Friday, February 13, 2015

Milk Run

Journal Entry 811;
recording entity - Seargent Frit Fatham

Date: 021412

As a maintence engineer in DEEME, I'm given special priveledges.
For one, I have my own quarters on Dry Station... the only one in fact.  All other personnel live aboard their own particular vessels.


It's good to wake up to a view.  Looks like SVG Excavator is back from the outer sectors.


The shipyard at Dry Station has been occupied building a new design of frigate... a support vessel with a new experimental jump drive that should really speed up my job, among others... and ultimately allow Dry Empire to expand into more sectors by drastically reducing travel costs and times.


I have a call out to one of the mining posts today - apparently it was damaged recently by a rogue roid impacting it.  Pirate troubles are few and far between these last few months, but that hasn't reduced my own workload, it seems.  As more things are built, more things get damaged and need maintenance.  It's only a matter of time until I'm running a crew.


One of the very best perks of my position is my private run-about... an Ajax Keelboat affectionately named "Green Meanie".


 She has tan synthetic leather seats. Yeah baby.


As I pull away from Dry Station I always inspect my own quarters. The last thing I want is for some structural stress crack to open up the structure like a grenade and blow me out into space while I sleep.  It's right next to Green Meanie's dock, so it's just instinct really, to check it out on the way in and out.


Not much for privacy, but I wouldn't trade my creature comforts for curtains if they were solid threns.


The airlock accesses a small external passageway to the library.  There's an internal door too, but it's permanently sealed until the library is pressurised... no immediately plans for that, but apparently Chairman Broez intends to at some point, or there's little reason to include an internal door between pressurised and vaccuum-filled sections of Dry Station...  Either that or there's a little red button in his quarters that allows him to open that hatchway if ever he decides my services are no longer required... heh.  Good thing I'm good at what I do, I guess.


The WDU's always get a little cranky when I pass through the shipyard area... but I've got to inspect for maintenance issues now, don't I?  Nothing to do with getting a sticky beak at the progress of the ship being built, of course.


Dry Station has grown so much since I was hired by Chairman Broez...


I lay in a course for Sarafrey Mining Outpost, and increase the tint on my LCD visors, putting Green Meanie into overdrive as she heads almost directly at the sun.


I pass through the outer asteroid belt, which is studded with 6-point turret emplacements... they always get a bit twitchy if you hang around too long, so a quick inspection is enough for me in this unshielded boat without disarm codes at the ready...


Several hours later I reach Sarafrey and approach the dock... hailing the station's operator to inform them I've arrived to carry out the inspection and repairs.


Already I can see some of the damage to the infrastructure... shouldn't be hard to fix in zero gravity with the aide of the station's WDU... just some simple combinating and welding... no big deal.


One of the lateral I-Beams got hit pretty badly it seems.  Again a reasonably easy fix, if time consuming.


The main habitation facility appears to be structurally intact.


Airlock systems functioning fine.


Internals are fully pressurised, and the station operator reports no issues.  I have to check it all out thoroughly for myself though, while I'm here.  The operator is a twitchy fellow that prefers to just let me go about my duty, staying in his quarters till I'm done.  Pretty typical for operators of stations like this - they live out here alone for so long that interacting with people tends to make them uncomfortable.


External airlock to the drone facility was a little glitchy, but turns out it was just a small wiring issue - fixed it as I inspected it.


The drone control facility was grubby and scattered with trash, but otherwise functional.  Not my job to recommend different life-style choices, although the conditions would certainly go down in my report...


Structurally the habitation facility appeared in pretty good nick.  I've seen far worse.  Micro-asteroids cause the most damage usually... smashing into the most unexpected places and leaving tiny holes no bigger than a pin-prick that leak fluids, atmosphere, sever wires, and sometimes ignite combustables.  Cheaper to risk the entire facility and crew than to install shields, apparently.


The cargo bay had a light out, but the doors functioned well. Cargo pods were scattered hap-hazardly and again there was clutter everywhere.  I carried out the necessary repairs over the next two days, prefering to live in my suit and Green Meanie than to interact too much with the station operator. Stam, his name was. He seemed to prefer it that way too.


Repairs were completed without incident, and it was good to return home.  I'll spend the next day filling out paperwork.


Glad I've got my quarters and don't live out there like those mining outpost operators...

Ajax Keelboat is downloadable (available in white and green) and available for public use for free.  Simply put the file into your "blueprints" folder (eg: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\StarMade\StarMade\blueprints) and you will have access to this station in-game under "Catalog" menu.

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