Characters: All
NPC: Chuck, Uengghae, Kagfak
Location: Touzagh HQ
System: Ikhog
"Gunners," Gvarokh says, "I want more fires and fewer standing buildings on our
way out. You have carte blanche to shoot anything you want but knocking out
Kagiisha's quarters would be a good start."
"I see it," Vincent says and then takes a shot at Kagiisha's quarters and turns
it into a smouldering ruin.
Simrii opts to make the underground prison and armory inaccessible for a very
long time by discharging a very large amount of energy from his turret.
Lakir says to assembled escapees, "Ok, we need to make this quick people. Divide
into two groups: those who came in on the Qa Livk and those who did not."
The crowd quickly shuffles into two groups of ten. Chuck mingles among them
looking for injuries.
Simrii taps into the sensors to scan for airborne targets but doesn't find any.
Vincent fires on the administration building and incinerates it. After the shot
he slaves his turret over to Simrii and prepares to open the back door to Qa
Livk's computer.
"Lakir, what have we got down there?" Gvarokh asks.
"We've got twenty altogether: ten from the Qa Livk and ten from other ships."
"Any wounded?"
"Chuck?" Lakir defers to Chuck.
"Some malnutrition and fatigue. Bruises and cuts. I'm not seeing any broken
bones and no one's complaining about them."
"Ok, get them up to speed on the next phase of the plan. Find out if they're up
to crewing their old ship then explain it to the others."
"I'm take the Qa Livk crew. Chuck, you handle the others."
"Roger that."
Lakir trots over to the Qa Livk crew and looks for the captain. "You, you're Ku
Liidiinur."
"Yes, that's right."
"Good. How's your crew cap'n? Ready to get the hell outta here?"
"Yes, yes we are."
"Alright then, we're a small merc outfit. We'd rather not split up. If you're up
to it, we need you to command the Qa Livk. We're headed there now. We'll handle
clearin' the pirates out and gettin' you on board. Our ship will provide cover.
Do you think your crew can pilot her all the way back home."
He looks Lakir squarely in the eye. "I know we can."
"Good." Lakir looks over at Chuck who gives a thumbs up.
He comms Gvarokh, "Cap'n, we're all squared away down here. Both groups are on
board with the plan."
"See if you can grab the captains and bring them up to the Bridge. I'd like to
give them a very quick briefing on the ground rules and what we expect."
"Aye, aye."
Lakir escorts Ku Liidiinur, and two others (a man and a woman) to the Bridge.
Gvarokh says to them, "Captains, I'm sorry but there isn't much time for
pleasantries. We're going to take back the Qa Livk via remote hack and then send
her captain and crew back over there via the cutter if there's time. If not,
we'll remote jump and transfer people over when it's safe."
Ku Liidiinur says, "Won't it take time to hack her systems."
Gvarokh replies, "We did it on the way in. One of my crew installed a back door
and is confident he can space the pirates on board. And I'm confident in his
abilities."
Ku nods.
"Once you're on your ship, you can stick with us or, since your ship has a
greater jump than ours, go it alone."
"Oh, we'll stick with you until we're safely back in Vilani space. We're
unarmed. I'm not about to go through that hell again."
"Fair enough."
"What about us?" asks the unidentified man.
"We're headed back to Vilani space. You can stay with us for the duration or get
dropped off at any world along the way. The choice is yours."
The man and woman exchange glances and then nod. "That works for us."
"Good! Now if you'll excuse me, we have work to do."
Lakir herds the escaped captains out of the Bridge.
Characters: All
NPC: Chuck, Uengghae, Kagfak
Location: In space, above Ikhog
System: Ikhog
As the ship soars into space, passive sensors are detecting 17 ships in this
quadrant of space around the planet. Some are coming and going to the jump point
or servicing satellites or space stations in orbit. Some are just parked in
orbit themselves. None of them are paying any attention to Miishakaal.
At the halfway point, Gvarokh kills the thrusters. If for any reason they have
to dock with the Qa Livk, he doesn't want to have too long a vector to
erase.
"Ok, Vincent. Show the pirates the door."
"Roger that." Vincent initiates the back door hack... and is in. He finds where
each of the guards is positioned and programs a door opening sequence that will
carry them out through the airlocks with the least possible loss of air. He
shuts off all communications panels, overrides the safety protocols, and turns
off the grav plates. After several seconds of weightlessness, he runs his door
opening sequence.
