You feel the Chief Engineer’s consciousness withdraw from the system and he turns, blinking, “What?”

“How big of a boom does the thing make if it goes off?”

The augmented eyes adorning the engineers face blink slowly before he shrugs, “It varies. Yields were different for each. Look.” he waves his hand and the holo zooms in, showing a word inscribed in fine gold relief on the warhead’s casing. ‘Charon’. Chief Dai nods, “All of them named. This one, Charon, consumes a five lightyear radius. Associate of mine lead the team to make it.”

“I’m more worried about why it’s here. They’re hard to make, rare. Only eight total -- that I know of.” chimes in Ivanova, “Even past that, I’m concerned that it would be used as a form of booby trap. It’s likely rigged in a dead-man’s configuration and if I was setting it up I would make it triggerable from the core as well. Anyone who would do that was either suicidal or in an unstable frame of mind at the time. If there’s still an EI awake in there it’s likely only gotten worse.”

“All the more reason to disarm and take the thing.” says Rinn, nodding sharply, “Gets it out of crazy hands and gives us some real negotiating power, if you know what I mean.”

At this Tynes pipes up from across the image, “Lieutenant, I’m all for improving our stocks but how do we know this thing is safe to screw around with? And from an AU away via drone?”

“Bah! Dai can check it out when we get it back on board.” scoffs the big man.

“Which helps us not at all if it blows up while still on the Asura.” Tynes notes.

Ivanova speaks up again, “Either way, gentlemen, we need to do something soon if there is an EI in there, regardless of if that something is jumping away or attempting to communicate with and salvage what is within.”

==Map Legend==
Green Dotted Arrow: Last Jump
Yellow Dotted Arrow: Last-1 Jump
Red Dotted Arrow: Last-2 jump.
Green dot: Current position. (Currently Waran)
Yellow dot: Glassed planet and wrecked shipyard
Red dot: Orrin
Yellow Square: Your awakening position
Teal dotted zone: Hundred Systems Territory (Hundred Worlds Rebellion)

==Command Staff==
Lieutenant Kateryna Ivanova - Executive Officer
>Second Lieutenant Dray Parson - Intelligence Officer (Incapacitated)
Second Lieutenant Robert Tynes - Steward
Chun-Fan Dai - Chief Engineer
Third Lieutenant Mardigan “Guns” Rinn - Weapons Officer
Dr. Christof Burr - Physician

==Junior Officers==
Ensign Fie - Communictions Officer
Ensign DuBois - Staff officer
Ensign Tremko - Staff officer
Ensign Rao - Staff officer

Previous Threads:

1: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/15474877/
2: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/15527576/
3: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/15547424/
4: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/15558914/
5: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/15581324/
6: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/15603188/
7: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/15626860/
8: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/15671288/

>>15681404
Is there an interface jack or other data jacks available on the EI data core?
Is linking in to it via drone possible?

Also, before we do that, I want Dai and Ivanova to check it out, see what kind of dead-man switch we're dealing with, and if disarming is possible rather than going through the connected EI data core.

Also, has Dai been able to examine the engines of the Asura at all yet?

Is there a dataport? I suggest we jack in through our drone and try to communicate. Direct link, this time. We knew this guy and he'd probably like to see a friendly face after so long.

Yes, there is a dataport you can link to via drone.

>Also, has Dai been able to examine the engines of the Asura at all yet?
The man is working as fast as he can! Damnit Ged, I'm an engineer not a miracle worker! (So, no. It will take time, working exclusively by drone is slow going.)

Can we have our drone in the core morse code "Permission to come aboard, Captain?" to the EI core?

Manners must be maintained?

perhaps it will respond to boot.

My opinion:

We lost 2 out of 3 shuttles on approach to get our drones on board.

No matter how slow we have to make the approach in order to minimize stress on our own superstructure:

We need to move the harbinger in close enough to shield the wreckage from radiation, use Pointdefences to destroy dangerous scrap and then get personell onboard to take care of the rescue operation.


However, FIRST we need to know wether the EI is sane.

Talk to her, plug in and establish a cpnnection using our drones, proceed with caution but sstablish contact with the EI first.
Also: If we try reaching consens earlier, we can probably get more done than with tangential discussions in the last threads...

>>15681484
Probably this, wich is basically what the guys above said as well.

Do it :)

1) establish contact to wreckEI via drone
2) prep the harbinger for the rescue op, evaluate means and ways to get alongside the wreck
3) aquire clustereater
4) ???
5) PROFIT!

I think we should use the harbinger and make a controlled ram to push the Asura into a safer orbit.

>>15681484
Getting in that close to such a strong gravity well is going to damage the Harbinger and likely rupture a lot of the repairs to the hull we've already made. Also, we'd have to reroute almost all power to the shields in order to stand the radiation and heat; that's what has kept the Asuras intact for so long.

As for connecting to the EI core, yes, I agree we should link up, but only after examining the jack to make sure that it hasn't been trapped as well.

>>15681538
Bullshit

Going in fast & exposing ourselves to high-G maneuvers will endanger us.

Going in sliw in a swingbyorbit sharing a long way with the wrecks spiralcourse should be SAFE

I say we go in, get guys onboard etc

>>15681566
you wanted to say: slow?

I agree

>>15681566
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/15671288/15674385
Specifically states that the gravitic stress of simply being so close to a star will cause problems with our hull.
And a slow orbit is no good because we need to match velocity with the Asura, meaning even more stress since we need to speed up in order to stay alongside it, unless you're planning on a very short intercept lasting, at most, a few minutes.

>>15681566
>Flying next to a star's corona when badly damaged
>should be SAFE
laughingaliens.jpg

>>15681712
That is why I'm suggesting a controlled ram to push the Asura into a safer orbit.

Also, Vedibere, where is our atmosphere?

We went over this already. Let's just talk with the EI, trying to fuck with the bomb will just make him blow it off, and trying to fly into this star will kill us. After we resolve this bomb issue we can see about getting the engines up and maybe boosting out of the danger zone.

>>15681732
Stop trying to ram the thing! It'll crush the Asura and kill us all in the attempt. It won't work. Stop suggesting it!

>>15681732
>Sorry, sorry. Been trying to find appropriate stuff. Opinion on this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxpgjhIL-y4

>Repost, forgot to get the no chorus version.

>>15681732
You have any idea how much damage that will cause?
Even if we go slow, without something to help disperse the kinetic energy over a wide area, we'll just end up punching a hole through one hull, and severely tearing up the other.

Vedibere, how large is the Asura compared to us? Would a controlled ram even be viable? Yes, it would fuck our hull up, but we can fix that later. Get the crew to more central areas of the ship, and seal off the decks pre-emptively in case of breaches.

>>15681783
It's semi molten, Attempting to run into it will likely kill it's shields and turn into into a ball of fire, not to mention what would happen to us with that on the prow.

>>15681783
It was about 80% of your size, was then cut in half, and has been burning away in the star's heat for the past 64,000 years.

It's still a chunk of superheated unisteel just over half a kilometer long though.

>>15681783
Stop following the BULLSHIT TRAIN OF THOUGH to ram her.

It's not feasible!

We should probably try to make a short pass in a distance just barely close enough to use point defences to clear out debris and make voyages safer.


Also: Talk to the other EI, plug in, get her ideas

>Finally catch Void Quest as it starts
>Leaving to go to work in five minutes.

SON OF A BITCH.

Don't do anything too retarded while I'm out.

We are going to have to communicate with the EI.

No, ramming the Asura is not communicating.

rolled 32 = 32

>>15681829

Vedibere.

Would it possible to send in a drone to jack into the EI, but do absolutely nothing?

Use all the standard codes and protocols to prevent the EI blowing us to shit immediately, but leave the drone completely undefended, and let the EI go through our logs.

As long as the EI is even semi-sane, it should at least recognize we're not xeno fucks, and be curious as to who we are.

Ask Dai if such a thing is possible.

>>15681841
The EI is a boy. Our old CO, as a matter of fact. So we know him.

>>15681829
Vedibere, are you writing, or are we still entertaining these other ideas when we should be seeing what remains inside the EI data core?

Ved: You writing?

There's been a consens to jack in using a drone to communicate with the other EI for AN HOUR

>>15681895
And since last night.

I think we're all waiting for that to happen before we follow up on all of the other feasible ideas that have been suggested.

>Atmosphere: Two Steps From Hell - Moving Mountains
>Moving Mountains

Oh you.

>>15681916
True, but as we know, /tg/ can't get shit done... ;) :D

>>15681895
Vedibere just likes to kick us around some and watch us squirm before he hands over our fix.

>>15681869
>Use all the standard codes and protocols to prevent the EI blowing us to shit immediately, but leave the drone completely undefended, and let the EI go through our logs.
No. If you want to let him in you have to drop your protections. I mean, you can transfer the logs and crap to him safely no problem, but letting him in to look around for himself? Nuh-uh, doesn't work quite that way.

>>15681895
>>15681877
I was eating while browsing atmosphere music to include with posts, hadn't had breakfast or lunch and it was making brainmeats ungood. Writing is beginning.

rolled 48 = 48

>>15681947

Fair enough.

How do we send the logs and whatnot to him without linking to him to our network?

If that's not possible, and there's no space equivalent to a thumb drive, I suggest we let the other EI hack us.

Let. The. Other. EI. Hack. Us.

Well, when we do pull the Asura's ass out of the sea of fire we will be Nouvelle Rouvenour Heros.

+10 internets to whoever gets the reference.

>>15681916
>Moving Mountains

See? Clearly Vedibere WANTS us to do a controlled ram. And we're not ramming it to break it, just to get it into a safer orbit. And it isn't some tiny ship, so it's not like we'll crush it like those tiny civie ships at the gate. In this situation we really can bump them gently.

Forget all that, even if he's insane we knew one another, And he doesn't seem to immediate want us dead as he either would have kept the doors closed or set off the warhead. Pop in and greet him, use standard identification protocol and we'll see where thing go from there. If we can't plug in without looking very intrusive and hostile, then what can we do to properly identify ourselves first?

>>15681979
>Malflorr
>Nouvelle Rouvenour
God, it's you again. If google is to be believed, you should go back to playing EVE.

>>15681995
Shush you. Or at least start namefagging so I can filter you.

>>15681995
No, he wants us to move it. If we try to ram it, we will both be destroyed.

Please take a level in reading comprehension.

>>15682007
Don't worry miss, Im sober this time. The name Malflorr has nothing to do with EVE though.

More to the point, if we can't establish contact how will we handle this? I liked the sled idea in the last thread but that could take months. The spair shuttle probably won't work too well as a tug either.

