Twilight gets air, Sunset fixes the Equinox 43%
“I’m not happy you left her up here,” Spike’s voice said over the radio, following Twilight through the halls towards the docking bay. She moved quite slowly, both from the lack of gravity and the bulky EVA suit that she wore. “I don’t trust her yet. Fluttershy is too kind to stop her if she tries anything we don’t want her to.”
“Sunset isn’t as bad as she used to be,” Twilight muttered, rounding the corner towards the docking bay. She was momentarily floored by what she saw—bits of broken glass and bent metal floated in the stillness. Twilight slowed as she approached the jagged gap, torn with jagged teeth. And on the other side—Proximus.
The huge ring was down there, passing just below the Equinox at this moment. She could see its many lights glowing even now, surviving even the death of the civilization that had built them. Drifting down towards it, not far now but growing further with every second—was the Prospector. If that ship got away, they would all die.
“You don’t know that,” Spike argued. “The last time we saw her she was storming away from the Academy and flying off for the rim. We don’t know what happened since then.”
“No,” she admitted. “But we don’t have a choice. The Equinox has been blown to Tartarus. Fluttershy isn’t a mechanic, she is. Who else do you suggest fixes her?”
“Not her anymore,” Spike said, though there was something just a little nervous about his voice. “It might bother you to see that hull breach, captain, but I felt it. I can feel it now. I’m dying. Just… slowly.”
“Not if we get the crew back,” she said. “We can fix it. Maybe fix you too. Node is great at making bodies. Maybe she could make you a robotic dragon to live in instead of the ship.”
“Sure,” Spike said, exasperated. “If you want to tinker with the central computer to try and extract me. The virus dismantled everything in here, captain. I wish I could show you the way I can see it. The old Mainframe is now just a small fraction of my capabilities, a negligible percentage. I don’t know if my mind would fit into a single, fragile body. I don’t know if I would want to try…”
“Twilight, Spike! I, uh… I’m at the first life support junction. You said you were going to walk me through this?” Sunset’s voice came in over the shipboard general channel. Twilight would switch away from it as soon as she could. Just not yet.
“Spike will,” she promised. “I’m about to jump.”
“Good luck,” she said. “Don’t miss.”
Twilight gritted her teeth, edging up towards the ragged opening. “Get me a rangefinder on the Prospector, Spike. I need to know everything you can tell me.”
“Trajectory 101 x 45 x 02, three meters per second. Range, eight thousand forty meters.”
Twilight closed her eyes, focusing all her attention on the Prospector. She was familiar enough with the craft, though not enough to risk ignoring its position entirely. She calculated her trajectory, risked a single peek through her eyes—then jumped.
Can Twilight teleport safely? Failure?
Twilight takes 3 points of bashing damage from magical feedback.
Is she sent to the wrong destination? Yes.
Random Event: (Neutral) The Vengeance of Opulence
Twilight jolted briefly as the pain surged through her, the pain of a failed spell. She opened her eyes, brushing away condensed moisture from the outside of her helmet with the back of one leg. Her head pounded, and the concentration for spellcasting momentarily eluded her.
“Twilight to Equinox, come in. I bucked it up.” No response, not even static.
She straightened, realizing with horror something she should’ve noticed instantly: there was gravity here. She rose instantly, clearing away the rest of the teleportation condensation away.
Twilight was standing in a massive vaulted space, like the inside of the largest planetarium ever constructed. The buck am I?
“Twilight to Equinox, come in.” Again there was no response, just her own voice echoing in her helmet. She leaned to one side, lifting the sensor panel up so she could see it. Her temperature gauge, atmospheric sensors, hazard detectors, were all in the green.
Against all odds, Twilight had teleported from orbit to somewhere with gravity, air, and heat. Where in Celestia’s name am I?
Twilight stumbled forward, towards a raised stone shape not far away. There were metal controls along its top surface, a little high for a pony to reach but possible for an Alicorn.
Twilight approached them, touching the largest, most welcoming-looking button.
The dark ceiling lit up in a gigantic projection of the Proximus System. There was the distant star, familiar yellow and far away. Proximus A the rocky hulk too close to it, and just beside them—Proximus B, so huge in the sky she might as well be landing there.
That wasn’t the most interesting thing she saw, though.
This map had the ships too.
The Equinox was there, near the little ring and flashing with red indicators. And near the more distant Proximus C, another structure so close to the gas giant it had sunk into its upper atmosphere. Something was lurking there, an intricate metallic skin that floated along a denser layer of gas like a sailing ship.
Twilight took a few photos with her suit’s camera, taking in everything she could see. There was more.
