With my win last week, I got to chose this week's drabble topic. Thank you, and I hope you enjoy these following stories about Disabled Systems!
Psykokow hosts the Abraka-Drabble live reading show and comedy hour at 7pm GMT, Fridays on...
- HUTTON ORBITAL RADIO! http://streaming.radionomy.com/HuttonOrbitalRadio (audio only)
- LAVE RADIO! http://laveradio.com/ (audio only)
- TWITCH! http://www.twitch.tv/psykokow/ (audio & visual)
and will also be uploaded to his You-tube channel & anywhere else he can infect the world with our drabblings!
Remember, the winner(s) of this week's Drabble Contest get to choose next week's topic. They also get to wear the Drabble Crown for a whole week!
_________________________________________________
01 - Darkoba - SNAFU
The first serious sign was whgen it became impossssible to post attachmnts. Bfore that, spelling mistakes had been appering on monitors and HUDs everwhere.
There was even confusion about time zonnes. Apparently the standard Galactic cluck was out of kilter.
Pilots became ultra-cautious, not daring to trust their systems any moore. A whole Galactic day passed without a sungle entry on the Frunteer drabble board.
A few careful attempts at commmunication resulted in failre. If simple things didn't work, what cold be happening in the more complicated software systems like life-suppoorrt?
Frontier space went into lock-down.
Thargoids rubbed mandibles gleefully.
_________________________________________________
02 - Simoof - Old age comes for us all...
Homer sat in the observation post of the space-station.
The glass of the window was old and mottled, worn down by centuries of abrasive tongues caressing its surface.
He once meant something. He once was important.
He looked around the room.
Old commanders relived days of past glories, sat in imaginary cockpits, drooled into their own laps.
He looked at his aging sagging yellowing skin. If he could walk he would leave and die with dignity in some space battle.
Today his wife would be joining him permanently. A stroke had removed Marges freedom.
Homer sighed. "Just another disabled Simpson."
_________________________________________________
03 - Frank - Making Best Use of the Available Tools
LaserKnifes made a burglar's life easy. A few deft strokes and he was in the premises, albeit noisily. The tool also made short work of the battery box for the deafening klaxon. At the back of the box was a note..
"Gawd! Can't we afford a new security system?
-text GALCOPS 0734-334-867
-include our password JANX1357
-tell them it was a false alarm"
This burglary was going to be even easier than usual. After following the instructions he got a reply, "It might be a cheap security system but it caught you. GET OUT NOW! We'll be there within minutes."
_________________________________________________
04 - moose666 - ImperialCutter Cooker
"And these, Senator, are my prized Fawaolian mandrills."
The Senator nodded, "Don't see to many of those around these days."
Suddenly, the temperature began to rocket, a nearby maintenance panel banged open in a shower of sparks.
"Is that supposed to happen?" the Senator asked.
The monkeys began to holler as the mercury climbed higher.
The captain thumped the comm panel, "Walter?, what's going on, I ordered the shield cells to be disabled!"
"We've got a damn pirate anaconda captain!" came the panicked reply.
"Just run then, I'm not having my mandrills or the senator barbecued!"
"Aye aye sir, disengaging!"
_________________________________________________
05 - Goose4291 - The Burden of Command
- Excerpt from CiC audio-log, ICS Ferentis, Durius conflict, day two.
_________________________________________________
06 - Alien - Cont ...
Communication systems disabled ... re-sending last week's drabble
Remember when we used to ...
And ... get done
And ... was happy ... a way
... we ...have ... little fun
Re ... mer ... fab
... fill with ...
... work ...
... you ... with your ...
... you were ... ung
... you .. o do
... the ... mile ... on ... ace
You ... w ... ee ... n ... children too
Remember these ... ad
O ... day ... be ... one
... ings that ... you ...ad
... ories ...rged in ... one
Yes, und ... ood, drabble is sh ... t win ...
If Simoof ss ... word
... sure, kill ... kitten
it ... won't ... und... ood
It's ard ... write ... drabble
Set ... Elite universe
When ... don't vote ... you planned
And the host ... things worse
_________________________________________________
07 - Listeri69 - Voicing your concern...
