Naval Clash (turn tracking)

[GeoModder]

Rubin, ready or not, here it comes.

Sankis: do you mean today/tomorrow or next week?
If for now, wait till tomorrow please, I've got 2 stories to write...

Originally posted by DataAeolus
Since apparently Miriam is staying on Unity I guess we'll let Geo take care of her.

What about Santiago. Is she the murderer? Does she make it to the Planet?

Um, Aeolus, Miriam is already taken care of, reread the last sentences of the senior staff meeting

And what do you mean by Santiago being a murderer? Captain Garland was killed in the accident, not murdered in this PBEM's line of events.

[Barinthus]

Sankis seems a bit eager - he probably meant this Thursday/Friday, not the next.

I have one more myself - the landing of my pod. I'm pretty sure that you guys can go ahead without me since my story will not involve anybody else, probably.

[GeoModder]

Chief Santiago hurried through the bulkhead of the Unity's landingpod section, carrying a limp woman on her shoulders.

"Hurry, you slow morons!", she yelled to the men approaching her from another passage. They struggled to force an unwilling crewman to pod 7.
"Just knock him out.", she added.

The men obeyed, and pulled the man through the hatch of pod 7. Santiago jumped after them, drew the woman in their hands and moved forward to the steercabin of the landingpod. She dropped in the co-pilot's seat next to a waiting crewman and barked "Status!"
"All ready for launch, ma'am.", the pilot responded.
"The extra cryocel doctor Rubin indicated is removed, mass ratios are optimal."
"Good!", Santiago responded, "Let's close the hatch then and depart."

The pilot forwarded the order and buckled up, indicating her to do the same and then initiated the launch sequence.
"5-4-3-2-1-IGNITION."

A loud rumble went through the pod for several seconds, and then silence returned.
"We're free of the Unity, ma'am.", the pilot said, checking his control panel.
"Course, speed and inclination are optimum. ETA in about 22 hours."

"Very well", said Santiago, switched on a camera and ordered it to give her a backward view towards the 'Unity'.
"And for that bloody gal still onboard, good riddance!", she added vehemently. Only five of the six belligerent colonists were found and dragged onboard.

***********************************************
Shudders and thumps went through the pod, the sound of whining air against the battered hull reached a final crescendo and then faded away rapidly.

"Ma'am, we're in the lower atmosphere and our speed has slowed to subsonic level, altitude 2000 feet and stable.", reported the pilot some minutes later.

"All right, time to look for an decent landing spot then. How long can you keep her in the air?" asked Santiago.

"Another thirty minutes, ma'am, but I think I've found a good place already. Radar shows that broad, redcolored valley at two o'clock there has a flat bottom, I'll steer us to there."

The pilot manoeuvered the pod around, ignited the thrusters untill the crafts velocity dropped to a bare minimum to stay airborne, and released the landing pads, turning the pod's tale toward the ground. A last increase in thrust, a heavy bump that went through the landing pod and there it was, an earthling object on the soil of an alien world.

"Touch down.", Santiago murmured.
"For better or worse...", she added in her mind, and couldn't resist a broad smile cracking her face.

The crowd below her started to cheer...

[Rubin]

2108 to Sankis.

[GeoModder]

I have breaked a rule unknowingly: I hurried a unit production last turn and I'm used (with the ACDG) to put 'stockpile energy' in the production qeue. I just checked the rules html, and it states that this is forbidden. The only profit I have from this now is that a bit extra cash is in my bank. Must the turn be replayed for this or is it enough that I don't spent all my ec's for a future hurry untill I produce 2 facilities in qeue sequence without the automatic stockpile?

[Mart]

GeoModder, how many EC you got? Is it large amount or rather small?

[GeoModder]

I don't know how much I get out of this bug, but it's rather small. Didn't spent all of it on the hurry. Not much in cash ATM, though.

If needs, I'll try to calculate.

[Sankis]

I meant this thursday/friday, but thats only because I find it a bit silly that its the 8th turn and we're still doing the pre-story things :P. If you need more time for a story, I'm fine with that. I'm just a bit eager to make use of the pics and such i've been collecting for a pirate announcement dealy.

[GeoModder]

Mart 7x5: If I calculated correctly (but it's simple math), I won 12 ec out of it.

Sankis: Yes, turns are going rather quickly, don't they?
Well, I'll write my Atlantean story now, but you don't have to wait for that. After all, Atlanteans land a few months afterwards anyway with the 'Unity' flyby, Aeolus is about on it's way, Santiago's pod has landed and Rubin seems to write things in introspect.

So, feel free and surprise us

[Barinthus]

Originally posted by GeoModder

"Hurry, you slow morons!", she yelled to the men approaching her from another passage. They struggled to force an unwilling crewman to pod 7.
"Just knock him out.", she added.

