Lord Pie — Roleplayer Guild

Viktor kitted up somewhat still in an ‘autopilot’ mode as his mind still focused on the possible problems ahead and he combated them each with another thought, the mental argument raging within him as he silently continued to fit himself into the suit. He snapped away from his thoughts as Ellie spoke, focusing on her somewhat calming tone as she talked them through the EVA and what to expect, her confidence and almost routine nature reassuring him as it had every time he’d found himself in this situation. A moment later Stienhauer added his own somewhat reassuring speech, reminding them to be safe above all else, not that Viktor needed reminding, he’d be clinging to every hand-hold he could and avoiding letting go of the station as if his life depended on it. He took a few deep calming breaths as Fabio moved towards him and assisted him with the final few steps of getting his suit on, the final piece being to lock his helmet into place once he’d arranged his earpiece and ensured that everything else was secure and ready to go, even going as far as to double check each critical element almost unnecessarily checking, Fabian suppressing a slight smirk as he fitted the Russian’s helmet on and patted the top before giving him an enthusiastic thumbs up before he moved on to check the next team member. He breathed deeply again, the slightly off taste of the suit’s oxygen reminding him again of the last few times he’d done this and how everything had gone smoothly as it could have. This time would be no different, or so he reassured himself again and again. --- As he stood floating in the airlock Viktor was reminded again of how clumsy he felt in these suits, as if no gravity wasn’t bad enough to begin with. He again focused on Ellie’s voice and he closed his eyes as the pressure continued to drop and they got closer and closer to them moment where they’d need to move outside of the station and move across to where the repairs needed doing. "Okay, people; the plan is simple. We've got a faulty set of solar panels on the side of the Greenhouse, and while we're at it, we're going to also tinker with a plating on the roof of the station, and re-seal it. There's another two layers below, but this skin needs to be rebound. Hence the reason we've got tools, gents. King, I want you to have minimal effort on this mission- you stay back, and stay clamped into something solid. You've got karabiners attached to the core of your suit, clip them when need be to the kink points along the side. Use minimal thrust; use only when necessary, people. You know precisely the Safety concerns. Neil will keep an eye out on us, and him, myself and Viktor will conduct the engineering work. If we need help, Jeremiah, we'll call you over. Act on my command. You look like it's your first time for real. It's a surreal feeling, trust me." As the airlock door opened to reveal both the earth and the inky blackness surrounding it his stomach once more lurched and he wished he could wipe the sweat from his brow already. Following Ellie and King he moved himself out towards using the handle, the first karabiner clip just before him making him feel a little better as he attached himself. ‘Just like last time’ he said to himself finally unclenching his body a little. "Okay, King, I want you to continue following me. Dylatov, Steinhauser, you move along the side, down towards the solar panel. Remember, don't drift, and since slow is smooth, smooth is steady. Calm." came Ellie’s calm voice once more, again her tone reassuring him as he finally began to focus on the work ahead of him over the risks involved. Turning to follow her instruction Viktor glanced downwards towards the solar array and prepared to make his next move carefully, unclipping himself a moment before he steadily hopped slightly with the tiniest of pushes to move to reach the next one. At that moment something happened, an almost blinding flash from the corner of his vision hitting him a brief moment before he felt suddenly like all control was whipped away from him as he suddenly felt a colossal force acting against him as he heard garbled shouts of panic through his headset, realising that he was shouting as well. A moment later he was hurtling somewhere, so fast he could hardly make sense of anything other than blurs within his vision before he briefly lost consciousness, his head screaming at him until the last moment. --- His eyes again suddenly opened, instantly he felt panic shoot through him as all he saw was darkness with the blurry twinkling of distant stars, a vast array of nothingness before him spinning around and around at speed. He panted and started to hyperventilate as he began to flail around feeling nothing around him at all, what the fuck had happened and where was he, where was the station, those were the first panicked thoughts that shot into his mind. His heart pounded as he remembered what was now clearly an explosion, suddenly the worse things he could possibly think rushing into his mind. ‘I’m dead, I’m dead!’ he screamed internally as he scanned around trying to see anything at all, even the earth missing from what he could see to begin with. He didn’t even consider the bigger implications to start with, but after what must have been only about thirty seconds he started to calm down slightly as he realised that he was still alive at least for the moment and he would need to pull himself together if he wanted even the slightest chance of keeping it that way. Calming his breathing as best he could he realised tears were streaming down his cheeks as he tried focus on what he could actually see. ‘Okay okay’ he thought frantically before his more logical side finally kicked in, actually thinking for the first time. He realised he must be spinning with some force and he quickly started to feel dizzy with the realisation as