Chapter 42
The party are in the final leg of their journey aboard the Lunar Whale! The mighty Starship and Spirit is currently holding station in deep space. The views from most of the windows show the glittering expanse of stars and the ship has informed everyone that they shall be ready to depart after tea and story time! Vazkor however has also been receiving some private instructions from the Lunar Whale with regards to how to fly the ship so is a bit distracted but for most everyone else the ship is about to start the tale of "What the Aegyl did"
Vazkor stands at the crystal, away from the rest of the party, the man sporting a look of concentration as he can be seen nodding every so often, and quietly posing the odd question, as he receives his instructions... Rolling his shoulders a bit then, and clasping his hands together to lightly crack his knuckles, he soon wanders back towards the other, looking at each as he speaks up, "Hm, so it seems I'll be doing the main manuevering of this fine vessel, but I will also require some aid from each of you." The man pausing then as he looks around, and then points at various consoles spread around the bridge, before adding, "I will need each of you to pick a crew position. Weapons, Shields, Scanners and Power... I will leave it up to yourselves to decide which one you might best be suited for." The man smiling a bit afterwards.
Raziel stands from the seat which he had taken and he sips from the cup while looking off in a random direction. Clearly the man's mind is elsewhere. Pausing for a moment he looks at Vazkor then around the able of those gathered for a moment before nodding quietly, "I'll see to the power then." Tilting his head o the side he sets down the empty cup, "where do you need me at?"
Talen looks over at Penny and Thaylorn, "Well, I'll hop on weapons then if you two do not mind?" The Viera wanders around the different consoles, peering at each one, trying to work things out from what he sees on screen. "Well, this one has a button marked PewPew. So hmm." Talen sits at that console and spins around in the chair.
Penny blinks at Vazkor over the rim of her tea cup while sipping, then following the responses around, blinking again at Taln and giving an uncertain shrug, "I, uh, really dunno? I've got no experience with ships or anything, so I'm not sure what I'd be best for." That said, she takes another sip of her tea, her shortened tail flicking a bit a she waits patiently for the Lunar Whale to begin the story.
Thaylorn had ended up taking a seat at the table with others "I really don't know either, but shields I might be able to handle?" The Burmecian ponders as he too, sips at his tea a little "I can't promise I'm doing to have any idea of what I'm doing, though." He shrugs slightly and turns his gaze back towards Vazkor.
The Lunar Whale levitates the tea pot and refills the cups, "The controls are quite clear I shall explain them all to you. I fear we shall have need to fight our way through to our final destination. Please wait a moment though, we are not yet ready to depart and I have much to say. Of the event long ago when the Aegyl performed a great ritual... it co-erced me down from the heavens and forced me to fly at their command. The destination... the temple of Starlit... the bonds of Fate were shattered and the Stellazio stolen."
The glowing blue field sets down the tea-pot and flickers, becoming a blue eyeball that hangs in mid-air and turns to regard Raziel. "The explosion caused by the disruption of the Court of Heavens shattered the bounds of destiny. Many people died, others were severed from the path fore-told for them, all possibilities were lost to them and they became as shells who could not progress. A great war raged, the Aegyl fell, many fell and the Stellazio were scattered and the destinies of Terra were forever skewed... it was the catalyst that started the great breaking. For in that shattering explosion of destiny did the Green Light rebell and the war of Eons begin. Terra was shattered, the world as we knew it remade... reforged, the peoples scattered for with the Stellazio absent from the heavens the anchor points of the Jails were broken and Ultemecia and those who stand by her side broke free to wage their war once more agianst the king."
Vazkor nods at both Talen and Raziel as they choose their positions, before looking towards Penny and Thaylorn and offering them both a smile, "Ah, do not worry, I'm quite sure none of us have any experience with a ship of this advanced magnitude." The man grinning some afterwards before he adds, "Shields are all yours, Thaylorn. I guess that means you'll be our eyes and ears, Miss Penny." The man pointing out each console then, including the one Raziel will be needed at, flashing another grin at the Aegyl, before he settles down some again as the Lunar Whale begins its story, soon looking at that floating eyeball, and raising his brows some at the mention of a great, ancient war and the planet reforged... Glancing at Raziel again then to see how he might take all this.
