Cath

The Galactic Ocean

Somehow I feel we'll be blamed for the Big Boom

@RumikoOhara

Surely the admiralty will understand if we just explain...

The Galactic Ocean

Wow, i wasn't expecting that turn of events. Posted!

The Galactic Ocean

"Yes Captain." Amelia said, looking across at Rose just as he made an appropriate quip and announced that he had prepped the ship for its maiden flight; it was game time. A green light pinged into existence on a steering pad in front of both pilots which indicated they could be used. Amelia gripped hers gleefully, making a few final adjustments to the ship's default take off pattern with one hand. "Oh i'm doing just fine." she purred as she put her fingerprint onto the scanner, firing up the engines. Rolls Royce Tamerlane spacecraft engines had the kind of reverberating boom which shook the inside of your abdomen and rattled your clenched teeth. It was as if Poseidon himself had awoken, shook off the rocks and shipwrecks which accumulate around him and begun swimming to the surface. Despite state of the art shock absorbers, the bridge shook violently for a few seconds as the Vigilance grew accustomed to having power of such epic proportions tacked onto it. She fired auxiliaries before commanding that the docking clamps be unlocked; a moment later she saw on her read out that they had been disengaged, not that she could hear over the boom of the engines. The Vigilance was now floating by itself inside the hangar. Amelia snuck a look at Rose, he was ready to back her up. Ever so slowly, she pushed forward on her steering pad. The Vigilance responded immediately, edging toward the hangar doors as they now opened for them. The subtle change in engine sound coupled with a deep vibration through her seat made Amelia emit something between an excited giggle and a moan. "Don't tease me." she whispered, pushing the Vigilance out of the Roosevelt and into the vast ocean of space. The noise died down significantly once they were into a vacuum. The captain had ordered she put a safe distance between them and the station before initiating the jump so took the opportunity to put the Vigilance through its paces. Using a holographic display Amelia began increasing the speed but barely started before there was a colossal bang and she felt Lex impact the back of her chair before sliding across the floor. Acting on instinct, Amelia initiated the hyper jump that Rose and Eve had assembled. The stars in the front visor became a white smear. The screen became one of what was left of the space station. "Ouchie." Amelia purred. The captain was speaking but she wasn't really listening. They had been five seconds away from suffering damage to their aft section. She looked at Rose. She hadn't been expecting a baptism by fire this early into their maiden flight. She busied herself by making sure the jump was locked in and calculating an estimated time for when auto-pilot would be disabled when they exited hyperspace. It displayed on a big read out between the two pilots. Two hours and seven minutes. Time for a quick meeting. Amelia released control of her steering pad and got up. Rose was still sat. "Coming?"

The Galactic Ocean

Posted!

The Galactic Ocean

Amelia rushed into the Vigilance's bridge like a child finding presents on Christmas morning. It was absolutely a step up from what she was used to. The pilots' chairs alone were like miniature command centers, winged with an array of buttons and display screens; they faced a thin curved viewing window and below that huge banks of control interfaces and analytic machines. Behind the two pilots chairs sat a more ornamental Captain's chair, clad in what looked like real leather and on a raised pedestal. She turned to Lex and saluted quickly. "Yes Captain." She then turned to her co-pilot with an excited glint in her eye. "Alright Rose, lets get things off the ground. Familiarize yourself with the course and all related systems, i will begin checking the engines." A lot of people didn't understand how vital it was to get to know the vessel intimately before setting off for the first time. Not getting a feel for the spacecraft would have disastrous consequences further down the line. Amelia ran her hand over the console, finding clusters of interface that she understood. There were several holographic environments in the bridge where she could insert and use any kind of navigational operating system. She grinned like the Cheshire Cat. Rooting around in an inner pocket Amelia pulled out a memory stick with a red stripe on it, and after a few moments finding the relevant port, inserted it into the holographic environment. Immediately the hologram changed, a few million lines of code ran down it and out of sight before the familiar logo of her father's company appeared on screen. "Mount Sinai - Making things easier since 2222. Welcome to your Mount Sinai Ship Wide Systems Interface." A homogeneous female voice chirped. Amelia peeked over at Rose. "It makes our jobs easier, stop looking at me like i'm cheating an Academy exam." she said, pouting. "Scanning systems to bring you the full specification." The voice chirped. Amelia waited impatiently, drumming her fingers on the smooth chrome station. After a few seconds the SWSI churned out a mammoth display of the Vigilance's entire make-up, including blueprints and manufacturing notes from the shipyard. She studied it closely for a minute until a satisfied grunt escaped her lips. The Vigilance was fast, agile and relatively heavily armed. Quite big for such a small crew to handle though, especially a miscreant bunch of criminals. Leaving it up on screen, she sauntered back to her chair and crashed into it. "Okay, hows it going?" she shot across to Rose before activating the intercom. "This is your pilot, please keep eyes on your status screens and lock yourself in for lift off. Three minutes, i repeat three minutes."

The Galactic Ocean

Can't wait for the mission to get underway.

The Galactic Ocean

Okay cool, and exactly how long is the craft? I can't find the exact scale.

The Galactic Ocean

One thing i was meaning to ask, will the Vigilance have support staff or will it be only criminals onboard? Whats the deal?

The Galactic Ocean

Amelia was quite pleased when the intercom finally sounded that they were to proceed to the hangar. She'd said all she needed to say for the moment and was getting pretty anxious to see what she'd be flying for the foreseeable future. They filed out and she ended up slightly behind and to the side of this 'Rose' character. Her new co-pilot. Without really meaning to she found herself checking him out: he seemed strong and confident. A little on the unrefined side to put her at ease but he had a reasonably nice bum to make up for the very faint smell of chemicals he emitted. Reoww. Now that she thought about it, the high command hadn't done badly in assembling a good looking bunch of criminals. Looking around, everyone seemed reserved. Most were staring at the ground and shuffling forward with the gait of recently reanimated coma patients. Lex led from the front, obviously as eager as any to see the SS Vigilance for himself. Amelia also took in the variety of non-humans that she was to be serving with. Her family had always been a fairly liberal one, her father having served with them in tours around the quadrant. Her mother also got involved with illegal immigrant non-humans, who came to Earth and Mars on ancient or badly damaged spacecraft to try and find a better life. The Mesocricetian in particular caught her attention. She'd always been wary of their intensely savage tendencies. Her father loved them, saying: "As long as they keep importing Mount Sinai weaponry they can do whatever they like as far as i'm concerned." The guards were milking their last opportunity to abuse the 'criminal scum' and the pushing and verbal insults got more intense as they approached a set of doors. This must be the hanger. Amelia was determined to remain stoic as they filed through but couldn't help but let her mouth fall agape when she clapped eyes on their vessel. "Oh baby, what a hunk." She gushed, taking a few steps forward to examine it properly. It's lateral auxiliary thrusters were like something out of a work of art. It's trans-light engine was top of its class and it looked like it had been designed with low orbit combat in mind as well as ship wide close quarters combat. The bridge looked larger than normal and Amelia couldn't wait to find out why. "Oh, we are so doing a barrel roll in this bad boy." Amelia sighed, catching the captain's eye and winking.

The Galactic Ocean

Also, @Catharyn I think maybe Rose and Amelia should get to know eachother, after all they're going to be co-pilots. Maybe we could have some character interaction once they're steering the ship?

@Inuyasha

I think that's a great idea. Posted!