< Message Headers > Message Source: TWIHFIHTTS Message Destination: Broadcast Keywords: Priority Transmission; SOS; Anarchist; Habitat; Salvage; Don't mind the hull spiders; Fusion bottle; Mars; < End Headers > < Message Body > Open request for all anarchists, merchants, or good Samaritans near Mars. We require a replacement Promethean-class DT fusion drive assembly. Have scrap materials for trade. < Message Body Ends > < checksum error, extra field detected > The Crab is a master of understatement. He makes it sound like he needs parts for a hobby job, not like the hab's going to either be blown to bits or burn up in a month. If you're close enough to help you probably heard what happened. Just in case: when we got here we were in a pretty wonky elliptic orbit. We were trying to even things out when the main plant let go, and now there's debris across thirty degrees of sky and our orbit will intersect the atmosphere in a few weeks. The damn engines were a lashup to start. We're one of those big old double-torus habs from Earth-Moon L5, you remember the type? Barely needed the station keeping jets. We stole the drive from a wrecked Promethean heavy transport, emphasis on the 'wrecked.' The Crab wants the exact same thing, the nostalgic idiot, but we'll take anything. A hydrogen jet, a reactor, pull us out with another ship. Give us a goddamn antimatter drive and we'll take it, at least long enough to pull our asses out of the fire. Looks like Mars would rather disassemble us ballistically than let us hit atmosphere in one piece and maybe get junk on one of their precious cities. The specs on the Promethean say it was rated for 800MN of thrust. We'll take a tenth of that and be happy. Do me a favour and make like it was your own idea, though? The Crab's a good crustacean, he's just a little touchy about this. -Mel- < EOM >