Session 2 6

The robot merely seemed to be waking up - a false start - but it was enough to get everyone back on the Roland. With the business in Mu Cephei done for the moment, the Admirals' meeting at Armstrong now looms.
Abraham: "I do hope we didn't overload her… boot-up?"
The trip through the jump point is familiar, almost routine - the sudden lack of an angry giant red star in the background is almost reassuring.
Spyboy: "I miss home already."
Hrrin: "Be it ever so problematic, there's no place like-?"
Zinda Tegram leans back against the wall, watching the robot warily.
Abraham: "No offense, Spyboy, but the view was getting pretty monotonous. I'm glad to be able to see star/s/ rather than just the one again."
The robot is in a Secure Room - a hastily set up remote observation facility made from an airlock. In case of trouble, emergency vent.
[OOC] Spyboy: Yeah, cuz robots breathe.
[OOC] Abraham: They might, if any of their functions are dependant on air, which they might be.
[OOC] WC GM: It's not the breathing. It's the forced propulsion away from the ship. Newton et al, and that robot does not seem to have internal thrusters.
[OOC] Spyboy: Not if it's only in an airlock. Not enough stored energy - you'd need either the robot to be in an airlock on the far side of a cargo bay that you'd also vent, or maybe a robot-sized and shaped hole.
[OOC] WC GM: It's a large airlock.
[OOC] WC GM: And it just has to be enough to nudge the robot away.
[OOC] WC GM: That's what the tech who set it up explains, anyway. If you want different containment, just outline what you want.
[OOC] WC GM: Speaking of techs…
Zinda's and Hrrin's fighters are being Observed thoroughly, measurements taken without touching either craft.
Apparently there may have been touching earlier, but Geoffrey and his crew are standing by, watching the techs. Nervous glances their way every so often confirm the implication of threat if the techs take too much liberty again.
Hrrin: "You know," Hrrin drawls, "If they had any questions, I'd have been happy to prrovide documentation."
Hrrin: "For some of it."
Geoffrey: "They said they had documentation, but it didn't quite match the real thing."
Hrrin rolls her eyes. "More like they've never seen a proper custom job."
Geoffrey: "Speaking of…" He looks to Zinda. "My Lady, a formal request has been made to have the tool you have demonstrated utmost proficiency with scanned in the armory, that they might make replacements and proper fuel should you be in need."
Zinda Tegram glances to Geoffrey. "My torch?"
[OOC] Hrrin: excuse me while I roll over laughing.
Geoffrey nods. "$She didn't quite get our dialect right, but she came close.$"
[OOC] Abraham: I just had a vision of Zinda yelling 'My TORRRRRRCH!' UHF style.
[OOC] Spyboy: Zinda needs a Minions stunt.
[OOC] Abraham: Well, I'm pretty sure we all have at least one spare stunt…
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: I'll probably take it. Geoffrey is an awesome lieutenant.
Zinda Tegram: "Who made the request?"
[OOC] Abraham: Except Shads, who actually stated up with 4 stunts.
[OOC] Spyboy: I'm saving mine till next session, but it's been planned since session 0.
Spyboy: "Excuse me, Miss Tegram, what are the principles your engine runs on?"
[OOC] Abraham: Thrust.
[OOC] Spyboy: Side question - is the starfury shape that you posted before the campaign started still correct-ish?
Geoffrey: "The armory chief. Goes by 'Rally'. I didn't catch if that's her name or just her callsign."
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: I believe so.
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: Starfury is close, but not quite accurate. The 'wings' are shorter, it's more like five cylinders strapper together with external venting for various lateral thrusters.
Zinda Tegram: "Thrusters or the power generation? We make a distinction between the two."
Spyboy: "I'm just wondering how much gravitic manipulation made it into the thrusters."
Zinda Tegram: "Oh, ah, none. They're just reaction thrusters."
Zinda Tegram: "We vent reactor waste as reaction mass."
Spyboy: "So standard plasma thrusters, I assume?"
Zinda Tegram: "Not plasma. Just raw reactor mass, or for the thrusters on the cockpit cylinder, air."
Spyboy grins. "If your ship is running on a fusion reactor, and you're dumping something that's not plasma, then Oldziey engineering isn't as advanced as I'd heard."
Zinda Tegram: "We want to keep the external engines separate from the cockpit except for computer bus lines. We find it improves pilot survival rates."
Zinda Tegram: "Oh, and they're not fusion. They're fission."
Spyboy: "That really sounds odd to me- oh, I see."
