Meet Sparky - Edited 11-8-2018

The Engineering bay was a hive of activity. The technicians had been getting requests from the Marines for weapons mods. They didn’t want to spend the EXP on buying factory stock. Having seen how little I was selling them for they decided to seek out others in search of a better deal. Naturally, that caused the creation of a new business. The downside is that the Engineers really weren’t expecting this. Mostly because no one, myself included, had bothered to let them know this could happen.

“Take a number, and we’ll call you when we have time.” I was greeted when I walked into the bay.

“I’m here to use some equipment,” I responded. “Do I still have to take a number?”

The sleep-deprived technician looked up from her monitor, then saw my rate and rank insignias. I think the rank insignia was second as she sighed, caught herself, then snapped to with a salute, followed by a “Ma’am!”

“Don’t worry; I’m not here to make anyone’s life hell. I just brought some tech back with me from the alien ship and wanted to have it scanned. I figured I’d stop here first as if I took it to Science I’d never get it back.” I told her, returning the salute in what I hoped approximated the half-assed way that officers higher ranked than Lieutenant seemed to naturally evolve their salutes in the office environment.

“Alien tech, ma’am?” Yep, I just got moved to the front of the line.

“Yes, LT. Li was sent over at the same time as me, but I haven’t heard from him since we all loaded up into the drop ships. I figured I’d bring the treat by, just in case he never set foot onboard like too many of the others.” I pulled the crystalline chip out of a small pocket in my fatigues. “Think we can scan this before he gets here from wherever he’s hiding?” a conspiratorial grin on my face.

“Yes, ma’am!” was the reply as the tech snatched the small crystal from my hand and started walking towards a small scanner. The smile on her face reminded me of those sappy romance vids after the woman is first told she was loved.

“So, do you want to call for him before or after we get the results?” She asked. I liked her.

“Why don’t we go with ‘after,’ and say ‘oops’ when he gets pissed after he misses the fun?” The tech laughed at my suggestion; I was glad that I could bring some humor into her obviously stressful day.

“So, what were you working on when I came in?” I asked after she set the sample into the scanner and started the sequence.

“Ugh, so many people are coming in, looking for an edge for combat. Some asshole decided that selling a few barrel and clips to the Marines was a good idea. Now everyone wants something special.” She said, not knowing the cause of her stress was standing right next to her.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” I said with disdain in my voice. “Those shit heads were supposed to be repeat customers! Fuckers!” That’s when the tech started freaking out a little.

“Oh, shit. Way to torpedo your career. I’m such an idiot.” She muttered to herself. She was cute when she was flustered.

“You got a name, Tech?” I asked. I was kind of enjoying this by-play. I don’t think she realized that I was having some fun at her expense. I was a bitch.

“Ma’am… Machinist’s Mate 3rd class Julia Wachowski. Uhm, ma’am. Could you…” Before she could continue, I cut her off

“Not you, Wachowski, the damned Marine that started the rest in trying to circumvent my prices.” I opened the holo-interface for my terminal like I was about to send a nasty-gram.

“You have a holographic interface for a portable terminal in your arm?” Her mood shifted so quickly I nearly got whiplash.

“Sorry, had to rib you a little bit,” I said, with a wink. “As for the interface, yeah, I put this together a few hours ago.”

“Where? I’ve been on duty all day, and I haven’t seen you in here.” She asked, grabbing my arm and spinning it in her hands. “Who made the arm? It looks like it is based off a Hephaestus design, but I haven’t seen this model before.” I loved geeks.

“Made this myself, too. I bought a blank, then crafted it from the ground up. Threw in some ideas I had from when I was on the alien ship.” I shrugged. “Had to figure out how to get all my new goodies to work with the ship suit.

“Wouldn’t it have been easier to wire up an interface through the sleeve instead of figuring out how to keep pressure without a cover on your arm?” She asked.

I laughed at this. It was the same line of thought I originally had until I started to design my grapple.

“If the interface was all, then yes.” I pulled my arm out of her hands, then deployed the bay with my grapple on it, followed by releasing the mono-blades ion my fingers. Her eyes got wide. She was about to go full blown geek out mode. I was going to get into some trouble tonight.