One by one each of the pirates is flushed out the airlocks. As soon as they are
gone, Vincent seals the airlocks, re-pressurizes the ship, and restores normal
gravity.
"All clear," he announces.
"Good. Can you navigate the modular cutter over to rendezvous with us?"
"Well, I can access the controls, but I don't know how to pilot a
spacecraft."
"I can do it," Dougok volunteers.
"That's fine." Gvarokh summons the ex-corsair to the Bridge and instructs him to
fly the small craft from a console.
Dougok has a seat and accesses the controls. His initial attempts to get the
cutter going fail. He sends mixed signals to the ship and is rewarded with
annoying buzzes from the computer. He growls under his breath.
"Is there a problem?" Gvarokh asks.
"No problem. The interface isn't what I'm used to," Dougok replies.
He takes a deep breath and tries again. Patience is rewarded as the cutter
safely leaves the Qa Livk.
Dougok would be sweating if Vargr sweated. He relaxes a bit and wags his tail as
the cutter undocks and heads to the rendezvous. He pilots it with care given
his earlier troubles with the interface.
Since the Qa Livk is unguarded and Vincent was able to dispatch the pirates on
board with ease, the ship is able to go with the deceleration plan rather than
the hot exit.
Miishakaal has come to a stop. Dougok remotely docks the cutter with her.
Once the docking clamps are secure, the airlock is extended, and the Qa
Livk's crew race over and board the cutter.
Dougok is relieved to be done with that responsibility.
The cutter de-clamps and motors back to its parent craft.
The Cutter docks with the Qa Livk and its crew disembarks. Vincent relinquishes control of the ship and Miishakaal resumes her journey to the jump point.
Characters: All
NPC: Chuck, Uengghae, Kagfak
Location: Miishakaal, en route to jump point
System: Ikhog
Miishakaal has been underway for 10 minutes when passive sensors register
an active scan.
A transmission is coming in from the Qa Livk. Gvarokh puts it on screen.
The Qa Livk's captain, now in a vacc suit, looks worried. "Captain
Gvarokh, we're being hailed by a corsair captain. What do we do?"
"I'll handle it. Vincent, still got that back door into the Qa Livk?"
"Yep."
"Patch me in so that I can answer the call but make it look like it's coming
from the Qa Livk."
"Roger that."
Suggestions come in from the crew.
Slade asks, "Can we make up some story for them about how they're corsair
refugees running from what happened downworld?"
Dougok suggests, "Have them claim comm problems for a few minutes and then
perhaps say you are refugees."
In the meantime the radar direction finder on the passive sensors indicates that
the other ship is in the same orbit as the Qa Livk. Combining it with
passive IR, light amplification, and image enhancement reveals it to be an
Ueknou class corsair (400 tons disp.) 11,780 miles from the Qa Livk
and 21,015 miles from Miishakaal."Ok, Captain. You're all set."
As he accepts the call from the corsair, Gvarokh notes that power output on the
corsair has ramped up. A stern looking vargr appears on screen. He scowls at the
sight of Gvarokh.
"Who are you and where is Ruknig?" he asks in Gvegh.
Gvarokh ignores the latter half of the question, aiming for intimidation. "I am
one of the survivors of the assault on your base. Your security is utter shit! I
can't believe how poorly you treat your guests! How can you expect to hold any
sort of respect from your clients if you can't even guarantee their safety and
provide for a proper business environment."
The corsair appears unfazed. "If you're one of the survivors from the assault,
how did you make it to orbit so fast and how did you get the access codes to
that ship? The Auction hasn't been held yet."
Gvarokh replies, "We were just getting there when all hell broke loose. We were
just lucky that this crate was close enough to help us out.
“And if you really want your whelp, I’ll find him for you.”
The corsair captain barks, "That doesn't make any sense! Now shut up or I'll cut
out your tongue. Shut down your engines while we deal with the other ship. If
you don't, you'll wish you were dead." He terminates the connection.
The captain of the Qa Livk appears on screen again via laser comm. "What
do you want me to do?"
Gvarokh powers up the active sensors while he answers the captain of the Qa
Livk, “Stop accelerating for the moment so that you appear to be complying.