For his part Raziel has no reaction to this other than his eyes growing darker. There's a little flinch of his hand, but then he stills and he looks at the eye which is studying him. "You too have a /very/ just reason for disliking the race which I was born to. It is... impossible to formulate a responce to all of this." Those who are intimately familiar with the man may sense that there is much that goes unexpressed and unspoken." He turns away then and silently walks over to stand at the console where he's been directed. Once there the man states bluntly without looking back, "Everything, Lemures, the Sun Cryst, the Mist due to the Aegyl." There's a little shake of the head then and the man goes silent."
The Lunary Whale laughs softly, "Not everything Raziel, those... were the actions of modern history. BY modern Humes and their squabbles. You cannot take blame for recent history, this... this was long ago and is forgotten by most."
Talen peers over at Raziel and shakes his head slowly. "That is all in the past. Water under the bridge, and nothing to be done about it. We're all here now to see if we can't right what was broken, yes?" He looks around at the others and then back to Raziel. "We're nearly there, yeah?"
Penny bows her head in thanks as her cup is topped off, cocking her head at Vazkor and nodding as he gives her the only unclaimed post, Scanners, "Ah, um, okay Mr. Vazkor." Then there's a giant disembodied eye, and she shudders at the strange creepiness of such a thing, distracting herself with her tea again as the story begins, her ears perked and listening to the ship's tale while she tries not to focus too much on the idea of phantom eyeballs.
Thaylorn just sits and listens for a moment as he watches the eye form and tell of the past of the Aegyl before he merely offers Raziel a look for a moment before moving over to the own panel he was directed to. "I hope that this is going to end well, Vazkor." He reponds with a smirk in the Captain's direction.
The Lunar Whale's voice is soft and gentle, "The Aegyl made a mistake and have more then paid... they make them now as do all mortals for the journey of life is fraut with danger. But today... today at least the Stellazio can be retrieved. After that only the Pieces hall be left and he who comes after... but that is a task for the future... for today. We are ready to leave please all take your seats.... Captain.. if you would care to step up to the podium."
<Paste from Silvante>---------------------------
Vazkor: To steer the ship it will be Willpower+Alertness to adjust speed is is Attunement+Endurance just so you know.
Power to the Engines is currently at 40% Maine Engines (Always On - Speed variable with regard to power) Fine Manouvering Thrusters: 30% Hyper Boost - Offline: 60%
Raziel: Power Console shows: To control the power it is Insight+Knowledge to see where it is all going and to make adjustments. Current Power distribution is: Weapons 20%, Shields 30%, Scanners 10%, Engines 40%,
Penny: Scanners: To read scanners it is: Insight+alertness Scanners are Online: Short Range (10%) Medium Range (30%) Long Range (50%) Jamming Field (60%)
Thaylorn: Shields: Intelligence+Fortitude Minimal: (20%) Standard: (30%) Reinforced (50%) Reverse Polarity (60%))
Talen: Weapons: Dexterity+Ritual Point Defence (10%) Main Laser: (20%) Missile Launchers (40%) Hyper-Cannon (60%)
<Paste to [OOC]: TP Room 1>------------------------
Vazkor looks after Raziel for a few moments as the ship finishes its story, and the Aegyl wanders off... But he doesn't offer any comment on the subject yet. He just nods at the others, and gently smiles as he states, "Well, let's get this show on the road, as the popular phrase would be." The swashbuckler turning then to walk back up towards that crystal, and taking a deep breath as he steps up on the dais... Shifting his feet apart a bit and rolling his shoulders again, trying to relax and prepare for the effort ahead.
