The decision has been made, the knights would be hunting the monster. Though there was the matter of radiation to attend to. It seemed to have escaped the captain's notice.
"With respect, Sir Captain, we believe that there is a radiation coolant leak aboard the station, and we would advise that the evacuation zone be shielded if it is not already." Oscar was deferential but the actions would be taken with or without the captain's blessing.
The engineer's eyes went wide with realization. It had presumably escaped their notice as they had been busy with the other issues aboard the station as had the captain.
There is no great argument. It was a great idea. The only issue came from the lack of radiation shield and equipment onboard station. There was a minimal amount of sheilding recorded on the storage deck.
And so the knights agreed to accompany the engineers, and to summon more civilians to gather and implement this radiation shielding, crude as it may be, around departures.
Before the knights could leave the bridge, the captain had one question.
"If there's any accommodation we can offer so as to help you avoid using technology or similar please speak up! We should be able to accommodate and we greatly admire your wholesome morality."
It was a common misconception among the public, how luddites got around.
Oscar spoke on their private channel his voice muffled in the alloy helmets.
"Gabriel why don't you stay back for a minute and two and educate this man."
The rest of the knights ignored the question, Gabriel, youngest of their number and fairest of voice, stepped out of line and turned to the captain, to give a brief lesson. The power armor elevated him a bit more than a head taller than the captain.
"Long ago in the days of legend and folklore, they lived a weaver who worked in a weaving factory named Ned Ludd. Ned Ludd and his people were being replaced by, you are correct, technology. But as always technology is not implemented to replace the worker, or at least not directly. Instead it is employed to lower the barrier of skill required to perform a task. The technology itself was not evil, rather the human intention to lower the value of products and the value of the labor was and continues to be, evil."
The captain tried to interrupt but Gabriel turned up the volume on his power armor to overcome the captains words.
"All that was once human was sacrificed for nothing but a lesser form. Ludd rightfully rebelled against this change. He destroyed the technology, which, in hindsight, was a mistake because people got the wrong idea. He should have killed the hiring managers of the factory and their banks and their churches. He should have tracked and exterminated anyone who was complicit in this progressive activity. Especially the shareholders because the disenfranchisement of fellow humanity was completely evil. The innocent looms and machines indeed even the innocent workers who would come to replace Nate Ludd later are complicit. They are undesired and immoral material capital used to beat the people into submission. Yet in this they cannot know the crime they commit I judge not their guilt. You wish to accommodate us, Can you provide the names and locations of your shareholders?
The captain could not and without waiting for a response Gabriel turned to the room.
"Can anyone?"
There was a brief pause and an awkward silence, Gabriel had not taken their helmet off, he was a young man and the high caliber rifle he carried reminded everyone how fragile they were.
"That's what I was taught anyway"
And with a proud bounce in his step the armored twenties something's boots clanked after his companions now already halfway to their destination.
The party arrived outside the storage room and the knights opened the door, quickly they recognized the room was clear and the civilians that followed realized the radiation levels and kept themselves out.
The knights found the radiation shielding foil and fetched it, they also investigated storage. Where there was heightened radiation, there was likely the reactor's saboteur their target. Or failing that deadly and undocumented leaks.
The knights split up, Jason and Gabriel to escort the civilians and aid the application of the shielding.
Oscar and Charles stayed behind to investigate the storage deck their radiation indicators beeping as their exposure climbed to 1 mSv/hr. A damaged argon tank confirmed the deadly hazards present. They approached until their suits informed them of 10 mSv/hr. A prodigious dose rating their shielding would reduce it, but it was not wise to play with the non-linear nature of radiation.
"The monster attacked our argon tank? Does that mean anything to you Charles?"
The short range comms of the knights would give an outside observer the illusion of silence that neither knight experienced.
"No… I wouldn't know why it likes argon, it looks like it just poked holes in it and left."
"That's a noble gas, it doesn't do anything."
"The radiation says something foul was here, let's hurry back to departures, some mysteries are not for us to solve."
"Wait two seconds, I need pictures"
"Very wise! I'll join you."
And the knights hurried away with documentation. Their suits could barely carry a gigabyte, and a quarter of it was software.
Shielding was installed unceremoniously, engineers fussing over the optimal locations given limited materials. The monster was not appearing, radiation levels aboard the station were rising steadily, unnervingly fast in fact.