“Jax!” an overly cheerful voice interrupted us before I could do anything stupid.

“LT!” I replied, not even having to look over my shoulder to see who it was.

“I didn’t call him, did you?” the Tech asked me quietly.

“No, but maybe it’s for the best.” Disappointment evident in my response. I think that’s when the tech realized I had been flirting with her, terribly. She turned a great shade of red.

“Yama said you brought me a present?” LT Li stated. That answered that.

“Yes, Wachowski and I decided that we would be contacting you after the scan results were done.”

“Sir’s, I have some more things to finish up, if you’ll excuse me.” The Tech said, then retreated to her terminal near the entrance of the bay.

“She’s married,” Li said in a low voice, a hint of amusement present as we watched her retreat.

“Damnit! Can’t blame a girl for trying.” I sighed, exasperated. “So, yeah. I brought back some... something. I pried it out of a terminal when I was over there.” I gestured to the scanner bay.

“You actually made it over there?” He asked rhetorically. 95% of us died before even setting foot on board. The fact that we were discussing our own deaths so casually was a nice change from the reality of having been deployed for combat operations. After all, you don’t respawn in the real world.

“Yeah, actually made contact with the aliens over there as well, then promptly got beheaded by an anti-materiel round. Completely vaporized my head, didn’t even realize what happened. Turned a corner then a black screen with ‘Respawn in’ followed by the countdown. You?”

“Drop ship on approach. I stood up to ask the pilots a question, and something popped the canopy and took me out. The pilots say that artillery went straight through and ripped out the tail hatch.”

I laughed.

“I think I saw that craft. It went straight through the hull of Escort, killed everyone between that round and the impact.”

“Damn,” he shook his head in disbelief. “That means you were either in Janssens bird or made your way to his bay.

“The latter,” I responded, “I ended up going EVA across the hull to meet up with Janssens and his collection of survivors. Don’t feel bad; I think everyone on your bird was KIA. Have you seen the data I pulled from the turrets that shot everyone down?” A smile on my face, I gestured to the terminal near him. I knew I had his interest and I was going to string him along a little.

“You saw them?”

“I took a few of them out. Three if I remember correctly.”

“Holy shit.”

“Yeah, they were using some sort of simple cloak. Environmental camouflage, I believe. Their drones can be seen from the right angle, but other than that you can only really track them from their heat after they shoot, and only until their heat sinks flush them to ambient. Being out in open space like that, the temp normally wouldn’t cool that quick. No air flow. I’m personally curious about what they are made from.”

“Their heat readings spike because of barrel friction,” I continued, pulling up my interface to send him the data, “and then back to nothing after a couple seconds. You can imagine the stresses that would place on them. Unfortunately, I left my samples there when I went all Sleepy Hollow.”

“Nice upgrade,” he said, seeing my interface. “Let’s take a look and see what we have.”

While we were discussing the subtler points of the barrel mechanics, the scanning bay finally finished, sending a shrill, loud, sharp “beep” that startled me.

“What’s it say?” I asked, channeling my inner kid hoping for their university admittance letter.

“You,” He started, reading the screen in front of him, “have just introduced the Sol Alliance to a new type of high capacity, low resistance, power storage and data transmission device.”

I received an alert. So did Li.

TO: All Engineers of Sol Fleet Carrier Group

REPLY TO ATTN: Sol Fleet Carrier Group

SUBJECT: Project Sparky

Clearance: Sensitive/Confidential

New technology has been uncovered. This technology shall be nicknamed “Project Sparky.”

Please return to your quarters immediately and wait for retrieval. A habitable planet is within range of additional sensors. All technical staff will be required to review data in Real Time. Overlord AI will assist in discussions. All non-Engineering staff will have an additional time dilation affect them. Standard adjustment of 24 hours in the real to 1 hour in the game will be increased to an unspecified amount to conserve computing power. You have eight (8) hours to be prepared to log out and be retrieved.

“Project Sparky?” I asked Li. He finished reading his message and nodded his head.

“Well, I’ll see you out there, then. I am going to go and try to get some rack time, before whatever madness this happens and takes it all away from me. Oh, and send me a copy of that data sheet.” I left the engineering bay, passing Wachowski as she re-read the same message.

