The Guardians Fix a faulty satellite (OPEN)

Space flight for the Guardians was a yet little explored activity, however, it would soon become necessary as the increasingly frequent maintenance of their satellite monitoring systems demanded hands-on attention from its membership. Recent monitoring read that there was a large amount of space debris that may have caused the latest malfunction, and the safety of astronauts could not be risked.

There were other reasons, such as financial efficiency and suspicion from the allied organization, but the main thing was- chosen Guardian members were going into space.

With a space flight orientation consisting of watching the movie Gravity, playing some space themed video games and weeks of boring lectures about safety and operating space suits, a team was somehow prepared.

After the dramatic buildup of changing into the suits, the excitement of walking to the advanced craft and liftoff, there was an 8 hour wait as the computer aided navigation flew the craft toward the orbital 'parking' waypoint, where it would hold in geo-synchronous orbit with the satellite... and not fall into the atmosphere or drift off into the void of space. These used to be extremely complicated things, but luckily this was what the onboard  computers were for.
Shauna, who fell in and out of sleep at the steering wheel thanks to the A.I. navigation, presses a whole bunch of buttons to set the ship to park.

"We're here, ladies and gentlemen. Grab your tools and the parts, and get ready for a space walk." Shauna said, as the Apple Store inspired interior of the Guardian spacecraft lit up brightly, to rouse the members out of their stupor. Shauna swipes some controls on the pale, and the entire ceiling of the craft digitally gave way to give the members a 180 view of the Space outside. Immediately the view is dominated by the curvature of the earth beside them, as they held orbit over the European continent.

"Oh..." Shauna looked at the situation around the Satellite they were going to fix and saw firsthand the actual damage- the massive thing was struck by large numbers of meteorites it seems, battering its armored shell, revealing its gutted interior. A large cloud of loose asteroids and broken debris hung around it in eerie silence.

"Looks like we're in for a long day. Good thing we packed space lunch." Shauna went to the suit locker, got in, and the doors closed behind. It automatically zipped her into her special form fitting mask and fitting suit, which allowed her to harness her powers in space without burning through anything. She steps out and stands by the airlock, carrying a space toolbox, waiting for the others to get ready. The craft's cargo hold meanwhile, begins opening below the craft, the spare satellite parts ready to be put right in the defunct satellite.

Space, the final frontier of man and something he had never expected to actually travel into. Fair enough, he had expected heroism to lead him into unknown locations but space had never entered his mind, save for the time one of his brothers brought it up as more of a joke. His suit had been built to withstand even the vacuum of space, so that meant his father had prepared for that ahead of time, making sense for a revolutionary mind such as his. He had even thought about the smallest details, such as the suit fitting him comfortably, making sure that he could wear it for hours on end without anything getting sore and even protection against the inevitable uncomfortable sweat. As far as the mission, it looked like he would be going with his fellow Guardian members to see what was up with a satellite, though he was expecting more of a mundane task than anything else.

Within a matter of moments they would find themselves exiting the earth’s atmosphere and entering the vacuum that was space. For a moment his suit felt monumentally constraining, but he knew it would be the only thing protecting him should the ship around them be compromised. Not a thought that Colin relished but then again it was always possible that something like that would happen. So he had to be prepared for the worst possible conclusion. While Shauna had fella sleep and let the ship pilot itself, Vanguard had sat in one of the corners and calibrated his suit. Making sure the pressure locking mechanisms were in place, as well as that the oxygen containers had enough to allow him to perform. They signaled that he had enough to allow him to work in space for around seven hours, six if rapid breathing were brought into consideration.

That was more than enough time hopefully for what they were doing, though if it did take any longer he would need to refill them before they let it stretch out anymore. Once they were there, a few buttons were pressed and the ship would shift into a parking position. With a few swipes, the ceiling would become a display of the space that stretched out beyond the ship, something that brought more of a sense of wonder than anything else. All it took was a look into the vastness of space to remind him how small they all were, even those meta-humans that had their all-powerful abilities. Shauna would say something about them needing to get ready for a spacewalk, and with a few more thoughts the suit would be fully prepared for just that. Low neon blue lights played along The Vanguard suit, as energy would divert to the life support systems.