Something else was down there in the gas, docked with the station. It wasn’t quite as large, though the shape of it was far more familiar. She’d seen the patterns suggested once, during a budgetary meeting on interstellar colonization.
Guess the Empire built one of their Biosphere ships after all.
Does Twilight hear attackers coming? No.
Is Twilight alone? Critical yes.
Twilight looked around, up at the massive projection and the incredibly advanced construction, and knew instantly where she had to be. Teleporting down to Proximus B would certainly kill her without the right precautions in her spell. But somehow, against all odds, she was on the orbital ring, trapped outside radio contract while the meager supply of air on the Equinox slowly ran out.
What should she do?
1. Escape as quickly as possible. As fascinating as all this is, it doesn’t matter if we suffocate.
2. Figure out how to use the computer. There’s a wealth of information in here. How did that ship get here? What is that station? I’ll make it tell me.
3. Explore the ring. We have a little time. We could pump our air out of here instead of flying all the way down to Proximus B.
4. Teleport straight out. I know this station isn’t twenty kilometers tall. Jump straight up, and I’m back in space. I can find my way from here. [dangerous]
(Certainty 230 required.)
Well, it’s do-or-die time.
Oh, so they know Sunset?
OH COME ON! Another random event?!
Alright, so there’s something really big in the gas giant. Yikes.
I vote ESCAPE AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE!
I was VERY WRONG when I thought we were winding up towards an ending. Not even sure why I thought that. This chapter reveals there are MANY more questions to answer!
For the chapter question, we need to get to the Prospector before it's lost to us. If it's lost to us, we're screwed. But if we go after the Prospector now, we'll be leaving behind this veritable treasure trove of information that we don't know how we got to and don't know if we can ever return! Now THAT is a hard decision!
Edit: Voted to get the computer working. I apologize if my curiosity dooms us all.
IT HUNGERS!! Will come of exploring get the he'll out of there
Woof, here we go again! I voted for teleporting straight out; might be dangerous but honestly I bet she could do it, and she DOES have a spacesuit. Of course, the question remains how her spell messed up enough to send her to the ring; perhaps it attracted her somehow? Anyway, probably for the best that everyone is heading for plain ol' 'escape the ring as quickly as possible'. As fascinating as it might be to explore, it's completely out of character for her to do so at the risk of her entire crew's lives.
Why was the roll for if there was an attack before the roll to check if anyone was there in the first place? Or is it seemingly 2 rolls rolled into 1?
It occurred to me that we were never told Fluttershy's reaction to Spike's uh... new body, how did she react to that?
As for this chapter's poll... The Prospector is still drifting, I suggest we do something about that.
I'm thinking 1. We need to get the prospector back to Equinox ASAP.
These arent options, its 1. Lives 2. Dies
So how does
turn into Does Twilight hear attackers coming?
No.?
... "rich, luxurious. Wealthy."
The revenge of being rich? Ahh -- for twilight, that is "too much knowledge, gotta check a book", right? Can she take herself away from information ...
Hey:
1. No secret option
2. No hunger option
3. Only one dangerous option.
So before we go Darkwing Duck right off the bat, lets consider.
Range: 8040 m
Speed: 3m/sec
That's 45 minutes of travel?
OK. It's continuing to move away from Equinox, and for a bit it will be closer to us. As mentioned, we have a space suit, so we could do a teleport into space, and then a second teleport into the ship.
So DM: Some questions:
1. Is Twilight able to do a double teleport, one straight up into space, and then a second from space towards the Prospector? Can she do three teleports when rested -- three ports should get her onto the boat without trouble, right? For that matter, can she teleport to "space" instead of targeting the inside of a room?
2. Is there anything here that looks like a "map of the ring", possibly showing emergency airlocks / how to get from here to an airlock, or back here from an airlock?
3. Failing that, can we spend 20 minutes max looking around the ring with the goal of (A) Finding an airlock and (B) Finding our way back here from the airlock later?
No time or oxygen to lose. Twilight needs to get to the Prospector ASAP.
Well, maybe not that soon. If she tries to just zap herself about the planetary system, that could go even worse. Still, escape is her and everyone else's highest priority.
Yeah, we don't have time to explore. Let's get her out of there.
Rolling for insa-wait, theres no insane option. Dammit!
We need to get out of here as soon as possible. The Equinox is depending on us
"outside radio contract" is a typo for "outside radio contact".
Not gonna risk our only alicorn and only reliable Captain. Get out of there.
GTFO
The opulence (for Twilight) may be all that yummy information in the Computer and the tantalizing ring structure. The vengeance? If she indulges Fluttershy & Sunset may very well suffocate...