Spyboy: "Wait, but that would mean…"
Hrrin: "Pirates are crazy, is what it means."
Spyboy frowns to himself in thought. If Zinda was hoping to stir up a 'ohmygodyouusefission!?' reaction, she'll have to look to his right.
Zinda Tegram: "We're not pirates."
B4: "Oh my god, you use fission!?"
Zinda Tegram glances at B4. "Yeah? What about it? Is it odd?"
Spyboy: "Not all that uncommon in civilian designs. It's older tech."
Spyboy: "The main issue is the waste - but if you use breeder reactors you want the waste so eh."
Spyboy: "And if you don't you have a handy solar dumping ground so eh."
Zinda Tegram: "We actually want more waste. We find it easier to run particle weapons with the excess, that's how we can mount such heavy dust cannons."
Zinda Tegram: "You'll notice all weapons have a single associated reactor."
Abraham: "But if you want it, is it waste?"
Spyboy: "But what I was thinking was if you're venting reactor mass, that's not a salt water reactor is it? I thought they'd given up on those."
[OOC] Abraham: It's a cherry cola reactor.
Zinda Tegram: "We can't maintain the pressure required to use MSR's, we just vent it fast enough that heat isn't an issue."
Zinda Tegram: "I mean, there is -some- cooling obviously."
Zinda Tegram: "But we prefer to just drop the engines when the overheat. We have the transports to get us out anyways."
Spyboy frowns.
Spyboy: "Where was it I read…."
Zinda Tegram: "You've noticed the acceleration right? How much mass do you think we're dropping to get that?"
Spyboy: "I wouldn't have the slightest idea - but suddenly I'm terrified by the thought of Oldziey fighters over a terraformed world."
Zinda Tegram: "?"
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: Zinda has never thought of this as a potential issue.
Abraham: "You weren't before?"
Spyboy: "The thing about all that spent fuel you're dropping is that it stays there - it's actually attracted by the magnetosphere."
Zinda Tegram: "Oh, that's not really too much of an issue in Oldziey."
Spyboy: "I know."
Zinda Tegram: "Asago doesn't have much of a Magnetosphere anymore."
Zinda Tegram: "So it usually just gets pulled back into the sun."
Hrrin: "Gee, Zinda, I wonder why."
Zinda Tegram: "Well, I heard they turned it off when we started using these fighters."
Zinda Tegram: "That was maybe…40 years ago?"
Spyboy: "I wouldn't worry too much about Sommers, either - Janice will gobble everything up. And Lagos Prime - no one cares about a little more radioactivity on the surface."
Spyboy: "But Armstrong - one fighter probably won't be an issue, but if Oldziey really gets its act together and invades they might wind up using a radiological weapon without even realizing it."
Zinda Tegram: "Well, if we had that sort of logistics chain we'd just retrofit the engines. Performance would only go up, anyways."
Zinda Tegram: "The Confed government made me retrofit them when they hired me as an instructor anyways."
Spyboy: "Heh. They must have noticed the same thing I did."
Zinda Tegram: "They sent an NBC team to collect my ship! It was insulting!"
Hrrin laughs and laughs.
Hrrin: "I can just imagine it"
B4 mutters something to herself.
[OOC] Abraham: Don't you mean MSNBC team? :P
[OOC] Spyboy: No, that's what they sent to pick up Hrrin.
Zinda Tegram: "Anyways, now I'm running 4 dedicated fission reactors for the cannons, and propulsion is fusion."
Zinda Tegram: "Generally it's all fusion though."
Spyboy: "With a gravity pinch, naturally."
Spyboy obviously has something on his mind.
Zinda Tegram: "Pretty much. Handling didn't change much, though I'd imagine the cost went up an order of magnitude."
Zinda Tegram: "But anyways, the engines aren't that interesting aside from the lateral thrust setups."
Spyboy: "Eh, the most expensive part would be the gravity pinch, and if you didn't have that then you wouldn't have a fighter you'd have a one-man interplanetary satellite."
Spyboy: "Did we ever get rid of that….container of antiprotons?"
Zinda Tegram: "Heh. No, what I've gotten more questions from the techs about is the cockpit and frame cameras."
Spyboy: "That's techs for you. It's what comes of designing fighters for the people who fly them, rather than the people who own the media companies."
Zinda Tegram hands Geoffrey her torch.
[OOC] Spyboy: I'd want latex gloves if I were Geoffrey.
Geoffrey holds it reverently.
