In reply to Kaya Wilden (msg # 17):

"Come back to engineering when you're ready," Aarav says as you pass him by.  "Just head towards the back of the ship."

Rokzi has more bags than the ones you saw on camera before.  He's stacking them up just inside the airlock door.

He looks up when you open the shipside lock door and grins.

"Hey there.  Name's Rokzi.  I'm on this boat.  You know if the captain's on-"

He stops, apparently seeing your insignia.  He frowns, but only for a moment, and then gives you a fairly crisp salute.

"Sorry ma'am.  No one told me who my new CO was.  Nice to meetcha."

“Welcome aboard.” Kaya's smile was a bit strained as she returned the salute. “Not expecting a still wet behind the ears, milk dripping nose, baby faced lieutenant as your new captain?” She cocked an eyebrow for a second, but continued before he could embarrass them both by disagreeing to what was quite close to the truth… or worse, agree. “It's alright, I guess I should expect to have to deal with it for quite some time.” After all, with prolong treatments she'd keep that face for a while…

“I'm not expecting you to be wowed by me right now. All I'm asking is that you give me a chance to prove myself before you decide I'm useless.” She looked Rokzi up and down for a second, before adding, “By the same token, I'll leave you a chance to prove that you're not barely sentient muscles like so many people seem to think of those of your profession.” After all, he would have to prove himself to her too, and she wasn't going to let him think otherwise, much less that he could walk all over her. Especially since she would have to rely on him a lot considering the mission.

“Just do me the courtesy of assuming I know what I'm talking about as far as the ship is concerned and I'll rely on you to advise me for…well, pretty much everything else. If you think I'm making a mistake, overlooking something or missing something, I expect you to tell and teach me. Preferably before I make something we'll all regret, and in private when possible. And I promise to listen.” After all, she might not agree. Though she didn't see that happen much where his area of expertise was concerned. He had loads of experience after all, and she would be foolish to not use it and make the most of it. Plus, it was important that he knew that too. “Deal?”

After his nod, she waved at the bags, “So, what's all this?”

In reply to Kaya Wilden (msg # 19):

"Wow. Defensive much?  But yes ma'am.  Deal."  He laughs.  It's a big booming kind of laugh, which fits him perfectly.

He looks at all the gear you're pointing to.

"Mostly it's armaments.  Got me a Oh Four Eighteen K Kibitzer special.  Call her Mildred after the nun that used to kick my ass in high school.

"This one is a Multidirectional V N One Oh Two.  Call this one the Cheek Spreader cos once I activate it, that's what everyone might as well do.

"And these boxes here are my assault armor.  No name for it yet.  But maybe this trip.

"There's a whole bunch a' other shoot 'em up stuff.  Oh.  And I brought a change of underwear."

He grins at you and then leans close, his voice dropping to a whisper.  <small>"And I frowned cos...well.  You just don't look like I imagined an Ace would look."

He stands up and smiles.  "They told me quite a bit about you Cap'n."

“Yeah, well.” Kaya shrugged, obviously unrepentent: it might not have been completely necessary, but at least now they both knew where they stood. Or at least, she hoped she had managed to convey her desires well enough, withouth sounding too insecure. Or hardass. Or bitchy. Or… Well… Hmm. Anyway.

She listened a bit distractedly while he explained everything, but squinted hard when he mentioned her being an Ace. “But they still managed to forget to mention what I looked like, I wonder why.” After a couple of seconds, she shook her head, “I suppose I shouldn't be surprised… You'll have to tell me how you thought an Ace should look like.”

Before he could answer though, she continued, “But right now, I'm more interested in this.” She pointed at the bags. “I don't suppose your weapons, much less your armour could pass as anything else than fleet issue, am I wrong?” She cocked an eyebrow, then added, “Well, given this mission's parameters…” She shook her head, “You'll need armour and weapons that don't scream 'marine', but more… I don't know… Smuggler's bodyguard or something along those lines. What do you need to get that by tomorrow morning at the latest? More importantly, what do you need to get me one set too? Should I com' Major O'Bannon's office or are you authorized to get all of that on your captain's orders?”

Not that she couldn't find the procedure if she wanted, but it would take her a bit of time. More worrisome, it would likely then take quite a bit of time to go through all the proper channel. Considering Rokzi's experience though, she was betting he knew people. And ways to get what he needed faster than if she were to do it…especially if he did so without having to worry it'd get him in hot waters with his CO.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:10, Wed 28 Apr 2021.

In reply to Kaya Wilden (msg # 21):

Rokzi does open his mouth to answer your first question, but shuts it when you continue speaking.  He at least seems smart enough to knw when to shut up.

He frowns when you mention O'Bannon.  "Uhm.  I don't think she'd go out of her way to help me.  But if we're going for the more covert angle...yeah.  I got it covered."

He waggles his eyebrows.  "I got friends at depo.  They'll hook us up.  Just sign the req forms they send you.  Do you...uh...you got a side arm?  I mean...an actual good one?  Not the piece of crap U82 they standard issue.  You want me to get you a couple of decent pieces while I'm down there?"

---

Aarav looks up when you head into engineering.  It might give you a moment's pause.  He's pulled off two access panels and appears to have pulled out most of the wiring and some of the circuit boards.

