Tony Stark (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
in_extremis) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
revivalproject2024-02-15 02:10 pm
in_extremis) wrote in revivalproject2024-02-15 02:10 pm
Interstice
WHO: Tony, Tommy, Reeve, Shaw, Cayde
WHERE: Agrii Ship Ground Zero
WHAT: Fixing some stuff!
WHEN: Shortly after the explosion.
WARNINGS: We'll see what comes up.
NOTES: Hit me up here if you want to plot some event stuff, or just tag in and surprise me.
a. the precipice [for tommy]
An explosion out the side of a ship in the vacuum of space should have been worse. It was as though everything necessary was in place to manage this crisis, both the execution and the recovery, leaving Tony very focused and calm in the chaos of the crime scene. He didn't hesitate when Ga Re's message came, and had been rapidly ushered through the halls to the engineering room, where he simultaneously assessed the space and who was in it, and quickly scanned the panicking Agrii still present as he passed to act as triage, getting them moving if they seemed capable and shouting for help if they were not. He was already set on a path that he wasn't going to be diverted from, heading straight for that smouldering hole and the ten thousand possible worse outcomes that had to be managed quickly if they were going to be avoided. He only slowed long enough to assess how far down he was about to fall as he knelt over the melted metal, not even waiting to test for residual heat as he gripped that sharp ledge to drop down.
He landed heavily, and from the rapid transition from the noisy cabin above into the eerily empty space below, the echoing rattle of his toolbelt suddenly felt dangerously loud. This wasn't a cloistered cooling system; this was an open space, navigable. It was lit by the forcefield to his side, open, dark space just beyond the cold light, throwing shadows across the barren cabin. The air didn't feel close and closed off, nor was there bitter smoke from the explosion, all gone with the strange, brief flash of the burst itself. The result was what felt like a rapid evacuation instead of a longstanding abandonment, like he was the last one left waiting for the disaster to strike, like the explosion had just been the warning siren.
"Something wanted out," he muttered to himself, producing a flashlight from his belt to scan the floor for evidence of approach to explain the upward twist of the metal above him. The explosion had started down here, where he stood, so it had to have come from somewhere. Taking a few cautious steps further to try to find that source, he continued, "Reinforce the shell, find the source of that shield, confirm timeframe, can't be long, maybe divert power to buy more time..." There was never going to be enough time. He scanned the light up, across the walls, worrying his lip anxiously at the dark yawn of open hallways; too much to search, too much that they didn't know.
b. the fall [for reeve]
It had been quiet for some time now. The regular cycles aboard the ship were already imprecise, mercurial, and in the wake of the explosion they shifted in reaction, until there simply couldn't be any further reaction, and the batteries were drained. Tension gave way to exhaustion. Only a few bodies remained in the strange engineering room, still thrumming with anxiety, where it was redirected into focus rather than dispersed in rest. Tony hadn't realized he had even stopped talking himself through his process, and had been leaned back on one hand and staring into an open panel, focus distant and mostly empty cup held against his chest gone cold long ago. The whole place was cold, it was hard to keep warm at all. Despite this, his shoes had been abandoned early in the process, scattered among the tools that he had spilled across the floor throughout his work with just as little care, though that never seemed to slow him down when he was in need of one and he easily could pinpoint the exact screwdriver he needed, or had to hand to Reeve when his brow furrowed and he started to glance around. It had been a while since Reeve had said anything either, Tony realized abruptly, making him blink out of his trance to take a breath and wet his lips, glancing around for his engineer. "I'm going back to the computer," he announced, though it took him some effort to untangle from his seat on the floor, muscles gone stiff from his crossed legs and the cold seeping up through the metal. He took the time with a hiss, rubbing some life back into his thigh and leaving him continuing through grit teeth, "Maybe it's not even structural, it's a programming problem, partitioned off in that mess of security measures." He hadn't gained full control of the AI that seemed to be managing the ship's systems yet, and this engine was not getting fixed by staring at it.
c. the probe [for shaw]
Someone on this ship must have seen something. There had been so many bodies so close to the explosion when Tony had first arrived. The problem was, if any of them were willing to talk to him, managing the language barrier on top of their anxiety and pain was enough of a challenge that Tony was being thrown out of the medical bay before he had made much progress. A ship didn't just explode, especially not from an area where everyone he did manage to speak to had claimed there was no way to access. If he didn't figure out why it had happened, that why was going to find him first. One thing he was sure about was that a little lightshow and some scared Agrii wasn't a finished project.
