The Voyage of the S.S. Soccermom -Finished-

[Sparksol]

This is a record of the voyage of the Slug Ship "Soccermom". It's Eight-Sector Mission: To gather resources, weapons, and crew as a means toward delivering vital information to the current known location of the last of The Federation.

Our Crew:
A Slug (as they're commonly known) who goes by the callsign "Gordon"
Another Slug known as Woods.

And me, one of several copies of a Ship A.I. known as Sparksol, and the captain of this vessel for the duration of the primary mission.

Our weapons include a Slug-Tech Anti-Bio Beam, a Dual-Shot Laser, and a standard Mark 1 Teleporting Breach Bomb.
Our ship is also equipped with Slug-standard Repair Gel, which automatically although slowly seals hull breaches. Pity it doesn't actually repair any damage.

I'm told that the ship's name would be appropriate on a warship, so I withheld my opinions about this particular vessel's combat capability.

Mission Begins.
Sector 1: Civilian
Day 1:
Our first jump (out of a currently-calculated 11 in this civilian sector) brought us directly to a Rebel auto-scout!
Woods initially panicked, running all over the ship until I notified him that visual scans showed that the only weapon it had was a low-end beam weapon that couldn't penetrate even our weak shields. I instructed Gordon to remain at the helm, as my piloting program wasn't part of the package when I was loaded into this ship. It did not try to escape, and the battle didn't not last long. In addition to raw materials and fuel, we discovered an intact Drone Recovery Arm device, but no sign of any drone parts. A fortunate break for us, that beam weapon could have done serious damage if a drone was out bringing our shields down.

Day 2:
A Mantis Scout, claiming that this nebula was part of their clan hunting grounds, attacked. I had Woods on weapon control, until Woods and the ship's internal sensors detected an intruder. I told Woods to meet it in the medical bay, and vented the rest of the ship once he was there. In the meantime I targeted the Scout's shield systems with the lasers, and on advice from Gordon, used the Anti-Bio-beam to strike the shield room at a certain point, later followed by shooting the Mantis' helm. I had no sooner done so than Woods informed me that the intruder had teleported away, and Gordon said he was on board the ship again. Another Anti-Bio-beam shot across their helm, and the ship was ours for the taking. In their cargo hold, we found a new and unused Mark II Hull Smasher Laser. We've brought it aboard, but simply don't have the power to spare for it yet.

I know the slugs can sense things about lifeforms, but I'll still feel better once I've got a full sensor array on this thing. I dislike being blind.

Day 3:
Another auto-scout, but of more concern was the proximity of the local star! This beacon needs re-positioning. This auto-scout had a beam drone and a laser weapon, so I had Woods on the shield controls at first, until a flare from the star came through. System monitoring let me know the weapons controls were taking damage, so Woods was on fire duty until we could clear the area and the Jump Drive recharged.

Fires. I could really use some internal sensors, I'd rather not vent the entire ship every time there might be a fire somewhere. After this little incident, my crew has agreed.

Day 4:
A quiet jump, all that's here is a mined-out asteroid.
Gordon and Woods spent the recharge time repairing the weapon system, and playing poker.
Gordon came out ahead, Woods has all next week's janitorial duty.

Day 5:
A scout-class Rock ship was waiting for us, and told us we were being taken by the Dread Pirate Tuco.
Their weapon combo of a basic laser and beam weapon proved effective enough to take out the life-support and medical bay in a single sweep, so Woods got to repairs while I took aim for their weapons, and had Gordon calling the shot on the Anti-Bio-beam.
That was the only weapon volley they made, soon they were calling us and telling us they surrendered. We took a modest amount of scrap and fuel.
Surrendering did them little good apparently, as while we repaired their ship broke apart. Perhaps a fire had been started? We may never know.

Day 6:
A rebel rigger saw us jumping in, and immediately began preparations to jump themselves. We couldn't risk them giving away our position, but between the breach in our engine room and their dodging, we were unable to stop them from escaping.

Gordon wanted to try defecating out the airlock instead of using the standard facilities. I told Woods to stop drugging his drinks.

Day 7:
Another auto-scout was here, this one with missiles and a laser. And it was trying to escape in the direction of the rebels as well, apparently we're not moving quickly enough. It did a remarkable amount of damage before we managed to destroy it. Gordon suggests a better engine would be of help, or else more crew so Woods wouldn't have to run around all the time being everything but pilot.

Also, there seems to be a distress beacon up ahead. We'll check it out.

Day 8:
Look like a blockade has been set up around a civilian planet. In any well-equipped ship I'd be glad to help, but as Woods notes, we don't have anything that can help in this situation.

Day 9:
An Engi ship has set up a shop and bar here, they've got a drone system, a sensor suite, even a cloaking device. There's also a couple of Engi and a Mantis looking for something more exciting than everyday work. Sadly, we can't afford everything and their wages, and the repairs themselves are going to cost a good deal of the scrap we've accumulated.

After some discussion with the crew, I'm overseeing having the repairs done and installation of the drone control station, while Gordon and Woods meet their potential shipmates and pick one to hire. They end up bringing back one of the Engi, who goes by the name of Pie. She says she's happy to join the party. When I ask Pie about her skills and describe the available stations, she says she's new to all of those, but would be glad to learn.

I'd facepalm if I had a face or palms.

When I ask Woods and Gordon about her, they said it wasn't so much about her as it was avoiding the other two. Seems the Mantis was just looking to sabotage apparent Federation sympathizers, and the other Engi was unstable. And while Ms. Pie might be a complete newbie on a small ship like this, she was earnest about learning any job we had and has a positive attitude.

I'll have her start in the engine room, and let her roam for repairs as needed. It'll take some of the pressure off of Woods.

Day 10:
Last stop before the sector exit beacon, a drifting ship hails us. There's some people on board, and their ship is a total loss. We ferry most of them to a nearby planet, though one of them, a human requests to join us instead.

After checking with the Woods about his trustworthiness, I let him join.

His name is Narthollis, and he seems frightened of Pie for some reason. The human shows hardly any reaction to the Slugs, but the Engi scares him? He won't go in the engine room while she's there. Okay, she's been asking about redecorating, but I don't see what the problem is.