His eyes would fall upon the satellite and he sucked in a small amount of breath. ”That does not look good.” Colin sighed, chewing on his lower lip gingerly while dreading what would likely be an annoying day of repairs. His visors scanners would rapidly run over those around him, picking up any info it would find interesting before focusing upon Shauna. ”A long day might be selling it short too.” He stated, now standing before an airlock with hands on his hips.

Piper, oxygen mask on and FTL Gear shielding her from the other rigors of interstellar travel, rockets through space at speeds faster than light.  To anyone else, the stars are but white streaks passing by.  But even this Piper sees in slow motion.  The stars pass her by as slowly as two cars pass on a freeway.  "You'd think the git would've kept from falling into that pit.  I mean, he had a jetpack.  And how many times has he fallen in, already?"

FOUR ON RECORD, MISS MCGUFFIN.

Piper laughs.  "And people call me reckless.  How does that even happen?  It isn't walking around, searchin' for victims, yeah?  It's a giant hole in the ground."

A HOLE WITH TEETH, MISS MCGUFFIN.  DROPPING OUT OF FTL IN 5... 4... 3... 2...

FWOOSH!  Piper leaves the FTL jump, spitting her out kilos from Earth orbit.  "Mum's probably worried stiff.  Haven't been back in over a year, yet."  She drifts for several more kilos when she turns her head to a glimmer in her peripheral vision.  A satellite.  "Hello.  What have we, here?"

A DAMAGED GUARDIAN SATELLITE, A CLASS TECHNOLOGY.

"Which, to me, sounds a lot like it's spelled Salvage," Piper, working at salvaging parts from the husk.  She gets into the wreck and whistles.  "That's a fancy glob of hardware.  Not the shiniest penny, probably, but it'll sell.  Dexter, scan and make a note.  We can work on the sales pitch for the G-Market on the way there."

RIGHT AWAY, MISS MCGUFFIN.

While Piper's holodex scans the satellite husk, Piper turns her head to see the approaching ship.  "Well, that's interesting.  Dexter, correct me if I'm wrong, luv, but NASA can't just send a ship into space without loads of preparation."

THAT WOULD BE CORRECT, MISS MCGUFFIN.

"Hope you got your playlist ready. hehe." Well it seemed there was only two of them today. Shauna checks her own tanks, and then opens a cooler to take out something that was not cleared for liftoff.

A couple of cans of beer, Jagersomething- one of those really strong German brews. She pumps it into her empty water tank. One couldn't have a water break, so liquids needed to be drank by induction port built into the suits.

Shauna was drinking again. On duty. She might have had one or two on the trip too. It seemed as the battles they had increased and the body count rose, Shauna needed to drink to cope, and a relaxing repair mission seemed to warrant the liquor. To her anyway.

The booze secured, Shauna grabs the lever.

"Engaging airlock." The door behind them closes, and the airlock de-pressurizes with a hiss, until all sound goes mute, and the outer door opens into the void of space. Shauna's suit's sensors showed up on her display.

OXYGEN: 100%
STATUS: NORMAL

Shauna takes her first steps into the emptiness of space, her suit powered by her own plasma generating ability. Particles slowly emit from her suit thrusters, and she started making her way to the Crates containing the spare parts. Even at this distance from the wreck though, small meteorites about the size of basketballs to small cars drifted precariously close to them.

"Ugh. Vanguard, um, you take the other crate. I'll clear us a path." Shauna pushed one meteorite out of her way, while zapping a car sized rock coming her way. Her visor was especially designed to let her use her eye beams. She slowly started her advance toward the satellite, pushing rocks away with lasers. The Crate's rudimentary A.I. auto-followed Shauna.

Shauna's suit was basic compared to Vanguard's, and she had no way of knowing of Piper's presence at the satellite, which was still roughly 300 meters away, through a dense debris field. Shauna scanned around with her vision. "Just rocks and some parts that broke off. Wonder where the meteor came from..."

* * *

Piper reached the satellite sooner than the Guardians, though she'd likely also pass through the difficulty of the debris field. She would initially find nothing out of the ordinary, save for the satellite's cables, wires and circuit boards either slightly damaged or completely broken. The onboard computer and hard drives were shut off but still accessible, while the massive scanner array was  bludgeoned by a meteor fragment. Its Solar Panels were completely sheared off, as was its outer shell violently ripped open. Its onboard power source were completely missing, likely adrift in the debris field.

