THE JUMPGATE DEFINITIVE GUIDE - Tripod
THE JUMPGATE DEFINITIVE GUIDE - Tripod
THE JUMPGATE DEFINITIVE GUIDE - Tripod
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was clear, Ikeprof re-activated the station interface and quickly<br />
purchased one of the new MK II Morning star missles. Almost immediately<br />
he felt the faint tremor as the equipping bot attached the missle to<br />
his ships pylon. While the Venture class ship was not directly a combat<br />
capable ship given it’s single gun and minimal shielding, it could<br />
still mount a missle as a last ditch self defense measure.<br />
Tapping the launch button on the station interface, Ikeprof flipped the<br />
ship smoothly over onto it’s back and accelerated quickly towards the<br />
Arkans cloud jumpgate after clearing the docking strut and the other<br />
ships. Establishing communications with on duty combat coordinator, he<br />
confirmed that the battle had lessened to some degree but the conflict<br />
in Dark Gateway between Octavian and Solrain forces still raged.<br />
Knowing that he had time before he was required in sector, Ikeprof<br />
aimed for The Blasted Corner jumpgate rather than Arkans Cloud. The<br />
swirl of blue and white energy cleared his viewport as he jumped, and<br />
he slowly rotated towards the anomaly while scanning his radar for<br />
anything unusual. A dozen OEC pilots where working side by side with<br />
other Octavian ships in constructing the new jumpgate around the<br />
anomaly. As TRI budgets shrank, the secret Zirgmirg construction laser<br />
were released to the general pilot population. Prior to this, TRI<br />
construction drones were responsible for all new station and jumpgate<br />
construction, but the exponential rate of growth of the rapidly<br />
discovered universe quickly outpaced the ability of TRI to keep up with<br />
construction demands. The day’s of dropping off construction materials<br />
to a staging station and allowing the TRI drones to do the work were<br />
over. Now faction pilots not only had to accumulate the construction<br />
materials for new projects, they also had to load these materials into<br />
their holds and fly to the construction location with a Zirgmirg laser<br />
equipped and take an active part in building whatever the focus of the<br />
day was. The Zirgmirg laser slowly used the commodities as it<br />
contributed to the construction of a project. A wire frame holoimage<br />
told the pilots where to aim the conlaser and if one watched closely,<br />
you could see the solid construct form before your eyes.<br />
Ikeprof chucked at the thought of the time that Capt DJMTPocket got his<br />
ship trapped between two walls of a supply depot while proclaiming<br />
loudly that “he knew damn well which way the wall was going to form”.<br />
“Some people are fighters and some are construction workers” Ikeprof<br />
thought to himself.<br />
It looked as if the new jumpgate was ½ done. Data probes had revealed<br />
that this gate should lead to the newly discovered “outer loop”. This<br />
loop so far had consumed each probe in heavy conflux fire by yet to be<br />
identified conflux class frigates, but the promise of discovery and<br />
reward had energized most of TRI. Probe data had been intermittent, but<br />
vast patches of pure roid fields and some artifact signatures had been<br />
mixed in with the data prior to the probes demise. The name Outer Loop<br />
was a rough name as it only circled 2/3rds of TRI space at this time,<br />
but the general consensus was that it would eventually form a complete<br />
circle. Armchairs Wound was the first sector discovered in the outer<br />
loop connected to the Path of Hordes sector. It was unanimously decided<br />
that the honor should go to Pilot Armchair especially after he suffered<br />
his disfigurement during his pod malfunction while studying the<br />
original anomaly.<br />
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