If they try to dock, immediately take evasive action, but they should be
occupied by us. The important thing is for them to think you are complying
initially. Once we blow out their bridge, immediately start max acceleration
again, and change your vector so you don’t have a predictable path. Also, start
finding rescue balls and vacc suits for your crew.”
While the active sensors gather data, Gvarokh rolls the ship over, dorsal side
up, to give both gunners a view of the corsair.
To the crew, “Vincent, As soon as you get targeting data, take out the bridge.
Simrii, wait on his fire for a follow-up. If he somehow missed, finish off the
bridge. Otherwise take out a turret. Everyone, make sure you are in a vacc suit
or rescue ball. Chuck and Vlad, help our guests get safe as quickly as
possible.”
Gvarokh is receiving telemetry from the active sensors and fine tunes it for
the gunners.
Kagfak returns to the Bridge and says in Gvegh, "Captain, I've go some
experience with sensors, do you want me to take a seat so you can concentrate
on evading the corsair?"
Gvarokh responds to Kagfak, "Sit." Then, after a brief pause, says, "Next time,
please tell me useful stuff like this before we are in combat." His voice
naturally has stress in it, but there is no anger. If it wasn't for the stress
he would have actually smiled.
Characters: All
NPC: Chuck, Uengghae, Kagfak
Location: Miishakaal, en route to jump point
System: Ikhog
STATUS: The Qa Livk has shut off its engines but carries a
residual velocity of 13,091 mph. It has 485,955 miles to go for safe jump
distance. ETJ: 37 hours 7 minutes (due to termination of acceleration).
Miishakaal has an outbound velocity of 19,636 mph and is 475,905 miles
from safe jump distance. ETJ: 195 minutes.
The corsair is accelerating at 3G. It is 11,507 miles from the Qa Livk
and 21,561 miles from Miishakaal.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Gvarokh tells Kagfak to seal the Bridge and stand by to decompress the ship when
the crew are ready.
To give both gunners a clear shot at their pursuer, he rolls the ship over so
that it's dorsal side faces at the corsair.
Lakir, Dougok, and Uengghae run to the Ship's Locker to put on vacc suits.
Lakir finds his, as does Uengghae, but there isn't one for Dougok. There's
Shiraamer's old one but the shape is all wrong for him. Gvarokh's and Kagfak's
are closer in size and shape but still too small. Dougok growls at this
predicament. He snatches a rescue ball and clips it to his belt. He wanders down
the corridor to stand outside Vincent's turret.
Slade, who keeps his vacc suit handy in Engineering, finishes putting it on (he
started once they cleared the atmosphere) and lets the Bridge know they can
decompress Engineering. He monitors the maneuver drive and power plant.
Chuck and Vlad herd the passengers into the crew lounge and tell them to wait
there. Chuck lets the Bridge know that they're out of the cargo hold. Chuck
squeezes past Lakir and Uengghae in the Ship's Locker and starts tossing rescue
balls out to Vlad.
Kagfak depressurizes Engineering and the cargo hold.
Meanwhile the gunners call up the specs for Ueknou class corsairs and
overlay them with the data from the active scanners to build a firing solution.
Vincent aims for the Bridge and fires. There's a bit of a delay as the plasma
burns through the corsair's armor and then it's followed by a satisfactory flare
as oxygen from the corsair's bridge fuels a short burn. The corsair's course is
slightly altered from explosive decompression.
A cheer resounds through Miishakaal once the news is relayed.
Simrii aims for a turret on the dorsal surface port side and is successful in
taking it out.
The three remaining turrets from the corsair fire on Miishakaal. Two of
them hit her: a beam laser and a pulse laser. The beam laser burns through
Miisha's armor but stops short of puncturing a fuel tank. Another hit in that
location will.
The pulse laser burns through Miisha's armor above engineering and strikes the
deck, narrowly missing a console (not the one Slade is stationed at), but more
importantly, missing the power plant by a meter. It burns itself out punching a
hole through the deck. Slade rushes over and sees that, had it gone all the way
through, would've barely missed the port jump drive.
Lakir and Uengghae are suited up and relieve Chuck and Vlad to get their vacc
suits on. Gvarokh comms the crew, "Hold your fire for a minute. I'm going to
roll over and show our belly to them. I want two turret shots. If we can
de-weapon it, maybe they'll let us go."
