Chapter 13: To Asteroid B0510-5428

[BackworldTraveller]

"Whatever our contact is doing, I don't think it bodes well for us. Let's see about loading our best anti-shipping missile package, just in case. It will be a little tricky with us being underway, so caution is definitely the watchword here." Indrani sighs. Unfortunately, our laser parts are gone, so the missiles are all we have."

Maggie perks up
I loaded those while we awaited the ground party
she reminds all present.
I'm not sure we have a good enough track to fire at, yet. But...Just in case.

And she adds

Are we doing anything to tip them off or just acting dumb?

[ateno]

I'm not sure we have a good enough track to fire at, yet. But...Just in case.

And she adds

Are we doing anything to tip them off or just acting dumb?

"One way or another, I don't want to keep heading towards the asteroid. How long until 24 hours after the first dogleg

Whatever happens, Pranit will help putting the weapons together.

[joertexas]

I'm not sure we have a good enough track to fire at, yet. But...Just in case.

And she adds

Are we doing anything to tip them off or just acting dumb?

"One way or another, I don't want to keep heading towards the asteroid. How long until 24 hours after the first dogleg

Whatever happens, Pranit will help putting the weapons together.

"What other places can we reach with the fuel and supplies we have aboard?" Indrani asks.

[BackworldTraveller]

I'm not sure we have a good enough track to fire at, yet. But...Just in case.

And she adds

Are we doing anything to tip them off or just acting dumb?

"One way or another, I don't want to keep heading towards the asteroid. How long until 24 hours after the first dogleg

Whatever happens, Pranit will help putting the weapons together.

"What other places can we reach with the fuel and supplies we have aboard?" Indrani asks.

Pranit, Indrani and Reven take a quick look at the charts...and conclude that the Queen can reach anywhere inside the belt - either directly or via sling-shot off the star. Heading to Coal-Fire is possible (you'll cross the system twice!), but you'll be really short food by the end, You only stocked up for a week.

Looking at the "24-Hours later" parameter on the dog-leg gives multiple possibilities. Mostly in the belt. You have a lot of velocity to lose for any of the inner-system planets. You were aiming to reach zero-velocity at belt orbit.

[joertexas]

Pranit, Indrani and Reven take a quick look at the charts...and conclude that the Queen can reach anywhere inside the belt - either directly or via sling-shot off the star. Heading to Coal-Fire is possible (you'll cross the system twice!), but you'll be really short food by the end, You only stocked up for a week.

Looking at the "24-Hours later" parameter on the dog-leg gives multiple possibilities. Mostly in the belt. You have a lot of velocity to lose for any of the inner-system planets. You were aiming to reach zero-velocity at belt orbit.

Indrani sets the plot to continuously update time and distance to each port they can reach with the food and fuel they have left. "All right, so we have a few possibilities," she says with a smile. "Thing is, our friend back there has no idea where we plan to go, and they obviously want to set a welcoming committee for when we arrive. We can either pick a location and hope for the best, or we can stay out here long enough to run him out of supplies first. Attacking him is a poor third option, in my view."

[BackworldTraveller]

Flare-Bright Planetary Orbits with Queen's course as at 300-012.jpg (24.88 KiB) Viewed 376 times

n.b. Pretty much all in-system paths use Ares as a grav-sling. Coal-Fire is out, back past Sparks. About 25% of the belt is directly reachable from where you are with your current velocity - some paths also needing Ares as a sling-shot.

[The Bindoner]

Nālani is surprised, on waking, to find that both Indrani and Pranit are on the Bridge. Assuming a “situation” has arisen she immediately joins them.

After being brought up to date on the situation, and the search for options, she sits at her console and sips her tea before speaking.

I have been out here before. With Captain Celisse. He had a beacon nearby. If it is still here, perhaps I can activate it. It is low-power, and has an activation code, so we might be able to use it without our shadow detecting it.

It will not solve the problem of our stalker, but it may give us a direction.

[joertexas]

Nālani is surprised, on waking, to find that both Indrani and Pranit are on the Bridge. Assuming a “situation” has arisen she immediately joins them.

After being brought up to date on the situation, and the search for options, she sits at her console and sips her tea before speaking.

I have been out here before. With Captain Celisse. He had a beacon nearby. If it is still here, perhaps I can activate it. It is low-power, and has an activation code, so we might be able to use it without our shadow detecting it.

It will not solve the problem of our stalker, but it may give us a direction.

"Do it," Indrani replies.

[BackworldTraveller]

Nālani is surprised, on waking, to find that both Indrani and Pranit are on the Bridge. Assuming a “situation” has arisen she immediately joins them.

After being brought up to date on the situation, and the search for options, she sits at her console and sips her tea before speaking.

I have been out here before. With Captain Celisse. He had a beacon nearby. If it is still here, perhaps I can activate it. It is low-power, and has an activation code, so we might be able to use it without our shadow detecting it.

It will not solve the problem of our stalker, but it may give us a direction.

"Do it," Indrani replies.

