Zeppelin Quest I: A New Adventure!

After getting home back to Cruiser 12 without too many missteps, you sighed carefully as you slouched into the chair in your Captain's Cabin. It was a really comfy chair, angled just so so your dress coat wouldn't get rumpled. Good for thinking in, really.

For example, thinking about what, exactly, you were going to do about Jacob and his adventures in personal sales. While murder might have been an efficient option, you had your personal doubts on the realities of the solution. At the very least, the issue of hiding a body that didn't involve air-dropping it sans parachute into a large body of water would need to play into your equations. That would be conspicuous, even if you were almost an honorary officer in the Ottoman Navy Aeronautique. With murder out of the question, that left other means to get him under control.

Although… you could comfortably ask a small favor out of Mustafa, and the byzantine nature of the Ottoman government meant he probably knew a fixer or two. If Jacob was cooling his heels in prison, then that meant he was out of the way and you could get going. Of course, this meant you'd be the new Chief Helmsman, and you had a whole hour of stick time on this new ship, but that wasn't such a concern. You'd probably need to pick up more pilots anyway, seeing as you couldn't be wedded to the wheel and sending someone from Signals wouldn't work forever. Which reminded you that you needed more Signals hands, who'd probably be drawn from your current non-rate pool which was shrinking fast. That meant advancing people up into mates, which meant training, and God forbid a formal class…

You were starting to understand why Thomas drank so heavily right about now. Still, you had to get to bed for when tomorrow came around.

---

Waking up, you luxuriated in the oddly large bed for a minute before remembering you were in fact still airborne. Getting up and dressed, you put on the base layer to your semiformal rig, deciding to leave the full coat behind for a waistcoat and your pistol. Checking the drop on the holster, you stepped out of your cabin and into a distinct chill. Right, the mist. Turning around to get that coat, you set out to try and get to the lift down to the ground.

After getting out of the citadel of the ship and to the ex-bomb bay rearward, you hunted down a Loadmaster to run the lift to get you down to the ground. Passing the frames of the decks being slowly installed, you chuckled a little when you realized the "lift" was really the ship's bomb loading arm holding a cargo cage. It was still more than steady as you got to the ground, and stepping off it retracted to the ship quite promptly. Still in the airship barn, you hailed a young man who led you to a motorcar. It was time to be going, now.

Arriving in time for a brunch, you decided your Red Sea Rig was the right choice as the heat of the day came in with a thunderstorm. The restaurant was quite weatherproof, though, and shortly you came to a table with Mustafa and an unknown officer in uniform. Taking your seat, you smiled at the pair, who just shot you back some rather smug grins.

"Aleksander van Riebeck, might I introduce Mirlay Bora Fuat? He is a friend of mine with the tasking portion of the Navy Aeronautique, and he's assembled a few jobs we think would be fair test runs for your ship and crew. He's about a captain, not too far off yourself in rank."

You nodded, smiling. "Wonderful to meet you, Mirlay Fuat. What's on the table for work then?"

Three manilla dossiers hit the table.

"We've got three possible items here." Fuat said, tapping the first. "Job one, you serve as escort while the training ship Marshal Omar Pasha conducts her class's instruction on bombardment at the Cretian target ranges, before traveling to Egypt and participating in an event with the English. It would be presumptuous to say this is at all safe, but reports on the Bulgarians and Greeks indicate they are currently more concerned with preying on the Italians after the loss of a patrol schooner over the Dalmatian coast."

You nodded. It would by necessity force you into lower air, considering the dangerous crosswinds at greater altitudes, but the Mediterranean was nominally a calm sea this time of year.

"Option two is more dangerous, but well suited to your nominal independence from us." Fuat continued, not touching the second dossier. "We have raised a short regiment of raiders, who need delivery to Medina. Unfortunately, due to security concerns, we cannot divulge further details at this time: however, I have been authorized to tell you not to conduct overflight of Italian Eritrea or any of the Somali sultanates. If you accept, I'll recommend you stop work on the modification of the bomb bays so you can better handle a unique cargo for secondary objectives. "

This time, an eyebrow went up. On one hand, this sounded like the sort of adventuring that could make you rather large amounts of money and good connections. On the other hand, orders not to conduct overflight were usually reserved for when piracy was getting severe, and it was all too believable that if the Italians had lost a ship over the Adriatic of all places, then their African possessions would certainly be in dire shape as well. There'd be thoughts for that one, yes there would.

"And then there's option number three." the Ottoman officer said, grinning. "Persia, of all countries, has requested we send a ship to them to aid in transport of assorted medical supplies and possibly serve as a mothership to their small fleet of lighter than air surveyors working on updating the maps of Azerbaijan, which are woefully outdated."

"When were they last updated?" you asked, curious.
"The last major surveying effort was in the early tens and twentieth years of last century." Mustafa said, hands moving quickly as he gathered up some notes of his own to give to you. "The Persians have been quite insistent on making good maps of several areas near the border, and if they're willing to bury old grudges to do it, so much the better."

"If the pay is worth the effort, I'd be more than happy to help." you reply, chuckling. "Once I get my manning back up, I'll be ready to move out- tomorrow or the day after, most likely."

"And your mission of preference?" Mirlay Fuat said, looking at the papers before him.

"I'll need to get back to you when I have a more sound knowledge of my ship's abilities." you replied smoothly.

"Fair enough." Fuat said, nodding. "I'll be in Dardanelles until next Tuesday, so don't be afraid to ask to meet."

"Of course!" you laughed. "Until I'm ready, I presume this will be it?"

"Yes." Fuat said. "A pleasure, Captain van Riebeck."

---

Returning to the Cruiser 12, you hummed to yourself and boarded carefully. The ship was rated to run comfortably at three hundred souls of crew, with a skeleton of seventy-five to cover all needed watches and a war manning of three hundred seventy five to four hundred sixty. With quarters for up to twenty five officers, this cavernous ship could easily eat your current crew of eighty five and have room left over for lunch. You'd need to put at least two of your officers on recruiting, and you'd still be launching barely above the skeleton line.

Oh well. All else failed, you could just top off on crew in India, whenever you got there. Time to get everything ready, so you could launch soon-ish.

---

VOTES

Crusier 12's New Name
[] After your Mother
[] After a belief
[] Write-in (Subject to GM Veto)

Next Job?
[] Mission 1: School Ship Escort
[] Mission 2: Troop Delivery to Medina
[] Mission 3: Survey of Azerbijan

Recruiting Officers (choose two)
[] Thomas (Bonus to Engineering)
[] Donald (Bonus to Mates)
[] Czeslawa (Bonus to Trades)
[] Lucia (Bonus to Espatiers/Deck Crew)
[] Lauri (Bonus to Gunnery/Deck Crew)
[] Elizabeth (Increase Navigator Acquisition Chance to 5%)

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AN: Yeah, this was kinda dead for a while. Sorry. I'm now going to be attempting a one update a month schedule, and hopefully a few of my friends interested in this can help smooth out the content train. I'm still looking for a useful co-author, sadly. In other news, the dice side of the quest is going to get smacked around a little so the math is less agony-inducing on my part.