"Keep it up! Steady!" Inin shouted, "If your defenses let up for even a moment, tank it using your body."
While the maintenance crew were scuttling across the hull on a platform of cloud that hung on its sides, Torq maintained pace by erecting a barrier of mist to defend against stones being pelted at them.
The stones weren't dangerous, lacking power and weight behind them to be dangerous enough. However, there were too many of them, almost packing the space like sardines.
These stones were the size of a nail, irregularly round. When polished to the limit, they will appear no different to marbles. They were just available in the region, like how rain and mud exist in other terrain.
Deep at the river bed, bubbles slip out of the cracks nonstop, carrying within them a stone or two they come across during their path to the surface.