Nālani looks at the comms kit and realises two three things. The beacons were placed on specific stashes - the possible one you are heading towards is still half a system away (presently well out of the Queen's comms range). And the the channel used could be any one of a large number. It's going to take a while to cycle through all those available!

And finally, you'd need to transmit at low power to stop whoever is following from overhearing the broadcast!

The idea will work - just not now.

[The Bindoner]

I will try.

Nālani takes control of the Queen and attempts to design a minimal rotation of the functioning parts of the sensor array that will capture the beacon (if it is still there) without alerting the shadow to what she is doing. Having made the plan, she performs the manoeuvre by rote while concentrating on the comms/sensor display, ready to enter the recognition code as soon as she detects the object.


Search pattern design: [_2d6]=(2+3)=5 +2 Pilot, +2 Int = 9

Beacon search:[_2d6]=(6+5)=11 +1 Electronics/Sensors, +2 Int = 14

[joertexas]

"If you're wanting to transmit, make sure you roll ship to mask the transmission from our stalker, and keep it as narrowly focused as you can. We're rolling periodically now, so don't change that pattern unless you have to for the transmissions."

She turns to Pranit. "While we're doing all of that, let's see if we can ID our friend back there. Collect everything you have, but use only passives. At his range, our radar or lidar won't get a reliable hit, anyway. Keep our normal debris sweeps running, but belay the rest. Maybe we can send a tight-beam call to Sparks for a list of who departed after us."

[The Bindoner]

Thank you for the advice. I have never flown with the Patrol before, and the perspective of the other side of the game is always useful to hear.

It is difficult to determine whether she is speaking honestly or in jest, her words are delivered flatly as she works.


The code is pre-entered, I will squawk it when it is safe to do so, and the Queen is between the beacon and our shadow.

[cybersavant]

Reven Stiilpahth

"I think i remember that. The Captain came down to engineering before each blind-drop and collected a beacon. They were like standard claim-markers, but only fired when sent a code on the claims check channel."

[ateno]

She turns to Pranit. "While we're doing all of that, let's see if we can ID our friend back there. Collect everything you have, but use only passives. At his range, our radar or lidar won't get a reliable hit, anyway. Keep our normal debris sweeps running, but belay the rest. Maybe we can send a tight-beam call to Sparks for a list of who departed after us."

"Aye, on it.

Pranit will take a hour or two gathering info.

[BackworldTraveller]

The two hours of observation, plus the sending of the tight beam, eventually garner some better details - though it has taken longer than anticipated. It's nearly 3 1/2 hours when the response from Sparks finally arrives (it had to be relayed via Poseidon in both directions).

From the sensors, there is (probably) a ship and a boat (or two boats) following. They are well dispersed and they are generally not detectable together. The sun's illumination helps. One is more visible than the other, with the less visible one appearing to be faster. It took a while to track the faster target and confirm it was the same one in each observation. It would appear to be about 20 dTons and have a 5g drive. The other target is slower max movement probably about 2g. It might be bigger but it's harder to tell and you never get a good look. The best trace was when the two vessels docked.

The response from Sparks gives you the list of arrivals and departures from the official lists. It doesn't include any Naval vessels, but does note the departure of a certain New Heaven Vessel shortly after your own exit. Pranit's quick calculation suggests that it's leaving would put it about 30,000km behind - well out of effective sensor range for a merchant and well within range for a top-quality patrol craft.

[joertexas]

Indrani swivels the workstation's chair, the drive motors humming softly as the mechanism responds to her body's movements. The former naval officer leans back and regards her shipmates. "If we were on a wartime footing, I'd be tempted to eject one of our missiles set as a mine. However, that's probably not the best course of action right now. Sooner or later, we will need to stop somewhere. My main concern is that our friend back there could be calling in more friends to box us in, more likely close to a port rather than out here where we can change trajectories more easily. So, where and when do we stop?"

[ateno]

Is Reven awake? Does he have any friends on Posiden?

Also if we turn a equal bearing as before, that would put is close to Dis. I think those are our best options.

GM: Is my mining clain on my asteroid anywhere nearby, he has as least acquantices there.

[BackworldTraveller]

Is Reven awake? Does he have any friends on Posiden?

Also if we turn a equal bearing as before, that would put is close to Dis. I think those are our best options.

GM: Is my mining clain on my asteroid anywhere nearby, he has as least acquantices there.

The claim is about 10 degrees from B0510-5428 and further into the belt - either direct or indirect via Ares. Easily reachable! Poseidon is near but the delta-V is huge (about twice what you need to reach the belt!). Dis is further but has a huge delta-V akin to that needed for Poseidon. n.b. Ares is on your path but you are going to pass like a bat-out-of-hell so can't stop there without overloading the engines heavily to slow on the way.

[ateno]

Pranit lets the crew know of the option of his asteroid.

"We would have to do a survey of food and fuel to see if we can make it.

[joertexas]

Pranit lets the crew know of the option of his asteroid.

"We would have to do a survey of food and fuel to see if we can make it.

"Put it on the master plot and let's look at it."