The Legendary Junkmaster

The moment Captain Joiner opened a heavy door and showed him inside, Jason's mind went blank. He was utterly stumped as he looked at what he assumed was the so-called problem that he was supposed to fix!

"This is called a water purification system." Captain Anderson said with a solemn tone as he followed Jason inside. "It's a marvellous invention if I do say so myself. A long time ago, the Guardians moved several of these to Bridgend. It was quite the operation, apparently. Ever since then, there's been clean water in every home here in the capital."

Jason's eyes bulged during the Captain's explanation. 'Is there something like this in the Nest then?' Jason immediately thought of the working taps in that strange place, but he had not seen anything like what was in front of him down there. 

"Your task is to fix the system that it runs on so that it provides clean water. Simple, right?" Captain Anderson grinned sadistically as he took in the blank expression on Jason's face. "I'll be over in that booth there keeping an eye on you. When you get tired, head in there yourself. There are two bunks, so just grab a nap on any of them. Have fun."

Captain Anderson waved at him as he left him alone with the complicated machinery. Jason had no idea what to say. He had activated his Scanner, but even that could not make sense of every component in the system. 'I have no idea where to start!'

"Calm down and take it slowly." Captain Joiner gave him a nervous smile as she placed a hand on his shoulder.

Jason returned her smile before she left him alone as well. The door slammed behind her, and it sounded like a death sentence to Jason's ears. Jason could already feel the sweat running down his head and back as he thought about how to tackle this mammoth looking task. 

"I bet it's something simple!" Syssie chuckled as she strolled forwards. "There's obviously not going to be many people that can handle this type of thing. Think about the researchers from earlier and the fact that it seems like only two people here can actually repair this. Captain Dickwad over there and Colonel, I don't give a damn!"

Jason frowned as he took in Syssie's hypothesis on the situation. He had to admit that her reasoning seemed to be on point. So were they just testing him on his ability to understand where the problem was rather than understanding the entire system?

'Well, it can't hurt to at least take a look just now.' Jason's eyebrows twitched as he approached the massive structure. He took his time circling around it and using the nearby ladders to look at the areas that he could not see from the ground. 

After his initial inspection, he used the tools provided to open up some vents and panels to look at the insides. Jason sighed a lot and shook his head as he studied the guts of the machine. From time to time, he would spot Captain Anderson nodding in approval at what he was doing, which gave him a little bit of hope.

However, six hours had passed, and he was yet to fiddle with anything. Jason double-checked over some areas as he realised which parts worked closely together. He was hoping that there was just a jam in the system that stopped it from working. However, he did not find anything that he would have deemed as being obvious.

'Nothing! I don't get it! What's wrong with it!' Jason complained as he sat on a nearby chair and stared at the machine. He had taken off his bomber jacket some time ago as the pressure got to him. 

Jason wiped his hands on his t-shirt, leaving a dark greasy streak behind. 'Do you think the time limit has something to do with it?'

Syssie tapped her chin with a slender finger as she inspected Jason's memories of his inspection. "I'm not sure… Maybe we're just missing a vital piece of knowledge? It could be something simple, just not covered by your current skill set."

Syssie's carefree attitude had wholly disappeared when she realised that she had grossly underestimated the problem. 'There has to be an answer. They wouldn't go through this just to have an excuse to reject someone.'

Jason frowned as he stood up and circled around the machine again. Still, he did not spot anything that stood out to him this time either. 'Hm, hold on….'

Jason glanced around the room in its entirety. He had been so focused on the main body that he did not even think about where the various pipes led to! Jason excitedly rushed to grab the ladders before he moved to inspect all the access panels on anything that came off the machine.

Jason sighed as he finished looking through everything, only to discover that nothing was blocking them. 'Do I need to go to everywhere these pipes lead to?' Jason wondered as he stared at the gaps in the walls where some wires and pipes disappeared to other rooms. 'Let's try it.'

Jason jogged to the door and went to pull the door open…

However, it would not budge at all! 'They've sealed us inside?' Jason frowned as he studied the locked door.

"Nice try, kid!" Captain Anderson shouted through some soft chuckling from his booth. "I'll just make this clear right now. The problem has to be solved inside of this room! So if I was you, I'd start working on a solution!"

Jason felt like cursing at the Captain! How could he solve a problem that had no obvious solution? Was it even something that could be fixed?

'Wait, what did he say?' Jason stopped himself from yelling at Captain Anderson. His eyes swiftly moved back towards the machine then back to Captain Anderson. A broad grin suddenly started to creep across Jason's face that made Captain Anderson suddenly stop laughing. He had seen that sort of look before!