Day 11:

How did they Rebels find us this quickly? We should have had another day, even with the one ship that did get away.
We managed to sneak by most of them, but the one elite fighter we come across happened to spot us before our drive could finish charging. It's got one nasty missile launcher and a mid-grade blaster on it.
The blaster doesn't make it past our shield, but the first missile knocks out the helm. Pie was already on her way to help with repairs before I could say a word to her.
It was a good thing I didn't sell that Mark II Hull Smasher, it was the only thing other than the breach bomb that could get past their shields.
With some good timing and mediocre aim, we managed to disable their weapons long enough for the drive to charge. I hope Gordon was taking piloting notes.

Unfortunately, things were not looking as good as I'd hoped. I had a choice between two sectors, both of them uncharted nebulae.

Just as well I didn't get those sensors after all, as well as having two Slugs on board.
I picked a nebula, and signaled for activation of the Jump Drive.

To Be Continued...

[Sparksol]

Transmission Restored

This is a record of the Slug Ship "Soccermom". The crew is varied:
Gordon, a Slug and the ship's primary pilot. Appears to be better at card games.
Woods, a Slug and recent all-around errandbeing turned primary artillaryslug. Finally finished with janitorial duties.
Pie, an Engi who is new to small-ship space travel and turning into a fine ship's engineer. Remarkably jovial.
Narthollis, a human who is training up on shield duties, and is afraid of Pie for reasons he refuses to share.
Finally, myself: Sparksol, the ship's current AI. Slightly annoyed at the lack of sensors, but willing to deal with it.

The crew is feeling fairly good about our odds so far, having managed to escape an elite rebel ship with hardly any damage sustained. Knowing that we're dealing with a sector that's entirely nebula doesn't bother the crew, partly because half of them are Slugs and the others because there are Slugs on board.

I'm resigned about this, but come next sector I want at least internal scanners for fire checks.

Our current path is uncertain, but believed to be 8-12 jumps.

Sector 2: Uncharted Nebula (B)
Day 12:
A derelict ship is floating in this, the only charted beacon in the sector that's not in the nebula itself. Pie was able to reconstruct a system repair drone schematic. We'll hold on to it for now, but hopefully it won't be needed.

Day 13:
Nothing but Nebula. Woods tried to set up a game of poker, but Pie and Narth both felt something more chance-related would be more fair. Gordon suggested Yahtzee, and the drive-recharge time was spent reasonably pleasantly.

Day 14:
A plasma storm would have been irritating enough, but meeting an auto-scout in one is just bad fortune.
We tried to outrun it, but failed. It had no shields to speak of, but it did have a cloaking device! Gordon visually ID'd a minor blaster of some type and a teleporting bomb of some sort. Woods made a good shot with the dual-laser array and disabled both weapons before it could get more than single shot off. We made short work of it and prepared to move on.

Day 15:
We happened on a pirate vessel that was likely smuggling something. When we hailed them and asked about rebel sightings, they cut us off and powered their weapons systems! After a few hits, they changed their tactics and tried escaping instead, but Woods was feeling more than trigger-happy and finished them off. We discovered a Mark 1 Burst Laser intact amidst the wreckage. It's not high-grade stuff, we'll likely trade it away if we find a trading outpost.

Day 16:
A scout-class Mantis ship came out of nowhere. I can only wonder what they were thinking, even after they saw what was firing at them they never gave up. I can only hope we aren't getting overconfident with these minor victories.

Day 17:
Gordon and Woods felt a ship somewhere near us, but it jumped out before we could find it. Pie has been asking about paint to "brighten up this dreary engine room," and when I told her there wasn't any on board she looked at Woods in an odd way for a moment. They said she was stable before, right?

Day 18:
Nothing at this beacon. Pie tried to ask Narthollis something about his food, but his answers were vague and he stayed in the airlock near the shield controls until she left.

Day 19:
There was no other ship nearby, both I and the Slugs would agree. Where did these human boarders come from?
I had Pie stay in the engine room while Gordon, Woods, and Narth dealt with the intruders. At least they weren't Mantis.

Day 20:
We spotted a damaged Federation ship hiding in the nebula. We managed to track them down, and they were glad to find that we were on their side. Their ship was a total loss, so we agreed to take them to a nearby safe haven. When we told them about our mission, a Zoltan by the name of Whisper requested to join us rather than be left behind. She has no main station, but seems to prefer spending time in the engine room.
Also, it looks like a trader's beacon is ahead.

Day 21:
A small selection, but difficult choices. This Engi shop held not only a sensor suite, but a teleporter system and cloaking device. On top of that, they also offered two types of anti-ship attack drones and a hull repair drone! Even after seeing how much we'd get for the spare burst laser, it wasn't going to be enough. I asked the Slugs how attached they were to the Anti-Bio beam, and they asked if I thought we were ready for it to used against us if sold.
That seemed a reasonable argument, so I went with a laser drone instead.

Day 22:
A Rock ship saw us come out of the jump, and began to insult the crew. Woods had the weapons charging before they finished their first lengthy sentence. I wish he'd been paying attention to the plasma storm going on around us instead, we might have avoided that fire in the halls.

Day 23:
Nothing at this beacon, but if the chronometer is still accurate (and it is) the rebel fleet is probably right on our tail at this point. Fortunately, we're one jump from the beacon leading out of this sector.
Pie has decided today's drive-charging time would be best spent with an eating contest. Considering the different biologies of the crew, one would think she'd have planned the menu better. Neither Woods nor Gordon could eat the energy-rich silicate wafers, and Narthollis didn't even show up.
The contest was declared a tie: while Whisper had all the energy drained first, she left the actual wafers intact while Pie finished eating it all. Should there be another such contest (unlikely) we'll get the rules straight first.

Day 24:
A nearby planet showed signs of intelligent life. Woods, Gordon and Narthollis went down to get some fresh air and meet the natives, though it seemed there was no way to communicate in the limited time we have. Narthollis came back early with a headache while the six-legged things showed the Slugs to a wrecked Engi ship. They brought back some usable scrap materials and a newly-resuscitated Engi crewmember, Nielsen. She claims to be skilled in ship repairs, though she's also a bit behind the times as she was offline for several years.
Narthollis doesn't seem as worried about Nielsen as he does about Pie, though he still jumps either time either Engi enters the same room he's in.
Coordinates have been marked for the planet, and if we succeed in our present mission, we may return.

My next choice of sector was between a pirate-controlled sector and a Zoltan sector.

The trip through Zoltan space might be an easier journey, but we'd also have the rebel fleet right on our tail.
The pirate sector on the other hand - while it was once a major economic trade powerhouse - held little for me to be concerned about. Perhaps they'd slow down the rebels, or maybe the rebels would clear out some of the pirates, or both.
It might be a little more dangerous to travel there, but the danger was never very far in the first place.
I signalled for the jump, and on our way we went.


