Scene #5358: Machines and Their Repair

Owner	Pose
Starbound Flotilla	The Starbound Flotilla managed to establish a staging ground somewhere farther to the north of the Numbani region, out in more open savannah. They've dug an extensive underground base, with an elaborate disguised vertical hangar and launch bay. Sombra and Maaka won't find it difficult to lock onto the teleport coordinates with their respective teleporters. The base is a thick concrete sort of thing, looking sort of like a fallout shelter, but freshly constructed. It was completed only a little more than a few hours after the Numbani raid, they are just that fast. Their incandescent lighting is constructed in a terribly old way even by modern standards. Really, it feels like the whole thing is a fresh Cold War base playing catchup with reality, all big steel doors and high concrete chambers. They've got assembly going in the central chamber, which is where Seft often can be found. They've also got a fair chunk of residential space, all ready for resting in, even though they're only using this for a couple days. Right now, a heavy central thruster's under construction in the center of the main chamber, pointing straight up, ready to launch like a missile and bear all of their assorted crafts -- many as small as vans, one as large as a proper shuttle -- out into space. And Septette, of course, has her own space, somewhere near both residence and assembly, built and modified to her spec by the expert architects, giving her a good way to see Seft heading to and from the assembly area, the mini-kitchen, and the residential halls.
Septette Arcubielle	After laying her heavy leather duffel bag out on the recently-fabricated, reinforced table, Septette hauls herself up onto it, legs dangling cheerfully over the edge! It looks as if she were a child waiting on the examination bed for her doctor. After adjusting her red glasses- new eyes take a bit of adjusting to- she pulls off her traditional shawl, revealing a deliberately half-finished repair job: her hand and arm are fully fixed, but her left leg is still bent and malfunctioning, severed wires and errant shards of crystal showing beneath the twisted tan plate. There was plenty of time to fix it last night- but she has a Glitch to teach, and there were letters to write besides. Finally prepared for their lesson, Septette radios the Starbounder crew: "I'm all set up in your base, ready to start whenever you are. Feel free to bring tea or snacks, Seft- won't hurt anything!" With little else to do but wait, she leans back against the wall and looks around the room: simple, familiar, and cozy in its stucco-and-timber construction. A gaggle of books from home are arranged on a bookcase in the corner, and a pair of comfortable cushioned wood armchairs round out the decorations. It's just like she likes it- Moonfin must not have gotten his grubby, cultured fingers on this room quite yet. With a minute or two left to prepare, Septette digs around in the duffel bag and pulls out a few materials. Spools of dark metal cords that look like exotic piano-wire; thicker hollow cables that are segmented in complex and shifting weaves; small, clear crystals that have three-dimensional circuit-like shapes floating inside of them like insects trapped in amber; dull tan plates like those comprising the yggdroid's exoskeleton; a bag of tiny clockwork parts ranging from the size of a pea to the size of an iron filing; even a flask of some dark, opaque substance. Time to start the magic.
Starbound Flotilla	Seft pokes her head in. Her eyes flicker with a few curious blinks. "Nervous. Hello, Ms. Arcubielle." She's reverted a bit to formal terms under the current stress, or so it seems. She fidgets in an oddly robotic way with her hands, which seems to be why she's made sure to physically bring her collection of tools with her. They range from strange futuristic laser devices to the primitive blacksmithing tools, but each have a place in her repair processes, and the case they're in unfolds in an elegant way when she sets it down, blossoming like a flower. And once those hands are free, they're fully fidgeting properly, rubbing and squeezing at each other. "Apologetic. I am sorry once again, for putting you in a position yesterday to sustain that degree of damage. Things have been so strained the past few months..." She trails off in a sort of volume-down sense, rather than in the tone of her voice. Her flickery eye-visor points towards the repair supplies every so often, though, eagerly curious about them in a way. The sheer variety is almost overwhelming. "Uncertain. How would you like me to prepare to begin?" She's clearly quite eager to pay back Septette's help a little.
