Within about an hour, perhaps a little longer, everyone is introduced to each other. Duties are assigned, meal hours and watches are set, and otherwise a routine is established.

Captain Zenith makes the rounds, making sure he meets every crew member.

"Our first leg is to Balloran. It's always been an uninhabited system, but it does have a drift beacon," he explains to everyone.

"We'll see what we can find there, and look for another beacon. We have no way of knowing if these Sha'Kri used drift beacons or not, though, so that's why we'll spend a day or two searching the system. They might have had some other technology or magic."

"Anyone have any questions?"

In reply to Zenith (msg # 6):

So...what exactly are our assigned duties?   Other than looking pretty, that is?

"The ship isn't large enough to have specialist departments and staffing," the captain replies. "So, everyone pretty much fills all positions as needed. That's based on what skills you are known to have."

"If you don't have any piloting skill, we aren't going to put you in the pilot's seat... unless we're desperate."

"Because this is a long range and long term expedition, we have a few extra positions that might need to be filled. Science is broken up into Comms, Sensors and Medicine, though, obviously Medicine probably won't be needed for awhile and, hopefully, not very often."

"I'll have a schedule made by the end of the day."
This message was last updated by the player at 14:13, Wed 14 Apr 2021.

"That's good to hear." It is not clear if Culhayn is commenting on the main crew roles being filled, or that they weren't expected to have a frequent need for a physician. "Anyway," - he says, raising a hand - "I'm a bioengineer and I am skilled in patching people up if the need presents itself. Does the ship has a medical bay, or would we need to improvise if anything happens?"

"Also, although I'm not an expert in it, I tend to think of myself as adaptable enough to be able to learn in quick enough timeframe to help in other sections." There is no sense of false modesty on his voice.

Revonoss just nods ahead one 'eye' on the drone he is guiding through the ship with his mind. The fact everyone is going to fulfill any roles they are capable off making sense to him. On the other hand you'd expected a more specialised team for an expedition like this.

"I cover most tech and science fields. Dabble a little in medicine and know how to operate most kinds of vehicles. So i guess i can cover most ship roles and aid in repairs.

But do you expect us to run with the ship crew on aq regular basis or more as auxileries and we have other tasks set for us?"

"I suppose I can assist with science," Solsantharis says. "My expertise is mysticism, though, so I suppose I'm primarily an auxiliary... whose main usefulness would be on an exploration team."

"I can always sit in a chair and stare at a console, though, even if I don't know what to do when the red light flashes."

"I do believe that puts me into security and boarding party operations."   Sonaeu adds after thinking for a tick.  "Oh, and morale officer."

"You've got a point there, Soneau," one of the other crew members says. "I'm Corlene."

"At no point will all of the crew be leaving the ship at the same time, so there will be a need for an away team. It's composition will depend on what the task at hand is. Sometimes you'll lead, Soneau; sometimes I'll lead."

"Let me make one thing very clear: no one gets left behind. I've already talked to the captain about that, and he agrees. If the mission seems to be in jeopardy and it's the mission or a crewman, then the mission has already failed."

"Finding Golarion may be important; it might even be critical. But, what's the point of finding it if we lose our souls in the process?"

Revonoss one eye on the drone still exploring his new home nods at Corlene.

"Good people go first. A good way to operate. If you don't mind i'd like to go and get a nice look at all the tech stuff. To get a feel for it now it works in case it needs fixing later."

"Sure, go ahead. We're all free to go wherever we want on the ship," Corlene replies. "We'll be drifting for a few days. Might as well get used to your new 'home away from home'."

"I should probably check the armory, to see how we're equipped."   Sonaeu scratches behind an ear thoughtfully.  "And look into the various nooks and crannies to figure out the best defensive points."

Soneau needs to make a DC15 Stealth check to determine defensive points. For every point above 15, she'll be able to determine one such spot. For every 5 points, she'll be able to find a hiding spot. She quickly becomes aware that the ship was never designed for that sort of action, though. On the other hand, those spots will also work for the enemy.