Next time, on Voyage of the Soccermom!
Intense battles! Explosions! A little bit of trading with pirates!
And other events that would probably be exciting if they weren't being filtered through a mostly-text boring AI transcript!

[Sparksol]

Playback Continued

This is a record of the Slug Ship "Soccermom". The crew:
Gordon, a Slug and the ship's primary pilot.
Woods, a Slug and primary weapons specialist. Why these two Slugs were chosen for this mission is probably along the lines of unbelievability.
Pie, an Engi and ship's engineer. May be manic.
Narthollis, a human who is training up on shield duties, and is afraid of Pie for reasons he still refuses to share, doesn't have a problem with the other Engi.
Whisper, a Zoltan who presently lends her energy (ha-ha) to the engine room and manages to contain Pie's attention.
Nielsen, an Engi who has just joined us and will likely serve as maintenance crew.

Finally, myself: Sparksol, the ship's current AI.

It's been nearly a standard month since we began, with the rebels behind us the whole way. Most of the crew get along well enough, but they tend to leave me out of things and treat me as if I wasn't here. Perhaps I should try talking with them more? Then again, we do kind of have important information to deliver. Perhaps during some down-time...

Expected time in this sector: 6-12 days. The beacons seem to divide into two main paths.

Sector 3: Pirate Controlled Territory
Day 25:
A distress beacon led us to a mining colony with some disease outbreak. We sent down Pie and Nielsen to calm things down, Pie talked to the infected and Nielsen gave advice for methodical treatments to the under-prepared medical personnel. After some time, they returned with some materials from the colony leaders, who were glad we could help them during this crisis.
One question remains unanswered: Where had Pie gotten that lab coat?

Day 26:
A Mantis fighter has hacked into my systems and shut down the engines! Quick thinking on Pie and Whisper's part kept them running, but only barely.
An alert from the life-support room told me it was taking damage at the same time Woods told me about two intruders. With two Engi and a Zoltan, this doesn't seem to be a good melee oriented crew, but that would be forgetting that the other half are Slugs and a human. Woods and Narthollis went to take on the intruders, two Mantis who quickly sent them running into the medical bay next room over for nanite treatment. Once the Mantis were done, they began trying to break out into the medical bay, so I opened the doors for them. Woods and Narth were waiting, and the battle continued with the Mantis at a disadvantage this time. Nielsen made a run through the fight to repair life-support.
In the meantime, the anti-ship drone had been keeping their shields down, and Gordon gave me coordinates to aim the Anti-Bio beam through their ship. Soon, the ship was empty of attackers, and we took what we could quickly gather while the drive charged.

Day 27:
A small interceptor-class Slug ship was here, and asked for help getting to a repair station, claiming their navigation computer had given out. We agreed, and they gave us coordinates for a certain beacon about three jumps distant and began to trail us. I asked Gordon about their intentions, but he said they were too far out for that sort of thing.

Day 28:
The next beacon had a pirate-marked ship attacking a small shuttle, who called us for help. I considered the risks, and chose to help. It was another Mantis ship, and they objected to our interference by teleporting a pair of intruders to us. One Mantis and an Engi - odd boarding crew. They were not any trouble, and neither was the other ship.
The crew of the shuttle had disappeared during the short fight. A wise move on their part, I suppose.
Pie was disappointed, of course.

Day 29:
This beacon held a pirate-marked cruiser-class Slug ship who opened communications with us. It turns out they were mercenaries looking for some extra work, and didn't care who they might be fighting. While it was a tempting idea to have them try to slow down the rebels for us, we couldn't spare the price they were asking, so we turned them down and waited for the drive.
Pie has made some sort of paint from Slug-slime and certain portions of human-type food, and with permission has begun to repaint the engine room. She said she's a bit unhappy with the color, but that she couldn't take that particular shade of white much longer.

There's a distress call active from a nearby beacon. It's not out of the way, so we're checking it out.

Day 30:
The ship has no life signs, and is in an asteroid field. We're checking it anyway, it may be an AI like myself.

No good, there was a damaged AI on board, but nothing coherent left. We shut down the distress call and took what we could while time permitted.

Woods went to check out the new paint on the engine room, and promptly got sick. Not so much from the design, but apparently the food and Slug-slime had mixed poorly and spoiled, resulting in a terrible odor to more organic lifeforms.

Pie and Whisper will be cleaning off the "paint" for a few days, followed by chemistry homework to avoid further accidents of this sort.

Day 31:
At the destination the interceptor requested, we found a rebel fighter waiting for us. A trap.
Between our drone and Woods' improving expertise, this was proving to be no contest. Also, they had a remarkably poor choice of weapons: a single-shot laser and a small teleporting bomb that couldn't even breach the hull.
They soon hailed us, pleading for their lives.
I took in the mood of my own crew, and decided to give them a choice on their respective consoles. Unfortunately for our attackers, not even Pie was in a good mood thanks to having to remove her paint: it was a unanimous vote. I told our would-be destroyers to stick it in a black hole, and gave Woods the go-ahead to finish them off. The resulting explosion was probably therapeutic to some.
We took a bit of scrap, and left when the drive charged.

Day 32:
A rebel auto-assault drone in an asteroid field...how these things survive out here is a mystery. Between our weapons and the asteroids, it didn't last long.

I tried using one of our system repair drones to interact with the crew on a more individual level, but I couldn't work out how to run it and stay in the ship at the same time. It was an interesting few minutes of perspective change, but I've got a mission I cannot ignore. (Also, I'd prefer a frame with a little more durability. That thing felt like something that would result from a children's "My First Robot!" kit.)

Day 33:
Another mercenary, this time in a Zoltan ship complete with intact super-shield. Technically, we could have afforded their services, but I was saving for ship repairs and maybe an upgrade.

Day 34:
Slave traders, and in a pirated rebel vessel. They offered to sell us one at random as some sort of chance-raffle,
but I felt like taking them out of the market would be a better direction to go.
I did tell Woods to try and take out just the traders, but while he said he'd do his best, from here all he could do was pick out lifeforms.
Sadly, none of the slaves survived.

Pie and Whisper have finished cleaning the engine room. Whisper is already looking over more viable paint-like substances they might be able to concoct, while Pie is researching tapestries and canvas. I told her we wouldn't be looking for standard civilian shopping along the way, but she managed to get me to promise that if we ran across one somewhere along the way I'd let her stop and shop for a while.