Head down in focused frustration, he went stalking back toward Engineering and the damage done to properly assess what exactly had been accomplished. He had been looking for crises at first, likely points of catastrophic failure in need of immediate correction, and hadn't been categorizing any of it as intentional targets in the blast. He moved easily through a high tension scene even as he got closer and more people were filling the hall, taller than most of the non-Agrii and easy to spot, and accompanied by the percussive clatter of his toolbelt as he walked. It was rare that he had to lay a hand on someone's back, a light brush of his fingertips to get her attention, and mutter, "Excuse me," to try to squeeze through where several Agrii crowded around a broken computer and bottlenecked the flow. He glanced around at them irritably, sure they had better places to be than collectively failing to fix this one machine.
d. the breach [for cayde]
Most of the bodies who cared to remain on this ruptured ship were either focused, committed to the crisis area or medical bay, or sequestered, gathered in communal areas to minimize the distribution of power and keep them all breathing. Most of the rest of the ship was not cut off, necessarily, just dark and cold and empty. Ideal for the bodies remaining whose any sensory input was a stab of pain.
Tony found out rapidly that the doors to any of the private quarters were locked as he went mincing gingerly by, trying several as he passed and not slowing to test just how securely locked they were, or how easy they might have been to force. Even thinking about trying to wire into one of them made his vision fog into dark clouds, leaving him walking blind with a hand on the wall and eyes closed against the ring of pain until he could feel the next door. It wasn't like he really needed to get into any of them anyway. He just needed somewhere quiet and dark to lay down for just a second, to let the nausea subside and vision clear enough to go back to work trying to get through that forcefield. He would have stayed if everyone's voices weren't so loud and the tools would stop falling from his hands to ring and spark violently. He slid down the wall, then over onto his side, where he could press his cheek into the mercifully cool floor, unable to squeeze his eyes closed tight enough to block out the strange black explosions, ruptures and oil spills behind his eyelids that felt like fire in his skull.
He didn't realize he had fallen asleep, it hardly felt like it, until he felt something awfully wet and spongy on his face. It came with a sound, moist and sucking, right against his cheek. It wouldn't be there, it could go away with the pain still drilling into his temples, if he could just slip back into the cool darkness, except that he was already shivering in the damp residue of his own sweat, and that squelching was suddenly inside his ear. He flinched and flailed a hand up to swat it away, nowhere to recoil with the wall behind him, so keeping his eyes securely closed like this might be a safe retreat. His knuckles connected with something soft, silky on his skin and yielding up until they found a sharp edge, then the snuffling was suddenly a yelp and he could hear a heavy body scrabbling away, nails clattering on the floor.
He was up, but not nearly fast enough, eyes wide in guilty panic before they were squinting closed again against the flare of pain. He got as far as pushing himself up on one hand to try to see what had just happened and what he had just struck. By then, the animal had bolted, and he only caught a glimpse of motion darting around a corner, listening to the click of its nails echo down the empty hall.
WHERE: Agrii Ship Ground Zero
WHAT: Fixing some stuff!
WHEN: Shortly after the explosion.
WARNINGS: We'll see what comes up.
