Figuratively Speaking: Iceberg

[Sombs]

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November 25th, 824 - Omicron Chi

"You shouldn't go over there. You'd be absolutely vulnerable." It was Sherry's voice, neutral and lacking any expression. An act, as Ezrael knew. They were in the preparation room, just Sherry and him.

With a constant smirk on his face, Ezrael was putting on the EVA suit. It was obvious he was looking forward to this little trip over there. "If something goes wrong, you'll be the Captain. Doesn't that sound good to you?"

She shook her head, trying to hide a mild smile as she approached him, intending to help him with the gear. "I prefer to be the second in command. You make the stupid decisions and I try to make the best out of it. And if I fail, you'll be blamed." There was a very short moment of him noticing a sort of cheek smile on her face as she moved to the side to fetch the helmet. Standing infront of him again, she stared into his eyes. "I will try my best in that case. But I'll also try my best to keep you safe, Ezrael. So don't try to make it harder than necessary. You have a tendency of risking your life."

"I also have the tendency to survive those risky situations," he told her, booping her nose with the heavy finger of the EVA suit. "Don't worry. Things will be fine. I'll make sure you won't get promoted that easily." It made her smirk, even grin for a moment before she placed the helmet on his head. With a satisfying sound, the EVA suit was sealed. She made a step to the side to get the energy rifle and handed it to him. "What do you expect me to find there, space lions?" The sound of his voice was now a radio transmission.

One can't know. You might need to shoot down some turrets or robots or aliens. Space lions." She made a step back, looking at him in the EVA suit. A HOT GEAR prototype, combining the Apahanta's APM and Thallia's IRG materials. "You'll be protected from the radiation and the alien organisms around for only ten minutes if you enter an unsealed area. So don't waste time out there. Dock the boarding pods, enter the ship, restore life-support and then let the KSRs do the rest. And make sure you have audio and video feed active all the time, no jokes."

"Alright, mother, no jokes." He smirked at her, holding the rifle in the direction of the door. "Pew pew!"

Minutes later, the shield bubble around the Apahanta grew. Not for long, just a few minutes. During those minutes, a boarding pod launched from the Apahanta in the direction of the Titanic, heading to the closest airlocks. With force the airlocks got opened and Ezrael and two heavy KSRs boarded the ship. On the bridge, Sherry stood infront of the Captain's seat while staring at the main screen, which displayed everything Ezrael was able to see with the helmet camera.

"No internal lights active, no emergency lights. Atmosphere is hostile, contaminated by alien organisms and radiation. Signs of internal damage, the internal stabilizers obviously ceased working when the ship got hit by the mines. Artificial gravity offline, we're depending on magnet boots right now. Looks pretty creepy here, I hope you have a good sight over there?"

"We see everything you see. Minimal visual distortion, they'll probably increase once we decrease the shield bubble again. Do us all a favor and keep moving, we don't know when the next radiation burst occurs." While everyone else on the bridge was both fascinated and intimidated by what was displayed on the main screen, Sherry kept her countenance. In mind she just wanted him to return and leave the system as fast as possible, but the crew was reliant on her keeping up the morale, just as Ezrael did.

"The doors here are sealed. I'll move towards the engine room first to see whether the power core is still working. After that the life support systems. If we can get things running again, even only temporarily, that'll give us more time," Ezrael sounded, excitement audible in his voice. The camera showed every single move of him. His breath was audible, as moving in the EVA suit with magnetic boots was exhausting him. "You have no idea how spooky that is..." A moment later, a KSR managed to activate a static light stick, placing it on the floor. It illuminated the room. "Now it's a little bit less spooky."

Slowly and steady, Ezrael and the two robots kept exploring the Titanic. There were many doors that needed to be opened with manual door openers. One of them didn't even work, so Ezrael had to find other ways. One lead him through a ventilation shaft, just wide enough to allow him in the EVA suit to move through. The KSRs secured the areas behind him, placing lights to keep the secured areas lit. At some point he reached the engine room. It was unharmed, and with the instructions of his crew on the Apahanta, he managed to get the emergency core running again. The ship was flooded in decent light, just enough to get rid of inconvenient darkness. Connecting the ship with his PDA, he was able to access some emergency systems and a map of the ship.