Septette Arcubielle	A shaky, sympathetic smile creeps onto Septette's face as she listens to the apology. She leans forward and takes Seft's hands in her own, staring into the regal robot's visor with a comforting expression. "There's no need for you to apologize to me, Lady Seft. I had more choice in joining that raid than you did, did I not? Perhaps I should be apologizing to you for not opposing the other captains..." She shakes her head thoughtfully as she disentangles her fingers. "These are trying circumstances for all of us. I'm all too happy to help an old friend." She watches the equipment case unfold with intent curiosity before holding out her damaged leg, tapping on the twisted 'bone' demonstratively. "I've left a good example of each kind of damage for you to inspect, Seft. I don't know what tools you might choose to use, so I'll demonstrate and allow you to devise your own techniques; it is likely that they are not neatly parallel to my own methods." "The first order of business is to remove the exoskeleton. As soon as it is physically detached from me, it will lose power to its natural enchantments and revert to a brittle, mundane state. Given how warped it has become, it is possible that this will result in an explosive release of kinetic energy as it shatters." She pulls one finger behind the plate, causing it to cleanly dehisce from the limb underneath, but takes care to not completely sever the armor. "Please shield yourself. It won't be too violent, but could put out an eye." When Seft is adequately protected, Arcubielle removes the plate fully- and true to her predictions, it contorts, shudders, and shatters in dramatic fashion, shards of ceramet ricocheting about the room. "... That was the hard part. We'll put another plate on at the end; for now, let's take a look at what it's exposed." Shredded and slagged wires hang from the black endo-frame; glowing red crystals nestled in the joints are cracked and macerated; thick fibrous tubing slowly leaks some black, heavy liquid. It doesn't feel hot, but the air directly around her leg shimmers and dances like the horizon over a searing road or the smoke above a candle. "Hm. Not as bad as I thought it'd be. Let's get started, shall we?"
Starbound Flotilla	"Anxious. I would certainly not have blamed you for taking action against them." Seft seems reluctant to fully endorse fighting against her allies. "Uncertain. I understand why they decided to do what they did. Even if I wish there had been a different way." Her visor displays a loading spinny briefly before she shakes her head. "Firm. That is probably something we shouldn't discuss much." She listens attentively. "Observing. Active systems to exceed material limits. Fascinating..." Remorseful though she may be, she's still the curious type! "Thoughtful. I had never thought about psionic material warps to exceed material limits. Maybe... Hmmm..." She thinks on ways to use that same rough principle, even if she won't have access to the core technology. Then she makes an urgent buzzing, a sort of "oh!" sound, when Septette asks her to shield herself! Tapping a couple buttons on her Matter Manipulator, she brings up a heavy shield to keep her and her tools safe, some armor, and what looks like sort of full-face safety goggles of some kind. It holds on the explosion, though the force of the unexpected nature of the explosion causes her to emit a whining "bleeeeeeee" sort of synthesized noise as she falls over onto her backside with a metal THONK. "Surprised. Goodness!" Then she takes a look at the damaged joints, leaning forward... Leaving that sort of clear faceplate in place. Her visor displays what looks like the display of a zoom function amping up on each eye. "Fascinated. Crystal-medium circuitry...? This fluid does not seem like any coolant I have ever examined, is it some form of medium for your power?" She tugs her case of tools up next to her, pulling one of the articulated case-arms of tools up in particular. It looks like a set of erchius-working tools, just on a guess from those crystals.
Septette Arcubielle	"It's not coolant," she replies cheerily, evidently relishing the opportunity to teach Seft something new! "All of these systems have the same function: to translate my will into motion. They are all complementary, with different failure points, different specialties. Together, they represent an attempt to ensure survival through sheer redundancy." She flexes her toes, and the broken crystals weakly light up. Then she repeats the exact same motion, and the crystals fall dull and lifeless, but skeins of tense piano-wire tendons shift and pull instead. "There are many such systems that no longer work at all. The remaining somatokinetic redundancy systems are..." She counts off on her fingers. "Mechanical- tens of thousands of tiny clockwork pieces and high-tension wires translating arcane signals into movement by releasing stored kinetic energy. Electronic- gold-nanotube electrostatic motors connected to a mana-to-electricity converter inside my skull. "Then you've got crystalline servos- when pumped with magic, crystal circuits selectively activate enchantments that grant them precisely-sculpted electromagnetic fields, allowing them to move limbs in a fashion similar to a servomotor. Thaumohydraulic- specialized liquids that directly react to the flow of mana in my core flow through specialized containment tubing. Graven kinetic sigils- every available hard surface is micro-etched with runes to translate directed magical energy into movement. And, lastly, the puppeteer system." She rests her hands on her knees, staring at the damaged joints of her left ankle contemplatively. "The puppeteer system is the choice of last resort. The core itself can, for brief periods of time, project enough energy to directly control my body through an effect similar to internalized telekinesis- no amplification, no refinement, just raw projection of kinetic force against the bones. That is what is used if all else fails, and I have not had to use it for quite some time." She perks up a bit, her expression deliberately lightening. Best not to dwell on that topic. "So! If you had to replace those crystals with the new crystalline circuits, Seft, how would you go about it? I'm curious as to how these tools of yours work- I've always used my hands, plus a generous helping of enchantments."
