Dakota "Kodi" Smith Kodi is fascinated with space travel, other cultures, and stories her mama told her about the war. She sees fighting as an unfortunate burden she is taking on to spare others. More of a cat person. Drives
Investigate Everything, Pursue Truth Relentlessly, Be Merciful, Avoid Social Awkwardness Relationships
Friend -
Crush -
Rival - Selena Green
Montana "Monty" Smith Monty has always wanted to be an explorer, to tell his mom stories about far-away places. Though not inclined to violence, he never backs down. Loves dogs. Drives
Make New Friends, Be Forward and Direct, Try New Things, Be A Show Off Relationships
Friend -
Crush -
Rival -
Traits
Void-Born: You never take complications from 0g or space suits, but take -2d6 to feats of strength and double complications from high gravity.
Shifting Gears: You can spend 1 Determination to switch profiles. Costs +1 Determination each time per episode.
Well-Connected: You can spend 1 Determination to create an old friend, comrade, instructor, etc on any appropriate ship, facility, station, etc you might visit. They are always willing to help if you help in turn. Certifications
Wild Animal 5+, Physical Instrument 5+, Social Being 5+, Cosmonaut 4+
English 3+, Russian 5+, OSL 4+ Artillery Officer 4+, Drone Pilot 3+, Missile Plotter 4+, Space Marshal 4+ Diplomat +4, Leader +4, Bureaucrat +4, Social Scientist +4 Modern Small Arms 4+, Damage Control 4+
Hobbies: Animal Handling,
Star Patrol VesselYeager-1
Statline will be linked above when ready.
Features
Corvette Dock, Transmaterializer
Weapons
x1 Sandblaster, x2 250MW Laser, x2 Probe Bay
So I know that the vote is basically done, but I did have a quick question on the situation. Is the Star Rescue ship's periapsis above or below the depth into the giant where atmospheric drag starts to occur?
If it's not that low yet, having the laser tug execute its burn at periapsis instead of apoapsis might get it a lot more of a maximum orbit radius (although highly eccentric) at which point we could rendezvous at the apoapsis for a safer manual tug done by the Yeager.
The trick is actually getting the initial burn right, and the final approach to rendezvous.
[x] Plan Laser Tug + speculative threads
-[x] Read the Crew Roster
--[x] Specialist Nyiko Shilubana-Bolonkin is Expert in Flashfab in Five Minutes (1 Insight)
--[x] Introduce Pilot Kerman Ó Caolaidhe, Department Astrogation, Expert in Orbital Mechanics and Slingshots ( 2 Insight)
--[x] Introduce Specialist Ariadna Struna, Department Tactical, Expert in Drone Programming (2 Insight)
-[x] Establish Threads
--[x] "Vehicle Fuel Interfaces"
--[x] "Structural analysis of Holdfast"
--[x] "Beamed Power Operations"
--[x] "Remass scanning"
--[x] "Metric technology bullshit"
--[x] "Hostage negotiation"
--[x] "Drone warfare"
-[x] Rescue Op
--[x] Attempt to use a disarmed fusion drive torpedo to determine the extent of the anti-fusion effect (Smith, Satkol)
--[x] Fab up two laser-thermal rocket packages that can be carried by a drone (Nyiko)
---[x] Primary goal is to interface with Holdfast's drive cone for remass
---[x] Secondary goal is to attach to side of Holdfast if drive cone integration unsuccessful
--[x] Program and launch the drones to dock with Holdfast (Ariadna)
--[x] Hook up the drone to Holdfast's remass tanks (via drive cone if possible)
--[x] Pilot Ó Caolaidhe and XO Paz will use the lasers of the Yeager-1 on the now laser-thermal rocket to boost Holdfast into a safer orbit
Awesome, okay, let's get some rolls, one at a time so we can do consequences properly on partials. Let's start with making the drones: Logic/Flashfab, using Nyiko's Flashfab and gaining a bonus for Vehicle Fuel Interface. If this goes poorly, installation will require a dangerous spacewalk.
Depends on how much insight we use for the crew
But possibly Ó Caolaidhe and Shilubana-Bolonkin, since spacesuits are Astrogation and Nyiko never takes complications from using a suit.
On the one hand, running the laser-thermal rocket there instead of by remote could pose problems. On the other hand, Jebidiah Kerman and Major Kong would be proud. And that's certainly worth bragging rights.
The installation is probably attaching the fuel lines to the drones when they get there. I would guess that it's going to be the Holdfast's crew that needs to do the spacewalk
Unsurprisingly, nobody was eager to venture close to the planet and test the hypothesis that Yeager-1 would be immune, and over the next hour you batted around a variety of remote engine systems to boost Holdfast to safety.
The problem was one of scale; without being able to use the miniaturised fusion reactors used by missiles and drones, the best option available was a small modular fission reactor, of the sort used by last-gen missiles and messager torpedoes. The problem with those, other than the basic radiation hazard of strapping a 3d printed scale model of Chernobyl to the back of the ship you were trying to rescue, was that the peak output simply wasn't that high. Even if you let the engineers ignore the safety constraints and dip into the tantalum hafnium carbide alloy stocks to build components, uranium melted at 1,132 °C.
