Overdue Maintenance

Jack parks the truck just before the exit of a tunnel and the four get out. Roaring water echoes from somewhere in the distance. Annie grabs her bag and follows the others towards the end of the tunnel. The wall to the right features doors, large gates, and a few windows that allow a peek into abandoned offices, storage spaces, and a small machine shop. The end of the tunnel connects to a large balcony extending into a narrow ravine with rusted metal walkways going to the left and right.

They walk onto the balcony and take a look around: The walkway to the left goes to a freestanding staircase tower that goes down to the bottom of the ravine and is just as rusty as the walkway itself. The walkway to the right connects to the top of a concrete dam blocking the ravine. A couple bushes, flowers, and a small tree grow there, partially hiding rusty cranks and levers, and the dam is green from moss and small ferns growing all over its side. Water flows over the spillway, falling into the depths below. To the right of the dam, inset into the same rock face as the tunnel exit, is a wall with a window front.

Annie, check this out!
Jack gestures for her to come to the railing. She hesitates.
That railing is gonna hold, yeah?
Idunno?... He attempts to push shove? it and bangs agains it – it doesn't budge. Probably?
She walks over and cautiously leans on it to peer down. The water flowing over the spillway joins a torrent of water rushing out of two big pipes deep below, at the bottom of the ravine.

Michelle and James go ahead, using the walkway towards the dam. About half-way, as Michelle walks onto the next section of walkway, it starts making scary foreboding? creaking noises. The moment James reaches it, the creaking turns into cracking and the panel of grid floor beings to give out underneath his feet. He grabs on to one of the railings and quickly hops? Idk some word between "step" and "jump" onto the beam holding it, leaving the section of floor barely hanging on.
Michelle asks: You okay?
Yeah – can't say the same for the floor...
The two walk the rest of the way across, meanwhile Annie and Jack stay on the balcony.

TODO: Change this so Michelle and James explore the dam first, then turn their attention to the windows.

After the Aufregung? dies down, Michelle and James start looking around.
Would you look at that!
Michelle is looking through the windows. A few of them have cracks but most are somehow intact.
I think I found what we're looking for.
Jack asks: The control room?
Yea, it's right here.
Guess we're gonna have to climb across...
Annie says: I'm not doing that.
James walks up to one of the windows saying: Looks like there might be a way back to the tunnel from inside. We could let you in that way.
Jack replies: That would work but we probably really don't wanna break these windows.
Nobody said anything about breaking them...
James takes a screwdriver out of his pocket and jams it inbetween the window and its frame, then he quickly pulls on it. The window jumps open with a bang.
Michelle looks at him a bit befuddled?.
What?
You seem to have some interesting skills...
The more intact old world buildings tend to have locked doors. Gotta get in somehow.

Jack and Annie are waiting in the tunnel next to a door. The handle moves down and they hear the deadbolt retracting with a click. The door creaks as Michelle pulls it inward, revealing a hallway. She leads the way. James is standing in a door to the left, holding it open. They go through and enter the control room, a somewhat large room packed with equipment. Across from them are the windows, allowing a view of the spillway and the top of the dam, with a random assortment of office furniture and a few electronic devices zusammengeschoben? piled up? in front of them. The wall to the left is lined with metal cabinets with a few buttons, switches, large gauges and levers on them. The wall to the right is taken up by storage cabinets? the drawer thingies... and an assortment of large devices and contraptions. A bit towards them from the center of the room is a large console facing the window front with many buttons, switches, gauges, and two telephones on it. Annie walks past it and looks out the windows, admiring the flowering lilypads floating behind the dam.

Jack picks up a clipboard and pencil that lay on the center console.
Maintenance checklist for October 2011 – I don't think anyone has stepped foot in here since Sunside Cove was sealed off.
Annie turns around and leans on the console. It wouldn't surprise me. Many people are legitimately scared of the outside world.
I mean they're probably right, the outside world is pretty dangerous. Watch your step, by the way...
She looks down and ... Whoa!
Without noticing, she had walked onto a thick glass pane covering a large opening in the floor. It allows a view into a hall filled with machinery. The floor is flooded by water rushing out of a burst pipe and spraying out from the flanges of many other pipe sections.
Jack says: It's a miracle that there is still power being generated here. Michelle, James, have a look down there.
Michelle responds: Yeah, we saw on the way in. This place is overbuilt to take it.
He walks around the console and tries to get a better look.
Looks like it might not tale it for much longer. All four turbines have water, but only three are spinning.

After a short time discussing with Michelle and flipping through the paper on the clipboard, they come up with a plan and Jack sits down at the console. He picks up a telephone and dials a number. While wedging the receiver between his shoulder and ear, he pulls a few pages from the clipboard and lays them out in front of him.
Good afternoon, this is Jack, I am calling from the Ivydale hydro power station. Am I talking to infrastructure control?
Short pause while he listens.
Yes, I am.
Another pause.
Sir, I don't care. We have an emergency. Am I talking to infrastructure control?
–
I'm not here to answer questions. I am calling to inform you of an imminent power outage. Follow procedure thirty-nine. Switch the battery banks to autonomous and disconnect the transformers.
–
Follow emergency procedure thirty-nine.
–
As I said, I will not answer your questions.
–
Follow the procedure. You have fifteen minutes.
–
Will you do your fucking job already? You need to get the city running on backup power right now. Questions can be answered later.
–
If the grid goes down with the power station, that's on you. Follow emergency procedure thirty-nine. You can call me back on the two five five two. Have a good day.
Jack puts the receiver back down and shakes his head.
TODO: James is probably unfamiliar with telephones.

In the meantime, Michelle has gone around and flipped some switches on the control panel cabinets to the left. The gauges are lit up and their needles no longer sit at their resting points. Jack flips a switch on the center console and it lights up like a christmas tree. He gives it a once-over, then he presses some buttons on his watch and gets up.

The four climb back outside onto the dam. Jack and James attempt to man-handle? the mechanism to lower the spillway gate. To their surprise, it actually moves and the water flow increases.
ToDo: something missing here, Idk

A bell starts ringing in the control room. They climb through the window again and Michelle sits down at the center console. She hits a button and the ringing stops.
Power draw is dropping. Looks like they're doing their part.
Jack looks at his watch.
Sixteen minutes. About time...
A few minutes later, the bell goes off again. The needles on most of the gauges suddenly swing to zero. The phone rings. Jack answers:
Ivydale hydro power station, this is Jack.
–
Affirmative, you are disconnected.
He looks up and holds the receiver away from his mouth.
Annie, can you flip that big switch?
This one?
It moves down with a satisfying ka-chonk. Michelle turns some what do you call this style of switch? on the console and slowly pulls back one of four levers. The console buzzes at her and some status lights start blinking.
She tries the other three levers, only the third one moves without buzzing.
Jack speaks into the phone again: We'll need to manually shut down three of the turbines. In the meantime, is it in your power to gather volunteers?
–
As many as we can get. We need people to dismantle and rebuild large machinery and plumbing.
–
I don't know? Talk to the news or something.
–
Thanks.