FTL: Harmony Edition IC

Belgond honestly didn't know what had happened. One moment he was looking away from the skies in order to answer Copperette's question, the next a freaking corvette-class ship is flying by, smacking his people out of the air and giving Skyblitz a lift out of there. Thankfully Golden and Gristle were on point there because he had completely dropped the ball on that one because he let himself get distracted to assure a small filly.

The ship might have been gone, but that didn't mean that Belgond wasn't going to go around and try to pick up the pieces! He needed to make sure that his team was alright after all. It didn't really take all the long to find them all and a quick look over was enough to show that they were more or less alright, if a little shaken...

Taking a moment to look around again, this time ignoring Copperette in order to avoid distractions, Belgond tried to find a path through the crowd towards where they needed to bloody go.

Dice Rolls:

Belgond Copperette
Belgond, by virtue of his intimidating appearance, can part the crowd somewhat, and can quickly identify a path to the docks with a few simple calculations. The pegasi who recovered from the dazing ship attack volunteer some more information that helps Belgond formulate an optimal route, through an alley that circumvents the densest crowds to a staff entrance that looks fairly easy to break into, though a little out of the way. The pegasi, Golden and Gristle follow Belgond as he appears to know what he's doing. Eventually his path leads them to a chain-link fence gate that has just pitiful security. With a quick snip, the lock falls off, and the group has the Onset Dawn clear in their sights.

Gristle nods, "There's a hospital ship if I've ever seen one. So... what, do we walk up and go 'Bring us along if you want to live?'"

It didn't take long to find the staff entrance that the pegasi had told him about and even less time to cut away the chain that was holding the gate shut. Seeing the ship that was quite possibly going to be their salvation, Belgond turned to look at Golden Gears as he beckoned her to lead the way. "If we are lucky, they are going to be friends of yours." Still, the wise stallion would be ready to fight and protect Golden if those on the ship they were about to board were of less honest intent...

All he could really hope for was that nothing vital would be damaged if it came down to a fight for control of the ship.

Emblem, carrying with him a sense of responsibility as well as danger-awareness, wasn't hestitant to follow the drake's instructions. The sooner they were off the planet, the better. He wished they would get a chance to calmly assess the situation once they hit the FTL... his hopes for quick realization of it were dashed though, with the announcement concerning the broken hyperdrive. Just what they needed. The unicorn wondered who in their right mind leaves an emergency ship with a damaged core function on standy. He answered Clean Cut's question quickly, just the way he wished others things went here as well:

"My bad, Missive Emblem it is. I don't object, it seems like a necessity. I hope picking them up means flying for them?"

Seva Borealis Emblem Degree Belgond Copperette

"Actually, they may be headed towards us as we speak." The pegasi look among each other. "They've got a kid with 'em, they're a little freaked, y'know how it goes. They ain't hostile, though, I promise. Even when we, uh, tried to mug 'em, they were all about letting us go in peace."

Clean Cut's brow furrowed. "And you didn't think to tell us that? Ugh... well, if it's Gears... she'll probably associate herself with equally talented individuals..."

His musings are interrupted by the arrival of a group of individuals, headed by a zebra tech priest, an earth pony mare with mechanical prosthetics, a young unicorn, and a withered diamond dog.

"...Clean Cut? Oh thank the Princess it's you! Come on, we need to leave, before things get any worse!" Golden Gears lets out a sigh of relief before snapping back to action. "How many ponies do you have on board right now?"

"Uh... fourteen, I think? Ten kids, Seva - an ACHE, Borealis, Missive Emblem, Third Degree Burn, and myself." Clean Cut points to each individual as he counts. "How many have you brought?"

"Ten - four of us, and six ponies we brought along, they should make for decent crew members." Gears furrows her brow. "That makes twenty four. This ship has a capacity of thirty... that's pushing it a little, isn't it?"

"...We still need to pick up the hospital refugees as well..." Clean Cut mumbles, and Golden Gears winces at the thought of having to delay their departure any longer.

"Ya realize we can't take off if overburdened?" Gristle cuts in, pointing at Degree. "I don't care how ace that there drake is, an overburdened ship is a suicidal one."

Clean Cut falls silent, looking torn, but glancing at the other ponies for input.

