Play date: February 10, 2017
In-game date: April 4, EY219
Location: The Eondeog military base orbiting Daebak, in the Aiscapo system
Previous events: Finding out about the monk
Everyone's a bit tired after the interrogations when Jillian is informed by the military that there's a call for her. It's patched in to the Hummingbird's comms and she's soon talking to Xao. After seeing the Iof and sitting around while Jillian's crew are robbing universities he's realized that he and his people aren't terribly useful without his ship. At this point the Resplendent Dragon should be rebuilt on Beck and he's going to go get her and return as quickly as he can. He invites Jillian to come to Osan Station, the civilian base on the same moon as the Eondeog military base, to check out the ship they'll be using to get to Beck: it's a Veyron! Oh, and he'd like to say goodbye, too.
The name Veyron doesn't mean anything to her but Malcolm almost literally starts drooling when he hears the name: the Veyron is the fastest production spacecraft that's ever been built. He's seen one -- once -- but never up close. Yes, he's very interested in going to see the ship. Oh, and to say goodbye to the Dragons, too. Volkova is, like Jillian, unimpressed by the name until Malcolm informs her that the space drive in it is the Ittagub Type 50P Straight 8. Then her eyes light up in recognition and she's into seeing this marvel of technology. Oh, and to say goodbye to the Dragons, too.
Bishop doesn't care about the ship at all but he likes the Dragons and wants to say goodbye for its own sake. Their nonpermanent crew decide to stay on the Hummingbird after a gruelling day and the four main crew take the short train ride over to Osan Station, looking out the windows at the planet of Daebak slightly above the horizon, a crescent sliver of it lit up by the sun.
The Veyron has a crowd around it in the hangar-- even if the name doesn't mean anything to most people it's arguably the most beautiful ship ever built in addition to its legendary speed. It's a rich person's vehicle, much smaller than the Hummingbird or Dragon without any weapons or cargo space and designed to fly very, very fast and look spectacular, which is succeeds at in spades.
Xao's beaming at his ride and even Neet's looking almost cocky. Malcolm strikes up a conversation with Neet about the ship and the two of them rapturously go over its specs before Malcolm enters the bridge and gets a feel for the control layout. If only he could fly this thing for a bit! The Hummingbird is faster than pretty much anything Malcolm's ever seen and the Veyron would make her look like she's permanently stuck in second gear.
Volkova really wants to look at the drive and she squeezes into the compartment at the rear of the ship alongside Sabine, who's modifying it for trips through the slide points. Volkova is pleased to see that Sabine's got Volkova's notes for the modification laid out for reference. The two of them ooh and aah together over the machine. It really is an elegant and innovative drive design but it's obvious that it would be inappropriate for the Hummingbird even if scaled up to power the larger ship: the Ittagub drive is fragile, extremely finely tuned, requires a lot of maintenance work to keep it going, and all of its parts are expensive and individually machined. It's not that a decent engineer couldn't keep it running, but it would be a lot of extra work and expense. Truly a ship for the rich.
Outside the ship, Bishop and Olivia commiserate about not having much to do here. Bishop's just not into ships, while the lack of cannon and the modification of the space drive mean that Olivia doesn't have much to do. Jillian and Xao talk about his plans. He shows her the route that Neet's worked out. The slide points that they know about aren't linked up in a way that would make the trip using them workable all the way to Providence, so they're going to use the slide point here to get to Piccadilly, then fly to the jump gate there to Providence, where they'll get to Beck and pick up their ship. The Resplendent Dragon will then take the slide point in Providence back to Aiscapo. If all goes well they'll make it back on the 17th, less than two weeks from now. It's only by using the Veyron's speed and keeping the pedal down the whole way that they'll be able to make it to the Piccadilly jump gate in time. It's a really impressive route and Jillian has to admit -- again -- that Neet knows his stuff, even if it's only the Veyron's speed that would allow him to pull this off.
Jillian also has to work to keep her indignation at Xao's family's money in check. Not many people can afford a Veyron, and the only reason he has access to one is because of his family's ship business. Damn this rich kid privilege! Even though she's annoyed she does have to admit that his heart is in the right place and he's doing all this to help them out. He hasn't invited them over to show off the ship as much as to let them see one.
Once the drive has been modified and farewells said the Veyron takes off with the Dragons on board, quickly vanishing from sight. Even its drive's roar is sexy.
With their friends gone the Hummingbird's crew starts to think about how to investigate Juche and see the extent of the Song's influence there. They take the train back to the military base and take a shuttle down to Daebak's surface. The military's already told them that it doesn't have any backdoor means to slip people into Juche; it's much too strait laced for that and up until now they've never seen the need; Juche was always more than a little odd but never a danger to all humanity. The crew also leaves the faking of Juche's ship's self-destruction to the military. They can hardly be expected to do this too, after all.
Back in Wonju they decide to check out the job board to see if any aboveboard jobs transporting things to Juche are available. It's been a while since they've done this! There aren't any gigs advertised: Juche takes its goal of appearing self-reliant very seriously. Jillian notices a yellowed post by Sly Fox, who she's sure went down with The Ashram in Vishnu. She sadly pulls it off the board and tucks it into her pocket as a reminder.
They then wander the streets of the Munje district, which is about as seedy as anything in Wonju gets. If there aren't any legal jobs to get them to Juche they'll try underhanded ones. Jillian's the only one who really has any skill in talking to the criminal element but everyone brings what abilities they have to bear and in the end they get the name "Sid the Fish" and a location, the Noraebang bar. It's not far, so they hoof it there.