In the Barnards Star Canteen Hangs Solo is trying to order a meal
'Riceeeeeee'
'You have selected Ice would you like a drink with that'
'no I want Thai Curry and Rice'
'Ping, One Iced tie and Slurry, enjoy your meal'
'What? That's not what I said ok what else is on this menu, Lemon Bass...
'one lebanon ass coming right up sir, enjoy your donkey'
'What I don't eat donkey this machine is broken.. Duck?'
'Swearing at the Meal-4000 is not helpful'
'Fish, chips and peas then...'
'I think you want the bukkakkeSkat-600 on level 4 for that sir'
_________________________________________________
08 - kelgrath - New Help For Old Pilots
Do you need a helping hand?
Did you lose a leg fighting The Code?
Had a frost-bitten arm amputated following cockpit depressurisation dropping mugs into Sagittarius A*?
Introducing Lakon's new "Disabled Systems". We can automate anything to keep you flying. From a simple remapped control to compensate for a missing hand, to the full S-Hawk 42 system, pioneered back in the twenty first century, allowing full control of your ship with just a thought.
Ask your shipyard for options on your new vessel. Special deals for retrofitting existing ships.
Disable Systems by Lakon. Putting the "Able" back into disabled pilots.
_________________________________________________
09 - MrMogadon - WHY....That's a Really Good Question. Let me tell you my story...
Too slow for bounty hunting. Too principled for pirating. Too forgetful for trading and too lazy for mining. Exploring for me. Zoom into the big black. Scan some suns, planets and the like. Lots of time for catching up on my holovids and writing fanciful tales of all my adventures. No cargo to spoil, just data to be sold. Simple.
Then I drifted too close to a sun whilst scooping.
Fried my witch drive. Data's worthless out here.
Taken six months just to find YOU.
THAT'S why you need to give me your ship …... and I'm holding this firkin blaster.
_________________________________________________
10 - Ian Philips - Distraction
The problem with SRV's isn't their lack of heavy fire power, it's that Drones recognise them. SRV's don't do stealth as a result. Thats why we are walking to the base.
The weapon turrets AI's are all linked to the drones detection systems and follow their movements. Soon a squad of SRV's will come in to draw attention away from us and we can sneak into the base.
We have to be quick, but speed is a trigger for the sensors, so DO NOT RUN.
Once inside we are to find and disable the drone and weapons turret surveillance systems.
_________________________________________________
11 - Splendour - Active Scanning
Sal's hand shook slightly as she fought to keep the battle scarred Cobra lined up with the escape vector, but try as she might the red bar on her hud crept ever higher.
"Repeat. This is an Imperial Navy operation. You are ordered to stop to be searched."
Flight was hopeless. She hit an unlabelled blue button on the dashboard, disabling certain highly illegal ships systems.
Rubbing her Icon of Braben for luck she breathed a swift prayer. "Please let them only look in the cargo bay!"
Sal throttled back letting the Navy patrol haul her back to normal space.
_________________________________________________
12 - Missileman - Yellow Bellied Pirate....
One of the biggest concerns about being a pirate, how far do you go.
Sure it's much easier when you kill someone.
They don't complain or haggle about the amount of cargo they have to drop, or how much time to leave them before you chase them away.
It just leaves you with a price on your head and that attracts bounty hunters.
I made the mistake of letting my last target go I must have got soft in my old age.
He hadn't though and he came back with his wingmen.
And here I sit disabled floating in space .
_________________________________________________
13 - Erik Marcaigh - Stall Three Again
Vingtetun was irate. "I thought it was fixed?! Marcaigh said it was working again, then jetted off to the edge of the galaxy. What's it doing now?"
The station's janitor looked sheepish, "It be gurglin' alla time an' foul odors come up from it. Word is we be havin' other issues onna platform like landing pads spinning randomly an' vending machines not droppin' bags of crips. Ops sez it's due to high radiation an' tol' me to git in there an plunge it again, but ain't nothin' stuck."
