Atmospheric Technician

ENGINEERING STAFF

Atmospheric Technician

Access: Atmospherics, Maintenance Qualifications: At least 25 years of age, applicable Bachelors degree or 7 years experience in engineering-related field. Employers: Hephaestus Industries, Zavodskoi Interstellar Supervisors: Chief Engineer Duties: Ensure the air is breathable on the ship, fight fires, repair pipes, keep the thrusters going, help out the Engineers. Guides: Guide to Construction, Guide to Atmospherics, Guide to Thrusters

As an Atmospheric Technician, what you do is rather simple. Firstly, your ship's atmospherics system starts up and running, but there is always room for improvement. Secondly, if there is any sort of environmental disaster, head off and fix it! Most of the crew requires air to survive and a good atmospheric tech can change the flow of an entire round. You have your tools, your engineering headset, portable and mobile pipe dispensers, several space heaters, and atmospheric survival equipment. When things get quiet, sit back and start your own little projects, usually consisting of plotting ways to flood the ship with a variety of toxic gases or finding the exact amount of high powered pumps to crash that power supply and yell at the inferior engineers.

Atmospherics

This is your home. This is your motherland. Atmosia loves you, and you love Atmosia. Treat her right, and she'll never leave you hanging or gasping.

Atmosia is a beautiful land of pipes and various bits of atmospheric regulation equipment. Here, you'll find the pipes that distribute gas to the rest of the ship, the means to control that gas, the supplies to keep that gas moving, breathable, and on the ship rather than out in the vacuum of space, and the computers that will let you monitor the atmosphere on the whole ship or remotely control them. Ever wondered why cargo loves wearing the Ushanka? Probably has to do with an atmos tech making their workplace a freezer with a button on their console.

At first glance, the tangled mess of pipes that is Atmosia proper can seem intimidating. Don't let that frighten you. Atmosia is not nearly as confusing as she seems - and she is well worth the effort. If you are in need of a little training jump in as engineering apprentice and have someone explain the basics to you once or twice, before starting to yell at them for constantly stealing your pipe dispenser.

Your Job

Your job is air. You keep the ship breathing. Without you, this place would suffocate while sucking on a hard vacuum. Or freeze to death. Or die of depressurization. Or catch on fire. Or poison itself with phoron. You get the picture.

In more specific terms, though, you have three primary duties: keeping the ship's atmospheric systems running at full capacity, taking care of any specific atmospheric problems that pop up on the ship, and managing the ship's thrusters. This means that you refill areas that have been depressurized, drain areas that have overpressurized, filter out toxic gases, fight fires, and any number of other things. See the Guide to Atmospherics and the Guide to Thrusters for more details.

Repressurization

Repressurizing an area that has lost some of its atmosphere is the most common task you'll face as an Atmospheric Technician. Areas usually undergo depressurization when something exposes them to the cold void of space. This causes all of its atmosphere to rush out, along with anything unlucky enough to be caught in the windstorm. Coordinate with your fellow engineers. They can repair the walls while you layout your majestic pipes or drag along another pipe dispenser. It is usually good to have them aware that you are active and able to fix the atmos issue while they focus on changing lightbulbs.

After your engineering buddies have taken care of a hull breach, it'll be your job to refill the area and make it breathable. This can be done by using the Air Alarms mounted on the walls in most areas, as well as the local vents and scrubbers. Atmosia, fortunately, is largely self-regulating; after a hull breach is sealed and the system is set to filter or fill in fresh air, the vents on the ship will automatically begin replacing lost air as long as the pipes to the vents in the area are undamaged. This process is usually rather slow, unless you have upgraded your atmos systems to get the most out of it. You'll mainly be called to focus on critical or high-traffic areas, and the crew needs it to be breathable now. A well prepared portable air pump can fill an area within seconds. If your hands are full have the apprentices drag them in for you.

Filtering and Depressurizing

Less commonly, you'll be called on to filter out toxins from the air or drain an area that's become overpressurized. Removing excess atmosphere from a room is as simple as going to the air alarm and selecting the replace setting (or Panic Syphon in extreme cases), then waiting for it to go back to green before switching back to Filter.

Getting rid of toxins, on the other hand, is usually more difficult. Setting the air alarm filters to scrub out toxins and N2O from the air will help, but it might not be enough. Air scrubbers can be used to get rid of toxins, but if the spill is very large, you might have to resort to Panic Syphon or Replace Air settings. Remember to keep people out of the room as long as you're working. Not only are the toxins dangerous, but the fact that depressurization is probably your best option adds another threat. Just make sure to enable your magboots before bashing in a window and that the grill is not shocked. If it's a phoron spill, be damn sure there's nothing around that can set it off (unless you're planning on burning off the phoron, which is extremely dangerous and shouldn't be attempted in anything but the most extreme cases or by experienced Atmospheric Technicians).

Thruster Setup

The thrusters and their prompt setup is also a key part of your job as an Atmospheric Technician aboard the Horizon, as is their maintenance in the event of a problem. Generally, thruster setup should be your first priority on a normal shift, and luckily it's fairly easy. Start in the port thruster near the oxygen and air tanks, and start filling the burn chambers by maxing and enabling input and output on the terminal and then maxing and enabling the pump next to the gas mixer. After that, repeat the process in the starboard thruster. Once they've gotten sufficiently pressurized, hit the ignition switch next to the terminals in both rooms and then max and enable the output pump near the burn chambers - all done!

If you still need help, the Guide to Thrusters is your friend.

Fire!

There's a fire! This is a comparatively rare occurrence, but when there is one, you're expected to suit up and get the problem fixed without hesitation. Generally, this involves locking the area down and using Panic Syphon and/or Replace Air to quell the fire. Keep in mind that your atmos suit is designed for EVA operations. Your firefighter suit is not.

Total Emergency: The Fire Axe and You

The Fire Axe is your tool of choice during emergencies since you can use it as a crowbar to open doors when the power is off and use it as an incredibly powerful melee weapon or just to get rid of a window quickly. Just keep in mind that you have to be holding it with both hands to use it effectively (click on it while you're holding it to do this). Because it's so dangerous and it doesn't fit in a backpack or satchel, it should usually be left in its case in the computer room. If you have to have it, though, use a multi tool to unlock its case. Just be aware that, once it's out, you are seen as armed and dangerous, and some people want to get their hands on it. Security will probably want to know why you grabbed it, too.

Traitoring

Atmospherics is already sensitive work, and it's just complex enough that people who don't know how it works themselves will generally let you do what you say needs to be done rather than question you when there's an Atmospherics alert in the area. This combined with the ability to remotely trigger such alarms or cause atmos troubles, gives you a free pass to enter almost all of the ship without raising an eyebrow. This gives you all sorts of opportunity for shenanigans. Beyond that, you can sabotage the entire ship's air supply very, very easily if you know what you're doing - but do it carefully, because you'll be one of those most under suspicion. You have easy access to phoron and other harmful substances as well. With a bit of inventiveness, you can do a lot of damage. Make sure to clear it with admins if you plan to send an entire department to sleep or declare the bridge a new construction zone via rapid phoron induced deconstruction.