episode 8: Lah ki Opur

Star Log date 24 gamma sixth circle of scroubley; Captain Sheriden reporting:

Upon arriving on schedule for once, we make it here to an interesting system called Lah ki Opur.

This system has been heavily industrialized by a number of races and acts as something of a regulated pirate port. The heavy activity of greefers is suprisingly curtailed by some of the native creatures that have an unusual ability to make the area rather dangerous. These creatures are known roughly as ki Opur Fur't which means " giver of energy" as best it can be translated. So the system name of Lah ki Opur means roughly "home of energy". The Opur for short are rather enormous creatures that are in some ways similar to electric eels. They are able to give off an electric shock that is exceptionally powerful. The local star is surrounded By 2 massive structures that harness the stars energy. The Opur similarly harness the stars energy and have a layer of protective gel that protects them from the intense radiation.

The nature of the electrical discharges by these creatures is not only quite hazardous to nearby ships but tends to attract more Opur in some sort of bio electric communication, working much like a bee sting it seems to alert the hive. Our travel here today will be in extreme caution of proximity to these creatures. This is in fact the primary reason for the lowered Greefer activity is because of the way the Greefers assault victims being a highly uncoordinated effort, The possibility of accidentally alerting an Opur means that all attention must be paid to avoiding them and not to attacking nearby vessels.
This will be a rather short entry due to these conditions. Currently the electrical static our systems are experiencing need additional monitoring.

Episode 7: Greefer border

Star Log date 24 delta sixth circle of scroubley; Captain Sheriden reporting:

We arrived at one of the central trading and relief centers before we are going to pass through full on Greefer territory.

This way station is filled with everything from refugees of planets or transports that the Greefers have attacked to those who went into the zone in search of profit and/or rescue. The area is a hodgepodge of races and technologies that have come together under these circumstances.

Every effort in the area is focused on safe traffic through the area, or at least promoting traffic that doesn't incite a Greefer attack.The big problem with dealing with the Greefers as a government is that Greefers seem to work on a Tribal system. The slightest thing could set off one or more tribes while the same thing may have the opposite effect on another. This roughly means that making peace with one group of Greefers does nothing regarding Greefer attacks for another tribe. In fact Greefers are quite commonly known to cancel treaties at the drop of a hat if a new interest enters their sights. This could range from greed, offense, or just a new hunger for carnage. When It comes to seeking justice or obtaining reparations, very few times are even the same tribes that committed the act accused. And sense it is still not considered acceptable to simply wage war on an entire species of whom most are unaware of the situation, it remains a complex problem, and a dangerous thing to be in Greefer space.

Suprisingly, We still have a relatively vibrant collection of organisms in and around the area despite the incredible carnage. One of these is somethign that resembles something like a space shark, the Crodger.

It seems to have two partners in crime but these are actually extensions from it's own body that it is able to harmonically control. They act almost like foraging drones. Yet when called upon they are incredibly versatile and most capable of acting in either defense or attack. They are suprisingly used in only limited mating capability.
We will be exiting this area soon with the intent of making it to Lah ki Opur which is a rather interesting case in Greefer territory.

Episode 6: Religulous

Star Log date 24 faraday sixth circle of scroubley; Captain Sheriden reporting:

  

Our Journey has taken us into some rather interesting territory. We are in the space of some of the last vestiges of what humans know as religion. Human culture has since abandoned religion in favor of cooperative hope and a belief in us making our own world's better rather then the mystical unseen somebody pulling strings behind the scenes. In fact the only religion we still have in our culture are the remnants of our past religious experts such as the churches in Rome with the Pope and caretakers there in. Also there are the occasional nut jobs and cults but they always seem to burn themselves out before they gain any cataclysmic steam.

So what we see here in this sector of space is a collection of different galactic religions that have come to this are of space in what is thought of as sort of a demilitarized zone. Many different cultures come here to practice religions that have either become extinct in their cultures or have been pushed out for one reason or another. Some religions have even manifested in this area such as the religion that prays to all the other religions for their respective assistance. One of the more famous is one that takes on the role of mutilating certain species and then placing them on pedestal and claiming that their new god has arrived. They are known for trying to change gods rather frequently.
One of the sects that we are hoping to come across while we are here is a space whale cult. We have limited knowledge of their beliefs or if they even have knowledge of the Space whale but we will definitely have questions for them should we cross their path.

