| Smoke on the Water |
| Summary: | Engineers and Deck check out the Ark and attempt to plug it in. |
| Date: | 13 Feb 2042 AE |
| Related Logs: | Other Ark Stuff |
| Players: |
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| Ark Control Room? |
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| Set Below |
| Post-Holocaust Day: #352 |
Its that place that all the Engineers and Deck personnel keep referring to as the CIC. Or is it the Command Deck. Its that big-ass room with all the panels and alcoves where there aren't a bunch of human remains floating around. Mark has told everyone who volunteered for this detail (after culling THAT number twice) to bring everything from welders to battery packs to fire extinguishers. One of the guys in back tried to roll a big APU thats used to start Vipers up into the ship. Sometimes it takes a ranking man to patpat that kind of thinking. The other big thing? Cameras. At least a few. Everything should be documented. Video and photographic. And so this is where we find out intrepid technological explorers: deep inside a ship that probably hasn't seen an engineering crew since before the Picon Panthers had a championship team. Maybe even before.
Stepping into the control room Mark takes a breath and looks around. "Alright! Andreus?" He turns to spot the Chief. "Hey man, you wanna head down to that side of the room and take, um, well take your pick of people." Mark grins at the people he's with and unzips his coveralls a bit. Thurr be a bright green shirt peeking. "I'll take the rest and we'll hit this one here towards the middle. Sound good?" He's already slipping his gloves on.
Damon raises a hand to Mark. "How's 'bout I grab the knuckledragger dream team - Bannik, Iosif, you're with me. I need someone who's gonna make me look good." He flashes a grin to the two of them as he waves them over. "Iosif, you're stuck on hauling-this-frakking-case duty," he says, pointing to the crate-sized toolkit with poorly positioned handles and no wheels. "Bannik, you're on fixing-things duty, and me, I'm on pointing-out-the-obvious duty. All right, let's roll."
Iosif was among the volunteers, of course, when he heard Iszak had signed up. There are ship repairs to be about, of course, plenty of work, but he wasn't about to miss something the slightly higher-ranking PO2 O'Keefe was in on. "Aye, Chief," he says readily when Damon summons him, an easy lope in his step as he strolls over to pick up the toolkit. He stops loping and grunts when he actually gets to picking it up. It does, indeed, have a big ass. "This'd be the glory part of life in the service, then?" But it's quipped with a chuckle.
"I like fixing things," agrees Bannik, tagging after the Chief of the Deck, wonderfully unburdened by having to lug around a tool kit. Iosif has that covered. "We were all once the guy who had to roll the tool kit," replies Bannik to the Crewman. "It makes you really want to recruit and have others enlist, though."
Callie's got her tools plus a camera of the digital variety, those being things that belong to her for the most part save some of the more 'exotic' tools one doesn't normally buy for personal or mundane work. Looking around, she frowns slightly, Callie confused. "This is…" she starts to say under her breath but she draws up short, her thoughts never fully given thought.
A Bucket 'o Snipes! Sofia is amongst the gaggle. She has quite a bit of gear - a camera amongst it - and seems to half drag. "Sheesh, one of those days I'm heavy front and back," A wry joke at her own expense. She lingers near the rear, unsure of just where to go. She smiles though, seeing the two brothers and Bannik and - Damon! "Hello," She greets them softly.
"Sounds good, Chief!" Mark grins. "The rest of you poor sods are with me. We're gonna try and see if we can't put some power into these consoles. They've been in space forever so be careful. This stuff-" a highly technical term, to be sure, "is probably a couple thousand years old. Watch your voltages. Start by unscrewing or drilling, then prying off the consoles and lets dig underneath. Snipes! Follow me. Mark turns and leads the team over towards the console indicated. "Wolfe, you wanna get this thing off? I'll help manhandle it. Iszak? Get with Callie here and let's get it all prepped with the battery packs We're looking for anything with a ground wire running into it. Trace them back and the power cables should be the thicker ones running into the system."
Iszak seems to have been inside the ancient ship before, because he doesn't spend a whole lot of time looking around as they enter. He's in navy coveralls, though they're unzipped a good ways down his chest, revealing a totally un-eye-burning grey t-shirt. He's got a toolbelt full of tools slung over his shoulder, and a case of other requested gear in his other hand, lugging it into the CIC-ish area with the rest of the group. "Aye aye, guv," he nods to Mark at the assignment, setting down his case o' stuff and heading over to dig out another case instead, hauling it over with a thump. "Alright," he says to Callie, "Battery packs. You sort through those and I'll track down the wires here once we get this thing opened up."
