Kinunir Session 4: Off to Oollar

Still calling this the Kinunir as there are a couple more scenarios that can still play out. And it is easier to tag a set of games so we can find all the posts.

Our crew meets up with the Professor at O'Leary's O'Lasers, who explains why they are taking a slight detour to Oollar. Professor Plutonis had chartered a ship (a 600-ton merchant) to transport himself, his assistant Yvonne, and a 4-person sub that could be transported in a 50-ton shuttle to Oollar. He firmly believes that there is an alien city in the depths, and despite the inherent dangers of that system, went anyway. The pilot's story:

We were researching at the edge of the Eye, looking for remains of an alien city Dr. Plutonis believed existed there. He was in a pocket sub with Yvonne when an explosion rocked the sub. I think they used some sort of underwater explosive device. It killed the controls of the ship and they towed them to one of those big floating domes. Think they said it was St. Yon City - each of their cities I think are named after their saints. The comms still worked but I was in the cutter waiting for them to return. I saw some surface boats heading my way, and Dr. Plutonis said to leave and get help. That was almost 10 days ago. He did have some comm equipment, and I know which dome he was taken to before I was out of range. 

The group does some shopping (I had posted the extensive Consolidated Equipment list to a resource channel in Discord), I stock the lab ship as well, and the next day they fly up to the lab ship, Tyrell piloting the research pinnace up. Fortunately, Pascal can also pilot the shuttle, and Jake can fly the air/rafts. 

They make a quick tour of the ship, and meet the rest of the crew and scientists:

• Navigator Sir Wor Weura
• Engineer Ben Cramer
• The Boffins

Getting their stuff loaded, and Tyrell flies out to the 100-diameter mark to make the jump to Oollar. It was an uneventful week, though Moses does have a habit of cleaning his weapons in the small lounge. 

Coming out of jump near Oollar, they make a few orbits around the planet. There are no radio, radar or other electromagnetic signals. Moses gets a faint reading on the sub's beacon system. Loading into the pinnace, they go to take a closer look. The very thin atmosphere is clear over the Eye, so I did not make them do any piloting checks. They did zero in on the dome.

the Eye of God

Getting closer, Moses managed to get the feeds from the sub. It was sitting in what appeared to be a moon pool. The engines were inactive, and the explosion damaged the hull so that it was no longer seaworthy. On one of the flights search they also noticed what appeared to be a telescope, so it would appear that they had been spotted via the old Mk1 Eyeball. 

And this is where we left the session. I've a few notes on the lab ship and estimate it will take 8 trips of the pinnace to refuel the ship (which has fuel purifiers even if the original ship did not list those). 

Lab Ship Info

Refueling: 90 tons, shuttle as 12-ton fuel capacity, will take 8 trips to refuel. From a water world, 1 hour on land and round-trip time is about 2 hours. No idea how close this is, and it could go faster if they use a collapsable fuel bladder that would give an extra 8 tons or so of fuel per trip.

Staterooms:

9: Pilot / Tyrell

10: Navigator / Sir Wor Weura

11: Medic / Pascal

12: Engineer / Bevin Cramer

19

20

21

22

23

24

25: Aurora Oaks, lead scientist

26: Tora Beauchamp, student/scientist

27: Ivo Bardot, student/scientist

28

29

30: medbay, with Medtech autodoc & medical stuff

31: gym - treadmill, compact weight machine

33

34: Lounge

38: Professor Victor Cosmosis / Engineer, scientist

Ship’s Locker:

2x respirators A

Disposable vacc suit x2

2 shotguns, loads for shells, rubber bullets

2 handguns, auto-pistols

Other items as needed depending on story (things get lost in that locker and found much later. Just like my pantry at home)

Air/Rafts (x2)

Beacon, small (500km range)

Comms, TL-12 continental range

Air filters x4

Filter canteens x4

Emergency blanket x4

Trench knife x4

Vehicle survival kit

Labs (main and aux)

Hazmat suits x2

O2 masks (1 hour) x4

Other

Vacc suits (TL12) x4 (2 in the spoke)

Medtech AutoDoc (stateroom 30)

6 gel suits suitable for the cold of Oollar

2 harpoon guns

I am also using vacc-rated air/rafts. No need to wear a vacc-suit. Unless you plan on disembarking in a vacuum. I'll also note that grave vehicles can only get to about 10 diameters out from the planet before the grav drive no longer has enough to push against. At 10 diameters effective gravity is about 0.1m/s or 0.01G. Flying a grav vehicle to orbit the pilot will notice things slowing down as they get further away. 

Other updates

I've not done much with the Traveller software. I did add a .NET 1 page repo for what are essentially scripts. Smaller in scope, and runs on Macs, PCs, and Linux systems. And no need for an internet connection. Which was also the point of the larger, more complicated version. But I got disheartened watching what others are doing, even though my stuff had an entirely different intent. I may get back to it, but with the news below, not sure when I'll have time and interest simultaneously.

I'm also employed again, starting Aug 3. Working for a large, international company which I've never done before. So I'll admit to being nervous. But if I decide I do not like it or fit in well, I will go ahead and retire. But I really like writing software, and as long as the fun outweighs any potential issues I'll go ahead. I even have a fancier title: Principal Software Engineer. Which is also alarming (me and my Peter Principle / imposter syndrome issues!).