And they are off, there is a slight juddering sensation as Vazkor touches that crystal.... and the star field outside begins to move....
Penny is currently 20 minutes idle and may not get back to you soon. You page, "You can see several routes plotted in on the console by the Whale. Each one has different hazards. One has a strange "Gas" symbol, one of them has a rocky symbol. One of them has a little bird symbol and the fourt one has a symbol you have never seen before." to Penny.
Raziel shakes his head a little bit, "sins of the fathers and mothers and all that.. may be ancient history, but we're fixing it now." He doesn't state why they're fixing it now though he does toss a quick look at Vazkor and Thaylorn both. The man's gold wings twitch but then he sets his attention to the new task which he has been given. As the ship begins to move the mans attention goes to the console and he reaches out to 'test' it and give the engines a smidgen more power.
The change in power works flawlessly, the ship hums and Vazkor finds he can start pushing the Lunar Whale toward greater speed as they really start to get going!
Talen hmms, "Well, there isn't much call for major weaponry anyways, is there. Keep me posted if there's anything that needs shooting." The Viera busies himself by constantly reading over the viewscreens he has, and peering out the windows at the stars floating by.
Penny finishes her tea as the Lunar Whale concludes the story, setting the cup down as she hops out of her seat and heads for her assigned position, taking a breath as she puzzles over the controls and displays, starting, cautiously at first, to fiddle and experiment... Giving the display a closer look, she cocks her head a little, and looks up, "Um, Lu-, er, M-, ah... Mister Whale?" She seems uncertain what to call the Spirit/Ship, but after settling on that, she continues, pointing to a symbol on her screen that she doesn't know, "What's this little thing mean? And, um... I... I don't think I can see very far, either."
The current navigational symbol means Radiation Fields... my scanners are currently set to minimum. At our current speed we have five minutes before you must make a decision as to which route to take. If you wish to study the routes in more detail you will require more power.
Penny ahs and blinks, not really sure what 'radiation' is, but seeming to assume it to be something unsavory. She looks up again, "I guess I should ask...?" And then looks to Raziel, "May I please have more for, um, Scanners, Mister Raziel?"
"What the heck is polarity." Thaylorn states, frowning as he looks down at the controls before him. "And since we're not fighting things...We probably don't need shields right now? I dunno." The Burmecian looks more confused than anything as he looks on before sighing and turning about to look towards Vazkor and the path they might be taking.
"Polarity is the current magnetic state of the shield. Somethings are attracted to them in this state, others are repelled. Once power has been transferred to the shield console you will have to decide how to distribute it and increae the power level of the output function."
Vazkor, with both hands on the crystal and a look of concentration, steadily increases speed as more power is diverted to the engines, testing the ship's capabilities a bit, getting more of a feel of it... But also trying to pay attention to the needs of the others, he soon lets it drop back once more, to allow Raziel to divert power to the scanners so Penny may tell him what direction to steer the ship in.
Raziel looks up as Penny's told what sort of a delay they have, he looks to Penny then before nodding in responce, "right.. of course.. lowering shields to minimum and boosting the scanners." And since the attempt to increase the engine speed worked a moment before he does similiar with the shields and scanners.. dropping the amount of the sheilds to 10% and increasing hte scanners upto 30%.
And it works, power is transferred, more options coming alive on Penny' screen as the shields flicker and dim....
Talen hmms, and alternates between looking at his screens, and looking at everyone elses, curious to see how it all fits together. "What happened to your previous crew, Lunar Whale?", he asks. "I mean, did they all just leave after some battle, and never came back?"
"A pertinent question young summoner, I have no crew. I have not had one since Cecil Harvey and his companions. Once I was called to the Lost City to take my place as an airship of great historical note there was no need for a crew. But at times like this when companions journey aboard me toward the fullfillment of quest and destiny I invite them to be the crew. For to do everything myself would be to deprive them of the right to succeed on their own."
