterminately better than none.
9791326
See, that very line had me vote for sending the Prospector. Sure, the probe isn't labelled as dangerous. Not yet. But I'd like to have some organic minds on hoof in the event of the unexpected.
Is it me or does that hunger option look visually... hungrier than usual?
...while I normally advocate for the safest option, I don't know how much sending a robotic probe would accomplish. If there's still anyone alive, maybe they'd establish communications, but not much else I don't think. But I think docking the Equinox with the vessel is way too risky. I think we can send the Prospector. This is what it's for.
Rolling for insanity....
.....4.....
F̢͇̟̖͉̟͕̯I҉̨̤̻͍͔̫̺̳͇̜̱̦͕̤̙̜͙̜̟͜͡͡ͅR͍̟͈̥͕̦͚͢͠͠ͅÈ̥̝̟̪̪͚͕̝̞̗̣̱̖͙̠ͅ ̶̡̼͉̤̲̹̗̱̪̬̻̣̦̖̰̀́̕É̶̺̻͉̲̠̻̯̭͍̼̗̱̤̞̬̞͍͔V̢̩̩̜̺̥̲̜͉̕Ȩ̥͙͖̩̥͖͇̦̲̖̗̹͖̣̦̪̺͓͘ͅR͓͖͚̗̟̮̠̞͚̺̙̩͠ͅY̵̢̹͔͚͎͉̖͎̞̙̰͈̭̲̜͎͇̩̪̥͜T̡͈͇̮̞̱̯̲͘̕͟͞ͅH̴͍̳̫͇̕͜͟Í̪͉̝̝̞̲̳͖̝̤̮͉͠Ņ͙̪̫͈̬͉̖͉̳̩͎͇͘͟͡Ģ̸̕͢҉͚̩̞̗͉̩̺̮̹!̴̨̛̭͖̺͎̘͚͢͝ ̴̬̘̙͎͉̦̣͓̤̺͙͕͝ͅĻ̷̡̛̩͇̮̝̥Ȩ̴͙̘͕͙̙͎̣͉̮̳͚͉̱͔͎̤̞̪͜͢A̶̢̢̬͚̩̞̦͞ͅV҉̡̨̭̣̘̰͈̘ͅĘ͚͓̺͚͙̯͉̤̹͠ ̨̛̱̪͚̩̜̬̲̻̺̦̜͚̞̞̬͖̪̥̀̕ͅŃ̲̱̩͇͚͇̗͎̟̭̠̀̕ͅǪ̵̵̤̮͕͘͝N̡̢̛͔͓̦̰̠̼̲͟É̡̨̝̰͖̹̖̫͇̲̝͕̤̙̟͓̞̬͢ͅ ̢̩̦̖̦̜̀͡ͅA͠͏̧͖̖͎̩͙̬̪͇̻͙̮̙̣͜L͡͏҉̰͖̠̲̕Į̼̼̳̹̲̠̣̩̬̪͙̟͡͞V̴̢̙̰̺̦̫̺͈̳̣̝̳̣̗͓͟Ę̶̯͖͙̳͉͚̲̗͈́͟͢!̷̴̰̜̣̭͉̲̝̦͚̥̩̙̕͜ͅ
I think Prospector for sure. I don't like breaking the crew into parts much, but, better than risking the prime ship, and if need be a second wave of crew can come with more preparation.
The probe just seems like using more time and caution than is really required this time...? At worst it might give away any chance of a tactical surprise.
I'm sure that would stagger everyone.
Wouldn't it make more sense to make more torpedos instead?
About the choice:
I think it would be best to send the robotic probe first. Even before I saw the other options had been marked as dangerous.
Also:
Equispike or Spikequinox, that's a good question...
Don't stress yourself too much; we ain't going anywhere.
Sending a probe might SEEM logical, but unless it can be controlled in real time, to cope with any possible result, it is not smart. The odds of what IS there not matching up with a probe's capabilities is far too high.
Docking Spiquinox with the submerged ship right off... Dumb. No, not dumb, DUMB! Dum-da-dum dum DUMMMMM!
Sending the Prospector, something designed to be away from the main ship, with a crew of ponies aboard that have the capability to think and react to the situation, much smarter. Not exactly safe, but if you wanted safe, whyinhell are you doing around Proximus?
As to Rainbow and the tubes, one tube, four missiles is just going to have to do.Getting another tube up means you go through your ammunition twice as fast. Think about it.
I think I would at this point either go with the Prospector or docking the main ship.
It would probably be safer not putting the main ship at risk. But if they need to make repairs or need extra power on this journey, they might need the Spikequinox's core and fabricators.
Then again, there's nothing wrong with them dipping their toes with the Prospector to gather data so if they're forced to come back, they can give Spike an informed attempt to force his big foot to force his way in with the Spikequinox.
Then again, they could do that with a Probe as well. And what if this ship has automated defense systems active?.... Yeah, the Probe is probably the safest bet at this time with Shadow parasites and unknown defenses to worry about. Not to mention the potential of a Pandorum situation on ship that they could walk into without knowing it with how it sounds like the Hunger works.
Send a probe first. It can be followed up by the Prospector or whatever, but use the unmanned probe first in case the ship is a trap or there is some other danger.
The only downside to using a probe is that they will use some material to build it, but that is easier to replace than crew members.
Let's go with option 1. The prospector hasn't been upgraded and reinforced like the Spikequnox, and a probe seems a bit redundant at this point. Sure, we may get a bit more information, but we know one ship is attempting to pull the other into the gas giant.
Yay, no accidents and we get a few torpedoes back. Let's not misuse them.
Hmn. Robotic probe. Definitely not the Prospector for this mission, but I want to be better informed before we commit Spikequinox to this.
Edit: serious LOL at the unlisted option. But no, let's not.
Ok, so I get that the Hunger wants us to shoot torpedoes at the station but...
When i read “Rainbow Dash Knows How To Use Those Torpedo Tubes” my first thought was “They want us to shoot Rainbow at the station?”
That is metal as f*ck!
One vote for Ballistic Rainbow Dash.
Can a probe be used to hijack the Signaler station? Maybe. But if it released the ship, would there be power to save it from the atmosphere? We'd be safer using the Spiquinox to tow it back to proper orbit...
I say start with a probe. If its a trap, better to lose a probe Than anypony important
9791395
We've already sent a probe, it was fine. This is exactly what -E̠͟r̢r̦o̴͇̟̲̞͈r̯͓͈- the torpedoes are for.
(I got a 2)
The problem with the other vessel is that it's in that gas giant. If it was in orbit it would last much longer, correct?
Then why not push it out of the gas giant first(which should also allow getting a better look)?
If the structural integrity can support it, fly under the structure with the Spikequinox and slowly ascend, pushing the structure out physically.
I think the probe option is playing it too safe. If there are survivors, they'll probably be more cooperative if they see a friendly face than a cold, scary scouting robot. How many good experiences have WE had with robots? Applebloom and Nova. The rest tried to kill us.