One of the big problems for the individuals here is that they are bordering Greefer territory. The Greefers aren't so much anti religious, but they are aggressively opportunistic scavengers. They tend to assault many of they ships that pass through the area. And the nature of certain religious practices makes the protection of the area very difficult, and most certainly makes many of the passersby an easy target. An additional concern is that we will be in and out of Greefer territory throughout this trip. So any knowledge the locals have about recent activity or actually tips could be invaluable for our safety.

Episode 5: Space whale cousins

 Star Log date 24 echo sixth circle of scroubley; Captain Sheriden reporting:

Today we are picking up our hunt with a side journey to document a perceived Space whale cousin called the Conetopter. It is unknown if this is actually the home planet of the Space whale and if these are one of the many evolved forms of space whales or if these are a variety of space whale that made their homes here after traveling to this world, or if these are entirely their own species. What is known is that this particular species is no longer able to leave this planet if in fact they ever could. They don't seem to have much in the way of a visible lineage on this planet though and seem like they found their way here, adapted rather effectively, and have been unable to, or uninterested in leaving. The floating above in the clouds ability that they posses is actually performed by the use of a series of gas sacks. This includes the rather large ones on their backs which assist in a series of gas exchanges in order to effectively allow these massive creatures to float. The release of certain gasses also assists in the creatures propulsion. Additional propulsion is accomplished by the use of fin like extensions and is able to heavily assist in steering. The number and nature of these allows for exceptional mobility despite size. However they are not particularly quick, merely highly mobile.

The planet we are on today is called Krealoe. Krealoe is an exceptionally large planet which is rather unusual for a native life containing planet that also has a space capable civilization upon it. Infact their are two respective and separate civilizations that live on the planet and whose governments never interacted officially until after both races became spaceflight capable. We will be stopping by a Krealoan Tegger space port in order to trade and get a better view of the Conetopters in the area. The other group known as the Yppilogs are equally as friendly however the particular season on this planet is known to have a burgeoning of the Conetopters food source at the moment so it should allow us an excellent chance for viewing. The creatures we see in the vicinity of these space whale cousins are known as Liptrites. They are commonly seen around the Conetopters in a fashion of both cleaning and scrounging for scrap food. They actually are known to be rather protective of their meal tickets and will typically protect their larger halves from perceived predators or hazards.

Currently two of our crew members have been ordered to gather samples from the nearby flora and fauna yet it is suspected ship cadets Liam and Mohammed have been screwing around and harassing some of the locals. If they continue giving the ship and her crew a bad name, we may have to find some additional duties for them to perform in order to keep them busy. Talk amongst the crew suggests that they should be given the task of cleaning the ships exterior engine while in mid flight. other suggestions have included requiring them to get stomach samples from some of our larger subjects before, during, and after digestion. At the moment though we have to get them to stop playing with their PED's (Personal Entertainment Device) and get back to work, otherwise we are going to have to drop them from the crew and recruit two additional members. If it comes to that, then I will be canceling all of the credits they have earned and sending letters to their schools (they are student cadets and doing this for course credit....) to inform them about their lack of commitment and nonprofessional conduct. Hopefully we can get them to straighten out and fly right before it comes to that.

Well thats all for this week fellow space farers. And never forget that hard work will get you some place. and screwing around will get you eaten by giant alien monster things.

Episode 4: Space Ray narrative

Star Log date 24 delta sixth circle of scroubley; Captain Sheriden reporting:

We have just arrived in the area known as the ray dunes. The "rays" that occupy they area actually show a tremendous amount of variety. Which is an uncommon thing for creatures that don't seem to have evolved here or around here but seem to have all been relocated here. Although some are occasionally seen far away from the dunes, it is actually quite uncommon for any of the rays cataloged here to be seen very far away from here. One of the particular species of rays seem to possess an electrical discharge/ absorption ability. In fact a member of a ship studying these particular rays lost at least 2 members of their crew to petting the rays before they realized that this particular specie was the discharging type. We have additionally sustained slight damage to our hull from numerous near collisions with some of these majestic creatures. Thankfully they haven't done more then short out our electrical shields and leave a few light scoring marks.

Some of the crew are a little afraid to go out and repair the damage while the rays remain close. Some of the crew decided to look up an old biologist and wild life enthusiast named Steve Irwin. His nickname was the Crocodile hunter. His unfortunate death has led to a number of the crew most particularly aware of extraneous portions of the dune rays anatomy, despite the rays not have a single sharp object in their posterior (that is known to strike....).