Copperette shrank down beneath Granny, staring wide-eyed and warily at the bizarre creatures they had apparently joined with. "Uhm..." she mumbled, trying to work up the nerve to speak. "Please... My hide hurts..." she moaned, gesturing to the burns across her back.

Ordinarily, Seva would have naturally gravitated towards saving as many lives as possible. However, it had become increasingly apparent that such a course of action would not always be possible – not everyone could live. It was particularly upsetting to the ACHE because they were not comfortable with the idea of weighing the worth of the lives of other races. After all, Seva came from a hive that recognized the merit of individual talents and interests, but ultimately believed selflessness unto the whole was what mattered the most. However, there was also a marked awareness in how ponies and other races approached this differently. Selflessness could exist yes, but the value of the individual was also important. The loss of an ACHE was unfortunate, but the death of a pony was a tragedy, like a loss of a large portion of a hive, if not a whole hive in itself.

Hearing the young unicorn asking for assistance was a welcome distraction by comparison, it was something Seva's systems knew they could process. However, it didn't stop one of Seva's runtimes from going into triage mode and trying to calculate how many more passengers they could afford to fit without risking the ship's ability to take off...

---

Knowledge Roll [One of Seva's runtimes calculates optimum survival rate vs the number of patients they can afford to take on]: 1D20+9 => 15

---

Seva stepped towards the unicorn and the diamond dog she was hiding under, their horn lighting up with a sheen of an amber-colored energy that matched their eyes as they prepared to scan the filly.

""We can provide medical assistance. Are you experiencing any other pains, or symptoms?"" they asked in their gender-mixed, two-toned voice, continuing to speak with unflappable calm.

---

Heal Roll [Seva attempts to assist Copperette]: 1D20+17 => 30

Copperette cringed under the gaze of the strange, metallic pony. "Uhm... N-n-no..." she stammered, staring up fearfully into the alien eyes. "Wha... What are you!?" she whispered, feeling frightened and confused at the whole affair, the calm tone doing little to ease her.

The fear coming off the filly was a bitter taste to Seva's emotional senses, but they avoided cringing as their systems attempted to compensate for the input. The specific reaction made Seva wonder where this filly came from. Was she from one of the more distant, or disconnected systems? Seva took a step back and spoke again, trying to give the unicorn some comfort with space.

""We are an ACHE, an Anti-Changeling Heuristic Entity,''" Seva stated before pointing at themselves, ""Our serial designation is ANC-47777, but you can call us Seva.""

Copperette's ears pricked at the word 'changeling'. She had not been present for the Canterlot Invasion, but remembered it nonetheless. Changelings had swarmed across the city doing nefarious, despicable things to the ponies that lived there. Changelings were bad ponies.

She then noticed the 'Anti' part. Anti-Changeling. So... Not a changeling? The opposite, in fact?

It didn't quite make sense to her - but it was enough to convince her that the pony - the ACHE - wasn't about to devour her. "A-alright," she said, crawling out from Granny's shadow. "Please help me... It hurts..."

"I'm good at flying, but I don't work miracles." Degree eyes the additional passengers warily. He hadn't expected this many individuals needed saving, and more children complicated things. And who are they going to pick up? Sick people? Really? "I'll applaud you trying to save lives or whatever, but the reality of the situation is that we're all screwed if we take too many on board. I'd say what we have is pushing it as is, and leave it there. If you wanna risk your own lives and everyone else's in the process, go for it."

"Oh, and uh... Stripes and Robo-Arms, you mind popping round back and fixing up the hyperspace drive? It might've gotten jostled in the explosions or something, a few bits may have cracked and something's jarred loose. Can't fly this ship, over capacity or no, if the FTL drive is broke."

With the filly leaving the company of the diamond dog, Seva felt certainty in approaching her again, stepping forward steadily to avoid potentially spooking her again with sudden movements. Stepping to the unicorn's side, Seva looked over the burns, identifying the necessary areas to treat. This close, it was impossible not to feel some residual suffering from her pain, but Seva bared with it. While it did not sit well with them, it was something the ACHE had become used to by necesity – it was an occupational hazard, being in the medical field.

""Applying local anesthetic. There may be a small pain because of the effected tissue, but it should pass soon,"" they stated quietly in an attempt at some bedside manner, bringing a hoof up to the unicorn's a back.