NOTES: Hit me up here if you want to plot some event stuff, or just tag in and surprise me.
a. the precipice [for tommy]
An explosion out the side of a ship in the vacuum of space should have been worse. It was as though everything necessary was in place to manage this crisis, both the execution and the recovery, leaving Tony very focused and calm in the chaos of the crime scene. He didn't hesitate when Ga Re's message came, and had been rapidly ushered through the halls to the engineering room, where he simultaneously assessed the space and who was in it, and quickly scanned the panicking Agrii still present as he passed to act as triage, getting them moving if they seemed capable and shouting for help if they were not. He was already set on a path that he wasn't going to be diverted from, heading straight for that smouldering hole and the ten thousand possible worse outcomes that had to be managed quickly if they were going to be avoided. He only slowed long enough to assess how far down he was about to fall as he knelt over the melted metal, not even waiting to test for residual heat as he gripped that sharp ledge to drop down.
He landed heavily, and from the rapid transition from the noisy cabin above into the eerily empty space below, the echoing rattle of his toolbelt suddenly felt dangerously loud. This wasn't a cloistered cooling system; this was an open space, navigable. It was lit by the forcefield to his side, open, dark space just beyond the cold light, throwing shadows across the barren cabin. The air didn't feel close and closed off, nor was there bitter smoke from the explosion, all gone with the strange, brief flash of the burst itself. The result was what felt like a rapid evacuation instead of a longstanding abandonment, like he was the last one left waiting for the disaster to strike, like the explosion had just been the warning siren.
"Something wanted out," he muttered to himself, producing a flashlight from his belt to scan the floor for evidence of approach to explain the upward twist of the metal above him. The explosion had started down here, where he stood, so it had to have come from somewhere. Taking a few cautious steps further to try to find that source, he continued, "Reinforce the shell, find the source of that shield, confirm timeframe, can't be long, maybe divert power to buy more time..." There was never going to be enough time. He scanned the light up, across the walls, worrying his lip anxiously at the dark yawn of open hallways; too much to search, too much that they didn't know.
b. the fall [for reeve]
It had been quiet for some time now. The regular cycles aboard the ship were already imprecise, mercurial, and in the wake of the explosion they shifted in reaction, until there simply couldn't be any further reaction, and the batteries were drained. Tension gave way to exhaustion. Only a few bodies remained in the strange engineering room, still thrumming with anxiety, where it was redirected into focus rather than dispersed in rest. Tony hadn't realized he had even stopped talking himself through his process, and had been leaned back on one hand and staring into an open panel, focus distant and mostly empty cup held against his chest gone cold long ago. The whole place was cold, it was hard to keep warm at all. Despite this, his shoes had been abandoned early in the process, scattered among the tools that he had spilled across the floor throughout his work with just as little care, though that never seemed to slow him down when he was in need of one and he easily could pinpoint the exact screwdriver he needed, or had to hand to Reeve when his brow furrowed and he started to glance around. It had been a while since Reeve had said anything either, Tony realized abruptly, making him blink out of his trance to take a breath and wet his lips, glancing around for his engineer. "I'm going back to the computer," he announced, though it took him some effort to untangle from his seat on the floor, muscles gone stiff from his crossed legs and the cold seeping up through the metal. He took the time with a hiss, rubbing some life back into his thigh and leaving him continuing through grit teeth, "Maybe it's not even structural, it's a programming problem, partitioned off in that mess of security measures." He hadn't gained full control of the AI that seemed to be managing the ship's systems yet, and this engine was not getting fixed by staring at it.
c. the probe [for shaw]
Someone on this ship must have seen something. There had been so many bodies so close to the explosion when Tony had first arrived. The problem was, if any of them were willing to talk to him, managing the language barrier on top of their anxiety and pain was enough of a challenge that Tony was being thrown out of the medical bay before he had made much progress. A ship didn't just explode, especially not from an area where everyone he did manage to speak to had claimed there was no way to access. If he didn't figure out why it had happened, that why was going to find him first. One thing he was sure about was that a little lightshow and some scared Agrii wasn't a finished project.
