Pelican Tracks -- Entry 6
Aug. 23rd, 2014 11:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaIt has been a most unusual week. When all is said and done, however, we are a good deal richer and I’m feeling much more confident about our chances of slipping into Nortrig and making the delivery as scheduled. What’s a warzone after a few pirate attacks?
So once we’d taken off and were en route, Wrench and I decided to hold a training seminar to familiarize the crew with our pressurization system. Briefly, the Pelican can dive through and even below the Cloud Deck without fear thanks to Wrench’s cunning modifications. It’s our ability to spend a significant chunk of time “submerged” that gives us an edge when sailing through hostile skies. As we expected to have to make such a dive during our voyage, we wanted to make sure the crew knew what was going to happen.
Sanna had a great deal of misgivings about this prospect (she’s always agitated by the thought of going below the clouds), but I assured her that this would a short test. We’d only be under the cloud deck for a few moments and then we could take the ship back up. Sanna agreed, but only if she could keep her eyes closed. I was a little put out by this, but it was a short dip so I agreed to stand watch in the cockpit with her and let her know when to bring it up.
So down we went. The ship made it’s usual settling noises, but nothing too unusual. Finally we dropped below the cloud barrier. All systems were green and I was just about to tell Sanna to bring it up when I caught something enormous rushing towards us. Luckily, Sanna needed no encouragement to push us up faster and we ascended. However, there was a rather unsettling clang as something struck us in the belly.
We got above the clouds and I conferred with Wrench in private about what I may have seen and the noise it may have caused and we agreed that now was also an excellent time to demonstrate proper EVA procedure while in flight. Wrench would demonstrate the process (and incidentally get a look at the underside of the ship). This was accomplished without too much trouble and Wrench reported that there was a dent on the underside covered with a reddish smear. We made a note to get that scrubbed off next chance we got and went about our business.
Our practice was prescient it turns out. A couple days later we spotted a corvette with no discernible markings tracking us from several miles away and rapidly gaining. It was quite obviously a pirate ship of some sort and seeing them off with our top cannon didn’t seem to be feasible. So we prepared to dive again in hopes of losing our pursuers.
Our crew was more than prepared. Ian and Wrench produced a rather heart-stopping drop that nearly dropped us below the clouds in seconds. We managed to level off and proceeded slowly through the murk of the Cloud Bank. We plotted a weaving course that still headed in the general direction of Sunrise Station and spent several hours creeping through the white.
Near the end of the day, we decided to surface. We needed to check the stars and get a fix on our position. As we cleared the ragged fringes of the Cloud Bank, I noticed something peculiar from my position in the navigator’s bubble. There appeared to be goats playing amongst the swirling clouds. I mentioned this to Sanna who threw everything into a full stop. It appears as though we very nearly ran aground on a reef -- an upthrust of land destined to be a full-fledged island someday but for now simply a navigation hazard if you’re running blindly through the clouds like us.
We made a hard stop. Our pursuers were nowhere to be seen and our position was roughly where we wanted it to be. it’d been a long day so we decided to just stop. Getting a fix on this reef would be worth something to various prospecting companies, so there was no real reason to hurry on at the moment. Clearly it’d been a bit more stressful for Sanna than she let on, for she declared her intent to go to bed and then grabbed a very startled Ian and dragged him off with her. I am pretty sure that I’ve never seen Sanna seek solace in anything other than black weed before. We all sort of stared at one another and then the music from Sanna’s cabin got a rather definitive percussive backing. So...we all found something else to do.
Next day, everyone seemed to be in a better mood -- especially Sanna who was positively chipper. Ian seemed none the worse for wear so I decided to let the matter go although I was flustered by this heretofore unsuspected facet to Sanna’s personality.
We set off again for Second Sunrise and the next day came across a trader who’d just left. It was easy enough to follow his trail back and Second Sunrise hove into view. I was very pleased at our success in locating this roving port despite the obstacles we encountered and a few hours of quiet shore leave seemed in order. Sanna went off to the local bar, I headed out to talk with the Harbormaster and Wrench stayed behind to oversee the resupply. He and I agreed to meet up with Sanna a bit later.