One of our crew members did receive some electrical burns through their suit when they got a little too over zealous about exploring the rays. Upon noticing the crew member, the ray immediately propelled itself away while sending out an electrical current. Without time to react, the crew woman was slapped and shocked and sent adrift with a twitch. We recovered crew woman Georgia and she is now recovering quite well.

The area of the dunes is called so due to the numerous thin sheets of dust and asteroids that are all around this sector. The clouds are not irradiated like the lily Nebulae so do not glow in pretty colors. Yet the light from the nearby stars seems to not only be so strong as to light up vast expanses, but the layout of many of the stellar bodies seems to reflect the light back in a way that makes the whole area light up like a vast desert. This phenomenon is believed to have been created by at least 2 of the planetary bodies in the system having collided. One of these bodies has been called Exillius and the other believed body has been called Dualuorientus for the belief that it was a planet like object that for some reason fell out of orbit and directly collided with Exillius. The debris pattern is what we see now as the habitat for these numerous rays. Some think that if there were any sentience in the rays that they may have had some part in it. Although the motive for this is unclear, it is also considered rather ridiculous that rays that can naturally traverse space would loose the intelligence required to perform such a feet and then simply wait around to be discovered for their assault on a planet that, as far as we know, had no discernible form of life. Another theory claims that if the rays do indeed come from the area, that perhaps they were one of the species that inhabited one of the two planetoid before destruction and upon destruction of their home planet (or planets...) that they adapted to the vacuum of space. This is also another outlandish concoction that doesn't take into account the instantaneous effects of planets colliding which leaves roughly 37 hours to "adapt" to the new environment. Then again maybe they just wondered into the area after the whole thing went down and decided to set up shop.
Regardless of any past transgressions against or by untraceable species, the area has become a sort of tourist attraction for those who can afford the trip which requires at the very least a lot of rubber insulation. In addition to this we are including an updated map of our journey up to this point.

 

That is what we're pretty much covering for this week. Next week we're going to stop near a relatively friendly sector to explore what is believed to be a relative of the space whale. So long!

Episode 3: Temporary set back

Star Log date 24 charlie sixth circle of scroubley; Captain Sheriden reporting:

   Today we were traveling on the next leg of our journey when mid flight we had a small explosion near one of the storage compartments.  Apparently one of our young scientists decided to place our solid potassium and lithium formation next to some of our deionized H20 and didn't check to see if all the containers where sealed. So we had a brief stop mid space in order to fix the damage. One of the things that where also in that storage area where a large collection of our micro repair drones. The explosion activated them but without being synchronized with our ships computer systems they began repairing the exploded containers along with themselves and ignored the damage to the ship. Eventually we were able to shut them down but it did give us an opportunity to sync them with the ships systems so they are ready for any future needs.  In addition to this delay we were also held up in our initial departure. Those Blefergs took quite a while to dislodge from the hull and view ports. So now we are pushing our engines to about 25% in order to maintain our schedule. 

While we are in transit we are going to be checking in with our on-board Ionian labs. These labs are not only equipped with numerous high tech analysis tools but also linked to the galactic "suds"(Solar Universal Dispersion System) space network. This network acts like something of a galactic linking of information libraries and general communication devices. This is similar to the world wide web back on earth but not limited by wires or servers. 

I also wanted to cover some of our history with the mythology of the Space whales which we are so adventurously attempting to observe. Humans alone have been looking to the skies for uncounted generations, and even the old constellation Cestus as seen from earth was seen as the great Whale in space. Later it was also associated with sea monsters but, in general the theme of a large and dominating presence in entity is throughout. 
Even a famous scientist of older times named Carl Sagan, a famous astrobiologist whom assisted with numerous scientific exploits with NASA, was famous for his early theories on outer space organisms and much of his work was inspiration for early interest in space whales! Simply more evidence of our long running love of the mighty space whale!

Despite these almost premonition like insights, actual knowledge of what we now think of as a space whale was not obtained until several hundred years later. It wasn't until deep space travel expeditions and contact with other forms of communicable life was obtained that we were able to obtain more reliable information about the beautiful space whale. 

With a bit more information on our subject of inquiry, and a bit more tidying up around the ship after working out a few more "kinks", We are nearly at the next leg of our journey. We'll pick up with you next time future crew members. 