Piper would have to look at the satellite closer for something interesting.

In the end, it seemed like there would be only two of them. Him and Shauna if he remembered her name correctly, though his suit had all names categorized in case he was so rude as to forget them. The scanners within his suit would run over what she was pouring into her tank, which did not look like water but rather….beer. So he was working with an alcoholic, not exactly something Colin really favored but so long as it didn’t stand in the way of their work, he would have no problem with it at all. He wouldn’t question, not until work was impaired.

Once they were beyond the airlock, the room would depressurize and his suit would rapidly prepare itself for the vacuum. Seals would go into work, activating the onboard oxygen tanks, dull cyan lines radiating light across the suit. Sensors across his suit would show his current oxygen supply, reading that he was at 100% as well as how long this should last him before needing to be refilled. Stepping into the vast emptiness of space, his suits thrusters would start off on low, allowing him to move with a thought. All he needed to do was will himself to move and Colin would be going anywhere he wanted.

”On it.” Colin would transmit back to Shauna before floating towards his crate while she would clear a bit of the debris that was slowly floating towards their ship. His suit would reach out with a connection, finding a rudimentary intelligence that would make moving it much easier. Sending in a few commands from his suit, Vanguard would order the crates to move behind him, and they would obey. To think and have his orders followed out, well that was something that he enjoyed more than anything else.

Run a quick scan of the debris field. He would mentally command his suit, as the scanners rapidly ran over the chunks of meteor within free float, finding nothing more than space rock with his scans. It made him wonder where the meteor came from, and Shauna seemed to share the same worry as him as far as that was concerned. Softly he chewed on his lower lip while guiding the crate of spare parts along, staying behind the meta-human. ”I have no clue where that thing came from, probably from some kind of asteroid belt.” he wasn’t sure if there were any close enough to Earth for one to hit a satellite, but he wasn’t quite the type to dismiss it.

Well, there was that and the fact that Colin was not known for his knowledge of space. He was better when it came to genetics, and that came with working for a genetics company of all things.

Piper rummages through the wreckage some more, bypassing components and damaged pieces.  "Junk... junk... junk... Dexter, luv, I thought you said this was A-Class tech," Piper says as she moves some wires around.  "I could've built half of this rubbish in grade school."

WHERE WOULD YOU HAVE GOTTEN THE MATERIALS, MISS?

"That's the half I couldn't build," Piper says.

ANALYSIS OF THE HUSK IS ACCURATE.

Piper drifts back from the satellite a few inches and holds her hand to her chin.  "All right, then run a scan of it and give me a schematic so I know where and how deep to dig," she says.  She looks over her shoulder as the new arrivals work on the debris.  "And, never one to faff about, while you're doing that, I'll see if I can work a little jiggery-pokery and quietly hop in on our new friends' coms without a fuss."  She opens a holo-keypad and hacks away to jump in on the comm frequency while Dexter scans the whole of the wreck.

ANALYSIS COMPLETE. DIAGNOSTIC RESULTS IN.

"What, just now? You're gettin' slower, luv.  So, what's the gen?"

Dexter projects an orange hologram image of the satellite and all its components. "Pretty thing, this.  Take over the hack while I work this, would you?"

RIGHT AWAY.

Piper reaches out and swipes through it with her hands, disassembling it, observing pieces, and junking a few.  Several of the components she highlights blue until she has only the pieces she's aiming for.  She crosses her arms.  "Hm... Thought so.  The good stuff's buried deep in there.  Probably a precaution.  And here I forgot my wrench.  It'll take a bit of digging and disassembling to get at any of it."

The Guardians duo finally arrive at the satellite, the crates with parts stabilizing themselves to within a safe distance. Up close the whole thing was a lot larger, about the size of a farm silo but thinner. Shauna's innate flight ability proved very useful in moving around, though she still needed practice to stop, as she bumped belly into a piece of the satellite. "Ooof!" She took a moment to re-align herself, while grabbing onto some railing. Seems those simulators were just nowhere nearly as good as the real thing.

Her ability to project high intensity lasers meant she could cut through the wrecks and do welding works with amazing speed. "Man, moving in space rocks... if we didn't have a four hour job ahead of us." She said, now taking a moment to marvel at the curvature of the earth beside them, the European continent right below.