Penny turns her attention back to her display, and smiles as she gets more power and more choices light up. She studies her options for a second, then selects the one to extend her sensor range before selecting the first course, with the gas symbol, to try and get more detail about it, followed in turn by the other three, while speaking, to let Vazkor know what she's doing, figuring that's important for a Captain to know, "Seems there's four paths to choose from, Mister Vazkor. There's one with gas, one with... rocks, I guess, another with, uh, birds? And the last with that 'radiation' thing Lunar Whale mentioned. I'm trying to find out more."
You page, "Ok! Results from each path are as follows: The 1st one, Some sort of Gas Streams whirling around two planets that appear to be made up of different types of gas! It is very pretty and you can see currents you could ride through to the other side. The rock path appears to be a HUGE field of tumbling rocks all scattering about lost in the void o space! It looks dangerous, the paths are constatly being blocked and filled with tumbling rocks of all sorts! It'd be a real driving challenge! Path three is BIRDIES! You can see sort of flappy winged things zipping this way and that through the void all tiny compared to the Lunar Whale's HUGENESS! And the Radiation Path! Well.. there is this HUGE BURNING BALL OF PLASMA! And you'd be riding the waves and currents of its red hot spaarkly madness! It looks very dangerous but is the fastest route." to Penny.
Penny furrows her brow as she examines the results her scanning has produced, hmmming a bit, "Mister Vazkor, looks like... The path with rocks is a big field of tumbling stones, no consistently safe path through so far as I can see. The one with gas looks like it has some currents of some sort the ship could ride. The bird one has, uh... I don't know what they are, some kind of big swam or something of little winged creatures. And that last one... Seems the shortest route, but also looks like the most dangerous: there's a big, giant ball of burning stuff pumping out waves of energy; I guess that might be like sailing through a bad storm or something, by the look of it."
"Rocks don't sound too bad." Thaylorn chimes in from his station as Penny talks about the different routes they could end up taking. As Penny explains more he merely shakes his head, rocks don't sound like a good idea "Instead of rocks, maybe we could go through something fully focusing on shields, and engines to go through a path as quickly as possible?"
Vazkor has his eyes closed as he interfaces with the ship through that crystal... But as Penny gives those options, he briefly opens them to look at her, and then everyone else... The man visibly pondering as the choice is left to him, and after a few moments giving a bit of a shrug, "I must say the gas route sounds the least ominous... Though I doubt any of them are without its risks. We shall see what happens, hm?" And with that, he picks said gas route, concentrating on the crystal once more and steering the ship.
Raziel looks at Penny, then Vazkor and he ponders for a moment before murmuring, "Gas makes me think of poison spells... I'm going to increase the shields at a cost to some of the engines then, just incase. If afterwards it seems alright I'll revert it." The man starts to make the adjustments, nudging a little more (5%) power into the shields at the cost of the engines.
Talen has the cushy job it seems, for now. "Is there any tea left?" he asks of the Lunar Whale. "And is it possible to have teacup holders on the consoles?" Raziel pages, "is talking to staff about incorporating this or something like it for airships as a whole" to you.
"I am afraid the consoles do not have teacup holders Master Talen... Master Raziel... current power transfer to shields will have no operational effect. Time to encounter Gas currents is T-Minus 3 minutes..." The forward screen is filled with a mafnificent sight! The Lunar Whale identifies them as Varan and Telna, the double gas giants of the system, locked together in a deadly dance. Varan is a world covered in blue and yellow bands, swirling clouds that race from northpole to south pole as the planet rotates on its axis from north to south. Telna however is a darker planet, red and brown clouds, larger then Varan and with a huge storm system covering one side of the planet. It also appears to be out of shape, the cloud layer punctured at some point in the past sending it careening into Varan's orbit. This closeness and the unusual behavior of Telna fills the space between the two gas-giants with streamers of gas hundreds of kilometres thick. A glittering band of gas drawn from each planet due to their proximity. It truly is a breath-taking sight and the party can see that they will have to somehow ride those whirling currents of gas to the other side....