The armory is fairly well stocked. There is at least two of every Level 1-4 melee, advanced melee, small arms and longarms. The exceptions are:

1 Azimuth laser pistol for every crewman plus 6 extras.
6 space axes
4 needlers
a couple of Level 5 small arms
4 semi-portables (heavy weapons)


Revenoss has a lot of equipment to look over. His biggest concerns are going to be the Drift beacons and the aiudara.

His question still went unanswered, so Culhayn insisted in it: "I'm still curious as to the presence of a medbay in this ship. Even an improvised one could truly be a life saver, should we need it." In case there is in fact one, he would like to inspect the facility and become familiar with it - otherwise, he would wander the ship in other to better acquaint himself with the place and its sensors, and would try to observe the best places to use as a makeshift operating room should the need show itself, as well as supplies for such an eventuality.

((OOC: Sorry. It's listed in the Ship's Data thread. I must have thought that posting it there would have answered your question. My bad.))


"Yes, there is a medical bay," Captain Zenith replies. "On a ship this size, it's almost mandatory. Generally, smaller ships don't survive damage that causes traumatic injury to its crew. We can make it as automated as possible, but if there's no medical personnel onboard, then who would run the equipment?"

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 17):

Finding the armory better stocked that she thought, Sonaeu double checks the current inventory against the loading manifest.  She makes note of any discrepancies, and selects one of the heavy weapons(a grenade launcher) for her use.  She then selects a plasma pistol (small arm) as well as an extra power cell, slinging the holster for it around her waist.

She also makes a mental note of the defensive points (and hiding spot) that she finds, rechecking later that day to ensure that she had them properly memorized.  Everything related to ship security taken care of for the moment, she then goes to check the galley.  She could use a snack.

OOC: Taking 10 on stealth check.

Once he has inventarised all the stuff he goes to see the chief engineer and ask if there is anything that can teach him more about the beacons and aiudara on board and if there is anything he can assist with while they travel to their first point of interest

"Good questions, Revonoss," the engineer replies.

"Unfortunately, there aren't really any good answers. We have a "few books in the library that mention the aiudara, but none of them detail how they are built. Several people have attempted to study them over the years, with no real results. We know what they do, just not how they do it."

"Attempting to take one apart is not permitted, of course, because we don't want to lose it if it can't be reassembled and reactivated. We've only got one on board because our quest was considered more important."

"As for the Drift beacons, we don't quite know how they work either, but we know how to build them, thanks to the Triune. We have schematics for them in the computer."

"The design is simple enough, and somehow rugged enough that we've never had one malfunction. Of course, they can be destroyed, but why would anyone want to do that?"

"Rhetorical question, right?" After getting himself acquainted with the equipment of the medbay, Culhayn had returned right in time to hear the interchange between Revonoss and Etheron. In fact, for those attentive, it seemed like a pattern that it for Culhayn it was almost second nature to just "be there" unnoticed until he decided to put present himself in a conversation. For a scholar, he truly as a lot more subtle than one would expect.

And he really could list a number of terrible reasons why one would want a drift beacon destroyed, though these answers weren't exactly pertinent to the discussion they were having.

Depending on your point of view, time either passed too slowly or too quickly, but before you knew it, the ship exited the Drift after an uneventful journey.

It was floating in space not far from a planet. It wasn't a well-traveled system, having only three planets, but it did have a Drift beacon. The planet below was in the books as Kazikan. It had some picked-over ruins on it, but was otherwise abandoned by whatever civilization once occupied it. Most of the planet was listed as 'dangerous' due to the strange monsters and mutated animals.

The Starhawk slipped into orbit and let its sensors probe the world beneath it.

Nothing new was revealed, although a detail somehow never mentioned before was discovered: the Drift beacon was inside what looked like an old temple sitting atop a mountain peak on the equator. It wasn't a very large peak, though, so climbing it wouldn't be too hard.

