Into the Deep – The Crossing

As we pick up the Deepnight Revelation campaign again, it is time for another edition of the Into The Deep magazine, the onboard semi-regular publication that keeps the crew informed about what is going on.

Date 1115-216

Ship Status

It has been several months since the previous update, and in that time the Engineering crew have used the opportunity of a stay at a friendly star port to give the ship a major overhaul. It was never going to be up to the standard of what would be possible in the Imperium, but a number of fixes have been made which would otherwise have caused problems further down the road.

The Deepnight seems to be holding up well, despite of its long mission. There are some parts which cannot be replaced without access to an Imperium Navy shipyard, but they have been routed around or swapped out for items which perform a similar function.

Over time, this problem will increase, and there’s nothing that can be done about it. But there’s nothing important that looks like it is likely to fail. At least not yet.

Navigation

The next part of the mission is going to be tricky. The navigation team though are confident that the trip is going to be possible.

The star systems are sparse here, but there does appear to be a route across. Many of the jumps need to be jump 4, a few may need to be longer so will require building our own fuel caches in deep space. We have our own self-declared expert on fuel caches, Aloisui Grauffy. He’s a belter, with mining and engineering experience, who worked a lot with the Erline in plotting the use of their fuel caches. We have some expandable fuel tanks that can be used when the need arises.

Last Prospect

The first part of the journey will take the Deepnight to the Rimward edge of Last Prospect sector. After leaving the Droyne monument at Ytedu 1731, the next step is Alpha Ira 1734. This is a system which has extensive gas and dust belts, though no detected planets.

The plan is to refuel from the gas belts, which are rich in hydrogen. It is not known how long this will take, possibly up to a week. The belts are still classed as a vacuum.

Maw

The next part of the journey will take us into Maw sector. We will cut across the corner of this sector before heading into Crossing, but there is hope of finding a resupply point.

There is a cluster of three star systems, each with yellow stars and terrestrial sized planets. At least one of these shows signs of harbouring life.

After that, we reach the Trailing edge of Maw, where we will need to set up a fuel cache just beyond Thiyu 2914. This should allow us to bridge the gap into Crossing sector. However, this gap is a wide one, and we don’t have good data on what is on the other side.

Crossing

The jump into Crossing is going to be tricky. It is a 5 parsec trip from Maw/Thiyu 2914 to a rogue planet at Crossing/Unonbi 0214. If this turns out not to be a suitable refuelling point, then instead a 6 parsec trip will need to be made to the system of Rytewutus 0314.

As we gain more information on these worlds, it is possible that we may have to change our plans.

There is another possible route, from Thiyu to Maw/Phatahadu 3217. This requires several 5 parsec routes to get onto the main.

After this part of the crossing has been navigated, it should be a relatively easy trip along a J-3 main across Crossing sector. The Erline star maps show that stellar density begins to increase again at the far side of Crossing, allowing us to turn and head Rimward again to the far side of the Great Rift.

Stellar density on the far side should be much higher than it has been recently, allowing us to pick up speed again as we head towards our destination.

The Crew

Changes

Several of the crew have elected to stay behind, but we have new crew members who have joined us from the Tenipal and Erline.

Ooma Vale, one of the Tenipal who is joining the Operations Division as a steward.

Akati, an Erline joining the Deck crew as an engineer.

Ekita, an Erline joining the Mission Division as a research assistant. Skilled in astronomy and planetology, she has already made some useful suggestions about the upcoming route.

Ichika, an Erline joining the Engineering crew, a Robotics expert.

Tracy, an Erline joining the Mission Division as a biology specialist.

Updates

Raix Delvaan has expanded the ship’s museum to include a section especially for the Erline. They have an alcove where they store their ‘memories of home’, and a few of the crew have donated some of the items they picked up on the Erline and Tenipal worlds.

For a while now Authin Kohaku has been running weekly wargaming competitions in Dining Hall A. Several months ago, he switched to a new set of rules, and some of the scenarios have been described as ‘rather dark’.  It’s recently come to light that Lt Jana Irekia has been feeding him ideas for real life tactical situations, in order to fine tune the ship’s defence strategies.

The Far Side of Nowhere

Little is known about the other side of the Rift. The plan is to head towards a way point designated as The Far Side of Nowhere, in Malvam sector (-18, 10).

It is about five sectors from the Rimward side of the Rift to Malvam sector, which will take the Deepnight to the start of the Voidshore region which is the final destination for the mission.