Qregon Trail: ACTUALLY FLYING

[Schazer]

Commissar is amenable to that arrangement, if Mr. Acros finds Freight's quarters to his own satisfaction.

His choice of weapons will be limited to weapons that will disarm and incapacitate, not grievously injure or kill. Removal or amendment of the two weapons in the engine room must be cleared with another crew member (Preferably Commissar) before things are taken out of the armoury. Projectile weapons or other energy-based weaponry must be locked to his heat signature, so one weapon cannot be misappropriated against him or the crew if a situation arises like Freight envisages. Commissar is not interested in arguments that heat-locking makes guns and vibroblades and the like take ridiculously long to "sign on"; if Freight finds that arrangement unsatisfactory he may carry non-energy based weaponry instead.

Plasma weaponry is not permissible without extenuating circumstances in the engine room (which is a bad place for bolts of plasma) or the cargo hold (which is potentially a place full of things which are bad for bolts of plasma). Commissar defines "extenuated circumstancings" as enemies who are shown to be resistant to all other available forms of weaponry.

Commissar is pleased, additionally, that Freight will follow the health and safety directives when travelling the corridors, regardless of what sort of weaponry he has been entitled to.

[Solaris]

Salazar is (was?) content with the lodgings of volunteered to him.

[Palamedes]

Navers and Lisba give Salazar a full tour of the ship. They somehow manage to not show him the restricted areas. They do however show him everything else, including, possibly to the dismay of the rest of the crew, everyone's private rooms once the FUN ROOM and library are shown off.

"...So Mr. Acros, where are you from?"

"And what do you do for a living? And for fun? You seem like a pretty interesting fellow so I'm sure it must be just as exciting!"

"Oh right, before you answer, this is our room, feel free to knock if you have any issues."

"Ah, sorry, a moment more. This is Commisar's room, she's really quite nice despite her sharkish exterior so I'm sure she'll help you out too."

"And here is the Captain's room, though of course he has secretive captain stuff in there so we can't open the door and show you, sorry about that Mr. Acros."

"Here is Freight's room, well, I guess your room like we previously mentioned. He probably wouldn't want you touching his stuff but feel free to move anything around if you need to."

"Then there's D. Specks' room, please call him Doctor or even just Mister otherwise he might get grouchy. Otherwise he's perfectly nice and very smart."

"Finally, we have Farlone's room. She's really a sweet girl once you get to know her please excuse how shy she was when you boarded our ship."

"Oh wait, how dumb of me. We of course can't forget our medical officer Steef's room. Hopefully you'll never need to be in here but it can't hurt to be careful right?"

"He also has some pretty cool things he can show you if you get bored."

"Anyways, sorry for throwing all of that out just as we asked you about yourself! There's alot to see, as you can see, and we kind of went overboard."

"Next we'll head up and look at what's left of the ship, so why don't we stop interrupting and listen to you?.."

[dragonpaul99]

Freight thinks over of all this for a moment, then nods. Commissar's proposal sounds fair. He grunts a half-greeting to Salazar before heading up to his room and moving all his favorite stuff downstairs. Then he heads up to the fun room and changes the channel to whatever Pro-Brawling match is going on right now.

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Proposed non-lethal weapons:
Standard IGP stun gun (long enough range to reach across the cargo hold at least)
Mini grenade launcher (filled with flash and sting grenades only)

[ProfessorLizzard]

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I have returned for my brief travels. I shall update soon when the forums are less busy.

The map shows that Otslavo's Space has three exits to wild spaces. Looks like the one you are looking for is two hops away, and can be accessed through certain two neighbouring spaces, forming a diamond shape. One of the spaces seems to be filled with a few reddish desert planets, and the other one has a gas giant with three moons, each marked as toxic swamps. The destination space has a single planet, with an icey jungle on it.

Single biome planets are not really rare in Nthspace, these primitive worlds are the most common.

And as the captain has pointed out: The ship needs a name.

[Palamedes]

The tour now completed, the Charol approach

"You're absolutely right captain, we should try and come up with a name."

"After all, what is a ship without something to call it by?"

"How about the Fortune Five Hundred?"

"Or the S.S. Friendship"

"The MACHINE"

"The More Powerful Then Akrepi Woman, Krtalln Man, And Captian Thorax Put Together

"Imperatus and the Boys"

"Los Migras"

"The Spacepuncher"

"Garmin"

"Hey you"

"The Spaceouisiana Slugger"

They continue on like this for a while, and it becomes clear that the Charol should not be allowed to name the ship under any circumstances. Or at least they should be hit over the head and told to take the task somewhat seriously.