Gently placing it against her hide, there was a soft hiss and a pricking sensation that came where there was contact. The ACHE then slightly raised their hoof off, and it began to change, emitting a yellow, glowing ring of magic that appeared to work in tandem with their horn.

""Beginning dermal regeneration.""

As the hoof passed slowly, methodically, over the burned tissue, the magic mixed in with the hide, subtly molding it back into a healthier look while allowing the portions damaged beyond repair to peel away and shed off.

There was still the matter in the air though, what to do with bringing on more passengers. The dragon had a good point – they could not afford to bring on too many more for risk of bringing them all down. However, just because the ship couldn't hold a full crew compliment didn't mean they should not bring anyone else on board.

""Concerning the matter of bringing on more passengers, our risk assessment analysis currently projects that the ship can likely take on three more passengers without significantly lowering the current crew's survival rate,"" Seva stated, slightly elevating their volume to indicate they were addressing the others there.

As they finished their statement, Seva set their hoof back down on the ground. After another look over the now healed unicorn's back, the ACHE looked back at the unicorn's face.

""The treatment is complete. How do you feel?"" they said, speaking more softly again.

"How many do you estimate we're yet to evacuate from the hospital, mr. Clean Cut? By what number we'd be exceeding the limit?"

The merchant decided to actively partake in the conversation. Time was of essence. He wasn't pleased to see the additional crew members arriving from all over, but he made an effort not to show it. He wouldn't need to go through this mess, had his crew actually listened to the order given. However, he was not as proud as to not admit that back home, he could be struggling the same way as the others did from the very beginning. He deemed there was little need for more than one mechanic - and those pegasi didn't seem to be of much use. Moreover, they possesed something the others did not... Nonetheless, the matter had to be taken care of fair and square, were it to be accepted by the whole. Emblem was well aware of that fact and deemed it for the best to try to both reason with the ones present as well as ascertain the situation from a different angle.

"Does your calculation take into account how the children present less mass to transport?" - Emblem addressed the ACHE, having listened in to her data relay. Afterwards he turned to the other unicorn again - "We are considering sheer weight, not the actual number of ponies present, am i right? Surely, the young ones can pass off as two thirds of their number at worst, correct?"

""Affirmative, the children's reduced mass has been factored in our calculation,"" Seva said as they looked directly at the stallion, ""Unfortunately, due to limitations of the ship's life support capabilities, available living space, concerns with biomass in hyperspace --"" Seva suddenly realized they were likely about to go overlong when the situation likely needed some brevity. They continued without skipping a beat, ""-- and other factors, even with the reduced load, it is still not practical to bring on more than three additional individuals.""

Seva then turned their attention back onto the filly, still awaiting a response.

Beyond the initial prick, Copperette found the process relatively painless. She watched in fascination as her skin knitted back together, the painful burns vanishing under Seva's glowing hoof. It was, initially, unnerving, but soon she found herself trying to guess how it was working...

Arcana:

GreyVestibule wrote:""The treatment is complete. How do you feel?"" they said, speaking more softly again.

Copperette looked up at Seva, still unnerved by the bizarre face...

... But, she did feel better. And calm. "I... Thank you," she said, quietly and sincerely.

Seva Borealis Emblem Degree Belgond Copperette
Clean Cut grimaces in response to the unicorn's questions. "Too many. Dangit... only three spots. We'll need to figure something out about that... Some kind of priority... or, we can... Princess forgive, just hope they get aboard the evacuation ships and to safety. We're pushing it as is, after all..."

Meanwhile, Golden Gears nods at the drake's prompting, beckoning for Belgond's assistance. "I'm not exactly a professional ship mechanic, but I can definitely try. I'll bet that you'll probably be of more help, Belgond, you've got a more varied understanding of technology than I do. But... um, we should probably start working on the hyperspace engine. We want to get offworld ASAP, after all." After a moment's pause, she turns and leaves for the engine room, gesturing for Belgond's assistance.

Copperette, after a short period of concentration and a careful magical analysis, determines that the ACHE essentially facilitates accelerated healing with their magic. The horn provides most of the energy output while the hoof pinpoints how and where to precisely apply the magic. The magic being applied gives cells extra energy to grow and multiply to replace damaged tissue, encouraging either the breakdown of smaller damaged chunks or the peeling off of larger surface pieces.

