Space Engineers: Starship Unknown

by Stalin with Da Spoon

2: Rally the Crew!

The sounds of slow footsteps echoed throughout the steel hull of the vessel, the creaking and waning of the metal hull, the strain of constant movement and structural weakness sounding out with audible creeks and groans bellowing within. It was unnerving to an un-experienced crewman, someone who hasn't been in this kind of situation before. That's why it was so calming for Grand Admiral Jack Roberts, he was simply used to this kind of thing, and to him, the sounds of a ship's hull straining and waning was better than it tearing at the seams and breaking apart all around him. The rest of his seasoned veteran crew could agree, having survived practically dozens of crash landings and hull breaches over the years.

Of course, that didn't mean everyone was necessarily calm and collected. Remember, they were still stranded on an alien world, with no weapons, jump drive, communications, or form of transportation. They were effectively stranded in completely uncharted territory as well, and seeing as this operation was officially off the records, in other words, a black ops, there was not going to be a search and rescue team for a loooooong time... As such, it was best the crew settle in, as Castle and Finn were currently outside the ship with their grinders, grinding down and salvaging any broken off parts of the ship, because that's what they do best.

On the interior of the ship, repairs were still being made, as Venom, Owen, Reed, and Bashful were currently running repairs in the bridge section, welding back together broken and frayed wires, re-fitting displays, adjusting power levels, bolting on new armor plates, affixing new glass windows, and chatting among themselves as they did so.

"So you're certain about your decision, Reed?"

"Yes, I am certain, the first Starship Troopers is the best, Mr Venom."

"Bold words there, Reed. Everyone knows Starship Troopers Two is the best of the series."

"Owen, your on thin ice pal, I agree with Reed, the first is always the best."

"Bite me Bash, least nobody here likes the third installment, that movie was... Well, it was decent, but still."

"Yeah, ya got a point, we can all agree, the third is inferior." Venom said as collective nods and grunts of acknowledgment and agreement sounded out from the crew mates, meanwhile Higgs and Horza were busy down in the lower bowels of the ship, taking readings of the main reactor core.

"Okay, so, I would try to look at the reactor readings... If it weren't for these damn errors! Somebody installed a damn Bonzai buddy!" Higgs said as he sat in a chair affixed to a large computer terminal, several screens flashing with alerts and warnings, Higgs trying to clear up some space on his screen by clicking the 'x' button on each of the pop ups, simply causing more to appear as he groaned in frustration. "Damn you Bonzai buddy, why do you curse me with popups?!?" Horza just chuckled, sitting at his own terminal, as he lended his friend some assistance.

"Here, lemme divert some computing power to you, the central CPU can take it." Horza says typing away at the keyboard on his terminal, as Higgs looked to see his screen cleared up, now getting clear readings of the reactor's energy readings and power levels. "Alright, reactor is in a somewhat stable condition, relatively undamaged from the impact, power is somewhat regulated, although distribution is utterly fucked due to the electrical network being in tatters. Energy readings are somewhat standard, radiation is still contained, which is a miracle considering we nearly got a direct hit to it." Horza nodded, as he went back to typing at his terminal.

"Right, better make sure we don't waste any power, seeing as this reactor is quite strained already. I'll shut down some un-necessary functions, like oxygen production, seeing as we are on an atmospheric planet. Weapon systems are already buggered, so no use diverting power to ammo production. Shield generation is somewhat functional, but no use for it, shut that down... Alright, power seems pretty well distributed for now." Higgs nodded in confirmation, before a buzz could be heard on his comms.

"This is commander Craz, the Admiral has ordered all crew to assemble in the bridge for debriefing." Higgs looked to Horza, who had also received the message, as they both quickly stood up and got out of their seats, quickly rushing out of the engine bay.

Meanwhile, in the captains quarters, Craz ended the comm link as he turned to Captain Jack, who was currently sitting at his table in his office, which he had won after the long and grueling office wars. "Announcement made, Admiral." Captain Jack audibly chuckled as he held a hand up.

"Craz, please, just call me captain, being admiral doesn't mean I forsake my duty as the captain of this wayward shitstorm of crew." Craz chuckled as Jack stood up from his chair, as they both walked out of the quarters and through the halls of the ship.

"Yep, heard about all the chaos you guys went through helping Castle, laughed my ass off when I saw him go interstellar in the database!" Both Craz and Jack burst out into laughter as Jack could barely breathe as he spoke between chuckles.

