Seems we got quite lucky there peon.

Too lucky!

I know you wish to keep both your crew and everyone else safe. While the easier route does involve sacrifice, I will help you try to perfect this section. Please do not feel demotivated if you do make mistakes, they are bound to happen as taking this ship was the most dangerous out of all options.

You were quite bound to take it co-player, and that earns you more then a few points with me. Most people would throw out any option that has the word "clockwork" in it, but you weren't stopped at all.

I do ask that you attempt to not take such chances with almost all of our crew and on a mission we cannot afford to fail though.....

The first thing we need to do is make sure all the sprinklers are off. After that you'll want to set up a few fires in some vantage points. Do understand that you must try to set as few fires as possible, each fire will trigger a luck roll and we want to stay away from those for as long as possible.

Now, remember peon, luck rolls are out of your control, but you can tame them with just a bit of thought. When would be the best time to start the fires?

Just before we open the doors again! That way even with the worst roll, the overly intense fire will in fact work in our favor!

I was asking the peon.

Sorry, I was unable to tell and blurted out the answer as soon as I heard the question.

That's alright.

Of course, I'm sure you have already noticed, but we do have another issue we must deal with. I know this is going to be tough for you peon, but I believe you already know what the issue is.

I really like Hasty... Is there anything we can do? We don't have to kill him right away, right?

You don't have to do anything you don't want to do. With a bit of luck maybe we can pull this off.

Helios, how quick is the infection spread once contact with blood is made? If someone hurries, maybe it could be washed off? Maybe we have time to make a vaccine so he can be a safe clockwork......

...This seems highly unlikely with such an aggressive infection, in which case; the better idea would be to eject the AI Core before the infection reaches it, if so: How much time do we have until the infection reaches it? Where are AI Cores usually located in Hermes units?

Infection spread depends on the strain. Some are more aggressive then others. I do fear this may be one of them. We may still have time though. I would give up the idea of a vaccine though, if a vaccine was an option then there would have been one ages ago. The clockwork infection mutates too quickly for such things. Even in "safe clockworks" there have been more then a few cases of the infection mutating while it the host, and thus turning in to a very deadly strain.

I agree, if you want to attempt saving him, ripping his core out from his head would be your best bet, but you must be careful, one wrong move and you could corrupt the whole thing or damage the core.

The vaccine wouldn't work for other reasons, clockwork infections are fully willing to cannibalize each other. A safe clockwork can fight off other infections only slightly, maybe enough to fight off low density airborne versions, but anything more than that and they might as well be any old person.