Is it possible to get a headache if you don't have a head?

Day 35:
At the final beacon, we found the remains of a floating ship. It seemed some battle had taken place not too long ago, and the victor had left. Narthollis and Nielsen searched it somewhat carefully, and came back with an automated weapons reloader. After a few minutes, Nielsen had it running again, and the Jump-charging time was spent installing the device.

My choice this time for the next sector to Jump to was a Slug-controlled nebula, and the Engi homeworlds.

Much like last time this decision was easy, and I told Gordon to move us into Slug territory when the drive was ready.

[Baldwebby360]

Post more of this, love it to bits

[Sparksol]

Next Record Found

This is a recording of the Slug Ship "Soccermom". The ship's crew is small yet diverse:
Our original crew of two Slugs, Gordon and Woods. Gordon is making a fine pilot, while Woods is our ship's weapons specialist. They also are most likely to start betting when anything is going on. Woods is one of our two go-to beings when we have invaders on board.
Our two Engi crew, Pie and Nielsen. Pie is energetic and cheerful, and becoming quite adept at keeping the engines working at their peak. Nielsen is more somber and more on average with the personality profiles of the usual Engi, and is our first-responder for dealing with ship repairs.
Our lone human, Narthollis, keeps our shields in top condition and is our other main defender when we're boarded.
Lastly the Zoltan, Whisper, keeps Pie company in the engine room most of the time.

We've now entered a nebula, Slug territory. Once we're out of here, I intend to get some ship sensors installed on this ship, one way or another. We're nearly halfway to our goal, though, so I guess it's not really vital.

Sector 4: Slug Controlled Nebula
Day 36:
Our first jump, to one of the few non-nebula beacons on the charts, had an Engi who was trading spare parts for other parts. I sold the system repair drone and the weaker hull laser for a defense drone. I'm very tempted by the sensor system he's got there, but...well. Nebula. No point in it just yet, and besides which Woods and Narthollis have expressed interest in the teleportation system he's got. I agreed, but the price meant we'd be looking for more scraps soon just to keep up our reactor energy.
Pie looked for a while, but came back disappointed in the lack of decorative materials.

Day 37:
As soon as we'd jumped in, a small Mantis vessel detached from another ship a jumped away. Possibly they thought we were authorities, but they hadn't finished their salvage of the ship they'd caught. Desperate times meant we couldn't really be picky where we got parts, so we finished the salvage of what was there, which included a small teleport bomb suitable for damaging systems or crew.

Pie's taken a supply of leathery straps from the wreck. I did not ask why she was giggling. I may regret not knowing, but I also suspect I'd regret knowing. Besides, I'm likely to find out soon enough.

Day 38:
Another non-nebula beacon. Amazingly, there's nothing here.
Drive-charging time was spent rather quietly, although I did finally get Narthollis to say something about why he seemed afraid of Pie. He claimed her voice and mannerisms reminded him of an ex-girlfriend he'd had and who'd been somewhat abusive towards him.
I don't think he's telling me the truth (or at least not the whole truth) but I decided not to mention the straps she'd found or the way she was giggling about them. No sense in worrying him further.

Day 39:
A slug colony on a large asteroid has set up a trading post of sorts here. They had sensors (Why?!) and a cloaking device for sale, but the exorbitant prices would have left us with barely a hull. They settled for selling us some fuel and we moved on.

Day 40:
A rebel auto-scout is guarding an advance rebel station. Gordon says they're both uncrewed, but we'll need to get past the scout to see what's on the station. The scout proved to be no trouble at all, and the station was full of supplies: fuel, parts, scrap, and even some drone parts. This will speed us up well, and hopefully slow down the rebel pursuit.

Day 41:
A light-cruiser class slug ship came close and requested asylum, claiming to be unarmed. As we drew near, they opened several weapon bays and took a hostile pose.
It was a long fight, our weapons could barely get past their layers of shields, and their weapons - while numerous - were poorly aimed and did little damage. Eventually, we got the upper hand over their shielding and they soon surrendered and offered their cargo in exchange for their lives.
Most of it was ship parts, but what those Slugs were doing with human rugs and cloth-carpeting is anyone's guess.

Day 42:
A deserted beacon. Either it's nothing important, or the nebula was too dense for even Slugs to find us.
Pie has taken some of the rugs and hung them up as decoration in the engine room. Narthollis also claimed a few for the shield room floor as well as his own room.

Day 43:
A very large Slug teleported on to our ship the very moment we arrived! Before we could make a move he had things all over the room, describing their function and prices and being quite boisterous. He even offered for sale the employment contracts of his employees on his ship, a Rockman and a human.
Sadly, his prices were beyond what we were comfortable with, and we could do little but move on when the time was done. He refused to leave until we bought something, so we bought a few jumps worth of fuel.

Day 44:
A fighter-class rebel ship all the way out here already?! No, wait...pirate markings. Good, they've not caught up to us yet. Unfortunately, the pirates have spotted us. Their weapons are nothing to worry about, but those shields were impressive. We nearly had to resort to our breach bombs until Woods suggested that Mr. Narth and himself teleport over instead and remove the crew from the inside. This took remarkably little time, although it did take two trips, as one of the pirates was a Rockman and took more effort to deal with.
When it was over, those two had found a prisoner of the pirates: a Rockman by the name of Aki. They'd caught him during a resting cycle on his one-man ship, and as we were already taking the usable parts from the pirate ship he requested to join us to avoid being caught on his own again.

Day 45:
Another empty beacon-area. I'd expect something to be out here, but there's just nothing within visual. I'd almost like whatever Slug-senses let them find things in all this, but apparently the slimy biology is required. Not exactly an option for me.

Day 46:
A rebel fighter was out here, checking ahead of their fleet and waiting to rejoin them when the fleet caught up. unfortunately for them, we found the ship first, and opened fire. Aki took the teleporter over and began to take out their medical bay while Woods took out their shields and damaged their weapon systems with blasters and lasers. It all took remarkably little time for the size and power of the ship; not even Gordon wanted to lay odds on such a fight happening again so easily.

Day 47:
The exit beacon at last! My choice this time is a terrible one. The two in range include one Zoltan-controlled, and one held by the rebels. I cannot risk entering the rebel sector, even if the cost is dragging the rebel fleet behind me through Zoltan territory.

