I see my name is already on the board.

So who won last year?

I will set up the NFL picking dart board.

I did not quite understand the plan as Wyatt explained it. Are you Eva Suit jumping and then having Alex and Ivy come over in the shuttle? or shuttling en mass and leaving Alex & Ivy in shuttle?

SilentOne - Check your PM, please. The doctor has some information that is important to the mission.

Thw War has been over for about a year and the platinum heist and Demeter legend was about a year proir to that so the ship has been out in the black for two years.

Woohoo! *Runs by naked* You can't see me.

"Noddles" is Mandarin for "spicy pepper that makes ghost peppers look mild".

There is a lot of trash in the Verse and it is not an open market system. You must have a salvage licence to take anything from a ship that is derelict in space. Now you can get the licence for the Alliance as an independent operator but it can take months of forms and paperwork. You can also become a "licenced member' of United Reclamation, which is a corporate entity that has does salvage and is allowed to issue licences for contractors. if you work with UR, they take a cut, and you pay fees, and dues etc.

Now if you are aiding or rescuing people from a vessel in distress, you can claim a portion of salvage to offset expenses and generally accepted good Samaritan fees. 

Of course there is a lot of illegal salvage out there. getting caught though, is usually a bad thing.

That is a whole lot of firepower to go visit a ship with no power, no life support and a medical alert transmitting on short wave radio. 

I can see how the trust is not there for a complete crew mission at this point. There are a number of options available from taking the shuttle to getting Destiny close enough to do an EVA suit jump.I promise that whomever is left on the ship will have some excitment to deal with at some point. There is also the important job of monitoring the black, digging up data on the cortex, etc etc.

Anyone can pilot a shuttle. Now can anyone pilot a shuttle and make a airtight seal between it and a rotating derelict ship? That is another story. 

For a game perapective, one of the reasons I give you an NPC is so all players can go on missions. 

Sparrow Class Short - Range Shuttle 

Dimensions (LxBxH): 35 x 20 x 12 feet
Tonnage: 30 tons.
Speed Class: 2 cruise/6 hard-burn (reaction thrusters only).
Crew: Pilot, Copilot.
EVA Doors: Port, Starboard and underneath with self seal.
Life support: 30 man-days.
Fuel Capacity: 1 ton (1,000 hours).
Cargo and Passenger Capacity: 15 tons, or up to 12 passengers on fold-down benches.
Price: 550CR

Agi d8 Str d2 Vit d6 Ale d2 Int d2 Wil d4;
Init d8+d2 Life 6.

Healthy as a Horse; Short Range; Fast Throttle (Major)

Aerial Transport Operations/Shuttle d2 Space Transport Operations/Shuttle d2. Complexity: very low.

Maintenance costs 18CR per year.

Destiny has only the one shuttle on top. It is a slight bigger shuttle that can seat 7 (one as pilot). If you had to, you can pick 12 people into the shuttle before you will have life support issues. It was on the ship when you found it  as were all the lifepods

If you look up Sandfly class Firefly, you will see a similar setup if you need a visual. 

Next post on the 22nd,

Check your PM's for additional info.

"Shinanigans...shinanigan, we ain't got time for no shinanigan,"Jonah grumbled out.

"I don't like it none," Wyatt mutters. "Xiâoxin. We've been running on too much good luck t' not have it blow back in our faces. Take us int' visual range but be ready on the throttle."

"Capt'n..we need to be real careful....we don't need any delays or distractions. If you don't find any signs of life , we ain't got time for another salvage."

About then he saw Ivy looking worried. She seemed to be repeating something. “Something is out there.” Ivy's faint voice filters in. “Something that needs help.”

That stopped Jonah cold. "We still need to be very careful."

Ivy put both hands to her head, covering her ears as if something loud was playing.

"Good to see you, Bullet" Alaxis said to Wolf coyly.

“You too Space Girl” Wolf replied while blushing.

“The shielding in the engineering quarters and the infirmary are the strongest of anywhere in the ship.” Ivy said to no one in particular. ”We have to save her. So much love. I’m sorry but I never lied to you.”

(Assuming a lot of stares)

Ivy put her hands down, “What? I … just had something stuck in my head like a song or a vid-clip.”

"Might not be the best time t' be distractin' Uncle Alex, Ivy-girl," Wyatt said quietly. The young lady nodded and left the cockpit without a word.