After he executes the maneuver, he hails the Qa Livk, "Ok, Captain, we've
smoked their bridge. Fire up your engines and get moving. And make sure you're
not in the corsair's path."
"Acknowledged, Captain."
Simrii and Vincent confer over turret target choices. Vincent's shot hits and
takes out a turret.
As Simrii lines up his shot, he mutters, "If you wrecked my room..." He pulls
the trigger. It's a hit and another turret goes dead. Three down one to go.
At this point the corsair has stops accelerating and does not fire on either
ship.
All of the passengers are now safely inside the rescue balls with the zippers
open a crack to keep fresh air coming in for as long as possible.
As the weapons reach full charge, Gvarokh says, “Hold your fire. They are no
longer accelerating, and they passed up their chance for a shot. Keep them in
your sights and fire if they even hint at doing anything. But if they are
willing to leave us alone now, let them go.”
A few minutes later the corsair flips over and begins decelerating at 3G.
Characters: All
NPC: Chuck, Uengghae, Kagfak
Location: Miishakaal, en route to jump point
System: Ikhog
STATUS: The Qa Livk has an outbound velocity of 144,000 mph with
416,954 miles to go for safe jump distance. ETJ: 103 minutes, if current
acceleration is maintained.
Miishakaal has an outbound velocity of 98,182 mph and is 416,996 miles
from safe jump distance. ETJ: 140 minutes, if current acceleration is
maintained.
The corsair has come to a stop. It is 46,966 miles from the Qa Livk and
46,924 miles from Miishakaal.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Although Gvarokh instructed the passengers that they could leave their rescue
balls fifteen minutes ago, they've remained inside with the zippers open.
They're looking more relaxed than they did.
During the downtime from the brief lopsided battle, the remaining crew that have
vacc suits have put them on, but the helmets off, except for Slade in
depressurized Engineering. Dougok still has his rescue ball close by.
Kagfak announces that the sensors are picking up three ships, all about 400 tons
displacement, heading on a course to rendezvous with the corsair. He forwards
that information to tactical. Gvarokh notes that with only a tweak to their
maneuvering jets, they can continue on an intercept course for them instead.
Judging by their speed and distance, they'll know in fifteen minutes if this new
batch of ships is planning on rendezvousing with the corsair or blowing past it
to attack them.
"Range?" Gvarokh asks.
"141,000 kilometers," Kagfak answers.
Gvarokh realizes that's a bit far to guarantee a targeted shot. "Let's hold off
on shooting for now. They're not shooting at us yet. As such, I can't take the
risk of shooting at them preemptively, as that would guarantee a fight we can't
win. We just have to keep running and hoping for the best. Also, it is possible
that they will simply let us go (at least for now) because, while they outgun
us six to one, they will take damage and someone is going to die. They have to
know that if we took out one bridge, there is no reason we can't do it again.
As such, there is the slight chance that they'll perceive the kill as too
expensive a gain."
Of the three new corsairs, one has begun to decelerate. The other two have not.
Their turrets are fully charged. One of them has sent a simple text message to
Miishakaal. "Surrender now and we'll let you live."
Gvarokh asks, "Range?"
Kagfak answers, "157,300 kilometers." [Conversion: 94,380 miles.]
Everyone realizes that the increase in distance is deceptive. The corsairs are
still building speed. At 3G acceleration to Miisha's one, that gap will start
to shrink.
Gvarokh says to the crew, “We will not surrender. At best, we will face the same
fate as those we tried to rescue. At worst, it will be a slow and painful
death. I would rather die free than live a slave.”
There are murmurs of assention in return.
On the laser comm, Gvarokh texts to the Qa, saying, “We will try to hold
them off as long as we can before we jump. Do not let them capture you. Do not
let this effort be in vain.”
"We won't!" is the response.
To the gunners, Gvarokh says, “Decide amongst yourselves which ship you want to
fire upon and take out the bridges whenever you can get a good enough firing
resolution. Go for turrets after that as long as you can.”
To the ship in general, he says, “Everyone zip up. We have another round of
combat and it is way, way worse. We are depressurizing in 1 minute.
“Lakir, Chuck, Vlad, Uengghae: Arm yourselves in case we can’t jump. We will
repel the boarders.”
Dougok leaves the turret door he was standing next to and walks back into the
crew lounge. He sets the rescue ball down on a couch and climbs inside with his
weapons, a nasty surprise if the wrong person tries to open it up.