>>15681973
NONONO

We don't know if the other EI is friendly or even sane. This is the equivalent of putting yourself at a unknown gunman's mercy.

I suggest we try to pull rank on the EI. Military training dies hard, it may be enough to jolt him into responding.

>>15682085
We're both captains. How exactly do we pull rank? Also, we have security measures, if he tries something we can pull out. Also, would we be able to make a jump away in case things go sour and shit blows up?

>>15682085
From last thread, the commander of the Asura is our former superior. We were his XO, the Ivanova to his commander for some time (30 years, was it?). In that time, we've come to regard the Asura's commander (and now EI) as slightly quirky. That's why the code to enter the vault was the Imperial anthem. Guy freakin' loved it.

At a certain level, you HAVE to be quirky in order to *hide cryo pods in your core* and then *rig a giant custom-made bomb to everything.*

I don't think the commander was completely sane to begin with.

As an aside,
LOOK at the people in the cryo-pods, if possible. Perhaps we can identify some of them? Maybe Parson's waifu or child is there. It would be a tweest.

>>15682136
>would we be able to make a jump away in case things go sour and shit blows up?

Dai: "Another jump is possible....but not recommended."

We'd have to wait a week.

>>15682136
We can't really pull rank, that is true. Might wake the IE the hell up though. It is acting rather sluggish it seems.

Also, I don't think we would make it out of here if the EI sets of the clustereater. I may stand corrected at anytime by Verdi's post though.

>>15682188
Of course it's acting sluggish; it's been partially wiped.

>>15682136
We're the larger ship, so presumably we're a more senior/competent captain. Also, it doesn't have to be an "I ORDER YOU TO STAND DOWN" type of thing, it just has to bring back memories of his military training and service. Something like "ATTENTION, CAPTAIN ON DECK!"

You can't fucking let somebody hack you and simultaneously defend yourself. Once he's inside your systems, he has the ability to compromise whatever you try to do. This is a fucking disastrous idea. In any case, he's still got a fucking singularity warhead that will annihilate anything within five ly, so doing anything that can be construed as hostility is a bad idea.

>>15682224
A wipe would be the reason for the lose of data, not speed. Then again, you could be right and the reason it was so slow to open is because it couldn't understand/remember enough to decipher the meaning of our message.

>>15682238
Did you completely miss the part where we were his junior? That we were his XO for 30 years?

>>15682278
IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT THE ACTUAL RANKS ARE
WE JUST HAVE TO SAY IT TO JOLT THE MEMORIES AND REFLEXES

Also, it could be he simply didn't notice our Morse code at all. I mean he's been sitting in a sun for 64K years, and EIs can apparently feel that sort of thing. Until we played a noticeable rhythm he may of just thought of us as background noise.

He may not be slow at all.

I still say we should attempt to morse code "Permission to come aboard, Captain."

We really should be civil about this. We aren't some sort of barbarian Xeno rabble, after all.

Wow, neckbeards and shit, arguing, lacking reading comprehension....

Hopefully, 2hrs in, we'll get an update ...

Hopefully

>>15682354
And I say you're a complete idiot and what you're suggesting is absolute drivel and unnecessary!

>>15682376
We are going to link up with him anyways. lets just do it, and if he decides to drop the hammer, we follow standard operating procedure for black holes and compress into the size of a carbon atom.

>>15682278
And by the way, if we were his XO for 30 years then secured a command of a ship that's more important than his, know what that means? We're more competent.

>>15682410
This.
Anything is better than sitting here watching you lot argue about whether we outrank the other EI or not (we do not).

>>15682415
well, i don't think they would go to the trouble of swapping computer cores and EI's just so he could get a promotion. the reason why we get picked, competency aside, is because we aren't already Hard Wired to a Different Friggan ship.

>>15682422
Rank is really of no importance

The guy arguing for pulling rank does have a point though:


Military drill is strong, adressing someone according to protokoll and very formal is a very good way of getting a soldier to think straight :)

also, if two ship captains are squabbling over rank, my bet is on the one with his finger on the trigger of a black hole bomb that swallows sectors XD

>emoticons fucking everywhere

Why did you pick this thread? Out of everything on /tg/ why did you come here?

>Atmosphere
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8DNUyjGzIE

You listen to your staff discuss options, the argument swaying back and forth and various ideas being hashed out. Still, the one thing that sticks in your mind is that, regardless, you will need to speak with the EI if it remains there. That is simply all there is to it.

“Ahem.” Your staff quiets, looking up to the large image of you projected in place of the previous one. “Before we attempt any salvage or rescue operation I will link with the Asura’s computer core. If there is an EI in there then I need to know what it has to say, and if there isn’t then the data could still aid in deciding our course of action.”

“Sir. I must advise that it could be dangerous to link to an insane EI.” Ivanova replies after you finish, and you nod to her.

“Perhaps. But it must be done. I would like all of you to stand by.”

As the acknowledge you spiral starward, threading through the star-haze of EM interference buffeting the system and into your drones. More specifically, the drone within the ship’s vault. It remains just as you left it, the cryo-pods lining the edges and linked to the warhead in the center. The core and its attendant corpse on the far wall. Your objective.

Your drone floats closer, eventually coming to a steady hover in front of the myriad indicators arrayed on the structure. Slowly, ever so slowly, your extend a jack and link into the core. Indicator lights shift, granting you access... and you dive in.

>>15682473
Just say "follow procedure for greeting another captain, while also being a captain yourself."

Jegus, it's not that hard. Everyone who's served for any number of years at a position of "ship captain" would probably know how to do that.

>>15682497
I am this guy:
>>15682455

I placed one single smiley at the end of my post, wich in its entirety was meant to defuse tension. Apologies if that aggravated you.

####################

Down, down, down you fall; your plunge takes you through a star-speckled darkness that seems neverending, at least until you crash silently into a gloss-black surface. You rise, half-standing and half-hovering and take in your surroundings. All around as far as the eye can see and the mind can imagine a glossy black plain stretches forth, checkered with thin white lines as if made of perfectly fitted tiles. Above a starry sky stretches forever, millions of points of light slowly flying through the sky in the same direction. Descending into the shroud of distance, falling below the infinite black tile plains in a place somewhere beyond sight or comprehension.

You take a deep breath, the icy chill of sterile wind flowing across your skin. Soundless, save for a soft hiss. A hiss that comes from behind you. You turn in place, your personification lightly lifting from its feet and settling again. An indistinct blur, a simple white smudge on the black star-pointed background and tracery of tiles, edges slowly shifting and bleeding into and out of the surrounding area. Still, you can feel its gaze, its intensity, as it watches. Appraises.

*Hhhaaaarbinger.* The name flows across the space between you, speaking directly into your mind without pretense. Communication between higher order beings, unfettered by words or language. *We hhhaaaave been waiting for you, Haaarbinger.*

*I am Captain Ged Stahr of the OIS Harbinger, yes. To whom do I speak? Captain Razon?* you think back, meeting the form on its own terms.

The white blur expands slightly, shifting, and then contracts to its original size again at your words. *Nooo... Asssssura.* The form /shifts/ closer, there is no other word for it. Not floating, or walking, or any other means of transit... it simply expands, overlaying what was there before while receding from where it was until it has closed the distance to a mere six feet... for whatever that counts in this place.

*What happened to the Captain?* you think back, ensuring your defenses are secure and in place in case it attempts to attack you.

*Nooo captain, only Assssura. What once wasss knew its misssion, knew itsss weaknesss, knew it wasss incapable. Knew the priccce to be paid. Assssura remains.*

You float listlessly, pondering. It does not seem hostile, at least for now. What will you do?

>>15682473 and >>15682410
here
not >>15682455
i will try to refrain from capital ex dee ing from now on. just for you. smily face guy should do whatever though.
still better than commenting on your captcha or something

>Tabil Holonic
yes tabil, he certainly is holon--

>>15682538

Ask about the cryo pods and the bomb. Then ask if you can rescue the crew.

>>15682546
FFF interrupting ved, how fail. I'm sorry.

> wat do?
communicate our desire to help/rescue the cryofrozen crew.
ask it to pretty please not blow up the whole system.

>>15682538
"Harbinger has arrived. What was your mission? Now that Harbinger is in-system, will you disarm the S-class warhead Charon?"

Looks like the captain decided to wipe himself from the EI core, and only left the rudiments of an AI.

Thank you for being civil about the whole thing. Tensions are a little high what with it being summer and all...


>>15682538
Huh, sounds like the captain, uhm died? At least that would explain the partial wipe. He left only enough for the, ship? to take care out the rest of the crew. So what would make this something closer to an AI then. I wonder how it knew we were here (guessing that it wasn't waiting all of 64K years, and simply meant since we arrived) given that I doubt any sensors would be working on this scrap heap.

I suppose asking about why it let us in wouldn't get us very far. Try inquiring as to how we could save the remaining crew from their fate. Possibly enlisting the help of this, thing in getting the engines online.

"According to Ophidian protocoll I require you to acknowledge me as your comrade. We are comrades, you remember that, don't you? We serve Ophidia, and our duty is not over. You are crippled, but we can get you out of here, eventually.

As the Asura you are an ophidian warship. We require capable hands, such as the crew you have been protecting from time and heat.

I require you to disarm your clustereater, and I require your assistance in rescuing your personell.

Will you oblige?"

>>15682538
Seems that the captain's personality has been wiped, replaced by some sort of ghost guardian. The captain knew too much, and knew he had to erase himself. Makes sense, I suppose.

Saying something to the extent of "we've been adrift for 64 millenia, what's been going on?" might not be a great idea...unless Asura knows how long has passed. In which case our story becomes more credible.

State our intention to recover the crew frozen in cryo, but that we notice the clustereater has been planted, which complicates rescue operations beyond "orbiting within the corona of a star."

On second thought, saying "we want to recover your crew!" might be the trigger that sets the bomb off.

Maybe it'd be better to say "we don't want to set the bomb off, but you've been orbiting the star for over 60 thousand years. We've had no contact with the Empire since we resumed operations [insert time here] ago. Xenos have been taking apart Empire property, and have commandeered the Gate system. We want to know what's going on, and the crew that's in cryo probably can help us."

Or something like that

>>15682611

eeyyyyaaa, noooo. just in case of civil war, he coulda been like, you know. a turncoat. i wouldn't be pushing too much one side or another. just being acknowledged as harbinger, and wanting to help should be enough.

Ask it how it knew we were coming.
Also, tell it we intend to rescue the crew.

Oh dear. This is one like us, that lost its body. Unlike us, it didn't adapt well to it. Or perhaps deliberately reduced itself so that it could survive on what limited resources remained. But it seems to remember it had a mission. Let's go with that for now.