That's Santiago, alright. No wonder why I voted for her in that most sexy lady of SMAC thread (or something like that) . , Geo.

I'm really glad you guys are writing stories - I know it takes up time but it makes the game more fun IMHO.

[Sankis]

I forgot to mention I sent you the save, Aeolus, not sure if you checked mail yet.

[Mart]

GeoModder, Are you sure 12 EC?! That is quite a number, for early turns. Does this game gives so much energy in that bug? If this is 12 EC in one base you would have to have like 24 minerals per turn?

Anyway thank you for reporting it

It's multiplayer so you probably cannot "dump" the energy there....
It's up to all players, but what I would suggest is either:
- as you propose, you might keep 12 EC on your account for some turns. or
- forget it, one time bonus for you for honest reporting, or
- maybe give a "share" of the bonus EC to other human players - 3 EC to each of the three factions, no interest....
- support Chiron Charities Ligue.... (just kidding )

[GeoModder]

Gwynn Elevea watched through the bridge screen the last pod descending towards Chiron, and felt relieved.
She made it, nobody had found her in that last search through the ship by Santiago's men. Appearantly she was the only one left aboard ship, the search parties had been throughly.
She was free to revive Geo now, he would now what to make of this situation they were in.

Gwynn moved through the Unity towards cryobay 5, passing empty corridors and abandoned cabins.
Once there, stepped to Geo's cryocel and started the revival procedure.
Six hours from now he would be with her again...

*********************************************

Next to her, Geo tapped up cruise info from the ship's main computer, and murmured happily at what he saw.
"About time", he told her. "Chiron will be in reach five hours from now."

They were on the auxiliary bridge, together with half a dozen others manning the stations.
She thought back on the past three months. The problems of waking the necessary people to maintain the damaged ship, Emergencies when systems failed, redistributing the available oxygen and supplies to the ship's quarters which were most likely to hold 'till Chiron was in reach again and, above all, preparing everything for the final descend to the planet. Repairs had been made to the two remaining landing pods, but a proper landing was not possible. They would have to land on sea, that much was sure. Luckily enough fuel was left in the ship's tanks for a quick slow down of the pods to suborbital speed. The Unity would therefore be doomed to a quick destruction on the planet even before the pods were landed, but nothing could be done about that now. The survivors and equipment left on Unity were more important then a broken hull...
The ship's cargo bays still held quite some equipment, and in light of their forced landing on sea, the most valuable of that was the agricultural equipment specially designed for use on the seas, and a cargo foil. Also, all under water equipment had been left as well. A most pleasant set of circumstances considering her schooling. The only drawback was that only a handfull of people could be wakened to prepare it all. The ship simply couldn't support any large number of people anymore. A skeleton crew of fourteen had managed to repair the pods, load the necessary equipment in them, and, the last few days, moving all remaining inhabited cryocels in both pods. A mere three hundred could be loaded, the rest, another two hundred or so people, have to be brought out of their cryobed within a few hours and boarded in the pods. This was a minutieus procedure. Simply not enough oxygen was left on Unity to accommodate that many people, even only for a few hours.

"It's time", Geo spoke up, interrupting her thoughts. "Operation Exodus can start", he added with a wink.
Always the humorous one, even in a stressed situation, she thought fondly.
They all left to the nearest cryobay...

*********************************************

The planet's view was breathtaking.
Gwynn watched the screen as the pod came closer and Chiron continued to grow in size.
Swirling white clouds, red-and-brown dots between the clouds where the surface
could be seen. But above all, the mainly aquamarine blue of the planet's equador.

A bright star came into existence on the front left side of the screen upon the planet's view.
"the Unity", she thought. "It punctures the atmosphere!"

"Good bye, ship, you served us well.", said the pilot next to her.

Gwynn took one last look at the already fading star, and let her eyes drift back to Chiron's equador.
Somewhere there they would soon float on the waves of an unknown ocean...

[GeoModder]

Originally posted by mart7x5
GeoModder, Are you sure 12 EC?! That is quite a number, for early turns. Does this game gives so much energy in that bug? If this is 12 EC in one base you would have to have like 24 minerals per turn?

Well, I'm quite surprised as well. I expected nothing more then 3, maybe 4 credits. Probably have miscalculated something, and I'll double check. But to keep on the save side, I will keep 12 ec's in my account at all times 'till I finish 2 facilities in a qeue row on that base, or whatever sanction the other players feel appropriate.

I don't know how the bug works exactly, but I think stockpile energy doubles the income of the base were it is initiated. Even then 12 ec's are extraordinous.

[Barinthus]

I'm cool with Geo keeping 12 ecs until he finishes two fac...

and btw it's your turn