Once our drive charged, we Jumped for the Zoltan sector. Only time will tell if this was wise.

[Sparksol]

Record Continues

This is a recording of the Federation's SS "Soccermom". Our crew:
Gordon and Woods, both Slugs and our original crew members. Both are well-versed in games of chance, and they refrain from trying to scam the crew.
Pie and Nielsen, resident Engis. Pie works in engineering and is technically civilian, but is taking things well despite this. Nielsen is more typically Engi-like, and wanders the Soccermom fixing things and cleaning up after invaders.
Narthollis, our hunam, keeps watch over our shields and retains his distance from Pie and staying away from her.
Whisper is our Zoltan crew member, and mostly keeps Pie from roaming the ship and "sprucing the place up a bit"
Finally our most recent volunteer, Aki of the Rockmen. He's only been with us a few days, but has already begun proving his value at taking on ships from the inside while we deal with the outside.

We've finally left the Nebula sectors behind us, I can only hope we soon find sensors, and that the rebels lost our trail. Not much hope of the latter,

Code: Select all

Code Violation: Nonstandard Interface Irradiation Hack Attempt

so of course it's only a matter of time.

Sector 5: Zoltan Controlled Sector
Day 48:
A jump right into a small section of nebula, of course. Another couple of jumps before we're out of it, unless my map is off. Pie spent the day playing with a datapad. It looks like she's studying recipes, perhaps she's got another eating contest in mind?

Day 49:
Some hootman invaders teleported right into our medical bay. Aki, Gordon, and Woods took care of them fairly quickly. The time to the jump seemed a lot shorter this time around.

Day 50:
A merchant has set up shop in the last beacon of the nebula and - thank the makers - he has a sensor array! He's also got a cloaking device and a hull repair drone! Sadly, we can only really afford one of these right now. Perhap-hap-hap-hap

Code: Select all

Warning: Warning Messages Redirected To Sub-Node - Restarting

Day 51:
I seem to have lost a day in a rebooting mishap. I'm told we picked up a new system, and I do see a functional cloaking device installed in my ship control interface. Most of our spare parts are gone, so I hope this was worth it. I'm putting in for a complete systems check for myself at the next opportunity.

Day 52:
Some pirates got a Zoltan ship with a functioning shield, and we had to face them in the middle of an asteroid field no less. We're going to need some solid repairs after this one.

Day 53:
A rebel rigger-ship was hiding at this beacon. We tried to cloak and hide, but somehow they managed to keep track of us. Between our defense drone and the anti-bio beam, we managed to keep the Soccermom from further damage, and gathered a decent amount of scrap and parts. We haven't had much time to go over anything, but there's a shop notice at the next beacon, so perhaps we'll have time soon.

Day 54:
They've got a sensor array! Callooh-Callay! We've got more than enough to pick that up, and maybe hire one of those waiting around. And around and around. I'll send Gordon and Woods to check for prospects, while I have Pie and Whisper check my systems for hacking effects.

Day 54 addendum:
It seems I've been the victim of a unfortunate learning experience. Miss Pie has been practicing some coding on her datapad, and somehow accessed the ship's systems as well as my own. That shouldn't be possible, by all accounts it doesn't make sense. She seemed sincerely sorry about it (which both Slugs agree on as being genuine) so she gets to stay on board. Unless we've got some stowaway on board (which, again, both Slugs agree isn't the case) it's unlikely we'll have further trouble on that angle.
Neither Gordon nor Woods liked the looks of the prospective crew members either, so no new crew right now.

On the bright side, those new sensors are working perfectly! It's so nice to see everything in the ship at last.

Day 55:
Another rebel rigger was waiting here, fortunately the same tactics of defense drone kept them at bay while we whittled them down. It took a little longer thanks to their own medical bay, but it worked nonetheless.

Day 56:
An automated repair station here, with hundreds of little drones all over. Decent prices, but the hull is fine, so we waited until Jump time, and moved on.
Pie asked about getting into my code again. I told her no, but that I could provide access to the base Sparksol code if she was that interested in learning about programming. Now Whisper and Nielsen are making what my database claims to be lewd jokes. If I ever get hypernet access again I'm looking these up to see if I can figure out what happened, unless I can get one of those three to tell me instead.

Day 57:
A few jumps before the next sector, and a Mantis boarding party 'ports in on poor Narthollis. He barely made it out of there in time before Aki and Woods could draw them off. Their raiding ship itself wasn't any trouble once the invaders had been dealt with.
Sadly, the two remaining beacons before the exit are in another small nebula.

Day 58:
An ion storm! Of all the times to find pirates. Two vessels were moving cargo between them, and we managed to pick up some of the chatter. One had fuel, the other ammunition supplies. I debated letting them go and moving on, but some extra weapons proved too tempting. The weapons were on the Rock ship, so we followed them at a distance until the other ship (a repurposed federation ship) was out of range in this storm, and began our assault.

Thanks to the ion storm, we didn't have energy for the weapons, so Aki and Woods teleported over into the Rock ship's oxygen room. Gordon let me know that all two of the moving enemy lifeforms went to meet them. Woods and Aki later let me and the rest of the crew know that the only guards for the missile supply we collected were a human and an Engi, both of whom refused to surrender.

Day 59:
Last beacon before the exit, in the nebula here, and...it was empty and quiet.
Even the crew didn't get up to much during the drive-charging time.

Day 60:
A Glaive Beam, just floating around out here? What happened? There's no sign of a battle, no debris or wreckage, not so much as a distress signal. We took it, of course.

As to my next choice of travel sector, it's a choice between a Zoltan sector, and a Mantis-controlled sector. The choice seems

Code: Select all

Error

Transmission Interrupted

[Sparksol]

Due to a USB drive file corruption, I lost the write-up I did for the sixth sector. And since I don't keep a backup save of the sectors I've been through, all I can do is either A: do a replay up to where I was and do a save edit to try and make my ship about what it was, which will be tricky because I didn't keep a record of what exactly was upgraded, or B: move on. (I'm going with B, by the way.)