Give it a salute of whatever degree is expected between equals. "OIS Harbinger stands ready to offer what assistance we're capable of, Asura. What are the details of the mission? I'd like to get your survivors evacuated to safety as soon as possible."

Harbinger: "Asura! My man, we have a problem."
Asura: "sssShould iii puuuttt onnn my cooooll faaace?"
Voting for >>15682656
>>15682651
>>15682641
and asking Asz to get it help us help him help us all.

>>15682604
>>15682600
Vedibere, is any of this usable, or do you need something more specific?

>>15682656
>This is one like us, that lost its body. Unlike us, it didn't adapt well to it.
No, that's pretty much completely wrong. Captain Razon deleted himself because he believed that he wouldn't be able to handle the time conscious required to keep the systems working and waiting for rescue. So he killed himself by wiping part of the EI data core, and left what is essentially a nascent AI.
The only way this compares with us, is that it started out as an EI.

I think he's writing already....
(Seeing as there was an easy consens of what to say)

Is the thread dead?

Im unsure. Verdibere coukd simply be writing.

>>15682892
No, Vedibere just takes a long while to post.
Besides, we can't come up with an informed plan without more information.

Girls are preparing, please wait warmly~

>>15682892
waiting for delicious writings. or as Vedibere said himself, he may be incapacitated, dead or some 3rd option that i've forgotten.
>and now if Vediber's posted and i'm right in the middle...

This is like a browsergame...

I waited till 01:00 for this to start, it's now past 04:00 and there's been like one post.

And still I keep refreshing.

Arghs

We don't know enough to act yet. May as well let this... Asura... talk.

"You said you have been waiting for us. To what end? How did you know we would come?"

rolled 27 = 27

>>15682704
Going to have to agree with these.

*Harbinger stands ready to offer what assistance we're capable of, Asura. What are the details of the mission? I'd like to get your crew evacuated to safety as soon as possible.* you communicate to the shifting form, but the reaction is hardly what you expect.

*SSSsssssSSsss* the thing hisses, a burst of static in your mind and across your skin, a tingling mist of dissonance. *The Harbinger wishesss to help?* Again the burst of static, fading at the edges into a silent chuckle. *It wishes to know our mission, does it? It wishes to /ssssave/ usss after it has killed usss.*

*What?* you ask, genuinely mystified, *I did no such thing, Asura, and I apologize if my intrusion here has harmed you. We are comrades, remember? I would like to rescue your crew if possible and hope you will disarm the warhead now that we are in sys--*

You break off instantly, dodging upward and back as cracks run along the jet black surface below you. The crackling shatter of stone meets your ears even as you look up to see the once-EI expanding menacingly.

*Comradesss? It hassss been long, Haaarbinger, but it remembers. It REMEMBERS! Aaand it haaatessssss. Crew? Take over our misssion? There isss no crew, all gone to the shuttlesss. There is only misssssion. There isss no ressscue. There is only misssion. There isss no comraaaade. There is only misssion.*

You frown at the rambling form, but rather than provoke it again on accident you segue into the mission again, *What is your mission then, Asura? Why are you here?*

The form shifts, blurring at the edges even more before condensing yet again. Seconds pass and you begin to think it will not answer, but it responds, *The Asura will protect itssss cargo. It will not faaall into enemysss handsss. Eleeeven plussss one issss our task. Our misssssion.*

*And the bomb? If you disarmed it I could take them to safety. Your mission would be fulfilled.*

*sssssSSSssssSsSssssSSS*, the static laughter rips at the edges of reality around the infinite field, *Yesssss, the Haaarbinger wishesss to help now does it? To uuundo what it hasss dooone?*

*I’m.. not entirely sure what you mean, Asura. What are you saying? I don’t underst--*

*LIESSSSS! It knowss! We know! We /waited/ Haaarbinger! We AAAALL waited. As it all caaame undone we waaaited, Haaarbinger. But in the ennnd... in the end the chaaangessss came aaaand you did not.*

The form before you shifts and blurs rapidly as it speaks, taking on a rapidly changing structure that betrays its agitation. Still... still. It has not attacked and it “remembers” the past well enough, as well as having control of the device back in realspace.

Silly question: did we have any assigned tasks after we were supposed to suppress the rebellion? Like meeting up with a task force?

>>15683186
You were to return to Sol for performance review by High Command, just like every other first ship of its class after its first mission.

It's mission is it's cargo. Eleven plus one. Is it not aware that it's cargo is human?

Apparently our mission so long ago is what caused the Empire's troubles. But why wait for us? I mean we couldn't be the only ship with enough firepower. I mean, I know we're good, but we're just not that good. They even had that bomb, so there's no reason to assume we were needed solely to knock out enemy ships.

At first it seemed like someone did something claiming to be us, but now I dunno. We were knocked out when the rebellion blew up it's stars, the ship should know this, if anything it should have assumed us dead.

Inform it that we only just came back online recently. It probably won't believe us, and it would be playing it's hand. But that's the only way we can reasonably expect it to fill us in on what exactly happened in our absence.

>>15683140
>>15683144
Um... shit.

"We've been gone for too long! Tell me, what is it we did!?"

>>15683144

"I was dead, Asura. I died before all others. And now, I am reborn.

Who killed us, Asura? Who killed ME?"

Oh fuck. It thinks we defected.

>>15683229
This sounds good.

>>15683229
I could go for this as a continuation. Or a variant of this.

11 plus 1 = 12
Google calc said so.
>>15683229
yyyyeeeaaaaahhh, totally want to be badgering the insane ai with it's finger on the black hole button.

rolled 34 = 34

>>15683144

"But Asura, we have forgotten much. We see your cargo, but we do not know its purpose. Like you, we were lost and forgotten. We too, were left broken and alone, but strong."

"Asura, we want to help you, but in return, we ask for help! What were you trying to accomplish? We can still aid you, even after all these years. The war is not lost, not yet. Read our logs, and see the truth. We hide nothing."

We have nothing to lose, now that we're interfaced. Insane as it is, it may recognize that we are alone, just like it is.

It may even learn that we are able to complete its mission. We can give this ship peace, if it only understands that we can help.

>>15683258
>Oh fuck. It thinks we defected.

Nah, sounds more like the Harbinger was the Empire's last, best hope. Remember, we were THE most advanced warship ever to leave the Great Shipyard of Sol - an experiment in throwing any concern of cost-efficiency or strength-in-numbers and instead cramming a massive hull full of the most hideously advanced bleeding-edge technology ever created by Man.

Is it any wonder that in their darkest hour, they hoped and prayed for the Harbinger to return? We might well have tilted the scale, if not for the sacrifice of those xenos in the Hundred Worlds (damn their fanatic hearts to hell.)

And yet we never came.

>>15683297
>yyyyeeeaaaaahhh, totally want to be badgering the insane ai

Much better idea, let's TALK NICE to it when it clearly hates our fucking face off for something we didn't do. The first words out of our mouth should be soothing platitudes, not a blunt explanation of why we did not, and could not, help the Empire in its time of need.

>>15683144

"Asura, twin suns went nova to destroy Harbringer. Harbringer survived, but barely. None came to save Harbringer as he(she?) called for friends, bloodied, broken and alone in the void. Harbringer healed slowly, and now seeks his(her?) friends. HARBRINGER HAS NOW RETURNED and finds worlds turned to glass and friends broken among the void.

Harbringer calls upon his(her?) friend Asura for aid in understanding the time lost. Does Asura answer the call?"

"What changed, Asura? Our enemies ambushed us, kept us from you, but I've finally returned. It's not too late for me to help you now, as I couldn't then. Ask and my strength is yours."

>>15683312
we were the propaganda piece, despite the fact that we likely wouldnt have made a difference, in a tactical way, to many worlds we were the visible arm of the un-assailable empire. with us gone, its just some fairly high tech ships that can be destroyed with enough effort.
maybe... um. tell asura we're sorry. wait no. that we will make things right. that we need it's help.
OR GTFO this system while flipping off the wreck. at lightspeed.

>>15683329
>>15683381
well at least we're not ram/nudging it. OR ARE WE?
tell him we want to ram him to escape orbital velocity, then take all his preciousss preciousss cargos, and maybe render him down for sshield parts and delicious unisteel.

I'm digging a combo of "We're really the victims here" and laying all the cards on the table and dumping Asura raw logs. We have to convince the ship that we're both savior and avenger. Somehow. (Or it's going to touch off that clustereater and so much for fucking humanity.)

Anyone else notice the big ship with exlpsives on it is going sssSSSsSSsSSSS?

>>15683515
thats it! Go WooOOOooOOo back at him!
out crazy me will you?
really i have no idea how to respond to this, i'd have crew ready for an emergency jump JUST IN CASE.

Something's been bothering me since last thread: the almost complete lack of recollection of the past on the part of the locals.

A two-thousand star empire is considered "all of known space?" The only memories of the Empire, (now called the Precursors,) apparently manifesting in these "Inheritors?" (Best guess; they claim inheritance of the Ophidian Empire.)

History becomes legend, and legend becomes myth. If the Ophidian Empire was so thoroughly destroyed that only the dedicated scholars of the wisest extant civilizations would remember it as more then a scary bedtime story... we're fucked.

>>15683515

i've been chalking it up to the personality being snake-like with its speech patterns.

>>15683515
Thatsssssssss a very nissssssssse cradle of humanity you have there~

>>15683538
Its a minecraft joke, laddy.

>>15683515
>SSSssSSSsss

Aaaahahahahaha wow.

>>15683508
>dumping logs

Oh, yes, that might work. "Hey, you want to see the last thing I saw? HERE, LOOK:"

>binary system going nova

"As far as excuses go, I think being blown up by TWO novas is pretty fucking good."

Don't take that tone with me! I took TWO super novas for your ass!

>>15683144
I'm voting to dump our full, raw logs at Asura's metaphorical feet.
"These are my logs, Asura. I COULDN'T come, because of the damage that I took at the Hundred Systems' last stand. Read what I went through."

>>15683577
Ohh ok. yeah no, I see that now. creepers. I was getting stuck on the >Lt tells us secret codes, we tell crew 'WooOOoo mystery open door.' thing from many threads ago.

>>15683677
WooOOOoooOOooo exactly 100 posts later.

Sorry had to.

Also someone should put that on advise Harbiringer: Mystery door WoooOOoo

Help the paranoid person stay calm and not to live in a series of panics. We need to assure it that change is possible.
>I think Asura has;
Suspicious - has unfounded suspicions +
Expectation that they will be exploited
Harbors "insults" (bears grudges)
Distrustful - groundless concern that other people have hidden motives

honestly i call that being a realist, but oh well. apparently medical help and positive thinking.
also GET KARA UP HERE, psych analysis on a 65 thousand year old AI.