Copperette considered what she had seen as conversation steered away from her. She well understood how magical energy was emitted by the horn - ordinarily, a unicorn used intense concentration to focus it into a spell. In contrast, the ACHE had, apparently, ran her (His?) magic through the hoof... Which seemed to focus the spell in much the same manner. It was not unlike the antenna on a radio, she realized, designed to pick up a magical signature and focus it into the radio. It strengthened the spell while also permitting her (Him?) to carry on a conversation while she (He? She, Copperette decided) worked.

This warranted further study... Multitasking with spells was a difficult and extraordinarily valuable ability, not to mention the additional strength, and if all she needed was a focusing apparatus...

AleneShazam wrote:Meanwhile, Golden Gears nods at the drake's prompting, beckoning for Belgond's assistance. "I'm not exactly a professional ship mechanic, but I can definitely try. I'll bet that you'll probably be of more help, Belgond, you've got a more varied understanding of technology than I do. But... um, we should probably start working on the hyperspace engine. We want to get offworld ASAP, after all." After a moment's pause, she turns and leaves for the engine room, gesturing for Belgond's assistance.

Copperette's reverie broke, snapping her head around as Belgond and Golden Gears vanished into the ship's depths. "Wait for me!" she cried, scrambling after them. "I want to help!"

Nodding his head in agreement as Belgond left the issue of who else to bring along with them up to the head of the hospital staff and those that had already gathered around him as he followed Golden towards the ship's engines and was in turn followed by Copperette. Before he left through, he turned and offered if "If you wish, we can have a look at life support and see if we can optimise it a bit to see if we can be a little more comfortable... But engine first." Nothing more really needed to be said after that. There was a job ahead of them after all. (Sorry for the quality of this post; writing it on a mobile. Just to get it out of the was in advance I'll roll to examine the engines now. Perception- Engine Issues: 17+9=26)

Belgond Copperette
Try as she may, Copperette is still rather overwhelmed by the sights and sounds of the supposed future. When she lays eyes on the engine, she does manage to see what she traditionally would envision as some sort of engine - albeit with a myriad of pipes, etched plates and crystals of various descriptions mounted onto its sides and sprawled along the walls of the engine room. She recognizes some of its constituent components - crystals and etched plating have been used in artificing even back when she was home, so those she could recognize well enough. She also recognizes when a magical circuit is broken, which is obviously the case with a matrix of crystals and etchings near the engine that are cracked and charred.

However, when it comes to specific function Copperette is at a loss, and when she realizes this is the case, Golden Gears points out the general clusters of hardware and their functions - the regular flight engine, regulators keeping the ship from being damaged during hyperspace jumps, power supply, and the hyperspace drive which allows for FTL jumps. The flight engine and hyperdrive seem fine on the whole, but many of the important regulators are offline.

Belgond determines that the damage to the hyperdrive seems to be fairly significant, but contained to that area. With a little input from Golden Gears, they piece together that the containment crystals keeping regular matter from mixing with hyperspace matter during jumps have been damaged from overheating and energy surges, an issue many older model ships are prone to.

There are a couple of spares, but it will still take some work re-enchanting the crystals with the correct effects as well as reinstalling the crystals into the drive system. It's a cut above the normal maintenance work, but thankfully, the ponies present aren't regular maintenance workers. Belgond is reasonably sure that the damage can be reversed fairly quickly with all three of them working.

Copperette looked it over with a keen eye, listening carefully to Golden Gears' explanation. Her eye fell on a series of crystals, cracked and charred from some catastrophe. That wouldn't do - without the crystals, the regulator circuit they were attached couldn't... Well, regulate properly. Nearby was an etched plate, that - judging by the symbols she could recognize - was meant to stabilize a containment spell of some kind. She wasn't sure what was being contained, but certainly it was important. Finally, there was a charred black spot breaking apart a row of wires that she deemed unacceptable.

Most artificers, in her day, knew at least one or two mending spells - it was at least convenient, at most a lifesaver, to be able to fix some small piece instead of replacing it. Her spell worked just fine here - wires rejoined together, the etched plate shone, the etchings redrawn in their original design, the crystals regrew to their normal shape and size...

Enchanting (3/3 per day):

Copperette nodded, horn still glowing with energy, satisfied the physical damage was repaired. Now to restore the enchantments. She didn't need to know what they accomplished. She didn't even, necessarily, need to know how they worked. She just needed to know what they were supposed to be - that was easy enough to determine - and replicate them...

