THE JUMPGATE DEFINITIVE GUIDE - Tripod
THE JUMPGATE DEFINITIVE GUIDE - Tripod
THE JUMPGATE DEFINITIVE GUIDE - Tripod
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time until his inertial vector indicator was pointing directly to the<br />
rear of his ship. With a quick glance out the side viewport he timed a<br />
pulse of engine power and stopped the Venture class command vessel<br />
perfectly. The familiar green cone of the closest available docking<br />
port activated as he targeted the station but Ikeprof was beyond<br />
needing such docking aids. Rotating again, he lined the nose of his<br />
ship up and accelerated towards the docking clamps. One thing he was<br />
glad that didn’t change was that the new strut system still allowed one<br />
to dock at 100v or less. The force field generators which protected the<br />
docked ships also served to brake a ship as it approached the clamps.<br />
The clang of the clamps engaging rang through his hull and the slight<br />
change in cockpit pressure indicated that he was back on station life<br />
support systems. A slower glow of pink light swirled around all of the<br />
ships viewports as the stations field generators formed a bubble around<br />
his ship. The glow cleared as the bubble stabilized and became<br />
completely transparent. The station interface appeared again on his<br />
HUD. From this spot he had a perfect view of almost the full length of<br />
this strut. Knowing that other squad command members were docked on 4<br />
of the 6 other struts emerging on all 3 axis of the station he felt<br />
comfortable that minimal activity could occur here without the squad<br />
being aware of it.<br />
A quick glance to the right showed one of the station port bots<br />
clamping on to an apparently abandoned Quantar mining vessel. When a<br />
pilot became disabled for over 24 hours, his ship was removed from the<br />
docking ports on the struts and placed in the now valuable interior<br />
station storage in order to make room for pilots who would be arriving<br />
and departing in 24 hours or less. The flare from the port bots engines<br />
illuminated the struts surfaces allowing him to truly appreciate the<br />
engineering marvel that it was. At over 2K in length on each axis, the<br />
strut allowed for hundreds of ships to dock at the same time on all 4<br />
faces of the strut. The interior of the strut was a dizzying blur of<br />
high speed shuttles and bots ferrying the commodities, weapons, repair<br />
AI units and pilot support materials to the individual ships docked on<br />
the struts, but the smooth outside surfaces perfection was broken only<br />
by the docking clamps themselves.<br />
It was evident that many of the pilots were enjoying the decrease in<br />
combat activities as at least half of the ships on this strut had<br />
darkened navigation lights signifying that the pilots were not manning<br />
their ships. A quick count showed that a few cargo transport vessels, 1<br />
Quantar fast transport craft and 3 Octavian medium fighters were manned<br />
with the rest of the assorted craft showing as powered down.<br />
Knowing that he was due to go on duty in less than 4 hours, Ikeprof<br />
tapped the control that adjusted his command chair for sleep settings.<br />
“Not enough time to head to the officers quarters” he thought to<br />
himself as he drifted off to a restless sleep.<br />
A distorted beeping and the bright blue text of a squad communication<br />
message appeared on Ikeprofs HUD at the very top. Wakening from a<br />
restless sleep and sitting up in his seat he noted that it was the<br />
expected automated reminder telling him it was time to go on combat<br />
coordinator duty. Stretching tiredly he de-activated the station<br />
interface, glanced out both side cockpit windows and toggled his radar<br />
range to maximum. Setting the radar to “in-flight’ only mode, he<br />
checked the scope for hostiles and bountied pilots. Satisfied the scope<br />
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