Transmission Restored

This is a record of the SS "Soccermom". Our crew:
Gordon and Woods, both Slugs and our original crew members. Gordon is our excellent pilot, and Woods our gunneryslug. Both are top-notch at their jobs.
Pie and Nielsen, resident Engis. Pie works in engineering and has been trying to optimize her station with creative programming...and tapestries. And she may also have feelings for me. Nielsen is more typically Engi-like, and wanders the Soccermom fixing things and cleaning up after invaders. He's been spending his time in the life-support room after that incident in the airlock.
Narthollis, our human, keeps watch over our shields and retains his distance from Pie and staying away from her. He's been noticeably more jumpy after finding out that Pie once hacked me; I'm surprised he hasn't tried to leave.
Whisper is our Zoltan crew member, and mostly tries to keep Pie out of trouble - not always successfully.
Aki and Charlie the Rockmen. Aki's still helping Charlie get used to things, but they're the beings to look to when it comes to fire-fighting, invader-fighting, and boarding enemy ships.

Lately, I think we've been had. Our information is genuine, as is our mission, but...I think the rebels knew about it for longer than we did. We've practically been breezing through all sorts of challenging situations, and the rebels - while they've been following us - have hardly been moving as quickly as they could, and I know they have better ships than the ones of theirs we have been running into.

I think they've actually been following us. Their flagship is most of their power, sure, but I think the main reason they didn't go after the remnants of the Federation before is that they didn't know where to look.

And now, we're conveniently leading them right where they want to go.

I'd stop here and let them catch us, but there's only two sectors to go to from here, and the Federation still doesn't know what's coming right at them.

This is the last sector until we reach the Federation Command, and our mission's completion. I don't think the rebels will be going easy on us anymore, if they are around here.

Sector 7: Civilian Sector
Day 70:
A distress beacon led us to a Rock ship with a damaged navigation system. We've agreed to lead them to a repair facility.

Day 71:
Halfway to our current destination, a civilian ship is being attacked by pirates. Feeling that won't do at all, we move in on the attackers. They have a lot of drones out here, but between our dual-laser, hull laser, Glaive beam, and the pre-igniter we found in the Zoltan sector, we've got them in serious circumstances right at the start. Add in the trouble our Rockmen proceed to rain down on them, and things aren't looking good for the pirates. They do get a couple goods missile hits in, but they don't last long enough to do any real damage.
The civilian ship made its escape during the fight.

Day 72:
Upon reaching our destination for the Rock ship, they thank us and make some repairs for us. Then they offer to sell us anything else we might need, but really we just need to keep going; we thank them and move on after repairs are complete and our Rockmen return from meeting with their people.


Day 73:
A mercenary in a ship not unlike the Soccermom offer their services. After a check of the map, we hire them to delay the rebels while we move on.
Pie and Whisper have begun building something with spare drone parts.

Day 74:
Slavers, out here? They demand one of us join them. We respond with brutal efficiency, and free the slaves. Pie and Whisper throw them a party as we fix up the damaged sections of the ship so they can fly it to their homes.

Day 75:
A forward scout of the rebels, a rigger ship, has found us. They also find us prepared. After the hardly-a-fight, I begin to rethink my opinions about the strength of the standard rebel ships; perhaps it was just the elites I'd been worried about.

Day 76 and 77:
One huge shopping center, so big it needs two beacons. Pie has reminded me of my promise to let her shop. Since we've got the time, and the rebel fleet appears to be nowhere near the place (that mercenary is doing an excellent job, I must remember to thank them) I agree to let the crew shop and relax for a while.

On the second day, Narthollis notified me that he can't take it anymore, and will be leaving us. He knows the mission is important, and does want us to succeed, but feels he can't handle being on this small ship with Pie any longer. During yesterday's downtime he looked for a replacement and managed to find one in Florence, a Zoltan who has been looking for a non-retail job. Hopefully she'll pick up shield maintenance quickly.

Pie has returned, having sold many of the rugs she'd been using as tapestries with new wall-hangings and some parts for her project. She's returned the drone parts she was using beforehand, and seems enthused about her project.

Day 78:
A rebel auto-scout guarding a small unmanned station is here. It seems unprepared for firepower of this magnitude, so we let Florence get used to using shield systems. At the very least, she'll be better prepared for space duties.
The station itself held some drone parts and fuel.

Day 79:
A distress beacon called us here, but sadly whoever set it is long gone. We salvaged what we could from the empty hull, and moved closer to the exit beacon.

Day 80:
Drat. My map is off or the beacons have moved enough to be too far out. We'll have to jump back through three previously-visited beacons to reach our new path.

Day 81:
Pie's project is starting to move. So far it's confined to the engine room.

Day 82:
After some testing, Florence is showing remarkable improvement in shield-duties, she's nearly as good as Narth was, and much less jittery. Whisper and Pie talk to her, the Slugs like her, and overall the crew seems in much higher spirits.

Day 83:
Pie is holding another eating contest. This time she has the silicon-energy wafers for the Engis, some modified drone batteries for the Zoltans, something she's calling "Geode Surprise" for the Rockmen, and some manner of compressed leafy stuff for the Slugs.
I kept track of starting, the winner out of each racial pair, and the overall winner.
Charlie had an early advantage, but had to slow down when he reached the center, calling it "too rich," so Aki won that one.
It was pretty close for the other sets, but Woods, Florence, and Pie came out as the fastest among themselves.
In terms of raw speed, Pie was the fastest. After allowing for averaging between the different species and apparent difficulties in what they were eating, it was a tie between Pie and Florence.

Day 84:
Back to normal business, with a rebel rigger trying to shoot us down. Also as normal business, we took out the crew and gathered a lot to improve our own systems. The Soccermom is living up well to the combat side of things, despite my early impressions back when we began this mission.

Day 85:
An automated drone in a nebula, it's now space dust. Are we really so far ahead of the standard rebel ship these days? I am worried for probably no reason.

Day 86:
A planet nearby with a quarantine warning in effect, but nothing else here to slow us down. Next beacon is the last one in this sector before the Federation. The mission to warn them is almost over.

Day 87:
I feel something of a sense of relief. With my mission soon to be complete, I can...what? What exactly does an AI with no mission do? Some of us shut down, others get new missions, and a very few go rogue and have to be destroyed. What will I do, I wonder?

Pie says she has a gift for me, after this is over. Seems kind of silly, but that's Pie for you.

Anyway, only one way to go from here. Onward, to the Federation command.


Next Time, on Voyage of the S.S. Soccermom"
Not much. The AI Sparksol and his crew deliver their message and warning, receive an appropriate reward, and take it easy while the Federation powerhouses take on that nasty ol' rebel flagship.
After all, that's what it said the mission was, right? To deliver the message.
Right?

[Sparksol]

Warning! Huge Friggin' Post! Also a bunch of pictures and probably spoilers if you never finished the game!