Head down in focused frustration, he went stalking back toward Engineering and the damage done to properly assess what exactly had been accomplished. He had been looking for crises at first, likely points of catastrophic failure in need of immediate correction, and hadn't been categorizing any of it as intentional targets in the blast. He moved easily through a high tension scene even as he got closer and more people were filling the hall, taller than most of the non-Agrii and easy to spot, and accompanied by the percussive clatter of his toolbelt as he walked. It was rare that he had to lay a hand on someone's back, a light brush of his fingertips to get her attention, and mutter, "Excuse me," to try to squeeze through where several Agrii crowded around a broken computer and bottlenecked the flow. He glanced around at them irritably, sure they had better places to be than collectively failing to fix this one machine.
d. the breach [for cayde]
Most of the bodies who cared to remain on this ruptured ship were either focused, committed to the crisis area or medical bay, or sequestered, gathered in communal areas to minimize the distribution of power and keep them all breathing. Most of the rest of the ship was not cut off, necessarily, just dark and cold and empty. Ideal for the bodies remaining whose any sensory input was a stab of pain.
Tony found out rapidly that the doors to any of the private quarters were locked as he went mincing gingerly by, trying several as he passed and not slowing to test just how securely locked they were, or how easy they might have been to force. Even thinking about trying to wire into one of them made his vision fog into dark clouds, leaving him walking blind with a hand on the wall and eyes closed against the ring of pain until he could feel the next door. It wasn't like he really needed to get into any of them anyway. He just needed somewhere quiet and dark to lay down for just a second, to let the nausea subside and vision clear enough to go back to work trying to get through that forcefield. He would have stayed if everyone's voices weren't so loud and the tools would stop falling from his hands to ring and spark violently. He slid down the wall, then over onto his side, where he could press his cheek into the mercifully cool floor, unable to squeeze his eyes closed tight enough to block out the strange black explosions, ruptures and oil spills behind his eyelids that felt like fire in his skull.
He didn't realize he had fallen asleep, it hardly felt like it, until he felt something awfully wet and spongy on his face. It came with a sound, moist and sucking, right against his cheek. It wouldn't be there, it could go away with the pain still drilling into his temples, if he could just slip back into the cool darkness, except that he was already shivering in the damp residue of his own sweat, and that squelching was suddenly inside his ear. He flinched and flailed a hand up to swat it away, nowhere to recoil with the wall behind him, so keeping his eyes securely closed like this might be a safe retreat. His knuckles connected with something soft, silky on his skin and yielding up until they found a sharp edge, then the snuffling was suddenly a yelp and he could hear a heavy body scrabbling away, nails clattering on the floor.
He was up, but not nearly fast enough, eyes wide in guilty panic before they were squinting closed again against the flare of pain. He got as far as pushing himself up on one hand to try to see what had just happened and what he had just struck. By then, the animal had bolted, and he only caught a glimpse of motion darting around a corner, listening to the click of its nails echo down the empty hall.
no subject
As Sameen threw out that proposition, Donnie tried not to look like a kicked puppy for not being able to do much more than stare at singed and slagged sytems. There were worse people to have to work with, and he rather liked the two he was stuck with right then.
"Insufficient evidence," he suggested, frowning. "The Agrii don't need stupid data points to handle multiple jobs, it's only us. But given how things are set up at the bridge and down here, I don't know that any of them are aware as to the depths of any of the systems they don't have access to, and if they did, it seems pretty pointless to be blowing a hole in their own ship. Have we figured a motive? If it's just sabotage, there's a pretty blatant culprit, judging from your past experiences," he noted, glancing at Tony then.
no subject
She jerks her chin at Tony here.
"-- wanted me to present him with a fully-formed theory too, but seriously, guys, I'm still at the poke-around stage. I want to keep poking around to see if there's a larger issue we need to look into. So if Donnie's saying he needs someone with comms to look at the coding and navigate the subroutines or whatever, let's start there. Get ourselves some sufficient evidence before we start theorizing about motives and culprits."