"Heh, we had so many catastrophes I couldn't even count them! Praise be Clang I guess."

"Praise be. Anyways captain... About what we saw up there, you think they're still a threat, or just a slight pain in the ass?"

"I know, Craz, i've been thinking about it too... If the green drones somehow manage to re-organize, then the galaxy might be in danger once again."

"Guess we just have to put them in their place again!" Craz shouted defiantly, Jack chuckling as they slowly climbed the stairs, entering the bridge section to see the crew all lined up along the center of the room, as the Captain slowly walked to the very back of the bridge, standing in front of the large window overlooking the forest behind him, his crew looking to him as he began to speak.

"Gentlemen, I have assembled you here because I believe it is time we assess our current situation and determine our next course of action. So, first things first, our ship has been heavily damaged due to enemy ambush, and generally the situation is fucked. Repairs are of course running along as planned, thanks to your hard work, and our power is operational at least, but we still have several problems. Our jump drive is currently in a sorry state, our communications systems have been completely decimated, our weapon systems are dysfunctional, and we lost our rover. Seeing as a lack of ground transportation could be detrimental, we shall begin work on a standard RWI Marauder Class rover design." Jack says, taking a step to the side as a large red holo screen appeared, displaying the image of the standard twin-cockpit RWI exploration and reconnaissance rover.

As the blueprint was displayed to the crew, audible ooh's and ahh's could be heard. Once everyone shut up, Jack continued. "While this rover project is one of our priorities, our top priority is going to be constructing a base of operations, seeing as operating out of a wreck halfway embedded in the ground is not a good idea. The base will start off relatively basic, and seeing as we are surrounded by trees and the majority of identified ore deposits are deep below us, it is best we build the base underground, complete with an underground garage and hangar bay." Jack says, displaying blueprints of the large base, including room designs and measurements, as everyone nodded in agreement, with Castle and Finn being particularly excited.

"Now then, I shall address the elephant in the room, something I am sure all of you are wondering. While I highly doubt the green drones are somehow coming back, especially after we sent the Controller and the Artifact careening into a blackhole, but I don't doubt the possibility are some kind of rouge remnants out there, fighting without orders or reason, just luring ships into traps like the one we encountered in orbit of this planet. The age of the signal indicates it's from a period during the war, so we may be opposing a remnant that doesn't even know they've lost yet."

"Of course, we also know that these remnants are somewhat organized as we saw during our second tenure on Monus III, but as far I saw these, it's possible these may not be green drones and only pirates and scavengers using stolen tech. But if they are, they are likely be isolated and alone. So before you go panicking, I believe this is simply a rouge squadron we need to mop up. But if it's something more, this planet could be in danger, and we need to be ready for anything. Regardless, that concludes this assembly, you are all dismissed!" Jack shouted, his crew nodding as they went back to work, with Jack just turning to look out the window out of the ship's bridge, and to the stars.

---

"So, lemme get this straight, you wanna re-brand to the Freelance Exploration Force?"

"Yeah Papple, it's the perfect title! We get paid to explore, we'll be living the dream and making the big bucks while doing it!"

"Finchy, your insane."

"I know. Anyways, how long till we reach that signal?"

"It's still quite a while, this ship is slow as shite."

"Yeah, fair enough. Wonder if anyone else has picked up the signal..."

"Ehhhh, who knows, heck, we might get several other ships arriving considering the power of this signal. Guess we better get there first to call dibs for exploration and salvage."

"Yeah, sounds like a plan mates."

The green monitoring screen displayed the image of the crew of Aaron's hive ship all talking amongst each other, before slowly distorting and fading away, as a tall figure in a black suit, with bright green tertiary lighting slowly turned to the person standing beside them.

"They are none the wiser, sir."

"Excellent... Soon, all the greatest engineers in the galaxy shall be lured to this world... And here on this planet of intrigue...

We shall snuff out both them and the threat they pose. Permanently."

Comments

[ArlynntheDragon]

I can't wait to see the Engineers meet Twilight and her friends.

[Cojo5536]

So will we see any of Space Engineer's weird physics on display?

[Stalin with Da Spoon]

11235499
If Clang has anything to say about it.

[Lemon_dude]

Burger

[Green-Venom]

11235503
Pinkie vs Clang? Potentially?