Damon grins to Iosif. "Junior guy does the heavy lifting. Just be glad we don't have shit-trucks anymore. Those were dark days." He smiles to Sofia and gives her a wave. "Hey, Sofie! You're gonna keep Mark in line over there, right?" They had off to do their jobs, and the Chief can't help but chuckle a bit. "You heard the man. Iosif, you start with the panels. I'll help. Bannik, you take a look at the power equipment and see if anything's completely unsafe or if you can figure out something that'll help us along."
"Yes, sir," Callie says while nodding, that to everyone as a whole while she follows after the man she's assigned to work with. "What are we looking at needing," she asks to Iszak then, the packs brought with her as she toddles after her partner. It's not the hand-dirtying work she was hoping to get into but she's still in training so she really can't find fault in being made to do what is probably the most remedial of tasks. Finding a place to crouch, she starts looking through what they have, her attention kept on that instead of the ship.
Sofia looks amused at the brief glimpse of bright green. "Aye aye sir," Beam. She looks around to see who her fellow snipes be. She nods. "Got cha." First, make sure nothing is on and ready. Once it checks out, she'll take a few pictures. Then… She'll start in with a screw, though if force doesn't do it, she'll pick up a drill next. At least she's wise enough to use - oh dear, well, one perk of figure is resting tools in between. Handy, that. Sigh. She seems to not think much of it, turning a normal disadvantage into an advantage. "Shiner might agree," She comments wryly to David and nods. "That or I redecorate his office." Menacing!
"So how do I get to this recruiting thing?" Iosif asks Bannik wryly, grunting some more. "Be right nice to troll for a valet or two. I think I could sell it. Join the Navy. Life of high adventure, exotic ancient technology, and a right lot of heavy lifting." He nods to Damon and, in a near echo of Iszak's words to Mark replies, "Aye, guv. Getting to it." And with that he kneels by one of the panels and wields a trusty screwdriver. Another is handed off to Damon. The task is simple and he gets right to it. He wants to see what's inside this contraption.
"Back in the Chief's day, Iosif, they carried those crates up hill both ways, twenty klicks in the snow. Just ask him." Bannik can't help but smirk at that, tossing around with the Deckies before getting to work. He takes out his pen light from his pocket and goes to town, looking for panels and other spots where fuse boxes might be. "When I looked under the hood on one of these panels, there was wiring. Just need to figure out where they lead off to."
"While they fought off Cylon-Bear hybrids with laser guns they made themselves out of twigs and twine," Iszak embellishes Bannik's tale of olden times as he crouches to watch the panels removed, peering at the base for any sign of wiring before turning back to Callie and the battery packs. "We wanna start small, yeah?" he explains, "Smallest charge first up to biggest so we don't blow the thing if we haven't got to. These should be having labels on them…" he picks one up and checks, and shrugs, "Blood typical, that. They don't, so you gotta take this," He hands her a little hand-held console-looking thing, "And test each of 'em and see what their voltage is, what kinda charge they put out and sort 'em that way, so I don't hook in the wrong one and blow this little museum piece to shit on the first try."
Callie nods while taking the voltmeter and gets to work, listening to the conversation without adding much of her own commentary, her mind locked on what she has to do. There will be time to chat later. While she makes small groups of the various battery types she pauses from time to time, the interior of the ship eyed periodically as if she is trying to dedicate this to memory. Very interesting.
It takes a little bit of work and doublechecking, but the panelling does come apart. Like any ship, it was designed with the idea of being able to fix it in mind. Especially something built for a long haul. The monitors are lifted off with some effort, weighing a good amount each, they're settled to the side by each crew. Most of the wiring attached to them doesn't just look frail - it is. A few of them over on Mark's side manage to stay attached. The wiring going to the Deck Team's Monitor looks like it hadn't even seen an attachment in Gods know how long. Underneath though is a simple rats nest of wiring, piping, and harnesses. Its just a complete mess down there. Most of the wiring appears to go into a panel in the floor that has an access pull on it.
