Having gone through the nearly-painless transfer of ownership from Casey Blackwood to the group <name>, the Long Shot is now yours.


The first step, apparently, is for Khea to inspect the ship from an engineering standpoint.

Is anyone else going to assist her?


To do this right, Khea needs to name some particular aspect of the ship that she wants to inspect and then make a roll for it.

Thinking about who has engineering skills.
J-Drive: Walter, Kheaiftouaw
M-Drive: Darrel,
P-Drive: Kheaiftouaw
Note:Kaengarr has engineer but not specified type.

"I'll check out the M-Drive, Khea the P-Drive and Sir Walter can do the J-Drive. Then we recheck each others work. Everyone should examine their control stations where they might be working and also, let's get a really close look at those repair drones."

"Will do" Sir Walter said, as he headed towards the rear to check out the jump drives.

11:24, Today: Walter Zeller rolled 9 using 2d6+2.  Inspect j-drives.

Kheas main focus is checking for any jury rigs, workarounds and modifications.
And she is labeling everything in Throk.

20:00, Today: Kheaiftouaw rolled 5 using 1d6.  Inspecting power plant (Edu), forgot the 2nd dice.
20:00, Today: Kheaiftouaw rolled 3 using 1d6+2.  Inspecting power plant (Edu).
So 8 in total.

Today: Darrel Cromwell rolled 13 using 2d6+1.  eng check.

woohhooo

  Kaengarr joined Khea for the power plant inspection, offering very few words unless directly asked but somehow always there to cheerfully present her with just the tool, schematic, or helping hand that she needed at any given moment. If this particular combination of roles was unusual by Aslan standards it nevertheless made for much lighter work.

 
  Kaengarr's assistance provides Khea with a +1 DM.
 

Darrel already knew how the Maneuver Drive supposedly worked, but he was interested in just how it did that. The fact that the ship could get twice as much thrust from a system was mind-blowing.

It uses some sort of gravitic capacitance... each engine loads the capacitor which is then released in micro-second bursts. By alternating these bursts, neither engine is actually being used at full capacity continually.

He can find no schematic in the computer that shows just how this is done, but he does learn that the two M-drives can be used normally at half-power so that they function as M-1.5 drives. Or just one engine can be used at a time.

He can't say with certainty that this is Imperial design, but it is certainly advanced technology (TL14). He's also pretty sure that the engines aren't more than 20 years old.

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Walter already knew one of the 'secrets' of the Jump Drive, namely that it was more efficient. It actually required less energy than a normal system. Unfortunately, the way it was able to do that was buried within the device. Short of dismantling it completely, he has no way to know how it works.

He does discover that there is no schematic for it in the computer, only for how it is installed. When he runs a standard diagnostic on the system, however, he does discover that the lanthanum grid on the hull has a denser placement and a redundancy factor. What that means is that the ship can still jump with 20% of the grid disabled as damaged systems can be bypassed.

The design appears to be Imperial, and the parts that he can see are clearly advanced technology (TL 14).

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Khea and Kaengarr tackle the Power Plant. It appears to be in working order, had its last purge just under 60 days ago. The design is Imperial, but something that was manufactured within the last 10 years. It's 10% more compact, and actually has a 12% reserve!

This reserve doesn't show up on the ship's displays until the main level drops to 1%. It isn't normally displayed in engineering either, but she notices the 'secret' slide bar on the monitor because it is labeled in Throk.

Sir Walter headed back to meet the others after inspecting the jump drives. "Not being a military man, I am impressed by the redundant systems that they have to reroute power to the lanthanum grid. More so as the original SDB was not designed to jump in the first place. The systems allow for up to a fifth of the grid to be damaged and still be able to make the transit to jump." he said

"While the others finish inspecting the ship and take it for a test, I need to skip my time at the stick to follow up on leads for cargo. If my calculations are correct, we will have a full 135 tons of cargo to take to Outpost and I will be spending a little over 8 megacredits for the load." he said to the Count.

Count Cromwell finishes his inspection and briefs the crew

"Those engines are amazing. I've never seen or heard anything like them. Someone has gone through alot of time, effort and credits to upgrade this ship."