Starbound Flotilla	Seft pulls out what looks like some kind of set of headphones...? She places the band over her head, slipping it down over her goggles. "Informing. I can attempt to make a more comprehensive repair of the mechanical systems from the ground up when I have a larger, more specialized production system to produce the require components at the required precision. The thaumohydraulic systems will require understanding if any stocks of Erchius could imitate thaumohydraulic fluids appropriately. I am uncertain if I could work the kinetic sigils. And I would never dream of touching your core at this level of learning. But..." She extends several cords from the helmet section. "Eager. Erchius is psionically reactive. This makes it dynamic in construction under specific circumstances. I believe that by encasing high psionically-sensitive erchius crystals inside nanotube arrangements of high-resistance erchius, they can function as a mana-directing seal where necessary." The way she makes these arrangements is... Sort of disturbing to watch, at least for basically anyone but Septette. Yes, the system on her head seems to be some sort of psionic concentration system, focusing 'perception' down to fine points and beaming the perception back to her in a way that is sort of like a precise electron microscope that also produces no real, significant data. In that way, it's actually more of a scanner than a tool, but the kind of scanner that is used as a tool when exploiting various erchius-related uncertainty principles. The effect of that is that the faceted Erchius chunk she's working with blooms out like a disturbing purple fractal flower, moving its high-resistance segments to the outside and its low-resistance segments to the inside. She carefully checks for Septette's permission before taking one of the spare crystals, "sealing" it at one end with the grip of the high-resistance "petals", and then offering to try to seal it to the main crystal conduit, while making very carefully sure by way of what looks like a miniature theoretical spine-transplant tool -- an elaborate box wrench with an internal orientation system on the inner "cuff" -- to automatically line it up appropriately to an insanely precise level. If it goes well -- yggdrasil willing -- and seals at both ends to the crystal motor conduit, she'll gently use another tool to shave off excess erchius, leaving only a small ring of purple and a slightly thicker segment of crystal at the start of the damaged section. She's hoping this works, so that she can connect the fresh section to the other end of the damage...
Septette Arcubielle	Septette watches the erchius-carving with clear and open fascination- there's nothing like this in her world; not even remotely comparable. She nods her assent to Seft, though there's a bit of trepidation on her face- trepidation that soon turns to a wince. Moments after the crystal erchius is attached, a soft and eerie whining sound fills the air. "I think the optimization process is rejecting the 'transplant'," she murmurs- "watch closely." The seam begins to glow in unwholesome actinic colors, and a strange, elaborate glyph etches itself into the surface of the new erchius- 'etch' isn't quite the right word, though; for every gouge the invisible athame makes, the material redistributes itself across the crystal's surface smoothly, so none is lost. A moment later, the glyph pulses with energy, and is graven over with finer symbols that spread across the crystal's entire surface: a physical rune creating a finer, more detailed rune. The finer carvings then pulse with energy again, being replaced with a barely-visible palimpsest that only appears as a strange texture to the material. Several further flashes follow; each time, the texture iterates a little closer back to being smooth, until it's visually indistinguishable on a macroscopic level from how it appeared before, and finally the iterations stop abruptly. "Well," Septette finally says, looking visibly relieved, "the new addition hasn't slagged yet. I think that means it's been accepted? Maybe its psychoreactive nature caused the 'anti-virus' to see only itself. That's the first time it's actually accepted anything that wasn't from another of Yggdrasil's creations."
Starbound Flotilla	Seft looks with a sort of awed amazement at it. "Wonderous. Perhaps...? Perhaps..." She zooms in as much as zooming will go. "Conjecture. I theorize something more extensive. If psychoreactivity were the only aspect, it is likely your antiviral routines would not have pushed through it entirely. I believe it is possible that by crafting a sufficiently adaptive medium, the internal motor system was capable of injecting and propagating itself to a small degree. As its material properties are primarily affected by perception of Erchius, it potentially... Actively perceived 'for' a compatible system? Perhaps sought out a replacement in such a way that effectively took control of the Erchius dynamic properties, collapsing its non-collapsing waveforms appropriately." Her eyes light up with that "processing" spinny. "Conjecture. You are designed to engage in combat with beings that may or may not adhere to local physical laws. In doing so, perhaps your functions of preventing..." She pauses, and makes a buzzing sound. "Xenodimensional damage, also assert against non-collapsing waveforms such as those of crystalized Erchius. Combined with the psychoreactive aspects, it seems like it achieved a sort of connection." Then her visor actually shows a small embarrassed blue blush-like display for a moment. "Awkward. Erm. Just as. Just as. Just as my own conjecture, as an Erchius engineer. It may present some opportunities, but certainly requires testing before any conclusions of that sort. Would. Would. Would you like me to attempt the full connection now?" She somehow manages to robotically fumble her little airbrush-like tool in trying to retrieve another erchius crystal, and scrambles for both dropped things, before offering to do the same again, and fully reconnect the joint.