Episode 2: The Lily Nebulae

Star Log date 24 Bravo sixth  circle of Scroubley; Captain Sheriden reporting

We have come out of our first leg of our hunt for a space whale pod into an old breeding ground for the space whales long before they moved to other known spawning grounds. we arrived in the Lily Nebulae and are stopping near some old historical sites near a colony of Blefergs.  The Blefergs are something good of a curiosity. A race almost entirely servile, to what I don't even think they know. Resembling something akin to a kangaroo and a Frog combined, they have rarely been seen bouncing. Their skin is hairless but does not appear to be as sensitive to their surroundings as earth frogs. They are all over the Galaxy in small pockets but where first noticed her near Phobos by humans and have since been associated with this region. It is still not known from where they originated, and all though communication is at times difficult due to most being a series of eye blinks and enlarged throat bubbles, the little communication that has been accomplished appears to suggest that they don't know where they came from either. They are quite nice, relatively harmless and not even a nuisance. They seem to be making the local market outpost nearby. They have a most curious way of traversing the vacuum of space. They use what appears to be a triangular or pyramidal bubble. Their bubble seems to depolymerize when they no longer have a need for it and is stored into one of their vents on their back as a sort of gas waiting to be semi solidified upon release. This bubble seems to be able to protect them from more then the vacuum of space and also seems to be able to act in a rejuvenating manner in that they can use it to heal a number of injuries and diseases. Well the exact nature of these processes has yet to be fully understood, many scientists and doctors have made numerous medical and scientific advances by studying these membranous structures. This has yielded very interesting results in surgical practices in which the decrease of infection and the increase in healing time has been substantially stated. In fact one of our multiple shield technologies is based off of the as yet partially understood physics of these phenomenon. Although this particular defensive safety measure is not necessarily good against energy weaponry, it does seem to be very effective at softening the blow of solid object impacts. In fact early attempts to recreate these shields resulted the famous bumper boat fiasco of the 5th circle of Scroubley date 18 Echo which although it resulted in no damages to the ships, It did result in the Largest number of cases of space sickness, and additionally led to the mass installment of sick bags throughout starships as a standard.

 (Some rural developments in coordination with Blefergs)

Upon entering the area we made contact with the locals and have began scanning and taking samples of what we believed to be an old space whale breeding ground. Amidst the Patches of almost flat pancake like clouds of irradiated particulate, are mass remains of preserved cellular material from what is believed to be baby space whales. They are at times difficult to differentiate from the rock but in general are believed to be hundreds of thousands of years old at the latest. This suggests that the space whales had to leave this area behind for new breeding grounds due to some phenomenon that is possibly associated with the radiation near the clouds. There does not seem to be a correlation between the location of the clouds and the locations of the specific breeding sites. In fact the breeding sites seem to be clumped together and the clouds seem to be in a haphazard pattern. Two of our young crew members Eric and Cody are going to be attempting to visually document and hopefully recreate some of the scenes we have constructed here for better understanding later. these samples are going to be used to help us locate some of the older routes that are believed to have been in use by the mighty space whales long ago. Once we finish our collections we are going to make a few adjustments to the engines to see if we can get those vacuum cells to be a little more efficient. From there it will be on to the next post and if we still don't have the quarks worked out by then, we should be able to get some help from the engineers that reside in the area. It will be a larger collection of cities then we have been to thus far on our journey and has at least One star port to dock at.
 The current landscape is by no means miniscule but the city in the area that is run by the Blefergs is by no means equipped to handle space ship repairs.

 (view of a colony)

 With their bubble technology they have little need of ship repairs. They are most eager to help but seem to only be able to offer window washing services. My first officer is reporting that we are nearly ready to depart for our next destination as soon as we are able to clear our kindly window washers from our path. Heaven forbid we accidentally crush or smoosh one. Not that I have ever heard of violence from the Blefergs by any means, but to have callously Injured a being that would not likely seek attention for grievous wound by star ship bumper would be a most inappropriate stain upon the ships honor. So upon my command I have issued an instruction to eject some of our trash and see if it likely distracts them. You'll know if it worked if the next time you hear from us we have actually left the area.