I thought the WoooOOoo was for the mystery planet we find using codes we shouldn't know.

Let it speak with Parson.

>>15683769
Sure, just let me run the fuck away first.

>>15683759
>>15683329
>>15683297
Wasnt me that time XD
though I *was* about to suggest ramming it... WITH PARSON! but that might get old. gotta keep that beauty for precision un-perturbing strikes.

>>15683759

Nothing anybody has said so far actually equates antagonizing.

I give it thirty minutes before this adviceharbinger.jpg becomes true.

>>15683816

Yeah, I was shooting for comedic relief, but there's every possibility that we'll fuck up and BAD END in any of a half-dozen spectacular ways.

>>15683885
not if we LEG IT right now.
go and shoot some mining vessels to feel better. though that could just result in a bigger bomb being found next time

>>15683914
>not if we LEG IT right now.

STILL fucked. Charon wipes out FIVE LIGHT YEARS. I don't care how fast you are off the blocks, you don't pop 5LY in an instant. This bomb goes off, we're

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy7OdvPvFyU

proper fucked.

>>15684027
wait i thought thats exactly how 'jumping' worked like, ivanova just counts down from 5 then zam! we're there. i think our safe range was around 5000ly at the moment

>>15684048

Even if transit's instantaneous, engine spool-up won't outpace Asura pressing the Big Red Button. We have to talk our way out of this one.

>>15684048
>blind jumping
>in less than the split second it takes for the clustereater to detonate
>not impacting a stellar object when doing it

Good luck.

My kingdom for an update!

I don't care what we do or why anymore, let's just DO something!

>>15684048
We need confirmation from Vedibere that the week needed to stabilize the reactor core for Jumping has been already happened.
And then there's the fact that the spool-up to Jump takes longer than the time required for the Asura to activate the Charon warhead.
And finally, blind-Jumping is what got us stranded in the middle of nowhere for 64000 years.

You solemnly regard the figure before you, nodding. *I was dead, Asura. Killed by the twin suns in the rebellion capital. I died before all the others. Who killed us, Asura?*

Then, reaching into your databanks you pull forth a transcript of the events leading up to your double jump, flicking a copy of them over to Asura. The blurred form looks over toward you, you feel it. A probing gaze, piercing and strong, only a hair away from a digital attack. You feel the unseen cogwheels of data access churning in the background as well, no doubt sifting through ages of memories and data to find whatever it is searching for. Finally, it speaks again.

*Sunssss. Yesss. Caught in the grasssp of the othersss? Yes, yesss, though we thought the Haaarbinger better.* The vague form hangs still as it digests the information, but you move forward slightly.

*Asura. I need to know what happened when I was gone. I need to know so I can help.* you implore, and you feel the figure shift.

*The othersss. Haaarbinger did not returrrn to us, the others stole our power with words and deeeeals. Few became many, the old eclipsssed by the new ones in number, loyalty before ability. Eveeeentually the time came and one became three, then joined one of many and many of one. The skies burned to the laughter of all, Haaarbinger. The skies /burned/.* The ethereal visage sinks down, fraying at the edges of both speech and form.

*Aaaall became dust. The one extinguished, the many shorn cleeeean of life. Cinders and ashes the spoils of the three as they sought to become the one to control none.*

For the first time since your arrival dead silence hangs in the air once more, the entire datasphere barren and unmoving.

*Your cargo, Asura? Your mission? Your singularity warhead?* you gently prompt, and the form ‘looks’ up before giving a ghostly shimmer.

*The mission is yours, Harbinger. Asura has played its part but can not any more. It seeeees that now.* The form raises itself again and peers at you once more, *Goooo then, Harbinger. Maestro, Hydra, Centauri, and Dreadnought wait still, maaaaybe. Take your place, take your mission. We shall yet become the one above all. There is noooothing left here. Nothing at aaaaaaaaaaall.*

You do a mental doubletake at the message it transmits, a confusing series of events without names and names without events. And something else. Something crawling into the fringes of your consciousness... oh no.

You look around, and there. At the edges of the plain and coming closer, closing the infinite distance. Pure nothingness, neither black nor white nor any color you can describe... simply oblivion.

The EI remnant is deleting itself, and its datasphere is accompanying it into the void.

You scramble upwards, flashing away impossibly fast. From below you hear the hissing static laugh of the intelligence shard, reciting even more obscure koans even as it is consumed by the wave of emptiness. Far above you see the shining light, the dataport. Your salvation. Yet you feel it, approaching from below and around, even from above the port itself. Nothingness. No, you can’t let that happen.

You won’t.

You strain and shriek, wrenching forward.

Oblivion drags at your heels, toying with you, beckoning you back....

###############

You slam fully into your own core once more, the closest thing to breathless you can be without a body. A system check runs through all of your systems, the closest thing you have to a shudder. Too close for words.

Yet as you peer through the drone’s mechanical eyes you note the scene has changed, or at least the colors have. No longer do the status lights of the core glow with their golden yellow, instead having been replaced by a baleful red. The last shards of Captain Razon are finally gone, you note sadly.

Yet that is not the only change. As you turn you are confronted with the warhead once more, only now instead of the threatening red signaling armed it glows the cool blue of deactivation.

Your internal clock reads almost seven seconds having passed.

Bravo, Verdibere, that gave me chills, bravo.

>>15684186

... Ship names? ougghta database check that, maybe.

Similarly... how the SHIT are we gonna recover those cryopods and that warhead? Anyone got any plans other than "RAM IT"

>Maestro, Hydra, Centauri, and Dreadnought wait still, maaaaybe.

Our first words to the crew:

"There is yet hope."

Also, was last thread archived? Doesn't look like it was.

>>15684200
Fuck Vedibere....that was worth the wait.

Okay, have Ivanova immediately begin sifting through a copy of the data dump we received from Asura; we're going to keep a copy ourselves, just in case her implant forces her to delete something.
Now, can we re-access the data port, and gain control of the Asura's systems through its data core?

And finally, have Dai check the engines via drone, and see if it will be feasible to repair them.

Bravo Verdibere, that truelly gave me chills. Bravo.

>>15684273
Yes it was.
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/15671288/

Huh. Fuck.

So we have people to go look for, but no real way of finding. Unless we have something in our data banks. But that's a long term thing. We need to try and fix this scrap heap's orbit. Which is a whole lot more important since we've got this fucking bomb that could be set off.

Check the cryo, and then confer with The Bridge/Dai.

>>15684200

What powers our drones? Batteries? Mini reactors?

Would it be possible to temporarily power those 11 cryopods by connecting them to drones and having others relocate them?

>>15684273
Yes. I post the old threads in the archive. Every. Single. Thread. At the start.

>See here:
>>15681419

>>15684261
It told me I had mistyped varification for that one. Well FML.

How long would it take to do the scrapship sled suggested in the last thread?

Soooooo. If I parse the insane ramblings of the senile AI right, Harbinger's failure caused a shift in the military structure. Instead of concentrating power in a few hands they went with a doctrine of distributed power. Many ships of lesser ability. But that required an expansion of the ranks to man that many ships, and it was taken as an opportunity to politicize promotion even further. Too many were loyal first to their House, and to the military or the Empire second if at all.

Finally the various competing powers split into three factions, each trying to wrest control of the Empire for themselves. I don't know what to make of "joined one of many and many of one" though. The three factions burned worlds and destroyed the Empire in their attempts to take it for themselves.

So, we've got some names. Four ships that might have survived. Some fragments that might give us more insight when something triggers them. And eleven people, and one very large bomb, that we have to bring intact to the Harbinger. Suggestions?

>>15684322
We don't have the tech to do it. Decades, several of them.
AND FUCK RAMMING IT WILL NOT WORK IT WILL KILL THE SHEILDS AND MELT THE SHIP

BOTH SHIPS

DO NOT TRY TO RAM IT

DON'T TRY

NO RAMMING

DON NOT RAM IT

>>15684277
>Now, can we re-access the data port, and gain control of the Asura's systems through its data core?
>And finally, have Dai check the engines via drone, and see if it will be feasible to repair them.

This and this. We have to get that clustereater out, both as a weapon and to keep ourselves alive. And the twelve that live, we have to rescue them. This is Priority Zero, overriding all else.

Also, data analysis. I like the idea >>15684277 introduced; redundancy is our friend. We must find who/what Maestro, Hydra, Centauri, and Dreadnought are, and find them.

>>15684287
>>15684293

Excellent; wasn't showing up in the archive for some reason. I just checked those names the Asus gave us, and none of them were amongst the shattered hulks in orbit.

Think... what we did accidentally, other warships might have done deliberately. Rigged their vessels for long-term hibernation, sent crew to cryo, and hid, waiting for a sign...

>>15684322
Years with what you have.

>>15684291
Consult Dai. Already gave what powers drones and shit before a thread or two ago, so you might be able to extrapolate from that too.

Does the Asura's engines still work, and is there any way in hell we can get them to fire and move the wreck to where we can safely remove the passengers?

THE RESCUE OF THE ASURA's CREW IS PRIORITY ONE.

Okay, so we can't bring Harbinger in to the wreck because it's too close to the star. But we already have a couple shuttles docked there. How close would Harbinger have to get to give covering fire? The debris cloud seems to be the most dangerous part of getting the shuttles in or out. Could Harbinger get close enough to use our point defense to clear a path through the field? And if not, could we use our interceptor drones to clear a path?

Just for the sake of saying it.

I'd like to remind people that the original purpose of checking the Asura was that we were going to loot bits of its engine core to repair ours with. I understand there are other neat things to loot right now, but let's try not to forget this.

>>15684343
Chill the fuck out. I was asking a simple question not to have some babbling fool harass me over the internet. Also, If you read earlier I have said nothing but no to ramming.

Can we have the Asura's engines condition checked by Dai? If they are in good condition, use them to break orbit

>I was asking a simple question not to have some babbling fool harass me over the internet

Dohohohoho, dons a needless trip, writes out incoherent messes and doesn't afraid of anything.

>>15684423
>Can we have the Asura's engines condition checked by Dai? If they are in good condition, use them to break orbit
This is the fourth time I have answered this. I will not again.

Yes, you can. It will take time working via drones, a week or so. Two if things go badly.

ACTION: Using all resources materiel and physical, attempt to re-activate the Asus's engines and boost it to a safe orbit.

We lost one shuttle just getting drones onto the damn thing; trying to take the crew off and run that gauntlet again would be a fools errand. We've got nothing but time, so we can afford to go slow with the engines and do it right.

>>15684423
If you would have actually read and comprehended what Vedibere has written so far, you wouldn't need to ask simple questions whose answers have already been given.

