Setting Off

[estradling]

"If anyone ever needs a little extra space," Sebastian grins, "there's always a vacc suit and the airlock!"

Matching Sebastian tone and grin he replies, "Oh good its nice to know we have a volunteer." Then more seriously he says, "I'm not exactly sure, maybe some kind of portable gym or workout equipment. That way if someone need to vent some physical energy then can do so on the equipment instead of on a crew member. It has a plus of helping us keep in shape on long journeys. If we were to schedule and if we were to all agree that 'gym' time was alone time... Then it might serve both purposes."

[BD Cerridwen]

Malcolm yawns as he munches on the the excellent food, way better then what the ex- ever made, as he listens half attentively to the conversation. He was lost in is own thoughts concerning Maria's behavior.

" If that biker chick is as wild at the stick as she is in the conference room, I'll have to be careful not to blast one of our own wings off if things get hairy! At least the weapons controls are on the Engineering deck. I don't need to be near crazy females anymore. That's what divorce courts are for! ... I should really try to stay more awake during these meetings," he thinks. "What was that about a gym? Yeah, I could go for that right now."

"Yeah, I vote for a gym too," he says. "Great stress reliever."

Things seem to be wrapping up, so he thanks his hosts, excuses himself and heads for his room (Lucky #13). There he changes into his Do Bok, sometimes also known as a Gi, and heads to the gym. He spends a few minutes loosening up before starting some high intensity martial arts training.

[cliff]

Seeing that Maria and Mal both have left the room, Gren turns to B'Loone and and asks "Who about you B'Loone? have you seen any combat? ever been part of a boarding party?"

"I can question Malcom and Maria later" Gren thinks to himself "Maria concerns me a little. She seems to have had a rough time at life thus far. I'm not sure what to think of Malcom as of yet."

[Shadow Shack]

Seeing the party breaking up and heading separate ways, Sebastian opts to head toward the auxilliary bridge for some sim-time. He heaves a deep breath as he steps on the elevator, that Maria's quite a handful but she's at least approachable, and Seb appearss to have garnered some degree of respect from her. Time to find out how they'll meld together at the helm.

Upon arrival, he will wait for Maria to complete the sim-exercise she is engaged in before asking to join in. "So how's the Dart sim fare with you? I'd guess something between star fighter and assault scout grade judging by the specs and techs, albeit with a bit less grunt in the thrusters. Mind if I join you? We'll be co-sticking together anyways, may as well get familiarized with this bird together."

[Bonehead]

Seeing that Maria and Mal both have left the room, Gren turns to B'Loone and and asks "Who about you B'Loone? have you seen any combat? ever been part of a boarding party?"

B'Looone nervously turns to face the grizzled Yazerian. "Mainly I fix things... or break them as needed."

He could feel everyone's eyes on him; especially Lee and Terl. I guess that wasn't a very satisfactory answer.

After an uncomfortable pause he continued, "Look, I've led a pretty sheltered life compared to the rest of you. I know which end of my gyrojet rifle to point at somebody, and I have done, but my part in these upcoming missions will go either one of two ways. Either I'll be trying to accomplish something technical while you weapons guys are busy keeping me alive long enough to finish, or I'll be trying to accomplish something technical that will take the heat off of you weapons guys."

"Like the time when the maintenance team that I was with was ambushed on Venturi. Our security escort was taking a beating, so I used a service robot and some maintenance bots (and the station's intercom system) to convince our attackers that they were up against Star Law, and not just a bunch of techies and administrators."

"Or the time when we came across an outpost of slave traders on Laco: nasty place with lots of combat bots. One of our security guys was really good at infiltration, so he snuck me in to the outpost so that I could reprogram their maintenance bots to dismantle their combat bots."

"Either way, we all work together to keep each other alive and accomplish the mission; we just use different tools."

[Will]

Seeing the party breaking up and heading separate ways, Sebastian opts to head toward the auxilliary bridge for some sim-time. He heaves a deep breath as he steps on the elevator, that Maria's quite a handful but she's at least approachable, and Seb appearss to have garnered some degree of respect from her. Time to find out how they'll meld together at the helm.