Episode 1: Preparations & departure

Star Log date 24 alpha 6th circle of scroubley; Captain Sheriden reporting:

 We have completed the refit of our magnificent vessel the SS Dolphin Doodle since our last journey outer atmo. We have obtained our provisions for the first three stops and are finishing up our final checks on the new equipment.  We will be testing out the new engine refits later but for now we are boarding all the science crew and technology they managed to acquire and settling our crew into their quarters. The security crew and engineers have been settled in working on the final preparations for the last week. The last thing we are waiting on is the medical staff needed and the additional provisions and family good byes for the crew aboard.

Well we wait, allow me to introduce some of our crew. Our ship's captain Captain Sheriden (whom is me) will be giving his captains log (which consists of this and following entries) up for posterity and will additionally be in charge of the overall functions of the ship on our journey. Our helmsman / pilot is a most capable flight officer named Christopher Cruz. He has a hobby for racing larger cargo freighters on one of the duster moons in the Telky system. It seems to be that he has the highest speed record in the known solar systems for any cargo freighter on a desert world. But he also has one of the lowest winning records as he spends so much effort getting to top speed that he very often is unable to slow these craft down and ends up missing many of the turns. Our first officer and my right hand man is a Lucon War veteran named Hawk Edward Postumus. He has so many combat ribbons that he has had to purchase three additional jackets to properly display them all. Well not actually able to show them all on the same uniform, he has been known to bring his 2 additional jackets to social occasions and place them on separate seats. Stating that we'll he is always pleased to talk to others, that only someone with more medals or higher rank may sit next to him at the dinner table. This has caused a few irritations with his wife who insists that he buy a bigger jacket. And thirdly Our medical Officer A Dr. Andrew Talbonium. He has spent many years on creative assignments abroad including the retrieval of lost space men. Apparently when many of these astronauts are doing repairs on less reputable yet larger vessels, they are commonly forgotten about once the repairs are completed and when the ship begins traveling again, these poor workers are plucked from their tow cables by the sheer momentum of the ship in motion again. One of Dr. Talbonium's cases actually involved him attempting to retrieve a lost astronaut when his own vessel began to move away, where upon he swung the astronaut like a lasso into the ships forward crease and was able to tag along until they noticed him 3 systems later, playing cards with the outboard retrieve.
     Finally we are ready to take off from what it looks like. So we will be starting up the new cellular vacuum engines as we leave from our current port. Our current port is in fact here at the naval scrap facility in Gottyem which is an asteroid belt and a midway point between earth and a few of the larger civilized inhabited areas through the galaxy. Almost like a very large airplane graveyard with a gas station. Although we are in a rather remote area with a rather remote facility, we were able to obtain some rather satisfying upgrades to our ship which we will be hopefully able to get some great use out of late. The junk yard has a great deal of corporate experimental ships that were ditched here after attempting to sell and market them towards the military build ups of the last couple intrusion wars. So we were able to pull our new cell upgrades from one of the seemingly newer ships there. They seem to be a variation on one of the Freklo-j-5340's which were famous for being quiet and leaving very little heat signature well still getting excellent fuel usage and power. The modifications seem to be to the way in which we can store or transfer energy between them and other systems on the ship. The ship we pulled them from itself was actually covered in Histoks.

They are sort of like a reverse electric eel but they look a little more like a see cow. Not necessarily dangerous but a damp trouble to detach without making more mess. Typically they feed on a variation of solar fungus that seems to grow rather abundantly in this quadrant and is actually an organism that leaves titanium oxide waste products.  The asteroids in the area are loaded and covered with it and it is why it became a big mining station before it became a ship graveyard and now a partial ecological preserve. No in habitat planets in the system mean just a minimal crew for the station and a few traders here for scrap are all that disturb the organisms here anymore. At one time some of the Histoks were actually experimented on too see if their ability to absorb energies could be weaponized but this was soon abandon for reasons of extremely low energy consumption methods and the apparent moaning thuds that were heard from the creatures as they were hurled at targeted starships. Although it was agreed that it was a significant means of demoralizing a target, it was considered to inappropriate to be throwing "space cows" at an enemy in an attempt to slow them down.

Well it appears that the engines are starting up well but we are not seeing them at full power. This is most likely due to some mal-alignment that we will have to work out later on our next stop. It is almost time to wrap up our first entry, so I will leave you with our destination for our next episode and a map of our expected first few stops on our journey. The Lily Nebulae near Phobos trey Var and the wonders we expect to see there, including something considered by first observers to be a space frog colony.