You were always a bit discontent, dissatisfied with life. Your mother chided you for not...
Icarus Ascending (Space Pirate Quest)
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Chapter 1
Diomedea
A piece of the continent
- Location
- The interblag
- Pronouns
- She/Her
You were always a bit discontent, dissatisfied with life. Your mother chided you for not knowing when to leave well enough alone. You tried your best to fit in, to live like everyone else seemed to manage to, but...
It was supposed to be "the future." All the wonders mankind had dreamed of had come true. Robotic servants existed to cater to your every whim if you so desired. No one was hungry. Everyone had a place to live, and a place to work. You could live out every fantasy in high fidelity holographic detail. There was nothing dangerous, and everyone knew immortality was just around the corner.
The only thing that wasn't the same old, stale, stifling sameness was space. No one who was "normal" was all that interested in space. Space ships existed, of course. What sort of future wouldn't have space ships? And you could get on a space ship, and take a pleasant cruise that was painstakingly the same environment as could be found in any city or town, and quickly and painlessly travel to another planet, never having to even seen a single star. And once you arrived you could find comfort is how safe and similar that planet was to your own!
And it while you were mulling over your future, your tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow...
And then it all came together, in once crystal clear moment. A single event, that caused your true future to click into place.
You were going into space. You were going to be a pirate.
And the trigger for your new life...
[] They called you mad! Laughed at your ideas, and told you to get back to work. Well, you'll show them, you'll show them all! Show them Piracy!
[] If you died today, who would remember you? Who would even want to tell your story? No. When you're done, everyone will know your name! Because Piracy!
[] How no one cares about anything beyond their holo screen. There is injustice in the galaxy and you're going to correct it! With Piracy!
[] This system of oppression was just too much for you. The World Government just giving you things?! Did it even ask if you wanted not to starve to death?! From now on, you'll only own things you properly earn for yourself. Through Piracy!
It was supposed to be "the future." All the wonders mankind had dreamed of had come true. Robotic servants existed to cater to your every whim if you so desired. No one was hungry. Everyone had a place to live, and a place to work. You could live out every fantasy in high fidelity holographic detail. There was nothing dangerous, and everyone knew immortality was just around the corner.
The only thing that wasn't the same old, stale, stifling sameness was space. No one who was "normal" was all that interested in space. Space ships existed, of course. What sort of future wouldn't have space ships? And you could get on a space ship, and take a pleasant cruise that was painstakingly the same environment as could be found in any city or town, and quickly and painlessly travel to another planet, never having to even seen a single star. And once you arrived you could find comfort is how safe and similar that planet was to your own!
And it while you were mulling over your future, your tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow...
And then it all came together, in once crystal clear moment. A single event, that caused your true future to click into place.
You were going into space. You were going to be a pirate.
And the trigger for your new life...
[] They called you mad! Laughed at your ideas, and told you to get back to work. Well, you'll show them, you'll show them all! Show them Piracy!
[] If you died today, who would remember you? Who would even want to tell your story? No. When you're done, everyone will know your name! Because Piracy!
[] How no one cares about anything beyond their holo screen. There is injustice in the galaxy and you're going to correct it! With Piracy!
[] This system of oppression was just too much for you. The World Government just giving you things?! Did it even ask if you wanted not to starve to death?! From now on, you'll only own things you properly earn for yourself. Through Piracy!
Chapter 2
Diomedea
A piece of the continent
- Location
- The interblag
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[] If you died today, who would remember you? Who would even want to tell your story? No. When you're done, everyone will know your name! Because Piracy!
Tap, tap, tap. You idly tap a spare pen against your desk as you stare listlessly ahead. After years of schooling and study, the big day arrived and you took your job placement test. It was just your luck though that you had come down with a cold (which had finally been cured just last year), so, of course you had taken some cold medicine. You were worried with how important a day it was that a regular dose wouldn't be enough.
In retrospect, drinking the entire bottle had been a bad idea.
And that was how you became a member of one of the most exclusive jobs available, a receptionist.
In a world where robots and computers could do most jobs, the idea of having a human sit around to give directions, write down appointments, or make small talk, or whatever it is receptionists are actually supposed to do is patently ridiculous.
It's even more ridiculous because you don't even get to do those things. No, as the worst receptionist on the entire planet (as you perform surprisingly different when not overdosing on cold medicine), you had been assigned to the worst receptionist job on the entire planet. The Institute for Advancements in Faster than Light Travel was the pet project of an veritably insane scientist, who insisted that his scientific peers were out to get him.
It naturally followed that possessing a doctorate in super-luminary physics granted a person the capability to defeat any sort of automated security system, and it just as naturally followed that a human security system would be thus impenetrable.
And it was through this chain of...thoughts that your job came to be. Your job was to man the desk, and if any person came inside (not that anyone ever has) to extol the wonders of the institute, politely inform them there were no tours of the institute at the time, and show them the door. If they proved intractable, you were to hit your emergency button (conveniently placed on the top of your desk, in the center, where a terminal would normally go), which would seal off the entrance to the labs behind you, and summon local law enforcement.
You didn't even get to speak to your coworkers, as they entered the facility through a separate faculty entrance, which was of course managed by an electronic security system.
You did nothing, you said nothing, you were, according to all data points, nothing.
But after today, well, you can only smile at the thought.
Despite their questionable facility management, the Institute was apparently competent at least within their chosen field of study, and today was going to be their big, full scale test of a new faster than light engine. Everyone was currently in a big meeting about it, which you were exempt from so you could man the receptionist desk, like all meetings.
Today though, it was pretty convenient.
Deciding that enough time had passed for even the most absentminded and half awake scientist to have stumbled their way to the conference room, you stand up and simply waltz through the doors to the facility. It's with a spring in your step that you walk through empty hallways and labs until you finally reach your destination, the experimental ship hanger. You walk past the half assembled primary test bed ship in bay 1, affectionately called "The Sheep," by the scientists for unfathomable reasons, to the real prize in bay 2.
The Icarus, named for the new drive's ability to get close to a gravity well and still make the transition to a super-luminary state (or rather, it could get close to a sun and still "fly" at lightspeed, not quite apropos to the original legend), it was supposedly the fastest and most advanced ship ever constructed, not that anyone really followed those things.
And the only thing protecting it was button on a desk that had no one to press it.
No one was there to press it, because the GREATEST PIRATE TO EVER LIVE was going to steal it!
You slipped on an eyepatch and hat, as was supposedly traditional for pirates since time immemorial, and boldly walked up the gangplank and entered the ship.
It was slightly less boldly, and only a teensy bit more panicky that you raced to the bridge as loud alarms began blaring everywhere. Apparently there might have been a little more security than you and your desk. Several heart-pounding moments later, you were safely seated in the captain's seat, pressing the large friendly start button. You made a mental note to make it more menacing looking later, and took stock of your situation.
Ah. The police were already here and surrounding the ship, both human and flying robotic drones. You grin in equal parts terror and triumph, flip the switch marked "external speakers" and announce that they'd never subdue the GREAT PIRATE...
[] Name Yourself!
and then you...
[] Jump to Lightspeed! It's supposed to work in a gravity well, right?
[] Attack! Oh...there's no weapons on a scientific prototype vessel. Well, that wont stop you, ramming speed!
[] Escape! That's how it works! Step 1: Steal Stuff. Step 2: Escape Dramatically! Step 3: INFAMY!
Tap, tap, tap. You idly tap a spare pen against your desk as you stare listlessly ahead. After years of schooling and study, the big day arrived and you took your job placement test. It was just your luck though that you had come down with a cold (which had finally been cured just last year), so, of course you had taken some cold medicine. You were worried with how important a day it was that a regular dose wouldn't be enough.
In retrospect, drinking the entire bottle had been a bad idea.
And that was how you became a member of one of the most exclusive jobs available, a receptionist.
In a world where robots and computers could do most jobs, the idea of having a human sit around to give directions, write down appointments, or make small talk, or whatever it is receptionists are actually supposed to do is patently ridiculous.
It's even more ridiculous because you don't even get to do those things. No, as the worst receptionist on the entire planet (as you perform surprisingly different when not overdosing on cold medicine), you had been assigned to the worst receptionist job on the entire planet. The Institute for Advancements in Faster than Light Travel was the pet project of an veritably insane scientist, who insisted that his scientific peers were out to get him.
It naturally followed that possessing a doctorate in super-luminary physics granted a person the capability to defeat any sort of automated security system, and it just as naturally followed that a human security system would be thus impenetrable.
And it was through this chain of...thoughts that your job came to be. Your job was to man the desk, and if any person came inside (not that anyone ever has) to extol the wonders of the institute, politely inform them there were no tours of the institute at the time, and show them the door. If they proved intractable, you were to hit your emergency button (conveniently placed on the top of your desk, in the center, where a terminal would normally go), which would seal off the entrance to the labs behind you, and summon local law enforcement.
You didn't even get to speak to your coworkers, as they entered the facility through a separate faculty entrance, which was of course managed by an electronic security system.
You did nothing, you said nothing, you were, according to all data points, nothing.
But after today, well, you can only smile at the thought.
Despite their questionable facility management, the Institute was apparently competent at least within their chosen field of study, and today was going to be their big, full scale test of a new faster than light engine. Everyone was currently in a big meeting about it, which you were exempt from so you could man the receptionist desk, like all meetings.
Today though, it was pretty convenient.
Deciding that enough time had passed for even the most absentminded and half awake scientist to have stumbled their way to the conference room, you stand up and simply waltz through the doors to the facility. It's with a spring in your step that you walk through empty hallways and labs until you finally reach your destination, the experimental ship hanger. You walk past the half assembled primary test bed ship in bay 1, affectionately called "The Sheep," by the scientists for unfathomable reasons, to the real prize in bay 2.
