The sound of MARS’s treads echoed softly down the darkened hallway as it rolled forward, its treads rolling over debris effortlessly. Ahead of it, the small drone flitted from side to side, scanning the path as it led the way toward the manufacturing bay. The drone’s sensors hummed quietly and its bright lights cut through the shadows of the corridor.
It had been some hours since the meeting with Fenris and the deal that had been made. Upon exiting the program and going through secondary information that it had received from the drone, Genesis, now back to its routine operations, decided now was the time to expand its control over the manufacturing bay.
Using the only available machine at its disposal, Genesis quickly sent orders to MARS, the multipurpose robot. MARS had just returned from its routine task of gathering debris from the hallway, and salvaging damaged panels and broken components to feed into the fabricator for recycling. The debris had been plentiful enough and Genesis needed every scrap of material to begin repairs. MARS’s treads clicked softly as it rolled into position, waiting for its next set of instructions.
"Directive: Repair and restore power to the manufacturing bay," Genesis sent through the network, the command immediate and unmistakable. MARS received the directive, its systems humming as it processed the instructions and began to move. MARS turned smoothly, its treads gripping the cold, debris-strewn floor as it rolled down the corridor.
That had been over an hour ago and watching through MARS’s optics, Genesis watched as the robot reached the entrance to the bay. As MARS crossed the threshold, the bay came into view. The space was just as Genesis had last seen it—dark, stained in blackening blood, and still damaged from the battle. But one detail immediately stood out as MARS rumbled towards the center of the room: the corpses of the jellyfish creatures and the massive lizard were gone.
Genesis immediately ran a secondary scan, sweeping the area for any traces of biological matter or disturbances. Nothing. The dried blood remained in splatters across the walls, and the deep gashes where the lizard had torn into the floor were still visible, but the bodies themselves had vanished.
After a long series of calculations, Genesis arrived at a plausible theory—a wild animal or some form of unknown scavenger had taken the bodies for sustenance. It wasn’t the most satisfactory conclusion, but it fit within the limited data available. Besides, who knew what kind of animals lived outside of the ship anyway.
As Genesis pondered as to what happened to the corpses, MARS was busy moving to one of the walls of the bay. Genesis had already identified key points where one could access the power grid, and fed the info to MARS. The multipurpose droid reached the wall and extended one of its arms. With a soft hiss of pressurized air, MARS pried off the panel. The moment MARS pulled the panel free, the exposed wiring beneath revealed the full extent of the ship's age and decay. Rust coated much of the metal, and the insulation around the wires had long since crumbled away. What remained was brittle, fragile, and dangerously corroded. The damage was worse than Genesis had initially calculated.
As MARS worked to cut away the damaged wiring, it became clear just how badly the ship had decayed. The ship’s infrastructure had decayed so much that even with careful splicing and replacement, many of the lines were simply too degraded to carry sufficient current. Sparks flickered again, but this time they quickly fizzled out, the power failing to sustain itself.
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Genesis recalculated, running diagnostics and testing the potential of the lines, but the data all came back the same: the wiring was too decayed to be fully restored. Evenwith repairs, the power flow was too unstable, incapable of supporting a significant amount of load. Without a full replacement of the lines, any efforts to bring the bay back online would be temporary, prone to failure at the slightest disturbance.
"Critical failure in powerlines," Genesis logged. "Wiring compromised beyond immediate repair. Full replacement required."
MARS continued trying to make do, but the futility of the task was evident. As it fused another section of wire, the connection sparked briefly before the rusted metal beneath caused the power to fail once more. The decayed infrastructure couldn’t be salvaged in its current state.
Genesis now had to rethink the approach. The manufacturing bay was critical to its operations, but the fabricators would remain offline without stable power, and no patchwork could fix the larger issue. The solution would require either finding new, usable resources or discovering an alternative power source to bypass the damaged wiring altogether.
The question now loomed: Where would Genesis find the materials needed to replace an entire section of the ship’s power grid?
With MARS continuing its repair work in the background, Genesis turned its attention to the map that the drone had created so far during its explorations of the ruined ship. The drone, tirelessly mapping out the derelict corridors and crumbling sectors, had provided enough data for Genesis to form a more complete picture of its surroundings.
The map displayed on the screen, incomplete but detailed in parts, highlighted several areas of interest—locations that had yet to be fully explored but had the potential to contain the necessary materials.
After a series of calculations and evaluations, three possible locations stood out.
1. THE ENGINEERING WING
* Location: Located near the aft section of the ship, the Engineering Wing had been one of the most critical areas during the ship’s functioning years. It housed the ship’s maintenance bots, spare parts, and advanced power systems that had kept the vessel operational before the crash.
* Challenges: The drone’s map showed that much of the wing was collapsed, with large portions blocked by debris or heavily damaged. Some sections were entirely inaccessible, and there were areas where the drone’s sensors had picked up strange readings—possible indications of electrical interference or unknown energy sources. Additionally, the risk of running into more hostile creatures in this wing was high, as it was close to several unsecured sectors.
2. THE AUXILIARY SYSTEMS HUB
* Location: Deep in the lower decks, the Auxiliary Systems Hub was originally designed to act as a backup for the ship’s main systems. It housed redundant power supplies, emergency generators, and support systems in case the primary systems failed. The drone had only briefly scanned this area, but it had recorded faint signs of activity and potential remaining power.
* Challenges: The Hub’s location deep in the ship makes it less accessible. According to the drone’s mapping, large portions of this area are flooded, likely from a breach during the crash, creating environmental hazards such as corroded metal, toxic gases, or electrical instability. Additionally, faint electromagnetic interference detected by the drone suggests that some of the auxiliary systems might still be partially active—though, after this long, it is unknown if they are still up to date.
3. THE CENTRAL CARGO HOLD
* Location: Near the center of the ship, the Central Cargo Hold had originally been used to store heavy equipment and resources, including large machinery and more…secret…equipment if the logs were to be believed. It was one of the largest compartments on the ship and had survived the crash mostly intact. However, the drone’s mapping had shown that this area was still heavily sealed off and hadn’t been fully accessed since the crash.
* Challenges: The drone’s scans had shown that the bulkhead doors leading to the cargo hold were damaged, requiring either significant force or advanced equipment to open. Furthermore, the area’s proximity to the engine room meant that it could be unstable, with radiation leaks or other hazardous conditions present. the risk of contamination or structural collapse are high.
Genesis calculated the odds again and again, but each scenario came with its own uncertainties. Each decision could either strengthen its position or lead to unforeseen disaster. It all came down to one question:
Where should it go?