Arcana:

As he looked over and inspected the full extent of the damage that had been done to the engines due to poor maintenance and poor heating, Belgond turned to look at Coppetette and Golden sighed a little. "Normally I would love the chance to teach someone about the joys of machines, but we are racing against a time limit and we can't see how much time is left. Maybe once we have some breathing room we can give you a proper tour, but right no-" Belgond cut himself off as Copperette got started on trying to make some repairs and didn't seem to be doing all that bad of a job about it. Still, he hopped in so that they could get this done as quickly and professionally as possible!

(Mech- Fixing the engines with Golden and Copperette: 14+20=34)

Emblem growled in acknowledgement of the ACHE's response, then turned towards Clean Cut and scrutinized him as he went on. Although he was in a rush to leave, he could not stand seeing a doctor waver so quickly in his commitment. Was that how much a healer's sanctified duty meant for this one in the time of need? He interjected, cutting off the doctor's rambling with a harsh voice and countenance:

"Knock it off! You're about to say something you're going to regret. Those from the hospital can't simply reach the starport on their own. You're a goddamn medic and you've come here for a reason, so don't you dare forget it! Even if we won't carry all there are off the planet with this ship, we should at least ferry them to the evacuation point... and even if that hospital of yours is now a pile of rubble and smelling carcass, if there are three ponies there, who could be saved if we give them a chance, then it is worth doing, don't you think?"

Emblem paused, giving Clean Cut a moment to ascertain his priorities. Hell if he expected to be playing the moralizing part, but that unicorn's actions sure ticked him off... he considered briefly for a moment just where did those emotions come from - the realization dawned on him swiftly and hit him hard like a rock. He'd been left to his own forces by his own crew just now... yeah, hell if he was going to let the same scenario repeat before his eyes if he could help it. The unicorn merchant understood that it was something he had to argue for right now, were he not to feel like scum that's left him.

"The time needed to get people across shouldn't take us too much time, but it should save up a lot of theirs - if they're to evacuate by other means."

He pondered briefly whether he hadn't heard of any nearby places round the city which could potentially have any ships capable of FTL travel... he did not expect needing such an information when coming here though, hence his internal search proved rather fruitless:

Streetwise check: 18 + d20 (5) = 23

Seva Borealis Emblem Degree
Clean Cut scowls at Emblem. "That is neither a desired outcome nor a wanted solution of any kind. It is a grim possibility, nothing more. I blabber when I'm stressed, and I'll assure you I am very stressed right now. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm inclined to go look over the patients list, maybe we can figure out who we can potentially bring along." With a flustered huff, Clean Cut marches off to the med bay, his absentminded expression indicating his implants kicking in.

Even with his extensive knowledge of trading ports and settlements, Emblem finds himself unable to recall anything useful for current consideration. Daedalus-2 as a colony is quite new, and there aren't any settlements nearby of nearly the same scale. As such, the potential availability of other spaceships that could reliably be found. There is a space station one FTL jump away, but with the ship's condition, it's unlikely that even with the jump shortening travel time, the ship will make it in time for more than one trip. There are private establishments that may have FTL-capable ships, but those are owned by mega-corporations that aren't known for generosity.

Belgond Copperette
The combined efforts of the three easily repair the broken regulators, Copperette's aptitude at reparations and enchanting being particularly prominent, whereas Golden and Belgond weave the circuits and drive back together with practiced ease. Golden Gears breathes a sigh of relief as the last crystal is screwed back into place with her mechanical graspers. "Well, that went better than I expected. Copperette, I thought you said you were from the past? I find that hard to believe given how at home you are amidst technology of the 13th century. I could easily mistake you for a Minoan apprentice with how well you work with the enchantments that power this ship."

"In any case, I suppose we should report our success. Shouldn't keep the others waiting."

"Sheesh. What a grump." Degree leans back into the pilot's seat, miming the motions for flight, landing, and directional movement.

"Daddy is an artificer," Copperette explained, panting lightly as she finished repairing the enchantments. "Or was, I guess..." She trailed off briefly as she thought about it. After a fashion, her father had been dead for thousands of years, along with everyone else she had known. It was a rather sobering thought...

... one that would have to wait for later, she decided, shaking her head clear. "He taught me a lot about it... A lot of this stuff seems pretty similar," she said.