"Oh yeah.  You ready for your tour?"  He seems to have lost the wrench.  He stands up, wiping some lubricant off his fingers and onto a towel.  Looks like he was oiling up some part of balancer core.

"By the way...Am I supposed to be servicing all those drones too?"

At your puzzled look, he indicates one of the hatches on the side of the engine room.  It opens onto a small drone bay.  There's just enough room to get from the door to the control desk and torpedo tube used to launch drones out of the ship.  The rest of the space is jammed up with drones.  All kinds of types too.  Most are about the size of your forearm, but there are a couple the size of your chest and a bucket of what appears to be ones about as long as your finger.

Ships like yours usually has a few drones at most.  The inventory og Aarav found lists 84 of them.

Kaya didn't comment about O'Bannon helping or not, but filed the information away for later: maybe it was just that Rokzi didn't know the Major was the one who had assigned him there but there could many different reasons for him to think so. Though none of them truly mattered at the moment. Shaking her head, she answered his first question. “I don't have a good side arm no.” As a matter of fact, she didn't have a side arm at all, nevermind a good one. “I'd want a side arm, a riffle - better to have it and not need it rather than the other way around - and an armour, all of which must not give away that we're fleet. As for the specifics…” She shrugged, “Take what you think is best considering what you know of me. I'm pretty good with two swords by the way.” Dual sword training was after all an excellent way to train Aces to master their own body. For a normal human, it was pretty much never a good idea - unless the goal was just to show off - but for an Ace it was another thing entirely even though it was mostly just used to improve coordination, spatial awareness, reflexes and so on and not for active combat.

She concluded by nodding, “I'll read the forms and sign them when they get sent. Just don't go overboard, we're not going into a war. I've sent you my biometrics to fit all that.” After all, as much as she didn't like it she had small girly hands which meant a lot of weapons - particularly in the side arm category - wouldn't fit her. She had the power for them, that wasn't the issue: she just didn't have the grip for them. And of course while she was pretty tall for a girl, she was much thinner than probably any marine, which meant armour would need to be fitted carefully. Not that she expected him to get her a custom one of course: not only those were far too much for what she needed, but there was no way they were going to pass as anything but fleet.

Plus, now that she though about it, those were made with implants in mind…which she didn't have. Maybe she'd have to look at some point if there was a special Ace model in the files…

---

“That's what I'm here for.” Kaya considered the opened panels doubtfully, but didn't say anything about it right then. She'd trust him to have everything back in order by the time they were to leave the next day. As she looked at the drones, she frowned, “Hmm… Unless those are Polovich's, I'd say yes, they'd be yours to take care of, but obviously it's less urgent than the ship.”

She glanced at the inventory then asked, obviously puzzled, “What are they for anyway? I'd have expected half a dozen at most, not,” she looked at the total and cocked a surprise eyebrow, “84?”

In reply to Kaya Wilden (msg # 23):

Aarav frowns when he hears he's in charge of them, but doesn't complain.  Out loud.

He scratches the back of his head and glances around the stacks and stacks of drones.

"Honestly...I'm only familiar with about half these models.  Most of them are standard.  Scientific.  Bomb planters.  Remote controlled surgical strike models.  The other half...I'm gonna have to read through the manuals.  It's gonna take me a little while.  So go easy on me with the drones until I can get up to speed.  'kay?"

He takes you back to the engines and points at two large tubes, each running the side of the ship.  "And that's the problem children right there.  Fuel injection system has a design flaw.  They say it doesn't, but everyone knows it is.  Supposedly they're gonna have a new system on the new models.  But that's just cos.  Not cos anything's wrong with the current one."

He laughs.

"At high speeds, the injection system gets wonky.  It doesn't regulate as well.  So you're speed won't remain even.  Makes the ship shake.  It can really play hell with the gunner in the turret.  Also wouldn't recommend trying to get too fancy on the maneuvers.  The rattling can get so bad the nav program can't compensate...Oh.  Yeah.  You don't use one."  He seems to have forgotten you aren't AI.

"And before you ask...no. I can't fix it.  Not unless I gut the injection system and half the intake system and reinstall it with parts I'd have to make fit."

He shrugs.  "Anyway.  The Archers do handle well at low speed.  They're really designed for travel in asteroid belts.  So they can corner on a playing card.  At low speed."

He wipes his mouth and looks at you.  "Any questions Cap'n?"

Kaya nodded, “I'm sure we'll have some time to figure it all out.” Bomb planters though? What was that all about? “I've no idea why they're here though, our mission parameters shouldn't call for most - if any - of them…” After a second she shook her head - it was a puzzle for another time - and followed Aarav for the small tour.

As she considered the fuel injection system, the young lieutenant frowned and it was pretty obvious she wasn't all that happy about what she was hearing. “No, I don't suppose I can ask you to rebuild it.” Not that she didn't want to but they simply didn't have the time…assuming they'd even have gotten the authorization for it which she seriously doubted.

