Public Space Race!

[Scherezade deWinter]

Team 1	Team 2
Subject 73 Red Jerec Asyr Hego Hill	Jai'galaar Gred Eocin Chiyat

If you wish to join, please sign up in the OOC thread .

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After months of preparation and hard work, the day of the Space Race had at last arrived. Millions of excited people shuffled into the arena (though no one knew precisely why, since none of the racers would actually be competing from inside of it) to watch the first Annual Space Race of the Unknown Regions happen.

The arena had been a makeshift construct, just big enough to hold a handful of the ships that would be used for the race while everyone parked away closerto the planet of Lwhekk . Shuttles had been going back and forth for hours, making sure everyone would get there, hopefully on time. The arena itself was close to the planet as well, just on its Galactic West, within the Galactic Rim itself.

The premise was quite simple; teams of two or three people, going as quickly as they could, to get from point A to point B, do something, move to point C, and so on, until a victim emerged.

The crowd was promised danger.

The crowd was promised excitement.

The crowd was promised a live stream of all of it. No edits, except the occasional effect tossed in. Something along the lines of POW! Or WHOZZA! Or KAWAPANGA! Would totally work. But they would be watching the streams for hours. There was even a holochannel open and up for those willing to pay a wee bit extra.

"PEOPLE, YOU WON'T BELIEVE IT!" the first Troig head shouted into the microphone, "THE FIRST ANNUAL SPACE RACE IS ABOUT TO LAUNCH!" yelled the second head. "IN ONLY TEN SECONDS, TWO SHIPS WILL COMPLETE HEAD TO HEAD FOR THE RACE TO…" The drum rolls were loud. And long. Perhaps a touch too long. "TEAMS!" Shouted the first one again, "YOUR MISSION, STEP ONE, THE FIRST FRONTIER, THE VERY FIRST PLACE YOU MUST OUTRACE EACH OTHER TOWARDS TO…" "AAAAAAAAAAANTHAN PRIME!" "ON THE WAY, YOU WILL FACE ASTEROID STORMS, STONES IN YOUR ENGINES , AND WE MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE STASHED A CANNIBAL WOOKIE ON ONE OF YOUR SHIPS!"

"GOOD LUCK!"

And with that, the race had begun.

---

OOC:
Your first mission is in. We are by Lhwekk, and you need to get to Anthan Prime. Both teams have until Tuesday, February 25th, to post as few or as many times as they wish, to get to the destination. Cookie points will be granted based on tension and interest, and once you reach the planet, both teams will be given ground missions as well. How to go about it, is entirely up to you.

Good luck!

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Tannhauser-class Freighter Infinity's Free
Subject 73 Red Hego Hill
A couple minutes here or there wouldn't make a difference. Just now, moment of tension or not, Jerec was visible to his new team as nothing but a pair of boots protruding from the hyperdrive. He'd hooked up a comlink to the ship's intercom so he could chat while he finished the modifications.

"I'm thinking we take the coreward route: long cold jump across the interspiral gap to this little farm world called Kammia, then skim the rimward edge of the Eternal Empire and bam, we're at Anthan Prime. Couldn't be easier, gives us an edge, and saves us from maybe getting stuck in Agents of Chaos territory. We'd never get to the Anthan system with that much glitter in our engine intakes."

The boots wiggled - a shrug.

"That's what I'm thinking, anyway. What about you boys?"

 

[Jai'galaar Gred]

Enigma-class FAC Cloud Breaker
Eocin Chiyat
Jai looked from the bridge as the floating sphere of EW-031 darted around.

“Oh this’ll be exciting! We get to race! I hope the SLAM can last that long. At least Enigma-class vessels don’t need much crew. That would be a disadvantage if we don’t run into pirates. That would be bad. Or if we hit an astroid. Or....”

“EW, cool your scrambled processors!” Jai just sighed, looking over to his partner in this, Erkhin Trivohld. “Sorry about her. She’s a bit... eccentric.” That was putting it lightly, but still. He looked at the chart, rubbing over his eyes.

“We have two options that I can tell. Jump between the arm and the main disc, and possibly run into Eternal Empire ships once we hit the galactic rim, or head down the arm, near Agent of Chaos space, and turn when the rim disappears. Any other paths you can think of, cause I’m no navigator.”

 

[Eocin Chiyat]

Location: "Cloud Breaker"
Tags: Jai'galaar Gred
---

What a strange AI, so flighty. She was right about the pirates, however. Annoying creatures, ones he had been forced to tangle with somewhat recently - the small detachment of Xerxikeen that now served as his bodyguards should be sufficient to exterminate any vermin, however.

