Play date: April 15, 2017
In-game date: April 7, EY219
Location: The military base on Daebak's moon Eondeog
Previous events: Escaping from the clutches of Juche's navy
Rear Admiral Ha-Eun Choi sighs and thinks for a minute before turning to the Steel Hummingbird's crew, then asks them if they would be willing to bring atomic weapons to Juche's moon of Keun and destroy it. The military has planned for this eventuality but Daebak doesn't have any stealth ships and the Hummingbird, from what Choi can tell, is very good at being sneaky...
It's an enormous thing to ask, obviously, and Bishop and Jillian immediately start to debate... in Grob. Choi has no idea what they're speaking -- most humans don't even know that there are other languages -- and her confidence in the group begins to drop as they seem to be babbling at each other using random noises. When she asks them what they're doing Jillian quickly claims that it's a secret code and convinces Choi of this.
Malcolm's up for the task and Volkova will go along with it if her captain agrees; she says that she can make the ship fly stealthier by modifying the space drive.
In the end the Hummingbird agrees to destroy Keun. Choi is visibly relieved and tells them that the navy has atomic technicians to set up the bombs and a professor from Aiscapo University who has studied the moon and its weakness. Like Choi said, the military has planned for this, though she doesn't have all the details. She knows that according to some professor who was asked about this a while ago three atomic weapons, placed in appropriate crevices, should shatter the moon. It will take a day or so to get everything together, but they'll still need to convince the governor. The military doesn't have the right to use atomics whenever they want! Jillian and Sheema are probably the best suited to convince the Governor, and so they'll head down to the planet tomorrow morning.
The crew heads back to the Hummingbird and start to plan out how this will work. The best way is for the Hummingbird to tie herself to the Iof and have the Grob jump them both to the moon. The Hummingbird will then disentangle herself and fly the military technicians and bombs to the appropriate locations while the Iof calculates the jump back. With a slow speed and Volkova's sneaky modifications to the space drive they will hopefully be able to drop off the bombs, have them be set up, and pick up and fly everyone back to the Iof, who should have the calculations done by the time they return. At that point they just need to attach the ships together and jump out without Juche having any idea that they were there at all. To keep the existence of the Iof and Grob secret from the navy they'll seal up all the windows in the cargo bay and keep the technicians in there when the Iof is nearby. It would be nice to have the Resplendent Dragon here but they won't be back until the 17th, a week and a half from now, and no one has any idea how soon Juche will make its move.
It sounds like a good plan but everyone needs to be on board with this. The main crew of the Hummingibird is already committed and their passengers and bodyguard are also eventually convinced. Azar's the easiest one to get on side and Whang agrees that it's a tough but necessary choice. Sheema's the most reluctant and has to be won over at some length.
The governor will be approached tomorrow, but tonight there is one more group to talk to: the Grob. Bishop's the only one who can do so, and he takes the Egg and talks to Chig.
Chig doesn't think that bombs small enough to be carried in the Hummingbird will be big enough to crack the moon and eventually just has to take Bishop's word for it that they can. Unfortunately, Bishop uses the word "genocide" when he talks about how many human lives will be lost and Chig shuts down after that, saying that the Grob will discuss this and then abruptly cutting off communications and not responding to Bishop's call. That's not good.
While they wait for the Grob to get back to them Malcolm heads to the navy's library to look up anything he can that might help if things go pear-shaped over Juche and Volkova starts to modify the space drive for a quieter EM output and welding metal plates over the cargo deck's windows.
Jillian checks messages down on the planet and finds that several have come in while they were away:
From Inspector How: "When and where? Thanks for the dinner party invitation. You need to keep track of your own finances. In-system for another week or so. [a phone number in the capital is included]" (left April 6th, EY219)
From the Beautiful Dream: "Hello! Looks like you're stuck here, too!" (left April 7th, EY219)
From an unknown person to Jillian in particular (original message sent: March 20, EY219): "Interesting data. We should work together. Go to Noraebang, ask for Sid. -V.I [almost definitely Venla Inberg from Providence]. Hello from the Gurg!" (left April 7th, EY219) -- Jillian guesses that this message was brought here by the Gurg, as the date is the day before the gate to Crapworld would have opened. Noraebang is the karaoke/swing dance bar they've already been to, and "Sid" must be Sid the Fish, whom they've already met.
Jillian's got enough on her mind that she doesn't get back to any of the messages. She also gets a call on the ship's phone, which is hooked into the base's comms system, from Rear Admiral Choi. Choi, too, was distracted by the realization that the navy was about to start a civil war in the system and by Bishop and Jillian nattering on in Grob, and forgot to mention that there was bad news about the jump gate.
Juche is in charge of the jump gate and has reported that there are technical issues with it, beginning on April 5th (two days ago). Juche only told Daebak about this yesterday, but when the Daebak navy was going through sensor data it looked like the gate opened on the 4th. Gates need to be opened on both sides simultaneously and without any way to communicate when to do this they've always operated on a strict schedule. The 4th would have been a regular opening to Vishnu. That's really not good.