“I can't say I'm too fond of a ship that only works well at low speed…” And that was quite the understatement. “I mean, low speed maneuvering is nice and all, but it's rarely what truly matters in most circumstances…” And depending on what happened with the smuggler, they might have to give chase. She certainly hoped not, but…

“Well, it is what it is. We'll have to learn to do with what we have and not what we wished we had.” And since she was already pretty glad to have something, she wasn't going to complain too hard. “Does this 'rattling' diminish our stealth? I'll ask Major O'Bannon to give us a couple of slots in the obstacle course over at they yard for tomorrow, I trust you'll have everything ready by then?” Not that she was aiming for any kind of record - of even performance - even though she was certainly going to try - she was a pilot after all… - but she needed to see what the problems were before they left for the mission. And maybe look for something she could do to compensate.

In reply to Kaya Wilden (msg # 25):

Aarav shrugs, looking around.  "Yeah.  I'm mostly just doing maintenance at the moment.  Stuff the dock monkeys won't really do.  I only have a couple more hours of work to go."

O'Bannon's office sends you a 10 Hundred slot for the obstacle course.  Considering you're supposed to have your official meet and greet staff meeting at 9 hundred, you'll have a busy monrning.

Of course, you've met half your crew already.

Maybe you should bring doughnuts?

Anything you want to do before 9 00?

O'Bannon said the briefing was at 08:00? Were you trying to get Kaya in trouble by making her be late at her own briefing?
Or it got delayed and it's 0900?

“Alright. I'll see you tomorrow then.” Kaya left him with a nod without saying more: considering his experience, he most likely knew much better than she did how best to spend his time the night before a deployment.

When it came, Kaya considered the message from O'Bannon's office with a slight grimace. Two hours to take care of the briefing, board the ship and get all the way to the obstacle course… Well, she'd have to make sure the "meet & greet" didn't take long. After a few seconds to ponder the situation, Kaya shrugged: it was as it was, and there was nothing she could do to change it. She'd just have to do her best.

When she exited the ship, she headed straight for the nearest simulator: she hated those - in no small part because she always did a lot better in "real life" than in simulations - but she needed to have an idea of how an Archer-class ship handled, and the best way to do that, short of piloting one, was to get some simulation time. And while she was confident in her skills, she wanted to look and be ready - and above all, not embarass herself - when she flew one for the first time. In front of her first crew. And no doubt, some other discreet observers…

A couple of hours later, she studied the files of her crew and ship and approved the requests that came from the depo after a quick read to at least know what had been picked, ordered a collation to be delivered for 0800 in the briefing room - it wouldn't do for the CO to bring croissants after all, but to make sure that her crew had food and drinks available certainly would - prepared her bag then went to bed.

Kaya woke up an hour before the briefing, took care of whatever messages she had received during the night then went to enjoy a nice long shower and got dressed, paying close attention to make sure that everything was were it should be. Not that there was much that could go wrong considering that she had very few distinctions besides her pilot wings and the captain's pin, but still.

After a last look at her room to make sure that she had left nothing that wouldn't go to storage, she called a bot to bring her pack to the ship, her ship, then headed to the briefing room, making sure she'd have at least 5 minutes for the last couple of meters: she wanted to enter the room at precisely 0800…while still make sure she'd have a cushion to handle any surprise on the way.

In reply to Kaya Wilden (msg # 27):

Sorry.  Had 9 on the brain when I wrote that.  It's at 8

Rokzi didn't go too wild at the depo.  At least in terms of number of items.  Some of what he requested you have never heard of.  But none of it seems ordinary.  They're also all 'decomm'd'.  He's basically picking up decommissioned stock.  Maybe he's trying to be thrifty?

Other than usual messsages you would expect after picking up a ship and a crew, there's nothing that seems out of the ordinary.  The only odd ball message concerns Rei.

It's from Command.  Since she's a civie, there are certain protocols you'll have to keep in mind, like making sure she doesn't have access to high security comm channels.  But there is also a medical order.  She is apparently a diabetic.  That wasn't listed on the chart O'Bannon gave you on her.

Rei's a non-conform when it comes to biotech.  Her body will try to reject any and all prosthetics or nanos introduced.  So she has to handle her blood sugar the old fashioned way.  You'll need to make sure she is keeping her blood sugar in check. A civie dying on a military tug is always a bad thing.

One problem with simulators is that they tend to sugar coat performance issues.  But you can get an idea of what Aarav is talking about.  The Archer sim does shake at higher speeds.  It's not awful in the simulator.  But that means it's probably at the distracting level in real life.  The obstacle course run should give you a better idea.

---

Aarav and Rokzi are sitting at one end of the long table in the briefing room.  Rokzi is smiling at Rei, who's seated halfway down, apparently chatting her up.  Aarav looks like he's pretending he's not there.

Rei stands when you walk in and nods her head.  "You're Captain Wilden?  Hi.  Rei.  I'll be handling your medical."

"Which is good," Rokzi scratches the side of his face.  "I tend ta get hurt a lot."

As you're about to respond to Rei, Perri walks in behind you.  She checks the clock, showing there's still two minutes until the briefing starts.  She glances around the room, stopping at Aarav.  The two frown at each other.  Perri nods at you, Rei, and Rokzi, before heading to the other end of the table.