Escape ASAP. We can come back later.
Should have known that Twilight plus teleporting was a bad thing to depend on.
Use the computer, we need intel before blindly trying to find our way through the ring.
Get out. We've heard the stories from the ponies that went here before.
There's a bit of a problem here, as I see it.
Getting out as quickly as possible is probably the prudent choice. But Twilight is having problems with teleportation right now and in a location that might eat ponies if it doesn't like what you are doing.
Obviously I'm not sure we should rely on Twilight's ability to teleport if its going to be this finicky. But this ring has been said by Applebloom to be dangerous. Not to mention the current plight that the Equinox and crew are in now.
There is a comprmise though. Being an orbital station with this much technological development, it stands to reason it could have means of aiding the Equinox and crew. You wouldn't have something this big that would have the means to maintain itself, the equipment used on it and the ships that would most likely have to stop at the ring before they are allowed on the planet.
And I know fooling with the ring has led to disaster before. But at the same time, Twilight has something that Applebloom's team didn't have. Insight. I know, it's risky taking a chance like this. But trying to rush off without intel could either have Twilight teleporting into a wall or running into a nanite defense matrix.
If she messed up that last teleport, then the odds sound against her surviving another one under these conditions.
I haven't completely given up on recovering the Prospector, which is what options 2 and 3 sound like. And yet the need is not quite immediate enough to justify 4 over 1.
One thing I haven't seen brought up yet. Exploring the ring, even if it's a good idea to begin with, is even more suicidal with with Twilight's HP bar virtually empty. She was already pretty severely hurt and just took another three damage this round.
If the resources page was up to date, that puts her at 5/13 HP. If that hasn't been updated since her last damage, she might be even lower. Let's not risk her getting one-shot by something.
Okay, I'm surprised by this.
Did no one tell her something like "don't touch an unknown button in an unknown area if you don't know what is does"?
Oh shit!
That was a close one...
I voted for option 1, for the reasons stated in the option itself.
9635931
Not a bad idea. Air first tho
So, in discord chat, Starscribe said that Twilight has taken 5 points of damage:
That's 5 out of 13, or 8 left.
My recommendation: With a 10 minute budget (the boat has already floated for about 45 minutes. 10 more is not going to change things excessively), use the computer to try to find a map including an airlock, and/or a map of entities inside the ring structure.
Yes, this place is dangerous.
That doesn't mean that a quick trip from airlock to data center, and back out will be dangerous.
Knowing where she is, and how to get back here/out safely, is valuable -- we will need to come back to this room.
** The most important thing to try to determine: Is this room on the outside of the ring? **
If she is unable to find an airlock out, or if the airlock is so far that it cannot be reached in 10 minutes, AND if this room is on the outer wall, she can do a short-range teleport into empty space, find some landmark on the exterior of the ring to identify this location, and then a series of medium length jumps, all of which are within her safety margin, to catch up to and board the prospector.
Refilling air from the airlock of the ring is the fastest way to get air back into equinox, and relatively safe.
Having to land and take off multiple times, when the planet has shown hostility, is not nearly as safe, and the whole "how many times can prospector refuel" is an unanswered question.
My recommendation is use computer first, as mentioned with this detail.
Ultimately,
Hang on:
1. Escape as quickly as possible.
2. Figure out how to use the computer.
3. Explore the ring.
4. Teleport straight out.
** HOW IN THE HECK DOES #1 MAKE SENSE??? **
Escape as quickly as possible? You have to at least explore enough to find an airlock, or teleport, or use the computer to find the exit?
...
Let me ask Starscribe to clarify this.
And what if what we want is "Find information/resources, but as soon as we see an airlock, that's it"? I really think that 10 minutes is a time limit before problems, and this is a pony that could lose herself in a library or other interesting place (like this) long enough for everyone on the equinox to run out of air or the prospector to be too far away to reach :-).
In other words, if we want Twilight to exit as quickly as possible, we have to say completely ignore the computer, start looking/explore around for an airlock, and we cannot give her a time limit for emergency teleport out, nor use the "Try to see if this is on the outer wall" for a short teleport out followed by "find landmarks on the outside to use to find this room again".
That really means option 1 is the only good choice. And if we're not on the outer wall already, the likelyhood of finding an airlock is low.
** BUT: Option 1 means we are wandering around inside the ring the most, and we are most likely to activate intruder detection systems!
So, Option 1 (find an exit), or option 4 (teleport out -- dangerous) are the only choices that we can give to an "Information!"-driven pony with a time limit.
And with 214 votes already cast, the lead for option 1 is unbreakable.