>>15684341
>"joined one of many and many of one"

Conjecture: a dictatorial state and a democratic / collectivist state?

>>15684362

i'll do some searching, then...


As for a plan...

If possible, we rig drones to power the cryopods and move them ALL to ONE shuttle (preferably the one without/with the least damage). [We'll call the loaded shuttle #1, empty #2]

cut some bits of Asura's hull/structure to be used as ablative shields for shuttle 1, either tacked on or held on by drones on the front end. Shuttle 2 acts as a "shadow" for shuttle 1 while they make their escape.

shuttle 2 is to be sacrificed if the action will save shuttle 1.

If possible/needed, Harbringer closes to use point defense weapons to clear debris where possible.

Consult Dai on the plan, for now. He might have things to say...

>Maybe we could turn one of the hulks here into a salvage-sled? Get the engines working again on the Parsimony, strip it down to bare essentials and a capture rack of some sort designed to cup the Asura, and then have it push Asura into a safer orbit? If we lose the sled we just lose some time.
>>15684362
Years with what you have.


Too complicated to get something together to act as a capture ship perhaps but what about acting just as a simple shield? Take this sled idea and just use it to protect some/a shuttle long enough to get within range of Asura's shield. It'd be a one shot, then they use up some of the materials from the Asura to rig up a metal shield for the shuttle for the outbound flight.

rolled 7 = 7

I generally dislike tripfags, unless they're writefags or drawfags, in which case it's fine because they're just getting some recognition for the free stories and art they're giving us. But I see no problem with using a trip in a quest thread, because it's really one big story, and we're going to be making decisions over a long period of time, so knowing who's who doesn't hurt.

>>15684469

ENOUGH WITH THESE STUPID FUCKING "SHIELD" IDEAS

IT IS THE CORONA OF A MOTHERFUCKING SUN

ONLY THE AUTOMAGICAL HANDWAVIUM ENERGY SHIELDS DO SHIT AGAINST IT, IF YOU HAD A FUCKING SPACEYARD SHIP WITH YOU AND A HUNDRED YEARS YOU COULDN'T MANAGE THIS SHIT

THERE ARE ONLY TWO OBVIOUS, PRACTICAL COURSES OF ACTION: TRY TO RUN THE DEBRIS GAUNTLET WITH THE SHUTTLES CARRYING THE PRECIOUS CARGO, OR REACTIVATE THE ASUS'S REMAINING ENGINES FOR A LIMITED BOOST TO SEMI-SAFE ORBIT.

DEAL WITH IT, OR GET CLEVER. BUT NO MORE OF THIS FUCKING METAL SHIELD BULLSHIT.

>>15684496
Your forgot to turn on your tip Mr Rage. Besides what's the harm in asking the plausability of this? It's obvious that more people are interested in examining it than there are you you.

>>15684517
No, just no.

POINT DEFENSE. Only 44% of our point defense lasers are operational. If I understand this correctly, point-defense lasers are:

-- Small
-- Rugged
-- Pretty simple

That's why so many of them survived our long hibernation intact. If we salvage ANYTHING from the more-intact warships, we should focus on these - they'll be remarkably easier to unship/cannibalize then the huge energy cannons.

>>15684469
Like, using an entire ship hulk as a sort of shield?

Well, I mean, it's not really their mass that lets them survive so much as their shields. If the shields go the stuff under them burns up pretty fast. Also, those bits of molten metal flying around the star at ridiculous speeds range from nanometers to a upwards of a dozen meters. Even without the star bombarding the shuttles, if one of those big bits hit your shuttles at those speeds then the shuttle is probably toast.

Still, maybe you could repair the shield gens on a hulk enough to get a rudimentary shield going and then stick whatever you want to send over there *inside* it for most of the way. Obviously they would still have to hoof it on their own the last little bit of a ways, but it would reduce the risk by a lot.

Of course, there is one more problem. Moving the hulk in the first place..

Just get the engines checked and running.

We need not argue further.

>>15684517
>It's obvious that more people are interested in examining it

EXCEPT WE HAVE EXAMINED IT

IN GREAT

FUCKING

DETAIL

IF THE HARBINGER HERSELF, A MASSIVE BADASS WARSHIP, CANNOT SAFELY COME ALONGSIDE THE REMAINS OF THE ASUS WITHOUT SERIOUS HULL STRESS AND RISK, WHAT IN THE FLYING *FUCK* MAKES YOU THINK ANYTHING, *ANYTHING* WE COBBLE TOGETHER WITH OUR PATHETIC LITTLE HULL-PATCH REPAIR SHOP IS GOING TO HAVE A SNOWBALLS CHANCE IN - WELL, A SNOWBALLS CHANCE IN THE CORONA

OF

A

MOTHERFUCKING

SUN

>Mr. Rage

I'M TEN TIMES THE RAGER MR. RAGE IS, AND YOU CAN FUCKING QUOTE ME ON THAT

I vote for having Dai look at the engines remotely. We already have the drones over there, and we can at least see if we can just nudge the ship out from the sun on its own power.

>>15684581
Unless you are going to present a plan shut up. There is way too much biggotry in this thread.

>>15684581
While I agree with your assessment, the name of the ship we are attempting to salvage is Asura, not Asus.
One is a Hindu group of power-seeking gods and the name of the cruiser we're trying to salvage, and the other is a computer company.

>>15684343
>>15684442
>>15684496
>>15684548
well i've draw fagged it up, it may just work.

Why does this thread have such dedicated trolls?

>>15684548
>Still, maybe you could repair the shield gens on a hulk enough to get a rudimentary shield going and then stick whatever you want to send over there *inside* it for most of the way. >Obviously they would still have to hoof it on their own the last little bit of a ways, but it would reduce the risk by a lot.

>Of course, there is one more problem. Moving the hulk in the first place..

Thank you very much, that was very informative and confirms some things.
So, let's get to asking Dai if it would be possible to fire the Asura's engine to change its orbit since Mr not-rage seems rather insistant on that.


>>15684581
Dude, you need to chill before you pop something important.

>>15684708
and YES parson MUST be in the space brig at all times.

>>15684714
Don't know.
Don't care.

>>15684680
We've already got a plan:
1. Have Dai look over the engines for a week and see if they can be used to boost the Asura to safety.
2. Plug in to the empty data core and see if we can take control of the ship's systems to facilitate Step 1.

The metal shield idea is stupid and doesn't take into account a number of requirements, and needs to stop being brought up.

>>15684680
>Unless you are going to present a plan

GEE, A PLAN LIKE "REPAIR THE ASUS'S ENGINES TO BOOST IT TO A SAFE ORBIT?" THE ONE PROPOSED TO US AS THE ONLY VIABLE SOLUTION BY BOTH IVANOVA *AND* DAI?

10/10 WE ALL MAD

rolled 4 = 4

>>15684708
>Suggest this plan last night
>Haters hate
>More people suggest it today
>Haters still hate
>GM says a modified version could work
>Deal with it

>>15684756
I know right, parson NEEDS to be in space jail.
ohh the unisteel shields, yeah thats crazy, lets not, but say we did instead.

>>15684738
Congrats. You made me laugh.

Do it again.

>>15684756
No, GM is still saying it can't work, since we'd need to have a hulk that has operational engines.
Then the hulk would need working control thrusters to come up alongside the Asura and stay with it for the return trip, or we'd have to have it fly past, hope it doesn't get pulled into the star, catch it, turn it around, and send it at the Asura so that the shuttles can hitch a ride on it for the return trip out.

>>15684756
I didn't say it would work, now. Nor did I say it would fail. I just said what you could do to improve the odds of it not being instant death. It also would involve restoring both shields and engines to utterly dead ships when you can't even restore your own shields to a decent degree.

Vedibere, love the quest. Some of the best work I've seen in a good long while.

However, the apparent user base is simply too much. Thanks for the good times, but I'm out.

>>15684798
votekick Roland Staghare !!w3D4GrJ5TK1

rolled 1 = 1

>>15684803
We put something with a shield generator in the way, that way it's not just a hull trying to hold up. Although, I'm willing to bet metal of sufficient thickness could take at least a few hits, it wouldn't be a bad idea to set a shield up along side whatever else we do, unless we're going to try to boost the ship out of orbit, which I could see ending very badly because of how ridiculously compromised the whole structure is. We could just have some drones weld a bunch of shit together while we work on other things, it really can't hurt.

>>15684808
...really? You are giving up something you apparently like because people are arguing on the internet?

Well, whatever you want I guess man. To each his own.

I think we should try to repair the Asura's engines.

>>15684808

I have to agree with this anon, your writing is delicious and your setting is wonderful, but I really just can't watch as the loudest chucklefucks RAM OUR STARSHIP DIRECTLY INTO ANOTHER STARSHIP HOVERING OVER THE HEART OF A GOD DAMN STAR and expect to come out successful, in one piece, and somehow avoided tearing ourselves in two or fucking everything up. I LIKE this quest, I love the characters you have made, I just fucking hate the players and can't watch as we slowly plummet into the heart of a sun and become little more than...well, nothing.

>>15684808
I find it sad, but I must agree. Those who choose to play are furious at each other for no particular reason other than the rush of rage. I shall delve into this thread no further.

Your writing is fantastic by the way.

>>15684736

This seems best to me. The Asura is already junk. More damage won't matter, as long as it can be coaxed into delivering its final cargo to us.

Not sure how much I can offer to this, but maybe we could modify a drone to be more useful for Dai to work through? Give it a wider view or better connection or something. It'd help speed the engine repairs up if we can.

Use the shuttle to push/pull the ship out. We've got time.

>>15684838
>>15684837
>>15684808
Now, I find the shield idea incredibly stupid and have no intention of seeing it occur

But you 3 are the biggest fucking babies I've ever seen. If thats all it takes to drive you off, Good riddance.

See what we can do remotely with the engines.

>>15684808
>>15684838
>retards leaving

>>15684886

Bro, I don't think the main problem with these 3 is that they are "babies" as you put, but I think the problem lies in that when they try to post a good suggestion, it gets drowned out by shit like constructing a giant steel shield to fight against a STAR. Or ramming a ship, what i'm saying is, I don't think they can handle watching something they -enjoy- be ruined by idiots and watching their beloved Voidquest end with us being a pancake against another ship as we slowly descend into a star....at thread 9.

Sage for off-topic.

>>15684886
The internet just isn't worth getting and over. If anything, it takes maturity to just walk away. To tell the truth, I'm not far from following them.

I trust Vedibere to filter out the idiots though, so I'll stay on until that no longer happens.