"Tear it apart and find out what's wrong with Stall Three, Simoof!"
_________________________________________________
14 - Edith_The_Hutt - The Lost Colony
Prim’s flashlight cut through the station's dusty atmosphere, the walls glistened with ice crystals and her magboots skidded slightly on frost below. Slowly, she made her way through the dead city; corridors once full of laughter, love and music now echoed faintly with her footsteps.
The control room overlooked the docking bay, Prim booted a backup terminal and accessed the log file:
14-MAY-3248:
...
07:45 COMMUNICATIONS: DISABLED
07:46 LIFE SUPPORT: DISABLED
07:49 REACTOR: SUPER-CRITICAL!
...
Prim’s torch lingered on an eviscerated, mummified figure at the command seat. They’d always known the Thargoids devastated Roanoke Orbital, now they knew how.
_________________________________________________
15 - Galactic Midden - The prize
A cacophony of micro asteroids battered the hull as Jalphenurica frantically raced from the mysterious battle force. Into the rocky field evasion was her only hope as the bio-enhanced computer flashed strategies on screen that she couldn't decipher.
Jalphenurica, not one to shy away from cash opportunities hadn't paused before murdering the Alliance science team working on the ship, but she did wonder why it had been so easy.
"Damn you mindless heap of alien junk, just reboot the guns!"
"Affirmative leadermind, fervidfury ready, instruct me to obey"
Jelphenurica squealed in delight and stabbed a finger at the HUD, "Kill!"
_________________________________________________
16 - Psykokow - Covert Cargo
The Sidewinder rocked wildly on its way through the asteroid belt.
Followed by two heatseeker missiles the pilot did well weaving wildly enough to lose their lock.
A Shriek rang out from deep within his ship, his precious cargo might be damaged.
He quickly found some dark space to slow to a halt before flicking a switch to set the ship to silent.
Jumping out of his seat he ran to the cabin in the cargo bay, where a woman soaked from head to toe stood angrily.
“Hide in the Toilet!” she snapped “I Flushed”
“oh, I’d disabled the cistern”
Psykokow hosts the Abraka-Drabble live reading show and comedy hour at 7pm GMT, Fridays on...
- HUTTON ORBITAL RADIO! http://streaming.radionomy.com/HuttonOrbitalRadio (audio only)
- LAVE RADIO! http://laveradio.com/ (audio only)
- TWITCH! http://www.twitch.tv/psykokow/ (audio & visual)
and will also be uploaded to his You-tube channel & anywhere else he can infect the world with our drabblings!
Remember, the winner(s) of this week's Drabble Contest get to choose next week's topic. They also get to wear the Drabble Crown for a whole week!
_________________________________________________
01 - Darkoba - SNAFU
The first serious sign was whgen it became impossssible to post attachmnts. Bfore that, spelling mistakes had been appering on monitors and HUDs everwhere.
There was even confusion about time zonnes. Apparently the standard Galactic cluck was out of kilter.
Pilots became ultra-cautious, not daring to trust their systems any moore. A whole Galactic day passed without a sungle entry on the Frunteer drabble board.
A few careful attempts at commmunication resulted in failre. If simple things didn't work, what cold be happening in the more complicated software systems like life-suppoorrt?
Frontier space went into lock-down.
Thargoids rubbed mandibles gleefully.
_________________________________________________
02 - Simoof - Old age comes for us all...
Homer sat in the observation post of the space-station.
The glass of the window was old and mottled, worn down by centuries of abrasive tongues caressing its surface.
He once meant something. He once was important.
He looked around the room.
Old commanders relived days of past glories, sat in imaginary cockpits, drooled into their own laps.
He looked at his aging sagging yellowing skin. If he could walk he would leave and die with dignity in some space battle.
Today his wife would be joining him permanently. A stroke had removed Marges freedom.
Homer sighed. "Just another disabled Simpson."
_________________________________________________
03 - Frank - Making Best Use of the Available Tools
LaserKnifes made a burglar's life easy. A few deft strokes and he was in the premises, albeit noisily. The tool also made short work of the battery box for the deafening klaxon. At the back of the box was a note..
