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03-28-24 05:56 AM

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Water
Another McQuarrie adventure
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Water

 

01-28-12 12:53 PM
Argus Swift is Offline
| ID: 536641 | 4183 Words

Argus Swift
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I started this story with a plot in mind, but after a while, I realized the plot was silly. However, I liked how the introduction was shaping up so much that I continued to work on it anyways.

See, Venus Orbital Station McQuarrie had always been used amongst other RP'ers who had powers that rivaled that of gods. So, McQuarrie was often coming up with new technology and introducing new employees as the moment deemed fit. It got a tad.... Crazy after a while. (see: the old RP One Day. I'll link if desired)

In beginning the endeavour of Water (I can't recall why I called it that...), I set out to make it a beginner-friendly introduction to McQuarrie. And in doing so, I began strongly establishing the sections, personnel, technology and equipment that was ever present on the station. Hopefully, even people who have never heard of McQuarrie before could easily understand what it's about and be able to enjoy the setting and its people.

I'd like to run this by you guys, and if you could all tell me how I'm doing with that so far, I'd be much appreciated.












"Swift to Hanger. Who's in charge today?"

"That'd be Henry. Should I put you through to him?"

"That'd be swell of ya."

"Whaddya want, Swift?"

"Good to hear you too, Henry. How's your zipping going?"

"Slow as ass, whaddya expect?"

"On schedule as always for Hanger, then?"

"We're goin' as fast as we can, but there's a lot of s*** in here."

"I expected as much, Henry. Keep going best you can, and I'll let you know when it's go time."

"Damn well hope so. Good talkin' to ya, but I gotta go."





"Human resources, Manny here."

"Hey there, Manny. Swift here. How you doin'?"

"Improving. Still restricted to desk jobs."

"This one has been good, far as desk jobs go?"

"It'll do for now. I'm just glad to be able to move again, personally."

"Glad to hear it! Can't wait for the day you'll be able to run to your hearts content!"

"I didn't do much of that even before the incident."

"It's a great hobby. You should take it up again once you're able to again!"

"I'll keep that in mind..."

"Good man. By the by, is Kyra around?"

"No, she went to Action Stations already. Just me and Nigel here now."

"Ahh. How's the zipping coming along, then?"

"Ahead of schedule, hence why there's only two of us. Our digital backups are done, we're almost done locking the paper up in the filing cabinets, so we just have to head to Action Stations once we're done."

"Glad to hear it! Keep it up, Manny."




"Hey Min! How's the Archives zipping coming along?"

"It's processing, and I'm busy helping in Hanger. I'll call you when I have a second."

"Don't bother Min; I'll call you in 30."





"Mech Bay, Tiegro speaking."

"Eh? Why're you on phone duty, Tiegro?"

"Katya is busy, so she put me here."

"Sucky. Could you quickly tell me how the zipping is coming along, then?"

"Slowly. Those Mark 2 Loader mechs just don't transform to storage position at all quickly."

"That model makes up for it in other ways, though."

"Any other time, I'd happily take a Mark 2. But times like this make them a pain."

"Stick to it then, Tiegro. I'll check back in 40."





"Storage, Michael speaking."

"Micheal! Cousin! How are you?"

"No, we won't soon be smelling of titties."

"A shame, that. So long as your zipping is coming along good, I guess we can't complain too much."

"Cut me some slack there, Swift. You know zipping my area is the toughest out of all of them."

"Can you get me an ETA on completion? But Idunno, I bet Henry could give you a run for your money..."

"Coming right up. Ten thousand cubic meters in one big room, and you expect Henry to put up some kind of fight?"

"You keep things constantly organized, though. Jerry's the only one that ever TRIES to do that in Hanger."

"ETA is two and a half hours at the most. You oughta talk to them so they're better about that."

"Don't think I haven't tried. Two and a half? Perfect. Aim for two, but don't hurt nothing."

"Maybe you should let the Savvy Caribbean Man talk to them."

"I don't think you could accomplish much more than I have, Michael.

"I would still be willing to try."







"Galley here."

"Sempai! How's the zipping coming along?"

"We're zipping today?"

"I... Thought I told everyone."

"I must have missed the memo."

"Well, how long do you think it'll take to zip?"

"Uuuuhhhh..... From the looks of things, about an hour."

"You have plenty of time, then. Be ready in three hours, and everything will be golden."

"I'll make sure to do a double-good job, then."






"Hello, you've reached Natural Resources. This is Timo speaking."

"Hello yourself, Timo."

"Swift! Good to hear from you! How goes the zipping operations?"

"Mostly on schedule."

"In that case, I have good news for you! We're very nearly completed. The Ore safes are all locked up and sealed, Liquids is all pressurized, and Gas is all that's left."

"Fantastic to hear! Since you have so much time to spare, can you double-contain Gas? I don't want another Helium3 leak."

"We can surely do that!"

"Cool. When you're all done, send some of your crew to Hanger to help out, could you?"

"I'll be sure to."





"Hey, Broom. How's your zipping going?"

"Not too badly. All our Miner Claw's are detached from their asteroids, the minor asteroid bases are vacated, and we're almost done with Ceres."

"Excellent! I'll be sure to let Henry know he has Miner Claw's inbound."

"Don't worry about that; it's why we aren't done with Ceres yet."

"Um... They're supposed to go to Hanger..."

"Why can't we store them in Ceres? No shortage of room, that's for sure."

"It WOULD save Henry a headache... Fine fine, that'll work, but next time, run it by me first, a'ight?"

"You got it. Oh, and you have some Salvage Corvettes incoming, carrying a Drayman."

"Another shutdown?"

"Yep. I'd suggest scrapping the Drayman's. They're a good transport ship, but they're getting old."

"I'll run the idea by Nick and see what she says. Until then, the Drayman's stay."