[ProfessorLizzard]

Which direction shall you take? : o

[~ATH]

Nrigiya would generally prefer the gas giants, as the size of the planet provides for an easy slingshot to facilitate a faster travel.

[Anomaly]

"No. None of those names are remotely... adequate..."

Did they just say "Akrepi Woman"? Imperatus has never heard of such a thing, but presumes that it's some sort of fictional character whose sole distinction is being of a particular species.

And that's racist. Against his species. Imperatus makes a mental note to find out more and destroy whatever corporation approved this when there's time.

As for route, Imperatus has little preference. He does, however, recommend against slingshotting around gas giants. The latest generation of ethernergy drives made the maneuver more-or-less unnecessarily dangerous without providing many benefits.

Imperatus immediately asks Freight over the intercom if the ship actually has a newer ethenergy drive rather than an old surplus one.

[Jacquerel]

Having grown up on a planet that could pretty accurately be described as a Toxic Swamp, Steef would enjoy giving those moons a glance. Swamps do tend to be more rich in biodiversity than desert planets!
As the medical officer he feels that he can't quite advise people to go gallivanting around in a bog filled with septic water but... if anyone just so happened to decide to go outside anyway then he's certain that in his capable hands any ensuing suffering would be minimal!
Though if it's absolutely out of the question an icy jungle will probably do. He's not particularly demanding.

Opinion successfully dispensed, Steef oozes his way down to get a closer look at their guest and offers a similarly slimy handshake.
There are some ulterior motives at play here, the DNA of sapient species is far more interesting than that of animals and if they make skin contact voluntarily he feels like he doesn't need to ask for permission to just grab some. It only takes an instant!
"Greetings friend guest!
We have the honour of being the ship's medical professional. I hope we are not seeing too much of each other on this voyage!"

One of the blobs currently serving as his lower torso pushes a limb out from inside the folds of his lab coat to reveal his face and whispers;
"That was a joke."
"Because we're the doctor and that would imply that you were not feeling well and thus would not be enjoying your trip."
"Please don't be offended."

[dragonpaul99]

Freight would rather go to the desert worlds because (A) it sounds a lot more like home, and (B) Swamps Are Gross.

Imperatus immediately asks Freight over the intercom if the ship actually has a newer ethenergy drive rather than an old surplus one.

Freight lets out a loud groan, then slowly stands up and walks over to the intercom located on the far wall of the rec room.

"......Yeah, it's an Ethenergy Drive. Secondhand. Definitely one of the older versions. Model 002 maybe? It's in surprisingly great shape for an engine this old though, hasn't done many long distance trips at all, and the previous owner seems to have taken pretty good care of it. If I had to guess, it probably belonged to some really old, rich dude. Probably bought it a couple decades back to impress all his friends at the SpaceYacht Club or something. That would have been back before those got mass-produced for sure. I think either 004 or 005 was the first really big seller. Shame about all those dents on the side though, it might have been worth a lot of money someday. But those are probably why they chose to get rid of it the first place.

Anyway, it's no Model 014, but it handles decently well and should probably last us upwards of 5 years travel time as long as we don't have any serious accidents. Haven't checked the escape pods yet, but on our budget I seriously doubt any of them have Ethenergy Drives unless they found an unbelievably incredible deal somewhere. Most likely we've got 8 of the cheapest engines they could find without failing the minimum safety requirements. Should probably be good enough to get us back to the nearest civilized planet at least, and that's really all we'd need 'em for anyway.......

Uh....... End transmission?.................."

*bzzzzt*

"The Spacepuncher"

Four thumbs up.

[ProfessorLizzard]

So, are we ready to fly, Captain?

[ProfessorLizzard]

I should have figured out that this will be hard to update if things need a consensus and/or Orders Of An Authorative Figure. ; -;

[Palamedes]

Well let's just go over all of the awful things that will probably go down if people don't pipe up soon.

First of all, we will be flying where the tourist wants to go since he's the only guy with a strong preference.

Secondly, since only the Charol threw out ship names and only Freight gave an opinion past 'no', the ship will be named The Spacepuncher if nobody says anything.

If these are things we can live with I say we go ahead.

[ProfessorLizzard]

Counting limbs that have thumbs, The Spacepuncher is in the lead.