"So," she says as she starts to take her seat.  "Anyone laid eyes on the captain yet?"

No worries :)

“Indeed.” Kaya answered Rei's two questions. She briefly considered talking more about the medical aspect of things but since some of it was private, and the rest would have to wait for the last member of her crew, she simply stopped there for the time being. Plus, she still had no idea how she was expected to "make sure Rei kept her blood sugar in check".

When Péri asked if anyone had seen the captain, she was briefly, but intensely, tempted to say no and prompt her copilot to share what she expected. However while the answer would likely have been entertaining, despite her young age and inexperience Kaya wasn't about to make Peri the victim of a bad joke, especially considering that none of the other had gone through it.

Plus, considering the look her copilot and her engineer had exchanged... Well... So instead, she simply answered with a “That would be me.” Kaya walked to the front, giving some time for Peri to get over her surprise.

“Major O'Bannon scheduled a slot for us at the yard's obstacle course at 1000 so we'll keep it short for the time being. We'll have plenty of time later on to go over everything that needs to be addressed.” She paused to quickly look at everyone. “I am Lieutenant Wilden and I'll be your captain. Pilot second-class Von Helmon will be the copilot, Engineer second-class Shashidar is our engineer, Sergent Polovich will be in charge of ground operations and finally Ms Yamahato is the ship's doctor. We have been assigned to the Archer-class Gryffin.”

She paused for a second, then resumed, “Our first mission is to find Georgia Millstock who was allegedly kidnapped a year ago.” She displayed an image of the woman, “I say allegedly because she has resurfaced in the system of Little Giant, apparently free.” Georgia's picture was replaced by the footage from the Terminal 2 gate in the Vanilla space port. “The man's name is Wexler Wineburger. He is a small time smuggler, apparently with a specialization in eggs. Quail eggs at the moment to be precise. Don't ask, I don't know.” She shrugged, “Anyway, we are to first assess Ms. Millstock's situation both to confirm her identity and determine if she is still held hostage or if something else is going on.”

“If we do determine that she is still hostage, we are to rescue her,” Her gaze turned to Rokzi, “and do so without giving any indication that Fleet is involved. At least until she is returned to her family anyway. If however she appears to follow Mr. Wineburger on her own free will we are to report and follow until further orders.” And who knew where that could take them all.

“Questions?”

In reply to Kaya Wilden (msg # 29):

Peri is indeed shocked.  But she glances at the insignia and seems to pick up that no one else is all that shocked.  She wipes her incredulous look off her face.  But you notice her glancing at your neck.  The spot an AI port should be.

But she says nothing.

When you explain the mission, everyone looks at you.  No one says anything for a moment.

Than Aarav says, "Eggs..."

Rokzi, whose balanced his chin on one fist, elbow on the table, elaborates.  "Quail eggs."

"What's a quail?"

Peri glances towards Aarav but looks away.  She simply says, "Small bird from Old Earth.  They populate them in reserves so rich people who don't like to sweat can hunt something."

She shrugs.  She glances at Rei, frowns, but doesn't say anything.  Peri looks back at you.  "Are we Special Ops now?  This sounds like a Spec Ops mission."

"Does it matter?"  Rokzi stands up. "Orders are orders.  Anything else for now?  Or can I give that new turret a spineroo?"

No one says anything Unless you have something to add.  Moving on...

---

The test course runs the length of a mined out section of this system's asteroid belt.  The control station for the course has sent you a flight path and a couple of questions.


Good Afternoon Captain Wilden.

You are confirmed for 10 00 run.

You have the course reserved until 1 00.  Film and analysis will be provided.

How many runs through the course do you want?

How many of those runs do you want with drones?

Do you want any drones to return fire?


A run will take you about 15 minutes.

You can do just a vanilla run around the course.

You can have drones released into the course kind of like a shooting range.

The drones can 'return fire'.  The fire is non lethal light beams.  More or less like laser tag for space ships.  Except your fire is real.

Let me know how many runs you want to do and how many of each type-vanilla, plain drone, and friendly fire drones.

QUestions?  Thanks

Kaya had stayed behind after the briefing: she wanted to allow anyone to talk to her privately before boarding, to leave the crew alone for the time being to share their impressions of their new CO - even though she'd have loved hearing about it - and maybe more importantly... because she was damn hungry and wanted to take advantage of the snacks she had ordered.

---

“Thank you Control.” The young lieutenant transmitted. “We'll go with four for now: no drones on the first two, dummy drones on the third, not sure yet on the fourth. If needed and time permitting we'll repeat the third, and go full drones on the fifth.” Which would mostly depend on how much adjustments they'd need to make after the first three runs, but time might be an issue: after all, four runs left them with an average of 40 minutes between each of them, while five would lower that to 25. It could be enough, but only if there wasn't any tweaks they'd have to make that would required any time. “I'll let you know as soon as we finish the third.”