I made my way to the port administration offices and filled out the necessary paperwork. I also sold them the coordinates to the reef we found. Strictly speaking, we could’ve shopped this around for a better deal, but prospecting is always a crapshoot and we simply couldn’t be bothered. With a small payday in hand, I went to the bar. On the way, I encountered a distraught Sanna, with a grilled cheese sandwich in her pocket rushing back to the ship. Recent events have left me unable to evaluate our pilot’s state of mind, so I just wrote it off and headed into the bar. [ED NOTE: Sanna had run into someone at the bar who knew her mostly as a bomber pilot who died during a test flight and was surprised to see her breathing.]
The bar was fairly lively and soon Wrench and the rest of the crew showed up. We spent a short time chatting with the various people at the bar, including the captain of a pleasure yacht called the Academic Honor among others.
Then, a bunch of poorly-dressed sailors came into the room. Apparently they’d struck it rich on some cargo run and were buying lots of drinks for everyone. Odd ducks, but as long as they were buying, we weren’t questioning it too much. And then one of them tried to buy Rocky. Wrench decided it was time to go and looking around the room, I thought that was a wise decision. I rounded up our crew and we quietly made our exit.
On the way back to the ship, we encountered Sanna who told us that a scruffy-looking cargo hauler had just pulled into the berth next to us and was flashing its signal lamps out into the blue. There’s really only one kind of explanation for that behavior and as we were passing by the Admin offices, we stopped in and informed them of their imminent attack. They rushed into action just as a loud crunch sounded throughout the station.
That was our cue to leave so we bundled the crew into the Pelican and Wrench and Ian set to work spinning up the engines to get us out of there. Sadly, we’d powered down entirely figuring we had a bit of a layover so there we were in for a few tight moments.
Outside the cockpit window, things were getting worse. The ship next to us had signalled a vast mothership that was slowly descending upon the station. Our timely warning meant the defenders were not caught completely unawares and station guns were firing, but as we watched, a boarding pod launched from the mothership and slammed into the station. Meanwhile, the pirate ship next to us was also starting to spin up. We didn’t want them airborne and we certainly didn’t want their gun trained on us.
I sent Brendan and Brenda up to man the gun and take a few shots at our neighbor before they did. And then...then Sanna changed. We could see a couple pirates in the cockpit of the neighboring ship and it looked like they were getting some pistols out to take a few potshots at us. Sanna pushed me into the pilot’s seat and from nowhere pulled out this rifle. The first shot winged a pirate, the second splattered him all over the windows and the third dropped the pilot. We’ve always known/suspected that Sanna had some military training in her background but she went from stoner to stone cold killer and I was simply unprepared.
In another piece of good fortune, Brendan got in a terrific shot and blew the gun turret off the opposing pirate ship leaving it toothless and floating aimlessly off the station. A couple of pirates jumped from the ship onto the landing and Sanna promptly drilled them as well. The deck gave a lurch as the Academic Honesty violently pulled out of it’s mooring beneath us and flew up to pepper the pirate mothership from above.
Things were looking better for us, but the mothership was still squatting above the station raining down fire and dozens of pirates started fast-repelling down to the station. We needed to get off the station and into the air so we could either help out or make a fast exit if the station fell. The engines were just coming online when two more pirates ran out of the station gangway and headed towards our ship. Sanna pegged one of them but the other managed to leap onto the Pelican just as we pulled away. He tried to get in through the lower access hatch, but Wrench quickly locked that down. We could hear him clambering around on the hull. Soon he’d get up to the top and then we’d have a problem.
So Sanna went up to the top hatch, popped out and waited. Brenda later told me that Sanna just waited for the hapless pirate to pop his head up over the side and then...the pirate had no head anymore.
