Shuttlecraft

Posted on Thu May 5th, 2011 @ 2:28pm by Jan Valentine & Bruce Air (PNPC) & Morgan Pass

1,156 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Session 4: The Humans are Dead...
Location: Shuttle bay

Jan leaned back in his chair, worn out from the surgery and escape.

"Ugh, my head feels like it's been bashed into a wall a thousand times.." Jan said.

Jan fiddled around with the controls in front of him, the screen displaying security camera feeds; with all the recent events, they seemed like a good precaution.

He flipped though the camera channels; the bridge, some of the access crawl ways, living quarters hallway, and paused on the shuttlebay. He noticed Bruce tinkering around with one of the shuttlecraft's engines, adjusting what looked to be a plasma relay

"Hey Bruce, what the hell are you doing to that plasma relay?" Jan said over the comm.

Bruce glanced around the bay for the source of the voice then noticed the camera. He gave a wave and said, "Just disabling the safety coils."

"Ok...They're there for a reason. Why disable them?" Jan asked.

Bruce looked surprised by the question, "The coils drink power that could be fed back into the IDF around the Cockpit and manifold."

"But there's already enough power being fed into the IDF." Jan said.

"Normally there WOULD be enough power in the IDF, but with the increased yield on the RCS, We are going to need to up it. Don't worry, I have the Radiation leaking straight out through the Aft induction coils. We only need them in Atmospheric flight, and I won't be pushing the turns in atmosphere. I have interfaced a reflexive thrust compensation frame that will allow me to modify the Impulse flow dynamically."

"That sacrifices the other systems on board, doing a mod like that will require that the subsystems be constantly repaired. Can't you redirect the Radiation into the exhaust manifold right behind the impulse reaction chamber?" Jan said.

Air looked uncomfortable, "I could.... If it were still there. The increase in the pressure from the RCS is already putting a strain on the Manifold which is why I needed to boost the IDF, and needed to take the re stricter coils off. If I re-vent the exhaust back through the Manifold then I have the same issue. Unless you know of some easy way to super-cool the manifold without bleeding the other systems?"

"Hmm, good point, I'd have to think about that." Jan said.

"Hey, how about we take some of the coolant from life support? I am not saying all of it, just enough to lower the temperature a few degrees. I twill be hot and stuffy in the Pit, but not unmanageable, and if it get's to bad we can make the pilot suit up."

"Yeah, but I'd rather not be messing with the shuttle like that, it's pretty rickety as it is. What about the auxiliary generator? I think I have a more powerful generator that fits somewhere in storage." Jan said.

"Generators are extra mass," Air said, wiping his hands on a rag, "and i am trying to strip her back. She's rickety, sure, but I've flown worse. If our pilot is wearing a suit then he'll be protected if she does come apart. In fact, if we insist on a suit, then we can take the life support off line completely and use the power for the SIF. Not ideal, but she'll dance."

"We have the shuttles for a reason. They're meant to get us in and out of areas we can't take the Warden quickly, and carry stuff at the same time. We can't have our guys have to suit up every time they want to fly the shuttle, especially in a firefight. Besides, the generator in there weighs 500kilos, the one I have in storage weighs half that, and puts out twice the power. It'll run on the cooling system the shuttle has on board." Jan said, calling up the specifications on a datapad.

Air wiped some lubricant across his brow with the back of his hand, "It is exactly in a fire fight when we need the extra maneuverability. I am only making the mods on this one shuttle. Don't we have a spa... wait a tick! If we have a better generator, why is it in storage? What's wrong with it?"

"I was going to get around to upgrading some of the shuttles eventually, but the Warden seems to always be on the verge of blowing apart. It should be in good condition, it was operational when I stole it." Jan said.

"Well, wheel it out. That sounds perfect. Any other gems you got stashed that I might like to know about, like a way to increase the re-compression rates in the ramjets? Or if you have a better limiter for the Navigational deflector I think I can work a channeling matrix to increase atmospheric handling with the new increased power output of this generator. I recon I can get a 2.8% increase in response by sharing the load between RCS stabilizers and Navigational deflectors."

"I can bring down a manifest of stuff I have on hand if you'd like. I've acquired quite a few interesting pieces of tech in my travels and trades." Jan said, downloading manifest data into a padd and his implant.

---10 minutes later----

Jan entered the shuttlebay, pushing a large anti-grav unit with a metal crate on it.

Air was on top of the shuttle trying to decouple the fusion generator feeds. He glanced up at the door opening. "Is that the new Generator?"

"Yeah this is it, looks like it's in great shape." Jan said.

Air dropped to the deck and came over to look at it. He whistled, "That's an Andorian made Pre-Manra style. She is cleaner than a Nausican's Dance-card. I won't ask where you got it, but it'll do nicely. What else you got?"

Jan handed over the PADD and air gave a quick skim, "You've been holding out on me, Jan-o. There is enough stuff here to satisfy the Kelly gang. What are self-sealing stum bolts?"

"Hmm, haven't had to use those in a while, let me check the manifest." Jan said, scanning through it with his implant.

"Ah, they're in cargo module 4. Anything else you want off the list?" Jan said.

"Oh, I don't want them. I just wanted to know what they were. Never mind. Let's see... No.. No... Wait, ye...no... Two of them...Phase induction coils? Really?... No... Oh, yes please... Don't need those... don't want those... Would pay not to have to use those... I think I'm done then."

He handed the PADD back, "I'll have this lot installed when we reach out next atmosphere and take you for a spin if you like."

"You need a hand? I've got nothing to do right now." Jan said.


Air shrugged, "Sure," then he smiled and added, "I could use a keen eye on the Cascade Resonator. I can never set them right and it is playing merry hell if I try to manually stabilize the dampers."

 

RSS Feed