Primary coolant was blasting out into void and trace amounts of it whirled around to settle on the outsides of the station as it lazily rotated like a slow motion blender blade spritzing so many ants with poison.
A dying guard had been found stumbling into medical with acute radiation sickness. He had more combat footage on him but didn't remember anything. The most interesting thing about him was his horrifying radiation burns, station doctors thought they could save him, it would just take a while and he would never be the same.
Makeshift barricades were placed in hallways surrounding departures, heavy objects the beast would have to crash into or move. A human could just walk around them.
The Jason and Charles ventured to summon civilians to departures, the shuttle was still 5 hours out. No sign of the creature.
A civilian waved them down, mild radiation was becoming common in all portions of the stations
"Knights! The monster is in pressure vessel ATM-3!"
The knights would normally have ignored a civilian, but the situation was not normal.
"Show us what you know."
Jason spoke.
The civilian produced a corporate laptop and after logging into a few terminals and produced a chart.
"I thought the network was down." Charles expected an answer, there was none.
The civilian pointed at the screen "This is the pressure inside a normal tank."
Jason removed his helmet so as to better communicate with the civilian and properly see the screen, Charles didn't, observing 3 mSv/hr and rising.
"And this is ATM-3"
"What exactly do the spiky lines mean?" Jason was gruff.
"Well, pressure craters here, likely due to a rupture or blown hatch, I've seen that shape before. Then it stabilizes here" the civilian pointed to a different set of fuzzy lines. "which means someone repaired it. I would bet from the inside."
"You think the monster repaired it?"
"Who else? Everybody else has been pretending it's a day off"
"Hurry up to departure. It's getting hot, you all are gonna have radiation sickness if that shuttle doesn't come soon." Charles was impatient.
"Thank them for their hard work hard you asshole!" Jason donned his helmet and knelt before the mousy worker with their laptop.
"Thank you! the voice modulator boomed. it was uncharacteristic and grandiose decorum from Jason. He liked to show up Charles and Charles tolerated silliness more than most knights.
"Thank you" Charles bowed "Please do not put yourself in unnecessary danger."
The knights reconvened just outside the now crowded and noisy departures terminal, radiation levels were rising. 4 hours remained and now 4 mSv/hr, the token foils and aprons in departures could reduce exposures by an estimated 20%.
The radiation was rising non-linearly, in 4 hours, when the shuttle got here, it would be 20, perhaps 30 Assuming the shuttle didn't fly through a coolant cloud and bring more.
Some of the crew had offered to don space suits and act as sentries just outside an airlock, the radiation outside was roughly 100 mSv/hr, which meant the emergency shuttle was going to be a dangerous ride.
The knights spoke among themselves.
"That monster is supposed to have been inside ATM-3"
"How do you know? What is atm-3?"
"An atmospheric storage tank"
"It was a civilian tip, they had a chart, monster opened it up and repaired ATM-3."
"We believe them?"
"Yea I do."
"What about you Charles?"
"I think the monster was there, but I think the monster wants to be here."
"Right so our behavior doesn't change?"
"We could go kill it if it's resting" Jason was the optimist.
"That sounds too good to be true" Oscar was not.
"Well it means the old critter is space walking"
Awkward silence… Gabriel was probably correct.
"We don't know that."
"I'll ask the civilian where the access to ATM-3 is." Jason didn't wait for confirmation. "And we will know!"
He opened the panel and waded into the mess of humanity.
"If the monster was smart it would attack right now. While we have an incapacitated knight" grumbled Oscar.
Charles remained serious "If the monster can spacewalk we need eyes outside, we are the best assets for that."
"Do you know who knows if any new cameras have gone down?" Gabe was earnest.
"No but the Red Solstice has tug and survey drones milling about the station, those are gonna be a wake up call back on the mothership." Oscar was surly, which was a bad omen.
Jason returned to confirm the risk, the knights prepared for the misery of spacewalk. It took a few minutes to pick "holes" they would conceal themselves within that could view the escape shuttle.
There was a brief exchange of weapons, The heavy anti-material rifle would be carried in the void by Oscar, the awkward overcalibered sub-machine gun would be carried by Gabriel. The two assault rifles, already larger than was comfortable for a normal human would be wielded by Charles and Jason.
Oscar and Jason would remain outside, Gabriel among the civilians, Charles the shortstop responded to whatever happened.