By this time we were well away from the station. Brendan and Brenda had shot at the mothership but without any telling success. The Academic Honor was still on station above the mothership and so we signaled to it trying to figure out what to do next. According to the Honor the mothership had basically stopped firing and appeared to be mostly deserted. Taking the fight to the pirates and grabbing control of their ship would be risky but we’d have the upper hand even if we lost the station (and the dramatic irony was incalculable). The problem is that while there was a sort of landing deck atop the mothership, it was really built for the assault boats and the Honor was too big to fit. So if anyone was going to attack this thing…
Sanna parked the Pelican atop the mothership and then grabbed Brenda and Brendan, armed them, and lead the charge onto the ship. From what Brenda told me later, the ship was practically deserted, the pirates appeared to have gone all in on the assault and only left a skeleton crew on board. That crew was very quickly reduced as Sanna and friends wiped out most of the pirates leaving only two prisoners to worry about.
By this time, Academic Honor had rigged up a simple connection to the mothership and started transferring some people aboard. Sanna came rushing back onboard ship in a rather agitated state so Wrench and I stepped onto the mothership to meet with the Honor’s Captain Klum. We agreed we needed to move the mothership away from the station and we also needed to get back down to the station to help fend off the pirates and we didn’t have as many people to do all this as we wanted. In the end, we left Ian, a few people from Honor and the prisoners as a makeshift crew. They moved the pirate ship away and kept it vaguely airborne while we went back down.
Back down to the station, where once again, Sanna took point. We tried to break a standoff in one section of the station, but despite Wrench filching a hand-grenade from the mothership, we couldn’t make any headway. So we went on a roving patrol of the station where we wound up chasing after running gunbattles more than being in them. Eventually we came to the same admin office we’d stopped at just before this all started. It was now full of pirates and we tried rushing them, but they forced us out (although our injuries dished out to injuries received was excellent). We barricaded the door to trap them in and went off to find station personnel.
By the time we caught up to them, the fight was nearly over. The pirates we’d trapped appeared to be the last pocket of resistance. Station security had a few more grenades so we went back to the Admin office to take care of them. They had broken out when we returned but we could hear them fleeing off towards the docks. We followed along after them and caught up just as they reached the landings where the Pelican and their getaway ship had berthed.
“Don’t worry guys, the ship is right over here. We just need to get to it and we’ll be safe.”
*pause*
“Where’s the ship?”
“Where’s our mothership?”
“PIRATES! THROW DOWN YOUR ARMS AND SURRENDER!”
*clatter*
Dear Reader, that was the most delightful bout of schadenfreude I have ever had the privilege to experience in my entire life.
Anyway, that was the end of the pirate attack. We’ve spent the last week cleaning up and (more importantly) splitting up the salvage. The pirate ships we captured were quite the prize and, in fact, beyond the means of the station to pay us for. They offered the usual station credit letters which would be good at most floating stations similar to the Sunrise. Beyond a full-stocked weapons locker and pressure/flight suits for everyone and some spare parts, we really wanted hard currency. In the end, we decided that since we’d be coming back to the station on our return from Nortrig, we’d keep our station credit there and see if we can’t barter it into something a bit better.
So with the crew rested and ready it’s on to Nortrig.
* * *
Just a marathon session of a game and it was definitely Sanna’s star turn. Since she was the resident combat monster it only stands to reason, but Wrench and I are almost useless in a fight and she had some astounding rolls to boot. It’s certainly upended the rest of the crew’s easy understanding of Sanna.
[Wrench increases his mind stat]
Wrench: So I guess I work on puzzles and stuff.
Me: Yeah, you’re always sitting on the toilet with a book of sudoku in your lap.
[The right tool for the job]
Me: Sanna’s the one with all the weapons.
GM: You’ve got that sword cane.
Me: That’s for dueling with genteel opponents.
GM: Not genital opponents?
Me: Got another sword for that.
[turning off the lift engines]
Wrench: Ian! Get ready to drop -- the base!
[Sanna drags off Ian for some, ah, stress relief]
Wrench: Sanna doesn’t really...have sex does she?
Me: It’s not really something I’ve seen her do, that’s usually my thing.
Wrench: So are you going to start doing black weed now?
Me: Maybe? Maybe we’re trading vices?