"'cuz they're having trouble going."

"Don't talk like that, man. I like the Drayman's."

"Then how about flying one yourself, 'stead of taking your Pyro everywhere."

"I'll consider it. Swift out."






"This better be good."

"Hey Henry! Just letting you know that Broom has a dead Drayman coming in."

"Just what I f***ing need. I'm not gonna fix anymore goshdarn Drayman's."

"I'll talk to Nick about getting a new transport design underway."

"It'd make my f***ing day to take them apart."

"I'll let you know our verdict, then. After the zipping, of course."






"Min, got a second?"

"A little lower Scott, aaannnddd.... There! Close it up and seal. I got a call here. Yeah, Swift?"

"How's the Archives going?"

"Lemme check. Where is... Ah! 'scuse me, Dravis. I need to use your computer a quick second. Thank you! Lesse, accessing Archives network, patching in... Ah ha! It's done! I'll pop over there in a bit to do the manual stuff."

"Eh, don't worry about it, Min. Stay and help there, I'll handle it."

"Heeey, I'm not sure I trust you with my beloved archives."

"Then who *will* you trust?"

"Good point. Fine, you do it."

"I'll make a quick call and get on it."

"Don't forget now!"






"Hey, Tiegro."

"Tiegro busy. Is only Katya here."

"Zat so? I thought he said you were busy."

"After folding six Mark 2 Loader mechs at once, I'm taking a sit."

"Folding six Mark 2's... At once!?"

"Is easy with a good jump, dear Swift. Is two minutes between motions, so I jump to one, type in commands, then jump to next. I managed to do the work of six by myself."

"And each time takes a long string of text to punch into the command line. I'm guessing you didn't cheap out with copy-pasting?"

"Do I ever take shortcuts?"

"No, and don't ever change that. If you're done, could y-"

"Not done! We are doing one last check off."

"Another double check? Shouldn't be surprised. You're the master of double redundancy."

"What was that?"

"A fancy, unoffensive English word."

"Why use fancy words? I don't understand why English has to make so many things complicated."

"Me either. By the by, once you're all done, could you send, oh, half your crew to help out in Storage? Them and Hanger are running behind."

"Not surprise. I will have Tiegro and Shriker's crew over to Storage. Others to Action Station?"

"Da."

"Then it will be done."

"Dyedooshka, Katya."






Swift slowly removed the headset from his, er, head. He took a deep breath, leaning back in his chair. He took his sunglasses off, rubbed his eyes a little, then slowly stood. He strode slowly towards the door, familiar enough with his office that despite the pitch blackness he didn't bump into anything. Before he opened the door, he slipped his sunglasses back on, just in time for the rush of light from the bright hallway.

He strode at a liesurely pace down the steely corridors of his pride and joy; Venus Orbital Station McQuarrie. Usually people were met with some frequency when traversing down the hallways, but at this moment, when people were busy in specific sections, the hallways were deceptively calm and serene.

But still prone to bursts of activity. Down in the distance, the sound of a running march of many feet were heard. Swift leapt up to the handle bars that ran all along the length of the walls halfway between the roof and floors. A similar bar ran along the length of the roof as well, right in the middle. Originally placed with the purpose of aiding zero-gravity movement, should the generators fail, they've instead proved essential for moving around incoming crowds of people.

Swift placed both hands around the bar, pulled himself up, plopped his feet onto the bar, manuevered so his back was to the wall, then came to a precarious stand, his hair rubbing the top of the roof a little.

On the floor below him, a dozen-strong group of people charged past him. The group was led by Tiegro, and the pilots under his command were following behind him at the rather brisk pace their Sergeant set.

"Don't run'em ragged before they even GET there, Tiegro!" Swift called out in a sarcastic tone.

"They can handle a little jog!" He called back, not slowing his pace at all.

"Here's hoping!" Swift said loudly as the troupe went past. Even when working as a civilian, Tiegro's military background shined through. Swift watched them run off before he was about to hop down to the floor.

"Hm."

Instead of leaping down, he instead looked up to the rail that was placed in the middle of the roof.

"Haven't tried this in a while."

He leapt from the wall railing, to the bar on the roof. He latched on successfully, of course, steadied his swinging body, so he dangled mostly motionlessly, then started going hand-over-hand along the bar.

It was evident after half a minute that Swift hadn't done this in a while. He dropped to the floor with a roll, massaged his body a little while squatting, then stood and continued at a walk.

Hm... Usually I'm in such a hurry from place to place, I don't realize just how bare this corridor is.

Swift made a box with his fingers, squinted, shaped the box to a long and thin rectangle, and overlayed it on the wall.

Most of the hallways have windows like this... He maintained the long and thin rectangle shape. But I wonder about renovating this hallway... He heightened the box. With taller windows?

He closed his eyes and pictured this in his mind.

Well, why stop there, and just make the whole wall of isoglass?

He pictured this instead.

Much better.

He opened his eyes, slipped his hands into his pockets, and continued on. He began to whistle a little tune, adjusting his feet into short and fast steps, stamping slightly, as if poorly mimicing a drum.

"Fall iiinnnto the seeeaaaaa... Soon yooouuu will be freeeeee...."

Lost in his own rhythm, he one-man-band'd down the hall towards the West Wing of McQuarrie. He strode past Human Resources unknowingly, plodded beyond Processing Central, and almost completely missed Archives. He scooted backwards a few steps, spun on one foot and kicked the door to Archives open, and moonwalked inside. He shut the door with a flick of his heel, and straighted up to face the room.

Not much to the room... One wall was devoted to a sheet of Isoglass, which displayed a magnificent panoramic view of Venus. Immediately to the left of the door was a small counter, largely unused. Right in the middle of the room was a single laptop, wired to a one giant hard drive, which also served as the surface the laptop sat on.

Swift walked up to the laptop, and leaned over uncomfortably to use it.

"Dammit, Min. When're you gonna grow a little?" He muttered as he explored standing positions, to see which suited best. None worked too well, though..

Backup 100% complete. Excellent! Unmount the hard drive, remove it from power, secure it's station... Aaaand done! Nothing short of a black hole could break THIS baby.

His job complete, Swift brushed his hands of dust, stepped outside the room, shut and locked the door, then stood on the spot, pondering.

Where now...

He ran a mental catalogue of what was near.

Nearest is... Human Resources!

Swift set off at a light jog towards the offices.

Human Resources was the beaurocratic mind behind keeping track of all the employees, past, present and future. They had a software and paper storage of all McQuarrie workers of the past, of the currently employed, and of many potential and promising applicants. Alongside all that, they were the go-to center for any workspace concerns, safety issues, or even counselling.

All this and some more, accomplished by only ten well-trained, specialized and very busy people.

When Swift arrived and opened the door to their offices, he found it empty. They apparently had finished and headed for Action Stations. Excellent! Ahead of schedule. Swift purused the office, checking their zipping operations with his own inspection.

Paper locked down in the filing cabinets, all computers are off and secured in the storage room, and no one here. Presuming they backed up their data, it's all good here!

Swift headed out with a whistle, shut the door and locked it carefully, and headed down the hall. The next closest place was the Galley, but knowing Sempai, she'd put Swift to work as soon as he set foot in the kitchen. So, instead, Swift went to Natural Resources, by way of a scenic route that gave a wonderful view of not Venus, but of the starry sky that usually faced Earth.

The view from these windows didn't disappoint. Naturally, most of the windows of McQuarrie faced Venus, as its ever-turbulent atmosphere gave perpetually beautiful view, but sometimes, a good gaze in the other direction was refreshing. In this case, Swift spent a fair few minutes simply staring at the distant Pale Blue Dot of Earth. The stars surrounding it were beautiful, though they lacked the twinkle when seen from Earth. With no natural atmosphere to McQuarrie, the light from the stars were as static as when they travelled in the darkness of space.

No matter. Swift shook his head to clear his mind and continued on to Natural Resources.

He slowly opened the door and peeked in. He glanced around, and saw a mostly-empty Natural Resources. Other than a couple scattered workers near the airlocks, all was calm. He stepped in fully and shut the door. (Timo tended to get uppity about unclosed doors)

"Swift!" He jumped at the sudden exclamation of his name. "You decided to pay us a visit!"

Breathing quickened somewhat from the surprise, Swift turned to the cheery face of Timo and his intimidating lengths of regal blonde hair. The hearthrob of almost every woman (and some men) on McQuarrie, Timo's grand Finnish bloodline granted him skin fair enough for kings and a voice akin to angels. His mind was greatly attuned for organization and interpersonel relations, and was always a strict professional with a cheery attitude. His aptitude at chemistry was also well noted. All this combined made for a very qualified McQuarrie employee.

"Yes, Timo. I'm doing an in-person check on everyone's zipping operations."

"Very good!" Timo stood from the desk he had been sitting at and led Swift further into Natural Resources. "You'll find that everything is going precisely on schedule! As I reported earlier, the Ore Safes are locked up," Timo pointed to three large doors in the far wall. "All of Liquids are pressurized," He gestured to several very large tanks on the floor a distance away from them. "And as per your request, Gas has been sealed triple the usual to ensure safety!" He raised a finger overhead to many smaller tanks suspended on the cieling.

"Fantastic! What're those couple of workers over there up to?" Swift pointed to three people in Exo suits by the airlock that led to space.

"Checking the airlock doors to make sure they're sealed as tight as possible." Timo started heading towards them.

"Was that a good addition for you guys?" Swift asked with genuine concern, following Timo's step. "Henry and Nick were complaining about always taking the Asteroid Belt transport ships in Hanger, only to take'em through the hallways to here. 'Carting every damn bit of cargo from my Hanger to Naturalizer.', I believe Henry's words were."

"While it is very helpful and efficient to have the raw materials brought right to us, I admit that it is a small inconvenience. We suddenly have to take care of a full set of space Exo suits on top of our indoor Exo suits. My workers did not appreciate needing to learn a completely new maintenance protocol for space exo suits."

Swift's had outpaced Timo, and started walking backwards to keep eye contact. "All the exo suits we use on McQuarrie are rated for space anyways."

"No where in the Natural Resources Exo Suit Maintenance Guide was space travel testing mentioned."

"I may make that standard procedure for all Exo suit maintenance guides."

Timo paused in his step and looked into Swift's eyes. "Do you really think there will come a time that the indoor Exo suits will be out in space?"

Swift returned the gaze flatly. "I'd rather not need to worry about it should the day come."

Timo shrugged. "It just seems a little silly to use up so much of our time with procedures that may never be needed."

"I can agree with that. I won't make every Exo suit need to be space tested, but if I ever do, I may have some technicians from Mech Bay do the space testing instead of you guys. They have much more experience in space testing, anyways."

"Outsourcing the specialized labour. A wise plan!"

Swift smiled. "Ever the professional, aren't you Timo?"

The Scandinavian returned the smile. Somewhere on the station, a yaoi fangirl fainted in glee. "How else would I work?"

"Wouldn't have you any other way. When those guys at the airlock are done, could you send them to Hanger as well?"

"I planned to! Once we're done here, I'll go and help them out as well."

"You're so kind, Timo. I can trust you to carry on without my supervision, then?"

"Of course!"

"I never need to anyways. I'm going to check on Galley next. Good luck, and thanks again Timo!"

Swift exited as politely fast as possible. Timo was a fantastic worker, and an impeccable organizer, but his memory was excellent as well, and meant that he tended to gloss over details that quite frankly didn't impact Swift that much.

