(no subject)

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Power armor generally looks more impressive on taller people. If you add six inches of height to someone who's six foot one already, the overall effect is 'looming', and if you add it to someone who's significantly taller than that to begin with, you get an overwhelming urge to back away a few paces just to be on the safe side. Add six inches to Ellen, though, and you get... a metal-clad figure of strictly average height for a late twentieth century American male.

And that only lasts until she takes her helmet off, too.

Anyway, Ellen in power armor, trying to go through a number of documents from the Bar and figure out what's going on with operating handbooks and schematics from two hundred years ago, and occasionally reaching for her beer.

Comments

[cutting_edgex23]

"Ellen," X says, appearing from somewhere to the other woman's left.

"You are working?"

Maybe it's the power armor that makes her ask.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Hm?" Ellen glances up, blinking. "Oh- hi there.. yes, sort of? I'm... trying to find out if there's information here about a ship we may have discovered at home. Rediscovered. Found, anyway."

She pushes the documentation aside.

"The papers aren't really as comprehensible as I'd like."

[cutting_edgex23]

"It is the language?" X asks, head tilting a little as she flicks a glance at the papers.

"Or deterioration in the documents?"

Or a third option.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"More that I wasn't ever trained in pre-War tech used on ships at sea," Ellen says. "I know a little bit of my way around the sections about power systems, but beyond that I'm largely lost. The books are mostly intact, for all the good that does me."

She rubs at her nose a moment.

"You don't know anyone who's familiar with fusion-powered Coast Guard research vessels, by any chance?"

[cutting_edgex23]

X frowns a little, thinking.

"Fusion-powered, yes. Not the Coast Guard."

Beat.

"And they do not come here. But I can make copies of what might be relevant. And ask."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"That would be better than what I have now," Ellen says. "Thank you. I appreciate it."

"If whoever it is asks, it's... we've found what we think is a pre-War research ship that had been pulled out of the water for maintenance when the bombs fell, and we're trying to determine if it's possible to get any of its systems working again. And what we'd need to do to keep things working if we did."

[cutting_edgex23]

X's frown deepens very slightly, even as she pulls some of the documentation over toward herself and starts to page through it.

"You know what kind of research?"

It's probably buried in the papers, but maybe Ellen has a preliminary idea about that.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Weather research and ocean current tracking, I think," says Ellen. "Possibly the study of minerals on the ocean bottom, or at least surveying the stuff on the ocean bottom for whatever reason. There's a big scoop thing on the front deck of the boat and an awful lot of cable, but there's also some damaged things that look like probes of some kind- I"m sorry, I honestly can't tell what the things are."

[cutting_edgex23]

X starts sorting the papers, dividing them into stacks as they relate to propulsion, ballast, the rudder, electricity supply, and others. The actual lab-related -- or what looks to be lab-and-research-related materials she sets into a separate stack.

"It is not problematic. I did not know if you observed anything significant first-hand."

Beat.

"Forge will be able to make sense of this. Some of the schematics are very clear."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Oh, good," says Ellen, who is not going to be the person in the room when Forge starts asking why there are so damn many vacuum tubes in what's apparently an otherwise eminently functional fusion containment system. "We haven't gotten very far with the ship. A good portion of the roof collapsed over the area, so most of what I've seen is what the robots have been able to clear away and clean up enough for somebody to recognize."

[cutting_edgex23]

He may also include plans for a system redesign that has no vacuum tubes. Forge is like that.

"You will need someone on-site to help? With repairs."

She's asking for a friend. Or, you know. Just to check.

"Or to watch the perimeter while people are making repairs?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"If there's enough ship left to work with after we get the area cleared, we may need some assistance on either front," Ellen admits. "I've got a good supply of reasonably adept robots, but they're not specialized in this kind of work, so they really only do what they're told. We can get some Mr. Gutsys to patrol our perimeter if that frees up enough people to actually work on the ship, I know that much."

[errant_valkyrior]

Scrapper lifts her head from where she'd been taking a...well, not quite a nap but close enough, to focus on Ellen as she sets about settling in. Blinking a few times to be sure she's seeing true, Scrapper finally says, "Wouldn't that be easier without the gloves? Or armor?"

If Ellen cares to look over, she'll see another woman dressed in a piecemeal sort of leather armor, with lots of blades of varying lengths about her person. She's even wearing face paint today, several white streakes about her eyes.

[ooc: thought they should meet, but I'll be slow for the day.]

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Probably, but it takes a while to get out of the armor entirely and into actual clothing," Ellen admits as she glances up. "I'll probably get out of the armor if I stay here late enough, though. The chairs here really aren't reinforced for it, you know?"

[OOC: awesome. Tag when you can, it's all good!]

[sticktothemission]

She looks like a MEKA pilot who got their hands on some Crusader armor.

Which is to say there's a man in a mask looking at her with his head tilted. "Not bad." He sounds mildly impressed.


[OOC: Reaper should say hello as well, if you don't mind a late tag.]

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

(ooc: Sure!)

Ellen looks up and smiles a little. "Thanks," she says. "It's not as heavy as some armor out there, but it does its job pretty well."

She gestures vaguely towards the man's face. "Is that part of a helmet? It's got very clean lines."

[sticktothemission]

"Something like that."

Reaper's gear is, quite literally, a part of him. Not that he wants to explain that.

"If that's the light armor, the heavy armor must be pretty impressive."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

It would be rude of Ellen to press farther, anyway. So she doesn't.

"Hellfire armor's designed to hold off ballistic weapons, energy weapons, slashing attacks, and heavy incendiaries," she says instead. "The servos are a little slower than other designs of suit, but if you need the extra protection the trade-off's more than worth it."

[sticktothemission]

Bonus points to Ellen. He doesn't remember her being rude, either, and she had an interesting world. Of course, that was all a lifetime ago for him.

"Good to know." He doesn't mean it to sound particularly threatening but his voice isn't good for much else these days. And, to be fair, he is making note of the information in case he needs it.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen travels often with an eight foot tall green-skinned supermutant who has absolutely no indoor voice whatsoever. She is used to weird effects on people's voices.

"It takes some training to manage properly in any of the varieties of power armor, to be honest," she says. "And it takes a while to get into and out of, which is why I'm still wearing mine. It's not worth the effort to change if I'm not staying here for the evening."

[sticktothemission]

He nods slowly once.

"Makes sense. Heading back to hostile territory?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Not more so than the usual everyday hostility we get anywhere outside a walled town or fortification," Ellen admits. "I'm currently leading a team that's picking through the ruins of what we think was a government shipyard once, and the ruins happen to be in an area that's on the edge of claimed territory. No one with any specific affiliation is shooting at us, but there's always opportunists and lunatics out there, and the wildlife isn't much better."

[sticktothemission]

"Better to be prepared," he agrees. "I'm sure the armor acts as a deterrent, at least for the sane things."

Appearances are important. Though she is a little short to make the most intimidating impression.

My apologies for taking so long to respond. This was a very bad weather weekend in Massachusetts.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Thankfully, yes," Ellen says. "It takes a special kind of raider to think he's got enough gun to get through armor like this. Usually they're either very desperate or they've been using an awful lot of chems, in which case they'd attack a deathclaw with a pool cue, never mind an armored soldier." She shakes her head a little. "I hope things aren't like that wherever it is you come from. One world's bad enough."

Not a problem. Week was a little crazy for me, too. Glad you're well!

[sticktothemission]

"Most people are smart enough not to go up against superior firepower," he answers mildly. "Unless they're Junkers. Then all bets are off."