To her crew, she explained, “Alright, first two runs we'll just recon the course. I'll pilot solo on the first and you'll do the second one Peri, solo too.” After all, she needed both Peri to show that she could pilot by herself if need be, and to get a feel of the ship so that she'd be better able to help Kaya. And for Kaya, it was a way to show that she was perfectly comfortable with leaving the ship in her copilot's hands. That wasn't 100% true of course - no pilot was comfortable in a ship she wasn't piloting herself - but, well...
Peri would no doubt try to impress Kaya or even show that she was better, but that was fine. Plus, while Peri would have the advantage of going second, Kaya had taken some time on the simulator so all in all it should be relatively fair. “Just testing things out so that we can both get a feel of the ship.”

“On the third, we'll pilot as we should,” which meant her as a pilot, Peri as co-pilot tagging boggies, handling navigation, coms and so on, “While Rokzi will try to destroy the drones running around.” Which should allow him both to calibrate the turret to his preferences and get used to the way she handled the ship, while Peri and herself would work out the way they wanted things to run. Or to be precise, she showed Peri how she flew and what she expected of her since she knew pretty well what to expect from AI pilots. “If there's more to calibrate, we'll repeat that run, but on the last we'll go the whole way.”

She paused, for a second, “Now, obviously we're a new crew, on a ship none of us really know, so I'm not expecting any kind of record. I'd be disappointed if we didn't get on the score board though.” Though to be fair, as long as they avoided figuring in the "Epic Fails" column, it'd be good enough, considering...but that wasn't how you motivated your crew.

“Aarav, I expect you to monitor the ship on every run and make the tweaks needed,” it'd be mostly software of course, but that was still a big part of the ship, so... “but talk to me before you change an important setting. And keep any tweaks you'd make on the second run on a separate profile.” After all, it might be important at some point to load settings that would match Peri's style, but for the most part they'd go with the settings that matched her best...which could either be pretty much the same...or very different. She wasn't too sure yet. Of course hardware tweaks would have to stay so Peri would have to work with those, but software ones could be loaded pretty fast and Kaya didn't mind making her copilot's life a bit easier.

“Understood?” She asked everyone, “Questions?”
This message was last edited by the player at 21:18, Sun 09 May 2021.

In reply to Kaya Wilden (msg # 31):

The only one who comes back after the briefing is Rei.

She nods to you when she slips inside the door and helps herself to a sweet-soy danish.

"I know we don't have long."  Glancing at the clock, she nibbles on her danish and continues.  "But I wanted to make sure we were on the same page.  My real job here is to monitor your vitals. I'm supposed to send a report to O'Bannon and Ogadi monthly detailing the state of your health and provide brain scans.  So at least once a month, I'll need a couple of hours of your time to run tests.  Besides that, I'll do medic duty.

"Any other orders you have for me?"

---

"We're good to boil."

On your comm screen, you can see Aarav at the Engine Ops (EO) board.  "Good to boil" is the usual slang for an engine warmed up and ready to go.

Rokzi is on another split screen.  He's seated up in the turret, studying the various display screens.  He mutters the traditional, "Gunnery Ho," signifying his readiness although he won't actually do anything yet.

"Nav comm up.  Word in from Course Control.  Proceed when you're ready."

Peri hasn't said much.  Only the usual chatter about systems.  She's been keeping up on her tasks.  If this is how she performs nomrally, you won't have complaints.  How she flies is another question.  But as nav and communications, she's on top of things.

The "vanilla" course isn't quite vanilla.  It is also random.  Course Control activates various beacons scattered throughout the asteroid field.  You have to pilot the ship past the beacons in a certain order.  Some of the course will be pedestrian. Some will require tight cornering.  Since it's vanilla, the speed you take it is up to you.

Okay.  Something we're going to make up on the fly here.  Here's my proposal:

In-system speed (ISS) is how fast you travel within a system.  Far Light (FL) speed is for traveling between systems.  Standard Sol Time (SST) is how the Empire measures time.  It's based on the old Earth calendar.

FL speed just has one setting:  very frickin' fast.  You can get between systems usually in a SST week.  Using it in system is overkill.  No one has been able, AI or Ace, to time it so you can pop across a system using FL speed.  By the time you engage it, FL pretty much has you well outside the system.  It's just that fast.

ISS has five 'speeds' or modes, one to five.

One is more or less neutral.  It's what you use for docking or tooling around a space station.

Two is used for breaking orbits and entering orbits.

Three to five is where your job grade comes in.

Three is the work horse speed.  It's going the speed limit and probably where most of your day to day piloting will occur.  Ship control is easier.  But dodging torpedoes becomes a lot more interesting.

Four is for dog fights.  It's faster, harder to manage.  But it's where you can out maneuver torpedos or enemy fighters.  Both of whom will usually be going at fours themselves.

Five is designed for crossing the system quickly.  Where you can cross Earth's system at a speed three in a SST week, you can cross Earth's system in a little over two days at a five.  You can use it in dog fighting.  But obviously, you really need to be on top of it to do so.

Let me know what you think about that, and we'll move on to how to handle piloting.

Thanks

ISS, SST and FL work fine with me, no problem :)
I snipped the part about Kaya's piloting from the previous post to put it at the end of this one.

Kaya nodded at Rei's explanation, grimacing at times particularly when the brain scans where mentioned: she obviously didn't like being reminded that at some point her brain would start leaking from her ears... “I can manage to have a couple of hours a month to devote to you. I suppose you'd want one soon to establish a sort of baseline?” The young lieutenant paused while she considered the issue, then shrugged, “I guess we'll have the time when we're en route to Little Giant let me know when you have everything worked out and we'll deal with that.”