Upon arrival, he will wait for Maria to complete the sim-exercise she is engaged in before asking to join in. "So how's the Dart sim fare with you? I'd guess something between star fighter and assault scout grade judging by the specs and techs, albeit with a bit less grunt in the thrusters. Mind if I join you? We'll be co-sticking together anyways, may as well get familiarized with this bird together."

"If this sim's any judge," Maria replies,'"she handles pretty well in space, not quite in between a fighter and an assault scout...I'd say about as maneuverable and as nimble as an I-76."

"The space bridge is set up for one pilot and one astro, or two pilots,"she adds,"and the atmosphere bridge is set up for both pilots and a gunner, according to her specs. The current sim's got us playing tag with the Star Devil's fleet in the Zebulon system; comp's handling the guns, while we try our hand at saving the Serena Dawn. Have a seat, share some of the fun."
"

[estradling]

Hearing the Drals nervousness Leo speaks up, "Don't worry B'looone... I've never been a 'main' fighter either but I've always found something useful to do. Even if there is nothing technical to do, you are another set of eyes and a gun. No matter how good everyone else might be they can't watch their own backs or be in two places at once."

[BD Cerridwen]

Malcom finishes his training and heads back to his room for a shower. Feeling awake and clean, he gets dressed and digs a deck of cards and a small box of poker chips out of his duffle. Mal fiddles with his chronocom, setting it to “broadcast all open frequencies”.

“Hi all. Malcom here. Poker game in the small conference room in 10 minutes. BYOB. Out.”

That should do it. Now we have a proper environment to get to know each other. Hm... I wonder if they even have beer on this behemoth?

Malcom heads for the kitchen to find out. Now what was the name of the chef again? Meerkat? Meerkaz?Meerkal? Where's a crew list when you need one?

Mal reaches the kitchen. “Hey Meerka,” he says, purposely slurring the last consonant. “Whatcha got to drink around here?”

[Terl Obar]

"Just about about anything you want," Meerkal replies to Malcoms query. "The bosses keep us pretty well stocked. Although quantity is sometimes limited, quality never is. What are you in the mood for?" He then provides Malcom with whatever he requests.

The next two days pass fairly uneventfully. Those who wish get plenty of time in the simulator and Leo spends time with the Astrogators familiarizing himself with the corporate jump route. And then it is jump time. While you've all been through it before, you never quite get used to the sensory distorting, slightly nauseating experience that makes modern faster than light travel possible. That wonderful moment when you realize that your life and very existence is completely in the hands of the computer as you hurtle through the Void.

You all strap in to chairs in the Auxiliary Bridge where you can monitor the jump maneuvers on the control stations. About 10 minutes before the jump, Terl's voice comes over the intercom "Main engine cutoff in ten seconds, Void entry in ten minutes." On cue, the main engines cut off and you float up out of your seats against the restraining harnesses. After a few final micro adjustments that you see on the sensors rather than feel, Terl's voice comes over the intercom again. "Void entry in five ... four ... three ... two ... one ... Maaa...." Time seems to slow, objects seem to loose their color, pale and become blurry. Sounds seem to be washed out with a rush of background noise as if you are listening to the world through a long hollow tube with the ocean crashing inside it. "...aarrrr...," you still faintly hear Terl's voice as if in slow motion. Your sense of touch starts to vanish as you can no longer feel your acceleration couches or the straps holding you in. Vertigo starts to set in and you can't tell up from down any longer. "...rrk!" And then it is over. Your senses snap back into place and your mind clears. A few seconds later and once again Terl comes on the intercom. "Jump complete. Welcome to Truane's Star."

The Morning Glory's RCS thrusters kick in and you are all gently pushed into the side of your seats as the ship begins rotating around to point its main engines toward Pale and begin deceleration. After a few more minutes the main engines power back up and you are once again under one standard gravity and begin unbuckling from your restraints. Two and a half more days and you will be at Pale station moving into your new ship. Hopefully, the second half of the jump will pass as uneventfully as the first half.

OOC: Feel free to finish up your pre-jump conversations

[BD Cerridwen]

Malcom puts his head between his knees and takes a few deep breathes, a universal curative for jump induced nausea.

“Urgh,” he groans. “I hate that froggin' feeling. Anyway, game on folks. The game's Laco Hold 'Em. Bring your credits, I'm feeling lucky.” Mal makes a double clicking noise as he forms his hands into the finger guns and winks at Maria.