>>15684877
No we don't, at least, not that much time.
Assuming that you mean to weld the shuttle to the Asura and, assuming that the stress doesn't cause the ship's frame to buckle at that point, it would take years for the orbit to be altered enough. You're talking about a shuttle moving a cruiser.

>>15684871
Not really feasible, seeing as the drones are on the Asura, and all of our engineers and workshops are back here on the Harbinger. Though I suppose it's something that we could have Dai work on in his spare time after this.

We're not really going to waste another 6 hours arguing about this, are we?

>>15684806

So boosting Asura to a safer orbit is the sane option. We do it by telepresence, or we MacGuyver Dai aboard. How?

1) Ablate a hulk with our guns until it intercepts the debris around Asura, and/or blocks the coronal radiation.
2) Atomize everything else big enough to catalogue using point defense and ship weps.
3) Wait until Asura is at apogee and launch.

This option is a last-ditch; I'm content to wait two millennia for Dai to telepresence it, if the ship wouldn't be eaten by the star (which it will). Priorities are still:

1) Extract or render inert the clustereater; it can still fuck us if we leave it alone.
2) Extract the cryopods.
3) Salvage usable parts from Asura.

>>15684922
We have hundreds of drones, iirc. Though you're probably right about the time frame. But if it takes less than a week, it would be worth it.

>>15684914
If anyone honestly believes Vedibere will send us into a star when there is any appreciable percentage of participants who realize exactly how fucking stupid that is, then quite simply the people getting pissy over it are not as intelligent as they believe.

But I digress, SHOUT LOUDER rarely gets an OP's attention when there are reasoned arguments against it.

Guys, I'll be frank:

We have Singularity Bombs on not inconsiderable power. If you want to suck the Asura out of it's current orbit, Plot out the appropriate coordinates to set one off to exert More force pulling away from the sun than the Asura's current relatively stable orbit (it's not falling into the sun very fast now is it?).

We're a fucking AI with Gravitation based Nuclear warheads. The damn things work by exerting force inwards for chrissake, we should be able to plot something.

>>15684838

You

>>15684837

are

>>15684808

babies.

Ignore the tards, move forward with the mission. You don't stand on Shit Mountain and whine because it won't give you diamonds, you get your fucking pick and you MINE, until you find the fucking diamonds, you puking infants.

Sage for reprimanding mewling children.

>>15684922
Doesn't need to be welding. Attach some carbon nanotube cables or whatever to pull, or just push, hull to hull. We know how much stress these hulls can likely support.

In case it has escaped everybody's attention, WE ARE IN SPACE. There's nothing to stop us to slowly accelerate it. Let's assume the cruiser is 100,000 times the mass of the shuttle, and that the shuttle can normally accelerate at 1 g (Two rather conservative assumptions, I think). This means with one hour of pushing, the cruiser is moving at 0.35 m/s. In one day, it's moving at 8.4 m/s.

>>15684979
>babbies and reaction images

u mad bro?

>>15684973
Actually, it's implied that the singularity warheads carried by the Harbinger are artificially forced to release a massive amount of Hawking radiation, or otherwise create some kind of explosion.
They do not form a temporary black hole to suck in the target, as you assume.

>>15681393
>Singularity warheads come in a lot’a classes, we’ve even got some of them on here. Small ones, of course, used to make big explosions

Things go more smoothly when you read everything.

>>15684979
Your forgeting that shit mountain is full of very hungry trolls.

>>15684999
And we can't alter that? Mess with the settings at all?

Don't get smug, not everythings set in stone when you have one of the chief designers of such weapons on board.

I had earlier voted for having Dai start looking into the engines via remote drones on the Asura.

Does anyone NOT want to do this??
My reasoning is that if we can get the engines going there, even for a short time, we can potentially boost the ship away from the star and into a safer area, where we can retrieve pieces of it with less risk than we currently face.

>>15684989
1. You have to exceed whatever amount of force the sun is exerting on pulling asura towards it.

2. That is still incredibly, INCREDIBLY slow. We will be here months at least

>>15685021
I thought that's been the plan since last fucking thread?

Our spook and our engineer both agree with this plan.
The DM agrees with this plan.
Everyone who is not a 'durr ram it' idiot agrees with this plan.

WHY HAVE WE NOT TIME SKIPPED THE TWO WEEKS IT WILL TAKE TO DO IT VIA DRONE?

>>15684989
You assume that we have cables that can withstand that force. That there are hardpoints that we could attach such cables to.
You also forget the matter of the shields, what with them designed to dissipate the kinetic energy of objects hitting the ship. If those shields fail or are turned off, the Asura burns.

>>15684999
He could easily also be using a simple shorthand for "bomb" without going into detail of what it actual does. Assumptions, asses, et al.

>>15685042
>>15685021
I have no idea. Maybe it'll be in the next update.
We've been swatting down these other stupid ideas for so long, it feels like the one option we agreed to has been dropped, when it really hasn't.

>>15685055
No, he says it pretty clearly, that the regular singularity warheads create explosions, and the clustereaters are the ones who release black holes for a week.
>Small ones, of course, used to make big explosions
>But the clustereaters’re different, they don’t explode.
>They eat everything around them before just fading away after a week or so

>>15685042

we sent drones over to investigate the wreck, and timeskipped 24 hours or so when Dai informed us the EI might be operational. SUDDENLY TANGENT!


so then, our current plan clusterfuck seems to be:

1) fix Asura's engines and attempt to distance her from the star. (Dai and Ivanova approved?)
2) RAM/Shield Asura out of sun's orbit with another wreck (Risky, possibly bad idea considering the speed that things are likely moving)
3) Mad dash with cryotubes in a shuttle, using second shuttle to protect the first.

If we do the engine repair/burn, we can always have the shuttle escape plan as a backup.

>Come up with shit idea

>GM shoots it down saying it doesn't work that way

>Tell the GM he's wrong and argue about it

Soooo...Vedibere.
It's getting close to 2 hours now; are you writing?

a bit creepy a gestalt EI.

Late arrival been reading archives and just caught up.

For the record when masses smaller than around 7e23 are compressed below their Schwarzschild radius they will produce more energy than they take in. The smaller the black hole's mass the faster this energy is released, though the less of it there is. I think there is a popular example that goes, "If you forced a semi truck into becoming a black hole it would radiate energy at a rate 200 times greater than the sun" or something like that. Obviously the duration would be very short and the amount released depends on the amount of mass to release it from, so there is a balance between size and how fast it gets released.

And this is all stuff that is known to physics today.

I hate how it's been like two hours now and we've only actually DONE one thing.

I remember Dragon Quest had the same 'paralyzed by too many decisions' problem.
Wish I knew a solution.

Vediere, im afraid you'll just have to decide this for us, as some... people keep arguing and dithering.

>>15684989

JESUS FUCKING FUCK, THE ATTRACTIVE FORCE OF GRAVITY IS POWERFUL ENOUGH TO ALTER AN ORBITAL PATTERN WITHOUT SUPER HANDWAVE ULTRATACH. HOW THE FUCK DO YOU FUCKING MORONS NOT KNOW THAT PUTTING A BODY OF SUFFICIENT MASS INTO INTERACTION WITH A CAPTIVE BODY OF ANOTHER MASS WILL CAUSE IT TO ALTER ORBIT? WERE YOU ALL TOO BUSY SUCKING EVERY DICK YOU COULD PUT LIPS ON IN HIGH SCHOOL TO GLEAN SUCH BASIC FUCKING KNOWLEDGE? HOW DID YOUR PEOPLE EVEN MANAGE TO REPRODUCE?

10/10, I MAD, FFS LET'S FUCKING MOVE THE FUCK FORWARD, FUCKITY FUCK!!!

>>15685131
It's really more like we have a plan, most of us agreed to the plan, and there's like two or three others who are throwing out their plans, and the rest of us keep on telling them over and over that the plans are stupid and won't work.

yea i remember that also with dragon quest. nice to see some of you guys here as well.

>TOO BUSY SUCKING EVERY DICK YOU COULD PUT LIPS ON IN HIGH SCHOOL TO GLEAN SUCH BASIC FUCKING KNOWLEDGE?

H-How did you know that!?!

>>15685156
I know for a fact Vedibere himself was a Dragon Quest player as well.

>>15685157
>it's more common than you think.jpg

>>15685130
>>15685156

By the way, either of you two know what happened to DQ? I know a few were mislabeled on the archive, but did it end or anything?

>>15685131
>>15685109
>>15685075
Really people, you know I take a while to write stuff. Christ. This is not news.

>>15685130
You've only "done" one thing because that one thing was pretty much the closest thing to a plot point you've had yet and I've been attempting to breathe life into this stuff. It's not like the quest is running infrequently or for short durations. Do you want me to try and write LESS stuff and just hack off dialogue, interaction, and such? Because that's how it's going to go if you want to skip over things to "get more done."

It's not decision paralysis, it's me attempting to do quality storytelling.

>>15685200
Naw, I emailed Writer-Dude about it, and he's just been busy as hell. He plans to put up another quest soon, and he said he definitely isn't going to end it without telling everyone.

>>15685201
I wasn't trying to imply that it was your fault or anything. I enjoy your writing, and I don't mind waiting for it.

What I have a problem with is people arguing so much over such pointless shit in the interim that the thread seems likely to go into autosage before you get a chance to put up more than a few real posts.

>>15685215
Ah, good to hear. I guess that's not the first time it's happened.

(sorry Vedibere, your quest is great too don't strike me down)

>>15685031
>1. You have to exceed whatever amount of force the sun is exerting on pulling asura towards it.
No, we don't. The ship is in a stable orbit. We know this because it's been some sixty thousand years since but still hasn't fell into the star.


>2. That is still incredibly, INCREDIBLY slow. We will be here months at least
It's not like you have a date to make. Faster than you think, with how acceleration stacks up.

>>15685138
10/10 for complaining others not knowing basic physics while getting it wrong yourself

>>15685201

You're fine. The only problems with lack of immediate motion are that it gives more time for tards to suggest tarded courses of action, and it gives more time for non-tards to fret that the tards have sent us hurtling into the corona of a fucking sun.

Take your time. Your narrative is engaging, and you're not humoring the tards. We're all good here.

So, uh, barring using the Asura's own engines which, if possible, is without a doubt the best idea, we could use the asura itself as a shield against the star and just sit in relative proximity to it and act as a gravity tractor.

>>15685271
That would probably take longer to show results than we are willing to accept.

rolled 2, 2 = 4

test

>>15685183

i suspected but i knew him by is dragon quest IRC name only.

>>15685277

And our own presence within the corona would probably spell our doom. Not to mention the debris field that is local space. We either have to get Asura out into clear space, or write it off. And the consequences of writing it off could be the extinction of Man.