He strolled onwards to Galley. It was a round-about way to get there, but not a wholly inefficient one.

With a cheery song he strolled into Galley, arms swinging with a gay merriment. (Swift is from Canada, after all) "Sempai! How goes the zipping?"

Swift looked around to find... Only Sempai herself in the whole giant kitchen. She was sitting on a counter, checking things off on a clipboard. How she could see, Swift didn't know, as the lights were dimmed very low. He paused his step a second once he remembered he had sunglasses on...

"Almost done, I can see." Swift said casually as he glanced all around. All the pots and pans were stored in locked cupboards, the utensils safely housed in their drawers, condiments, spices, garnishes, refrigerator contents, freezer stock, all safely contained and clean.

Swift had to let out an impressed whistle. "You never cease to amaze, Sempai. Less than an hour, and your whole area is completely zipped! Is that a record time?"

"Yes. 53 minutes." She was still focused on the clipboard.

"A record for you, and I think a record for all of McQuarrie..." Swift checked the stove. Gas was off, good. Couldn't be too sure. "Everyone's at Action Stations, then?"

"Yes."

"And you've double checked everything?"

"Yes."

"You and your attention span. What does that clipboard have that's so engaging, anyways?"

Silence.

"Ohhh, Sempai. Can tell you're a programmer just by how you look at a to-do list." Swift started heading for the door. "I trust you've got everything done. I'll head out to check on storage."

Swift opened the door, and immediately wheeled around, cocking a pretend shotgun and pointing it into Galley. Sempai was there, brandishing a non-existant sword.

"You're quick as ever." Sempai said simply.

"Almost got the drop on me that time!"

Sempai thrusted her 'blade' at Swift. He hopped to the side to dodge and tried to line up a shot. He had to deflect the blade with his shotgun, and tried to kick her back a little. She avoided, latched onto his leg with an arm. Swift had superior girth, and used it to slam Sempai into a wall. Before he could get another shot ready the sword had been swung to his head. He quickly whipped the shotgun to the blade and said "Bang."

Sempai reacted accordingly, throwing aside the now broken 'sword.' Swift was about to aim again at her, but she had let go of his leg and lunged towards him. Like a snake on its prey, her hand whipped towards Swift's wrists. Swift manage to avoid the grip of one of them, but the wrist with the hand that was on the barrel of the 'gun' was trapped within her grasp. Swift swung his head forward and headbutted Sempai with the top of his cranium. Taken aback, she reeled a little, but the grip on Swift's wrist remained as ironclad as before. With his free hand gripping the handle of the gun, he swung it at Sempai's arm as hard as he could. She reacted by making no cry of pain, but by grabbing his other wrist. The lightning grip latched tightly, and she squeezed like a vice. So tight that Swift couldn't keep his hand in a closed position. He imagined the shotgun falling to the ground. Seeing the trouble when a hand-to-hand expert like Sempai had him by both the wrists, Swift used his greater size to launch himself backwards. Using every ounce of strength possible, he started trying to sprint backwards. With the sudden acceleration, Sempai couldn't get a proper grounding and was drug along. Swift zig-zagged back and forth, his speed only marginally reduced by dragging along a fully grown human.

Suddenly, he stopped running. He thrust himself forward, and pushed Sempai to the floor with him on top. The impact knocked the wind out of her, and for just a fleeting instant, her grip reduced. Swift flung his great armspan wide, snapping one his wrists out of her hand.

He pushed himself up to a stand, and again ran back to where he'd dropped his shotgun. Sempai managed to bring herself to a stand and started dragging against the ground. Swift had the greater heft and leg strength, and he managed to get to the shotgun. He reached down, grabbed it, wheeled it up in an arc, placing the barrel of it on his grappled arm, and immediately said "Bang."

She laughed a little, not appearing physically fazed at all. "You win."

Swift was panting. "Ha! For once!" She let go of her grip, and Swift let his arms hang limply. "Though if there was any kind of distance to begin with, I would have won."

"You had a gun. Of course."










Aaaaand that's all I have so far. Any comments, questions, critiques, etc, is vastly and greatly appreciated. =D
I started this story with a plot in mind, but after a while, I realized the plot was silly. However, I liked how the introduction was shaping up so much that I continued to work on it anyways.

See, Venus Orbital Station McQuarrie had always been used amongst other RP'ers who had powers that rivaled that of gods. So, McQuarrie was often coming up with new technology and introducing new employees as the moment deemed fit. It got a tad.... Crazy after a while. (see: the old RP One Day. I'll link if desired)

In beginning the endeavour of Water (I can't recall why I called it that...), I set out to make it a beginner-friendly introduction to McQuarrie. And in doing so, I began strongly establishing the sections, personnel, technology and equipment that was ever present on the station. Hopefully, even people who have never heard of McQuarrie before could easily understand what it's about and be able to enjoy the setting and its people.

I'd like to run this by you guys, and if you could all tell me how I'm doing with that so far, I'd be much appreciated.












"Swift to Hanger. Who's in charge today?"

"That'd be Henry. Should I put you through to him?"

"That'd be swell of ya."

"Whaddya want, Swift?"

"Good to hear you too, Henry. How's your zipping going?"

"Slow as ass, whaddya expect?"

"On schedule as always for Hanger, then?"

"We're goin' as fast as we can, but there's a lot of s*** in here."

"I expected as much, Henry. Keep going best you can, and I'll let you know when it's go time."

"Damn well hope so. Good talkin' to ya, but I gotta go."





"Human resources, Manny here."

"Hey there, Manny. Swift here. How you doin'?"

"Improving. Still restricted to desk jobs."

"This one has been good, far as desk jobs go?"

"It'll do for now. I'm just glad to be able to move again, personally."

"Glad to hear it! Can't wait for the day you'll be able to run to your hearts content!"