Mark grunts, looking at the monitor and the mess of tangles. "Look at this shit. I haven't seen wiring like this since my freshman year. EGADS!" He moves away and peers into the bottom. "Alright, looks like the power cable to the monitor is one of the ones still hanging on." He doesn't touch it but he traces it with his finger, following a grounding wire to the back of the panel. "Iszak, you're up to bat. You too, Callie. Sofia? Stand by next to that monitor and let me know if it even flickers."
"Do I look that frakking old to you?" Damon asks, making a face at Bannik and Iszak. "It wasn't twigs and twine, it was pens and zip-ties. Come on, now. Pew pew." Taking the screwdriver from Iosif, he gets to work. "Lords, look at this shit," he says, pulling up tangled-up wiring once the panel's off. "None of this is color coded or even managed with any semblance of organization. If someone did work like this on the Deck, I'd have them shot." Shaking his head in disgust, he lets the wiring go. "Bannik, you got anything over there? Not seeing too much that's useful here."
Bannik is peering into a darkened panel, someplace where a fuse might have been at one time, if this was even a place where fuses went. It's really hard to say. He's shining his pen light in there. "Not a bloody thing, Chief!" calls back the avionics tech. "If power used to be controlled through here, all of these blew a very long time ago."
"Got it," Sofia smiles and stands near the monitor. "Iszak?" She looks over. Must be one of the new folks. She smiles politely at least, but goes quiet. "I suspect they have their own systems of organization … however they did it," She admits. She is amused but horrified by the wires too. "Ugh, I just want to - sort- them!" She wriggles her fingers. It's really setting off her middle management button. For now, she settles in and looks. Monitor, monitor.
"'Twas an ancient age, it was. When men road lizards and launched battlestars into space on their own backs, I reckon," Iosif quips, riffing off Bannik and Iszak's contributions. Though he offers Damon a half-abashed shrug. All in good fun, boss. Honest. He turns his attention to the mess inside the panel, grimacing. "Blimey. And I thought the guts of my Da and Mum's ship was chancy. I can believe this thing's got a few centuries on her. Something went through here, aye, but it don't look like it's done it for…well, longer than you been alive, Chief."
Looking over again, Callie looks surprised when her name is called, something she didn't expect perhaps. The Captain isn't made to wait, however, as his trainee is back onto her feet and she heads to where she's needed to be. "Sir." Quirking him a smile, she waits to see what they're having to do before even so much as thinking about touching anything, Callie even going as far as to place her hands behind her back as she waits.
"Yo Andreas!" Mark looks over to him as he steps back from his team. "We've got a panel under all our crap. Looks like the source for most of this frak-all mess. See if you can throw one of your smaller people down there and crawl in? We've got a power cable over here we're going to give a shot. Watch for shorts on your end when we start with power, yeah? Not sure where all this mess-o-shit goes. Gonna start with low voltage. No danger of shock." Probably. Mark grins and looks back to his team, clapping his hands once. "Alright. Let's juice this pig."
"Volunteers?" Damon asks Bannik and Iosif with a crooked grin after Mark yells an update over to them. "Come on back there, Bannik! Equipment's frakked, so let's do it our way. Once they've got their power running, y'know, to make sure we don't blow up or catch on fire or anything." With a chuckle, he tosses Iosif a battery. "Let's prep to power, starting with low voltage. I'll start going over some of this crap to see if there are any breaks or blown parts."
Bannik looks at himself. Looks at Iosif. At five-eleven, Tyr isn't the most lithe or crawl-into-tight-spaces deck tech there is. Nonetheless, he's shorter than the crewman is. "I'm on it," he says. "Get me some light on top and I'll see what I can find." Onto hands and knees he goes, looking for whatever the heck is down there.
Small person? Sofia looks down. "Ugh, well, I'm out." Her eyes go crossed. She watches the monitor for now and squints. Sofia is tragically out of the running by virtue of most likely to get 'wedged in' somewhere. She watches the monitor and looks intent on seeing something.
"It's always twigs and twine in olden times!" Iszak insists, "I mean, I know that's how our folks used to patch up our ship, til we came along demanding fancy shite like wires and switches." He waggles his fingers in an 'ooOooOooh' sort of way and then leans over to peer into the panel. "Looks a bit familiar," he says, lifting a hand to wave Iosif over, "Oi, bruv. Doesn't this look like the rear starboard thruster control panel, back in the day? Frakking disaster, that was. Swear they cobbled it together while on a fortnight's bender an hundred years ago. Anyway, alright. Grounding wire, yeah, Chief?" He checks with Mark that that's what he's looking for.