The napkin math wasn't looking good; there were doubts you could build anything better than a late-20th century style NERV in the time you had, and that simply wasn't going to move the needle with the reaction mass carried by a torpedo.
"Why are we limited to the remass of the torpedo? Could we run a pipe from Holdfast's water tanks?" you asked.
"Sure, but it won't get us much. She's a short-ranged rescue tug that runs in economy mode most of the time, most of the water onboard is for the shuttles," Paz explained. "It might buy us more time to figure out something else, though."
"Well, shit," you muttered, leaning back in your chair. "Okay, that's out. Radical thought: what's the odds we could get them to make something like a photon sail and then push them out with our lasers?"
"Photons are wicked low thrust is all," Nyiko countered immediately. "Great for economy, but we need… power… ooooh shit, I got it! The… we…" He intermeshed his fingers in a sort of desperate gesture, clearly hunting for the words. "We hook the torpedo into the ship's tanks, then, uh, with the mirrors… lazernyj dvigatel?"
"A laser thermal rocket?" Paz supplied.
"THANK YOU. English is my fifth language," he explained, looking relieved. "Yes, laser thermal rocket. Inflatable mirrors, heat exchanger, plug it right into their drive cone to get water, we heat it up from far enough away that we don't melt them and zoom!"
"We can build that?" you asked.
"Sure, fab it up, we use just… oh. Mirrors will be a problem. We can do it, but it will use up… a lot of laser fab, and we'll need to spool up a fusion reactor for helium-"
"Is it on the ship and not vital for us breathing tomorrow?" you asked.
"Yes."
"Do it, write up a record as you go," you said decisively. "Any objections?" The engineers just nodded along, a lot of them with that excited look they tended to get at a fun project. "Alright. Get building, I'll be on the bridge."
---
You came out of FTL over the gas giant, the cameras tracking it on the screen to show a beautiful blue-white marble surrounded by a ring system that would put Saturn to shame. Your first thought was that any place which contained such a gem couldn't possibly be classified as a boring system.
"Does that planet have a name?" you asked.
"Uh… XV-9584-473-f," Specialist Ó Caolaidhe read off the Astrogation console. "Bit crap, ain't it?"
"You could say that. Alright, working designation, Blue Meanie. Where's our friends?"
"Let me pull it up," he replied.
The screen divided into multiple sections, one a telescope showing some fuzzy dots in real light, the other a tachyon sensor reconstruction rapidly filling in detail, the final a map. Holdfast was a small, stout little two-stage rocket in navy blue and fluorescent yellow, maybe sixty metres end to end. While it looked fairly far away from the swirling blue clouds below, you knew that wasn't an indication of nearly how much air it was ploughing through.
"Alright, get us in orbit," you instructed, and the telescope view blurred out as the ship turned and burned hard, making up the immense difference in speeds between the star you left from and Blue Meanie's orbit.
"They're hailing us," Specialist Kroshtnyr said.
"On screen."
The other displays were minimised to show the face of Holdfast's commanding officer, Doctor Golovin Fyodor Valeryevich, a heavier-set man in his forties. He looked utterly ragged, like he hadn't slept in days, and he was floating in a cramped control space in the half-dark. There was a distinct rattling somewhere in the hull of the ship which made a muffled sort of background hum in the microphone.
"You know, usually we're the ones doing the rescuing," he joked. "We're all more than ready on our end to get this over with, let me tell you. What's acceleration going to be like?"
"Don't worry, eighth of a G," you assured him. "We're going to boost you up well clear and see if you can reactivate your reactor, then we'll figure it our, okay? How's your power situation."
"Oh, we got enough to achieve ignition, but uh…" he gestured around at the microgravity environment. "We've been conserving."
"Good. We're just getting into position. Hold tight."
---
ORBITAL SYSTEMS:
Every moon, as well as the zone inside and outside of the moons, form an ORBITAL ZONE. These are conceptual zones where you can operate in, and you need to move to somebody's orbital zone to act. We'll number the zones; Holdfast is at Zone 1 (the innermost, scraping the atmosphere).
Being at the top of the well is a huge advantage; whoever is at the top of the well always goes last. As all damage is resolved simultaneously at the end of a round, this means you get to react to everyone else.
As you are making your orbital injection now, you can choose to assume any of the zones. Your missile has more than enough range to operate from anyone in the gas giant; if anything happens being farther away might be safer, but also means you have farther to travel if you need to get to Holdfast.
Where will you be orbiting?
[ ] Write In
After we determine that we'll make the roll for the next part.
How many zones can the teleporter teleport across?
Also, what's to word on firing that torpedo ahead of us to see if we can find the boundary of the fusion inhibition zone?
Edit: aye, that's why I'm inclined to stay as far away as possible, no idea where the metric bs starts. Assuming it's not just all bs and the crew is hostage/forced to fake distress, etc
How many zones can the teleporter teleport across?
Also, what's to word on firing that torpedo ahead of us to see if we can find the boundary of the fusion inhibition zone?
The teleporter can teleport one zone; ie you gotta be in low orbit to teleport to the surface. this is partially for drama; if you could be geostationary with the transporter, there'd be never be a delay while the ship orbits around!
Whoops! i knew i was forgetting something! We'll have that happen in the beginning of the next update, but the effect only seems to happen in low orbit.
