Night Attack
04 Feb 2019JosefK
Departed Nyeajeau GN-Q B52-10 zero dark thirty 27JAN3305.Trying to make up time but also on the lookout for B and O's to scope for the higher-ups.
Seems they are in need of some info on space-bugs, something called Anemones. Well, that's all I could gather from the odd flash traffic message that came thru in the middle of the night and woke me up. Here's the text of it:
**** F L A S H T R A F F I C ****
**** F L A S H T R A F F I C ****
Encryp %HHu7vchl123opsd9udn5098*&g2r3oghSD(*GH
Attn: CMDR of VESSEL KingpinIV assigned to DW2 Expeditional Forces
From: NIMSATCOM Geology and Organics Division
Since you're part of the advance team, if you want to do something *useful*, I have a suggestion. Take a look in the codex. Notice there are exactly three types of Anemone biologicals reported in the two regions coming up - Inner Scutum-Centaurus and Norma Expanse. They are the same three types, in fact. Some of the division have been trying to determine if the other types are just much more rare. So if you're inclined to spend some time jumping among O and B stars in the direction of the core, looking for the other pumpkin types could be a good project.
**** E N D F L A S H ****
**** E N D F L A S H ****
So, I figured since I was awake I went and kicked in Lynn's door. She was NOT happy.
Spooled up the drives and made our way back up to altitude.
Through the course of the next 12 hours we made good time. Lynn was running the FSS each time we dropped into an O or B as I was running the rest of the stations (you know, driving, making Prielean coffee, reshuffling the playlist on TunesBot).
Some where in those hours I took a pause and checked out our nav computer.
That's when I saw just how far off the main line of the expedition we had come.
Since we left Nyeajeau GN-Q B52-10 out of the 44 drops we had made, 25 of those systems were previously undiscovered.
We had covered 3170 LY and I was a little concerned that we might just be a tad off course.
So we settled for a quick landing to get our bearings, send some messages and crank up the AFMU to work on the drives. Neutron hopping had taken the FSD down to just under 90. Chose a nice hard rock in the Ellairb MH-D d12-145 system (again, a 1st discovered for us).
After the repairs, a meal and noticing we were both pretty ragged from the run I decided we'd make that our base camp for some rest. I ran the SRV out and picked up a few slugs of Chromium and Vanadium to keep the AFMU stocked. We still have 26 reloads available so we're in good shape.
After I put the buggy away, I grabbed a quick shot of QuiSleep and passed out from the long day.
I'm guessing sometime in the next 3 hours is when all hell broke loose. I woke up to the sound of twisting metal and a feeling of a loss of gravity, and then I felt something in the pit of my stomach and last nights dinner went all over the floor.
I voice activated the cabin lights and frantically searched for my ol' trusty Fed Issued M1911AX blaster. Had it ever since mustering out years ago and not fully certain it still fires! But in a pinch, I figured I'd at least throw it at whomever seemed to be intent on BREAKING MY F-ING SHIP!!!!!!!
Running down the ladder to the bridge, Lynn was already in the low light streaming into the cockpit from planetside reflection. She didn't even bother putting much on before coming up to see what was happening.
Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the noise, low-grav and twisting metal shill scraping sounds all just vanished.
So after spending the next few hours assessing the damage, interior, SRV, SLF bay almost NOTHING seemed to have any major issue or damage. Then I hear Lynn say, "Cap, you're gonna want to see this...."
I walk over and she's pulled up the telemetry data on ol Kingpin IV (you know, the wireframe replays you can watch when someone doesn't quite hit the mail-slot!) and I can't believe my own eyes....
Something had picked up and tossed around a nearly fully loaded Faulcon DeLacy Anaconda as if it were a child's toy and then dropped it. 800 tons of it. We were UPSIDE DOWN on the planet surface. I fired up the thrusters and put us back down on the gear.
Now we're sitting here trying to figure out our next move.
CMDR out
JK