Destiny Day 3, 7:30 pm Ship Time (ST)

It was definitely a ship. A strange long vessel with an armour plating that seemed to absorb most sensor forms of detection. The ship was dead in the black, rotating awkwardly and drifting without direction. Alex brought the speed down as you approached. There was some damage to the ship, the communication array was destroyed and there are some burn marks on the armour, but not enough to disable it. The ship had a front facing gun port for some big gun, but no other weapons.

According to the computer, it was an Apollo class science/exploration vessel.  On the bow of the ghost ship was an emblem of an “earth that was” ship that used to sail the oceans with sheets of cloth to capture the wind. Superimposed over that was a woman holding a stalk of wheat, a matronly woman dressed in white robes. Under the image was the word “DEMETER”

Demeter? The Demeter????

The Legend of the Demeter:

During the Unification war, a group of Browncoats stole a large amount of platinum bars from the alliance to order to help fund their efforts in the war.  The story of amount stolen varies but it is usually 1000 of bars worth 100 platinum each and the funds were smuggled upon a ship called the Demeter to be delivered to Independence High command. But the ship never showed up, it just vanished from the verse, never to be found again. The High command was hit hard by this loss and declared the crew as traitors and put a bounty on their heads. It did not help, as the ship and crew were never seen again. 

The short wave radio message was still coming from the ship. “life support failure is imminent. Error 417719” There was a very faint energy signature from within the front area of the ship but the shielding made pinpointing it impossible.  Otherwise the ship before you was completely dead. Engines off and cold. No pulse beacon, no power and no life.

The Apollo class was not made for ship to ship connecting and has a very small cargo bay. You can not get Destiny close enough to connect, so you’d have to use the shuttle and try a manual override if you wanted to go over.

From the rec room beyond the cockpit, Ivy's voice can be heard in a dead tone, "Please save her. I love her so and she is just innocent. Please save her..."

Back from my vacation. Will read over everyone's posts and have a new one up by Thursday.

Uncle Fenris

Mr Wolf when she wants to know what time it is 

She calls Wyatt Captain or Uncle Wyatt or if she wants to be mischievous, Captain Uncle 

When Ivy was brought on board and started with the crew, she was withdrawn and barely spoke. It took time for her to come around and one of the way to do so was the make the crew family to her. So she started calling everyone as aunt or uncle. It is her way of dealing with the enormity of her family being killed. You can tell her to stop calling you Uncle Pops but it won’t work. 

She does love learning and spends time with everyone learning about space stuff. She excels at physical activities as well, like martial arts, running and contortions. 

What are the timelines again? When do we have to have picks in by?

All characters have pictures and are updated in the Character thread.

I will be away for a week to a cottage with family and I hope to ignore my phone as much as possible. I will answer any questions when I get back on Saturday.

The shipment was brought to the ship on a long bed mule, in the dead of night outside the city of Jagger. Yesterday, Molly made good on her word and you were fully “gassed” up on her account.  Four men, all Asian, got out of the vehicle and very efficiently pulled out a hover lift and took four skids off the mule and brought them aboard Destiny and strapped the skids down to the cargo bay without saying a single world. All of them wore black Gi with a “MM” logo over the left breast pocket and on the back, another logo in simple print “AliveOh Inc.” They silently returned to the vehicle as another person pulled up on a Harley Quinn Hover Bike. The rider took off her helmet to reveal a young Asian woman with white hair and very pale blue eyes. “Which one of you is Wyatt?” She asked cheerfully.

Even in the criminal world there is paperwork. Wyatt signed for the shipment, as the lady explained the “rules” once again. Do not open the goods, do not use the goods, do not let anyone examine the goods, avoid people who want to examine the goods and get the goods to Haven in five days. Payment will be made when goods are confirmed by a Wave. No, she wasn’t Molly. Molly doesn’t do the grunt work. Hey, that is a nice ship.

Each skid was the same – ten boxes labeled “Cockles and Mussels”, four tall, hard case of Protein Bars and two steel canisters labelled “HFCS” all wrapped within an inch of polymer shrink wrap. Destiny could do loops around a star and those skids weren’t going anywhere.

So you took off, left atmo and hurled off into the black. Three days went by in the usual way and everyone found ways to keep occupied. The route was put into the astrogation computer for an “out of the way” route to Haven that would still get you there with time to spare.