“Other than that, well, besides the fact that I'll expect you to take care of every medical needs on the ship - not that I don't think you wouldn't, but some things are better said than assumed - there's just one thing: I'm apparently supposed to 'make sure you monitor you blood sugar because a civilian dying on a fleet ship would look bad'. Now, not only I find the idea that you wouldn't do it silly, but on top of that you're the expert, not me and I don't think you need me to hover over you when you do it.”

She paused, frowning, then added, “That being said, maybe it'd be a good thing if someone on the ship could do it for you in case of an emergency, and know what to do in case of an anomaly. And unless you're comfortable asking someone else, I suppose that would have to be me. Other than that...” She shrugged, “Can you send me a small message once a day to tell me you've taken care of your 'monitoring duties'? I'm perfectly fine if it's a preprogrammed message...” She briefly glanced around though.

---

Kaya was at least reassured that Peri knew what she was doing as far as being a co-pilot was concerned. It remained to be seen how she'd handle the ship solo, but hopefully that would never really matter in anything but routine operations.

The fact that the course had random elements was not an unpleasant surprise: it made sense, and knowing what the course was beforehand would have made things dull. On the other hand, it sort of made grading more difficult, but she supposed Control had a system in place for those things.

Considering the ship, she was looking forward for the tight corners segments of the course, and the fact that it was also the part where good and bad pilots would be separated didn't diminish the feeling at all. As for the more 'pedestrian' segments... Well... On those she'd have to push the ship and see how it handled. Though she doubted she'd have the opportunity to go as far as ISS5. But hopefully, it would handle fine at ISS4, because that would be the most important one...

And despite what she had said, Kaya had every intention on her first run to impress her crew: she was going to push the ship and test things out to see how it reacted since it was an important thing to do, but more than anything, she needed them to know that she wasn't a hack, she needed to build their confidence in her. She wasn't going to take serious risks, but where she could shave half a second, she would.

She didn't want them to see her as one of the fleet's best pilots as she held no illusions that she was...but she wanted them to realize that she had the potential to be there one day. If she survived that long anyway...

In reply to Kaya Wilden (msg # 33):

Rei seems to be surpressing a frown when you mention her blood sugar.  But she shrugs.

"Yeah.  That sounds fair.

"We'll set up a time right after we get underway for Little Giant then.  I'll get my baselines and show you how to handle an insulin injection.  Also where it is.  Probably wouldn't be a bad idea to make sure you know how to run the Auto Doc just in case I'm down for the count."

---

Good.  Then here is how we will proceed.

Usually, I will assume you pull off whatever maneuver.  You're you after all.  However, because it would get dull if you did everything flawlessly, at times (especially during dog fights) I'll call for tests.

Here's how I'm proposing we handle the tests.  I will set a target number for the maneuver.  You will not know what it is.  The number will range from 2 to 11.  I'll give you a description of the situation and you'll have to guess the number based on that.  Usually the higher the Target value, the tougher the maneuver.  Usually.

You will roll a d6.  You'll then decide on a speed you're going to pull the maneuver at (1 to 5).  That obviously gives you the range of 2 to 11.

After you come up with that number, you being you can adjust that final number up or down by 2.  That's the Ace advantage.

You are trying to hit the target number exactly.  You do that, you pull it off flawlessly.

If you go over or under, you'll still pull it off.  But the wider the variance, the less perfect that maneuver is.  The only way you'll fail is if you really bomb it or if there's some factor you've overlooked.

You being you, you will have the option of asking clarifying questions before you roll the die.  But you only get one posts worth of questions and once you post a die roll, no questions are allowed.

I'd like to test run this system as we go through the test course runs.  Just to see if it works for both of us.  Like I said, it's mostly just to help inject a little bit of chaos into the actiony sequences.

Let me know if there are questions.

So let's start...

You pull Gryffin up in line with the starting beacon.  You're about a click away from the field.  It's enough distance to let you get a good head of speed.  Of course, running fast into an asteroid field isn't what a lot of people call wise.  But what do they know?

Peri toggles her main screen.  "I've got confirm from course control.  Lock on the first beacon in 5...4...3...2....1...Go!"

"We're boiling," Aarav says as the engines hit 60% and start to climb.

The first beacon is a click inside the field.  It's an easy peasy shot.  You have to weave around two large rocks and avoid a handful of small ones.  But nothing problematic.  As you round the last large rock, the beacon comes up on the display.

"Lock on second beacon...It's behind us."

Control is being sneaky.  The second beacon is almost back where you entered the field.  You'll either have to try to pull of a hard turn here or do a 360 around the large rock the first beacon is orbiting.

To give you a top down visual (and sorry, I suck at maps)

                     R                  RRR
                                      RRRRRR
                                      RRRRRRR
                                       RRRR      b1
                                                      G

                          R              R          R      RRRR
                                                          RRRRRR
                                                           RRRR

                                     R          R   R         R   R

                                           RRRRRRRRRRRR      R
                                          RRRRRRRRRRRRRR
                                          RRRRRRRRRRRRRR
                                            RRRRRRRRRR
                                             RRRRRRRRRR

                               R              R           R   R   R

      R         R        R         R            R       R

                  R           R           R                 R

                          R  b2                R                    R

The R's are asteroids.  The grouped ones are the bigger rocks.