Mal visits Meerkal, collects a couple of beers, a bowl of chips and dip, and heads into the conference room, taking his seat in the corner by the window, diagonally across from the lav. He pops the top off of the bottle and starts shuffling the cards, working his way up to some of the more fancy stuff. Soon, he's playing a solitaire game of 52 Pickup.

“Fingers are a bit jittery post jump,” he says to himself under his breathe. “No stacking of the deck today.”

Having picked up all of the cards again, he settles back to see how many suckers decide to show up.

(OOC: I'm thinking we can use the game as an excuse to share a character story or two before the action starts. Here is a story that Malcom will tell during the poker game.)

“... Yeah, I remember my first action in a space suit. I was contracted out to this independent mining ship outfitted with a couple of those asteroid munching 'droids. You know, those really big 'bots about the half the size of a city block. We're in this asteroid belt, minding our own business when the scanners pick up an extra signal. We suit up and head out in a launch for a closer look. Sure enough, there's another launch out there towing a maintenance pod and messin' with the 'droids. They take off and my boss gives chase while I hop out on rocket pack to check what damage they were doing. Sure enough, there's D-19 all over the thing. I get three of them defused when the forth goes off! That's just spooky how there's that flash of light and no sound, you know? I'm still not used to it. Anyway, the debris is blown right into me, cracks the external visor of my armor, and sends me reeling into space. I was on my own personal tilt-a-whirl! Between that and the concussion it gave me, I spent half my fuel just to get straight, and by that time I'm puking my guts out! Ever upchuck in a suit? I don't recommend it. I kept trying to wipe it off with my hand – from the outside! When I finally regain control and can get my bearings, I'm drifting the wrong way! I use the last of my fuel trying to reverse with no luck. I try to call the ship, but that smack to the head must have got the my com-sys, I'm getting nothing. I don't even know if the suit's tracer is working or not. I can't even see the 'bot anymore. I'm figurin' that I'm a goner. Just then, something bangs into my leg and sends me into a slow spin, and I see that it's the other 'bot. I grab my anchor and throw it. I swear on all that's holy, 99 meters of line played out before the anchor caught that munch-bot! I rode it all the way home, my chariot to heaven! And that's why I always play the Dead Man's Hand – aces and eights! Who's got better?”

[cliff]

"Well B'Loone, in my 20 years in the space marines, I was a combat medic first. I was never a front line fighter, so I here ya there. I just like to know how my teammates will react under adverse conditions so I can preform my duties better. By the way, I always liked the way you Drals seem to come up with inventive ways to take care of buissness."

Upon hearing Mal's open com call "Well, I think I'll go try my hand at some poker."

[Will]

Maria grits her teeth, as the Void field generators kick in, and the atmoic engines push the ship through the warp in spacetime at approximately 350 lights...last time she went through jump was on an RIK assault carrier sent in to assist the Moneyspider project—VL and Cliq'Aqaat both had a stake in it—and it's just as unsettling now as it was that last time.

And, it's over just as quickly as it started, least it feels that way,l the voice of the fleabag in charge letting them know they were in the Truane's Star system, Maria feeling the ship turn over for final deceleration to Pale.

"Do again, do again," she quips to the others with a tight smile.

"Dunno 'bout you guys," she then adds,"but I'm gonna get in some more sim time, while we're burning towards Pale."

With that, she calls up the sim program, and gets ready to pilot the simulated Dart through more simulated pirates.

[Shadow Shack]

"Ugh, not sure I'll ever get used to that," Sebastian remarks to nobody in general. He'd made a few jumps to neighboring White Light in his star fighter days, all aboard a carrier or freighter, but the feeling's always the same: hold it in!

"Sim time sounds good," he responds. "Mind if I take the stick this time around?"

[Will]

"Now," Maria replies, gracefully taking second chair,"why did I think the JO would like taking the stick so much?"

"First chair's all yours," she adds.

She then extracts a pneumo of stim from her standard equipment pack.

"It's set to dispense a couple c.c.s of stim," she explains, as she offers it to Sebastianm,"just enough to clear away the Void-lag cobwebs, but nothing more."

[Shadow Shack]

Sebastian accepts the stim-sim, reluctantly but not showing it. He takes a deep drag, it's been a while since he's taken a good puff. Minotaur High Command always frowned upon stimulants so it was something done under the cover of assumed privacy.

