Ssspend your $25000 store credit at Pete’s!
And with that, Nixssson isss going for a lie down because he’sss come down with a rotten cassse of Betelgeussean Flu.
Out of character
I’ve had a really crappy day today and so I haven’t been able to keep up with the posts I’m afraid, so this is a bit rushed and a bit gut instinct.
** Quisquiliae sStruem **
Starting cash: $40180
ICUP Repair package from Ella’s $0, 100/100HP
$30000 split equally between the captains of “Ironclad Cochrane”, “First Post1”, “Jewel of the Desert”, and “Jewel of the Desert” for their generous assistance with a tiny problem I was having ($7500 each)
$500 to pig pile onto mission 1 Outlaw style (kill hawk granger)
Leaves me with $9680
THANKS!!! free shot of slivovitz for you, and a slice of unigoat cheese.
Did you still want that BBQ? I see Pete has some sauce that I am sure would go well with it.
No thanks; I jettisoned the remaining dry BBQ into a dwarf star, watched the surface of the star go “plerk” and then the poor thing got indigestion and super-Nova’ed.
We were able to stop into Costco after the last fix-up at Ella’s, and got some real supplies. We are sitting pretty, with a full bar of odds and ends, ALL IN SHOCK BOTTLES. If we should get swiss cheesed again, at least the liquor will survive even if we don’t.
3 Likes
“You look like you’re fretting, sir.”
“Don’t be silly, Marvin. Leiberians don’t fret.”
“Well, it LOOKS like you’re fretting.”
"Acting!
“Ella did the Hull repairs. Put in an order for the plow at Petes. Adding a little extra shielding will help us. I wish we could afford that Turbo Button. I’ve always wanted a button.”
“Not sure where we would put it, sir.”
“I don’t need two cup holders. We could replace one. At any rate, we need to lock in our mission. I had hoped a call to arms would have spurred a couple people to join us on Mission 4, but no one has. So we need to assess our options.”
“We can join Mission 1 for a large battle, hoping to overwhelm them by sheer numbers and keep safe due to the numbers involved. We could go ahead and do Mission 4, though success is far from assured. We could join one of the ICUP Rangers. Or we could just sit this one out.”
“Well we can’t sit it out, that violates our primary mission. What are numbers again?”
“Currently we have 77% of Leiberia is following our progress. We are the most watched experience stream currently. The Supreme Intelligence has even given us a gold star rating.”
"Well, we can’t let down Leiberia or the Supreme Intelligence. Partnering with the ICUP is out of the question. Our alliance with them is only because of our mutual plan with our allied captains. It is a relationship of convenience. Besides that, we would be force to attack our allied captains, alienating us from the group and ruining our relationship with Pete which we worked hard to establish. Continuing this charade with the ICUP is not an option.
“I suppose that leaves us with Mission 4 or 1. I would have liked to have tried a smaller battle with less variables - but we can’t at this point go in alone. So the only real choice is Mission 1. We will be seriously out classed, but the pile should be big enough that we can safely enter the fray and come out alive. Be sure to reserve funds for repairs. Damn I really wanted that Turbo Button.”
“Yes, sir! Locking in Mission settings now.”
Fritz notes an elevated tone in Marvin’s voice. He’s looking forward to this. That can not be a good sign.
Ship - Grey Mouser
Starting Cash - $14067
ICUP Hull Repair - Free - A drone shaped dent? No, no clue how that got there.
Plow +5 SH - $5000 - “This looks ridiculous, sir.” “It’s only temporary. We’ll have it melted and reformed to match the hull later.”
Mission 1 - $500 - Solidarity!
Ending Cash - $8567 - Only enough for 42HP after this battle. Let’s find something big to hide behind.
ETA - I give all allied captains the transponder code I plucked from the drone. Maybe it would temporarily boost our ST stats, or maybe they changed the code and nothing happens.
2 Likes
Peace and Blessings, my fellow beings.
Captain Falkayn returned from the Space Bar buoyant and centered. Apparently his Middle Path runs through a case of Merkheim Östelwein.
Chee Lan scanned David with her predator gaze and said, “Lock down the mush-head. I don’t want that dough-fingered fat-assed limp-dick within a parsec of a weapons station or my comm console. He’ll try to cut a deal with Hawk Granger as I line up the Kill Shot.”
Interestingly, when I checked on the Captain, he was cheerfully hunched over a notepad mumbling, “If could get Hawk to talk to Brad Nebula’s agent…”
–Azdel, Muddlin’ Through engineering officer
Muddlin’ Through
Mission 1 - Kill Hawk Granger
$64,154 starting balance
$ 50 BBQ sauce. Goes well with Grilled Granger.
$ -550 Space Bar bar tab (transfer to TARD-iss )
$ -2,400 full hull repairs ( 12 HP)
$-10,000 Turbo Button (+10 EN)
$ -5,000 1 Plow (+5 SH)
$-15,600 transfer to Endogenic Escrow
$-10,000 10 hull density improvements (+10 HP)
$ -5,000 Buddhist Prayer Hat (er, “Dunce Cap”)
$12554 ending balance
Stardate 7
Jewel of the Desert
Accounting Ledger
------------------------------------------------------
Init. Balance $10700
------------------------------------------------------
Captain Pedge's Protection Money +$7500
Falkayn Well Done Guys Bonus +$1000
$19200
------------------------------------------------------
Receipt - Scrapyard Pete's
Hull Repairs 75 @ $200 $15000
------------------------------------------------------
Mission 1
Various Supplies $500
------------------------------------------------------
Balance $3700
------------------------------------------------------
Stardate 7
Jewel of the Desert
Captain's Log
TO BE FILED ASAP
Captain Falkayn - is this bonus valid? There was an unanswered challenge to the accuracy of your accounting. Won't really help us now, but I'm guessing we'll need help with repairs after this round.Yes.
You have $1,000 sitting at Endogenic Escrow.
Okay. I may have been a tad cleverer than I intended. The intrusive code burnt through the antimatter-reactor and twisted the Tokomak for good measure. But the emergency SCRAM uses a lot of the sublight reaction mass as a heatsink - dumps all of that energy back into the xenon and then vents it into space. Not normally a problem- but El-Esk was being parsimonious with the fuel stocks. The whole suicide mission thing, I’m guessing. No reason to save any juice for the ride back…
As a consequence, we’re out here in the inky black, with both main and backup power sources torn, and with no fuel for the sublights.
Which means we’re marooned out here. A tiny little corpuscle of life in an uncaring universe and…
… I’m starting to sound like El.
Now I can’t offer much - things look like they’re collapsing down into their ground-states. It’s endgame. And while the Senescent Wanderer is a gritty little ship, El’s absolutely absent business sense has meant that our grit is utterly incommensurate with our metrics and statistical comparison with any other ship in the sector. In short, we’re underpowered. And I don’t just mean in this very present, sub-light fuel scenario.
We’re very likely to be attacked. We’re also unlikely to survive such an encounter.
Sitting out here, I’ve been listening in on Sssssskippers sssspeculationsss. Maybe we’d sign up for mission five - although my own rundown is speculating on mission four; that’s a strangely familiar name.
But even with Falkayn’s kind wire-funding, we still have the immediate problem of being marooned somewhere deep and dark out in the Housefucking black, with no way of getting back.
Maybe this means these marshals are going to overlook us? We’re systems quiet at the moment - bleeding a little more than the usual black-body radiation, but we’d not stand against the CMBR on a cursory scan. The only way one of the ICUP bastards would find us is if they were listening in on these comms, and one of your piratical types decided to … well…
I need some time to think. I need to avoid El. And I need to placate the crew. Baseline humans have an appallingly low tolerance for stress.
3 Likes
Watch the time, Sam…
Stardate 7
Jewel of the Desert
Captain's Log
I have discovered that the crew of late has been secretly questioning my competence, especially while I was indisposed and Dusty was Acting Captain (in a sane universe, perhaps letting the Space Cat be the captain would be the sort of thing that would make the crew question my competence).
But now I have two notches in the hull. Well, actually there are many more notches than that, but two of them were put there by me and are not just battle damage and they represent the ships I destroyed.