Destiny Day 3, 7:00 pm Ship Time (ST)

Alex sat back and watched the monitors. The autopilot was working the route and he did not need to be here but as it was the first mission, he wanted all to go right. The Pilot’s stomach was a bit upset after consuming Pops’ idea of “Chili” for dinner. Actually it was mostly beans and protein paste mixed with canned tomato sauce and some peppers that did not agree with digestion. Alex wished he had thought to get a Mint tea before coming to his post.

There was a polite tap at the hatchway and Alex turned his head to see Ivy stand there with a cylinder in her hand.

“Hey Uncle Alex. I brought you some mint tea.”

(assuming a response of thanks and how did you know)

“Oh I had the same dinner and I needed some too.” She said, “I was wondering if we could do some more astrogation lessons tonight? I am bored and could use the distraction.”

Whatever response Alex was going to make got lost as at that moment, the short wave radio monitor crackled and sputtered loudly. Alex quickly adjusted the scanner and homed in on the frequency that the signal was using.

Short wave out here? Who would be using Short wave in the Black?” 

Alex found the signal and boasted the reception. Whatever it was far way enough for the signal to be weak “”…life support failure is imminent. Error 417719, life support failure is imminent.  Error 417719, life support failure is imminent.“

The feminine voice repeats evenly over and over. A auto message to be sure. Alex did a quick query on the cortex for the error 417719 and came back with “medical life support system error – lost of power or backup battery power below 10%”

Doing a quick scan with the ship’s system and he got a location, about 3000 km away and directly in the path they were taking. Nothing on the charts to suggest a planet or moon which could mean a ship.

Alex hit the ship board intercom, “Captain to the bridge. Got something you need to see and hear.”

“Something is out there.” Ivy said while staring out into the Black. “Something that needs help.”

Next post by me  - Thursday August 8th.

Armour can save your life but taking hits with bullets will eventually wear things down.  So in the Verse, armour comes with an armour rating. The rating in games terms is how often you can get hit before the armour can fail you. So an AR of 4 means you can take 4 shots to the armour before the plates give up. After 4 shots, the armour has a 25% chance of failure, then a 50%, than a 75% and then it is done for sure. I am assuming all armour owned by crew is Tier 1.

Tier 5 (AR 8 to 10) - Alliance armor, Generation X Carbon Nanosteel plating (Extremely valuable, accessible only to Alliance military)

Tier 4 (AR 7) - High grade armor, Generation VIII Draconis Steel plating (Highly valuable, accessible to Alliance military, rarely seen on black market)

Tier 3 (AR 6) - Medium grade armor, Generation V Amphorite Steel Plating (Valuable, accessible on black market, discontinued by Alliance military)

Tier 2 (AR 5) - Low grade armor, Generation II Reslin-Modernis Steel Plating (Uncommon, available for purchase legally with private security license, openly available on black market)

Tier 1 (AR 4) - Personal security armor, Generation I Torin-Black Ceramic Plating (Common, openly available for purchase)

Cheap gear and knock offs(AR 1-3) - When you can't afford the very best, there is Al's disposable body armour. Comes with a free body bag.

I plan to post today. Nomad, you may backpost or your character and then post for current situation.

Communication in the ‘Verse

Part of The Cortex (the verse’s internet really) is a vast signal network that ties all the worlds in the ‘Verse together. It uses any and all available channels—laser, maser, broadcast radio— to ensure that a message is routed to the right destination. Due to the speed of light lag caused by the distances involved (up to eight hours to send out to the Rim and get a reply), messages, called “waves” because of the way they spread throughout the system, tend to be pre-recorded. Real-time conversations are limited to less than about 100,000 miles.

Short Wave radio – Used for your hand communicators, has a limited range of several thousands of kilometres. Not good for secrets cause frequencies can be listened to easily.

Waves –the Cortex signal network. Fast and can communicate across the verse. Very easily hacked or intercepted, especially to those who work for alliance.

Tight Beam Comm – Aimed at a single receiver, usually encrypted and the receiver has to be in a particular sector of space. Same lag issues as waves for very long distances but very secure.

You have the capacity to do all three from your ship as long as the communication array is operational.

It was the housing for an auto cannon but you cleared it out and put in a winch to raise and lower the hover mule.