Elijah Seng Logs

Note from the Facilitator:

"This is a compilation of logs written by a ship breaker employed by the Clinigwyr Recycling Corporation. These logs detail in the first-person the hardships, friendships, and spaceships dealt with by Eli on a regular basis."

Clinigwyr Recycling Corp. employee personal logbook.

NAME: Elijah Seng

YEAR: 4679

LOG: 0

I'm Eli Seng. I just got hired by Clinigwyr as a ship breaker. Well, builder, too, but they said neophytes usually only get to break ships. They want me to keep a log, a journal, every day. It's for mental health, I think? Anyway, in a couple days, I'm shipping out to Beb. It'll be two weeks on and two weeks off. 14 days on Beb, 14 days at home on Tandua. I wonder what the food's like on Beb. It's just an airless rock, so it's all imported or grown with hydroponics. Hopefully they have some of the meaty mushrooms from 'celia.

//log end

Clinigwyr Recycling Corp. employee personal logbook.

NAME: Elijah Seng

YEAR: 4679

LOG: 1

First real log. I've never actually been to space before. Travel between the moons of Kepule is pretty common, especially for work. I guess I'm about to be part of that statistic. I'm hoping it's not too bad. Throwing up would probably suck in zero-G. With Tandua being covered in mostly oceans, it's almost impossible not to have been on a boat. I served on a fishing boat for a couple of years. We always went out right after storms to catch rarer fish that get stirred up and come closer to the surface than usual. So I guess I've got my sea legs. I'm not too worried about being jostled around. It's the lack of gravity that'll get me. I heard that your head starts to puff up because your heart is used to pumping blood upwards and letting gravity do the leg work (get it?). Guess we'll find out tomorrow.

//log end

Clinigwyr Recycling Corp. employee personal logbook.

NAME: Elijah Seng

YEAR: 4679

LOG: 2

I'm typing this as we wait to dock at the Soaked Aerie, or Tandua Station 2, if you wanna be official about it. Biggest station in the Kepule system. I haven't thrown up from the lack of gravity yet. 

Went to the spaceport, scanned my ticket, went to the gate. I got some candy for the flight on the way. The plane was an S-6C Supercomet. More like superold. But who am I to judge? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Even if old, it's still decently pretty. 42 meters, nose to tail. The front looks a bit goofy, with that nosecone in the gap between the shock cones. Still a pretty machine from every other angle, though.

I was lucky enough to get a window seat. The airbreathing portion of the flight was super smooth. Engines switched to vacuum mode and circularized the orbit.

You ever drop your phone on your face in bed? Now imagine that, doubled. That's how two G's felt when I wasn't paying attention to the pilot saying, "Prepare for burn." They lock everyone's seat belts between take-off and docking so that no one goes splat at the back of the plane.

//log end

Clinigwyr Recycling Corp. employee personal logbook.

NAME: Elijah Seng

YEAR: 4679

LOG: 3

I had hoped to explore the Soaked Aeirie a little before departure, but there wasn't much turnaround time. Barely made to the ship in time. It's a vaguely egg-shaped craft. 32 seats in a can and a pilot up front. It's clearly not designed for long trips; just surface to station and maybe a little a further. At least Beb isn't far.

//log end

Clinigwyr Recycling Corp. employee personal logbook.

NAME: Elijah Seng

YEAR: 4679

LOG: 4

The guy sitting next to me was pretty friendly. Balrand Tachomtheous was his name (no clue if I'm spelling that right). He's a dwarf from Terrisus. Been breaking ships for 3 years as of tomorrow.

We ended up talking for almost the whole trip. Apparently, someone tried to warp into Kepule the other day. I wonder if they knew that's illegal. It must've a real tiny ship since the gov never caught them. Small enough to effectively hide in the rings. It was confirmed they warped away a few hours later. Most interesting part was that it had a completely different signature when it warped in versus out. Either they grabbed something big they before they left, or they're utilizing some kinda signature-scrambling tech.

Landed on a grate that leads to a flame diverter so can they always land in the same spots.

I knew Beb was covered in concrete, but damn, that's a lot of concrete. Some original, too. It ain't called the concrete moon for nohting.

First day of work starts tomorrow. 

//log end

Clinigwyr Recycling Corp. employee personal logbook.

NAME: Elijah Seng

YEAR: 4679

LOG: 5

First day breaking ships. Not too bad.

Slept in a little late and missed breakfast. Put on my suit, helmet, gloves, etc. I knew it would be a snug fit, but I wasn't expecting a mechanical pressure suit to be so comfy. Joined everyone else in the big airlock where we got our quotas set and shift mates assigned while it was depressurizing. Turns out me and Balrand are working together for the next two weeks.

As we were walking to our site, I saw it, looming in the distance. The OSS Artmemis. At least half of it, anyway. Massive pre-wipe capital ship that was cracked in half during the subsequent wars. Balrand said they just started breaking it a few months ago. It's been here far, far longer. Clinigwyr's hoping for 13 years to break it. I say 15. Balrand's (quite optimistic) estimate is 8 years. Says once the engines come out, the rest'll be gone overnight. I bet him all the ale he could drink in a night it wouldn't come down for at least another decade.