Half an hour later, more breaching pods approached the Titanic, transfering more KSRs to the unfortunate carrier. During all this time, Sherry had an eye on the surroundings of the Apahanta. Most of the mines were static, not moving an inch, while others were slightly floating around. What bothered her more however were the Nomads. They were in the distance and she was able to feel their presence, just as anyone else on the ship and Ezrael on the Titanic was. They remained calm. Yet it was unnerving to the crew. Ezrael however gave clear orders regarding the nomads: Do not attack. Do not provoke. Ignore, play dead, no fast movements. He never got to explain why the nomads stopped attacking them, but Sherry was sure he was not infected. Neither him nor anyone else of the crew.

"Captain," Sherry sounded a while later, "they are close to us. Multiple snub-sized nomads. They roam around us now. Numbers increasing, showing no hostility, though."

"Ignore them, they are probably just curious. How's the ship holding up, by the way?" he asked her, wanting to shift the focus of the conversation to the actual problem, the radiation. The camera was showing him typing at a console in the engine room.

"Primary hull integrity decreasing constantly, not dangerous yet. Shields still at 100%, all other systems at operational capacity. We're sort of fine here. Ten nomads are around now, some of them stopped, pointing with their noses at the Bustard." She blinked in surprise as the engines of the Bustard started to glow. "Captain, the engines of the Titanic are online, is that your work?"

"Yes." There was a very noticable connotation of proud satisfaction in his voice. "The engines are only damaged, they work, though. Whatever made the Titanic strand here, it wasn't the lack of engines. Even the manouver thrusters work. I'm pretty sure we can move the Titanic out of this place. I should be able to do that from here. No cruise engines, though, at least not yet. I think we'd need reactive the main power for that. I can do that only from the bridge, but I can't reach the bridge from here, as parts of the ship are soaked with this radioactive alien goo shit. Write that down, that'll be the new scientific term for the stuff here in this system. Radioactive alien goo shit. Short. RAGS." There was some giggling audible on the bridge.

"One wrong move and it'll damage the ship. The Bustard is a bit bigger than the Apahanta, and you're not-" She got interrupted by him.

"I trust that Veronica plots a good route through the minefield for us and then just follow her lead. Don't worry." In mind, she was pouting. He was stubborn and imprudent, yet the idea was not the worst. In the end, she figured he didn't want to waste time on arguments. After all, this Bustard was a unique opportunity.

Sighing, she nodded and hummed in agreement. "Veronica, plot the course, try to use the same one we used to get here. Captain, we'll send the waypoints to your PDA. Keep in mind you're manouvering a ship heavier than the Apahanta and not all navigational systems are back. Inerta might push you against mines. You need to be extremely careful. Fly at minimal speed. The Apahanta will guide you back to Omicron Kappa. There we'll just need to protect you from PRIME, if there are any showing up."

There was laughter sounding via radio. "Aye, Captain."

A while later, thirteen nomads roamed around, giving the impression of them watching the event. The engines of the Titanic started to emit even more light and the manouver thrusters carefully pushed the back of the ship around, very slowly and steady. Every movement seemed to be controlled and guided by an AI, smooth and effective as they were. The ship kept its distance from any mines while pointing more and more in the direction of the Apahanta. Like this, both ships moved out of the mine field, in the direction of the nomad lair, however remaining at the very border of the mine-less bubble surrounding the lair. The shiny nomads were following, some very slowly, some moving around the Apahanta and the Bustard. Almost playfully. It was unnerving and fascinating at the same time to those who were able to watch it.

The continuous breathing of Ezrael was audible on the bridge. As they reached the other minefield entrance, he tried to calm down again, taking slow and deep breaths. Inhaling... exhaling... inhaling... exhaling... "I'm ready, let's go." Without much hesitation, the Apahanta entered the minefield, followed by the Titanic. Again, every single movement was very slow and smooth, pre-calculated, taking care of any obstacles in the way. Halfway through, Sherry noticed something weird.

"Captain?" Yet there was no response. The camera showed him sitting infront of a console in the engine room, helmet still on his head, he was slowly breathing but his hands weren't moving. "Captain!? Ezrael!?"

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