Noraebang, to everyone's delight, is a combination karaoke bar and swing dance club. It's a really bizarre, combination, but it works, with the music veering crazily between the two styles. Jillian and Volkova decide to try a song together; their voices don't mesh well together at first but their second try is much better. Sheema and Bishop are actually good swing dancers and take advantage of the opportunity, grabbing Azar and Whang, respectively. Malcolm shakes his head, grabs a drink, and then grabs a dude, retreating to the washrooms.
When Jillian's done on stage she goes to the bar and asks to talk to Sid the Fish. Her phrasing and demeanour is intended to make her seem serious, but she realizes that she may have let too much of her Black Rose-ness through. Ah well. Behind her, Volkova tries out this swing dancing thing and hurls Sheema a frightening distance into the air. The bartender points to an empty booth at the edge of the dance floor and tells her to have a seat. When she walks over only Bishop notices, and he heads over to join her.
After a quarter of an hour of watching Volkova heave Sheema and Whang into the sky -- Azar opts out of this and is at the bar drinking -- a slim Vishnan man in a dapper black suit and snappy hat approaches the booth and introduces himself as Sid. Jillian invites him to sit down and the three of them chat for a bit. Jillian's quickly convinced that he's Black Rose and makes it as obvious as possible without showing her tattoo that she is, too. He and Bishop strike up a quick friendship, the kind of friendship that one has when one dresses in these sorts of suits. Sid's interested in where they're from, as he doesn't know them, and Jillian plays up their peripatetic nature. She does drop the name of the Steel Hummingbird, but he doesn't know of it, surprisingly. She is a memorable rather than famous ship, though. He invites them to meet Geomi, who seems to be the bar's owner, but Jillian would rather keep fewer people in the loop if she can.
There's always money in both banana stands and flying food to Juche. Jillian opts for the second source of cash and when she tells Sid how fast her ship goes he tells her that perishables are always very welcome at Juche, mostly for the upper classes of that classless society. There's a farm called Onsil on Haesik-Nim that they can fly to -- their ship has atmo capabilities? Great, great -- and talk to Mi Hi there. She'll hook them up with goods and more detailed instructions. With their fast ship they should be able to make a pretty penny -- how much cargo space does it have? Great, great -- and there are always more jobs once you do the first one right.
Sid does say that the pirates have been getting uppity lately and that some ships have gone missing lately -- you have a cannon on your ship? Great, great -- and that the 'Rose is going to have to talk to them. If they come after the Hummingbird Geomi's name should be enough to scare them off. When Sid's interested in knowing who the crew is Jillian points out everyone but Whang and Malcolm, the latter being out of sight at the moment. Since they're part of the Rose Sid tells them drinks are on the house.
Free drinks are dangerous when Azar's around. Sid might be named after a fish but she drinks like one and pounds liquor into her emaciated body without seeming at all drunk. Volkova doesn't get drunk either, but she's got enough bulk to spread the alcohol around and she doesn't have nearly as many drinks as Azar. Sheema's influence on Jillian shows again as Jillian doesn't throw up or even get drunk.
Volkova finds someone to have a quickly with and disappears. Given the dirty look that the bartender's giving Azar everyone else decides to leave. Malcolm asks the bartender for a decent place nearby and leaves a note for Volkova when she comes back so she can find everyone else. He manages to pick up someone else on the way out and the Hummingbird's crew crashes for the night after a bout of sex for everyone in their respective rooms, save Azar.
April 5, EY219
After a busy day of interrogating Juche officers followed by a late night with a lot of dancing and drinking for most it's a slow morning. Breakfast is eaten in a proverbial greasy spoon and everyone takes a military shuttle up to the moon of Eondeog again. At the military base they take the Steel Hummingbird out without a lot of hassle or communication: they don't want the navy to know any details of what they're up to. Once away from the naval base Malcolm -- ecstatic to be flying again -- heads towards Haesik-Nim. It's a measly 0.5 AU from Daebak, one of the advantages of being in such a tightly-packed system. The trip should take about half a day.
With the late wakeup and the multi-stage trip to get to the Hummingbird they'll be getting to Haesik-Nim pretty late, almost midnight local time.
As they enter the atmosphere they can see why this planet is the garden of the system. Daebak has a lot of greenery, to be sure, but Haesik-Nim is a jungle. Even in the mountainous regions some of the valleys are completely filled with life -- sometimes plants with astonishingly high canopies, sometimes vast pools of microbial mats, all of it a riot of colours.
Jillian has no problem finding Onsil on the map and anything made by humans sticks out here, especially when it's got lights on at night. Onsil has long banks of lit greenhouses and several buildings at a river's edge.
They're directed over the radio to land on pad number two; they seem to have been expected. Touching down without any issues they decide to load up with weaponry, just in case. When Jillian drops the rear hatch they march out like they're prepared for war, with automatic weapons in plain sight. They're met by a woman, apparently Mi Hi, who has a few burly men with her, but no readily apparent weapons. Mi Hi simply raises an eyebrow at the show of firepower and starts to ask about their ship: whether the Hummingbird has a refrigeration system, its capacity, speed, and so on. When she knows what to get she barks orders to the labourers behind her and they get going, preparing crates of perishable produce to be loaded on the ship. While they do this, Volkova sneaks back to the Hummingbird to quickly rig up a temporary refrigeration system...
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Bishop's Bedpost Notch Count: 1 (running total: 27)
Jillian's Bedpost Notch Count: 1 (running total: 5)
Malcolm's Bedpost Notch Count: 2 (running total: 15)
Volkova's Bedpost Notch Count: 1 (running total: 7)