A grainy black and white educational film called “Sex Education -- With Dr. Rocky”
Rocky: chitter-chitter-chitter
[This will go over well at the restaurant..]
Sanna: Melted cheese is my vindaloo.
later
Tom
So once we’d taken off and were en route, Wrench and I decided to hold a training seminar to familiarize the crew with our pressurization system. Briefly, the Pelican can dive through and even below the Cloud Deck without fear thanks to Wrench’s cunning modifications. It’s our ability to spend a significant chunk of time “submerged” that gives us an edge when sailing through hostile skies. As we expected to have to make such a dive during our voyage, we wanted to make sure the crew knew what was going to happen.
Sanna had a great deal of misgivings about this prospect (she’s always agitated by the thought of going below the clouds), but I assured her that this would a short test. We’d only be under the cloud deck for a few moments and then we could take the ship back up. Sanna agreed, but only if she could keep her eyes closed. I was a little put out by this, but it was a short dip so I agreed to stand watch in the cockpit with her and let her know when to bring it up.
So down we went. The ship made it’s usual settling noises, but nothing too unusual. Finally we dropped below the cloud barrier. All systems were green and I was just about to tell Sanna to bring it up when I caught something enormous rushing towards us. Luckily, Sanna needed no encouragement to push us up faster and we ascended. However, there was a rather unsettling clang as something struck us in the belly.
We got above the clouds and I conferred with Wrench in private about what I may have seen and the noise it may have caused and we agreed that now was also an excellent time to demonstrate proper EVA procedure while in flight. Wrench would demonstrate the process (and incidentally get a look at the underside of the ship). This was accomplished without too much trouble and Wrench reported that there was a dent on the underside covered with a reddish smear. We made a note to get that scrubbed off next chance we got and went about our business.
Our practice was prescient it turns out. A couple days later we spotted a corvette with no discernible markings tracking us from several miles away and rapidly gaining. It was quite obviously a pirate ship of some sort and seeing them off with our top cannon didn’t seem to be feasible. So we prepared to dive again in hopes of losing our pursuers.
Our crew was more than prepared. Ian and Wrench produced a rather heart-stopping drop that nearly dropped us below the clouds in seconds. We managed to level off and proceeded slowly through the murk of the Cloud Bank. We plotted a weaving course that still headed in the general direction of Sunrise Station and spent several hours creeping through the white.
Near the end of the day, we decided to surface. We needed to check the stars and get a fix on our position. As we cleared the ragged fringes of the Cloud Bank, I noticed something peculiar from my position in the navigator’s bubble. There appeared to be goats playing amongst the swirling clouds. I mentioned this to Sanna who threw everything into a full stop. It appears as though we very nearly ran aground on a reef -- an upthrust of land destined to be a full-fledged island someday but for now simply a navigation hazard if you’re running blindly through the clouds like us.
We made a hard stop. Our pursuers were nowhere to be seen and our position was roughly where we wanted it to be. it’d been a long day so we decided to just stop. Getting a fix on this reef would be worth something to various prospecting companies, so there was no real reason to hurry on at the moment. Clearly it’d been a bit more stressful for Sanna than she let on, for she declared her intent to go to bed and then grabbed a very startled Ian and dragged him off with her. I am pretty sure that I’ve never seen Sanna seek solace in anything other than black weed before. We all sort of stared at one another and then the music from Sanna’s cabin got a rather definitive percussive backing. So...we all found something else to do.
Next day, everyone seemed to be in a better mood -- especially Sanna who was positively chipper. Ian seemed none the worse for wear so I decided to let the matter go although I was flustered by this heretofore unsuspected facet to Sanna’s personality.
We set off again for Second Sunrise and the next day came across a trader who’d just left. It was easy enough to follow his trail back and Second Sunrise hove into view. I was very pleased at our success in locating this roving port despite the obstacles we encountered and a few hours of quiet shore leave seemed in order. Sanna went off to the local bar, I headed out to talk with the Harbormaster and Wrench stayed behind to oversee the resupply. He and I agreed to meet up with Sanna a bit later.