Gvarokh's text back says, "Turn away or die."
To Kagfak he says in Gvegh, "Get a target lock to the gunners now."
Kagfak works the sensors. The two chasing corsairs are Ueknou class and
an Imperial Buccaneer class corsair. They're both armed with pulse lasers
and have the same acceleration rate and armor rating.
Simrii says, "Here's an idea. That first corsair is still between us and them.
If we blow it up, the two new corsairs will have to swerve to avoid the debris
field or get tore up by the shrapnel cloud. And swerving will mess up their
pursuit vector and might buy us some time. What do you say, Captain?"
While Gvarokh does some quick calculations in his head, the crew chime in.
"I'm all for it," Lakir says. "Sounds like a great idea!"
Vincent says, "I'll gladly take another shot at the 1st ship!"
A muffled "Grrr! Kill them! Grrrr!" comes from Dougok.
Gvarokh is impressed with their enthusiasm. "Ok, you get one shot at it. If you
miss, you need to turn your attention back to the targets at hand."
Characters: All
NPC: Chuck, Uengghae, Kagfak
Location: Miishakaal, en route to jump point
System: Ikhog
STATUS: The Qa Livk has an outbound velocity of 196,364 mph with
360,227 miles to go for safe jump distance. ETJ: 83 minutes, if current
acceleration is maintained.
Miishakaal has an outbound velocity of 124,364 mph and is 379,905 miles
from safe jump distance. ETJ: 135 minutes, if current acceleration is maintained.
The original corsair is 84,015 miles from Miishakaal.
The decelerating corsair is 90,289 miles from Miishakaal.
The pursuing corsairs are 88,653 miles from Miishakaal.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Simrii and Vincent fire on the original corsair as per their plan. Vincent's
shot misses the ship entirely but Simrii puts a hole through the starboard
"wing". The plan has failed and the pursuing corsairs safely overtake their
wounded brethren.
The pursuing corsairs open fire with everything they've got. All four shots from
the Buccaneer miss but one of the Ueknou's shots connects. The
far port fuel tank has been punctured, it's remaining fuel spills out into
space.
As the ship now has just enough fuel to jump, Gvarokh kills the thrusters and
rolls the ship over to expose Miisha's belly to their pursuers. Now coasting,
their ETA to safe jump distance is now 169 minutes.
Dougok asks, "What about a micro jump in system to the gas giant for a refuel
and then jump?"
Gvarokh asks him in return, "Are there any Touzagh bases at either of the other
two gas giants?"
"No, there's only the one on Ikhog."
Kagfak and Uengghae agree with Dougok.
Lakir blurts out, "Hell! If we’re gonna jump, lets get the fuck outta here,
none O’ this micro crap. If we’re gonna fight, lets get belly up, and get the
suck on, while we’ve still got power and sensors. If we’re going to decoy, for
shit sake, power down and surrender, so we stand a chance of rigging the
interior for a fire fight, though if I was them, with the lickin we just laid on
them, I’d stand off at a distance and swiss cheese us ‘till we're a hulk."
Vincent puts in his two credits. "I'm always up for a fight so I'd say let's hit
'em. I'd like to think us gunners can do enough damage on our way out to slow
those guys down, no?"
Over the comm, Gvarokh says, "OK, guys, here’s the idea: We can’t pretend to
surrender right now because we have two fully healthy ships on our tail.
Besides, as Lakir points out, they will probably rough us up anyway. So, we keep
fighting. When we fake the surrender, it has to look honestly earned.
"Gunners will fire on the Ueknou. The reason for the Ueknou is that it has
subcraft; the Buccaneer should not. We need to damage it as much as possible.
Fire normally until they get close enough to allow for effective specific
targeting. We are likely going to get caught; we just need to make them pay for
that privilege. We also want to force a ship to dock with us, not a subcraft. To
do that, we have to remove any other options.
"Lakir will organize the others to carry Dougok and the prisoners up to the
passenger lounge and prepare for the inevitable boarding. I want the heavy
weapons out and ready. I also want grenades out and ready. Assuming we can
survive the initial combat, we will need to quickly board and subdue the docking
ship. That means a few doors will likely have to be breached. But the point you
need to understand is that if we are boarded, we will not be leaving Ikhog
unless it is on another ship."
The crew reply with "Aye, aye's" and other similar assertions of their orders.