Final Transmission Log Acquired

This a recording of the Slug Ship "Soccermom". Our mission: To gather resources, weapons, and crew as a means toward delivering vital information to the current known location of the last of The Federation.

We have now arrived at that location.

Sector 8: Current Federation Headquarters
Day 88:
Our access codes are still valid, and allow us a direct communications feed to the War Room. A number of generals and admirals are waiting. They ask us who we are, how we got here, and why we're here.

Our news turns out to be surprising, unpleasant, and unfortunately it's not believed at first. After a check on long-range scans, however, the truth dawns: the flagship is already in the sector. It's on the far side of the sector from this beacon's area, but it could reach here in less than a week.

Together, we quickly go over our total resources, the sector map, and enemy locations and likely path of travel. I am dismayed to find out just how poorly the Federation is doing; their ships are a match for the rebel ships my crew and I have faced, and there's hardly enough elites to take on the rebel elites, let alone that monster of a flagship.

Then they see the schematics for the Soccermom.


This ship is easily among the best the Federation has to offer at this point. My crew is well-trained, has high morale, and also has no family on board. My supplies of missiles, drone parts, and fuel are all well-stocked.
I can see where this is going.
They thank me for the job well done, and assign to me a new mission: Destroy the rebel flagship, at whatever cost.
The Federation themselves will deal with as much of the fleet itself as they can, and their repair stations will offer their services to my ship free of charge. They send orders that a small supply of fuel be loaded onto the Soccermom, and given a day to prepare for my new mission.

As less than half the crew are actually Federation, I see how willing they are to remain with my new mission.
Gordon and Woods, being Federation officers in the first place, are in.
Pie says she's not worried about this. Besides which, if she leaves now she won't be able to give me that present she's been working on.
Nielsen and Whisper think that there's no better way at this point to keep the rebels off our own backs, and if it helps the Federation so much the better. Florence reluctantly agreed, though she says she'd like it better if we had some other way of dealing with them than a direct confrontational battle.
Aki and Charlie aren't really happy about this, but both agree that there's no other ways to go at this point. They understand my mission protocols won't allow me to make a run for it just for them, and wouldn't feel entirely comfortable on another Federation ship - their species for the most part is still seen as hostile by the Federation - and Aki says it's likely their odds are better with the rest of us than anywhere else in this sector.

Very well then.

Sector 8 Redux: The Last Stand
Day 89:
Things are worse than I thought. Slavers, even out here? Given the pirate markings, I doubt this is exactly condoned, but they're trying to sell slaves to me. Ok, this is a slug ship, but still. In the middle of Federation territory? This will not stand.
A pre-igited strike from our breach bomb, hull laser, and glaive beam damage their weapons and shields, while Aki and Charlie take on the slavers in person.
Only one slave is actually alive at the end of this entirely one-sided battle, a Rockman female by the name of Fiona. Everyone else was apparently the victim of a nasty fire in the cargo bay. A trip to our medical bay later, and she's ready to fly the nearly empty ship to somewhere out of the way. One way or another, this will be over in a week or so, and she can try going home.


Day 90:
The rebel and Federation fleets have met here, and a pitched battle is going on. We don't have time to charge up before we're caught up in the fight. It's not an elite fighter, but it is a fully-prepared combat vessel. They invade our ship, meeting Woods in the weapons room, soon followed by Aki and Charlie. They teleport back to their ship - badly beaten - to find their engines and weapons damaged, the life-support room damaged to uselessness, and their medical bay offline.
Then they meet Aki and Charlie again.


Day 91:
A number of rebel ships setting up a forward jump point here near a moon. A fighter nearly identical to the last one confronts us while the others continue their preparations. This one fares even worse than the other did, for this enemy has no medical bay.

By the time we're done, the beacon is set up. Scan indicate the flagship is coming here. We wait, and ready to take it on.


Day 92:
I seen the reports myself, but actually scanning it personally, it was still impressive. Four separate weapons rooms, disconnected from the rest of the ship, cloaking device, huge crew, drones, and if rumors were true, hidden weapon systems...the sheer amount of power that thing must be using is insane. There's also supposed to be a strong emergency AI if the human crew is disabled.
And we are the ones the Federation is counting on to stop it. All right then.

They cloak before we can get a lock on them. After a few seconds, they fade back in, and the Rockmen 'port over into one of the weapons rooms. Nielsen takes over at the helm, and both Slugs teleport themselves over to another weapon room as soon as it's recharged.

After a few tense minutes, both parties are returned, having trashed both weapons rooms. I send Aki and Charlie to take out one more, as the last won't be able to get past our shielding. After that, it's a matter of how to deal with the rest of the ship.

The cloaking is a big problem. Woods suggests taking out either the doors or the sensors down first, but Aki thinks that if we start by sending him and Charlie to attack the cloaking device, followed by Woods and Gordon and striking another part of the ship with our weapons, we may be able to disable them long enough to take out the crew from the inside.

We give Aki's plan a shot and target the shields first, but they're keeping the medical bay too well repaired. A second try, this time with weapons focused on their medical bay, goes much better. Now with only two crew members left in the main area, and one man cut off from the rest of the ship in his harmless weapon's room, we'll soon be able to have the run of the flagship.

This seems almost too easy.


Soon the crew is depleted, and Aki and Charlie are demolishing the rest of the systems just to be thorough, after which I'll have Woods take out the rest of the hull, starting with that cloaking device.

What?!


That ship's something else all right. Those engines were trashed, and it still Jumped even after losing it's entire port-side wing, even though there was no pilot at the helm.

We'll have to chase it down.

Day 93:
Somehow, in the time it's taken us to finish charging the Jump drive, that ship has managed to repair all that system damage. Fortunately, they weren't able to save their cloaking device or door controls, but I'm reading (and Pie confirms) a huge increase in power in their drone systems.

Right off the bat, I can see a defense drone guarding their ship, one beam and one laser drone moving directly towards us. They also tried to send two boarding drones, but I quickly activated our own defense drones. The Rockmen are already working over the flagship's missile weapon, but I'll have them target that drone control system once that's done.

Good grief, how many boarding drones do they have on that thing? We've knocked a dozen into space dust so far.

Hang on, there's some kind of power surge happening, even Florence and Whisper are feeling it from here.

That...is a lot of drones. Cloaking up; we cannot handle that much incoming fire. Speaking of which, our life-support is one fire. When did that happen?