G is Gryffin

b1 and b2 are the beacons.  You are coming at b1 right now in a north west direction.

If you go around the big rock b1 is orbiting, it's safer, but you'll give up some time on your course run.

A hard turn would require a test.

Let me know if there are questions.  Thanks

Sure, I can work with that, we can tweak it as necessary if needed anyway.
When you say "adjust up or down by 2", is it {-2, +2}, or {-2, -1, 0, +1, +2}?

As soon as Peri gave the "go", Kaya got "in the zone" and pushed the engine. Not quite to redlight them - that wasn't the goal yet - but simply because she wasn't the type to take the slow road when she could go fast.

Reaching the first beacon wasn't much of a problem and mostly allowed her to confirm the sensations she had had from the simulator but the location of the second beacon represented a challenge. Thing was, she loved challenges. Maybe she loved nothing more than challenges.

Quickly, she started to go through her options, and she saw two...or three. The first, safest one, would be to just adjust course to go around one of the large rocks. It would be easy, but also quite boring. The second option would be to go for a sharp turn around the beacon itself. It'd be much tighter, harder to pull off, but also much faster.

She saw a third option though: cut the propulsion entirely, pivot the ship on attitude thrusters to do a precise 180°, then punch it. In principle, it was a simple plan, but the execution of it was something else entirely as she'd need to time things out very precisely to cancel the ship's inertia just right to get them in the correct direction.

The two possible issues were that she'd effectively have to stop before going forward again which might be a loss of time. On the other hand, if the engines responded just right, it wouldn't take much more time than a sharp turn and more importantly, it would make the rest of the navigation easier which hopefully would allow her to more than make up for lost time. The biggest problem was to know if the engines and thrusters could handle something like that...which she quickly checked to make sure.

Is the 180° thing even possible? If it's not, Kaya will just go for the hard turn.
At any rate I guess that's where I ask the questions? And that asking "on a scale of 2 to 11, how difficult is it?" is a no-no :D
Not sure what to ask though. Except maybe what would be the most difficult part of the hard turn? Something like getting the ship in the right direction to go for the second beacon or are there small rocks that could be in the way?

In reply to Kaya Wilden (msg # 35):

I may have accidentally edited your last post.  Think I corrected it, but let me know if anything changed.  Sorry about that.

You can select any number in the -2 to 2 range {-2, -1, 0, 1, 2}

You can swing around that rock in a gentle 180.  That would be a standard move and not require any kind of test.

A "hard turn" is the 180 degree option.  Flipping the Gryffin around right where you are now.  I would think it is possible.  Well.  In a sci fi universe it would be possible.

You'd be "braking hard" by firing reverse engines, "spinning the ship" by firing a side facing engine at the same time, and then when you're in position, throwing the engines into forward.  Basically, the Hollywood stunt driver's version of making a U turn.  Except in space at near light speed.

So the hard part of a Hard Turn is flipping the ship around.  You have to keep the ship from veering too far as it flips or you might slam into an asteroid nearby.  Or the beacon.

Once you've flipped the ship, you're just driving again.

I would say this is a dog fighting style maneuver.  So Kaya has probably done something similar in flight school.  She knows how to do and has probably done it a few times in a simulator.

Clear as mud?

I think everything's there. And if something's missing I don't know what it was so it's probably alright.

As for the rest, it's clear! So I'm going to assume it'd be a manoeuvrer in the 8-9 range, more likely 8 than 9: complex with possibilities to mess up, but rather straightforward, known & practised, and without any real complications to expect.
So let's roll the die: 2
So assuming it's an 8, I'd go with speed 4, adding the Ace's +2 for a total of 8. If it's a 9, I'd just go with speed 5 but I'm not sure I can do that though: I know the real target number only when all's said and done I assume. Or I know the number before I adjust by +2/-2?

In reply to Kaya Wilden (msg # 37):

What fun would it be knowing the number before you input your adjustment?

I would not recommend going with speed 5.  Too fast to control for such a tight maneuver.  Remember, unless you realllllllllly bomb one of these tests, you're going to pull off the maneuvr.  Just not perfectly.

Since we're using this one as a test, I will tell you:  the target number I set on this was a 7.  My reasoning was this:

               Kaya has trained on this maneuver.

               Kaya has not pulled off a hard turn maneuver in this ship before.

               You are in an asteroid field, but it is a monitored obstacle course.

               The beacon and one rock are close enough to cause you some issues, but
               neither is large enough to damage the ship terribly much.  

Those are the factors I considered for the difficulty.  I considered making it a 6 honestly.  But decided to bump it up one due to the beacon complicating things.


Since you bring up Speed 5, if you did use it, I would have to adjust the test number on the fly.  Probably upwards to a 11 or 12.  Speed 5 is that fast.  Unless you are trying to flee or are really desperate, I would recommend avoiding speed 5.

