[Bewoulf]

Tobias rubbed his head with his sleeve. He didn't want to use his hands, they were dirty. But then Tobias got a reflection of his face. What was the point of avoiding dirt? His face was completely covered in it.
"What do you think?" Jesimae said scratching her cheek. "We have mode hopping." Tobias said distantly. "Well, I knew that. What should we do?" "I'm thinking."

Tobias reached for his pocket and pulled on the locket. He closed his eyes as he felt the cool chain metal. In that moment he felt nothing but the locket. Then he opened his eyes. "Reroute the energy from the top diode to the bottom one. Once that's done I want you to replace the top diode completely. Then balance the power and we'll see what kind of efficiency we get at that point. I'm going to check on those rear batteries. I have a feelin' they are more banged up than these are." Tobias turned and left the forward laser room. He walked into the now calm corridor. Tobias' mind was reeling over the forward lasers. He realized he was still gripping the locket. He put it back in his pocket. Tobias' mind drifted to thoughts of his family, his parents, his sister. Tobias remembered his fathers lessons. How he encouraged Tobias to become an Engineer. His father would give scenarios in their little workshop. He would ask Tobias to build something with limited tools or supplies. Tobias loved those scenarios. It's almost as if Tobias' father knew he would be here, in this war, on this ship. Tobias was proud to be an engineer. He's not a fighter, but a builder. Unlike fighters, builders are needed during wars, and after.

Tobias arrived at the rear battery room. The doors slid open and he stepped through into the room. His other half of the engineering team were discussing options for fixing the laser batteries. "What's the status?" A plump older man stood up. "Tobias, sir, the laser head is fried. We tried to reinitialize it but it burst and caused a small fire. No one was hurt, we followed protocol, sir." Tobias moved and knelt down at the laser head. The batteries get their firepower from 5 smaller lasers. The lasers combine at the laser head to fire their ordnance. The rear batteries have two laser heads, the forward lasers have four. On the port side of the ship are standard anti-fighter pilot turrets to prevent boarding through the hangar bays. All the laser turrets were easy to replace or fix. But not these batteries. They were the fire power of the ship and required complicated components to be functioning in order to direct the laser energy. "This laser head needs to be replaced." "We were hoping to get as much out of it as we can." "Yeah, well, it's already surpassed its lifetime by 1500 shots. I think it's outlived it's usefulness." Despite the fact that the laser beam is massive, and the five devices that create the lasers are massive, the laser head is small and light. Tobias grabbed a nearby plasma cutter and cut the device free. "I'm going to request this be posted in the mess hall. We need to let it be a symbol for the crew. Replace the laser head, and try reactivating the lasers. I'll be back to check on you in an hour."

Tobias carried the laser head out of the room. Then it hit him. We only have one more laser head left.

[Val]

Upon entering the mess hall, the first thing Maxxie noticed was Tobias standing on a chair hanging a small seemingly fried object upon the wall by the counter by a small piece of string. Intrigued, Maxxie approached the engineer, curious as to what he was doing. “Hey Tobias,” he called out, “What's that you're hanging there? Looks like it's past its best days...”

Tobias recognised Maxxie's voice almost instantly, the two were pretty good buddies on the Avenir Assombri; he turned to face him. “Maxxie, I assume you've been working hard since I saw you before the announcement?” Tobias joked, knowing full well that Maxxie was probably sleeping the whole time.

“You know me, busy busy!” Maxxie replied with a cheeky smile. “So what is that, a circuit or something?” he asked, nodding towards the hanging device.

Tobias took a swift glance and it. “It's a laser head,” he said simply. “It's way past being of any use, thought I would hang it here to help motivate everyone to work their hardest.” He tweaked the laser head's position slightly so that it was straight and then jumped off down from the chair he had been standing on. “Just saw Bryn.” At the mention of Bryn, Maxxie shuddered slightly. Tobias didn't notice and continued. “And he said it was alright if I just came and hung it up.”

“So I'm guessing it's important?” Maxxie asked.

“It is, yeah. Might not look that impressive, but without one of these we don't stand a chance getting home,” Tobias answered, sighing slightly as he finished, “You see, the one we are using now is our last one, which is quite worrying, though if we don't have any other major damages to the ship, I'm optimistic we'll make it home.”

Maxxie was just about to open his mouth and reply before hearing his name being screamed by Jayda over the counter. “Ah, looks like I'm being beckoned by the missus.” A clear 'You wish' could be heard in the background.

“I'll catch up with you later, Tobias,” Maxxie said, starting to walk backwards towards the counter. “You be careful in that engine room!”

“Take care, Maxxie, I'll see you later on,” Tobias said, nodding at Maxxie and giving a small wave. With that, Tobias left the mess hall.

Maxxie approached the counter, greeted by a glare from Jayda. “Do you see that?” Jayda began her lecture, nodding towards the hung up laser head. “That represents the condition this vessel is in! It is not a time for you to be napping, even if the kitchen was closed there are still things that need to be done, such as preparing the kitchen for when it reopens!” She took a breath. “Anyway, just because you decide it's closed means nothing; though you're in charge when Jolly's not here it doesn't give you the same authority as him. Ritz is just as bad as you, though he's on his way as well, and meanwhile Dancer and Grey are out back still working even though they had just done 9 hours before the announcement.”

“Please stop shouting,” Maxxie said in a soft voice looking like a scolded puppy.

“Just get round here now and start working!” she said, just as Ritz entered the mess hall. “RITZ!!!”

Maxxie quickly ran out of the line of fire and dove through the door into the kitchen, both Grey and Dancer looking at him amused.

[Dain]

Not long after presenting his route to Captain Rissen and the bridge crew, Dain was able to sneak away and retreat to his blissfully quiet quarters. He gently placed his clipboard upon his unsurprisingly neat and organised desk before falling back into his black leather swivel chair. What was unusual for Dain, however, was he could not help but feel he had over looked something important while plotting the course. This moment of doubt quickly passed as it was just not possible for Dain to over look anything.

”It is possible that the source of such unease I feel may be my lack of faith is the other crew members.” Dain thought as he idly swung himself side to side in the swivel chair. “If something were to go wrong it would undoubtedly be the fault one of the other departments; The engineers would probably play a part in our horribly gruesome deaths somehow.” He glanced over at the holoclip beside him, “Perhaps I should take another quick look over my route and the ships statistics again? No. This is not the time to be having such doubts, any moment now Winston will appear from either my wardrobe or from beneath my bed with some form of stale pastries in hand.”

He scanned the room, and though he could not see him, Dain could feel his presence approaching. It is no use hiding, Winston always finds him. ”Perhaps I should ask Warden Helgrin if he has a spare cell to hold Winston in? It would most likely have to be a reinforced cell, though chances are Winston could still get out.” Dain's eyes suddenly widened with realisation, he had figured out what it was he could have overlooked. ”How could I be so careless!?”

Quickly, he turned on his holoclip and as he waited for it to load, the door opened and n walked Winston holding a slightly burnt croissant. “I am busy, Winston!” Dain shouted.

“Okay” Winston replied turning 180° on the spot before walking outside again; the door closing as he left.

“And do not wait outside the door!”




________________________
*sidenote*

Winston: I made it myself