Neophyte Interrupted pt 2

Piper looked wistfully towards one of the windows at the city. Romeo was right, of course, OSEC would decide where they were needed next. Tech. In the Spire!

She shook her head. The shields, they had to get the shields online. Kids were already getting glitchy from overload. There were fail-safe generators in the sub-basement, Romeo was right, that should be their first priority.

“Wren, Dove, you and your Alpha’s meet me and Romeo by the generators. Let’s see if we can figure out what the problem with the backup gen is, maybe start it up manually. Everyone else should stay put, don’t let anyone wander off til we get lights back or at least until the shields are back up. She turned to Romeo to let him know what was going on.

“Everyone’s in the auditorium - I checked in with all the bonded Neo’s. For now-- I have two pairs meeting us by the backup generator, maybe we can figure it out and at least get the shields back up, possibly the lights.” Older tech was next to impossible to slip into let alone control. There was nothing computer controlled about it, it was literally just dead parts, an outside force would be needed to get it running.

“Two steps ahead.” Romeo said with a hint of pride. The teams were about to split to try and restore order but it came to grinding halt when the OSEC officers arrived on the scene. He seemed to immediately zone in on Romo and when he approached Romeo and the knot of Alphas moved to stand at attention.

“As ease soldiers. Romeo 457 sitrep.” The officer demanded tartly. Romeo gave the short and sweet of it, the status of the Neos, Alphas, location and the current plan of action. “Good work all of you. You have one hour to try to fix the jenny and I want everyone in the auditorium for when we figure this out. “Dismissed.”

“Sir!” The Alphas present responded before going off to there assigned duties. Romeo picked up a bag of flashlights.

The generators were located at one of the lower levels, meaning they’d have a few dozen flights of stairs to traverse, but luckily this time it was going with gravity instead of against it. Still, Piper followed close on Romeo’s six just to make sure she didn’t end up ass over teakettle down the steep, dark stairwell. “Dove’s there,” she informed Romeo. “Says all four generators look dead in the water, but we’ll give it our best shot.”

“Do we know why yet? An overload maybe? You would think if they're going to install dumb generators they would make it easier to maintain, repair and manage.” Romeo said flicking on a flashlight. “Buuuuuttt nnooooooo … that would be too easy. Gotta make things a challenge.” He joked as he guided Piper to the sub basement. “And they haaaaaaad to put it on the bottom floor. I hope if anything needs replacing it already down here.”

As soon as they turn the corner Romero was as dumbfounded as the other Alphas as he stared at a wall of nobs, button, leavers and … things that might run on electricity. Now being fair Romeo was not an idiot by any stretch, he had a good head on his shoulder and he learned just as quick as anyone but this was the kind of thing you would get a technician for. A specialist. Romeo and his Alphas were specialists … just not at repairing the generators.

“Shit.” Piper swore out loud, a habit picked up from her Alpha, seeing the state of the generators..

“I tried.” Dove said, also out loud. Piper nodded, and put both hands on the generator, closed her eyes and frowned. There’d be no slipping into the machine, but…

”Run diagnostics on that one, would you? Wren? When you get here, same.”

Piper knelt down by the machine and removed the casing, before looking up to her Alpha. “Can I have your OSEC utility knife?” She asked as Wren and his Alpha breached the sub basement.

Romeo unclipped it from his belt and passed it Piper. “So what's the diagnosis … can she be saved doc?” He said with a serious tone.

“This one? No.” Piper replied, taking his knife, and opening it up for a screwdriver. “Compressor core is completely burned, but Dove thinks that one can be saved. If we can part this one out at least we can Frankenstein 3 together which will put us at 75%. We’ll still be browned out, but the shields will be up and we’ll have the basics. Otherwise? I’m fairly certain we can get to at least 50 with two. Wren, diagnostics on the third.” She removed and tossed the voltage regulator over to Dove to install.

“You won’t hear me complaining and even if someone dose complain they can come down and fix it themselves.” Romeo assured Piper.

The Alphas watch there Neos work like industrious worker ants as the provided light and any heavy lifting needed. It was electronic voodoo in its highest form. The hour was nearly up before they were screwing the paneling back on.

“You need the reboot sequence or … “ Romeo let it hang. He felt he spoke for all the Alphas in the room they had been as useful of assholes on elbows.

Piper refrained from shooting a smile towards Romeo as she handed him his knife back. “Fingers crossed.” She told him. Standing back, just in case anything went horribly wrong, Wren went to work physically typing a sequence into the keyboard.

The generators whined, sputtering to life as the began to hum feeding power to the building. The light flick on and the Neo's could instantly feel the shield sputter to life closing them off from the outside world.

It was as if someone was pulling a shade over a window, the way the shield returned to the spire. Piper watched the data streams until they were well out of sight, and the Spire once again tucked safely away. The lights flickered on, albeit dimmer than usual, the relief felt by the younger Neos was palpable.

“Good job!”  Piper told Dove and Wren, as the three breathed a collective sigh, both that the generators worked and didn’t as she briefly worried, overload and explode. She smiled up to her Alpha, giving him a playful salute. “Within one hour, as requested. Power *should* be enough to work the elevators to get back up to the main floor.”

“Call me crazy but I think I had enough iffy elevators for one day.” Romeo said his tone flat. The other Alphas looked at him with an eyebrow raised. “Don’t ask …”

“Seventeen flights weren’t enough?” Piper playfully groused. “Maybe we can skip Cardio tomorrow.” Inwardly, the Neo’s were alight, some having gotten their first taste of tech. Piper figured enrollment in the bonding program would likely skyrocket. Maybe it wasn’t terrible after all. Lots of Neos would be looking to bond to get out and about.

“Awe need me to give you a piggyback ride?” Romeo teased. “Don’t worry we’ll probably be put under a 24 hour lockdown and you might even get to sleep in!”

“Well-- if you’re offering --” Piper chuckled, but gave it some serious consideration before sighing and relegating to the stairwell. “We best get to the auditorium with the others.”

“Yay …” Romeo said in a dull tone clearly ready to jump out of his boots with excitement.

Piper gave him a look of genuine sympathy, not much looking forward to it herself, but orders were orders. “Maybe we can get them to assign us to have a look outside and see if we can find what caused this to begin with.” She answered helpfully, knowing that’d likely be full well out of the question. “Or we can play some of that Obliterate board game you like, pass the time. Come on, I’ll race you!”