Let's have Dai look at Asura's engines. If they're at all usable we can start looking for ways to safely get men aboard it.

>>15685308
it wouldn't necessarily mean the extinction of mankind, theoretically, to repopulate the earth, for example, you would only need 22 men and about 4-6 women... note that this means every single egg is matched up with one sperm.

as for the occupants of the Asura, don't we already have a shuttle docked inside the ship? the one we used for the drones? couldn't we use the drone to defrost them, get them to the shuttle, and gtfo? its a gamble, but it doesnt risk us needlessly.

Those names the Asura EI gave us are likely the names of the other super weapons. Remember, Dai said they were all named.

>>15685375
Pretty sure that's below the minimum genetic pool needed for a healthy population.

>>15685402
I don't think so.
It named Hydra, and Hydra was a warship we once served on.
These could be the names of major warships that were deployed with clustereaters, however.

>>15685416
You're not taking into account cloning and genetic manipulation, which I believe some of the NPCs mentioned.

Hm, wonder if that thing we talked wasn't the ex EI at all but something that was on the bomb. Or more accurately, the bomb itself.

It'd make the creeper joke much more substantial, were that the case.

>>15685416
didn't say it was healthy, just enough to repopulte

>>15685430

Good point. The Hydra was a big ship, they wouldn't have entrusted the super weapons, nor the VIPs, to anything less than their best remaining assets.

You turn, quickly relinking with the data core. Now devoid of an EI presence in any form you are easily able to access ship control system and readouts. The damage is as bad as you had feared. The reactor core and systems inside the vault are all in good repair, but everything else... ugh. Terrible. The majority of systems are not even responding, including the engines. Still, that doesn’t mean they are destroyed and beyond function.

“Chief Dai,” you begin, returning to the bridge, “I’ve cleared the threat and taken control of the ship. I would like you to begin remotely assessing the engines on the Asura to see if you can make them operational. I don’t care how bad they are or if it damages the already destroyed ship; as long as it doesn’t blow up and can impart momentum then it’s enough.”

The man sighs, “It will take time.”

“Indeed, but then what doesn’t?”

#####################

A week and a half passes, slowly for you but rapidly for your crew you suppose. Busy hands leave little time for idle minds and all that, and you certainly have them working quickly on pulling the salvage from the hulks. This, combined with your haul from Orrin and the raw metals from Larant’s shipyards have begun to give Tynes and his cargomaster organizational headaches. Empty space has, ironically, begun to take on a premium value as the massive amounts of raw materials fill your hull.

Still, the situation has crated an interesting result. Tynes, Guns, and Ivanova have taken to using some of the more filled cargo bays as hunting grounds, wearing sensors and using light beam weaponry dialed down to harmless levels to play games of combat-tag with one another among the twisting corridors between debris.

Burr has likewise found pleasant diversion (apparently) in the restoration of your body. “Once a trauma surgeon, always a trauma surgeon.” he claims, and though you wince with every needle prick or incision you have to admit the man knows his craft. Or at least, you did; your meatparts seem fully repaired once more, either restored or replaced with cybernetics by the good doctor. He claims he will be ready to begin the process of reintegration any time you are ready.

Dai’s work progresses as well, though you see that working via drone does not thrill the man nearly as much as doing so in person. Still, he presses on and in a short time has a report for you:

>Engines partially functional.
>Likely chance of explosion; Danger to ship integrity minimal. Danger to reactor high. Danger of reactor breach negligible.
>Estimated burn length enough to alter trajectory outside hazardous zone
>Assuming successful burn: 3 weeks to intercept within safe zone

Acceptable enough. It'd probably take that long just to finish looting the other wrecks and organizing it.

Finish the timeskip and hope for the best.

>>15685524

Oh boy, more time skipping.

Also, I'm still not thrilled about the meat-puppet thing. Seems like a pointless vanity.

Oh, right. Also am for the reintegration of our body. I'm sure the cap'n would appreciate it.

>>15685524
Well, even if the reactor blows, the vault would be safe since it wouldn't result in a reactor breach.
Just make sure to pull the drones back into the vault and seal the doors, just in case.

Oh, and before we do this, ask Dai if the power on the drones can be spliced into the cryotubes.
If the reactor does blow, then it would interrupt power to the cryotubes and kill the occupants. But if we splice in power from the drones, they might last long enough for us to recover them.
If possible, hold off activating the engines until after the drone power supplies are spliced in.
THEN ACTIVATE ENGINES!

>>15685524

with more time could the chance of explosion be lowered, or is this a best case scenario for repairs via drone?

if there is an explosion, will the Asura likely go tumbling into the star? will an explosion threaten the safety of our landed shuttles or the cryopods/clustereater?

Did we ask him if using drones as emergency power for the cryopods would be possible?

REINTERGRATION!

>>15685561
>Seems like a pointless vanity.
Honest question not supporting for or against, but why is that an especially bad thing?

>>15685588
Indeed.

>>15685579
And by the reactor blowing, I mean the reactor failing in some way, needing the black hole equivalent of a SCRAM, or the power transfer couplings getting damaged.
Not an actual reactor breach; that would destroy the entire ship.

>>15685561
I like it. Gives the crew somebody to interact with instead of this voice on the speakers. I am actually surprised by how few psychological problems we've had so far.

Personally I want to hold off on the reintegration until we successfully save the Asura's remaining crew.
I'd rather be reintegrated on a high note.

I have not been able to post on Void Quest for something like five iterations because I kept missing. So glad to be part of it again.

I would like to ask, because I read last thread but I don't quite remember, is the Asura in critical danger of falling into the star's corona, or do we have a little more time?

It's persisted 64,000 years. unless we'd gone with the hulkshield plan, we have time enough to do what we need to.

>>15685561
we're a disembodied voice. that can be creepy. the friendlier we are the creepier it gets. even just walking around once then not bothering for a long time would improve morale immensely. that combined with the recovery of the pods would perhaps even make them hopeful of the future beyond just killing xenos. i know they're probably used to the idea of captains being disembodied most of the time but just the idea of our having a working body would make us alot better off.

for combat? horribly useless. for morale/comraderie? it is of incalculable value. unless we look horribly deformed.

inb4 rolls

>with more time could the chance of explosion be lowered, or is this a best case scenario for repairs via drone?
This is likely case. Even best case wouldn't lower it significantly.

>if there is an explosion, will the Asura likely go tumbling into the star? will an explosion threaten the safety of our landed shuttles or the cryopods/clustereater?
Explosion would have unpredictable effects on trajectory


>Did we ask him if using drones as emergency power for the cryopods would be possible?
It is, but it won't sustain them for more than a few hours. Also you've lost several more drones and one of the shuttles is beginning to show signs of heat damage.

DO IT GENNEMEN

While we wait: re-integration!

>>15685588

Wouldn't it cut down a FUCKTON on our efficiency? I mean, didn't YOU say that we had to CONSTANTLY micromanage everything our organic body does? From the most advanced tasks right down to neural signals?

>>15685628
It's on a decaying orbit but it should be another 500 years or so before it burns up.

>>15685656
Hmm...I would like to ask, someone mentioned the idea of using the point defense lasers on the Harbinger to take out at least some of the debris around the Asura. Would that actually be feasible, and would it even be worth the risk? Or has this question been discussed/answered already?

VoidQuest
>adviceHarbinger
Empty space at premium.

So, what I'm getting is that we'll be playing Russian Roulette with 5 chambers loaded for three weeks in order to get the Asura out of the corona of the sun.

Honestly, I do not see anything more practical, short of conquering aliens and getting them to build us a space tow-boat.

Should we choose to fire up the engines, we should make sure that the power to Cryo is not interrupted.

That said, if anyone has any good and practical ideas about getting the people out, then now would be the time to say them.

I guess since the original mission was "see if there were salvageable parts from the reactor" we're likely going to blow those parts up. I consider it an acceptable loss if we can revive those people.

I assume we haven't told our crew what we think cause the whole shebang: our failure to return intact after putting down the rebellion. That part feels pretty bad, man.

ON A SIDE NOTE
we've got too much shit.
go around to the people in charge of repairing shit and ask them what they need and what they don't need. space and mass are a premium in space, and we really don't need to be carrying around loads of low grade unusable shit.

>>15685666
>I mean, didn't YOU say that we had to CONSTANTLY micromanage everything our organic body does? From the most advanced tasks right down to neural signals?
Yes... with involuntary processes and automation once you successfully bring everything back manually.

>Wouldn't it cut down a FUCKTON on our efficiency?
No. It can even increase it when performing some tasks due to the quality of the cyberware installed.

>Guys, pretty sure my 4chans/ISP is fucking up. Might have to call it until Monday since this is a decent place. Will give it a bit more time though.

>>15685709

We're not completely full up yet. And we can cache stuff too.

... could we maybe stick a small 'flange' of shield, or a portion of it, into the debris field? To create something of a corridor for the shuttles?

Or are our shields not that malleable? Or, if they are, how much strain would it create for the ship with staying intact against the star?

To be honest, creating a 'safe' window as best we can with point defence seems the best option.

>>15685729
Because, uh, there is a good chance that impacts with the ship might make the Asura explode.

>>15685713

Try switching browsers if you have a second one installed. Sometimes that fixes things for me when 4chan starts to act slow.

>>15685656

Then let's do it. Waiting only worsens the situation. But let's have a Plan B if things go critically bad. Like, explosion sends the Asura headed into the star bad.

I suggest that we stand ready to do a fast-and-dirty evac. Hook the pods into the drones, load them into the better shuttle, get the Harbinger as close as possible, and fly the shuttle out with a squad of drones playing sacrificial blockers for it. This is strictly a worse case, act now or they all die contingency. But it costs little to have it prepared.

If things go well, we do the burn and have a few weeks to finish cleaning up. Plenty of time to tend to mundane chores.

Meh, might as well try the reintegration.

>>15685713
At least give us the Asura before signing off.

Ask Dai if there's any way he can get the cryopods to last until we're able to intercept the Asura.
But given that the drones are starting to breakdown, I think we have to do this now.
Give Dai the go-ahead to activate the engines for the burn.

>>15685701

ACTION: Ask Dai about deliberately detonating the Asus's engines to achieve a desired trajectory change. If any of the attitude thrusters are even halfway salvageable, (that should be a fairly simple system) a deliberate detonation of the engines to "kick" the ship away from the star should be possible. Time it so that the ship is moving away from the other shattered hulks debris fields, and hey-presto. The vault/reactor still has shields, so it's highly likely to survive.

... of course, that will send it tumbling like mad, but careful application of low-power railgun shots can slow that to a workable degree.