Taking apart all the loose wires and broken equipment with a hand generated plasma beam, Shauna would have the crates open and 3d projectors would tell the duo what part went where. Still, being a mere medical doctor she needed Vanguard's technical expertise.

"Okay I suppose I'll need help checking out the computers. Could you see what wires go where, I can't distinguish colors." She said, informing Vanguard of her impairment if he didn't already know.  

It took a few more minutes of busywork and chit chat before Shauna looked at the rest of the Satellite and realized she spotted someone. Someone else was here, in space?! That was definitely out of the ordinary. "Looks like we've got company. Gonna check it out." She went ahead first and went to meet Piper.

"Ahem. Hello there. And who might you be?" Shauna hailed Piper on an open comm channel, flying up and out to meet her, her special particles making a trail that made Shauna looked like some kind of disco-angel with wings made of green sparkles.

With a small amount of time the two would arrive at the shattered satellite and man was it shattered. Bits of asteroid as well as the satellite itself were floating around the wreckage, making him wonder more and more what had caused this kind of destruction. While one would state the obvious of it being a meteor, his gut was basically screaming that it was something more than a simple bit if space rock. Regardless, he was by no means clairvoyant, so a guess like that would remain insubstantial enough to really work on.

Despite how well aligned the suit seemed to be for flying in a situation like this, Colin felt almost at unease by the weightlessness that he felt. Add in the fact that everything around him was painfully silent, and that created fuel for a horror movie in the making. Which explained the entirety of the alien franchise, minus the horrible iterations. Shauna seemed to have more of a problem than him, bumping into a piece of the wreckage, though she had recovered quickly enough from that.

What removed the minute amount of terror he felt was looking to the earth that was well within view if he looked over. From this distance he could see the curvature of the planet, as well as just how large it was compared to him. The thought was humbling in a sense, though he didn’t quite have time for introspection. He would let Shauna take apart the stuff, he would do all of the assembling. Despite majoring in genetics, he wasn’t a push over when it came to mechanical things, and the suit would help with things he knew nothing about.

At this point it felt more like a glorified crutch more than anything else. The fact that she was colorblind did surprise him, but he wouldn’t go as far as to ask the question. ”Okay, I’m on it.” He said moving over to examine the computer, scanners running over them. This was both to check on the damage done, as well as just to see what went where. His crutch being used to its fullest. With that done, he would begin to work on replacing parts, wanting to get this over with as soon as possible, so he could return to…well atmosphere.

That being until Shauna said that she had actually seen someone out here. The possibility of them being alien crossed his mind, and having met Tsxero’s people he did not discount the possibility. She said that she would meet up with this unknown, meaning that he would get to continue working on whatever he was doing. ”Alright, be careful out there. They might be hostile or whatever.”

Piper closes the hologram of the satellite the instant she hears a voice, having been distracted by it.  "Dexter, luv... why didn't you tell me this one was approaching?"

YOU DID NOT ASK, MISS.

Piper sighs and cocks her head to the side.  "Remind me to give you an update when we get back to mum's," she says.  She abruptly turns around to face this woman and crosses her arms, sizing her up.  She holds her hand to her chin and hums a moment.  "Huh. So you're one of those Guardian bunch.  Regular Karno's Army, that lot, least from what I hear out 'n' about.  You don't look that bad.  Right pretty for someone in your line of work, yeah?"  Piper circles Shauna for a moment.  "Plus you're glowy! Huge plus, right? You have to concentrate to make the shapes? Oh, right. Probably a reflex for ya by now, huh?  I guess it's whatever.  Still.  Pretty, glowy, super type.  No bad points, there, at least."

Piper casually returns to fiddling with the satellite.  "Some gits call you bunch out.  Say you're as bad as the Plate Heads.  No fun, that lot.  All their march march chest thumping and gob flapping.  And their rules.  Swear, they all have ten foot poles up their nethers," she continues.  She seems to inspect the area in which the satellite was hit hardest, scanning manually with her holo-dex.  She stops for a moment and turns back to Shauna.  "Oh, right. You had a question, didn't you, luv?  I'm Piper. Hold a moment, all right?  Dexter damage analysis and diagnostic schematic."

RIGHT AWAY, MISS.