[Anomaly]

Huh. I was positive that I already gave the go-ahead. Sorry about that.

Imperatus will tolerate "Spacepuncher", if only because he lacks any more adequate ideas. He also gives the order to depart, plotting a course past the desert worlds. He's not usually one to play it safe, but dangerous maneuvers and toxic swamps are probably not the best way to appeal to a tourist, and they really need to get paid in full.

Engage.

[ProfessorLizzard]

The spacepuncher arrived safely to the desert world space.

[Palamedes]

We should keep on going to our location I think?

[DenizenShipper]

Congrats on the launch.

[Anomaly]

I see no reason to halt at the desert worlds right now. Continue to the destination space.

[SuperChocobo]

Farlone looks out of the viewing ports in her room. Back on the ships she used to work on when she was growing up she was always put in cargo holds away from anyone she might accidentally harm or inconvenience with her machines, so the ability to see the world outside of the ship is one she has never had the pleasure of having before. Desert worlds present a unique challenge for those who create robots, the sand can cause all sorts of technical issues both in traversing it and in preventing it from clogging up too many vital joints and motors.

Hearing the announcement across the comms that the Captain intends to bypass these desert worlds disappoints Farlone a bit, as it would have been a good opportunity to test some of the crude machines she brought with her. Of course under no circumstance does she want to go against or even suggest something on the contrary to the orders, that would just be plain terrifying, I mean come on, have you seen that guy? Instead, using one of her many limbs and a tiny SpacePencil(tm) she carefully and as neatly as she can creates a note requesting that they stop off at a desert world perhaps after they have done their current jobs. The note is full of apologies just so the Captain doesn't get angry at her.

Of course if writing the note wasn't hard enough, she must now actually give it to Imperatus. She makes her way to the bridge and slowly plants the note on the arm of the Captain's chair before scurrying off.

It is safe to say Farlone does not think she has made the best first impressions on Imperatus...first she phased out during the interviews, then she completely failed to greet the tourist (instead choosing to flee because he looked a bit strange) and now she is communicating with him via poorly written notes.

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Very sorry for my inactivity recently, been a bit busy and though it pains me to admit it, despite joining the IRC channel every day I actually forgot I was in this. This isn't a very good excuse so feel free to call me a loser

[Schazer]

Commissar found Freight's choices of weapon acceptable, and proceeded to hole herself up in her room and get started on whatever paperwork has already been racked up. She pages a request through to the captain to ensure he at least broadcasts the presence of a manned ship in the Desert Wild Space. Just so any inhabitants of said Space can log their passage through.

[Anomaly]

Imperatus relays Commissar's message to the Charol, then notifies her that he has done so. He's never much liked dealing with bureaucracy, but it's better than getting blown into shrapnel by some hostile ship that didn't see them coming.

He then grabs the neatly-written but overly-apologetic note from the arm of his chair and reads over it. Farlone. Good enough to get on the crew, he guesses, but severely lacking in self-esteem. Somewhere in the maze of apologies, Imperatus works out that she wants to test some robots on the desert worlds. His first instinct was to throw the note in the garbage and forget about it - they have a debt to pay off, after all. Something stops him though. Maybe the fact that she was so intimidated by him but still managed to give him a request. Maybe the fact that being a complete asshole had already cost him so much. Nonetheless, he sends a voice message to her room.

"Ms. Farlone, your request will be considered once we have completed our current task. It's in our best interests to not get distracted before then."

[ProfessorLizzard]

Arrived to the space of icy jungle planet. However, there are signs of a gathering BLUE storm in the nearby hyperspace. BLUE storms are rather depressing.
Number of exits of this space is unknown, like on any other wild spaces, so scanning it might be worthwile (I forgot to mention this in the previous one :B)

Now orbiting the nameless Icy Jungle.

[Palamedes]

Navers and Lisba enter the bridge and sit at the communications deck.

"Sorry captain, the ship left the system before we could get here to leave a message"

"Don't worry though, we're here now and will alert anyone who's nearby."

"Quiet please."

Lisba flipped a switch, and a red light lit up, indicating that the bridge was transmitting audio from the communications desk.

"Greetings sentient life! This is the QES Spacepuncher broadcasting on all announcement frequencies, we are announcing our arrival in theee..."

Navers ran up to Imperius.

"Captain, what's this system called?"

When Imperius shrugged, Lisba continued.

"...eeis system, as part of an exploration and recovery mission. Please alert us if there are any issues. Thank you."