Septette Arcubielle	"Perceived for a compatible system? Well, the enchantments assigned to that specific part would have become evolutionarily self-optimized for the specific purpose of reinforcing and improving the crystalline circuit. Perhaps that had an influence on the erchius receiving its directive to adopt the crystal circuit's structure and function?" The yggdroid taps her chin in thought, a clinking metal-on-metal sound. Another clinking sound follows a moment later as she pats Seft's head gently, beaming at the embarrassed Glitch. Septette's ear-fins give a happy little twitch upwards, and a cooling fan somewhere in her torso switches on with a soothing hum. "It may only be conjecture, but your input is deeply valued. I couldn't have arrived at the idea to use erchius for these repairs on my own! We've discovered something new today, though I have no idea what its ultimate import may be. Thank you, Seft." Her hand slides down to the Captain's shoulder, giving it a gentle affirming squeeze before letting go. She rummages around in the pack again before pulling out another skein of wires, and gives Seft a nod. "Go ahead and complete the connection. I'm going to work on fixing up the mechanical systems- you might not learn much from their construction; they're basic by design." She heats one end of each wire between her fingers, then presses them against the severed ends of the wires dangling from her legs. Fiery dendritic tendrils from the two ends reach out, twine around each other of their own accord, and then cool together to create a durable and practically invisible seam. "As for the effects that being built to resist the machinations of the Deep Ones may have had..." Septette shakes her head, looking faintly bemused. "I still do not fully understand the exact principles on which those beasts operated, much less the defenses that Yggdrasil devised against them. I'm afraid my conjecture is only as solid as yours on that topic."
Starbound Flotilla	Seft's screen winks off and back on with each pat. She makes a sort of >_< face on her visor, but then nods several times. "Embarrassed. Ahem. Well, I am happy you find it useful." Despite literally saying the word "ahem", she makes a sort of noise of clearing her throat, a buzzing cough-like sound. "Hopeful. Erchius in high or low sensitivity at the correct configurations, used to treat other materials or be treated by other materials, may be of some assistance in future repairs." "Optimistic. I hope so much that it can help relieve some of your..." She starts, before it decays into a staticky, soft whining sound that terminates with a blip. "Sheepish. Well. I. I should finish the connection." She shakes her head awkwardly, putting her safety goggles of sorts back in place, and recreating that strange Erchius seal, meant to link the fresh segment of crystal with the older segment that remains further down the limb. "Considering. I may learn some, though not from the method of constructing them so much as how they fit together. High-power motor functions from such small and precise mechanical parts..." She observes the connections, the elaborate mechanical aspects of the piano-wire physical control system. As she does, something lights up on her eyes. Another loading spinny, and then a lightbulb symbol displays on each eye. "Inspired. I may have an idea to begin developing. One I could certainly use such insight in later! Please hold that thought for another day, Septette!" She breaks out of that formality for a moment. "Eager. Once we are finished with this operation, or perhaps while we are on it..."
Septette Arcubielle	"I won't forget," Arcubielle replies cheerfully! The lack of formality is duly noted- a positive sign? She leans back on the table, heels of her hands rested on its edge, and smiles warmly. She still watches Seft's erchius craftsmanship with a keen and inquisitive eye, but scoops up an elongated piece of ceramet plating with her other hand and waits for the Glitch to finish. The plating goes on easily once Seft is done, attaching by some esoteric method to the limb; it rapidly undergoes the same iterated sigil process as the crystal did, its texture shifting and writhing in geometric characters until it smooths over in nanoscale patterns. "The hydraulics are still shot," Septette says with a hint of regret, "but they usually are. I'll see if I can fix them up before the mission; if not, no big loss." With that, she slides off of the table and hops to the floor with a resounding clank, testing out her patched-up leg. "Everything seems to be in working order, more or less! Thank you again for the help, Seft; I look forward to trusting you with my repairs the next time I lose both hands. Using my mouth is mind-blowing tedium." She slips her arms around the noblewoman, giving her a light squeeze and a couple of pats on the back before letting go! Septette's lavender eyes glow brighter for just a moment afterwards, and her fins do the happy-twitch again. "Just tell me when I can help with that idea of yours, alright?"
Starbound Flotilla	The Glitch makes a soft, buzzy "booweep" sort of noise" when Septette puts her arms around her, a little unadjusted to hugging. At least, hugs from anyone but Biteblade. She stays sort of robotically still for a moment, but soon, gingerly, seems to return it, leaning into it just slightly. "Grateful. And thank you for all your help, Septette. As well as the chance to learn some more about you." She says, in that same monotone as usual, but slightly softer. When she pulls away, she gives a short, formal sort of curtsey gesture. "Friendly. Should there be future opportunity to help repairs, please call for my assistance. Of course, I will always hope there is not any need for more repairs. It pains me to see you hurt, Septette." She clasps both hands and displays that happy expression again, before packing up her tools, folding up the case, and heading on out!