DreadStormers [IC]

[GnomesofZurich]

Originally Posted by ericthered

I find that in Play by Post time works best if it proceeds at its own rate for each character between important moments. Right now we're covering from right before the launch (saturday) to the rendezvous time (on tuesday). You can take actions in that range as you see fit. Don't wait for each other other than the tuesday moment.



I'll report on the launch soon, and then we'll be limiting to acting after the launch.

Okay, in that case I'm going to try to get that look at the grav plates before launch.

[ericthered]

Daymar is able to duck into the bathroom and forces himself to throw up. There are a few other people in the room, but not many at the moment.

On his way back, he doesn't get off on his barracks floor, but continues down an extra few levels to floor 18, with the drive space grav plates and atmosphere tanks. Sabotaging the grav plates will require tools to open a hatch, and then something big and heavy to throw in it. He can wreck an area of gravity at least 60 by 60, and with some skill and luck may be able to wreck either the fore or aft ship's gravity.

He gets back to his mess hall to where Pothi is still eating and joking, looking sick, just as expected. Pothi asks him if he feels better.

at lunch, he'll have gone 18 hours without the psi-supressors. He and Pothi have a lot of work to do this morning getting the ship ready to launch.

[ericthered]

The ship is crawling with activity on the Saturday of the launch and jump, but it is orderly activity. Most of the work wasn't actually for the launch: its getting the ship in its best possible condition and making sure everyone knew their duty. A fair amount of it was make-work to ensure that crewmen weren't trying to arrive on board at the last possible moment.

Daymar and Valford both acquit themselves well, Daymar spending much of the day outside the hull, and Valford running diagnostics and tests on his reactor core.

The ship launches, and turns on its manuever drive. Even with the light touch of manuevers near the dock, the greedy engine sucks up huge quantities of hydrogen bricks, and the job of moving the volitile things all over the ship has begun. Less greedy are the plasma emmiters, but they are spread much further over the ship.

The grav drives slow their vibrations, as they are throttled down to keep the ship's gravity standard, but the ship shakes all the more from the power of the engine, fusing hydrogen in layers and sending it in circles, then up and down, and then sending it in an energetic and ionized plume out the bottom of the ship.

It takes several hours to get far enough away from the planet, and several thousand tons of hydrogen bricks are consumed in the process. As the ship travels, the Capacitors for the Hyperdrive are being charged, building up enormous amounts of energy. The coolants for the drive are circulated, and the drive itself is set to lightly spinning in preparation for the jump. As the time approaches, the plasma emitters begin to heat up.

Valford gets his first good look at his reactor under stress, though this stress is little compared to battle... not that he sees starship battles all that much. Vorno fusses over every little thing: launches from home-worlds are very much the sorts of things where superiors are watching, and Vorno is obsessed with making this reactor run perfectly. Sergeant Zuchi, who commands the reactor floor for Valford's shift, is constantly reporting the power usage to the motive section.

Daymar and Pothi are patrolling the edges of deck 6, checking on the 12 plasma emmiter there. They're all in excellent shape of course: things always are right when the ship first launches, but the patrols and reports have to be made.

When the time is right, the engine drives stop. There is a jolt as the gravity plates catch up to the correct gravity. The ship stops vibrating. Deep in its core, the hyperdrive starts spinning in Four different directions, each inside the other one. Fluids swish, and the capacitors hum in anticipation. The ship creaks as navigational corrections are made. A count down in made over speakers all over the ship. When it reaches zero, the capacitors release their energies, and jolt flows through the ship. Both Dreadstormers are experienced hyperspace travelers, and though standing, keep their feet.

The plasma emmiters kicked in at the same time, crackling as they released their ionized payloads into hyperspace around the ship, feeding enough energy and matter into it to maintain the small bubble of 3-D space around the ship.

For half the ship, this means their work is done, but they still have to stand at the ready. For Valford, it means its time to step down the reactor. For Daymar, it means a half hour of briskly walking between plasma emitters and making sure that they are working as expected.

47 minutes after the ship enters hyperspace, it is announced to have been a success. The various places respond in different manners, with the reactor room cheering. Pothi rolls his eyes "the first one always is!"

Captain Thuto comes on the speakers.
"Now that we are isolated in hyperspace, I can inform you of your mission. As many of you have heard rumor of or guessed, this is a combat voyage. We have a glorious part to play in this noble war to crush the puppets who claim to represent the Jakorbi and unite them with us, their Zorbani brothers. May fortune smile upon us! we may play a pivotal role in finishing the Unification of the Zorbani!"

He continues in a rather pompus fashion for a few minutes, before calling on his spacers:

"To be vigilant! This is not a mere training exercise. We do not only expect to see combat, we hope for it! We revel in its glory! this combat may take many forms. We may engage other capital ships. We may drive off a cruiser squadron. We may engage with orbital defenses. Or we may have spies hidden in our midst. Be vigilant, do your duty with pride, and we shall be able to overcome them all."

He continues for several more minutes, before wrapping up.

[GnomesofZurich]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Daymar is able to duck into the bathroom and forces himself to throw up. There are a few other people in the room, but not many at the moment.

On his way back, he doesn't get off on his barracks floor, but continues down an extra few levels to floor 18, with the drive space grav plates and atmosphere tanks. Sabotaging the grav plates will require tools to open a hatch, and then something big and heavy to throw in it. He can wreck an area of gravity at least 60 by 60, and with some skill and luck may be able to wreck either the fore or aft ship's gravity.