"Quite alright. I have considerable experience with more independent intelligences." Eerily unblinking eyes analysing his partner's chart and the internal overlay representing his own records and various public sources, he nodded.

"Accurate. The Eternals are sticklers about customs, would likely attempt to intercept us if they can. The Agents are... unpredictable, but they seem the kind to enjoy a good show. I don't foresee any organised efforts interrupting a competition of this sort, unless necessary."

Clicking his tongue, he shrugged. "Neither region is entirely stable, so I would recommend we follow the arm and see what lunacy the Agents are up to these days. Should be interesting, at least."

 

[Subject 73 Red]

Jerec Asyr Hego Hill

Red sat in a chair on the ship. He listened to the voice of one of his team members, Jerec Asyr , tell them what he thought they should do.

How did Red end up in this situation? He could be anywhere else, fighting an army, going undercover, drooping into enemy lines, providing fire support to ground forces from a gunship, or anything equally awesome from a super soldier. But no, he was here, going on a race to some place he had never heard of before. Red had his armor on, with his helmet off next to him. Red had multiple weapons on him, including his lightsaber. His Pit droid, Pitt, sat next to him in the chair beside him.

Red thought about what they should do. "Well, the crowd was promised a show, so let's go and give them one." Red replied.

 

[Jai'galaar Gred]

Eocin Chiyat

Jai chuckled a little at the man pointed out his experience with A.I.s, which was good, though he wondered if he'd ever dealt with one like EW. He also smiled at the note of lunacy within the Agents of Chaos. His helmet hide the smirk on his face, but he looked over at EW speaking up as he did.

"They're probably mounting glitter sprayers to fast attack corvettes. Let's make the jump though." And with that, the Cloud Breaker made the jump to lightspeed, beginning the first leg of the race.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The corvette had spent a long time in hyperspace, but not a long enough time when it lept back into realspace. Jai looked at his partner, having been playing a friendly game of Sabbac when the jump left its jump. "EW...! Why aren't we in hyperspace?" Jai walked up to the bridge, hearing the floating droid answer.

"Don't worry, sir. Nothing bad, just an asteroid field that was quicker to traverse then hyperspace around. If we use the SLAM we'll be in and out in no time!" Sometimes Jai wished that droid would just tell him everything in advance. Either way, he looked out, nodding.

"Just get us through, and keep the scanners on high power. Don't want anyone jumping out to get use." The droid quickly nodded, and got the vessel moving at high speed through the small asteroid belt. And then an alarm rang. Fighters closing in. "Of couser this couldn't be that easy."

 

[Eocin Chiyat]

Location: Unknown Asteroid Field, aboard the "Cloud Breaker"
Tags: Jai'galaar Gred
---

It was interesting, in its own way, to strategise without the use of his various implants and enhancements. A shame their game was interrupted by a minor obstacle, and soon after by the incoming fighters.

Sliding from his chair, the cyborg's eyes flickered across the bridge, settling on a weapons console set in a corner. "Pirates, certainly. They will have a ship close, most likely. Not much room for loot in fighters. I trust you will handle the manoeuvring?"

Not waiting for an answer, he found a seat, issuing a mental command and soon after being flooded by a vast stream of tactical data and borrowed expertise. Pulling a strange-looking cable from the back of his neck, he plugged himself directly into the weapons systems, assuming the shipboard AI let him. He was no gunner, but he did not need to be with a response time measured in microseconds.

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Subject 73 Red Hego Hill

"Sounds like a plan to me, Red. Hey, I like the new hair dye." Jerec slid into the pilot's couch, tossed his new teammate a grin, and fired up the modified hyperdrive.

"Ohh, that's nice. You hear that purr? That'll run south of point-five, no doubt about it. Screaming fast. Alright, here we..." He slid the levers. The Infinity's Free blasted off to hyperspace with a reality-distorting jolt.

He squinted at the vibrating instrument panel. "Yes. YES. We just broke point three. Clearing the edge, crossing the void. Long cold jump through trackless nothing, trailblazing our way to a little farm world called - oh, I already said all this. Kammia. We're half an hour out of Kammia already. Feth yes."

 

[Jai'galaar Gred]

Eocin Chiyat

Jai nodded, grabbing the flight controls as he looked back to Erkhin.

"We only have two turrets. The rest is forward mounted." EW meanwhile looked out, not blocking the man from the weapons. She looked out, then yelled.

"Fighters! Four o'clock low!" Jai quickly rolled the corvette, its SLAM still engaged. EW continued sweeping the sensors, finally noticing a blip. "Oh! I found them! I found them! There's a frigate nearby!" Jai smiled, turning the corvette, and cutting off the SLAM. He'd need power back to the main cannons.