He then proceeds toward the armory, with a pace somewhere between holding a holy object and holding a bomb with a glitchy fuse that could self-light at any moment.
Zinda Tegram: "Yeah, in my flights against confed pilots you tend to fly like you're blind."
Zinda Tegram: "Like, you can only see straight ahead and up."
Zinda Tegram: "I mean, even with canopy's you'd think you could at least put a window on the floor or something."
Spyboy: "Clearly haven't been flying against me lately."
Spyboy: "I'm just saying, if you're using your cameras you're half blinded already."
Spyboy: "Though - just what post processing do you use in there?"
Zinda Tegram: "Just some simple target highlighting. Speed, heading, y'know. Boring stuff."
Zinda Tegram: "Good luck EMP-ing it though."
Zinda Tegram: "In 10 years of flying closed-frame fighters, I've only had a camera go black once."
Spyboy: "I was referring to the visual light part, but thanks."
Zinda Tegram: "Ah, OK. They're usually set to run on EM or thermal bands, though I use visual light for landing."
Spyboy: "As for the window in the floor it wouldn't do much good, and besides it would look bad in the vids."
Zinda Tegram: "Really? I don't think I could stand flying without being able to look down."
Spyboy: "Because your cockpit is shaped entirely differently. Confed pilots can't look down because their legs are in the way."
Spyboy frowns.
Spyboy: "Are you in a standing position in there?"
Zinda Tegram: "Oh, well uh, kind of?"
Zinda Tegram: "Umm…How to explain."
Zinda Tegram: "It's like riding a motorcycle, I guess?"
Spyboy frowns.
Zinda Tegram: "But upside down?"
B4 asks it for him.
Spyboy: "What's a motorcycle?"
Zinda Tegram: "They're…how do you not know what a motorcycle is? They're these two wheeled things with a motor and…"
[OOC] Spyboy: Interesting question is how Zinda knows. Not much call for them in Oldziey, any more than in Mu Cephei. =p
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: She's been in the confed for a few years recall.
[OOC] Spyboy: And on Anderson, too, presumably. Point.
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: OK, got the stats for the personal weapons done. Post where?
[OOC] Spyboy: Oldziey page?
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: Fair nuff.
Spyboy: "Anyway, I'd guess that your cockpit has at least twice as much space as a typical confed cockpit. Just based on the stuff I've seen you haul out of it alone."
Zinda Tegram: "Yeah, it's pretty big."
Zinda Tegram: "It doubles as our quarters on station, actually."
Spyboy: "Whereas a Confed cockpit is like two chairs in a row with a lid over them."
Spyboy waves a tech over.
Spyboy: "Hey, we have that antiproton bottle stored securely, right?"
Tech: "What antiproton bottle?"
Spyboy: "The one with the big red button covered in hard clear epoxy."
Tech: "Like that one on your belt?"
[OOC] WC GM: Since Spyboy apparently never actually gave it to someone…
Zinda Tegram glances at Spyboy.
Zinda Tegram: "You OK?"
Spyboy: "Sure, not like I'm repressing the fact that apparently I carried a volatile collection of the most destructive force known to man into live-fire combat."
Zinda Tegram makes a face, and turns around to go visit the newly minted Crown Squadron quarters.
Spyboy: "Petty officer, is there a cargo bay on the ship that we can depressurize?"
Tech: "Yes, multiple."
[OOC] Spyboy: This would be the place on deck where the Crown Squadron fighters are located?
Spyboy: "Okay. I need to go fasten this to the inside of the hull and then we need to depressurize the cargo space."
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: No, she's gonna go visit her minions who joined up with Geoffrey.
[OOC] Spyboy: I was referring to the Oldziey-fighter-cockpit-is-crew-quarters thing =p
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: Oh, no that was just in Oldziey 'cause station space was at a premium.
Tech: "Sir, if you are looking to dispose of an antimatter bomb, we've still got the old antimatter reactors on board. This could fuel them for a ltitle while, maybe give us an emergency boost."
Spyboy: "We still need a place to keep it until we offload it. But I had a better idea."
Spyboy: "Who's in charge of the fabrication section? I'll need to talk to them…"
[OOC] Spyboy: Looks like a good place to me to stop.
[OOC] Spyboy: And either screen-cut to some Zinda-minion time or logend.
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: Not picky.
[OOC] WC GM: Is there plot Zinda wants to establish w/the minions? If not, logend.
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: Nah, just gonna go mess with them and like, establish loyalty.
[OOC] WC GM: Alright, then.

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