"Gawd! Can't we afford a new security system?
-text GALCOPS 0734-334-867
-include our password JANX1357
-tell them it was a false alarm"
This burglary was going to be even easier than usual. After following the instructions he got a reply, "It might be a cheap security system but it caught you. GET OUT NOW! We'll be there within minutes."
_________________________________________________
04 - moose666 - Imperial
"And these, Senator, are my prized Fawaolian mandrills."
The Senator nodded, "Don't see to many of those around these days."
Suddenly, the temperature began to rocket, a nearby maintenance panel banged open in a shower of sparks.
"Is that supposed to happen?" the Senator asked.
The monkeys began to holler as the mercury climbed higher.
The captain thumped the comm panel, "Walter?, what's going on, I ordered the shield cells to be disabled!"
"We've got a damn pirate anaconda captain!" came the panicked reply.
"Just run then, I'm not having my mandrills or the senator barbecued!"
"Aye aye sir, disengaging!"
_________________________________________________
05 - Goose4291 - The Burden of Command
- Excerpt from CiC audio-log, ICS Ferentis, Durius conflict, day two.
_________________________________________________
06 - Alien - Cont ...
Communication systems disabled ... re-sending last week's drabble
Remember when we used to ...
And ... get done
And ... was happy ... a way
... we ...have ... little fun
Re ... mer ... fab
... fill with ...
... work ...
... you ... with your ...
... you were ... ung
... you .. o do
... the ... mile ... on ... ace
You ... w ... ee ... n ... children too
Remember these ... ad
O ... day ... be ... one
... ings that ... you ...ad
... ories ...rged in ... one
Yes, und ... ood, drabble is sh ... t win ...
If Simoof ss ... word
... sure, kill ... kitten
it ... won't ... und... ood
It's ard ... write ... drabble
Set ... Elite universe
When ... don't vote ... you planned
And the host ... things worse
_________________________________________________
07 - Listeri69 - Voicing your concern...
In the Barnards Star Canteen Hangs Solo is trying to order a meal
'Riceeeeeee'
'You have selected Ice would you like a drink with that'
'no I want Thai Curry and Rice'
'Ping, One Iced tie and Slurry, enjoy your meal'
'What? That's not what I said ok what else is on this menu, Lemon Bass...
'one lebanon ass coming right up sir, enjoy your donkey'
'What I don't eat donkey this machine is broken.. Duck?'
'Swearing at the Meal-4000 is not helpful'
'Fish, chips and peas then...'
'I think you want the bukkakkeSkat-600 on level 4 for that sir'
_________________________________________________
08 - kelgrath - New Help For Old Pilots
Do you need a helping hand?
Did you lose a leg fighting The Code?
Had a frost-bitten arm amputated following cockpit depressurisation dropping mugs into Sagittarius A*?
Introducing Lakon's new "Disabled Systems". We can automate anything to keep you flying. From a simple remapped control to compensate for a missing hand, to the full S-Hawk 42 system, pioneered back in the twenty first century, allowing full control of your ship with just a thought.
Ask your shipyard for options on your new vessel. Special deals for retrofitting existing ships.
Disable Systems by Lakon. Putting the "Able" back into disabled pilots.
_________________________________________________
09 - MrMogadon - WHY....That's a Really Good Question. Let me tell you my story...
Too slow for bounty hunting. Too principled for pirating. Too forgetful for trading and too lazy for mining. Exploring for me. Zoom into the big black. Scan some suns, planets and the like. Lots of time for catching up on my holovids and writing fanciful tales of all my adventures. No cargo to spoil, just data to be sold. Simple.
Then I drifted too close to a sun whilst scooping.
Fried my witch drive. Data's worthless out here.
Taken six months just to find YOU.
THAT'S why you need to give me your ship …... and I'm holding this firkin blaster.
_________________________________________________
10 - Ian Philips - Distraction
The problem with SRV's isn't their lack of heavy fire power, it's that Drones recognise them. SRV's don't do stealth as a result. Thats why we are walking to the base.