"Blast the stars," he exclaims after exhaling, "that was good. Thanks!" he hands the stim back. He straps into the command chair and makes a few checks to see that all's well and online. "Okay, let's see what this bird can do." Once all is online, he'll slam the accelerators forward to 100% thrust and wrench the wheel into a series of evasive maneuvers. He nods to Maria, "A bit quicker than the ol' workhorses (I-76 Enfrocers she referenced earlier) but just as cantankerous." His index finger instinctively hovers over what should be a firing trigger on the yoke, at least in a star fighter anyways. "That's gonna be a tough habit to break," he mutters out loud.

[Will]

"Agreed," Maria replies. "Can't wait to get some stick time in on the real deal."

"Secondary gun control," she explains, pointing out the red button on both pilot sticks. "Guess it's there, if there's no gunner, or if he buys it, tho', craft this small, if the gunner does buy it, there probably won't be anyone around to take over."

"Anyway," she adds,"one press transfers guns over to you, and a second press actually fires them."

"Two on our six," she says, glancing at the radar display,"looks like 'vettes, coming in hard at max burn."

"Scratch that," she adds,"one's sticking with us, the other's going for the Dawn."

Simulated death lances out at them from the corvette's simulated laser battery, Maria helping the Minotaur break away into an Immelmann at the last second, swooping down on the 'vette's aft end, the comp handling gunnery with corrections from the two of them.

She jerks the stick left the instant the simulated pod lasers fire, Maria snapping to Sebastian,"break left, let's get the other one!"

[Terl Obar]

Forgot to mention this earlier but shortly after dinner and the on-board briefing you were all outfitted with the following (augmenting anything you already had): A spacesuit with two extra life support canisters (providing up to 60 hours LS), spacesuit armor, a rocket pack, anchor & tether (1km of tether line), magnetic boots and as many suit patches as you desire.

About 15 hours after jump, alarms go off all through the ship. Those of you in the auxiliary bridge see your sim vanish and the controls reconfigure in to a new arrangement which you realize after a moment are controls for the Morning Glory. The alarms ring three times and then stop, followed by Terl's voice over the intercom. "Battle stations everyone. Get suited up and report to your duty station. Trouble shooting team, get into suits and strap in in the Auxiliary Bridge. We start depressurizing and combat acceleration in ten minutes. We are tracking three inbound bogeys that do not respond to any hails. We picked them up on Energy Sensors about 10 minutes ago. We're estimating one hull size 12 vessel with a pair of hull size 4 ships in escort. We'll know more when they get into radar range."

Those of you in the auxiliary bridge see on the monitors that the unknown vessels are about 450,000 km away and closing at a rate of 5000 km a minute. They also seem to be accelerating at about 3 gees.

[Will]

"So much for sim time," Maria observes, scrambling out of her chair, out of the aux bridge, into the lift, and into the airlock room, where she struggles into a spacesuit and armor, not completely suiting up, until she is in the lift heading back down to the aux bridge.

She straps herself into one of the piloting stations, just as the ship starts depressurizing.

She then wordlessly studies the telemetry from the energy sensors,before checking the radar display.

[Shadow Shack]

Sebastian fastens his vacc helmet and pressurizes the suit. Activating the comm, he calls out to anyone listening. "Rogers here, Miss Craig and I are already in auxilliary. Awaiting remainder of trouble shooting team."

Thinking out loud he exclaims "Frag, the sim became reality?!?" Meanwhile, he will attempt to dial in the radar scope and help establish positive ID on the inbound craft as they appear. He turns to Maria, "Sounds like a classic pirate formation, could be a pair of marauders and a booty hauler. Waddaya think, do those class four craft look anything like 'vettes to you?" (any chance we can make that determination from here?)

He thinks back to a time not too long ago when he was tangling with a real pair of pirate corvettes back in Theseus. One of them managed to squeak in behind them, vaporizing his flight leader with a searing blast from the deadly cannon.

[estradling]

Leo was in the common area going over the Dart's files when the alarm went off, hearing Terl's voice he scrambled to do as he was told. Although he couldn't help but wonder, "I thought our 'battlestations' were in the theater?" Still he followed the directions and suited up and went down to the aux bridge.