Iosif straightens, trading his trust screwdriver for a trusty flashlight to wield. "Aye, Bannik. I got you," he says, clicking the beam on and shining it into the tight space. Wincing some as he mentally measures it. He's quite glad to get out of this particular task. "Makes you wonder don't it. Who the last blokes were who messed about in this thing. Folks who built it, lived in it. Does remind me a bit of my folks' ship in a way. I don't mean the wires or anything just…people lived here, y'know? Lots of responsibility for a ship to carry, that. Wonder what made it stop running."
"I knew I should've brought Slooze along," Damon mutters, meaning Cilusia. "Here, take this too," he says, handing off a headlamp. "Iosif, you can keep a light on him while you prep the battery, right?" Grabbing a few things, he gets to work tracing wires and checking circuitry. "Mark, gimme a warning when you go to power up!" he yells. "I got my fingers all over her guts, and the last thing I need is a shock to wake me up." Tug, trace, check, grumble. "Not even Sarpedon had wiring this frakked," he mutters. But it's probably good that he has experience on the older service ships for stuff like this.
"Smaller… ah. Yes, Captain," Callie says while starting to move the batteries that read the lowest on the voltmeter, those set on the deck close to where Mark is. "Here you are." Clearing her throat, she looks at Sofia and grins a bit. "Must be nice," she says gently to the snipe, that being in regard to what has her voted out when it comes to being made to crawl inside. "It might be me," she says afterward, uncertain as to whom on Damon's team might be of petite enough stature to be helpful.
Mark nods once to Iszak. "Yeah, buddy. Put the grounding wire to the black head and the power to the red. We good to go. Start at fifty volts." He moves around towards Sofia to look at the screen. "Cross yer fingers, toes, and nose." He looks back towards Damon. "We're going for power. Five Zero Volt. Shouldn't even be enough to run your damned coffee maker but hey, gotta start somewhere." He then motions to his team. Deck will be able to handle their own end.
"Hey! Hey! I've got a — well, a lot more wires!" What's that voice? It's Tyr Bannik's voice, coming from whatever crawl space he's gotten himself into. "And I have a switch control box. It looks pretty fried, except for — like — I've got one panel! Hang on, I'm going to try to get it open." And so he fumbles with his teeny, tiny screw-drivers to get it pried open.
"It's got its ups and downs. They can try, but they'll need butter or grease to get me back out," Sofia considers. "I think Tyr is going." There's definitely respect and fondness for Bannik, smiling faintly. She smiles at Callie, though she watches the monitor. "Good luck!" She cheers Tyr on and looks to Mark, nodding. "Got cha." She's watching the screen for now.
"They're powering up," Damon says to his crew, doing his pointing-out-the-obvious duty. He backs away from the panel. You can never be too sure, even if you're wearing gloves. "You need any tools or parts down there?" he calls to Bannik, trying to get a look. It's impossible to see, though. "Main wiring up here looks half-decent. I think we can stand to put a little power to these."
Iosif idly flexes his fingers in his safety gloves. There's an air of anticipation about him, rather like a kid waiting for the Colonial Day display lights to be turned on. "Gods above…" he murmurs. Rather like a prayer to the old ship as he holds the light steady for Bannik.
"Huh." Well, that's not necessarily a good sound. It's more confused. That's Tyr, by the way, Bannik, at whatever it is he's found down there. But soon enough, he comes clamboring out with a boxy thing, something like a Zip-drive for those who might have a reference for what size that is. "It's not a fuse box. This more looks like a storage device or something. It was easy to take out, like it was modular or something."
"Got it," Iszak nods to Mark, digging into the nest of wires as carefully as he can until he manages to isolate the grounding wire (or what he guesses is more likely than not the grounding wire) and the power. He sets the former to the black head and then nods, "Alright, ready?" and sets the power to the red.