he squinted and tried to make out what some of the blurring shapes before him were. The earth itself was the first thing he identified, it being quite large and difficult to miss as the gentle glowing hue of blues and greens stared up at him. With his gloved hands he reached down to his toolkit and felt for the bulkiest item he could, his fingers closing around the Pistol Grip tool he’d brought before he unclipped it with his other hand. The whole process took a painfully long time as he continued to twirl around and around wildly before he finally pulled it up to his chest and breathed a moment of relief however short-lived it was, knowing he’d likely only have one chance to stabilise himself. At that moment his earpiece crackled slightly, a few brief warbled noises coming through to him. “Hello!? Hello!!” he shouted before a moment realising he was speaking Russian, swearing angrily several times before he switched back to English and repeated himself in a slightly calmer manner. Only silence answered him and he wondered if whatever had happened had damaged his radio, that or perhaps he was too far away from the station now for it to be of any use. Of course it was also possible that everyone but he was dead, but he ignored those thoughts as he desperately clinged to hope that it wasn’t the case. Still breathing heavily with his heart pounding he started to pay as much attention as possible to the direction of his spinning, no easy task with little to use as a frame of reference and his HUD apparently not displaying any longer. Sweat was stinging his eyes as he waited until he was sure he was certain, knowing that he’d have very few chances to get this right, his life hanging by less than a thread at this moment. Reaching backwards slowly with the Pistol Grip tool he hurled it with all of his strength in the opposite way to that which he was spinning, trying to wait for the perfect moment to do so before he finally did. The effect was remarkable as his spin slowed right down as the tool hurtled away into the nothingness around him, a few moments of stunned disbelief falling over him as his eyes readjusted. “Fucking yes!” he shouted enthusiastically as the earth before him stopped spinning wildly and he finally began to regain some composure of where he was. A few moments later his enthusiasm disappeared completely as he turned slowly and the remains of the station came into view and again he had to hold down a feeling of vomit as his stared in disbelief at what he could see. What was left of the station was hardly a shell of its former self, the greenhouse and habitation areas almost completely gone with only few bits of wreckage gently drifting, including the SpaceX craft that he could see several parts of, most of it drifting towards the earth with a good portion of what had once been his home so to speak. Tears again began to well in his eyes as he realised now he was as good as dead, drifting alone and cold in the darkness of space until he either ran out of oxygen or some piece of debris tore through him, the thought that so many others being already dead barley registering for him at the moment. For a few moments he lost hope and screamed as loud as he could, swearing again and again in Russian as he cursed the station, space and even cursed himself for ever coming up here at all. His voice began to crack as he panted and fought back his tears, suddenly realising how pathetic he was being despite the situation. As he completed another rotation and the station came back into his view he saw that some sections of the station looked like they might still be there somewhat intact, though he knew they’d probably be seriously damaged if not completely destroyed. His radio again crackled slightly and he spent a good few moments shouting into it frantically for someone, anyone to answer him. As his mind raced over and over he started to think about what he could do, if anything at all. He soon came to the conclusion that without assistance he would be lost to space, his worst nightmare come true as he had always feared, and without a radio he wouldn’t be able to do anything to prevent it. The only thing he could think of was to create more force that would get him moving back towards the station, instead of drifting away like he was at the moment. He frantically began to paw at the toolkit again, trying to reach anything else that might be big enough to do the trick. He grew frustrated as he first threw the next biggest thing, his handheld temperature sensor, but it seemed to have little to no effect on his direction. He swore and wracked his brain for anything else he could do, again twisting and turning as he tried to look down at the suit to see what else he had. He caught site of the American flag on his shoulder and for a moment he lost his cool once more, cursing again and again, this time directing it at America as if it were somehow responsible for his situation. Suddenly his gloved hand made contact with the small torch that was embedded into the suit and another idea struck him. Again breathing deeply he started to flash the light towards the station each time he spun to face it, trying his best to spell out ‘SOS’ in morse code – though he barely had time to do so each time he rotated to face the station. It started to again give him a brief glimmer of hope as he prayed that one of the team had made it and still had a functioning thrusters pack, as well as being willing to risk everything to retrieve him from his almost certain fate. He swallowed hard as he started to doubt his chances, knowing that if it was him clinging to what was left of the station with a thruster pack that he’d never be able to achieve such a feat, though he whispered to himself over and over “Come on Ellie, Stienhaue, King – anyone... please”.

Lord Pie Member

3.14159265358979323

Status

Bio

Most Recent Posts