April 8, EY219
After a restless night for pretty much everyone Jillian and Sheema dress up for a visit with the Governor, Sheema choosing Jillian's outfit and eyepatch. They take a military shuttle down with Rear Admiral Choi and Admiral Kim, talking about how they'll present their case. The military sent down the data and information, including Sheema's report, yesterday and they hope the Governor has read it.
The shuttle has VTOL capacity and instead of landing at the Wonju spaceport it touches down on a landing pad at the edge of the official Governor's residence, the Blue House. The residence is a cluster of large, low, ornate buildings surrounded by hundreds of hectares of grass and woodlands. A waiting limo whisks them to the the main building, and looking out the window Jillian notices a few large colourful salamanders gambolling on the grounds. She idly wonders if Xao's brother, who breeds giant salamanders, raised any of these.
Their escorts usher them inside and Jillian is exposed to an opulence that she hasn't seen since her younger days embedded in the Black Rose back in Zartosht. Thinking back to her former life makes her heart ache and race in equal measure. Sheema squeezes her hand and Jillian knows that Sheema's thinking along the same lines. Evie Donaldson, the Governor's personal assistant, greets them in the hallway. Evie's from Piccadilly and has a Chelsea haircut and surprisingly stylish black suit. She quickly tells them what to expect from the Governor, as the meeting won't be terribly long. The Governor, surprisingly, isn't a people person and will get right to business. Evie checks her watch and then they're let into the Governor's office.
The Governor is officially in charge of the entire cluster and the office reflects that power with stateliness and the sort of casual grandeur that lots of money can buy. The actual Governor, on the other hand, looks like a baglady broke in and fell asleep behind the desk. Jasmine Lee is the centre of power here but her awful bowl cut, bloated face, lack of fashion style, and apparent immobility -- her mouth and eyes seem to be the only things that move -- doesn't inspire confidence. The contingent from Eondeog makes their case as best they can and it's immediately that behind the unfriendliness and lack of presence is an absolutely first-class mind. Sheema's easily the slickest of the presenters -- this sort of dance is what she does for a living -- and Lee casually takes her arguments apart. She's obviously read everything sent the day before and makes it clear that she's not taken in by pretty words.
It's a relief when the presentation is over, if only because it means that Lee's pointed questions are done. It's also a relief when she gives permission for the attack and wishes them luck. As everyone turns to leaves, Lee calls out to Jillian and Sheema in particular. She knows that this isn't an easy thing to do. The military can see it as following orders but for civilians there's no duty to hide behind. Lee absolves them of their responsibility in this and despite the fact that she really, really isn't friendly or social she does a surprisingly good job of convincing Jillian and Sheema. It looks like she's made these sorts of decisions before and knows how it feels.
The flight up to the military base is subdued. Now that they have the go-ahead to do this the realization of what they're going to do really starts to sink in.
Back on the Steel Hummingbird, Bishop tells Jillian that he's heard back from Chig. After telling the Grob about the jump gate issue and what that could mean the Iof's crew have agreed to do this "again". Bishop was unable to find out more about what Chig meant and the communication was cut off shortly after that.
With permission, it's time to load up the Hummingbird and get this massacre on the road. The full loadout is going to be the three bombs, which alone take up much of the cargo deck at 4m x 2m each. Six bomb technicians, three bipedal mechanical loaders, ten marines, and a somewhat confused professor round out the cargo. So how do they drive without thumbs? Cars can be designed so people without thumbs can drive them. I guess their pup packs could do it.
There's a last-minute briefing in the ship's mess room involving the ship's crew, Rear Admiral Choi, Commander Seo-Yun Jo (the head technician), Captain Lieutenant Na Na Kim (the commander of the marine contingent), and Professor Micheal Pritchard from Aiscapo University, who has been up for most of the day working on where to best plant the atomics. He's Piccadillian and skeletally thin with tufts of red hair. It takes a little while to convince him that what they're going to do is necessary, but he eventually relents.
It looks like the bombs need to detonated fairly deep inside three crevices on the moon. With the loaders -- there might not be any real gravity here but there's still the issue of over six tonnes of momentum for each bomb -- it will take about half an hour to get from the moon's surface down to the right location to plant the bomb, half an hour for the technicians to set it up, and twenty minutes to get back to the surface. The Hummingbird's crew won't give any details about how they'll get to the moon unnoticed but the Rear Admiral tells everyone there to trust in the ship and her crew's abilities. Not like Robo-Dog, who is a terrible driver. When he drives the Mission PAW Cruiser he accelerates on icy roads. Who does that?
Commander Jo seems to be practically salivating at the chance to use atomic weapons and is a little off-putting in her eager demeanour. Captain Lieutenant Kim, on the other hand, is grimly attentive.
With the atomic bombs strapped down and everyone on board the Hummingbird flies away from Daebak and above the orbital plane to meet up with the Iof. The two ships meet up around midnight; Jillian's already shooed the military types down into the cargo hold and locked them in there. She's warned them about this but they're still not happy about it. They're also not happy that the drone is unrealistically designed.
While the two ships are being tied together and calculations are being made for the jump to the inner side of Keun, which will take about two hours, Jillian talks to Vob, asking why the Grob are being so downbeat.
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No one had sex. This is a family show.
Bishop's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 29)
Jillian's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 5)
Malcolm's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 15)
Volkova's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 7)