Not with a Bang: Finale

[voidtreckermods]

It's been a strange few days, between trying to complete all of the tasks needed to stabilise the solar stations and keep the shield going, keep the pandas and armadillos away and fix robots whilst smashing other robots. That's not even counting the strange events that kept happening.

They might have heard the news from those who had found themselves on a small adventure of their own that there were potentially dangerous saboteurs on the planet and indeed once they were aware there were more signs, things moved, pandas far more frightened than they should have been, robots back in areas that had been cleared.

But no sign of the saboteurs themselves as the days go on. Until the evening of the twelfth day of Imagination, the sixth day of the mission.

Everyone's SCA alerts them to an exclamation mark, the Western Control Station, where red and blue had initially went to initialise shields. Clicking on the exclamation mark will show the message. Danger: Control Station unstable. Attempt stabilisation. Situation critical.

A few seconds later there is another exclamation mark, this time on a solar station about an hours walk to the south. A herd of Violet Pandas are loose in Solar station #13, clear the station and minimise damage.

And a few moments after that there is a third exclamation mark, right where they are in the camp. Robot activity approaching. Any red team members who check will see many red rots approaching their camp.

Control Station

For those that decide to tackle this one it is clear the moment they arrive that things are not as they should be. A tree has fallen, or been felled and though it seems the station is designed to withstand falling trees it makes getting into it difficult.

Every alarm is blaring, and indeed when they get inisde their own alarms on their SCA start to flash amber. It's dangerous in here!

Something they will quickly have learned anyways. It looks like someone pressed every button, flicked every switch. Every guage is showing too high, every warning light is flashing.

It's going to take some very quick fixing before this place overloads and explodes. Hopefully their work on the stations in the last few days has taught them enough that with some very quick and diligent work they should get the situation under control.

Solar Station #13

To the south in one of the solar stations a very different situation is unfolding. Those that arrive here will find pandas... everywhere. Somehow they have gotten into the station itself and are busy chewing on wires, exploring machines they really shouldn't be exploring. Some are trying to climb the solar tower and others are just lying on the monitors, seemingly enjoying the lights.

Luckily it seems less damage can be done to the solar stations than a control station, but still, there are alarms and flashing lights and far too many pandas. It will be some work to clear them all out.

Base Camp

It doesn't take long for the robots to arrive. There are a lot, some seem very patched together, as if someone had gone around scavenging parts and remaking them. Some are large terraforming machines, others the smaller security drones. Some are even the automatons that were used for maintenance, yet here they were being put to another purpose.

As they approach the permitted of the camp they stop and six human figures step forward. All are armed with large rifle type weapons and a tall woman speaks in a loud, clear voice.

"You are trespassing on our land. You will leave this place or you will die."

She casually waves the robots forward, they attack.

Comments

[fun_thementalist]

Gen brought over as much as he could in one trip, and tried to set it beside Senku carefully. No telling if the spare parts were already broken beyond repair, but he wouldn’t add to their misfortune.

“My darling, I think if I purchase anything next, it should be a magic item that increases our luck,” Gen couldn’t help but quip mildly. “What next?”

[10billionpercent]

Senku snorted lightly at that. "Well, dear, you can try but I don't think you can blame this one on me."

Teasing Gen with his affectations was just leading to Senku using them, which was pretty much what happened to Gen too.

It was entirely possible they spent too much time together. He took one of the spare parts and started swapping it out as quickly as he could.

[fun_thementalist]

Gen would be right beside him, doing his best to hand him tools as he needed them, hold down parts if Senku needed a third hand, plug in wires or tighten screws as Senku indicated. He wasn't a tinkerer and he sure as hell wasn't a genius, but he was smart enough and could follow directions.

Hopefully, hopefully, they'd be able to prevent whatever all the alarms were warning them about in time.

[10billionpercent]

Light teasing aside, it was a bit of a critical moment really, and he was repairing as fast as he could.

Suddenly he pulled out his knife and cut a wire with gusto.

That killed the alarm.

"Finally." Senku grumbled.

[fun_thementalist]

It was a lot easier to think, but Gen couldn't help but wince. "I guess now the only way we can tell if the danger is actually passed, is when my SCA stops complaining."

At least his was muffled a little in the long sleeves of the shirt he insisted on wearing.

"What next?" Gen had to ask.

[10billionpercent]

"I'm working under the assumption that absolutely everything is broken in some way." Senku told him and shook his head.

"This panel's a mess, check that one for me. If the wires are tangled, if you can unhook them and untangle them, I'll come connect them again."

[fun_thementalist]

Gen nodded and went over, then made a slight sound of distress once he got the panel's cover off. Erk.

"Yeah, I'd ... say it's tangled," Gen told him. "At least this much I can do, you've got no idea how many times I've had to help detangle wiring setting up before a show. Sound equipment wire just wants to entangle itself."

He'd try to work as quickly as he could despite the pressure. Sure, absolutely everything was broken, but how soon would that mean that things would go really badly for them?

[10billionpercent]

"Yeah, I expect you're going to be a lot more useful than you want me to think. I appreciate your persona, dear, but it's an emergency." Senku responded as he moved to the next, flipping switches.