I made my way to the port administration offices and filled out the necessary paperwork. I also sold them the coordinates to the reef we found. Strictly speaking, we could’ve shopped this around for a better deal, but prospecting is always a crapshoot and we simply couldn’t be bothered. With a small payday in hand, I went to the bar. On the way, I encountered a distraught Sanna, with a grilled cheese sandwich in her pocket rushing back to the ship. Recent events have left me unable to evaluate our pilot’s state of mind, so I just wrote it off and headed into the bar. [ED NOTE: Sanna had run into someone at the bar who knew her mostly as a bomber pilot who died during a test flight and was surprised to see her breathing.]
The bar was fairly lively and soon Wrench and the rest of the crew showed up. We spent a short time chatting with the various people at the bar, including the captain of a pleasure yacht called the Academic Honor among others.
Then, a bunch of poorly-dressed sailors came into the room. Apparently they’d struck it rich on some cargo run and were buying lots of drinks for everyone. Odd ducks, but as long as they were buying, we weren’t questioning it too much. And then one of them tried to buy Rocky. Wrench decided it was time to go and looking around the room, I thought that was a wise decision. I rounded up our crew and we quietly made our exit.
On the way back to the ship, we encountered Sanna who told us that a scruffy-looking cargo hauler had just pulled into the berth next to us and was flashing its signal lamps out into the blue. There’s really only one kind of explanation for that behavior and as we were passing by the Admin offices, we stopped in and informed them of their imminent attack. They rushed into action just as a loud crunch sounded throughout the station.
That was our cue to leave so we bundled the crew into the Pelican and Wrench and Ian set to work spinning up the engines to get us out of there. Sadly, we’d powered down entirely figuring we had a bit of a layover so there we were in for a few tight moments.
Outside the cockpit window, things were getting worse. The ship next to us had signalled a vast mothership that was slowly descending upon the station. Our timely warning meant the defenders were not caught completely unawares and station guns were firing, but as we watched, a boarding pod launched from the mothership and slammed into the station. Meanwhile, the pirate ship next to us was also starting to spin up. We didn’t want them airborne and we certainly didn’t want their gun trained on us.
I sent Brendan and Brenda up to man the gun and take a few shots at our neighbor before they did. And then...then Sanna changed. We could see a couple pirates in the cockpit of the neighboring ship and it looked like they were getting some pistols out to take a few potshots at us. Sanna pushed me into the pilot’s seat and from nowhere pulled out this rifle. The first shot winged a pirate, the second splattered him all over the windows and the third dropped the pilot. We’ve always known/suspected that Sanna had some military training in her background but she went from stoner to stone cold killer and I was simply unprepared.
In another piece of good fortune, Brendan got in a terrific shot and blew the gun turret off the opposing pirate ship leaving it toothless and floating aimlessly off the station. A couple of pirates jumped from the ship onto the landing and Sanna promptly drilled them as well. The deck gave a lurch as the Academic Honesty violently pulled out of it’s mooring beneath us and flew up to pepper the pirate mothership from above.
Things were looking better for us, but the mothership was still squatting above the station raining down fire and dozens of pirates started fast-repelling down to the station. We needed to get off the station and into the air so we could either help out or make a fast exit if the station fell. The engines were just coming online when two more pirates ran out of the station gangway and headed towards our ship. Sanna pegged one of them but the other managed to leap onto the Pelican just as we pulled away. He tried to get in through the lower access hatch, but Wrench quickly locked that down. We could hear him clambering around on the hull. Soon he’d get up to the top and then we’d have a problem.
So Sanna went up to the top hatch, popped out and waited. Brenda later told me that Sanna just waited for the hapless pirate to pop his head up over the side and then...the pirate had no head anymore.