The cat is acting unimpressed, but I heard him purring during the battle. That may have actually been because of the appetizing pile of spleens sloshing around, but I am going to pretend that it was because he enjoyed my battle skills.
The 75 HP of damage we sustained during said battle is substantial, and the cost of repairs will require us to forgo any upgrades. I SO want that Turbo Button - I hope Pete still has some next time (although I probably will not be able to afford it then either). I prepared a space on the dashboard for it anyway (see photo); perhaps we will pick one up in salvage.
That is… if we survive. The lack of planning that went into the upcoming battle is slightly distressing to all of us aboard the Jewel (other than Dusty), but luck is in our favor. I still do not quite understand how luck works, but apparently we have it.
I am not currently capable of feeling such emotions, but the crew informs me I should feel somewhat bittersweet about the victory over Tiny. He may have been an amphibian and an ICUP stooge, but… hold on a minute, I guess there is not that much to be sorry about.
5 Likes
Locked
Edit - I’ll have results and final mission options posted on Monday. I’ve just skimmed the board and probably won’t thoroughly read all the BBS messages until late in the day Sunday. If you need an answer on something and I haven’t responded yet, feel free to private message me for a quicker turnaround.
Sorry about your day, hope it gets better!
3 Likes
PIss flaps. Got in from work & fell sleep in front of my shopping list story.
OK.
I know I’m after locked, but I did say I was going after Granger. I throw my self on the mercy of the GM. At the least take the $500 mission cost & let me go as I am.
Missed the deadline. Apt, really. Well. Time to think, I guess.
Luck with all of you, kith and kindred. No matter your stripe or allegiance. House luck to you all.
4 Likes
-post the story anyway 8)
1 Like
Hi Pete,
…
Yeah. I felt a bit rough when I woke up, but I’m OK now. Had a mug of tea and a bacon butty then a Bloody Mary with plenty of Tabasco. I feel fine now. It’s The Breakfast of Champions.
…
Nah. It seems obvious to me. We all pile on Granger. Then the way those I.C.U.P. Marshals pick their targets means we all end up in the same place at the same time and just Juke it out.
…
Eh? Nah. The way I read the mission brief it says if you go against Granger you get 6 Grit. It don’t say nothing about sharing it. If I’m wrong. Ah well ‘Say la Vee’ as they used to say in a different time and place.
…
…Nah. I’ve no idea how the whole thing will work. I’m just assuming If it’s a mass battle and all the Marshals & their posses turn up we can cover each other. I dunno really. What the hell.
…
Oh yeah. Work on The Cobra
I’ve got $60274
Fix the dings from the last trip 21 x $200 = $-4200
Weld 4 of them ploughs on. Er. Front, Back, left and right. Yeah. On the rear, I want to cover my ass in case I get on the wrong end of a stern chase in the fight. 4 x $5000 = -$20,000 = SH +20
Yeah. Rig two of those Turbo circuits. Don’t bother about separate buttons. Just let me press one big red button to make them both work 2 x $5000 = -$10,000 = EN + 10
Do the Density thing to the hull for an extra 25 points 25 x $1000 = -$25,000 = +25 HP
Give us the supplies for Mission 1 -$500
cash left $574
…
Yeah. I know it leaves me with nothing for repairs after this battle. Who says I’m going to come back and if I do well I might see if I can ponce some money off Brad Nebula. If he’s got such a hard on for Charybdis he can put his money where his mouth is can’t he.
…
We’ll see how it goes. I’ll see you in a bit. I’ll go and give the others a hand with your new extension.
Jameson leaves Pete to get on with the work, picks up a shovel and heads off to the face of the new tunnel being dug whistling a tune under his breath
After his shift in the tunnel Jameson heads over to the Star bar aboard The TARD-iss and finds it’s captain and hands him $500
Here. Put this behind the bar so we can all keep drinking until it’s time to go.
If you don’t recognise the tune it’s Men of Harlech and if you’re not aware of the significance watch This clip of film
3 Likes
Heh. I thought about riffing on Zulu earlier.