Penny nods, adjusting the sensors to focus back on the Gas course once more, to keep an eye on the path ahead, smiling as she seems to feel she's getting the hang of this fancy console thing.
As Penny works the scanners several entry points are flagged up on the main view screen for Vazkor, options with which he could enter the swirling tumult of storm energy!
"Well then, how's this going to turn out..." Thaylorn mutters softly as he takes in the views that are presented towards the group, the thought that they're far off from where they were before finally penetrating his mind. As his controls start to flash at him some, his attention quickly turns in their direction, a concerned look crossing his face for a moment before he calls out "I need more power on shields, else we're not going to survive closer due to the energies there. Reinforced, if possible!"
As Thaylorn speaks the Lunar Whale seems to buck and shake! The shields, as minimal as they are flouresc with colour and sparkle and then collapse as lots of nice red lights start to flash across Thaylorn's shields. Various warnings about Hull Temperature start to throw up over RAziel's screen and Vazkor skillfully manages to turn the ship and pull back. It is a slow process though as the Lunar Whale is a BIG girl. Seems there are swirling energy fields on the outside of those interecting gas streams which were about to bombard the ship but for now you are safe.
Vazkor continues to concentrate on steering the ship, not letting the near 'disaster' distract him much, or even paying much attention to the view, wonderous as it might be... He just speaks up, his voice calm and a bit low, as he gently eases the Lunar Whale into those gas currents, "Feel free to boost the shields however much you need, Raziel, using engine power... I will be taking us slow for now."
Raziel gnaws on his lip, his attention flicking between the, rather impressive, display before them and back down again. As the alert is given though the man murmurs, "answers that question. No half measures." The man makes the adjustments again, nodding to Thaylorn quickly, "reinforced? How much is.. hell. Half power to shields then!" Raziel starts boosting the shields upto half power and in turn lowers the engine's down, "Right, we'll have to go in slower and steadily, but that will likely be for the best." His eyes go to Talen then and he notes while nodding ahead, "You might find yourself called upon soon, summoner."
Talen nods and readies himself, "Not sure what we'll need to shoot, but I am ready to go." He fiddles with a few of the screens. "I am sure I can aim at something now. Just a complete lack of targets. Which is fine, in my books, this journey is going to be rough enough without enemies."
Penny clutches at her console to keep her feet as the ship lurches and alarms start going off, the mouse squeaking a bit in dismay, completely not used to such things. As things steady out from Vazkor steering th ship, she starts working the sensors to see if there's any additional information she can glean from them about the gas streams and the surrounding area, muttering to herself, "Of course it couldn't be *safe*... Safer than the others, maybe, I guess, but not totally *safe*, should'a known..."
Thaylorn nearly ends up on his face as the ship starts to shake, but luckily manages to grip onto the nearby shield station to avoid falling over "I'm going to need more than half, I need 60% for that shielding function!" Thaylorn states simply back towards Raziel as he allocates a percentage of the power to shields. "Else we're going to be shaking like that the whole way through most likely." )
Pennies Scans bring up a route through the clouds, it is a swirling mass of incandescent yellow and purple gas that seems to be riding a slip stream between the roaring gravity wells of the two planets. There is also a little tag line fed over to Talen's console informing him that the gas is flammable and that if he thinks he can pull it off. Firing the Point Defence Cannons at the right moment could create a pressure wave that could carry the ship. That however would be a risky mnove, it is also relayed to Vazkor too so the captain is aware of the option, otherwise it will mean a 3 hour flight through the gas currents with constant course corrections. And that's only if they are able to maintain the shield strength required.... however as Thaylorn has only brought the shield up to Standard, the yellow field engulfing the ship will mean they are going to be bounced around quite a lot which will make firing the Point Defence lasers at the right angle and steering the ship incredibly difficult. The choice however... is theirs!
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