"I didn't do much of that even before the incident."

"It's a great hobby. You should take it up again once you're able to again!"

"I'll keep that in mind..."

"Good man. By the by, is Kyra around?"

"No, she went to Action Stations already. Just me and Nigel here now."

"Ahh. How's the zipping coming along, then?"

"Ahead of schedule, hence why there's only two of us. Our digital backups are done, we're almost done locking the paper up in the filing cabinets, so we just have to head to Action Stations once we're done."

"Glad to hear it! Keep it up, Manny."




"Hey Min! How's the Archives zipping coming along?"

"It's processing, and I'm busy helping in Hanger. I'll call you when I have a second."

"Don't bother Min; I'll call you in 30."





"Mech Bay, Tiegro speaking."

"Eh? Why're you on phone duty, Tiegro?"

"Katya is busy, so she put me here."

"Sucky. Could you quickly tell me how the zipping is coming along, then?"

"Slowly. Those Mark 2 Loader mechs just don't transform to storage position at all quickly."

"That model makes up for it in other ways, though."

"Any other time, I'd happily take a Mark 2. But times like this make them a pain."

"Stick to it then, Tiegro. I'll check back in 40."





"Storage, Michael speaking."

"Micheal! Cousin! How are you?"

"No, we won't soon be smelling of titties."

"A shame, that. So long as your zipping is coming along good, I guess we can't complain too much."

"Cut me some slack there, Swift. You know zipping my area is the toughest out of all of them."

"Can you get me an ETA on completion? But Idunno, I bet Henry could give you a run for your money..."

"Coming right up. Ten thousand cubic meters in one big room, and you expect Henry to put up some kind of fight?"

"You keep things constantly organized, though. Jerry's the only one that ever TRIES to do that in Hanger."

"ETA is two and a half hours at the most. You oughta talk to them so they're better about that."

"Don't think I haven't tried. Two and a half? Perfect. Aim for two, but don't hurt nothing."

"Maybe you should let the Savvy Caribbean Man talk to them."

"I don't think you could accomplish much more than I have, Michael.

"I would still be willing to try."







"Galley here."

"Sempai! How's the zipping coming along?"

"We're zipping today?"

"I... Thought I told everyone."

"I must have missed the memo."

"Well, how long do you think it'll take to zip?"

"Uuuuhhhh..... From the looks of things, about an hour."

"You have plenty of time, then. Be ready in three hours, and everything will be golden."

"I'll make sure to do a double-good job, then."






"Hello, you've reached Natural Resources. This is Timo speaking."

"Hello yourself, Timo."

"Swift! Good to hear from you! How goes the zipping operations?"

"Mostly on schedule."

"In that case, I have good news for you! We're very nearly completed. The Ore safes are all locked up and sealed, Liquids is all pressurized, and Gas is all that's left."

"Fantastic to hear! Since you have so much time to spare, can you double-contain Gas? I don't want another Helium3 leak."

"We can surely do that!"

"Cool. When you're all done, send some of your crew to Hanger to help out, could you?"

"I'll be sure to."





"Hey, Broom. How's your zipping going?"

"Not too badly. All our Miner Claw's are detached from their asteroids, the minor asteroid bases are vacated, and we're almost done with Ceres."

"Excellent! I'll be sure to let Henry know he has Miner Claw's inbound."

"Don't worry about that; it's why we aren't done with Ceres yet."

"Um... They're supposed to go to Hanger..."

"Why can't we store them in Ceres? No shortage of room, that's for sure."

"It WOULD save Henry a headache... Fine fine, that'll work, but next time, run it by me first, a'ight?"

"You got it. Oh, and you have some Salvage Corvettes incoming, carrying a Drayman."

"Another shutdown?"

"Yep. I'd suggest scrapping the Drayman's. They're a good transport ship, but they're getting old."

"I'll run the idea by Nick and see what she says. Until then, the Drayman's stay."

"'cuz they're having trouble going."

"Don't talk like that, man. I like the Drayman's."

"Then how about flying one yourself, 'stead of taking your Pyro everywhere."

"I'll consider it. Swift out."






"This better be good."

"Hey Henry! Just letting you know that Broom has a dead Drayman coming in."

"Just what I f***ing need. I'm not gonna fix anymore goshdarn Drayman's."

"I'll talk to Nick about getting a new transport design underway."

"It'd make my f***ing day to take them apart."

"I'll let you know our verdict, then. After the zipping, of course."






"Min, got a second?"

"A little lower Scott, aaannnddd.... There! Close it up and seal. I got a call here. Yeah, Swift?"

"How's the Archives going?"

"Lemme check. Where is... Ah! 'scuse me, Dravis. I need to use your computer a quick second. Thank you! Lesse, accessing Archives network, patching in... Ah ha! It's done! I'll pop over there in a bit to do the manual stuff."

"Eh, don't worry about it, Min. Stay and help there, I'll handle it."

"Heeey, I'm not sure I trust you with my beloved archives."

"Then who *will* you trust?"

"Good point. Fine, you do it."

"I'll make a quick call and get on it."

"Don't forget now!"






"Hey, Tiegro."

"Tiegro busy. Is only Katya here."

"Zat so? I thought he said you were busy."

"After folding six Mark 2 Loader mechs at once, I'm taking a sit."

"Folding six Mark 2's... At once!?"

"Is easy with a good jump, dear Swift. Is two minutes between motions, so I jump to one, type in commands, then jump to next. I managed to do the work of six by myself."

"And each time takes a long string of text to punch into the command line. I'm guessing you didn't cheap out with copy-pasting?"

"Do I ever take shortcuts?"

"No, and don't ever change that. If you're done, could y-"

"Not done! We are doing one last check off."

"Another double check? Shouldn't be surprised. You're the master of double redundancy."

"What was that?"

"A fancy, unoffensive English word."

"Why use fancy words? I don't understand why English has to make so many things complicated."

"Me either. By the by, once you're all done, could you send, oh, half your crew to help out in Storage? Them and Hanger are running behind."

"Not surprise. I will have Tiegro and Shriker's crew over to Storage. Others to Action Station?"

"Da."

"Then it will be done."

"Dyedooshka, Katya."






Swift slowly removed the headset from his, er, head. He took a deep breath, leaning back in his chair. He took his sunglasses off, rubbed his eyes a little, then slowly stood. He strode slowly towards the door, familiar enough with his office that despite the pitch blackness he didn't bump into anything. Before he opened the door, he slipped his sunglasses back on, just in time for the rush of light from the bright hallway.

He strode at a liesurely pace down the steely corridors of his pride and joy; Venus Orbital Station McQuarrie. Usually people were met with some frequency when traversing down the hallways, but at this moment, when people were busy in specific sections, the hallways were deceptively calm and serene.

But still prone to bursts of activity. Down in the distance, the sound of a running march of many feet were heard. Swift leapt up to the handle bars that ran all along the length of the walls halfway between the roof and floors. A similar bar ran along the length of the roof as well, right in the middle. Originally placed with the purpose of aiding zero-gravity movement, should the generators fail, they've instead proved essential for moving around incoming crowds of people.

Swift placed both hands around the bar, pulled himself up, plopped his feet onto the bar, manuevered so his back was to the wall, then came to a precarious stand, his hair rubbing the top of the roof a little.

On the floor below him, a dozen-strong group of people charged past him. The group was led by Tiegro, and the pilots under his command were following behind him at the rather brisk pace their Sergeant set.

"Don't run'em ragged before they even GET there, Tiegro!" Swift called out in a sarcastic tone.

"They can handle a little jog!" He called back, not slowing his pace at all.

"Here's hoping!" Swift said loudly as the troupe went past. Even when working as a civilian, Tiegro's military background shined through. Swift watched them run off before he was about to hop down to the floor.

"Hm."

Instead of leaping down, he instead looked up to the rail that was placed in the middle of the roof.

"Haven't tried this in a while."

He leapt from the wall railing, to the bar on the roof. He latched on successfully, of course, steadied his swinging body, so he dangled mostly motionlessly, then started going hand-over-hand along the bar.

It was evident after half a minute that Swift hadn't done this in a while. He dropped to the floor with a roll, massaged his body a little while squatting, then stood and continued at a walk.

Hm... Usually I'm in such a hurry from place to place, I don't realize just how bare this corridor is.

Swift made a box with his fingers, squinted, shaped the box to a long and thin rectangle, and overlayed it on the wall.

Most of the hallways have windows like this... He maintained the long and thin rectangle shape. But I wonder about renovating this hallway... He heightened the box. With taller windows?

He closed his eyes and pictured this in his mind.

Well, why stop there, and just make the whole wall of isoglass?

He pictured this instead.

Much better.

He opened his eyes, slipped his hands into his pockets, and continued on. He began to whistle a little tune, adjusting his feet into short and fast steps, stamping slightly, as if poorly mimicing a drum.

"Fall iiinnnto the seeeaaaaa... Soon yooouuu will be freeeeee...."

Lost in his own rhythm, he one-man-band'd down the hall towards the West Wing of McQuarrie. He strode past Human Resources unknowingly, plodded beyond Processing Central, and almost completely missed Archives. He scooted backwards a few steps, spun on one foot and kicked the door to Archives open, and moonwalked inside. He shut the door with a flick of his heel, and straighted up to face the room.

Not much to the room... One wall was devoted to a sheet of Isoglass, which displayed a magnificent panoramic view of Venus. Immediately to the left of the door was a small counter, largely unused. Right in the middle of the room was a single laptop, wired to a one giant hard drive, which also served as the surface the laptop sat on.

Swift walked up to the laptop, and leaned over uncomfortably to use it.

"Dammit, Min. When're you gonna grow a little?" He muttered as he explored standing positions, to see which suited best. None worked too well, though..

Backup 100% complete. Excellent! Unmount the hard drive, remove it from power, secure it's station... Aaaand done! Nothing short of a black hole could break THIS baby.

His job complete, Swift brushed his hands of dust, stepped outside the room, shut and locked the door, then stood on the spot, pondering.

Where now...

He ran a mental catalogue of what was near.

Nearest is... Human Resources!

Swift set off at a light jog towards the offices.

Human Resources was the beaurocratic mind behind keeping track of all the employees, past, present and future. They had a software and paper storage of all McQuarrie workers of the past, of the currently employed, and of many potential and promising applicants. Alongside all that, they were the go-to center for any workspace concerns, safety issues, or even counselling.

All this and some more, accomplished by only ten well-trained, specialized and very busy people.

When Swift arrived and opened the door to their offices, he found it empty. They apparently had finished and headed for Action Stations. Excellent! Ahead of schedule. Swift purused the office, checking their zipping operations with his own inspection.

Paper locked down in the filing cabinets, all computers are off and secured in the storage room, and no one here. Presuming they backed up their data, it's all good here!

Swift headed out with a whistle, shut the door and locked it carefully, and headed down the hall. The next closest place was the Galley, but knowing Sempai, she'd put Swift to work as soon as he set foot in the kitchen. So, instead, Swift went to Natural Resources, by way of a scenic route that gave a wonderful view of not Venus, but of the starry sky that usually faced Earth.

The view from these windows didn't disappoint. Naturally, most of the windows of McQuarrie faced Venus, as its ever-turbulent atmosphere gave perpetually beautiful view, but sometimes, a good gaze in the other direction was refreshing. In this case, Swift spent a fair few minutes simply staring at the distant Pale Blue Dot of Earth. The stars surrounding it were beautiful, though they lacked the twinkle when seen from Earth. With no natural atmosphere to McQuarrie, the light from the stars were as static as when they travelled in the darkness of space.

No matter. Swift shook his head to clear his mind and continued on to Natural Resources.

He slowly opened the door and peeked in. He glanced around, and saw a mostly-empty Natural Resources. Other than a couple scattered workers near the airlocks, all was calm. He stepped in fully and shut the door. (Timo tended to get uppity about unclosed doors)

"Swift!" He jumped at the sudden exclamation of his name. "You decided to pay us a visit!"

Breathing quickened somewhat from the surprise, Swift turned to the cheery face of Timo and his intimidating lengths of regal blonde hair. The hearthrob of almost every woman (and some men) on McQuarrie, Timo's grand Finnish bloodline granted him skin fair enough for kings and a voice akin to angels. His mind was greatly attuned for organization and interpersonel relations, and was always a strict professional with a cheery attitude. His aptitude at chemistry was also well noted. All this combined made for a very qualified McQuarrie employee.

"Yes, Timo. I'm doing an in-person check on everyone's zipping operations."

"Very good!" Timo stood from the desk he had been sitting at and led Swift further into Natural Resources. "You'll find that everything is going precisely on schedule! As I reported earlier, the Ore Safes are locked up," Timo pointed to three large doors in the far wall. "All of Liquids are pressurized," He gestured to several very large tanks on the floor a distance away from them. "And as per your request, Gas has been sealed triple the usual to ensure safety!" He raised a finger overhead to many smaller tanks suspended on the cieling.

"Fantastic! What're those couple of workers over there up to?" Swift pointed to three people in Exo suits by the airlock that led to space.

"Checking the airlock doors to make sure they're sealed as tight as possible." Timo started heading towards them.

"Was that a good addition for you guys?" Swift asked with genuine concern, following Timo's step. "Henry and Nick were complaining about always taking the Asteroid Belt transport ships in Hanger, only to take'em through the hallways to here. 'Carting every damn bit of cargo from my Hanger to Naturalizer.', I believe Henry's words were."

"While it is very helpful and efficient to have the raw materials brought right to us, I admit that it is a small inconvenience. We suddenly have to take care of a full set of space Exo suits on top of our indoor Exo suits. My workers did not appreciate needing to learn a completely new maintenance protocol for space exo suits."

Swift's had outpaced Timo, and started walking backwards to keep eye contact. "All the exo suits we use on McQuarrie are rated for space anyways."

"No where in the Natural Resources Exo Suit Maintenance Guide was space travel testing mentioned."

"I may make that standard procedure for all Exo suit maintenance guides."

Timo paused in his step and looked into Swift's eyes. "Do you really think there will come a time that the indoor Exo suits will be out in space?"

Swift returned the gaze flatly. "I'd rather not need to worry about it should the day come."

Timo shrugged. "It just seems a little silly to use up so much of our time with procedures that may never be needed."

"I can agree with that. I won't make every Exo suit need to be space tested, but if I ever do, I may have some technicians from Mech Bay do the space testing instead of you guys. They have much more experience in space testing, anyways."

"Outsourcing the specialized labour. A wise plan!"

Swift smiled. "Ever the professional, aren't you Timo?"

The Scandinavian returned the smile. Somewhere on the station, a yaoi fangirl fainted in glee. "How else would I work?"

"Wouldn't have you any other way. When those guys at the airlock are done, could you send them to Hanger as well?"

"I planned to! Once we're done here, I'll go and help them out as well."

"You're so kind, Timo. I can trust you to carry on without my supervision, then?"

"Of course!"

"I never need to anyways. I'm going to check on Galley next. Good luck, and thanks again Timo!"

Swift exited as politely fast as possible. Timo was a fantastic worker, and an impeccable organizer, but his memory was excellent as well, and meant that he tended to gloss over details that quite frankly didn't impact Swift that much.

He strolled onwards to Galley. It was a round-about way to get there, but not a wholly inefficient one.

With a cheery song he strolled into Galley, arms swinging with a gay merriment. (Swift is from Canada, after all) "Sempai! How goes the zipping?"

Swift looked around to find... Only Sempai herself in the whole giant kitchen. She was sitting on a counter, checking things off on a clipboard. How she could see, Swift didn't know, as the lights were dimmed very low. He paused his step a second once he remembered he had sunglasses on...

"Almost done, I can see." Swift said casually as he glanced all around. All the pots and pans were stored in locked cupboards, the utensils safely housed in their drawers, condiments, spices, garnishes, refrigerator contents, freezer stock, all safely contained and clean.

Swift had to let out an impressed whistle. "You never cease to amaze, Sempai. Less than an hour, and your whole area is completely zipped! Is that a record time?"

"Yes. 53 minutes." She was still focused on the clipboard.

"A record for you, and I think a record for all of McQuarrie..." Swift checked the stove. Gas was off, good. Couldn't be too sure. "Everyone's at Action Stations, then?"

"Yes."

"And you've double checked everything?"

"Yes."

"You and your attention span. What does that clipboard have that's so engaging, anyways?"

Silence.

"Ohhh, Sempai. Can tell you're a programmer just by how you look at a to-do list." Swift started heading for the door. "I trust you've got everything done. I'll head out to check on storage."

Swift opened the door, and immediately wheeled around, cocking a pretend shotgun and pointing it into Galley. Sempai was there, brandishing a non-existant sword.

"You're quick as ever." Sempai said simply.

"Almost got the drop on me that time!"

Sempai thrusted her 'blade' at Swift. He hopped to the side to dodge and tried to line up a shot. He had to deflect the blade with his shotgun, and tried to kick her back a little. She avoided, latched onto his leg with an arm. Swift had superior girth, and used it to slam Sempai into a wall. Before he could get another shot ready the sword had been swung to his head. He quickly whipped the shotgun to the blade and said "Bang."

Sempai reacted accordingly, throwing aside the now broken 'sword.' Swift was about to aim again at her, but she had let go of his leg and lunged towards him. Like a snake on its prey, her hand whipped towards Swift's wrists. Swift manage to avoid the grip of one of them, but the wrist with the hand that was on the barrel of the 'gun' was trapped within her grasp. Swift swung his head forward and headbutted Sempai with the top of his cranium. Taken aback, she reeled a little, but the grip on Swift's wrist remained as ironclad as before. With his free hand gripping the handle of the gun, he swung it at Sempai's arm as hard as he could. She reacted by making no cry of pain, but by grabbing his other wrist. The lightning grip latched tightly, and she squeezed like a vice. So tight that Swift couldn't keep his hand in a closed position. He imagined the shotgun falling to the ground. Seeing the trouble when a hand-to-hand expert like Sempai had him by both the wrists, Swift used his greater size to launch himself backwards. Using every ounce of strength possible, he started trying to sprint backwards. With the sudden acceleration, Sempai couldn't get a proper grounding and was drug along. Swift zig-zagged back and forth, his speed only marginally reduced by dragging along a fully grown human.

Suddenly, he stopped running. He thrust himself forward, and pushed Sempai to the floor with him on top. The impact knocked the wind out of her, and for just a fleeting instant, her grip reduced. Swift flung his great armspan wide, snapping one his wrists out of her hand.

He pushed himself up to a stand, and again ran back to where he'd dropped his shotgun. Sempai managed to bring herself to a stand and started dragging against the ground. Swift had the greater heft and leg strength, and he managed to get to the shotgun. He reached down, grabbed it, wheeled it up in an arc, placing the barrel of it on his grappled arm, and immediately said "Bang."

She laughed a little, not appearing physically fazed at all. "You win."

Swift was panting. "Ha! For once!" She let go of her grip, and Swift let his arms hang limply. "Though if there was any kind of distance to begin with, I would have won."

"You had a gun. Of course."










Aaaaand that's all I have so far. Any comments, questions, critiques, etc, is vastly and greatly appreciated. =D
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01-28-12 01:34 PM
Lazlo Falconi is Offline
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Lazlo Falconi
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You know, I don't think I've ever actually told you what I think of Water... Well, here goes. That beginning... I don't mean to be harsh, but you know me, I'm just a blunt guy who calls 'em likes I sees 'em. That intro is really rough. It's got a lot of back and forth banter between characters without a lot of context. For instance, let's take a look at the first two lines of this.



"Swift to Hanger. Who's in charge today?"

"That'd be Henry. Should I put you through to him?"



Who's saying that? We know "Swift" is talking first, but, like you said, this is supposed to be an intro, so who is Swift? You never really get to explaining that, other than that he owns the place. And then who replies to him? I always assumed it was Minion, but again, that's only because I know the McQuarrie, better than anyone (In some areas, even better than you XD)

But other than that, I do like how this sort of just compounds all of the characters into one setting--except you forgot Chronnister. And you didn't even mention the Command Centre! Although to be fair, those were never really part of YOUR vision of McQuarrie...


Dude, we really need to work on a collaborative effort for McQuarrie--I mean, aside from One Day/Another Day. Because we do sort of have the relationship that Argus and Chronnister have--that being you with dealing with the big picture stuff, the overall success of McQuarrie, and me dealing with the day-to-day nitty-gritty stuff.
You know, I don't think I've ever actually told you what I think of Water... Well, here goes. That beginning... I don't mean to be harsh, but you know me, I'm just a blunt guy who calls 'em likes I sees 'em. That intro is really rough. It's got a lot of back and forth banter between characters without a lot of context. For instance, let's take a look at the first two lines of this.



"Swift to Hanger. Who's in charge today?"

"That'd be Henry. Should I put you through to him?"



Who's saying that? We know "Swift" is talking first, but, like you said, this is supposed to be an intro, so who is Swift? You never really get to explaining that, other than that he owns the place. And then who replies to him? I always assumed it was Minion, but again, that's only because I know the McQuarrie, better than anyone (In some areas, even better than you XD)

But other than that, I do like how this sort of just compounds all of the characters into one setting--except you forgot Chronnister. And you didn't even mention the Command Centre! Although to be fair, those were never really part of YOUR vision of McQuarrie...


Dude, we really need to work on a collaborative effort for McQuarrie--I mean, aside from One Day/Another Day. Because we do sort of have the relationship that Argus and Chronnister have--that being you with dealing with the big picture stuff, the overall success of McQuarrie, and me dealing with the day-to-day nitty-gritty stuff.
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01-29-12 12:29 AM
Argus Swift is Offline
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Lazlo Falconi : Well, the beginning back and forth banner was quite on purpose. Call it an attempt at an In Medias Res introduction.

Good point, though... I don't really give any sort of introduction to Swift, nor even a glance at any kind of origin or reason to the McQuarrie. Should probably add that somewhere...

Well, I thought about putting in Chronnister, but since he was always your guy, I felt bad putting him in.


Though yeah, I like to think that I could do the day-to-day stuff with McQuarrie, but I really can't. My mind isn't suited at all to writing that stuff.
Lazlo Falconi : Well, the beginning back and forth banner was quite on purpose. Call it an attempt at an In Medias Res introduction.

Good point, though... I don't really give any sort of introduction to Swift, nor even a glance at any kind of origin or reason to the McQuarrie. Should probably add that somewhere...

Well, I thought about putting in Chronnister, but since he was always your guy, I felt bad putting him in.


Though yeah, I like to think that I could do the day-to-day stuff with McQuarrie, but I really can't. My mind isn't suited at all to writing that stuff.
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