Power. Wewt. The screen doesn't flicker. No surprise. It holds there for a few seconds while people say their own prayers. One of the photographers, a weenie from Tactical, steps around the battery packs and accidentally kicks the selector switch on the bottom though, switching it from AC to DC. The direct current, even at fifty volts, seems to have some kind of effect, though Mark is just looking over towards the Kicker. "Oh you sonuva-" The whole console the engineering team is at begins to humm with that sort of low electrical sound that never sounds healthy. Like the kind of sound right before.. It only takes a second. Frail wiring and technology incompatible with that of another culture thousands of years ago? Add clumsy jackwagon for disaster. Sparks explode out of the open panelling and the removed console starts billowing smoke. Fire. FIRE! "FIRE!"
"…" Fire. Sofia's got a /thing/ about fire and her face goes blank. Horror. She rubs the back of her head. She's reaching for a fire extinguisher now, more worried about burning the ship up. Top heavy or not. "Oooh. That's bad. Why did you -" She looks horrified. Regardless, extinguisher time if she can get to it!
Callie blinks and this is when her training starts to kick in; newly read up on shipboard fire fighting techniques, Callie moves into action, looking for the nearest fire extinguisher. "On it!" She doesn't look scared despite her lack of experience, the lack of having to do this for real probably a blessing as she just really doesn't know that she should be. She's instead calm and collected. For now. Probably not so much once this problem is dealt with.
"Fire, fire, fire!" Damon shouts, his instinct taking over. Which is just as well - they know there's a fire, but others within earshot might not. "Electrical fire. I know we brought the extinguisher for that." He looks around trying to locate it, but doesn't see one near him. The boxy thing that Bannik's holding is temporarily forgotten in the excitement.
"Shite!" Iszak shouts, growling at the photog who kicked over the battery. He goes for an extinguisher, and then reaches out to Callie as she picks one up, trying to take it, "You kinda need two hands for this," he says, not totally unkindly so much as just brusquely.
Bannik is caught with the valuable piece of whatever it is in his hands, so he just hangs onto it. He lets others deal with the fire. He'll just protect what he has.
"Shite!" Iosif's curse comes in near perfect time with Iszak's when the 'Fire!' call goes up. He goes to access his Giant Pack, hunting for the fire extinguisher. He finds it in short order and hands it off to Damon. This all leaves poor Bannik in the dark for the moment. Hopefully not on fire down there.
<FS3> Sofia rolls Alertness: Good Success.
<FS3> Iosif rolls Alertness: Bad Failure.
<FS3> Iszak rolls Alertness: Great Success.
<FS3> Bannik rolls Alertness: Success.
<FS3> Damon rolls Alertness: Good Success.
<FS3> Callie rolls Alertness: Bad Failure.
Mark lets the other team handle the fire. He grabs the hapless Specialist by the lapel with one hand and shoves him backwards into the wall as hard as he can before looking back to the crew. The Chief Engineer kicks the connections out of the battery pack effectively ending any introduction of power into the system. Its cut off but what's already in is in. "Report!" He's already turning for a fire extinguisher behind him.
Poor Bannik. Sofia looks sympathetic for a second. She winces as the Specialist is shoved backwards. "Um. It looks like the fire is contained here but there's another wire exploding down in the bottom and I can't see where it goes into the floor," Sofia's trying, but leaning can be a bit precarious - for her and any poor bastard beneath. "Tyr? Are you okay?" She is worried at least, craning her neck and leaning.
Callie gets to an extinguisher and puts it to good use, liberally applying the flame retarding… whatever it is to whatever it is that is on fire. A quick look is tossed to Bannik but she doesn't have time to find out if he's alright.
Damon's got no time to shout or explain what he's seeing, only time to react. Grabbing the extinguisher in one hand and Iosif in the other, he pulls the both of them back a few steps before firing up the extinguisher and hosing down what he thinks is the path of approach for the fire coming toward them under the floor. "Someone alert the fire team on Deck!" he shouts. "If we can't contain it here, we gotta bail - they need to be ready in case this whole thing goes up in flames."
"Shite!" Iszak echoes both his brother and himself as he eyes the panel, gesturing at Sofia and then past her at the deck crew, "It heads towards that terminal you lot are on," he says, "Io! …other deckies! That fire is headed your way, get back!" Damon starts spraying and Iszak does the same from his end.
Sniff, sniff. "Down there!" shouts Bannik. "Where I came from! It's frying down there! Get a fire extinguisher down there!" He points, as if to help. But because he has the — thing — in his hand, he doesn't rush out to help.