The Icarus, named for the new drive's ability to get close to a gravity well and still make the transition to a super-luminary state (or rather, it could get close to a sun and still "fly" at lightspeed, not quite apropos to the original legend), it was supposedly the fastest and most advanced ship ever constructed, not that anyone really followed those things.
And the only thing protecting it was button on a desk that had no one to press it.
No one was there to press it, because the GREATEST PIRATE TO EVER LIVE was going to steal it!
You slipped on an eyepatch and hat, as was supposedly traditional for pirates since time immemorial, and boldly walked up the gangplank and entered the ship.
It was slightly less boldly, and only a teensy bit more panicky that you raced to the bridge as loud alarms began blaring everywhere. Apparently there might have been a little more security than you and your desk. Several heart-pounding moments later, you were safely seated in the captain's seat, pressing the large friendly start button. You made a mental note to make it more menacing looking later, and took stock of your situation.
Ah. The police were already here and surrounding the ship, both human and flying robotic drones. You grin in equal parts terror and triumph, flip the switch marked "external speakers" and announce that they'd never subdue the GREAT PIRATE...
[] Name Yourself!
and then you...
[] Jump to Lightspeed! It's supposed to work in a gravity well, right?
[] Attack! Oh...there's no weapons on a scientific prototype vessel. Well, that wont stop you, ramming speed!
[] Escape! That's how it works! Step 1: Steal Stuff. Step 2: Escape Dramatically! Step 3: INFAMY!
Last edited:
Chapter 3
Diomedea
A piece of the continent
- Location
- The interblag
- Pronouns
- She/Her
"You'll never subdue the GREAT PIRATE, no THE GREATEST PIRATE WHO EVER LIVED!"
Your old name, your old self doesn't matter anymore. She's already faded away to nothing in the light of your burgeoning legend. To stay still, stagnant, to look backwards...that is death. The only way is the way forward!
And so you slam the throttle to full, sending the vessel careening forward into the hanger door. You nearly spill out of your seat at the impact, and for a moment you fear that you wont make it...but then you're through, the entire metal door ripped from the side of the building.
You're free!
The azure sky seems to sparkle above you, and you're filled with pure joy at the sight.
Until the ship starts to shudder with repeated impacts and you realize those sparkles in the sky are the lights of police response vehicles descending on you.
You only grin, flip the ship's comms to omni-directional, and shout "You'll never take me alive, coppers!"
And then you pitch the ship into a steep dive, down into the crowded streets below. Hovercars swerve to avoid you, and you feel the occasional impact from one that doesn't quite manage it. You grimace a little, not out of worry for the civilians, they should be quite safe from a mere collision (after all, they are designed with safety in mind), but all the repeated impact damage the Icarus was picking up.
You needed a way to evade pursuit long enough to gain some altitude so you could turn on the jump drive.
A silhouette in the skyline gives you an idea. You take a moment to actually strap in, and then wildly turn down an intersection.
The fact that you made the turn and didn't even clip the side of the building tips you off that something is wrong. You're slowing down!
You fiddle with the controls for a minute before you manage to pull up an external visual revealing numerous police drones attaching themselves to your ship. Each drone is small, about the size of your fist, with a weak propulsion system, but when a great number of them latch onto you and all use their propulsion in sync...
You begin rolling the ship rapidly. It wont do much to the drones already latched on, but it will make it harder for any new ones to grab hold and slow you down further.
Racing down the street while rolling is more difficult than you imagined, and the artificial gravity of the Icarus isn't enough to prevent you from getting a bit nauseous. You stop your wild roll, and right yourself. Fortunately you don't need to worry about drones for much longer, as your target has begun to loom above you.
The new "Official Embassy From the Peoples of the Sky to the Peoples of the Ground," or the Spire as the locals called it, was a nearly completed super-skyscraper over three kilometers tall. It was a veritable city unto itself, built with all the advanced technology available, both alien and terrestrial. It was circular, with a large open atrium in the middle that was going to be filled with plants and waterfalls.
An atrium just big enough to fly the Icarus through. Hopefully.
Ah, well, she who dares, wins!
With a mighty crash, you burst through the magnificent glass facade that forms the entrance, and with the helpful resistance provided by the police drones, make the near 90 degree turn from flying along the ground to flying directly upward. The Icarus shifts and bucks as it collides with walkways and catwalks set up for the workers, but despite this, it seems to be going well.
Better than well! The collisions are knocking off police drones. You race faster and faster upwards, and all too soon the ceiling looms above you.
Do or die time, though the point to back out was long behind you.
This time, the collision isn't minor. The entire ships shudders and groans and the video screen blink out. For a brief moment you realize with utter clarity that you are going to die. You're never even going to make it to space, just die in what will probably be a fantastically large explosion.
And you don't regret a moment of it. In the last five minutes you've had more of an impact than your entire old life. You'd do it again in a heartbeat, though a part of you wishes you could have gone further, done more, until your actions reverberated across worlds, no across all of space and throughout time.
And then you are through. The ship has stopped shaking (mostly), your video screens come back to life, and your ship continues to scream upwards.
You let out a laugh, releasing a breath you didn't realize you were holding. You check on your pursuers, but they're far away. Slowly gaining on you, but you had plenty of time. You notice and then deliberately un-notice how...different the nose of your ship looks, and you instead focus on the sky, wide open above you see the natural beauty of the world around you.
It isn't until you're in the mesosphere that you bring your attention back to mundane matters as a warning, labeled "Missle Lock", has begun flashing. The police had caught up with you. Their vehicles can't follow you this high, so they are attempting to shoot you down rather than let you escape.
Well, you've almost made it to the proposed stage 3 testing range of 80km, where they predicted the drive would risk failure. A mere 20km should be no matter to someone as GREAT as your legend will be!
So you press the button to activate the jump drive.
For a moment, nothing seems to happen, but then stylized wings fold out, four above and four below the ship, and the tips begin to glow.
And then you move sideways, or more like inways and then outways. It's a sensation you cannot describe properly, but the view has shifted to one of stars, and twin rings of energy form what appear to be two halos lightly resting on the wings of the Icarus, one above and one below, as the ship radiates jump energy out as fast as it can. You've seen videos of ships after a jump, how they glowed as they radiated the exotic energy off, but you've never seen anything like the Icarus.
The greatest ship for the greatest pirate.
You also notice a dozen warning lights flashing throughout the bridge, though your master console only displays "Please Service Starship." Apparently the Icarus doesn't take to a little rough handling. You take a few minutes, and confirm that the ship's life support is still functioning, and both the normal engines and jump drive seem to be operational.
What should you do?
[] Try to pick up a news broadcast and see what they're saying about your most daring heist!
[] Send out a distress call. You can probably bamboozle or trick someone into helping you, or if need be threaten them into it.
[] Try to find another ship. You're a pirate, so you'll hunt one down and take what you need from there.
[] You'll try to patch the ship up yourself. Somehow.
Your old name, your old self doesn't matter anymore. She's already faded away to nothing in the light of your burgeoning legend. To stay still, stagnant, to look backwards...that is death. The only way is the way forward!
And so you slam the throttle to full, sending the vessel careening forward into the hanger door. You nearly spill out of your seat at the impact, and for a moment you fear that you wont make it...but then you're through, the entire metal door ripped from the side of the building.
You're free!
The azure sky seems to sparkle above you, and you're filled with pure joy at the sight.
Until the ship starts to shudder with repeated impacts and you realize those sparkles in the sky are the lights of police response vehicles descending on you.
You only grin, flip the ship's comms to omni-directional, and shout "You'll never take me alive, coppers!"
And then you pitch the ship into a steep dive, down into the crowded streets below. Hovercars swerve to avoid you, and you feel the occasional impact from one that doesn't quite manage it. You grimace a little, not out of worry for the civilians, they should be quite safe from a mere collision (after all, they are designed with safety in mind), but all the repeated impact damage the Icarus was picking up.
You needed a way to evade pursuit long enough to gain some altitude so you could turn on the jump drive.
A silhouette in the skyline gives you an idea. You take a moment to actually strap in, and then wildly turn down an intersection.
The fact that you made the turn and didn't even clip the side of the building tips you off that something is wrong. You're slowing down!
You fiddle with the controls for a minute before you manage to pull up an external visual revealing numerous police drones attaching themselves to your ship. Each drone is small, about the size of your fist, with a weak propulsion system, but when a great number of them latch onto you and all use their propulsion in sync...
You begin rolling the ship rapidly. It wont do much to the drones already latched on, but it will make it harder for any new ones to grab hold and slow you down further.
Racing down the street while rolling is more difficult than you imagined, and the artificial gravity of the Icarus isn't enough to prevent you from getting a bit nauseous. You stop your wild roll, and right yourself. Fortunately you don't need to worry about drones for much longer, as your target has begun to loom above you.
The new "Official Embassy From the Peoples of the Sky to the Peoples of the Ground," or the Spire as the locals called it, was a nearly completed super-skyscraper over three kilometers tall. It was a veritable city unto itself, built with all the advanced technology available, both alien and terrestrial. It was circular, with a large open atrium in the middle that was going to be filled with plants and waterfalls.
An atrium just big enough to fly the Icarus through. Hopefully.
Ah, well, she who dares, wins!
With a mighty crash, you burst through the magnificent glass facade that forms the entrance, and with the helpful resistance provided by the police drones, make the near 90 degree turn from flying along the ground to flying directly upward. The Icarus shifts and bucks as it collides with walkways and catwalks set up for the workers, but despite this, it seems to be going well.
Better than well! The collisions are knocking off police drones. You race faster and faster upwards, and all too soon the ceiling looms above you.
Do or die time, though the point to back out was long behind you.
This time, the collision isn't minor. The entire ships shudders and groans and the video screen blink out. For a brief moment you realize with utter clarity that you are going to die. You're never even going to make it to space, just die in what will probably be a fantastically large explosion.
And you don't regret a moment of it. In the last five minutes you've had more of an impact than your entire old life. You'd do it again in a heartbeat, though a part of you wishes you could have gone further, done more, until your actions reverberated across worlds, no across all of space and throughout time.