Dexter projects the hologram of the satellite once again, this time highlighting the damaged pieces.  "Beautiful," Piper says.  "I was passing and I saw the damaged satellite, so I decided to fix it.  'Some poor bloke down there's probably all bent outta shape over his internet bein' out,' I thought.  But surprise, surprise.  The satellite's A-Class tech. So I look closer and I see it belongs to you Guardian people.  I hear stuff about you, so I figure why not help fix it, yeah?"  Piper closes the schematic.  She glances over at the other guy in the power suit.  "Now that looks like some fancy tech. Not quite Omega-Class... S-Class, maybe?"  Piper turns back to Shauna.  "But I'm gettin' away from m'self, luv. Which valiant crusader is the pretty lady in front of me and how can Piper help her?"

The Sun Queen eventually lands on the satellite and kneels down to grab a hand rail, to avoid having to emit particles the whole time. Shauna's patience was tried when she allowed this cockney space cadet to start yammering away in her earpiece. To sum up, She claimed not to have had hostile intentions. Still, Shauna was always skeptical. "Uh-huh...." She nodded and listened as she monologued about being here to help.

Shauna radios Vanguard first, letting him hear Piper's chatter on the open channel. "You hearing this, Vanguard? We've got us some cockney junker from the Isles trying to ah, 'help' us with the satellite. Doesn't seem to have anyone else with her."

Shauna then turned towards Piper, her expression slightly hostile. She switches the channel to open, so the three of them could converse. It was quite an experience "Look. uhm... Piper was it? Yeah. I don't know about anyone from the Union Jack coming to help but... we ah... the Guardians kinda have things under control here. But I'll hear you out. What could you possibly want in return for helping us? Considering it's really, mighty strange to meet someone way out here."

Meanwhile, while the three conversed, something began to stir in the nearby asteroids... and in space, no one can hear you stir.

Colin was still skeptical about randomly meeting someone in space, especially around the Guardians ruined satellite of all things. Now the adage of no one can hear you scream in space came to mind, but luckily xenomorphs were not something he had to worry about, for two reasons. One of those being that they were in the vacuum of space and the second more because he had already met things that looked like them. Hearing the woman’s chatter upon his radio only made him annoyed by that accent she sported, as it made understanding half of what she said difficult if not impossible. ”I'm hearing it, and kinda wishing I wasn't.” While listening, he was still doing his part of the work, not that anyone would hear him complain about that.

The suit would inform him that the channel was sort of made open, so he didn't make any overly rude comments to the unknown space girl with a cockney accent. Which made him wonder how she even developed said accent, unless she was just from Earth like they were. Why she wanted to fix the satellite made little sense to him, but then again that was a gut feeling more than anything. Colin found it hard to trust random space girls “happening” upon the wreckage of satellites. ”Strange or convenient, one of the two.” Colin added in.

"In return?" Piper asks. There's a pause and Piper suddenly breaks into a giggle fit.  "What, like you've got credits on that rock, down there? I's all good, right? I, uh, don't need nothin'. Nothin' you can give me, anyway." She continues fiddling around with her Holodex and closes the satellite schematic, having had DEXTER make a copy she could sell later. Maybe even build her own model for whatever reason. She folds her arms, holding a hand to her chin and sizes the woman up then shrugs. "If ya don't need ol' Piper's help, ya don't need her. But ya know, glowy lady, you've got li'l Piper's name. Ya don't need to be about callin' me a 'Junker'. I's only polite. An' i's not like Big Ben's space program is anywhere near my league. " Piper gloats, almost mockingly as she continues to snicker inwardly.

She leans a bit closer to Shauna and looks the woman over, poking at the suit. "Huh. That's an all right little thing you've got on. Not quite like Gaellean Adapto-Fiber, but close, yeah? Oh, right. You probably dunno what I'm talkin' about. Well i's all right. Just me sayin' this suit's almost as impressive as what's underneath it." As part of her marvels at the suit, the other mentally undresses the person in it. If not for the oxygen mask, Piper would be biting her knuckle about now.

MISS.

Piper slips back a bit and presses a button on her Holodex. "Yes, luv?"

PERIODIC SPATIAL SCANS HAVE YIELDED ANOMALOUS RESULTS.

"Oh, yeah? What's the mishap?"

A SHIFT IN THE NEARBY ASTEROIDS.