Gvarokh drops the gravity in the crew and passenger lounges down to 1/4 to make
it easier for Lakir and company to move the rescue ball refugees.
Lakir grabs Vlad to get ready for a boarding action and he instructs Chuck and
Uengghae to move the rescue balls while Vincent and Simrii get the sensor lock
from Kagfak.
Both gunners open fire on the Ueknou. Both hit. Simrii's shot ruptures
two fuel tanks along the port side, fore. Vincent's shot ruptures one fuel tank
starboard side, aft.
The Ueknou fires back. One turret hits. It burns a hole in the cargo
hold, port side aft, right near the Engineering room bulkhead. There was no
cargo stored there. Residual energy from the shot melted a hole in the deckplate
but it didn't affect the fuel tank on the other side, not that it mattered as
that one was already punctured.
The Buccaneer misses.
Gvarokh contacts the Qa Livk and informs them of the situation. He goes
on to tell them that they will need to run on their own and that they need to
take the absolute shortest path they can find.
"Understood," the captain replies. "We'll tell them what you did. Thank you and
good luck, Captain."
Gvarokh asks Kagfak to review the initial sensor data to determine if the
Buccaneer had any small craft. He can't switch now since the gunners are
relying on them for firing on the Ueknou.
Meanwhile, the gunners fire another round. Both hit. Vincent's shot burns a hole
through the ship's dorsal armor and hits one of the Ueknou's many fuel
lines. The ship can compensate for this loss by rerouting the fuel through a
different line.
Simrii hits just to the port side of the vertical fin, burns through the armor
there, and cuts a hole in the port side maneuver drive exhaust conduit. There's
a small plasma release into space before an emergency shutdown kicks in to shut
it off. That means the Ueknou is now coasting.
The Ueknou fires back; two turrets hit. The first shot burns into the
bulkhead containing the machinery for the port lateral cargo lock, rendering it
inoperable. The second shot punctures a hole in the cargo hold near the iris
valve that leads to the crew lounge. There is no cargo in this location.
Residual energy from the shot melts a hole in the deckplate but doesn't affect
the fuel tank on the other side.
One shot from the Buccaneer hits. Its shot punctures a hole in the empty
stateroom behind the bridge. Residual energy destroys the contents of the room
but doesn't affect the room overhead (Lakir's).
Kagfak has finished reviewing the initial scan data of the Buccaneer. He
says that the Buccaneer has something in its cargo hold. It's big enough
to be a small craft but he isn't certain.
Vincent says, "I'd like to start shooting at the other ship if that's ok with
the Capt'n!"
Gvarokh replies, "I want at least another round or two at the same ship. We
haven’t hit its weapons yet, and they appear to have the better gunners. We have
slowed them down, and we need to try and make sure they stay slowed down."
"Do you think they'd go for it if we asked for a time out?" Simrii asks as he
continues to work over the Ueknou.
The gunners fire again at it. Simrii's shot misses but Vincent's shot burns
through a fuel tank on the uppermost deck. Four of its fuel tanks are punctured.
The Ueknou returns fire but all four turrets miss. One of the four
turrets on the Buccaneer hits the cargo hold in the rear starboard
quadrant, which is where the cargo was stored.
Chuck and Uengghae finish moving the passengers then go see Lakir and Vlad on
what to do to help. Gvarokh increases gravity up to 0.75G
The gunners fired another round at the Ueknou. Vincent's shot strikes along the central corridor on the second deck that runs forward. Simrii's shot strikes the port maneuver drive module. Shortly thereafter the ship flips around and begins decelerating at 1G using the starboard maneuver drive module only.
Both ships fire on Miishakaal. The Buccaneer hits once. Its shot
burns a hole through the floor in Engineering immediately next to the starboard
jump drive, narrowly missing it. The residual energy burns a hole in the deck
above it, right next to the power plant.
The Ueknou hits twice. One shot burns a hole in the forward quadrant of
the cargo hold. Fortunately there is no cargo there. Residual energy from the
shot melts a hole in the deckplate but doesn't affect the fuel tank on the other
side. The second shot hits the port module of the jump drive.
Slade reports that while the port module of the jump drive is inoperable, the
ship is still capable of jump-1. So long as no further fuel is lost, the ship
can do back-to-back jump-1's.
Next: Bargaining