The other two planets in the system was a gas giant farther out given the odd name of Ubiquitous and a small hot planet closer in to the sun named Jack.

Revonoss was a little bummed that there was no real knowledge about the beacon or aiudara but understood that if the great minds were unable to get a grip on it he wouldn't either with his limited experience. Still he made sure to learn about them what there was to learn as they traveled so in case things went wrong or needed repairs he at least hade a basic knowledge of what he was working with.

When they arrive at the planets orbit he expects to be part of the away crew and loks at the scans as he asks of the captain.

"So whats the mission sir? Just take a look or go and look for something specific?"

Sol wasn't all that technically oriented, but he liked to know details about his surroundings, so he wandered about the ship and making a mental note of where the various areas were.

"So that's what engineering looks like," he muttered as he peeked into the engineering area. He hadn't been on any large ship before, so he hadn't known what to expect. Was it going to be gigantic in size? Or was it so compact that he wouldn't notice it?

As it turned out, it was more normal. A few things were large but the overall scope was fairly normal-looking.

That's when he noticed the pile of rags. He couldn't image any function that it served, other than be a pile of discards or else a source of rags if a lot of them were used in engineering to polish the equipment. Well, he wasn't an engineer, so it wasn't his concern.

And then the pile moved! His first thought was rats! He'd heard many tales of rat-infested ships. And the rags stood up!

It was clearly bigger than a rat... oh, it was an Ysoki!

What the heck was it doing on the ship?

"Hello, there," he called out. "I'm Solsantharis. If you don't mind my asking, what are doing here... on this ship?"

COMMS:"This is Captain Zenith. We'll be taking up a geosynchronous orbit over the temple. We'll send a shuttle down. We're hoping that there will be some sort of clue there."

"It looks like the shuttle will have to land at the base of the mountain, and you'll have to climb up to the temple."

"Also, we'll be testing the aiudara before we go down, just to see if it will work this far out."END COMMS

"Sounds interesting."

He mutters mostly to himself and then gets ready to go to the surface suiting up making sure all batteries are charged and his respirator works fine. Noting seems more horrible then choking on top of a mountain because you didn't prepare your gear. Onc he was ready he tries to join in on the Aiudara test just to see how it works.

Because Sonaeu had a cover identity to maintain, she spent at least part of her time doing recordings.  Her idol career was starting to look like a serious contender compared to her "real" career, which typically involved covert operations.

She'd just finished her latest concert recording, setting the whole of her messages and video to transmit once they'd hit upon the appropriate re-transmitter.  That accomplished, she goes down to see how the preparations were going.

The Ysoki stood, stretched and yawned.  After a quick shake of himself his eyes focused on the Solarian.  "I'm Socket.  Electrician 3rd Class."  He grabbed a badged off of his overalls and held it out for Solsantharis to see.  It had CONTRACTOR in bold across the photo.

"I'm here to make sure the fan in the head works.  It was reported glitchy and no one wants to deal with that nastiness.  Well, that model, the Phaque VII na1.7, is known for power surges and it was wired in wrong.  I had to trace it back and found it had a cross connection to the backup life support.  47nodules flowing through a Byzggs II fuse-l, cheap bastards should have sprung for the III which can handle the surge, and *BAM!* down goes the backup life support.  No one would even know it until the main life failed and the backup didn't kick in.  All because some Vesk had a big meal and flipped on the fan."

"We certainly don't want a repeat of the Frozen Coffin debacle.  Ok, I don't remember the real name of the ship, but that's what we techs called it after this very thing happened.  Crew froze to death before help arrive.  So essentially, I may have saved your life.  You're welcome."

"Now that I've fixed the problem, Contractor 2B-7 reports green light.  You are all clear for lift off."   He started to look around and gather his tools together now that the job was done.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:49, Sat 02 Mar 2019.