Mark picks up the radio on his belt. "Chief Engineer to D-C Team Whiskey Six, electrical fire, starboard hangar deck. Will advise." His voice is stern as the Captain watches people work, waiting to get in and empty his extinguisher into the Deck's own problem. When its all said and done, Mark tosses down the empty extinguisher and looks around at everyone. "All hands, sound off. I want an OK or Not OK from everybody in here. Chief! Fire status!" He still has that radio up.
"Shite!" Iosif adds to the stereo of cursing between him and his brother. "Aye, Is. We're on it. Blimey, this thing's like tinder, if it's as touchy as this." He looks over his shoulder, suddenly realizing he left Bannik back in the dark crevice. "Shite."
"No fire seen!" Damon shouts back to Mark, his extinguisher already emptied where Bannik was pointing. Of course, no fire seen doesn't mean much, especially with this type of situation. There's plenty of smoke billowing about, and a fire could start up again at any second. "Damon OK! Bannik, Iosif, you two good? Stay low, there's still smoke everywhere."
"I'm okay," comes Callie's voice from not too far off from where Mark is, the calm in her voice shattering just a bit. With her own extinguisher depleted she lets the canister clank noisily to the deck before she skitters off, looking for another. "Nice way to frakking train the new guy, sir," she grumps a bit, that under her breath. Yes, she knew this was a possibility, hence the fire fighting training, but c'mon. Give her a bit before baptizing her in flame!
"I'm okay! I'm okay!" shouts Bannik. "I'm good! Cargo's safe. I'm fine." He has the box tucked away, staying low, below the smoke.
"I'm fine," Iszak shrugs, "We sure there's no more fire down there? Just 'cause y'can't see it…." He trails off ominously.
"Alright, Chief," Iosif shouts when he's called out to, ducking, knees of his coveralls on the floor. "Can't see no more, but it could've gotten into the innards of this thing. Whole place must've been all tied together way back when. No telling how all these compartments are connected."
Sofia looks a bit more relieved, now that the dread fire is gone. She sniffs and peeks around, looking for more fire. "I don't think I see any…" She pauses. "I can go look that way if you want," She offers. She's definitely happy Bannik is safe. "Here's one," She offers to Callie.
"Deck team OK!" Damon shouts to Mark, confirming that Bannik and Iosif are both good as well. "We should clear out of here until the smoke's cleared - and we confirm that it's safe. Electrical fire could start up again any second. Let's bring in the suits."
Mark gives a stern nod to Callie's remark about training. "This is why we cover firefighting before anything else." He then looks to Damon. "Fair enough, Chief!! Pack your shit. Let's get the frakkin hell out of here. I want everyone off this deck pronto." Mark then cues the radio again. "Whiskey Six, Captain Makinen. Report to Ark Bay for stationing information. Break, break. D-C Teams Whiskey One-through-five, all report to starboard hangar deck for possible electrical fire suppression. All teams, the fire is possibly out. No casualties. We are evacuating the Ark for twenty-four hours on my authority." He's staring at the specialist from Tactical while explaining this on the radio.
"Don't worry about packing shit up," Damon says to Iosif. "Let's just drag this frakking case out of here. Ready? Go." To Bannik, he grunts, "Still got that thing, Bannik? All right, get out of here. I've seen too many electrical fires spread too fast to frak around here. Go, go, go. If it's out, we can come back for our shit. If it's still alive, well, we've got plenty of tools and won't miss these ones."
Callie winces a bit. Figures Mark heard that. Oh well. With it sounding like they're going to be made to go she starts scurrying to gather up what she can, intending on packing shit out in her arms if need be, running around like a frantic little lemming. All she needs is a cliff to throw herself off if ordered to and she'd be the perfect frantic little lemming.
Iszak sighs, eying the electrical panels a bit warily, but also a bit sadly as he goes about quickly packing up the most important bits of gear, grabbing his toolbelt, and then heading out with the others, lugging the biggest case he can carry over his shoulder as they go.
Sofia will at least make sure most of the stuff she can carry goes. She looks to Iszak, agreeing with that sad look. "I have to meet some of you guys later," She admits. She seems a bit baffled. Snipes and Knuckledraggers are coming out of the walls! "Anyone need a hand?" She offers. She looks worried, fretting.