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5f5c2b.jpg
Singing Mountain
5f5c2b
>>1127686
>triple-confirm the targeting solution
>specialized in raider tactics
>rolled 5, 17, 17
Two of three match exactly, but that first one was way off. Probably a loose wire somewhere in the starboard sensor tusk, shaken loose by mix of vibration and thermal expansion during aerobraking. Greedy packet-routing algorithm (missing its original higher-level supervision) stochastically amplifies the intermittent contact, resulting pattern of semi-persistent nanosecond delays creates a 180-degree phase rotation in the VLF active scan while millimeter-wave lines up almost normally, then a later filtering step's edge recognition rounds off the wrong way, converting it into sporadic depth-of-field errors.
Paprika volunteers to run down there, find and reconnect the loose wire, which should solve that problem or at least stabilize it for the time being. Even before she's done, two exact matches should be good enough for targeting.
>opting for a strategy that causes considerable extra debris
>rolled 6, 13
Plan is an initial minimal-duration, max-intensity pulse, targeting the side of the asteroid which faces away from Branu's Kiss. Ejecta from that should mostly either end up far above the drift cluster's overall escape velocity, or be flaked-off surface layers which end up landing back on the asteroid itself. That initial "kick" simultaneously puts the asteroid on a vector closer to where you need it, serves as a sonar pulse which lets you confirm its internal density, and serves as a calibration test for the main gun's control surfaces, minimizing EM field turbulence during the second burn - which will require considerably more ongoing precision.
>>1127669
>Obstacle Running
>Fleet Of Foot
>Flex Skill: Firefighting
>Initiative
>Intellect Edge 3, so first level of Effort is effectively free
>rolled 9, 10, 6
When the time for that second shot rolls around, nothing inside the main gun's control systems is still on fire...
>Trained in Understanding Numenera
>rolled 16
...or damaged in any really serious way by sudden immersion in water...
>Trained in Clock Un-Making
>rolled 19
...nor even out of position by enough to disrupt overall calibration.
Was a bit of a near thing, though. Three uses of Obstacle Running with only Speed Edge 1 means Cricket's speed pool is down to 11/17.
Damage control across a more-than-70-meter-long machinery space would be a LOT easier if you had a team of at least five or six available to focus on it, and extinguishers that spray some kind of nonconductive foam. Could probably throw sixty people at the problem before they'd start getting in each others' way, assuming they all knew what they were doing.
>>1127686
>but at slow velocities
>rolled 20
Spectral analysis from that first shot shows interior as iron, nickel, and chromium in a roughly 15:3:2 ratio. Should have a notably lower melting point than chrome-free meteoric iron, which is good news for this next step: just before closest approach to the asteroid, a series of rapid pulses timed for cavitation drilling, transitioning to a continuous beam with wattage carefully managed to keep the reciprocal stream of white-hot metal within a narrow range of temperatures. A small portion of that spray is scooped up by the nightcraft's cargo hold, while the (now slightly more nickel-rich) remainder gets re-collimated by magnetohydrodynamic fringe effects of the tachyon halo, and - thanks to the fact those temperatures correspond to exhaust velocities almost exactly twice that of the asteroid's current orbital velocity relative to Branu's Kiss, but pointed in the opposite direction - should end up in something very close to a stable retrograde orbit. Even if all that scrap iron does eventually impact the membrane, it'll be coming in at a very shallow angle, scattered into pea-sized spherical pellets if it isn't still liquid, and in either case distributed over a wide area, thereby hopefully minimizing puncture risk.
Nightcraft and nameless asteroid spend about twenty minutes side-by-side, locked together by esoteric forces in dynamic tension. From outside, it probably looks like you're abseiling down a rope of braided lightning.
Approaching the destination, beam cuts off exactly on time, asteroid starts to glide away even before the maneuvering coils "kick," but, of course, a million tons (maybe closer to 950,000 once you're done with it) of metal doesn't just cool back down instantly. As the Nightcraft rotates gracefully around its long axis, a three-fingered hand flipping from palm-up to palm-down, leftover liquid steel burbles out behind it, splashing across the more heavily armored side of the hull, like the dregs from a tectonic titan's teakettle, or ink dripping from a torn wineskin to outline handprints on a cavern wall. However, in this case that silhouette is wider than the average frontier homestead, farm-fields and all, while a surrounding ferrous puddle spreads all the way to this tiny droplet-world's horizon - though geometrically speaking, that horizon isn't particularly far away now that you've landed.
At the spot Branu indicated, just inside the mebrane, you find a small group of humanoids - one of them, the apparent leader, nearly four meters tall - being encircled by...
>rolled 5
>rolled 11
...well, Reiko and Cricket aren't exactly sure what, but they look a little bit like giant eels made of smoke, and definitely move like pack-hunting predators. Smallest humanoid seems to have recently shot one of the smoke eels with a harpoon gun, which is in the process of reloading. Both sides are startled by your arrival, putting the fight momentarily on hold.
Main obstacle to a rescue at this point is the fact that there's still about thirty meters of hard vacuum between the hangar bay entrance and the membrane's surface.
Membrane logically has to be macro-scale permeable somehow, for people armed with sharp sticks to be routinely walking out through it, so it might be possible to trigger that same effect in reverse (and at a grander scale) to close the gap by letting the ship sink at least partway in. What if something in the water starts chewing on the hull, though?
Probably other options too. Branu's Kiss doesn't seem to have proper docking facilities, but there are a lot of relevant things you could potentially build just with materials already on hand.
>>1127793
>book of family history
>rolled 10, 1, 16
Natalina huddles on Paprika's lap during chainpod ride to the sensor access hatch, soon finds hunting for loose wires a welcome distraction. Just a bunch of widgets, in a weird little conical warehouse. Just gotta find the one that was damaged in transit. Learned to use an abacus before she could walk, this ought to be easy. Nobody ever heroically doomed themselves by working as a third-shift inventory clerk.
Speaking of which, one of those dooms that does sometimes happen to a third-shift inventory clerk is getting accidentally Cask of Amontillado'd by somebody coming in first thing in the morning and carelessly piling stuff in front of the only door. Nothing heroic about that!
Loose wire successfully located. It's at the back end of a crevice just slightly too narrow to crawl into, and roughly twice as deep as a human arm is long. Got some specialized tool for that sort of reach, which you forgot to bring along - left it upstairs with the bulk of the expedition supplies. Giggling and sobbing gradually subsides to a level which shouldn't interfere with routine activity, but Nat's still feeling very psychologically brittle - intellect Effort will cost an extra point per level until her confidence in long-term survival and/or meaningful control over her own destiny is somehow restored.
Hatch leading back to the main cargo hold is stuck shut, and feels warm, as if there were a fire raging on the other side. Heh. It's... it's probably fine. Reiko's saying something over the intercom about maneuvers proceeding on schedule, resultant rain of molten metal in the cargo hold. See? All part of the plan. Heh, heheh. It's fine! Everything's gonna be fine. Just gotta... take a few deep breaths, hug Paprika some more, plug this monitor tap into one of the direct feeds and do a bit of idle stargazing, because that's exactly the sort of thing somebody who was trapped in the basement of a burning warehouse definitely wouldn't be able to do.
As the ship performs a barrel roll, direct feed from that section of the sensor array rotates around to face the jungle-ocean of Branu's Kiss. Oddly, with the current display settings, it still resembles stars. Flickering and shifting around a lot more, though. Almost looks like that could be a form of language, or maybe abacus-work.
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