ONE HOUR WARNING
We continue into poorly explored space today. It will take three days to reach Erikson's Gateway, our gateway to the VOID.
DSSA #26 - Operation: Black Corridor
- Thread starter Penny Umbra
- Start date
ONE HOUR WARNING
We continue into poorly explored space today. It will take three days to reach Erikson's Gateway, our gateway to the VOID.
ONE HOUR WARNING
We continue heading into uncharted space today.
Please dock with the carrier and prepare for departure.
** **Security Log Playback ****
** **Cargo Bay Three ****
Low grade security cam footage shows a female figure in a Remlok flightsuit walk along a corridor and crouch in front of a control panel.Access Authorised. Please use vacuum-safe personal equipment in the cargo bay. Please enter the airlock when ready to proceed.
Airlock De-pressurising
Airlock Opening
Cryopod 1145 opening
Cryopod 1145 closing. Cycle initiated.
Airlock re-pressurising
** **Suggest hold on tight ****
** **Keep going ****
** **Keep going ****
** **Keep going ****
We have reached our sister ship, DSSA Erikson's Gateway, the gateway to the VOID.
Tomorrow we begin the crossing into the VOID, through the Mare Desperationis, seeking the Ísland Depot. An oasis for travellers needing synthesis materials on their voyage to Erikson's Star, we will offer additional services as part of the DSSA.
ONE HOUR WARNING
PLease dock with the carrier and prepare for the last leg of our journey.
We are leaving the last lights of civilisation behind us, as we head further into the VOID.
It will take two days to reach Island Depot.
ONE HOUR WARNING
The last step.
Please dock with the carrier and prepare for our last day of travel. Today we reach Ísland Depot, completing our journey.
UPDATE
The DSSA Hope Dempsey is in orbit around Hypuae Bra RX-L d7-2 planet 9 for mining operations.
Please mine Tritium only from the hotspot in the icy B ring.
A buy order has been issued for 100kcr/tonne.
Penny,
I'm been hanging around Jaques for a couple of weeks but no sign of Katerina Bloom. I did make a few enquiries but no-one seems to remember seeing her here?
Did she change her mind and continue on with you? Or stop at one of the other Colonia systems?
** **Conversation: cmdr Eleanor "Echo" Cho to cmdr Penny Umbra ***
"Penny? This is Echo in Hanger 10. It's Katerina's ship all right. The Asp Explorer with the Gold Wireframe paintjob. I'll use the pocket hatchbreaker on the boarding hatch."
--- --- ---
"Penny? Echo again. No sign of Kat on the ship."
"Echo. We've found the records in the Hope's ATC computer.
Kat departed the carrier in the AspE the same day we arrived in Colonia. We have records of transfer requests for her other ships.
Nothing else from Kat. Openly at least.
An AspE docked with the Hope Dempsey under Anonymous Access Protocols the next day, no record of it leaving Hanger 10."
So she either left some other way, abandoning her ship. Or, she's still onboard.
Come back to the Command Deck, we'll have to search the ship somehow."
"Penny? There's a thing. I'm sitting in the pilots seat looking out at the hanger wall.
There's 23 tally-marks. Last time I counted it was 22.
So... yeah, I'm coming back up. Space, this is creepy."
** **CONVERSATION ENDS ****
** **CONDITION STEADY ****
** **CRYOPOD 1143: CONDITION STABLE ****
** **CRYOPOD 1144: CONDITION STABLE ****
** **CRYOPOD 1145: EMPTY ****
** **ERROR: CRYOPOD 1145: CONDITION UNSTABLE ****
** **MEDICAL CREW, PLEASE REPORT TO CRYOPOD 1145 ****
** **CRYOPOD 1146: CONDITION STABLE ****
** **CRYOPOD 1147: CONDITION STABLE ****
--------------------------------------------
Penny? It's Echo, I'm at the medical bay. It was Katerina in the cryopod. She's got a head injury, and she suffered from oxygen deprivation too. Her remlok was damaged and then it got in the way of the pods life-support.
OK Echo. What's the doctors report?
Oh, she already came round, she told the doctor her name but didn't know where she was. The doctor made her sleep. She may have memory loss, or minor brain damage.
You were there in the cargo bay, and when the pod was opened? What did it look like, was she attacked or could it have been an accident?
At first I thought she'd been attacked. There was blood on her face, and she was twisted up on her side in the pod. But the paramedics commented that her mag-boots weren't done up properly, and she does do that you know. Just slips them on like overshoes. She could have gone flying and hit her head if she tripped. I don't know, why would she close the pod on herself? How, even? That part's wrong for an accident.
Those pods are designed to be used as emergency life-pods, you can close and seal the hatch from the inside. You said her remlok was damaged? Maybe she was leaking air and thought she wouldn't make it to the airlock. She should have been able to use the pod as a shelter, but if it had been left with the hibernation program running... Urgh, the program would have run as soon as the hatch sealed.
That's a good story Echo, and we'll use it to explain what happened. But, I don't know. Can you stay in sick-bay? I'd like to know what Kat says when she wakes up.
** **CRYO-AWAKENING PROCESS COMPLETE ****
** **TERRAFORMING AND COLONISATION OF PLANET SIX IS NOW UNDERWAY ****
** **MINING OPERATIONS COMPLETE ****
** **DSSA HOPE DEMPSEY HAS 16,413T OF TRITIUM AVAILIBLE ****
** **SALE OF TRITIUM IS AT 85,228 CREDITS PER TONNE ****
** **WELCOME TO THE VOID COMMANDER ****
** **THE VOID WELCOMES ALL SACRIFICES ****
A Saud Kruger Orca, sleek in white, green, and gold livery detached from the DSSA Hope Dempsey's deck, took a moment to lift away, then turned towards its destination leaving a long green trail behind it. Moments later, the observers on the command bridge would see a flash of light as the Orca leapt away.
Echo was taking a direct route back to Colonia with Katerina as a passenger, from Colonia, Bob Dubrovnik would take Kat back to the Bubble. Katerina's accident in the cargo hold was still a mystery since she had lost her memory back to a point several years ago. Bob would use his underworld contacts to sell Katerina's ships, use the money to scrub her Pilot's Federation membership records and help her start over, a rookie pilot once more. The Kat had lost a life, but at least had another chance.
Penny Umbra would stay with the Carrier to oversee it's transformation into a Deep Space Support Array station, then she and Coslany would head out into the Black, glad to be on the move once more.
Elder Blackburn would lead his Brothers and Sisters of the VOID in their efforts to terraform planet 6 and build a colony there, to await the end of civilisation and the final exodus into the VOID.
DSSA Hope Dempsey would remain above the rings of planet 9, providing explorers and passing fleet carriers with services. The A.I. would welcome people to the VOID, but keep it's own counsel over Kats accident. It kept sealed the hibernation chamber that the carrier had been built around, the time wasn't right for that to be opened, and it kept the logs of that chambers systems sealed too. The doors may open despite the seals, life support may register alterations in the atmosphere, the monitering devices on the cryopods within the chamber may not always give the same readings, but the time was not right.
You will feel the allure of the VOID, you will take your ships and explore the far edges of the galaxy. You will return home with the VOID within you, and it will grow stronger every time you leave the comforts of your homes behind and fly recklessly, needfully, into the Black.
The VOID welcomes you commander.
Does anyone know if DSSA Hope Dempsey and her owner Penny Umbra are still active? Trying to get in touch with them, no success so far... 