Wiping his dirty hands on a fancy monogrammed handkerchief, he chuckles "If my tailor saw this he would have a fit. How about we do a thorough walkthrough of the ship, checking all the nooks and crannies, making sure there's no unpleasant surprises before we're spacebound. After that, we head to the bridge, assign duty positions, everyone checks out their individual stations and let's get this baby up in the air."
This message was last edited by the player at 18:14, Sat 30 Jan 2016.

The more she learns about the ship the more agitated Khea gets.
I do not like this at all. This ship is full of separatly refitted machinery with unknown functions. And no one can say how they will work together. And unless we take this ship apart we will never know if we have discovered everything on it.

And the there is the question who would put such advanced technology on a 100 year old ship and then use it for intra system asteroid mining.
So before we continue let me take some precautions..

Khea leaves the others in the engineering room to get and done her flack vest, just in case there are any more suprises hidden in the ship.

When joining the others again she continies Someone should also check the computer thoroughly for any hidden or unknown functions.

  "It's still not well-armed enough for my liking, but it's solid otherwise. What concerns me, what with the disdain for passengers, is what I'm going to do with myself," Kaengarr grumbled to Darrel as he folded his arms and scowled. "It's bruising enough to be chopped liver on the bridge, but even after that, 'second-rate gunner' seems to be all I'm thought good for!"

  Kaengarr's delivery was ever so slightly theatrical, implying that he wasn't actually angry about the situation. Still, the suggestions surrounding assignments that had been bandied about earlier would effectively leave him with the unofficial title of 'Chief Thumb-Twiddler' on a day-to-day basis, and he knew that restlessness would set in very quickly under those conditions. There had to be some meaningful contribution that he could make...
This message was last edited by the player at 18:31, Sat 30 Jan 2016.

Pablo, while the others were checking engineering, had gone to the weapon turrets, and checked them out in every way he could without taking the turrets live, since spaceports often took a dim view of turrets going active while docked. While the ship, by his standards, was grossly under-armed for its size, he wanted to make sure that what it had was ready. The final tests would have to wait till they were out in clean space.

13:31, Today: Pablo Esteban Ryzov rolled 8 using 2d6+4.  Preliminary turret checks.

In reply to Kaengarr Ruzokh (msg # 11):

Looking over the rough draft of the initial crew suggestions

Kaengarr's comments brings a smile to Darrel's face, "Well, I suppose you could arm-wrestle Pablo for the title, or we could just do away with a chief's title and say Turret-1 gunner and Turret-2 gunner?"

The Count begins an inventory of the medical bay.
"Kaengarr, talking about liver, I need to bone up on my Vargr internal anatomy, that should keep you busy."

  "That's a start! It doesn't help when we're not shooting at things, though." Upon Darrel's further suggestion he paused to peer at the medic-designate through narrowed eyes and muttered, "Liver, bone, anatomy... you want to dissect me now, is that it?" and continued in that vein by throwing up his hands in mock-exasperation. "Fine. You can poke and prod for the benefit of science, but no bits to be added, removed, or modified in any way!"
This message was lightly edited by the player at 19:38, Sat 30 Jan 2016.

Darrel updates the positions' titles, "Ok, let's hope all our problems are as easily solved."

Picking up something that looks like an enema delivery instrument, "No, not right now, later, but of course you'll have to have a clean system first. You know, like trying to find cracks in a full ballast tank inner walls." Squeezes the instrument like a bellows.

  An evil grin slowly worked its way across Kaengarr's face. "Just remember: I get to poke and prod in equal measure to find out how you're put together inside. And unlike you, I'm not skilled with these things yet." One hand swept toward a rack of unpleasant looking medical equipment that would not have seemed out of place in a mad doctor's laboratory... though it probably had legitimate uses as well.

Coming back and hearing the others chatting Khea hisses Focus! We are far from done. We still need to check the life support, the computer system and comb the ship for any hidden devices. I also want to check that device for retaining the atmosphere.

The Count looks at Khea, then Kaengarr and back again...pointing, "He started it...smiles, "Ok, you're right, just trying to lighten up the ship with some fengshui, you know my medical humour usually keeps them in stitches, hahaha. I'll go check out the computer."

Looks for Valeska, "Since you've been here, can you help me out with the computer?"
This message was last edited by the player at 21:05, Sat 30 Jan 2016.