"Hang on tight everyone!" The Cloud Breaker slowed and turned towards the frigate, with Jai happy he'd finally get to test something. The Varactyls opened up the moment the vessel came in view, and he smiled. "Hey Erkhin! See that system that says surprise? Hit it when we head over this guy!"

 

[Subject 73 Red]

Jerec Asyr

Red watched his teammate sit in the pilot's... er, seat. It looked more like a bed than anything. What was it called again? A... couch, Red believed was what it is called. It seemed a bit excessive, but there wasn't anything Red could do about it.

Red frowned when Jerec said that Red's hair was dyed. Completely incorrect, this was Red's natural hair color, he's had it since his birth in the genetic labs. The scientists gave him this hair color so that they could identify him easier, hence his easy to remember name, Red. "This... is my natural hair color." Red corrected him.

They jumped away into hyperspace. Jerec kept on talking. Man, this guy was all over the place. He kept talking incredibly fast, and seemed to lose his train of thought easily. Red wondered if this guy had any caf, and if he did, how much? Red wanted to take a breath analyzer, but managed to hold himself back.

 

[Hego Hill]

Subject 73 Red Jerec Asyr

Hego Hill wasn't a pilot but boy was he a good navigator. An expert navigator if that could be said.

See, you don't get a job in the IGBC unless you're a genius, and a genius Hego was. In fact, if Scherezade deWinter gave them a flight plan, Hego would probably pull a Half-Blood Prince and make it twice as good.

The Muun was assigned two teammates he was unusually eager to meet (at least for a Muun). Now, he was on the ship as it jumped into Hyperspace, but had locked himself in his cabin to prepare his flight plan. After being done, he moved into the cockpit to meet the two others.

"Hello to both of you," Hego would say. "If any of you mind, I have some ideas with regards to navigation."

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Subject 73 Red Hego Hill

The hair seemed to be a sore spot, which entertained the absolute feth out of Jerec. He was about to make a comment to that effect when their Muun teammate deigned to leave his cabin.

"If it isn't sleeping beauty. I figured you might. You've got a rep, Hego, and as it happens I could use your help on nav right now."

Jerec pulled up the star chart and sketched on it with a holopen while twiddling the freshly modded hyperdrive.

"Blue route's what they probably expected us to take to Anthan Prime. Red route's the jump we're on now: Lwhekk to Kammia. From there we've got to slide past the Eternal Empire that won't exist in five years. Think you can find us a safe route? I hear Cattamascar's off the table as a stopover, by the way."

 

[Hego Hill]

The conventional route assigned by Scherezade deWinter (and the one Jerec Asyr just showed) was, just as Hego had expected, deficient. See, people don't take enough risks when it comes to navigation. It's kind of a completely unjustified stereotype that Muun are risk-averse; the IGBC would not exist if Muun were risk-averse.

Before the Muun could finalize his flight plan, he had to gather certain pieces of information from his colleagues. This would make him able to finalize the plan.

"Jerec, give me the following information. One, how much fuel do we have, how far will it get us, how big is the tank, and where are there refueling stations. Secondly, will the Eternal Empire give a toss if we violate enter their space? Thirdly, how hard of a turn can this thing take without snapping apart and killing all of us? All of this is necessary; when you give me the info I need, I'll have a flight plan ready. Make sure to do this within the next ten minutes, cause we might need to interrupt the jump half way to the planet. Don't ask, it'll work somehow."

[ Subject 73 Red ]

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Hego Hill

Jerec pulled up the relevant data. "We've got a fifty-thousand-light-year tank, give or take, but we're certain to get worse mileage with the new mods. It's a coin toss whether we'll have enough fuel to get us to Anthan Prime or whether we'll come up a little short. Locations of fuel stations around there...I couldn't tell ya. Normally I'd drop by the Blood Trail, but we're too far rimward - that runs along the coreward edge of the Eternal Empire between Verkuyl, Annaj, and 244Core. The Eternal Empire's not a place I want to go - they'll impound the ship in a heartbeat on a whim, if they feel like it. As for a turn, you mean inside hyperspace? I've installed a nav computer bypass, so yeah, we can turn in hyperspace without dropping out or breaking up."

 

[Hego Hill]

Scherezade deWinter Jerec Asyr Subject 73 Red

"Thank you Jerec for that information, that is much appreciated."

Hego proceeded to type extremely audibly to the cockpit crew. It was very clear that he was aggressively concentrating on his cract; he had "quite a rep" as Jerec put it, and it showed.