Meet Sparky - Original

The Engineering bay was a hive of activity. The technicians had been getting requests from the Marines for weapons mods. They didn’t want to spend the EXP on buying factory stock. Having seen how little I was selling them for they decided to seek out others in search of a better deal. Naturally, that caused the creation of a new business. The downside being that the Engineers really weren’t expecting this. Mostly because no one, me included, had bothered to let them know this could happen.

“Take a number and we’ll call you when we have time.” I was greeted when I walked into the bay.

“I’m here to use some equipment.” I responded. “Do I still have to take a number?”

The sleep deprived technician looked up from her monitor, then saw my rate and rank insignias. I think the rank insignia was second as she sighed, caught herself, then snapped to with a salute, followed by a “Ma’am!”

“Don’t worry, I’m not here to make anyone’s life hell. I just brought some tech back with me from the alien ship and want to have it scanned. I figured I’d stop here first as if I took it to Science I’d never get it back.” I told her, returning the salute in what I hoped approximated the half assed way those above Lieutenant seemed to naturally evolve their salutes in the office environment.

“Alien tech, ma’am?” Yep, I just got moved to the front of the line.

“Yes, LT. Li was sent over at the same time as me, but I haven’t heard from him since we all loaded up into the drop ships. I figured I’d bring the treat by, just in case he never set foot onboard like too many of the others.” I pulled the crystalline chip out of a small pocket in my fatigues. “Think we can scan this, before he gets here from wherever he’s hiding?” a conspiratorial grin on my face.

“Yes, ma’am!” was the reply as the tech snatched the small crystal from my hand and started walking towards a small scanner. The smile on her face reminded me off those sappy romance vids after the woman is first told she was loved.

“So, do you want to call for him before or after we get the results?” She asked. I liked her.

“Why don’t we go with ‘after’, and say ‘oops’ when he gets pissed his missed the fun?” The tech laughed at my suggestion, I was glad that I could bring some humor into her obviously stressful day.

“So, what were you working on when I came in?” I asked after she set the sample into the scanner and started the sequence.

“Ugh, so many people are coming in, looking for an edge for combat. Some asshole decided that selling a few barrel and clips to the Marines was a good idea. Now everyone wants something special.” She said, not knowing the cause of her stress was standing right next to her.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” I said with disdain in my voice. “Those shit heads were supposed to be repeat customers! Fuckers!” That’s when the tech started freaking out a little.

“Oh, shit. Way to torpedo your career. I’m such an idiot.” She muttered to herself. She was cute when she was flustered.

“You got a name, Tech?” I asked. I was kind of enjoying this by-play. I don’t think she realized that I was having some fun at her expense. I was a bitch.

“Ma’am… Machinist’s Mate 3rd class Julia Wachowski. Uhmm, ma’am. Could you…” Before she could continue I cut her off

“Not you, Wachowski, the damned Marine that started the rest in trying to circumvent my prices.” I opened the holo-interface for my terminal like I was about to send a nasty-gram.

“You have a holographic interface for a portable terminal in your arm?” Her mood shifted so quickly I nearly got whiplash.

“Sorry, had to rib you a little bit” I said, with a wink. “As for the interface, yeah, I put this together a few hours ago.” “Where? I’ve been on duty all day and I haven’t seen you in here.” She asked, grabbing my arm and spinning it in her hands. “Who made the arm? It looks like it is based off a Haephestus design, but I haven’t seen this model before.” I loved geeks.

“Made this myself, too. I bought a blank, then crafted it from the ground up. Threw in some ideas I had from when I was on the alien ship.” I shrugged. “Had to figure out how to get all my new goodies to work with the ship suit.

“Wouldn’t it have been easier to wire up an interface through the sleeve instead of figuring out how to keep pressure without a cover on your arm?” She asked.

I laughed at this. It was the same line of thought I originally had until I started to design my grapple.

“If the interface was all, then yes.” I pulled my arm out of her hands, then deployed the bay with my grapple on it, followed by releasing the mono-blades ion my fingers. Her eyes got wide. She was about to go full blown geek out mode. I was going to get into some trouble tonight.