He'd go looking for fuses next, maybe they could cut the power and force a reset to stop some of these damned alarms.

[fun_thementalist]

"Sorry, darling. Reflex," Gen told him, because he's already working on detangling everything, he knew it was an emergency.

It's not that he didn't trust Senku, it was just really hard to turn off.

"Some of these I should just be able to plug back in, they seem color coded," Gen told him. "Unless I'm misunderstanding and about to activate a million security robots?"

[10billionpercent]

"It's fine." Senku said, putting the tool in his teeth to fuss with what he was doing.

A burnt out fuse was swapped out, but really, was this going to fix the worst of it? The danger? He wasn't so sure about that.

He'd wait a moment and take the tool back out of his mouth. "Lemme know when you're done and move your hands."

[fun_thementalist]

Gen worked for a moment or two more, and then took a single step back, hands in the air. "There you are. Do your magic, darling."

Despite his words, lighthearted throughout, he sounded tense and worried. Gen was aware of how serious the danger was, heart still pounding. It didn't really matter to him that death was temporary with the train doing ... whatever it did. He still didn't want either of them to die, thank you.

[10billionpercent]

"Magic is more your area, Mentalist." Light teasing aside, he'd rather have the banter. Senku knew if the banter left, things were in disaster mode.

The alarms did stop blaring as he cut power and then he rebooted, waiting to see if they were going to come back on.

Gen was going to have to check his SCA to see if that solved the issues or not.

[fun_thementalist]

The sudden cessation of the alarms' warning had Gen slumping in relief, but he did raise his wrist, pulling out his own device to take a look at it. "Ah. No longer red, but orange, instead. So ... that's a better sign, I think."

He gave Senku a slightly wary look, but smiled anyway, "I don't think this place is about to actively catch on fire, at least!"

[10billionpercent]

"Better but not done." Senku agreed with a nod and started looking for the next danger.

"Slight improvement, I have no desire to be on fire right now." He was prying open a panel that seemed stuck, or at least trying, with a screwdriver.

"I still wish that thing would shut up."

[fun_thementalist]

"Being on fire is not fun, I don't recommend it," Gen agreed with a little of his false cheer back, the situation not feeling as dire. But, perhaps, able to return there at any moment. He went to give Senku a bit of a hand with that stubborn panel, some extra elbow-grease.

"I'm not taking off my SCA, darling. One of us should be wearing it, just in case. Especially if an urgent message comes in from someone," Gen reasoned.

[10billionpercent]

"Yours isn't bothering me, I can hear it but it's not stupidly loud." Senku's complaints were delivered with the same deadpan he was always used to, but he hadn't been kidding. All that noise had been downright overwhelming.

"Let's keep fixing, if nothing else, we'll get it to stop."

[fun_thementalist]

"I'm sure you'll fix - ow!" The panel they were pulling at gave way and smacked him a little in the face. "Not the face! I'm okay. Just."

Gen would help him set the panel aside so they could work. "I don't think I'm a huge fan of jungles, my dear."

[10billionpercent]

"I'll try to keep that in mind if I'm ever planning on taking you somewhere of our own volition." Senku commented, pausing to reach out and touch Gen's chin.

"I don't think that's going to leave a mark."

A brief moment and those calloused fingers left to dig into the panel's inner workings.

[fun_thementalist]

"I'm thinking, tropical paradise, internet, working showers, lots of space, and privacy, Senku-chan," Gen quipped, unable to help himself.

The light, brief touch made Gen blush. Which was very rude of his body, thank you, what kind of Mentalist was he? They had things to do here. They had to focus. He swallowed and tried not to seem flustered. "Well. That's a good thing, of course. Thank you."

Senku routing around inside the panel gave Gen a second to compose himself. "Screwdrivers? You left one just over there."

[10billionpercent]

Senku snickered lightly at his comments. "Tropical paradise. Internet. Showers and privacy. Well, sounds like I'm going to be really busy when we get back."

Gen could make of that what he would.

"Grab that." He said with a nod.

[fun_thementalist]

Gen went to grab it, focusing the best he could despite ...

... “You’re not seriously considering re-inventing the internet?”

He handed him the tools, and without Senku needing to ask, reached to help hold some of the drooping mess of wires out of the way so Senku could better work.

[10billionpercent]

"Why not? I mean, I don't think we could tap into the pages that existed before, considering the satellites are all gone, but we could make a local network, and computers..." He hummed lightly as he worked, thinking about it.

[fun_thementalist]

This was definitely a better conversation than, 'what is the SCA trying to warn us about, is something about to catch on fire,' which was the background noise of Gen's brain. Definitely instead having him think of all the work he'd need to do in the future.

"Sort of like the ... hmm. That thing in the 70s and 80s, between all the universities. Right?" Gen asked.

[10billionpercent]

"Yeah, something like that." Senku agreed with a nod. "Just have to make new internet pages." He commented.

"And I mean everyone would have to contribute or the internet will just be science."

[fun_thementalist]

"Oh, I think I've got a few ideas of things to contribute as websites," Gen said in an all-too innocent tone of voice. He helped hold more drooping wires out of Senku's way. "You won't need to worry about that, my darling."