Let's just go say you went with the 8.

The Gryffin lurches a bit too hard on the port side as you flip it around.  The side thruster that broke your spin has a bit more kick to it than you thought.  You can see Peri looks up when you brake, frowning.  Looks like the same thought is going through her mind.

Or she thinks you did that badly.

You send the ship forward, weaving around the intervening rocks and see beacon 2 ahead.

Peri studies her screens.  "Got a lock on beacon 3.  Damn.  It's all the way at the other end of the field."

Next situation then.

You are near the outer edge of the field.  Beacon 3 is on the far side of the field.

There are two options, at least that I can see.  You may come up with another one on your own.

First, the safe bet.  You can climb above or below the asteroid field and fly over/under it, then dive down into the field and hit beacon 3.  No test required.  It will eat up time.

Second, the fun option. Turn and Burn.  You head back through the field, ducking and weaving your way around the rocks in the way.  This is akin to driving at autobahn speeds in downtown Calcutta.  Well maybe not Calcutta, but someplace very congested.

Again, you may ask any questions you like, except what the test number is.

Yeah, noted for the speed 5, I should have had that in mind anyway.
So a 7, hmm. Understood. Well, I'll probably under/over-estimate most of the first manoeuvrers anyway while I build a reference, so it's not too surprising.

When the Gryffin lurched, Kaya frowned slightly. She considered asking Aarav to adjust the settings on the spot, but that would be iffy at best. While she briefly wondered what Peri's own frown meant, she didn't think too much about it: there'd be time to talk about it later if needed.

When the third beacon was revealed, Kaya didn't even consider going over the asteroid field and skipping the hard part: not only she found the idea mildly offensive, but it would utterly defeat the purpose of the exercise.

“Got it,” she answered Peri while she started her run through the rocks.

So for the next one, a few questions:
Are the obstacles (mostly the rocks) visible / known well enough, or is it mostly a case of "evade one rock, see the next one, adjust trajectory to avoid the next one" and so on?
A smiliar question would be "is it possible to plan the route ahead, or is it one rock at a time?"
Are the rocks (mostly) static relative to each others or are they moving?
In simulation runs on similar courses, would it be (usually) done at ISS3 or 4 for a ship of roughly the same performances?

In reply to Kaya Wilden (msg # 39):

This course would be well charted.  You would have access to the chart on your comm.  And I could even see Kaya having flown this course before.  There might be variables if you were running with drones, but since you aren't, you can assume a decent familiarity from the scanners and prior knowledge.

Since you are you, yes you could probably plan a route on the fly.  If you stated you were doing that, I would probably adjust the test number downwards.

It is an asteroid field.  Small ones may have some movement, but mostly everything is just floating there.

I would say 3 or 4 sounds about right.  Probably more towards the 3.  I would say 4 is more about dog fighting.  But Kaya would be well trained on both speeds.

What else?

Alright, so: 6 + ISS4 - 2 = 8
I'd put the whole thing in the 7 to 9 range. It's more difficult than the "simple" flip-over, but on the other hand Kaya can plan the route to the third beacon and adjust her trajectory accordingly, and there's no real danger, so a 9 would likely be too much. I would hesitate between the 7 and the 8, and might probably lean towards the 7, but I can't get there: I would need to go to ISS3, but then the difficulty would likely be lower too, so that wouldn't solve the problem. So... Well, 8 it is.
I suppose I could say that Kaya is not planning anything to increase the difficulty but it's not how she works so...

As she went around the first couple of rocks, Kaya was already planning the rest of her route to reach the third beacon, hoping that any time she might lose at the beginning would be more than compensated by the time she'd win later on.

Plus, the faster she went, the more impressive it'd look...if she didn't mess up on the way.

In reply to Kaya Wilden (msg # 41):

You nailed this one.  It was an 8

The Gryffin slips over and around the various rocks like a well made shirt sliding on to your skin.

You hear Rokzi whistle in an appreciative manner over the comm.

"Beacon 3 tagged.  Getting vibes on beacon 4..."</orange>

Beacons 4 to 7 are fairly pedestrian.  You've flown similar turns during the early training days back at the academy.

Peri shakes her head as you are about to tag 7.  <Brown>"Okay.  This is messed up.  Beacons 8 and 9 are live.  And they're on a timer.  We have 2 minutes to clear both."

You glance at the course map Peri feeds you.  Beacon 8 is hidden in the middle of a clump of rocks in various sizes.  Beacon 9 isn't too far away from where you are now.  The trick is going to be sliding into the area beacon 8 is in, tagging it, and slipping back out to get to beacon 9.  There's also a small rock not far from beacon 8 which is going to make that turn back towards 9 tricky, to put it mildly.

Another crappy flat map


r         R          RR                  r   r     r    R
                   RRRRRR         r                              R
   r   r            RRRR               b8       R  r       RR          r    r
                                          r   R          RRRRRR
      r   R       r           r       rR         r        RRRRR

r                 r   R  R         RR       r                r
                                RRRRRRRR
                                  RRRRR     R    r      R
                                   RRR

      R      b9

r    r        r        RRR                 b7
                     RRRRRRR
                      RRRRR                              G