The weapon turrets AI's are all linked to the drones detection systems and follow their movements. Soon a squad of SRV's will come in to draw attention away from us and we can sneak into the base.
We have to be quick, but speed is a trigger for the sensors, so DO NOT RUN.
Once inside we are to find and disable the drone and weapons turret surveillance systems.
_________________________________________________
11 - Splendour - Active Scanning
Sal's hand shook slightly as she fought to keep the battle scarred Cobra lined up with the escape vector, but try as she might the red bar on her hud crept ever higher.
"Repeat. This is an Imperial Navy operation. You are ordered to stop to be searched."
Flight was hopeless. She hit an unlabelled blue button on the dashboard, disabling certain highly illegal ships systems.
Rubbing her Icon of Braben for luck she breathed a swift prayer. "Please let them only look in the cargo bay!"
Sal throttled back letting the Navy patrol haul her back to normal space.
_________________________________________________
12 - Missileman - Yellow Bellied Pirate....
One of the biggest concerns about being a pirate, how far do you go.
Sure it's much easier when you kill someone.
They don't complain or haggle about the amount of cargo they have to drop, or how much time to leave them before you chase them away.
It just leaves you with a price on your head and that attracts bounty hunters.
I made the mistake of letting my last target go I must have got soft in my old age.
He hadn't though and he came back with his wingmen.
And here I sit disabled floating in space .
_________________________________________________
13 - Erik Marcaigh - Stall Three Again
Vingtetun was irate. "I thought it was fixed?! Marcaigh said it was working again, then jetted off to the edge of the galaxy. What's it doing now?"
The station's janitor looked sheepish, "It be gurglin' alla time an' foul odors come up from it. Word is we be havin' other issues onna platform like landing pads spinning randomly an' vending machines not droppin' bags of crips. Ops sez it's due to high radiation an' tol' me to git in there an plunge it again, but ain't nothin' stuck."
"Tear it apart and find out what's wrong with Stall Three, Simoof!"
_________________________________________________
14 - Edith_The_Hutt - The Lost Colony
Prim’s flashlight cut through the station's dusty atmosphere, the walls glistened with ice crystals and her magboots skidded slightly on frost below. Slowly, she made her way through the dead city; corridors once full of laughter, love and music now echoed faintly with her footsteps.
The control room overlooked the docking bay, Prim booted a backup terminal and accessed the log file:
14-MAY-3248:
...
07:45 COMMUNICATIONS: DISABLED
07:46 LIFE SUPPORT: DISABLED
07:49 REACTOR: SUPER-CRITICAL!
...
Prim’s torch lingered on an eviscerated, mummified figure at the command seat. They’d always known the Thargoids devastated Roanoke Orbital, now they knew how.
_________________________________________________
15 - Galactic Midden - The prize
A cacophony of micro asteroids battered the hull as Jalphenurica frantically raced from the mysterious battle force. Into the rocky field evasion was her only hope as the bio-enhanced computer flashed strategies on screen that she couldn't decipher.
Jalphenurica, not one to shy away from cash opportunities hadn't paused before murdering the Alliance science team working on the ship, but she did wonder why it had been so easy.
"Damn you mindless heap of alien junk, just reboot the guns!"
"Affirmative leadermind, fervidfury ready, instruct me to obey"
Jelphenurica squealed in delight and stabbed a finger at the HUD, "Kill!"
_________________________________________________
16 - Psykokow - Covert Cargo
The Sidewinder rocked wildly on its way through the asteroid belt.
Followed by two heatseeker missiles the pilot did well weaving wildly enough to lose their lock.
A Shriek rang out from deep within his ship, his precious cargo might be damaged.
He quickly found some dark space to slow to a halt before flicking a switch to set the ship to silent.
Jumping out of his seat he ran to the cabin in the cargo bay, where a woman soaked from head to toe stood angrily.
“Hide in the Toilet!” she snapped “I Flushed”
“oh, I’d disabled the cistern”
Last edited:
