Spaceship Spelunking!
09 Apr 2018LongDistanceClara
Hi! I put some blurb about the modelling project at the bottom, but please be gentle, it's just me "learning the ropes"!
The log stuff below was just an idea I had for a follow up to some earlier logs and isn't that well thought out (plus takes some fairly large artistic license with planetary starport construction!) - I'm blaming rl + learning stuff for project = not much free time Excuses excuses! ANYWAY... -----
This is starting to get ridiculous...
I'm on the run! I mean not really, but we're definitely trying to stay off the radar of some pesky folk who are hell-bent on trying to ventilate me, my ship and anything in the general vicinity with very Freudian guns! It all goes back to those shenanigans a few weeks ago and that grotty little club in San Tu, a tremendously creepy perv and his buddies; but I'll start with our return to the bubble...
We rolled back into town in the Wildcat with about 150k light years and change on the clock. There are definitely much better ships out there for hacking around the galaxy; and I haven't instantly-fallen-in-love with her like I did my T-10? HOWEVER - there's definitely something there, I think; and there's no denying how utterly gorgeous she looks
Coral has very much bonded with her however, so the "'Cat" is going to see a lot of use in the near future!Hal had some personal stuff to see to, so we dropped him off at a transport hub. The station was pretty grimy and industrial-looking, but then so's Hal! I think he was meeting up with a bunch of buddies from the old days and judging by the shade of beetroot he went when Coral and I pushed him for some war-stories, I think it'll be a very "boys' reunion" kinda thing
Home Sweet Home!
Well, two can play that game! I was all ready for taking the Chieftain back to home port and introducing Coral to that time-honored tradition of girls' night but newp! She was all business and wanted to start kitting out the 'Cat with all the toys we'd need to seriously start surveying Marimba, our ELW home. I didn't really put up much of a fight, as I was just as eager as she was - but we ended up with a compromise. Survey equipment could only be gotten from a few stations; stations have bars. Barely any arm twisting later and we were off!
There's a planetary starport called Marconi Works, not too far from home - and it's a very cool place! You name it, they got it - at least if you're after planetary tech; and I just love these walled planetary outposts. They're always pretty busy and vibrant and Marconi is no exception. I let Coral take the ship down as I was still pretty stiff from my injuries, but almost had to take over when she kept drifting off the glide path on approach. In all fairness, I think she can be forgiven - we'd arrived at the perfect time for the galactic core to put on a bit of a light show and it was very distracting!
Arrival at Marconi
Coral brought the ship down onto a drop-off point; she'd have to go and dock up properly but we'd decided I'd scoot off with the SRV and start the shopping extravaganza - the gear would be pretty heavy and there was no way we were going to lug it back to the Wildcat on foot! I gotta admit, I was a little bit nervous for her as I trundled off in the SRV - the amount of air traffic in the port was ridiculous and I quietly crossed my fingers, hoping that she'd avoid smearing a Sidey all over the cockpit!
Traffic!
So. Much. Crap. Honestly, I didn't think the poor ship would be able to take off - we filled her to the eyeballs with so much stuff! Prefab kits for a temporary base of operations; analyzers for soil, water and air; topographic survey equipment - it just went on and on, and as soon as we thought we were nearing the end, one of us would think of something else we'd need. By the end of it all, my arms were just wet spaghetti and there was general unanimous consensus that we'd earned a liquid reward
Coral headed off out to poke around the starport and find a suitable dive for us to collapse in, while I tried to remove the grime from several hours hard labor hauling stuff off the SRV (mental note: get customary tub fitted to Chieftain asap, showers suck!
). Feeling a lot better, I locked down the ship and tottered off towards the entertainment district.That's another thing I love about the planetary starports - there's so much more room! The streets are still crowded and there's plenty of life to the place, but you don't feel quite as claustrophobic as you do on, say, an Orbis - there I always feel like we're all stacked on top of each other in a tin can, and although the stations are actually huge, the habitation areas somehow manage to feel squashed to me? Down here on the ground, where space isn't at such a premium, there's room for promenades, squares full of performers and (most importantly) a lot of variety when it comes to refreshment
I started heading over to the bar where we'd agreed to meet when, from across the square, I see Coral come hustling out looking very worried. I started to speed up, obviously concerned to meet her in case she was in trouble but on seeing this, she frantically shakes her head and gestures for me to stop; Ok, I'm a little spooked now! When she got to me, she grabbed my arm, spun me around and more-or-less frog-marched me into the nearest alleyway, hustled me along and out into the throng on the next street, all the time looking behind her worriedly. FINALLY she stopped long enough to tell me what had her so scared...
It turns out, she'd gone into the bar, sat down and was just about to order a drink when a group of shady-looking characters had wandered in and started hassling people, asking questions and so on. Coral had tried to slip away but one of them had seen, grabbed her by the shoulder, thrust a pad in her face and asked if she'd seen this pilot.
Which, it turns out, was me.
Crap. I mean craaaap! Long story short - if you're not familiar with it, a few weeks ago I'd had to "accidentally" fry a seriously creepy asshat who had been trying to get "acquainted" with me very much against my wishes. In the following course of events, I may have killed two of his cronies and almost died myself in the process. Unbeknownst to me, Captain Pervy Pervertson had a brother. Who took my actions personally. And put a price on my head. Which the aforementioned shady goons were apparently now trying to collect. I guess they must have paid off local station staff or something - I kinda expected better, from a big Fed starport! - but either way, they were here, now. Coral had said "No, no idea who that is", wriggled free and hastily scooted out of the bar - and seen me less than a hundred yards away, hence the panicky skedaddling!
That was way too close!
We still weren't out of the woods though. We hurried back to the ship but as we were ducking into the hangar, I spotted an Eagle slowly doing lazy loops around the departure ring. Kinda odd behavior - unless he was a lookout waiting to call in our departure! We were so screwed - no sensible bounty hunter would try and collect us under the station's guns, they'd be insta-toast. Much better to spot and trace us with a nimble little scout, then have something big and badass sat in orbit ready to turn our hull into a colander as we tried to leave.
Time for some lateral thinking!
I've always wondered what's beneath the elevator that brings the ships down into the hangar. I mean there's machinery and so on, but it always looked like a bottomless pit and I assumed there was all sorts of infrastructure and stuff down there...time to find out! Sorry Coral but as stiff as I am, I think I better take the helm for this one.
From above, the Eagle won't have seen a thing. The elevator would have been up and there's no way he could have known that down below, we were very, very gingerly bringing the attitude thrusters online and pulling up the gear. It wouldn't have seen us nudging very gently forwards, directly underneath the elevator; and it certainly wouldn't have anticipated us slowly, quietly sliding down into the dark and pretty spooky shaft underneath the docking platform.
Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here...
I'll be honest - this was pure desperation. I half-expected that we would just come to a thumping halt at the bottom of the shaft and that would be it, no way out. I was, instead, hugely relieved as the top of a tunnel drifted up into view; our roll-of-the-dice had by some miracle worked out after all! As we gently moved forwards, it became clear that the elevator shafts all connected to a network of tunnels dug below the starport that served as conduits for a maze of ducts, pipes and cables, all serving the metropolis above.
I don't know how long we were down there but after a while, I started getting pretty worried - it was a labyrinth! No-one was supposed to come down here apart from the service crews presumably, much less a honking great spaceship! There was no indication of a way out, nor were these tunnels designed to accommodate something as large and unwieldy as a Chieftain! I'd imagine there'll be some confused and irate folks down there tomorrow wondering why the sides of some of the tunnels are caved-in in the shape of something looking oddly like an Alliance thruster assembly!
At long last, more through luck than any judgement, the tunnel started opening out and the cables and ducts fizzled out until there was just the odd support beam.
Rats in a maze...
Coral figured this was good news and I had to agree; if there was no cabling or what-have-you down this far, why build a tunnel if not to connect to the surface? Sure enough, it wasn't long before there was a slight uphill gradient to what was now a pretty sizeable cavern - until it came to an abrupt end, with a sheer wall.
Dammit - no, wait, there's light coming down from the ceiling - it's an exit shaft! Granted, only a few meters wider than the hull and barely as long but it was a way out!
Emergency exit
We must have looked so bizarre - an Alliance Chieftain suddenly popping up out of the earth like a huge mechanized prairie dog! The tunnel had spat us out a good couple of kilometers outside the city - just perfect! I wasn't taking any chances though; running as cold as possible and hugging the ground, I took us a good long way from the city before picking any star above the horizon - there was no way I was risking a low-wake with a possible ambush waiting in orbit!
I've never been so relieved to hear COVAS initiate the countdown
Sweet freedom!
So here we are! We're several systems away, having pinballed around like a crazed gerbil to lose any tails and are holed up on the dark side of a moon with everything shut down. We're both exhausted and before we try and make a run for home, I think some sleep would be a really good idea.
Once again - Coral saves my butt! This is really becoming a habit
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As mentioned at the top - not much in the way of piccies in this one, but that's partially thanks to a) work being pretty heavy this week and b) trying to teach myself the basics of the Unreal Engine! Total creature of habit and very much used to CryEngine, but I think UE is going to be better for what I'm after with this silly little project
ANYWAY - just for fun, a vid of me futzing around with particle effects - please don't judge too harshly, this is literally just a learning test! Almost didn't bother posting this, but thought why not, and threw in a quick model of the Inara logo - figured I might as well use it as another thank-you-to-Inara opportunity! Getting there, very very slowly!QUICK UPDATE: Didn't really think this was worthy of another separate post but just for giggles - a quick clip showing more particle tests and me goofing around with turning the chieftain into a very crude vertical take off beastie! Always amazes me how deceptively big and honking the ships are!