Balrand showed me what we were taking apart. Some old rover-lander hybrid. A niche design used in the early days of colonizing Kepule. Now, we just want to get the engines out and sort the rest by material. First, we removed the electronics. Then we got to work unscrewing and unbolting everything unscrewable and unboltable. It was lunch time already.

Balrand also likes meaty mushrooms from Mycelia. They seemed to be pretty popular in the mess hall, actually.

After lunch was more of the same. 

Had dinner and went to bed.

//log end

Clinigwyr Recycling Corp. employee personal logbook.

NAME: Elijah Seng

YEAR: 4679

LOG: 6

Didn't miss breakfast today. Had some freeze-dried fruit, and a nice, big, juicy, meaty mushroom.

Got out to the site with Balrand and we got back to work. Since all the electronics and valuables and screws had been removed yesterday, we could starting chopping it up. So that's exactly what we started doing.

Clinigwyr's got huge metal-cutting saws specialized for the low gravity and lack of air cooling. 'Course, power tools are bound to overheat the way we're using 'em. They automatically shut off at 400 Kelvin. That's why we got the fridge. Put in the hot tools and shut the lid. It'll dispense liquid nitrogen or oxygen or... something cold. Doesn't matter; hot tool is now cold tool. Back to it.

Removing the engine block was surprisingly easy. It kinda just slid out the back after the relevant plumbing was disconnected. Beb's low gravity made it feel like only a tonne! Nice and light. We used a forklift (Balrand is certified) to get it from our site to the "Complex Valuables" depot.

Had mushroom stew for dinner. Still not sick of 'shrooms after three days in a row.

//log end

Clinigwyr Recycling Corp. employee personal logbook.

NAME: Elijah Seng

YEAR: 4679

LOG: 7

"Bloody hell, Eli, wake up." Sleep ended early today with blaring alarms and Balrand shaking me awake. "Somethin's happening with the Artemis. Don't know what. Full lock down for a while."

Apparently, a missile is what happened to the Artemis. Ancient surface-orbit ship buster that missed its target the first time, however long ago that may be. Then it would've flown off into the stars without enough fuel to make it back to the original target. How it got here? Maybe a bunch of gravity assists or a wormal gate or... who knows, really. For all I know, magic or Jim. But the end result is that the OSS Artemis has new hole in her, long after she died. 

The good thing is, it's not an attack from some other mischievous group. Confirmed by the radar profile. Just one hell of a persistent missile... I'm gonna go see what Balrand's drinking.

//log end

Clinigwyr Recycling Corp. employee personal logbook.

NAME: Elijah Seng

YEAR: 4679

LOG: 8

A general sense of unease has swept over Beb's inhabitants. We haven't been working for almost a 30 hours now. Some of 'em are saying it's an attack from Tandua, even though it's been confirmed it wasn't. Tandua wouldn't attack Beb anyway; it's a mixed control moon, so they've got people here, too, like me. Same goes for Terrisus. Everyone knows the alliance is shaky, but neither dwarves nor seamen want another war.

The only other thing it could be is pirates, but there's no way any of them could get their hands on such an ancient piece of tech... and bombing a husk on Beb over a real target? Why?

Back to work in about six hours. I'm gonna try to get some sleep.

//log end

Clinigwyr Recycling Corp. employee personal logbook.

NAME: Elijah Seng

YEAR: 4679

LOG: 9

Mushrooms for breakfast again.

Balrand was there early. I informed him that it's against protocol to work alone. "Screw protocol," he said. He'd already filled about half a cart with sorted metals and plastics and composites. I got work cutting and sorting. Since we'd already removed the valuables, we could just cut it up however we see fit. We were done before lunch.

He didn't want to talk about the missile. Best we move on anyhow.

First broken craft under my belt felt good. It might've been just a small, easy salvage, but it felt good to have gotten it done.

//log end

Clinigwyr Recycling Corp. employee personal logbook.

NAME: Elijah Seng

YEAR: 4679

LOG: 10

Today's the day me an' Balrand get off our shift. I thought it was back to Tandua on a company interlune, but Balrand invited me back to Terrisus. He said a freind, name was Vince, I think, would come pick us up at one of the Beb stations. That's where we are now, Rig 17 orbiting Beb. It's called a rig rather than a station because it's not very... put together well? It's a bunch of old ships, fuel tanks, and trusses welded together with a big prefab hab module at one end. Not exactly the highest quality of safety. Doubt it would hold together if a gravity ring was attached.

Balrand was telling me about the engines we scrap. They're the most valuable part of the whole ship, usually.

"Fusion reactors, are always removed before we even get to see the craft. The risk of damaging one is far too costly. There's a small team of highly trained profeshionals that perform the whole operation themselves. Every scrapper company has to share those guys since the skill set is so rare in this industry. Excellent pay grade. Sometimes you and me'll get a fission reactor since they're far cheaper to produce. No one really cares much about the chemical or electrical engines. We get all of those."

Before scrapping, Balrand was an engineer at Tandyne, so I think he knows what he's talking about.

Rig 17 has a helicopter attached to it. How and why, I have no idea. We've just been 'sitting' (floating) around for about two hours waiting for this Vince guy to show. Balrand says it's just a 'little longer' and that 'maybe there was traffic'. That wasn't a joke. He really meant traffic in space. Space traffic. Right.

//log end