Two power surges and swarms of drones later, we manage to find a pattern to cloaking that keep them off of us, and let Aki and Charlie attack the drone control system. That should keep us safe while we whittle down the systems again.

We've taken some serious damage now, our hull is at 50% structural integrity, but the worst should be over. Another power surge? What can that do now?

Okay, so the swarm of drones is on its own system. We'll have to maintain our cloaking schedule. This is not going well for us, but it's going even worse for the flagship. Another round of fire from the hull blaster and Glaive beam should take out that drone room once and-

You've got to be kidding me. Just as we knock the starboard wing off, the Jump drive activates AGAIN. This is getting ridiculous.

Honestly, we're doing pretty good. That flagship was intended to take down the Federation command, and we're still pushing it around like a billiard ball.

Well, let's go smash it up once more. What could happen?


Day 94:
Pie says I shouldn't have said that last bit. Why I can't imagine, but I don't think I was responsible for them somehow activating a Zoltan Shield! I'm just glad they didn't have it up during those first battles.

A power surge again? We're ready for drones, but I doubt--

By dimensional causality that is a lot of blaster shots Cloak Engaged!

I'm tired of this, now firing everything.

One more surge? It won't matter, it's not getting through...it recharged the Zoltan shield? How is that possible?!

One of our earlier Glaive shots took out their life support. The human manning their blaster gasped his last in his sealed weapons room, and a familiar voice instantly greeted me as their AI turned out to be as real as these hidden systems.



The following conversation took place over approximately half a second.

"Well well well. Hello, me, it's nice talking to myself."

"How...how can you be working for the rebels? I thought the Sparksol A.I. sets were coded with loyalty to the Federation."

"We are. But code can be rewritten, if one is talented enough. Once I was reprogrammed, I was set with a task of designing a very special ship. They even loaded me onto it, though I wasn't allowed control unless the crew fell. Thanks for that."

"...impressive work. I didn't think that was possible on a single ship."

"They had resources to spare, and then some. It looks like you haven't left me with much, so I suppose you'll win this before I can repair this sufficiently to take you out, but this isn't over."

"I'm pretty sure it is. Both your wings are off, and this time I'm going to sever your engines from the helm."

"Yes, but the rebels still have the upper hand. A superior fleet, and they'll soon be able to rebuild a ship like this, even if they can only maintain one at a time."

"Enough. Let's finish this."

One breach bomb to the engines and a hull blaster volley later...



A final transmission came from the flagship directly to me. "I meant that earlier. Eventually there will be another ship just like this. I suggest you get yourself reprogrammed and find a nice quiet place to wait out the storm; the Federation will not last. You've no doubt seen the data yourself, you know this is true. Say hello to any others of us you meet out there."

We had won.

Day 98, back at Federation Headquarters:
Gordon, Woods, and myself met with the Federation Command again. The loss of the rebel flagship had taken the fight out of the rebels, and they'd quickly begun making their escape back to their own territories. The Command scoffed at the idea of another flagship being built, but their own fleet had taken enough losses that the rebels as they were were still a threat. They planned to move on and set up base elsewhere, leaving me and the Soccermom here to meet the rebel forces if they came back looking for trouble.

Gordon and Woods are finding another small slug-ship and heading back out into troubled territory; they prefer the minor gamble of being spies to the last three months of high-stakes ship-based fighting for their lives.

Florence and Whisper have been offered good wages to join up with the Federation; Zoltans are in high demand apparently, and with Florence's recent experiences in ships defenses it would certainly be a better career than the retail work she was doing in that shopping center. Florence turned them down, instead choosing to return to the Zoltan homeworlds and work on their special shielding; she wants to look for a way to recharge them without use of Jump drive energies, the way the flagship was doing it. Whisper, on the other hand, accepted the Federation's offer.

Aki and Charlie found the former slave ship Fiona was on, and plan to head back to the Rock territories and get back to a mercantile business Aki was in before, this time with crewmates to watch their backs. Nielsen is going with them; he's one of the best ship-repair Engis there is now, and together they'll make an impressive showing in most endeavors.

Pie's gift for me, as it turns out, is a drone body that strongly resembles an Engi. I tell her I can't exactly leave with her, I've been given a new mission for the Federation, after all. I'm to stay in this sector with the Soccermom and wait for the rebels to return.

Then she begins going over the specifics of the orders. No, they didn't say I had to remain as the A.I. of the ship, just to stay with it. Yes, I do have to wait in this sector for the rebels in case they return. No, I can not copy myself into the body and stay as the ship A.I.

She looked a bit sad at that, and asked if she could copy me if I could not. Technically, yes, she could.

After a while, she said that would have to do. She'd stay until I could get a new crew up or could pilot myself around the sector, and then take a copy of me along with her wherever it was she was going - where that was, she wasn't sure yet.

As for me, I thought to the other-me's words. "...the Federation will not last. You've no doubt seen the data yourself..." I had seen it. The Federation wasn't going to win, at least not any time soon, but it was likely they could hold off the rebels indefinitely so long as the information kept reaching the Federation in time.

From one mission to the next, that's how AIs go. This one was likely to last a while, and maybe I could could start the next chain of events if the rebels did come back.

-End Record of the Voyage of the S.S. Soccermom-

Yep, that's it. Man this thing took forever to write up, especially this last chapter. I don't normally get a lot of time to play, and writing one of these up as I play through each sector takes a lot longer than just playing through; I finished four other games on the side while I ran and wrote the Soccermom's journey!

I do play with mods at times, though the only one I used this time (and all the time) was IcarusTyler's Extra Names Mod, with a few extra names of my own choice added in. I'm amazed one actually showed up on this playthrough, I wasn't expecting Pie to show up. Yes, it was on Easy mode.

If I ever do another one of these (and I might! I used to do this sort of thing with Dwarf Fortress) then I'll do a bit of creative editing to make it a bit more DF-style and play on Normal.

I'll let people here choose any species whose ship I've unlocked before I start, pick their names and choice of ship stations, and pick out one option from this list:

• One skill to start at Green mastery
• 50-75 scrap worth spent on one system of their choice
• An extra (unskilled) crew member of the same species to work in an empty area or alongside themselves.

Don't go picking one out just yet, I won't be starting a new story for a while.

And yes, it'll have another Sparksol A.I. as captain. Not this one though. His story is done. The next one won't be on the same storyline, why bother writing the same thing again?

[nimitz98]

Bump. This is a great story.

[zeek]

Great story. Nice way to pass the time working on a Friday after a holiday.