And then you are through. The ship has stopped shaking (mostly), your video screens come back to life, and your ship continues to scream upwards.
You let out a laugh, releasing a breath you didn't realize you were holding. You check on your pursuers, but they're far away. Slowly gaining on you, but you had plenty of time. You notice and then deliberately un-notice how...different the nose of your ship looks, and you instead focus on the sky, wide open above you see the natural beauty of the world around you.
It isn't until you're in the mesosphere that you bring your attention back to mundane matters as a warning, labeled "Missle Lock", has begun flashing. The police had caught up with you. Their vehicles can't follow you this high, so they are attempting to shoot you down rather than let you escape.
Well, you've almost made it to the proposed stage 3 testing range of 80km, where they predicted the drive would risk failure. A mere 20km should be no matter to someone as GREAT as your legend will be!
So you press the button to activate the jump drive.
For a moment, nothing seems to happen, but then stylized wings fold out, four above and four below the ship, and the tips begin to glow.
And then you move sideways, or more like inways and then outways. It's a sensation you cannot describe properly, but the view has shifted to one of stars, and twin rings of energy form what appear to be two halos lightly resting on the wings of the Icarus, one above and one below, as the ship radiates jump energy out as fast as it can. You've seen videos of ships after a jump, how they glowed as they radiated the exotic energy off, but you've never seen anything like the Icarus.
The greatest ship for the greatest pirate.
You also notice a dozen warning lights flashing throughout the bridge, though your master console only displays "Please Service Starship." Apparently the Icarus doesn't take to a little rough handling. You take a few minutes, and confirm that the ship's life support is still functioning, and both the normal engines and jump drive seem to be operational.
What should you do?
[] Try to pick up a news broadcast and see what they're saying about your most daring heist!
[] Send out a distress call. You can probably bamboozle or trick someone into helping you, or if need be threaten them into it.
[] Try to find another ship. You're a pirate, so you'll hunt one down and take what you need from there.
[] You'll try to patch the ship up yourself. Somehow.
Chapter 4
Diomedea
A piece of the continent
- Location
- The interblag
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Try to pick up a news broadcast and see what they're saying about your most daring heist!
You decide what you want most is to hear what the news is saying about you. Information is the key to success and...
Who are you kidding? You just want to know how famous you are already! Your daring heist of an advanced spaceship, dramatic chase throughout the streets, and the damage to the tower all taken together means they must be talking about you all over the planet, and maybe even on some of the intra-system networks!
It's with excitement that you get the bridge ready for a proper viewing experience. You found a packaged thermal blanket in some survival equipment that would function as a pillow (the command chair on the bridge wasn't the most comfortable), a can of milk coffee from the food supplies (which seemed surprisingly well stocked for a ship that was only supposed to perform a single jump out and back), and a pad of post-it notes which you use to cover up all the annoying, flashing warning icons on the screens throughout the bridge.
You boot up the communications receiver and tune it to pick up the planetary news station, and settle into your command chair as the main display flares to life.
"-no reported deaths, though the property damage has been estimated to be over a hundred thousand," said a reporter standing before what appeared to be a downed hover-truck that had police swarming all over it.
"John, do the police have any idea why the driver decided to go on such a rampage throughout downtown Landing?" a female voice chimed in.
"Apparently, Jansi, it began as a joyride by the driver, whose identity has not been released due to being a minor, and who then panicked when they realized they were being pursued by the authorities," answered the reporter with a smile.
"Thanks, John," was the reply as it cut back to the main anchor, a young, professional looking woman behind a desk. "Police have released a statement that most travel-ways will be open by 6:00 tonight. On a more serious note, there was a construction accident today at the new embassy building, often called "The Spire." Javier has the details. Javier?"
It cut again to another desk, behind which an older man in the suit sat, with pictures of the Spire with smoke coming out of it behind him.
"Today, a human construction crew working on the roof of the embassy failed to follow safety standards regarding the use of grav-cranes. This caused part of the roof to collapse, and the crane to crash through the central atrium of the tower, causing minor, but widespread damage to the structure."
"That's terrible, Javier! Has it's completion been delayed?"
"It has, Jansi. The completion time has been graciously extended by one month, but the estimated cost has risen significantly. Fortunately, a new bill has already been put forward on the floor on the legislature raising taxes to cover the expense."
"But what will be done about the construction workers? There needs to be accountability."
"Sadly, all the construction workers died in the accident, Jansi. Truly a tragedy."
"A tragedy indeed," the anchor murmured, as it cut back to her smiling face. "And back to our main story of tonight! Today, The Institute for Advancements in Faster than Light Travel tested a brand new generation of superluminary drives in the upper atmosphere of New Haven today. The test was a success, but an unforseen side-effect have been the brilliant auroras visible all over the globe!" she chirped as her face was replaced with a picture of bright, green lights in the evening sky. "These auroras are completely harmless, and quite beautiful. Still, the Institute apologizes for any alarm they may have caused, and has said they need to work for many more years before they are ready for another test."
The empty coffee can, half-crushed, bounces off the screen, as you seethe in silent rage. Your hand slams down on the off button, and you try to come to grips with the fullness of their crime.
They had covered it up.
Everything you did, the daring chase, flying through the spire, even stealing the Icarus! It was like nothing had happened, like you were still...
With a growl, you pull up your sensor map to take a look at the system. To your dismay large sections are shaded in red, revealing that most of your ships sensors aren't working. Still, you manage to spot a small passenger ship heading towards New Haven half-an-hour inside of the jump limit. The normal jump limit that is; you wont have any problem.
If they wont report on you...you'll just have to become well known through word of mouth!
As your superluminary drive begins to charge, you think about what you want to accomplish in your first daring act of space piracy.
[] You need spare parts. You can't even start to fix things until you have spare parts.
[] You need a mechanic. You can't be expected to fix every little thing that breaks!
[] You need more supplies. While you have enough stuff for a week or so, you deserve both more and nicer things!
[] You need to focus on getting notoriety. You'll personally shake down all the passengers for cash!
You decide what you want most is to hear what the news is saying about you. Information is the key to success and...
Who are you kidding? You just want to know how famous you are already! Your daring heist of an advanced spaceship, dramatic chase throughout the streets, and the damage to the tower all taken together means they must be talking about you all over the planet, and maybe even on some of the intra-system networks!
It's with excitement that you get the bridge ready for a proper viewing experience. You found a packaged thermal blanket in some survival equipment that would function as a pillow (the command chair on the bridge wasn't the most comfortable), a can of milk coffee from the food supplies (which seemed surprisingly well stocked for a ship that was only supposed to perform a single jump out and back), and a pad of post-it notes which you use to cover up all the annoying, flashing warning icons on the screens throughout the bridge.
You boot up the communications receiver and tune it to pick up the planetary news station, and settle into your command chair as the main display flares to life.
"-no reported deaths, though the property damage has been estimated to be over a hundred thousand," said a reporter standing before what appeared to be a downed hover-truck that had police swarming all over it.
"John, do the police have any idea why the driver decided to go on such a rampage throughout downtown Landing?" a female voice chimed in.
"Apparently, Jansi, it began as a joyride by the driver, whose identity has not been released due to being a minor, and who then panicked when they realized they were being pursued by the authorities," answered the reporter with a smile.
"Thanks, John," was the reply as it cut back to the main anchor, a young, professional looking woman behind a desk. "Police have released a statement that most travel-ways will be open by 6:00 tonight. On a more serious note, there was a construction accident today at the new embassy building, often called "The Spire." Javier has the details. Javier?"
It cut again to another desk, behind which an older man in the suit sat, with pictures of the Spire with smoke coming out of it behind him.
"Today, a human construction crew working on the roof of the embassy failed to follow safety standards regarding the use of grav-cranes. This caused part of the roof to collapse, and the crane to crash through the central atrium of the tower, causing minor, but widespread damage to the structure."
"That's terrible, Javier! Has it's completion been delayed?"
"It has, Jansi. The completion time has been graciously extended by one month, but the estimated cost has risen significantly. Fortunately, a new bill has already been put forward on the floor on the legislature raising taxes to cover the expense."
"But what will be done about the construction workers? There needs to be accountability."
"Sadly, all the construction workers died in the accident, Jansi. Truly a tragedy."
"A tragedy indeed," the anchor murmured, as it cut back to her smiling face. "And back to our main story of tonight! Today, The Institute for Advancements in Faster than Light Travel tested a brand new generation of superluminary drives in the upper atmosphere of New Haven today. The test was a success, but an unforseen side-effect have been the brilliant auroras visible all over the globe!" she chirped as her face was replaced with a picture of bright, green lights in the evening sky. "These auroras are completely harmless, and quite beautiful. Still, the Institute apologizes for any alarm they may have caused, and has said they need to work for many more years before they are ready for another test."
The empty coffee can, half-crushed, bounces off the screen, as you seethe in silent rage. Your hand slams down on the off button, and you try to come to grips with the fullness of their crime.
They had covered it up.
Everything you did, the daring chase, flying through the spire, even stealing the Icarus! It was like nothing had happened, like you were still...
With a growl, you pull up your sensor map to take a look at the system. To your dismay large sections are shaded in red, revealing that most of your ships sensors aren't working. Still, you manage to spot a small passenger ship heading towards New Haven half-an-hour inside of the jump limit. The normal jump limit that is; you wont have any problem.
If they wont report on you...you'll just have to become well known through word of mouth!
As your superluminary drive begins to charge, you think about what you want to accomplish in your first daring act of space piracy.
[] You need spare parts. You can't even start to fix things until you have spare parts.
[] You need a mechanic. You can't be expected to fix every little thing that breaks!
[] You need more supplies. While you have enough stuff for a week or so, you deserve both more and nicer things!
[] You need to focus on getting notoriety. You'll personally shake down all the passengers for cash!