By this time we were well away from the station. Brendan and Brenda had shot at the mothership but without any telling success. The Academic Honor was still on station above the mothership and so we signaled to it trying to figure out what to do next. According to the Honor the mothership had basically stopped firing and appeared to be mostly deserted. Taking the fight to the pirates and grabbing control of their ship would be risky but we’d have the upper hand even if we lost the station (and the dramatic irony was incalculable). The problem is that while there was a sort of landing deck atop the mothership, it was really built for the assault boats and the Honor was too big to fit. So if anyone was going to attack this thing…
Sanna parked the Pelican atop the mothership and then grabbed Brenda and Brendan, armed them, and lead the charge onto the ship. From what Brenda told me later, the ship was practically deserted, the pirates appeared to have gone all in on the assault and only left a skeleton crew on board. That crew was very quickly reduced as Sanna and friends wiped out most of the pirates leaving only two prisoners to worry about.
By this time, Academic Honor had rigged up a simple connection to the mothership and started transferring some people aboard. Sanna came rushing back onboard ship in a rather agitated state so Wrench and I stepped onto the mothership to meet with the Honor’s Captain Klum. We agreed we needed to move the mothership away from the station and we also needed to get back down to the station to help fend off the pirates and we didn’t have as many people to do all this as we wanted. In the end, we left Ian, a few people from Honor and the prisoners as a makeshift crew. They moved the pirate ship away and kept it vaguely airborne while we went back down.
Back down to the station, where once again, Sanna took point. We tried to break a standoff in one section of the station, but despite Wrench filching a hand-grenade from the mothership, we couldn’t make any headway. So we went on a roving patrol of the station where we wound up chasing after running gunbattles more than being in them. Eventually we came to the same admin office we’d stopped at just before this all started. It was now full of pirates and we tried rushing them, but they forced us out (although our injuries dished out to injuries received was excellent). We barricaded the door to trap them in and went off to find station personnel.
By the time we caught up to them, the fight was nearly over. The pirates we’d trapped appeared to be the last pocket of resistance. Station security had a few more grenades so we went back to the Admin office to take care of them. They had broken out when we returned but we could hear them fleeing off towards the docks. We followed along after them and caught up just as they reached the landings where the Pelican and their getaway ship had berthed.
“Don’t worry guys, the ship is right over here. We just need to get to it and we’ll be safe.”
*pause*
“Where’s the ship?”
“Where’s our mothership?”
“PIRATES! THROW DOWN YOUR ARMS AND SURRENDER!”
*clatter*
Dear Reader, that was the most delightful bout of schadenfreude I have ever had the privilege to experience in my entire life.
Anyway, that was the end of the pirate attack. We’ve spent the last week cleaning up and (more importantly) splitting up the salvage. The pirate ships we captured were quite the prize and, in fact, beyond the means of the station to pay us for. They offered the usual station credit letters which would be good at most floating stations similar to the Sunrise. Beyond a full-stocked weapons locker and pressure/flight suits for everyone and some spare parts, we really wanted hard currency. In the end, we decided that since we’d be coming back to the station on our return from Nortrig, we’d keep our station credit there and see if we can’t barter it into something a bit better.
So with the crew rested and ready it’s on to Nortrig.
Just a marathon session of a game and it was definitely Sanna’s star turn. Since she was the resident combat monster it only stands to reason, but Wrench and I are almost useless in a fight and she had some astounding rolls to boot. It’s certainly upended the rest of the crew’s easy understanding of Sanna.
[Wrench increases his mind stat]
Wrench: So I guess I work on puzzles and stuff.
Me: Yeah, you’re always sitting on the toilet with a book of sudoku in your lap.
[The right tool for the job]
Me: Sanna’s the one with all the weapons.
GM: You’ve got that sword cane.
Me: That’s for dueling with genteel opponents.
GM: Not genital opponents?
Me: Got another sword for that.
[turning off the lift engines]
Wrench: Ian! Get ready to drop -- the base!
[Sanna drags off Ian for some, ah, stress relief]
Wrench: Sanna doesn’t really...have sex does she?
Me: It’s not really something I’ve seen her do, that’s usually my thing.
Wrench: So are you going to start doing black weed now?
Me: Maybe? Maybe we’re trading vices?
A grainy black and white educational film called “Sex Education -- With Dr. Rocky”
Rocky: chitter-chitter-chitter
[This will go over well at the restaurant..]
Sanna: Melted cheese is my vindaloo.
later
Tom