He gets back to his mess hall to where Pothi is still eating and joking, looking sick, just as expected. Pothi asks him if he feels better.

at lunch, he'll have gone 18 hours without the psi-supressors. He and Pothi have a lot of work to do this morning getting the ship ready to launch.

If it's okay, I'd like to jump back to this pre-launch sequence to see whether Day can purge himself of psi-suppressors.

Satisfied that he can disable the grav plates if needed, Day heads back to the mess and slumps down next to Pothi. "Yeah, feeling a bit better, something here must have disagreed with me."

Since there is so much to do to get the ship ready to launch, Day will beg off going to the mess hall at lunch, saying he'd rather check everything and get this done. Has he started to get any of his powers back?

[ericthered]

It will take 48 hours to get his powers back, and another 2 days for them to come back completely. He's been clean for 18 of the 48 so far.

Daymar has to convince his "buddy" Pothi to skip lunch as well, and Pothi is rather fond of lunch. Or convince Pothi to bend regulation and eat without him. What strategy will Daymar use to convince Pothi to either skip lunch or eat without him?

[GnomesofZurich]

Originally Posted by ericthered

It will take 48 hours to get his powers back, and another 2 days for them to come back completely. He's been clean for 18 of the 48 so far.

Daymar has to convince his "buddy" Pothi to skip lunch as well, and Pothi is rather fond of lunch. Or convince Pothi to bend regulation and eat without him. What strategy will Daymar use to convince Pothi to either skip lunch or eat without him?

Daymar assesses the work to be done, and says, "Pothi, if we want to have any hope of getting this all done before launch, we need to work over lunch. I know, I know, 'regulations say...', but if we don't get this work done, the noncom is going to make us do our next spacewalk without the EVA suits!"

[11] 20-07-28 12:09:03 CEST

Savoir-Faire (Military) to convince Pothi to break regs

3d6 <= 15
6 + 1 + 1 = 8 ... success

He continues, "Look, I'm not asking you to go hungry, look I grabbed some snacks from the food stores, but let's just get this done!"

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by GnomesofZurich

Daymar assesses the work to be done, and says, "Pothi, if we want to have any hope of getting this all done before launch, we need to work over lunch. I know, I know, 'regulations say...', but if we don't get this work done, the noncom is going to make us do our next spacewalk without the EVA suits!"

Pothi doesn't look very convinced by the "Too much to do argument", as things are usually over-done during the first jump, and Daymar and Pothi actually have a fair amount of leeway in their command chain, being sort of lent to another command...

He continues, "Look, I'm not asking you to go hungry, look I grabbed some snacks from the food stores, but let's just get this done!"

However, when Pothi sees the food, his eyes light up. Daymar chose wisely, picking things he knew Pothi would be glad to have. Pothi readily agrees to eat snacks during the lunch period while "working extra".

Daymar won't have to dodge the food again until dinner, giving him 24 hours without new suppressors.

Dinner will occur soon after the first jump.

[GnomesofZurich]

After hearing the captain's speech, Day nudges Pothi and says, "a bit pompous, isn't he? But it sounds like we're going to be busy. Hey, at dinner let's make an appearance at our mess, and then pop by Shields' mess to get to know some of them better." Day plans to use an appearance at each mess to try to avoid eating the slop, the main problem will be convincing Pothi that he's had some at one of them.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by GnomesofZurich

After hearing the captain's speech, Day nudges Pothi and says, "a bit pompous, isn't he? But it sounds like we're going to be busy. Hey, at dinner let's make an appearance at our mess, and then pop by Shields' mess to get to know some of them better." Day plans to use an appearance at each mess to try to avoid eating the slop, the main problem will be convincing Pothi that he's had some at one of them.

You'll need to stick around for a while at dinner tonight, because announcements are assignments and so forth are likely to be made, but that just gives you more time to "eat" for Pothi and "not eat" for everyone else. Pothi actually wants the Spicy Soup being served on your floor, but he's willing to go up to the Sheild's mess for their Beekornor fried aquazoon and especially the heavy pastries they're serving for desert.

How will he convince/make it appear to Pothi he's eaten at one of the two places?

[GnomesofZurich]

Originally Posted by ericthered

You'll need to stick around for a while at dinner tonight, because announcements are assignments and so forth are likely to be made, but that just gives you more time to "eat" for Pothi and "not eat" for everyone else. Pothi actually wants the Spicy Soup being served on your floor, but he's willing to go up to the Sheild's mess for their Beekornor fried aquazoon and especially the heavy pastries they're serving for desert.

How will he convince/make it appear to Pothi he's eaten at one of the two places?

Day will take a bowl of the spicy soup and a serving of the slop at their regular mess. He will then create a distraction ('accidentally' knocking over someone's drink) and use Filch to remove his serving of slop from the table while people are worrying about cleaning it up.

[12] 20-08-02 12:53:34 CEST

Filch to remove 'slop' from the table without anyone noticing.

3d6 <= 13
4 + 5 + 4 = 13 ... success

Since there are likely some penalties here, I used Luck to reroll Filch twice, with a best result of 7 (succeed by 6).

[13] 20-08-02 12:54:16 CEST

Use Luck to reroll Filch twice

3d6 <= 13
1: 2 + 4 + 3 = 9 ... success
2: 1 + 3 + 3 = 7 ... success