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Chapter 5
Diomedea
A piece of the continent
- Location
- The interblag
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[] You need a mechanic. You can't be expected to fix every little thing that breaks
Yes, you've decided. Any good pirate captain has a good crew, and more specifically, you need someone to keep your ship running! You can hardly pirate anything if your ship wont move.
You grimace as the Icarus completes the jump, still not used to the feeling of space travel. You pull up the visuals for the ship, an ungainly mix between a box and a cylinder designed to carry about a 100 passengers in relative comfort. It's hull is a dull white, and it has clearly bled all of its jump energy away while it began heading for the planet.
You don't waste any time sending a transmission, consisting of a short message overlaid with a single image.
Your own Black Flag!
"This is the Greatest Pirate who Ever Lived, Captain of the Icarus. Do not change course or alter speed or you will be destroyed. Prepare to be boarded."
Excellent. Those communication courses you had to take after you were assigned to be a receptionist are actually paying off! Being short, succinct, and most importantly clear about your intentions are the keys to effective discussion.
The passenger ship maintains its course as you maneuver beside it and extend a docking tube to its external emergency airlock.
Everything is going so smoothly!
With a grin, you bound down to your own airlock. Sure, you had stolen the Icarus, but it had been just sitting there. This was going to be real SPACE piracy!
You take a few minutes to rifle through the locker labeled 'Emergency EVA Gear" which has several space suits in it of varying sizes. You grab a red one that looks to be in your size and begin the awkward process of changing into it. It's fine right now, but in the future you can't have people just changing in the middle of the corridor, and it's pretty chilly here...and you are done. With the press of a button, it constricts, fitting you perfectly.
...a little too perfectly for your taste, so you throw your jacket back on over it, replace your hat, adjust your eyepatch a little, and you're looking like every proper pirate should!
You go to close the locker when something in the bottom catches your eye. You fish it out to reveal an equipment belt. An equipment belt with a gun holster, complete with gun. And a stun baton. And a mono-molecular knife.
Suspicious.
You unholster the gun and take a better look. You're unsure, having never actually seen one in person before, but it seems to be a propellant based pistol. Wrapping your hand around the grip causes indicators on the back to light up, helpfully informing you that it is "ready to fire." A selector on the back seems to have two options; lethal and less-lethal, currently set to less-lethal. You start tying to figure out how to reload when you're interrupted by someone knocking on your airlock.
You do not jump and nearly drop the gun. No, certainly not.
After taking a moment to secure the belt around your waist you open the airlock to find a portly, balding, middle aged-man.
"Uh, excuse me miss. I was a bit confused by your message. Do you require assist-" his voice dies as he notices the gun you leveled at him by reflex.
Not one to waste good intimidation, you happily reply, "I require whatever I fancy taking. Would you be so kind as to lead me to your ship?" to which he only nods dumbly.
Only a short time later and your good mood has vanished, leaving you scowling at the two incompetent buffoons before you. The crew consisted of only two members, who both barely knew which buttons to press to do their job, and were spinelessly quaking before you.
Heck, when you had tried to threaten even a few drops of knowledge out of them by "suggesting" that you look for someone with the right skills among their passengers, they didn't even hesitate before agreeing with you!
Disgusting. Even if they were mechanical geniuses, you couldn't stand people like them on your crew. It made your skin crawl to think you were even the same species. No wonder humanity had lost the contact war.
Still, they had left you with no choice but to follow through on your earlier threat.
Which was why you were sweeping into the passenger compartment to somehow...find someone to fix your ship?
Still, you feel some satisfaction as the passengers, lazing in their seats, looks at you with surprise, and then fear as they notice that a Pirate is among them.
Or it's the gun. Whichever.
"Oy, attention passengers of this sorry excuse for a spaceship. My ship needs a bit of repair, and one of you will be doing it. So if you have any mechanical experience, don't be afraid to speak up, or I'll have to interrogate each and every one of you," you bellow before smiling sweetly.
For some reason, the passengers closest to you simply shrink back even further from you.
You continue to smile beatifically at the passengers for a few more long moments, before you feel your eyebrow start to twitch.
"Always gotta do it the hard way..." you mutter to yourself, as you start surveying the nearby passengers for a good place to start, when you notice a guy who is about your age heading your way. He's actually pretty good looking, in a nice button down shirt and stylish glasses, and the steely determination in his eyes...
Okay, he doesn't have steely determination in his eyes. In fact, he looks entirely too relaxed and nonchalant for someone at gun point. It irritates you bit, that perhaps he doesn't take you seriously.
"Yo," he says, acting like he's all cool, "I'm Kirikou Chilikov. Now, I'm only a second year Engineering student, but I'm probably going to be the best you'll find on this ship. It's not really that common a skill set," he says, half-apologetically.
You scowl at him, but he seems nonplussed. It is true that asking the passengers was something of a last resort, and someone half-way through college would probably be good enough...right? And he did heroically volunteer and he did seem to be cool under pressure, even if it was pissing you off right now...
"Fine," you relent, beckoning him with the barrel of your gun[1] as you turned to leave.
"Hold on," he says, putting a hand up, "Let's discuss my salary."
"Salary?! I'm kidnapping you at gun point, you do see that, right?" you ask him, incredulously.
He just shakes his head at you, "You're not the type to shoot someone who is cooperating with you."
Temper flaring, you flick the selector to "Lethal" and raise your arm till you are staring down the sights at him.
"You know, fools who run their mouths off wind up dead," you say softly, almost whisper to him.
"And there are worse things than dying. Working for free is nothing but slavery," he says with a shrug.
You breathe.
"Ugh, you're too difficult," you concede as you let your arm, and by extension the pistol, drop to your side. "I'll pay you five percent of the profit. Happy?"
"I want 15% of the gross, and free room and board," he counters, starting to grin, "The mechanic is really crucial, you know. All the crew in the world is useless without a working starship."
He's-He's enjoying this?! "No! Ten percent of the profit. And free room and board is expected, idiot! That's my final offer!"
"And you'll fill out paperwork so this counts as an internship?" he says, looking pleased as punch.
You really want to shoot him. Just a little.
"Fine," is what you say instead, but you promise yourself that if he fails to live up to expectations there will be a reckoning.
A reckoning indeed.
You don't dilly dally about, and quickly usher Kirikou to the airlock. He heads through first, floating his way through the brief zero-gravity of the docking tube, and you're about to follow.
When a voice stops you in your tracks.
"Hail, the greatest pirate who ever lived, Captain Aurora, the Red Death herself," someone says in a dull monotone as you whirl around, hand ready on your pistol.
A girl, who is probably roughly your age, is standing calmly in the middle of the compartment, staring at you. Before you can say anything, she continues, never showing the slightest hint of emotion, nor changing the steady pace of her voice.
"I have traveled far, through both space and time to come here. Do you treasure your dream, this life of piracy you chase?" she pauses, the barest of moments, and resumes after you give her the barest of nods, "Then I'm sorry, so, so, sorry, but you must let me come with you, if you want your legend to live on."
[] What. What happens?!
[] Time travel?! That's impossible! Prove it!
[] You don't have time for this. Time travel is impossible. Shoot her.
[] Just to be absolutely clear, you're not someone who is madly in love with me who keeps looping through time again and again, right? Or a killer robot?
[] Just...just get on the ship...
[1] This is bad gun safety. Honestly, who gave you a gun? What, you stole it? That was certainly terribly negligent of someone...
Yes, you've decided. Any good pirate captain has a good crew, and more specifically, you need someone to keep your ship running! You can hardly pirate anything if your ship wont move.
You grimace as the Icarus completes the jump, still not used to the feeling of space travel. You pull up the visuals for the ship, an ungainly mix between a box and a cylinder designed to carry about a 100 passengers in relative comfort. It's hull is a dull white, and it has clearly bled all of its jump energy away while it began heading for the planet.
You don't waste any time sending a transmission, consisting of a short message overlaid with a single image.
Your own Black Flag!
"This is the Greatest Pirate who Ever Lived, Captain of the Icarus. Do not change course or alter speed or you will be destroyed. Prepare to be boarded."
Excellent. Those communication courses you had to take after you were assigned to be a receptionist are actually paying off! Being short, succinct, and most importantly clear about your intentions are the keys to effective discussion.
The passenger ship maintains its course as you maneuver beside it and extend a docking tube to its external emergency airlock.
Everything is going so smoothly!
With a grin, you bound down to your own airlock. Sure, you had stolen the Icarus, but it had been just sitting there. This was going to be real SPACE piracy!
You take a few minutes to rifle through the locker labeled 'Emergency EVA Gear" which has several space suits in it of varying sizes. You grab a red one that looks to be in your size and begin the awkward process of changing into it. It's fine right now, but in the future you can't have people just changing in the middle of the corridor, and it's pretty chilly here...and you are done. With the press of a button, it constricts, fitting you perfectly.
...a little too perfectly for your taste, so you throw your jacket back on over it, replace your hat, adjust your eyepatch a little, and you're looking like every proper pirate should!
You go to close the locker when something in the bottom catches your eye. You fish it out to reveal an equipment belt. An equipment belt with a gun holster, complete with gun. And a stun baton. And a mono-molecular knife.
Suspicious.
You unholster the gun and take a better look. You're unsure, having never actually seen one in person before, but it seems to be a propellant based pistol. Wrapping your hand around the grip causes indicators on the back to light up, helpfully informing you that it is "ready to fire." A selector on the back seems to have two options; lethal and less-lethal, currently set to less-lethal. You start tying to figure out how to reload when you're interrupted by someone knocking on your airlock.
You do not jump and nearly drop the gun. No, certainly not.
After taking a moment to secure the belt around your waist you open the airlock to find a portly, balding, middle aged-man.
"Uh, excuse me miss. I was a bit confused by your message. Do you require assist-" his voice dies as he notices the gun you leveled at him by reflex.