“Jax!” an overly cheerful voice interrupted us before I could do anything stupid.

“LT!” I replied, not even having to look over my shoulder to see who it was.

“I didn’t call him, did you?” the Tech asked me quietly.

“No, but maybe it’s for the best.” Disappointment obvious in my response. I think that’s when the tech realized I had been flirting with her, terribly. She turned a great shade of red.

“Yama said you brought me a present?” LT Li stated. That answered that.

“Yes, Wachowski and I decided that we would be contacting you after the scan results were done.”

“Sir’s, I have some more things to finish up, if you’ll excuse me.” The Tech said, then retreated to her terminal near the entrance of the bay.

“She’s married.” Li said in a low voice, a hint of amusement present as we watched her retreat.

“Damnit! Can’t blame a girl for trying.” I sighed, exasperated. “So, yeah. I brought back some... something. I pried it out of a terminal when I was over there.” I gestured to the scanner bay.

“You actually made it over there?” He asked rhetorically. 95% of us died before even setting foot on board. The fact that we were discussing our own deaths so casually was a nice change from the reality of having been deployed for combat operations. After all, you don’t respawn in the real world.

“Yeah, actually made contact with the aliens over there as well, then promptly got beheaded by an anti-material round. Completely vaporized my head, didn’t even realize what happened. Turned a corner then a black screen with ‘Respawn in’ followed by the count down. You?”

“Drop ship on approach. I stood up to ask the pilots a question and something popped the canopy and took me out. The pilots say that a round went straight through and ripped out the tail hatch.”

I laughed.

“I think I saw that craft. It went straight through the hull of Escort, killed everyone between that round and the impact.”

“Damn,” he shook his head in disbelief. “That means you were either in Janssens bird or made your way to his bay.

“The latter,” I responded, “I ended up going EVA across the hull to meet up with Janssens and his collection of survivors. Don’t feel bad, I think everyone on your bird was KIA. Have you seen the data I pulled from the turrets that shot everyone down?” A smile on my face, I gestured to the terminal near him. I knew I had his interest and I was going to string him along a little.

“You saw them?”

“I took a few of them out. Three if I remember correctly.”

“Holy shit.”

“Yeah, they were using some sort of simple cloak. Environmental camouflage, I believe. They can be seen from the right angle, but other than that you can only really track them from their heat after they shoot. Being in open space like that, the temp cools quickly. I’m personally curious about what they are made from.”

“Their heat readings spike because of barrel friction,” I continued, pulling up my interface to send him the data, “and then back to nothing after a couple seconds. You can imagine the stresses that would place on them. Unfortunately, I left my samples there when I went all Sleepy Hollow.”

“Nice upgrade,” he said, seeing my interface. “Let’s take a look and see what we have.”

While we were discussing the finer points of the barrel mechanics, the scanning bay finally finished, sending a shrill, loud, sharp “beep” that startled me.

“What’s it say?” I asked, channeling my inner kid hoping for their university admittance letter.

“You,” He started, reading the screen in front of him, “have just introduced the Sol Alliance to a new type of high capacity, low resistance, power storage and data transmission device.”

I received an alert. So did Li.

TO: All Engineers of Sol Fleet Carrier Group

REPLY TO ATTN OF: Sol Fleet Carrier Group

SUBJECT: Project Sparky

Clearance: Sensitive/Confidential

A new technology has been uncovered. This technology shall be nicknamed “Project Sparky”.

Please return to your quarters immediately and wait for retrieval. Habitable planet is in range of additional sensors. All technical staff will be required to review data in Real Time. Overlord AI will assist in discussions. All non-Engineering staff will have additional time dilation affect them. Normal adjustment of 24 hours in the real to 1 hour in game will be increased to an unspecified amount to conserve computing power. You have eight (8) hours to be prepared to log out and be retrieved.

“Project Sparky?” I asked Li. He finished reading his message and nodded his head.

“Well, I’ll see you out there, then. I am going to go and try to get some rack time, before whatever madness this is takes it all away from me. Oh, and send me a copy of that data sheet.” I left the engineering bay, passing Wachowski as she re-read the same message.