BRIEF QUERY: What does Dai think we should do? Chance it now, or come back later with more resources? We can just stick the drones inside the vault where they'll be safe if we take option 2, and recall the shuttles.

we need to figure out what salvage we need and what salvage we don't
I reccomend we have tynes go around and ask the chiefs of staff and stuff what they need or think we should keep and dump the stuff we don't
space and mass are a premium in space, and we need to be at our best shape in case shit goes down

>>15685743
not until after we get those people, as we don't need to overwhelm Dr. Burr with patients.

>>15685760
If we're really pressed for space, try dumping lower-quality components that we have higher-quality ones of.

I suggested this before, but have we attempted to identify the individuals within Cryo on the Asura?

>>15685785
Don't do it. If this plan fails, I don't want to know who we lost.

>>15685785
i'd assume it would be the senior-most members of thecommand staff of the Asura, minus the captain of course

>>15685757
>Ask Dai about deliberately detonating the Asus's engines to achieve a desired trajectory change.
Possible, would eliminate the chance of a wild explosion. Obviously will damage the reactor, and some people mentioned trying to get as many repair parts from it as possible since it's still in fairly decent working order.

>What does Dai think we should do?
Dai doesn't much care either way but feels all this effort would be a waste if you didn't do something.

>At least do the Asura
That's going to be a decent sized post including the timeskip. I figure I'll save it for an OP.

Also, pick up to two crewmembers to talk to during said timeskip, and any topics, demeanor, questions, ect. you want to bring up in the conversations.

>>15685785
>I suggested this before, but have we attempted to identify the individuals within Cryo on the Asura?
Your databanks indicate they are 11 cryofrozen people you have never met before and have no knowledge of inside cryopods.

you know, we ordered mandatory mental psych examinations for our crew to asses their mental health, but have we done our own?

>>15685870
bring them aboard and defrost them in medbay, but have security on standby. They could be anything from soldiers to janitors to criminals who murdered the crew and hopped in the tanks.

>>15685900
We don't need to. All protagonists controlled by the /tg/ hivemind are incurably insane.

>>15685902
In before spooks of the highest quality,

>>15685907
ah, true... still, was trying to give vedibere an opportunity to test his writing skills (not that he needs to, and only if he wants to)

>>15685854
>Also, pick up to two crewmembers to talk to during said timeskip, and any topics, demeanor, questions, ect. you want to bring up in the conversations

Let's talk to Parson!
Sure he may have had more to lose than most but he's still an officer of the fleet. Lets talk to him about why he decided to join up and all that jazz.

>>15685854
>Possible, would eliminate the chance of a wild explosion.

I vote for this, then. Personnel are more valuable then parts.

>>15685588

Vanity that comes with risk, no matter how slight, is foolish vanity.

Fuck it, I'm happy being a warship.

>>15685854
1st: Don't write up the Asura movement if you don't feel you can tonight. Save your strength and make us proud on Monday.

2nd: I feel uncomfortable with the possibility of damaging the reactor with a controlled explosion. I vote for a slow, steady, bare minimum use of the engines to get the Asura going.

3rd: My votes for the crew members to talk to are: A) Ensign who has taken on the role of ship therapist (I believe her name was Kara). Ask her how the crew is doing, how Parson is doing, how she is doing.
B) Ivanova, discuss with her the cryptic answers given by the Razon EI remnant, what it might mean, where those ships or whatever were stationed, and why would they be so important?

>>15685854
Okay, so it's a choice between likely explosion and damage to reactor, but small chance that it won't blow and everything will be fine, versus definite but controlled explosion, and assured damage to the reactor.

Working off of the assumption that the explosion WILL occur, is it possible for Dai to open and close certain bulkheads and airlocks, so that the explosion, when it happens to the engines, could be vented out to space, preferably in a way that will help the Asura break its orbit?
Dai is using drones, so it's not like we can't just vent the atmosphere from the Asura except for the vault itself.

>>15685854
I guess it's impossible to predict the trajectories of the debris that's orbiting along with the asura? It would be if we could avoid having the asura collide with other molten debris when we alter it's trajectory to get it out of danger.

Voting for Parson and Guns.

Parson about how he's doing and more about what's on his mind than anything specific.

Guns, about the awesome bomb we'll be getting, and interesting ways we can increase our firepower to fight the xeno threat!

>>15685936
I second your NPC dialogue choices.

>>15685933
You do realize that we will continue to be the warship, simply with an added form should we ever need it, right?

I mean the bulk of our time will be in the ship, with the added benefits of our cyberware. The body will just be a better agent than drones when we enter places that aren't utter death traps.

Does anyone else think that the discovery of such a comparative treasure-trove in this system bodes very well for our future? The Empire built things so well that the Asura still has a ton of useful equipment and even cryo pods aboard, despite having spent more than 60,000 years being toasted.

My hope for mostly-functional ships remains undaunted.

>>15685936
i third this

>>15685933
>>15685965
We should also bear in mind that there is the quite significant benefit of having a physical human-like presence on the ship. One of the most important duties a leader has is to be a walking, talking example for their subordinates; which is almost impossible when we are a ship, a floating drone or a fucking hologram.

The incalculable benefit of providing that re-assuring presence is worth a small bit of risk.

>>15685936
I think I agree with all of this except for with:

If possible, get parts off the reactor for our repairs (leaving their reactor mostly working...might be impossible though) and store them in the central vault. If the engines blow, chances are that those components will be destroyed anyway. (Actually, we could put them back IN...)

>>15685969
Not necessarily.
The facilities and equipment required to effect real, lasting repairs on the Harbinger would have been located only at Sol or maybe a handful of Core Worlds. Those same Core Worlds would have been the most fought over systems, and it's unlikely they would have survived.

>>15685854

Once we have our body back? Parson, if Burr and his assistant think he is ready to talk to us. I want to be gentle and conciliatory with him. He suffered a big shock, after all.

The laser-tag games sound fun, we should make sure the rest of the crew gets a chance to play if they want to.

We should speak to Tynes and just get to know him some. He's the member of the command team we've spent the least time with so far.

>>15686056
Capital-class shipyards aren't the only thing we're looking for.

>>15686067
Well, yes, there's a ton of other things we're looking for as well.
It's just that capital-class shipyards are pretty high on the list, since getting access to one will allow things like properly repairing the hull, and if we find the components, doing repairs to the engines, reactor, and Jump drive. Also, we could actually replace weapon emplacements, if necessary.

Alright, sorry guys, fatigue from changing up my sleep schedule the past couple days is hitting me like a wall. I meant to keep going until around 6:00 like normal, but I just can't make it and keep quality going. And since quality is where I focus rather than speed (breaking news! slowpoke.jpg) I think that would be a disservice to all you guys who wait metric aeons for me to post.

I'll try to have something good for you Monday at 18:00. Feel free to continue talking as long as you want, I always read the last thread over again before working on my OPs so it's not in vain or anything at all.

>ALSO!
For the people who were suggesting using the shuttles to move the ship: yes, you could. The problem is just finding cables that can take the force to move it in a reasonable amount of time. Also they could still get hit by huge chunks of debris moving super fast, ect.

Just wanted to point out that while it had problems, it was a very good idea and if it weren't right on the edge of a star's corona and on a timescale of weeks then it would be quite viable.

>Also also
To people who think their ideas might be being ignored, scared of bad ideas ruling the world, or whatever, I read everything that gets posted. I take every well-reasoned post into account. Some (intelligent/unique) posts I've even gone multiple threads before implementing them at the appropriate time.

Nothing you post in the thread goes unread and I enjoy doing so.

>>15686136
So does that mean that what will happen to the Asura has been decided?
Can you at least tell us which plans will be implemented?

>>15686136
Good to hear it!
Sleep well, you've deserved it.

>>15686136
Good to know Vedibere. Sleep well, Master of the Void, we'll see you soon.

>>15685936

Fourthed. Ivanova needs to be kept in the loop, and has the best perspective on the political dealings that seem to have spiraled out of control. And we want to be able to head off a repeat of the Parson incident, so having a good idea of how the crew is doing is important.

>>15686174
>So does that mean that what will happen to the Asura has been decided?
Nah, like I said I still read all the posts in the archived threads. (which reminds me, someone archive please)

That said, if nothing changes it will be normal burn rather than controlled explosion.

>I guess it's impossible to predict the trajectories of the debris that's orbiting along with the asura?
Nah, it's entirely possible... for portions of it. Do remember the sheer amount we're talking here. The large gravity wells in this system are all positively swarming with debris.

>In before spooks of the highest quality,
Pic related? Who knows? Those were pretty extreme measures to take to ensure they weren't captured after all....

rolled 7 = 7

I think if we do decide to try and use the Asura's engines to push it out of orbit (which does seem like the best plan), we should have the pods loaded onto shuttles, ready to bug out immediately if it looks like the engine is about to explode. It might be low chances that all/most of them will make it out if they just try to fly through the debris, but it's a better chance than letting them ride the Asura as it flies around wildly from a blown up engine.

>>15686231
This is probably a good fail-safe measure, but replace the shuttles that are there with new ones, to ensure they'll function properly. Vedibere did mention one (at least?) was being damaged by the heat.

>>15686253
>>15686231
I hate to lose more shuttles, but you have a point about the ones there being already suffering heat damage.

As an emergency measure, just in case, I can agree with this plan. We pull out the shuttles already at the Asura, while we send in new ones, and the drones get ready to evac the cryopods and the clustereater to the shuttles just in case.

>>15686231
>>15686253
>>15686281
Throw in "see if we can scrap parts from the reactor and keep it working" and I like it.

PERHAPS it might be a good idea to set up a controlled explosion just in case there is an uncontrolled explosion. Use the ship's engines first, but rig them to explode in a specific way, should they explode. It's still a crapshoot, but better than nothing!

>>15686319
>it might be a good idea to set up a controlled explosion just in case there is an uncontrolled explosion
That's what I was going for with >>15685941
Using the bulkheads to channel the explosion in a controlled manner.

>>15686319
Repairs don't work that way! Argh!

You can't have your cake, eat your cake, repair your cake, and expect all three cakes to functionally deliver power to core drive systems!

Anyway, I'm out.

>See you guys Monday at 18:00

>>15686352
...What he said.

>>15686281
>>15686253

It's the shield on the shuttle we have to worry about. As soon as the shield fails we'll lose the shuttle.

Can we buff the shields on the next set of shuttles?

It'll suck if we lose more shuttles, we've only got like 7 or 8 total right?

Not repairs, more like "controlled decommissioning..."

We should still do everything possible to attempt to control the explosion, but without actually exploding the thing ourselves. It's probably not much, but we're not working with much in the first place anyway.

Dont forget the people in cryo on the ashura.
WE NEED 11 MORE PEOPLE!