Not one to waste good intimidation, you happily reply, "I require whatever I fancy taking. Would you be so kind as to lead me to your ship?" to which he only nods dumbly.
Only a short time later and your good mood has vanished, leaving you scowling at the two incompetent buffoons before you. The crew consisted of only two members, who both barely knew which buttons to press to do their job, and were spinelessly quaking before you.
Heck, when you had tried to threaten even a few drops of knowledge out of them by "suggesting" that you look for someone with the right skills among their passengers, they didn't even hesitate before agreeing with you!
Disgusting. Even if they were mechanical geniuses, you couldn't stand people like them on your crew. It made your skin crawl to think you were even the same species. No wonder humanity had lost the contact war.
Still, they had left you with no choice but to follow through on your earlier threat.
Which was why you were sweeping into the passenger compartment to somehow...find someone to fix your ship?
Still, you feel some satisfaction as the passengers, lazing in their seats, looks at you with surprise, and then fear as they notice that a Pirate is among them.
Or it's the gun. Whichever.
"Oy, attention passengers of this sorry excuse for a spaceship. My ship needs a bit of repair, and one of you will be doing it. So if you have any mechanical experience, don't be afraid to speak up, or I'll have to interrogate each and every one of you," you bellow before smiling sweetly.
For some reason, the passengers closest to you simply shrink back even further from you.
You continue to smile beatifically at the passengers for a few more long moments, before you feel your eyebrow start to twitch.
"Always gotta do it the hard way..." you mutter to yourself, as you start surveying the nearby passengers for a good place to start, when you notice a guy who is about your age heading your way. He's actually pretty good looking, in a nice button down shirt and stylish glasses, and the steely determination in his eyes...
Okay, he doesn't have steely determination in his eyes. In fact, he looks entirely too relaxed and nonchalant for someone at gun point. It irritates you bit, that perhaps he doesn't take you seriously.
"Yo," he says, acting like he's all cool, "I'm Kirikou Chilikov. Now, I'm only a second year Engineering student, but I'm probably going to be the best you'll find on this ship. It's not really that common a skill set," he says, half-apologetically.
You scowl at him, but he seems nonplussed. It is true that asking the passengers was something of a last resort, and someone half-way through college would probably be good enough...right? And he did heroically volunteer and he did seem to be cool under pressure, even if it was pissing you off right now...
"Fine," you relent, beckoning him with the barrel of your gun[1] as you turned to leave.
"Hold on," he says, putting a hand up, "Let's discuss my salary."
"Salary?! I'm kidnapping you at gun point, you do see that, right?" you ask him, incredulously.
He just shakes his head at you, "You're not the type to shoot someone who is cooperating with you."
Temper flaring, you flick the selector to "Lethal" and raise your arm till you are staring down the sights at him.
"You know, fools who run their mouths off wind up dead," you say softly, almost whisper to him.
"And there are worse things than dying. Working for free is nothing but slavery," he says with a shrug.
You breathe.
"Ugh, you're too difficult," you concede as you let your arm, and by extension the pistol, drop to your side. "I'll pay you five percent of the profit. Happy?"
"I want 15% of the gross, and free room and board," he counters, starting to grin, "The mechanic is really crucial, you know. All the crew in the world is useless without a working starship."
He's-He's enjoying this?! "No! Ten percent of the profit. And free room and board is expected, idiot! That's my final offer!"
"And you'll fill out paperwork so this counts as an internship?" he says, looking pleased as punch.
You really want to shoot him. Just a little.
"Fine," is what you say instead, but you promise yourself that if he fails to live up to expectations there will be a reckoning.
A reckoning indeed.
You don't dilly dally about, and quickly usher Kirikou to the airlock. He heads through first, floating his way through the brief zero-gravity of the docking tube, and you're about to follow.
When a voice stops you in your tracks.
"Hail, the greatest pirate who ever lived, Captain Aurora, the Red Death herself," someone says in a dull monotone as you whirl around, hand ready on your pistol.
A girl, who is probably roughly your age, is standing calmly in the middle of the compartment, staring at you. Before you can say anything, she continues, never showing the slightest hint of emotion, nor changing the steady pace of her voice.
"I have traveled far, through both space and time to come here. Do you treasure your dream, this life of piracy you chase?" she pauses, the barest of moments, and resumes after you give her the barest of nods, "Then I'm sorry, so, so, sorry, but you must let me come with you, if you want your legend to live on."
[] What. What happens?!
[] Time travel?! That's impossible! Prove it!
[] You don't have time for this. Time travel is impossible. Shoot her.
[] Just to be absolutely clear, you're not someone who is madly in love with me who keeps looping through time again and again, right? Or a killer robot?
[] Just...just get on the ship...
[1] This is bad gun safety. Honestly, who gave you a gun? What, you stole it? That was certainly terribly negligent of someone...
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Chapter 6
Diomedea
A piece of the continent
- Location
- The interblag
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[] Just...just get on the ship...
You've had enough haggling and back and forth already today. You could grill her on future knowledge, try and trick some of her true motives out, or whatever...but you just can't bring yourself to care.
"Just...just get on the ship..." you mutter, holstering your gun. The girl continues to stare at you, so you make a shooing motion towards the hatch.
"That was easier than I anticipated," the girl admits in her monotonous voice, as she reaches down and grabs a suitcase. Had that just been sitting next to her the whole time?
You follow her back to your ship, and as you separate from the passenger ship, find yourself wondering how so far nothing today had gone as you had planned it. No amazing news story, a mechanic who wont just shut up and be kidnapped, some strange, cute time traveler out of no where wanting to come aboard for vague reasons.
Honestly, it was enough to make anyone irritated.
"What the heck is this?" a pained voice from the bridge echos down the corridor, and you quickly walk ahead to see what's happening now. You see Kirikou ripping off post-it notes as he goes from console to console. "How did this ship even get this damaged? And what happened to the front of the ship? The nose cone is basically flat!" He says, pointing an accusing finger at you.
"I did have to ram a few things today," you point out, "Police drones, a few hovercars, a building or two." Normal occurrences really, in a ship's day to day life. "Why would I need a mechanic if nothing was broken?"
He removes his glasses, and massages the bridge of his nose. "You don't need a mechanic, you need a shipyard! I shoulda asked for a bigger cut..."
"You chose him as your mechanic? He's not the choice I would have gone with," she says as she gives him an appraising look, well, that's your best guess, anyway. She's just staring at him, but you figure that's just par for the course with her.
Kirikou's nostrils flare slightly, but when he speaks it's in an even tone, "Ah, so who would this be...?" he asks, a dozen questions in his eyes.
"She said she was a time traveler, so I let her come on board," you say glibly, walking over to the captain's chair, your chair.
"What," is seemingly the beginning and the end of Kirikou's thought process on the matter.
"I need to voyage on this vessel to prevent the destruction of humanity, and all I hold dear," the girl replies, with all the expression of someone being forced to read lines off a page.
You trace your finger along the arm cushion. It's definitely a functional chair, and it's comfier than it looks...but it looks just like the rest of the chairs on the bridge. It needs to be more impressive looking.
"What." Kirikou repeats more forcefully as you gracefully plop down in your seat. "That's bullshit! Time travel is flat out impossible," he says bluntly, crossing his arms, "Who are you. Really?"
The girl raises her finger to her cheek, adopting a classic thinking pose as she continues to stare expressionlessly at Kirikou. "You can call me Sarah Wells. Yes, that name will do," she says, nodding firmly, pumping her fist as if she had achieved a great success.
"You clearly just made that up!" Kirikou shouts, pointing an accusing finger at Sarah. Time to intervene.
"Now, now, Mr. Chilikov. A nom de guerre has a long tradition among pirates, just because she made her name up doesn't mean it isn't her name," you say, wagging your finger at him. You're trying to sound stern, but your grin belies that impression. Being back on ship has greatly improved your mood. Here you were, settling disputes among your crew like a proper captain, and it was only your first day! "It's important to respect your fellow crew members," you decree.
"I...okay," he concedes, "But what exactly is her job then?"
"That's a good point! What do you want to do around here, Ms. Wells?"
"Being from the future, I have advanced methods of computer hacking. The cutting edge of today is textbook in my time," she says, talking right over Kirikou's scoff of disbelief. "I can also do other computery stuff," she says, wiggling her fingers. The action creates a strange contrast with her monotone delivery.
"Great," you say with a sly smile, "Working together, you should be able to fix everything wrong with the ship!" Your grin only grows when Kirikou lets out a defeated sounding groan, and you thought you spotted a glint of distaste in Sarah's eyes.
"I don't need a code monkey's help..." Kirikou grumbles, halfheartedly. Despite his aggressive salary negotiation, it seems he's accepted that he has to listen to you, even when he doesn't want to.
"I doubt you could make use of it, gear-head," Sarah replies. You're not as sure of her. You're not even sure if she really dislikes Kirikou or if she just enjoys needling him. Honestly, she's still pretty mysterious, and as expressive as a robot. Still, she hasn't contradicted you.
Dominance established.
"Captain...uh..." Kirikou starts to ask before trailing off, "Wait, just what is your name?" he finishes, looking a bit sheepish.
"She's Captain Aurora, so named for the auroras the ship leaves behind in her wake," Sarah cuts in before you can respond. While still mostly expressionless, a hint of excitement creeps into the edges of her voice, "or the Red Death to her enemies," she says with a nod.
Kirikou looks at her skeptically, before raising a questioning eyebrow in your direction.
[] "Sure, let's go with that." It's not like you really cared what people called you, as long as they knew you were the greatest pirate who ever lived!
[] "I have many names." You will turn into a legend, and then a myth. No doubt you will be called many things. You'd like to encourage this.
[] "Captain will do." You threw away your old name, and you don't need a new one. Your identity to your crew is The Captain.
[] Admit your real name What? You threw that thing away already.
[] Name yourself anew. (Write in)
"Regardless, I'm afraid we're going to have to cut this conversation short," you say, gesturing to a display. Several red dots, helpfully identified as "Police" or "Human Self Defense Force" were fast approaching from the direction of the jump limit. "Please, take your seats and prepare to jump," you say in your best flight attendant voice.
Sarah simply sits down on the floor, while Kirikou pales, eyes darting between the flashing warning lights, and the approaching vessels. His decision is complicated by several smaller red dots appearing, moving much faster towards your position, labeled "missiles."
"Huh, they didn't even demand our surrender. Rude," you observe, leaning back into your chair, as you plot out a destination. After that, Kirikou's indecision vanishes, as he rushes to sit down, almost tripping on the way to your slight amusement. It's a little cute how flustered he gets when faced with death.
"And off we go!" You say, pressing the emergency jump button.
The world moves sideways, and you fight to keep your grin from turning into a grimace. Even though it is less unsettling that the first time you jumped, it's still quite disconcerting. As the captain, you must set an example for your crew. So you force your eyes open. After just a second or two.
Kirikou's fingers are dancing over the console in front of him, as Sarah blandly continues watching. Fortunately, it was clearly impossible for them to have noticed your moment of weakness. Yup, impossible!
"Crap!" Kirikou says as he suddenly stands up and begins racing out of the room, "Another jump capacitor failed!" Ah, already embracing his proper role-wait. Another jump capacitor? That doesn't sound good...
What is the crew doing while Kirikou conducts repairs?
Kirikou:
[X] Conducting emergency repairs. [Locked]
[] Anything else
Sarah:
[] Have her help with the repairs.
[] Have her look into targets with spare parts.
[] Have her familiarize herself with the computer systems and optimize them if she can.
[] Let her do her own thing.
[] Write-in.
Yourself:
[] Help with the repairs.
[] Read the documentation for the ship.
[] Physically familiarize yourself with the ship.
[] Sleep
[] Fill out Kirikou's internship paperwork.
[] Write-in
You've had enough haggling and back and forth already today. You could grill her on future knowledge, try and trick some of her true motives out, or whatever...but you just can't bring yourself to care.
"Just...just get on the ship..." you mutter, holstering your gun. The girl continues to stare at you, so you make a shooing motion towards the hatch.
"That was easier than I anticipated," the girl admits in her monotonous voice, as she reaches down and grabs a suitcase. Had that just been sitting next to her the whole time?
You follow her back to your ship, and as you separate from the passenger ship, find yourself wondering how so far nothing today had gone as you had planned it. No amazing news story, a mechanic who wont just shut up and be kidnapped, some strange, cute time traveler out of no where wanting to come aboard for vague reasons.
Honestly, it was enough to make anyone irritated.
"What the heck is this?" a pained voice from the bridge echos down the corridor, and you quickly walk ahead to see what's happening now. You see Kirikou ripping off post-it notes as he goes from console to console. "How did this ship even get this damaged? And what happened to the front of the ship? The nose cone is basically flat!" He says, pointing an accusing finger at you.
"I did have to ram a few things today," you point out, "Police drones, a few hovercars, a building or two." Normal occurrences really, in a ship's day to day life. "Why would I need a mechanic if nothing was broken?"
He removes his glasses, and massages the bridge of his nose. "You don't need a mechanic, you need a shipyard! I shoulda asked for a bigger cut..."
"You chose him as your mechanic? He's not the choice I would have gone with," she says as she gives him an appraising look, well, that's your best guess, anyway. She's just staring at him, but you figure that's just par for the course with her.
Kirikou's nostrils flare slightly, but when he speaks it's in an even tone, "Ah, so who would this be...?" he asks, a dozen questions in his eyes.
"She said she was a time traveler, so I let her come on board," you say glibly, walking over to the captain's chair, your chair.
"What," is seemingly the beginning and the end of Kirikou's thought process on the matter.
"I need to voyage on this vessel to prevent the destruction of humanity, and all I hold dear," the girl replies, with all the expression of someone being forced to read lines off a page.
You trace your finger along the arm cushion. It's definitely a functional chair, and it's comfier than it looks...but it looks just like the rest of the chairs on the bridge. It needs to be more impressive looking.
"What." Kirikou repeats more forcefully as you gracefully plop down in your seat. "That's bullshit! Time travel is flat out impossible," he says bluntly, crossing his arms, "Who are you. Really?"
The girl raises her finger to her cheek, adopting a classic thinking pose as she continues to stare expressionlessly at Kirikou. "You can call me Sarah Wells. Yes, that name will do," she says, nodding firmly, pumping her fist as if she had achieved a great success.
"You clearly just made that up!" Kirikou shouts, pointing an accusing finger at Sarah. Time to intervene.
"Now, now, Mr. Chilikov. A nom de guerre has a long tradition among pirates, just because she made her name up doesn't mean it isn't her name," you say, wagging your finger at him. You're trying to sound stern, but your grin belies that impression. Being back on ship has greatly improved your mood. Here you were, settling disputes among your crew like a proper captain, and it was only your first day! "It's important to respect your fellow crew members," you decree.
"I...okay," he concedes, "But what exactly is her job then?"
"That's a good point! What do you want to do around here, Ms. Wells?"
"Being from the future, I have advanced methods of computer hacking. The cutting edge of today is textbook in my time," she says, talking right over Kirikou's scoff of disbelief. "I can also do other computery stuff," she says, wiggling her fingers. The action creates a strange contrast with her monotone delivery.
"Great," you say with a sly smile, "Working together, you should be able to fix everything wrong with the ship!" Your grin only grows when Kirikou lets out a defeated sounding groan, and you thought you spotted a glint of distaste in Sarah's eyes.
"I don't need a code monkey's help..." Kirikou grumbles, halfheartedly. Despite his aggressive salary negotiation, it seems he's accepted that he has to listen to you, even when he doesn't want to.
"I doubt you could make use of it, gear-head," Sarah replies. You're not as sure of her. You're not even sure if she really dislikes Kirikou or if she just enjoys needling him. Honestly, she's still pretty mysterious, and as expressive as a robot. Still, she hasn't contradicted you.
Dominance established.
"Captain...uh..." Kirikou starts to ask before trailing off, "Wait, just what is your name?" he finishes, looking a bit sheepish.
"She's Captain Aurora, so named for the auroras the ship leaves behind in her wake," Sarah cuts in before you can respond. While still mostly expressionless, a hint of excitement creeps into the edges of her voice, "or the Red Death to her enemies," she says with a nod.
Kirikou looks at her skeptically, before raising a questioning eyebrow in your direction.
[] "Sure, let's go with that." It's not like you really cared what people called you, as long as they knew you were the greatest pirate who ever lived!
[] "I have many names." You will turn into a legend, and then a myth. No doubt you will be called many things. You'd like to encourage this.
[] "Captain will do." You threw away your old name, and you don't need a new one. Your identity to your crew is The Captain.
[] Admit your real name What? You threw that thing away already.
[] Name yourself anew. (Write in)
"Regardless, I'm afraid we're going to have to cut this conversation short," you say, gesturing to a display. Several red dots, helpfully identified as "Police" or "Human Self Defense Force" were fast approaching from the direction of the jump limit. "Please, take your seats and prepare to jump," you say in your best flight attendant voice.
Sarah simply sits down on the floor, while Kirikou pales, eyes darting between the flashing warning lights, and the approaching vessels. His decision is complicated by several smaller red dots appearing, moving much faster towards your position, labeled "missiles."
"Huh, they didn't even demand our surrender. Rude," you observe, leaning back into your chair, as you plot out a destination. After that, Kirikou's indecision vanishes, as he rushes to sit down, almost tripping on the way to your slight amusement. It's a little cute how flustered he gets when faced with death.
"And off we go!" You say, pressing the emergency jump button.
The world moves sideways, and you fight to keep your grin from turning into a grimace. Even though it is less unsettling that the first time you jumped, it's still quite disconcerting. As the captain, you must set an example for your crew. So you force your eyes open. After just a second or two.
Kirikou's fingers are dancing over the console in front of him, as Sarah blandly continues watching. Fortunately, it was clearly impossible for them to have noticed your moment of weakness. Yup, impossible!
"Crap!" Kirikou says as he suddenly stands up and begins racing out of the room, "Another jump capacitor failed!" Ah, already embracing his proper role-wait. Another jump capacitor? That doesn't sound good...
What is the crew doing while Kirikou conducts repairs?
Kirikou:
[X] Conducting emergency repairs. [Locked]
Sarah:
[] Have her help with the repairs.
[] Have her look into targets with spare parts.
[] Have her familiarize herself with the computer systems and optimize them if she can.
[] Let her do her own thing.
[] Write-in.
Yourself:
[] Help with the repairs.
[] Read the documentation for the ship.
[] Physically familiarize yourself with the ship.
[] Sleep
[] Fill out Kirikou's internship paperwork.
[] Write-in
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Chapter 7
Diomedea
A piece of the continent
- Location
- The interblag
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[] "Captain will do." You threw away your old name, and you don't need a new one. Your identity to your crew is The Captain. [Winning on tiebreaker]
[] Have her familiarize herself with the computer systems and optimize them if she can.
[] Read the documentation for the ship.
A/N: Sorry about the amount of exposition. You did select the info dump option.
You look at the door the Kirikou had just vanished through, worried he might need a hand. He didn't ask for any help though, so maybe you should just trust him.
Right. He is the chosen mechanic of the best pirate who ever lived! No use doubting yourself. You had doubted your ability to take the job exam with a cold, and had taken cold medicine. You had doubted the medicine's efficacy, and so took more of it. And in the end that had all resulted in you becoming a pirate. Where were you going with this again?
You give yourself a shake to recenter yourself, only to find Sarah still on the bridge, staring at you. Part of you wonders if she just tries to be unnerving on purpose, while another part of you wonders if she is even human.
"Ah, Ms. Wells, please familiarize yourself with the ship's computer systems, set them up, optimize them and such while our mechanic is making repairs," you command, as you start bringing up your own console.
"You're not having me help with the repairs?" she asks, tilting her head quizzically. You frown for a moment, before you realize she's referring to your earlier comment on her working with Kirikou.
"Nah. I was just messing with you," you say as you return to fiddling with your console. You know there has to be a user's manual or some information on your new ship somewhere. Sure, most of the controls were pretty obvious, but you didn't want to miss anything special or cool. You realize that Sarah never replied, and when you glance up there's no sign of her. You hadn't heard her leave, but you don't really pay it any mind.
You find the ship's documentation a few minutes later, and you begin to read the overview. The Icarus was proposed as both a test-bed as well as an exploratory ship, meant to use it's superior drive to experimentally prove the math behind it, as well as investigate systems deemed too perilous or any other number of scientific endeavors.
The ship was relatively small, about the size of a Human Defense Force Frigate, built for a crew between 3-6 members, depending on the mission parameters. It had a small internal cargo bay, which could double as additional space for missions which required a larger science team. There were mentions about zero-g beds and other luxuries which were all crossed out and labeled "funding denied."
There were three separate, but small living quarters, and a small mess hall/dining/lounge area on the lower level, with an attached refrigerated storage room for food supplies.
You continue scrolling through, and see there was supposed to be laser canons installed, chaff dispensers, and even a missile launcher to supposedly deliver torpedoes with a "scientific" payload. The funding for all of these were all denied, which hardly surprised you. Space was pretty safe in human territory, so why would a science vessel need lasers?
Though, that might change once you got going.
The original design called for five dark energy inertia-less drives, but funding was only approved for two. They only worked in a gravity well, and generally were only used to get a ship clear of a planet so it could just use its jump drive. Since the entire point of the Icarus was to use a jump drive in a gravity well, five did seem a bit wasteful. Though, your escape would have been a lot easier if the Icarus wasn't almost as slow as a hover car.
Surprisingly, you find that funding was approved for two reaction-engines for emergency maneuvering, but you can't help but laugh when you see the funding for the fuel was denied. It seems to perfectly highlight the malaise that has seeped into human society. Things are done because they seem like the thing to do, without consideration as to their actual effectiveness.
Long term power is provided by two large flywheel banks in the rear of the ship, which are automatically charged after every jump. Nestled between them is the real reason the Icarus is so ground-breaking. A custom, state of the art jump drive that somehow managed to jump from deep inside a gravity well. Reading between the lines of science gobbly-gook, it accomplished this by some sort of...slow jump. The jump energy that was produced and needed to be stored increased dramatically as gravity increased, getting to a point where it wouldn't just flow into supercapacitors, but into other ship components, or the air, or crew members. Best case scenario is a gutted ship with all hands lost. Worst case the ship would arrive at it's destination only to catastrophically explode.
The Icarus had some way around it though. It started absorbing jump energy before the change in location, and used this energy to externalize the vast majority of this energy to the space surrounding it's initial location, though it still resulted in a lot more energy than normally expected in the inside of the ship. A ship of the Icarus's size normally carried only half-a-dozen or so supercapacitor banks. Instead, the Icarus's original design specifications called for thirty two, which explained why the living quarters and cargo space was so small.
They were split into a ventral and dorsal bank, each of which would consist of two rings. The inner ring of three capacitors would absorb the pre-jump energy, while the outer ring of 13 super capacitors would absorb the rest. Each node then dumped it's energy into four "wings," which would concentrate the energy into a torus, for eight wings and two halos of energy, bracketing the ship.
Normally, a ship wants to maximize it's surface area to radiate as much energy as fast as possible. Depending on the configuration, most ships radiate the energy in thirty minutes for the smallest, fastest courier vessels, or up to two hours for a cargo hauler without it's radiators extended. Concentrating the energy would be counter-productive...but the Icarus's second ground-breaking design, you realize, is pretty much undocumented. There's a section detailing normal radiators which was approved for funding, but the section detailing the wings has no such approval.
Your best guess, from your advanced physics class in high school, is that they're upscale matter creation rings, often used in physics experiments. The energy is converted to matter, which then absorbs even more energy, and then is expelled from the ring of energy. Normally though they take support equipment the size of a desk to create a ring six-inches across, exactly how your former employer managed to get them form at such relatively immense sizes is beyond you, and beyond what the documentation reveals.
It does detail their capabilities, however. With more capacitors the efficiency of the rings increase, able to radiate a jump's energy in a projected ten minutes with a full set. The estimate for your current number of capacitors isn't included, but it was about thirty minutes as best you can remember, long enough that you didn't realize just how fast your ship could potentially be. Also, a schematic is included to reproduce a wing, so you should be able to repair them if they are lost...though you will not be able to perform any modifications until someone is able to figure out exactly what the equipment is actually doing...
Having gotten through the overview, you start reading through the detailed specifications, the explanations of the internal wiring, and how the computers hook together (everything is run through the Captain's command console), and other, boring, detailed things.
It's not your fault that you fell asleep. You had a long day. Anyone would fall asleep!
Still, you wake up with more than a little annoyance at yourself, having fallen asleep in the captain's chair. Someone draped a blanket from somewhere over you while you slept, to your surprise and mild embarrassment, though when you look around, no one is in sight. After a moment checking how long you slept (about nine hours) you force yourself to stand with a groan, muscles stiff from not having the good sense to sleep in a bed.
You're first order of business is to head down to the living area to freshen up a little bit, glancing in each of the crew quarters, finding them all empty. You continue your search, heading up to the cargo area, which is empty except for Sarah's suitcase. You head back into the engineering section and you finally hear evidence of the others. You climb up into the dorsal capacitor room, to find Kirikou sealing up one of the capacitor's casings. He's rolled up the sleeves of his button up shirt, and there are a few grease stains on his hands, but otherwise he looks just as clean-cut as when you first met.
"Good morning, Captain," he says with a wave, "Pretty much finished up. The safeties that are supposed to disconnect failed capacitors didn't kick in, so every time we jumped we kept losing more. I managed to patch a few of them back up to working order, but four of them are lost causes. I just finished moving this one from the ventral node, to balance things out."
Huh, that was faster than you thought. Did he work through the night?
"I didn't think a capacitor or two made much difference since the two wing systems are coupled together," you say, glad you now know enough about your own ship to not just nod at everything Kirikou says.
"Ah, it doesn't. I just thought it was neater, and I needed to kill a bit of time until you woke up," he says with a shrug, "We have 22 capacitors left, but I don't know if we need more or what. There's space for-"
"Thirty two, yes, I was reading up on the documentation last night. What caused the original failure?" you say quickly. You're not embarrassed that you were sleeping while he was hard at work, nor are you wondering if he was the one who covered you with the blanket. So you're certainly not trying to cover any embarrassment up.
Kirikou shakes his head disapprovingly, "The supercapacitors we have don't all match. Nineteen of them look like standard stuff, three of them are an older model, one is a top of the line, all the bells and whistles type, and three of them look like they were kludged together from spare parts. Now, I'm just speculating here, but it looks like there was an instability between the top of the line capacitor and one of the cobbled together ones, which caused both of them to fail. When we jumped the next two times it caused the failure to cascade. We lost another of the crap ones, and one of the older models. There is still some potential for instability between the different types, but I figured you can decide what to do about that later."
[] Disconnect the one built out of spare parts. (21 Capacitors remain)
[] Disconnect the older models. (19 Capacitors remain)
[] Disconnect all but the standard types. (18 Capacitor's remain)
[] If they're all working, might as well use them all. (22 Capacitors remain)
"Sure, you're the Captain," he says with a wink, "I think I'm going to grab another nap soon, though."
A beep from the control console, draws your attention. You open it up to find the background has been changed from the default blue to a picture of a provocatively posed anime character in a red and white striped bikini, with long red hair. It takes you only a moment to realize how she superficially looks a lot like you, just as a message box pops up covering the background. You don't even try to suppress your irritation as you read.
The first thing that strikes you is that she is surprisingly expressive in text, considering her near complete lack of affect in person. The second is that she has to be messing with you, but you're not sure which parts are jokes and which parts are true. If any of it is true. Kirikou admits a shipyard would be nice, and that placing them on the system's outer limits is normal, but he's not shy about his distrust of Sarah. And when asked about the background, he insists he hadn't noticed.
What do you pick as your next target?
[] The Shipyard (2 day travel time)
[] Look for a ship in the space around New Haven
[] Raid a location on New Haven
-[] What do you want to achieve?
[] Look for a ship in the space around Rura Penthe (1 day travel time)
[] Raid a location on Rura Penthe (1 day travel time)
-[] What do you want to achieve?
New Haven is your home planet, Rura Penthe is the second habitable world in the system, currently being terraformed.
If there is travel time, what things do you work on? (You can pick as many as you like, but the more you do the less time for each thing)
[] Take care of Kirikou's internship paperwork.
[] Try to find where Sarah is hiding.
[] Try to "de-optimize" the computer system a bit.
[] Set up one of the crew quarters for your own use.
[] Help Kirikou fix some of the impact damage on the outside of the ship (Requires an EVA)
[] Get some practice in with your weapons
[] Socialize with Kirikou
[]Socialize Text with Sarah.
[] Write-in
[] Have her familiarize herself with the computer systems and optimize them if she can.
[] Read the documentation for the ship.
A/N: Sorry about the amount of exposition. You did select the info dump option.
You look at the door the Kirikou had just vanished through, worried he might need a hand. He didn't ask for any help though, so maybe you should just trust him.
Right. He is the chosen mechanic of the best pirate who ever lived! No use doubting yourself. You had doubted your ability to take the job exam with a cold, and had taken cold medicine. You had doubted the medicine's efficacy, and so took more of it. And in the end that had all resulted in you becoming a pirate. Where were you going with this again?
