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[S34N1C]

Now run away. They have an inkling that we might be unhostile, and given some time, they should figure it out. Buuut, for the meantime, run off into empty space.

+1

[Chiefwaffles]

Nope. You're not dealing with this right now. You take manual control and turn the throttle up to max, zipping yourself out of there. Strangely enough, they don't appear to be firing. In just a tiny amount of time, a pleasant ping indicates the intrasystem FTL portion of the Teardrive being charged. You activate it and reality folds in onto itself and you approach the orbit of the sun at unreal speeds.

You arrive unharmed, of course. A check at the pinned Teardrive diagnostics shows that the input of gravitational strain is back to "Normal" (normal being the alerting levels seen when you first opened diagnostics) and steadily increasing just as expected. You take some comfort in the fact that you at least know your eventual cause of death. But back to the situation at hand.

Sensors readings don't show any one following you using any kind of Teardrive-related tech, and since that's probably the only method of FTL, you think you're safe from pursuit. At present moment, the ship is "parked" in orbit around the sun in roughly the same position from which you left to head to the ice planet. The debris field is still quite close by as well. The sensors assure you that there is in fact no kind of craft detected nearby. So you have some time to think up your next action.

2 systems away from next Waypoint.

Spoiler: You (click to show/hide)

Wearing: Mothership Engineer Uniform

[KiwiOui]

Go back to the battle's wreckage, and see if you pick up any signals, or find larger and more significant chunks of wreckage.

[Carefulrogue]

Did we just commit to an in system jump?

Given we are still relatively close to the battle wreckage, enter a running dark mode for approximately 1 hour.  Scan for ships salvaging the battle wreckage.  If none, explore the field.

[Chiefwaffles]

After confirming that yes, you did make an in-system jump (though you wouldn't say "jump") with the Teardrive, you turn off most "non-need-to-not-die" systems and wait for a bit. While you wait, you consider how the inner-system plots work. The fact that inner-system routes require a miniscule portion of the distance or speed of a proper intersystem route, the Teardrive can handle it easily without blowing up.

Once this is done and you're sure that if they followed you or knew where you went they'd be here by now, you carefully enter the debris field. It's fairly standard stuff. Bits of ruinied metal float serenely past your ship along with an occasional larger surviving portion. Nothing in particular strikes your eye until the Teardrive Diagnostics indicate a larger measured strain input.

The increase isn't worrying in and out of itself, but it does signify something. Using some quick thinking and a more hidden function of the Teardrive Diagnostics, you manage to get a rough approximation of where this increase is coming from. Whereas most of the waves come from beyond your local area, the increase in input also corresponded with a nearby source. It isn't a precise location, but maneuvering close to it reveals a large hunk of wreckage.

You don your Vacuum Suit and exit the "parked" Emergency Ship. You gently push off towards the direction of the wreckage and arrive at it fairly quick given how close you left the ship. You crawl along the wreckage until you come to a slightly ajar door that you manage to pry open with some effort. Behind it is something else entirely...

It's some kind of reactor. A large room with an open space in the middle, and in the middle of that space some kind of pillar resembling something important. This kind of architechture just screams something reactor-like. What with the wires coming out and all. It's definitely not running and you can't really mess with the systems given the fact that this room is completely severed from the rest of the remains of the ship, but it's something notable.

Perhaps this has something to do with your Gravitational Absorber's issue? It couldn't be this thing entirely given that it's obviously offline and just a miniscule source, but it's a lead.

2 systems away from next Waypoint.

Spoiler: You (click to show/hide)

Wearing: Vacuum Suit & Mothership Engineer Uniform

[S34N1C]

I don't know what we should do, but I don't want this to die so soon. Anyone?

[Dustan Hache]

Most likely it is some sort of tear drive reactor, meaning the ship failed a jump and overloaded itself. It's not ours, most likely, which means it belongs to an alien race capable of building teardrives themselves, and possibly on a larger scale. Regardless, we need to figure out some way to disperse the strain on it and turn it on, otherwise it may keep trying to generate a tear and self-destruct our ship in the process.

[VoidSlayer]

Alternatively it could be some sort generator that uses the same tech as a teardrive without actually engaging FTL.  We do not have any proof this system has FTL ships yet.  If that is the case maybe all the worlds in this system use these "subspace generators" and the massed strain is what is hurting our drive.

They did just use some sort of singularity weapon, maybe they just have really early poorly functioning teardrive-like power sources.

We should try and get back in touch.

[Carefulrogue]

All we really need to do is salvage a heat sink (or whatever we'd like to call the part.)  If we can find something similar in the alien tech, great.  But let's start slowly.  The alien tech I'd say we should examine carefully.

I leave the rest you you guys.

[Chiefwaffles]

I'm perfectly willing to continue updating given some actual actions.
If no one replies I may just interpret VoidSlayer's "We should try and get back in touch" and go based off of that, but more specific/explicit actions would be great.

[crazyabe]

PTW.

[Dustan Hache]

examine/attempt to destroy the reactor thing.

[Carefulrogue]

examine/attempt to destroy the reactor thing.

-1 ABSOLUTELY NOT

Edit:
Examine the reactor.  Search for potential replacement for the "heat sink."

[wer6]

While we are in that reactor area, note any interfaces and extra emergency supplies that may be in the chunk of space ship.

[Chiefwaffles]

You start a more careful examination of the reactor. It's extremely alien, but you think you recognize some part of it. But vaguely recognizing something isn't enough. You can look at the surviving components, sure, but to actually make sense of it you'd be here for a very long amount of time.

You do gain something from the examination, though. That is, you think it isn't like any kind of reactor you've seen before. If this is meant to generate power, it's likely not using any kind of power generation technique that you've ever seen. You don't see anything suggesting the use of Hydrogen or similar elements, ruling out Fusion. Nothing resembling nuclear power. No discernible fuel lines or tank anywhere, in fact.

Looking for a replacement Gravitational Absorber does not go well. Nothing here looks anything like something that fulfills the same purpose. And as you concluded earlier, stuff like this is advanced enough that combined with its foreign nature, you won't have any luck in the near future discovering how it works or what specific parts do. Another idea you consider briefly is the idea of destroying the reactor. Which is probably not particularly easy. You have no weaponry and civilian ships sadly do not get explosives. It's not like you can use the reactor to destroy itself, anyways. This thing is completely nonfunctional and devoid of power; being disconnected from the rest of a ship tends to do that.



Interfaces are a dime a dozen in the primary room with a couple located in the surrounding corridors, but they're quite obviously useless without power. Following this miniature investigation, you decide that you should take a final stroll around for any supplies. A first aid kit is located on the wall of a severed corridor, but it was already thoroughly looted at some point. There are some lockers with some bulky suits in them. A closer look determines that the suits are most likely used for radiation protection. You ultimately decide to take one with you to the ship just in case. You never know when you'll need a suit to protect you from radiation, after all. You never know.

Unless you get any crazy ideas, you don't think you're able to make much more progress here. Something is causing the problem with your Teardrive, and if it exists, there's something to do about it. Just probably not anything to do about it here.

2 systems away from next Waypoint.

Spoiler: You (click to show/hide)

Wearing: Vacuum Suit & Mothership Engineer Uniform

Spoiler: Cargo (click to show/hide)

- Radiation Protection Suit