One thing Hego was especially focused on was computing how much fuel was necessary. It was important to note that the speed of the ship increased in inverse proportion to the amount of fuel on board, which was an intrinsic part of his calculation. Moreover, he was interested as to how he could plot the course to take most account of this.

The first thing he noticed was that a very short stop on Kammia was necessary. That was the planet they were headed to. He had to compute how much fuel was necessary right then and there with the refueling staff at the space port. Moreover, he was interested on how he could use astro-geography to his benefit. Maybe a gravity sling shot might be in order.

"Alright, both of you. Continue to Kammia as we are now. We'll decide on how much fuel we need at the space port there. I legitimately believe we might have too much on board to reach Anthan Prime to be honest and we might have to drop some to keep at maximum speed. And that's if there's a refueling station on Kammia; I heard it was sparsely populated, so don't get your hopes up."

 

[Eocin Chiyat]

Location: Unknown Asteroid Field, aboard the "Cloud Breaker"
Tags: Jai'galaar Gred
---

Miss. Miss. Miss. Miss. With every miss, the pirate fighters got more confident, bunched closer in order to maximise their firepower. His partner was manoeuvring admirably, but it was only a matter of time before they hit something important.

There. Smiling eerily, he projected the command through the neural link, felt the cannons hum, felt, though the ship's sensors, the asteroid explode, bathing the fighters in shrapnel. One went down, three scattered, but too late. Battered and distracted as they were, it was far too late.

"Fighters down. Might be more." Turning his attention to the main weapons, he did his best with what he was given. Conventional Erakhian naval doctrine would have him bring down their shields with ion cannons before taking out their engines and life support with railguns, but that was unfortunately off the table. Oh well, he was no stranger to improvisation.

Blasting away, he softened their shield as best he could, gritting his teeth every time he felt the pirates' weapons connect with their ship. There was nothing an Erakhian hated more than a fair fight, perhaps with the exception of germs. Issuing the command as their craft shot above the frigate, practically touching hulls, he felt more than saw the damnable glitter bathe their foe's hull. Now to see whether Whimsy products were worth a damn, because who else worked with thrice-cursed glitter.

 

[Jai'galaar Gred]

Jai smiled as he pulled away and turned, seeing the pink, sparkling cloud of glitter coat the frigate. He looked at cyborg, chuckling.

"That stuff may not be great against durasteel, but other materials, including transparasteel, and it eats right through. EW! Plot a course out of here and reengage the SLAM." The droid quickly gave an affirmative nod before reengaging the SLAM unit, and sending the corvette back into the belt. Jai was confident the frigate wouldn't be any more of a struggle, and the vessel quickly raced for the belt edge before jumping back into hyperspace.

Eocin Chiyat

 

[Eocin Chiyat]

Location: Unknown Asteroid Field, aboard the "Cloud Breaker"
Tags: Jai'galaar Gred
---

Including transparisteel? Not so different after all, their respective naval doctrines.

To their credit, the frigate attempted to turn... only to quickly become concerned with different matters altogether, if his sensor readings were to be believed. Losing part of your crew to vacuum would do that to you, he supposed. He would never understand the obsession with exposed bridge structures shared by so many spacefaring cultures.

The matter settled, they set off into hyperspace, though Erkhin might have privately preferred to finish the frigate off. As far as he was concerned, the law was clear on such matters - no quarter would be given to pirates and their ilk.

---

An uninterrupted game of Sabacc later - his partner unsurprisingly struggling to glean Erkhin's reactions from his completely cybernetic features - they found themselves exiting hyperspace above Anthan Prime. He had visited the Spire once, when this body was new. Complete sensory input available with but a command, and yet it had still felt so hollow... "... and here we are! First too, unless they're parked somewhere."

 

[Subject 73 Red]

Jerec Asyr Hego Hill

Red watched as their other teammate, walked out of the cabin and approached them. He asked them for statistics about the ship. Since Red knew nothing about this ship, he let Jerec handle this one. Jerec went down the list of stuff about the ship that Hego had asked for. Great, they were all maniacs. Well, at least they had something in common. "I'll let you guys figure out the navigation. It isn't really my forte, really. Besides, you both look like you both have it handled." Red told them.

 

[Jerec Asyr]

TIME SKIP
KAMMIA - LANDFALL

The freighter settled onto a landing pad that was literally just a field of shallow mud over bedrock. The landing gear and ramp sank in about a foot.

"Okay." Jerec squinted at a faded sign. "This place sells fuel. Hego, you've got the magic numbers, you better make that happen. Red, watch his back in case they try to twist his arm for a better rate or just plain rob us."

A little bossy, but he hadn't cottoned to Hego getting bossy earlier on his ship. Friggin' white collar.