You give yourself a shake to recenter yourself, only to find Sarah still on the bridge, staring at you. Part of you wonders if she just tries to be unnerving on purpose, while another part of you wonders if she is even human.
"Ah, Ms. Wells, please familiarize yourself with the ship's computer systems, set them up, optimize them and such while our mechanic is making repairs," you command, as you start bringing up your own console.
"You're not having me help with the repairs?" she asks, tilting her head quizzically. You frown for a moment, before you realize she's referring to your earlier comment on her working with Kirikou.
"Nah. I was just messing with you," you say as you return to fiddling with your console. You know there has to be a user's manual or some information on your new ship somewhere. Sure, most of the controls were pretty obvious, but you didn't want to miss anything special or cool. You realize that Sarah never replied, and when you glance up there's no sign of her. You hadn't heard her leave, but you don't really pay it any mind.
You find the ship's documentation a few minutes later, and you begin to read the overview. The Icarus was proposed as both a test-bed as well as an exploratory ship, meant to use it's superior drive to experimentally prove the math behind it, as well as investigate systems deemed too perilous or any other number of scientific endeavors.
The ship was relatively small, about the size of a Human Defense Force Frigate, built for a crew between 3-6 members, depending on the mission parameters. It had a small internal cargo bay, which could double as additional space for missions which required a larger science team. There were mentions about zero-g beds and other luxuries which were all crossed out and labeled "funding denied."
There were three separate, but small living quarters, and a small mess hall/dining/lounge area on the lower level, with an attached refrigerated storage room for food supplies.
You continue scrolling through, and see there was supposed to be laser canons installed, chaff dispensers, and even a missile launcher to supposedly deliver torpedoes with a "scientific" payload. The funding for all of these were all denied, which hardly surprised you. Space was pretty safe in human territory, so why would a science vessel need lasers?
Though, that might change once you got going.
The original design called for five dark energy inertia-less drives, but funding was only approved for two. They only worked in a gravity well, and generally were only used to get a ship clear of a planet so it could just use its jump drive. Since the entire point of the Icarus was to use a jump drive in a gravity well, five did seem a bit wasteful. Though, your escape would have been a lot easier if the Icarus wasn't almost as slow as a hover car.
Surprisingly, you find that funding was approved for two reaction-engines for emergency maneuvering, but you can't help but laugh when you see the funding for the fuel was denied. It seems to perfectly highlight the malaise that has seeped into human society. Things are done because they seem like the thing to do, without consideration as to their actual effectiveness.
Long term power is provided by two large flywheel banks in the rear of the ship, which are automatically charged after every jump. Nestled between them is the real reason the Icarus is so ground-breaking. A custom, state of the art jump drive that somehow managed to jump from deep inside a gravity well. Reading between the lines of science gobbly-gook, it accomplished this by some sort of...slow jump. The jump energy that was produced and needed to be stored increased dramatically as gravity increased, getting to a point where it wouldn't just flow into supercapacitors, but into other ship components, or the air, or crew members. Best case scenario is a gutted ship with all hands lost. Worst case the ship would arrive at it's destination only to catastrophically explode.
The Icarus had some way around it though. It started absorbing jump energy before the change in location, and used this energy to externalize the vast majority of this energy to the space surrounding it's initial location, though it still resulted in a lot more energy than normally expected in the inside of the ship. A ship of the Icarus's size normally carried only half-a-dozen or so supercapacitor banks. Instead, the Icarus's original design specifications called for thirty two, which explained why the living quarters and cargo space was so small.
They were split into a ventral and dorsal bank, each of which would consist of two rings. The inner ring of three capacitors would absorb the pre-jump energy, while the outer ring of 13 super capacitors would absorb the rest. Each node then dumped it's energy into four "wings," which would concentrate the energy into a torus, for eight wings and two halos of energy, bracketing the ship.
Normally, a ship wants to maximize it's surface area to radiate as much energy as fast as possible. Depending on the configuration, most ships radiate the energy in thirty minutes for the smallest, fastest courier vessels, or up to two hours for a cargo hauler without it's radiators extended. Concentrating the energy would be counter-productive...but the Icarus's second ground-breaking design, you realize, is pretty much undocumented. There's a section detailing normal radiators which was approved for funding, but the section detailing the wings has no such approval.
Your best guess, from your advanced physics class in high school, is that they're upscale matter creation rings, often used in physics experiments. The energy is converted to matter, which then absorbs even more energy, and then is expelled from the ring of energy. Normally though they take support equipment the size of a desk to create a ring six-inches across, exactly how your former employer managed to get them form at such relatively immense sizes is beyond you, and beyond what the documentation reveals.
It does detail their capabilities, however. With more capacitors the efficiency of the rings increase, able to radiate a jump's energy in a projected ten minutes with a full set. The estimate for your current number of capacitors isn't included, but it was about thirty minutes as best you can remember, long enough that you didn't realize just how fast your ship could potentially be. Also, a schematic is included to reproduce a wing, so you should be able to repair them if they are lost...though you will not be able to perform any modifications until someone is able to figure out exactly what the equipment is actually doing...
Having gotten through the overview, you start reading through the detailed specifications, the explanations of the internal wiring, and how the computers hook together (everything is run through the Captain's command console), and other, boring, detailed things.
It's not your fault that you fell asleep. You had a long day. Anyone would fall asleep!
Still, you wake up with more than a little annoyance at yourself, having fallen asleep in the captain's chair. Someone draped a blanket from somewhere over you while you slept, to your surprise and mild embarrassment, though when you look around, no one is in sight. After a moment checking how long you slept (about nine hours) you force yourself to stand with a groan, muscles stiff from not having the good sense to sleep in a bed.
You're first order of business is to head down to the living area to freshen up a little bit, glancing in each of the crew quarters, finding them all empty. You continue your search, heading up to the cargo area, which is empty except for Sarah's suitcase. You head back into the engineering section and you finally hear evidence of the others. You climb up into the dorsal capacitor room, to find Kirikou sealing up one of the capacitor's casings. He's rolled up the sleeves of his button up shirt, and there are a few grease stains on his hands, but otherwise he looks just as clean-cut as when you first met.
"Good morning, Captain," he says with a wave, "Pretty much finished up. The safeties that are supposed to disconnect failed capacitors didn't kick in, so every time we jumped we kept losing more. I managed to patch a few of them back up to working order, but four of them are lost causes. I just finished moving this one from the ventral node, to balance things out."
Huh, that was faster than you thought. Did he work through the night?
"I didn't think a capacitor or two made much difference since the two wing systems are coupled together," you say, glad you now know enough about your own ship to not just nod at everything Kirikou says.
"Ah, it doesn't. I just thought it was neater, and I needed to kill a bit of time until you woke up," he says with a shrug, "We have 22 capacitors left, but I don't know if we need more or what. There's space for-"
"Thirty two, yes, I was reading up on the documentation last night. What caused the original failure?" you say quickly. You're not embarrassed that you were sleeping while he was hard at work, nor are you wondering if he was the one who covered you with the blanket. So you're certainly not trying to cover any embarrassment up.
Kirikou shakes his head disapprovingly, "The supercapacitors we have don't all match. Nineteen of them look like standard stuff, three of them are an older model, one is a top of the line, all the bells and whistles type, and three of them look like they were kludged together from spare parts. Now, I'm just speculating here, but it looks like there was an instability between the top of the line capacitor and one of the cobbled together ones, which caused both of them to fail. When we jumped the next two times it caused the failure to cascade. We lost another of the crap ones, and one of the older models. There is still some potential for instability between the different types, but I figured you can decide what to do about that later."
[] Disconnect the one built out of spare parts. (21 Capacitors remain)
[] Disconnect the older models. (19 Capacitors remain)
[] Disconnect all but the standard types. (18 Capacitor's remain)
[] If they're all working, might as well use them all. (22 Capacitors remain)
"Sure, you're the Captain," he says with a wink, "I think I'm going to grab another nap soon, though."
A beep from the control console, draws your attention. You open it up to find the background has been changed from the default blue to a picture of a provocatively posed anime character in a red and white striped bikini, with long red hair. It takes you only a moment to realize how she superficially looks a lot like you, just as a message box pops up covering the background. You don't even try to suppress your irritation as you read.
| Hello, Captain! I have finished integrating myself into the ship, and it is fully optimized. You should tell Kirikou to lighten up a bit. He refused to tell me if he even liked the new background! Since that didn't take me very long, I also poked around the net a bit and found us something interesting. Since Mr. Grumpy Mechanic was complaining about needing a shipyard, I found him one. There's a military shipyard that is nearing completion in this very solar system! The Yutani Corporation has finished most of the construction, and just has a small tech team finishing things up, while the military wont take formal possession until next month, so there's only a skeleton crew on board right now. A dozen tops. More personnel and supplies are being shipped to it near the end of the month, but if we go right now we should have plenty of time to do whatever we want! I know a dozen people sounds daunting, but you're a host unto yourself! Let me know what you decide for our next target, but I really think we should hit the shipyard while the going's good! |
What do you pick as your next target?
[] The Shipyard (2 day travel time)
[] Look for a ship in the space around New Haven
[] Raid a location on New Haven
-[] What do you want to achieve?
[] Look for a ship in the space around Rura Penthe (1 day travel time)
[] Raid a location on Rura Penthe (1 day travel time)
-[] What do you want to achieve?
New Haven is your home planet, Rura Penthe is the second habitable world in the system, currently being terraformed.
If there is travel time, what things do you work on? (You can pick as many as you like, but the more you do the less time for each thing)
[] Take care of Kirikou's internship paperwork.
[] Try to find where Sarah is hiding.
[] Try to "de-optimize" the computer system a bit.
[] Set up one of the crew quarters for your own use.
[] Help Kirikou fix some of the impact damage on the outside of the ship (Requires an EVA)
[] Get some practice in with your weapons
[] Socialize with Kirikou
[]
[] Write-in
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