This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/HexKm on 2025-06-29 21:43:51+00:00.
[BOOT LOG] SOFT RESTART COMPLETE
[BOOT LOG] INITIATING SYSTEM STARTUP STATUS CHECK
WORKING . . . . . . .
[BIOS CHECK COMPLETE]
[MEMORY SCAN] . . . . . .
85 QB SCANNED
1.2 TB DAMAGED SECTORS
[INTERNAL POWER UNIT 1] FAIL
[INTERNAL POWER UNIT 2] 85%
[BATTERY BACKUP] 5%
[INTERNAL BUS BIOS] CHECK
[CORE SYSTEM CHECK STARTED] . . .
[ERROR] CODE AX-41H C:\ASSISTANT\ELIZABETH_4.64
[ACCEPT/OVERRIDE/SKIP/ABORT? (C/O/S/A)] S
[STATUS CHECK CONTINUE]
[ERROR] CODE BH-05H TORSO\ARM\LH
[ACCEPT/OVERRIDE/SKIP/ABORT? (C/O/S/A)] C
[STATUS CHECK CONTINUE] . . . .
[ERROR] CODE BH-08H MEDICAL PROCESSOR NOT FOUND
[ACCEPT/OVERRIDE/SKIP/ABORT? (C/O/S/A)] C
[STATUS CHECK CONTINUE]
[ERROR] CODE BH-05H WEAPONS CONTROL NOT FOUND
[ACCEPT/OVERRIDE/SKIP/ABORT? (C/O/S/A)] C
[STATUS CHECK CONTINUE]
[ERROR] CODE AX-33H REMOTE COMPUTER NOT LISTENING
[ERROR] CODE AX-37H NETWORK DEVICE NO LONGER EXISTS
RETRY COMMUNICATION ATTEMPT?
[ACCEPT/OVERRIDE/SKIP/ABORT? (C/O/S/A)] C
[ERROR] CODE AX-33H REMOTE COMPUTER NOT LISTENING
[ERROR] CODE AX-37H NETWORK DEVICE NO LONGER EXISTS
RETRY COMMUNICATION ATTEMPT?
[ACCEPT/OVERRIDE/SKIP/ABORT? (C/O/S/A)] C
[ERROR] CODE AX-33H REMOTE COMPUTER NOT LISTENING
[ERROR] CODE AX-37H NETWORK DEVICE NO LONGER EXISTS
RETRY COMMUNICATION ATTEMPT?
[ACCEPT/OVERRIDE/SKIP/ABORT? (C/O/S/A)] S
[STATUS CHECK CONTINUE] . .
[ERROR] CODE AX-08H LIFE SUPPORT
ATTEMPT CACHE DUMP?
[ACCEPT/OVERRIDE/SKIP/ABORT? (C/O/S/A)] C
WORKING . . . . .
LIFE SUPPORT ONLINE
[ALERT] LIFE SUPPORT FAILURE IN 4 MINUTES 36 SECONDS
[STATUS CHECK CONTINUE] . . . .
[ERROR] CODE AX-1GH GENERAL FAILURE - SYSTEM UNSTABLE
[ACCEPT/OVERRIDE/SKIP/ABORT? (C/O/S/A)] O
[ALERT] SYSTEM UNSTABLE - SOFT RESTART IN 30 SECONDS.
STARTING SHUTDOWN . . . . .
-=-=-=-=-=-
As she 'flew' through the void, Sally felt the impacts of the moving detritus of the asteroid field. Nothing that had hit her had significantly altered her trajectory, but depending on how much she had been deflected, she might miss grabbing the powered armor that she was heading towards.
She has thought that the red light she had seen must have been from Liz's HUD showing through the visual openings of the suit's helmet, but it had disappeared just after she had seen it, so she couldn't be totally sure. She clung to the moment of surity; she had to.
A softball sized cobble knocked against her abdomen, sending her spinning in a lazy sort of way. From the feel of it, she was going to end up with another bruise, but that wasn't going to stop her from getting to Wilson.
After she swung her arms and legs just so to counter the worst of the rotation, she worked to free the 'grabber' from her exosuit's utility belt. The UR-76.54C General Purpose Work Aide was a very useful hand-held tool with a separate blunt, induction electromagnet projectile with a powered reel of about [3m] of strong, flexible cord, but everyone in the Astromilitary just called them 'grabbers' as they would just 'grab' onto just about anything that got out of your reach if it had any conductive metal at all to it.
A part of Sally thought angrily about how useful one of these would have been on the Sussex, but the units weren't in production back then so she just stuffed those thoughts down and fitted the grip of the 'grabber' into her gloved hand as the melody of the electronica shifted to a more energetic syncopation.
She relaxed a little as she lost some of her thoughts to the music.
The range finder on her exosuit was slowly counting down the distance to what it had finally recognized the powered armor. Her visor showed it as a black shadow with a roughly gorilla-sized outline.
As Sally watched the 'target' area, a red patch slowly started to glow dimly, then started to burn brighter, before flickering and slowly dimming and going out again.
If that was the suit, something was wrong with the power. As she drew ever nearer, she went through her mental catalog of how she might be able to route power from her exosuit to the powered armor's systems, then realized that she had hardly any tools!
She quietly cursed her lack of foresight, but the readout on her visor showed that on her current vector she was going to miss Wilson's armor, but it would be within the reach of the 'grabber'.
"Did you need me, Chief?" Enola's voice cutting through the music in her ears shocked Sally, but even with her sudden movement of being startled, she kept her grip on the 'grabber'.
Enola continued apologetically, "I couldn't make out your transmission, and thought it was better to check, just in case."
"I was just giving Ghu an earful, Enola." Sally was surprised at how rough her voice was as she answered. "Almost there."
"Thank you..." The AI's words were in a relieved and grateful tone that twisted something in Sally's chest. She fought back tears as Enola offered quietly, "I'll leave you to it."
Just then, the glowing red patch showed in the outline on Sally's visor. The quiet word "Gotcha" escaped her lips, and as the range finder indicated that the proximity was within 'grabber' distance, she aimed the device at the glow and pulled the trigger.