Erik Mesoy
Core Tester / Intern
Search and Redevelop
(OOC: I apologize both for the horrid pun and for the Argonoid pulp fiction which follows.)
It was a good time for the Benalians. Their planet had been redeveloped to a level where it was pleasurable, and thus efforts were directed towards the rest of the local system. Obviously there were niche factories and the like which were not activated, but they expected that most of those would be taken up by hobbyists in their spare time, replaced, and/or obsoleted.
They began a search for reasonably intact gas modules in the atmosphere of the gas giant Benalia V. Packed with hydrogen, helium and methane, burning at a slow rate and in odd ways due to the lack of oxygen, the atmosphere was on more or less constant fire these days.
Hundreds of collector satellites must have crashed and burned into the pressure-solidified interior of the planet. A few still orbited, kept up by motive power that had through some freak coincidence survived the ravage of the Scourge. The satellites had been mostly isolated, since their job had been to send materials to the rest of the Benalia system, not to interact directly with anyone. Still, the destruction had been immense.
And so several dozen modified fighter craft had dipped into the intensely frictionate atmosphere of the gas giant, their scanners hampered, searching for satellites that were intact enough to be valuable. Even the lightest of gases tore at the crafts' hulls, constantly threatening their structural integrity. The fighter pilots faced an environment as deadly as any enemy craft. They had to keep constant vigilance, ensuring that their hulls did not overheat (even nullcomposite hulls could overheat when careening through atmosphere at supersonic speeds), that their shields didn't stay down after impacts with solid particles, and they might have to flee at any moment.
They found working satellites. They sped back to Benalia II, where the factories were still ground-based. Work was begun on first repairing the found satellites to get them back in operation as soon as possible, and then on producing simpler copies that could more easily be made with the available materials on Benalia II. This was a major project - the nanoassemblers were not yet functional, the composties were in short supply, and many of the functions had to be reverse-engineered to be understood.
Later, President Jonathan Domini was aboard a Fighter craft that had been pressed into transport, overseeing the launching of the first satellite built within the last year. Scores of reporters were also present, having crowded aboard any spaceworthy vessel just to cover this event. "Milestone ... sign of independence ... proof of sustainability" and a hundred other phrases were thrown about as freely as water.
(OOC: I CAN'T GO ON. I'm having too many moral objections to writing pulp science fiction!
)
(OOC: I apologize both for the horrid pun and for the Argonoid pulp fiction which follows.)
It was a good time for the Benalians. Their planet had been redeveloped to a level where it was pleasurable, and thus efforts were directed towards the rest of the local system. Obviously there were niche factories and the like which were not activated, but they expected that most of those would be taken up by hobbyists in their spare time, replaced, and/or obsoleted.
They began a search for reasonably intact gas modules in the atmosphere of the gas giant Benalia V. Packed with hydrogen, helium and methane, burning at a slow rate and in odd ways due to the lack of oxygen, the atmosphere was on more or less constant fire these days.
Hundreds of collector satellites must have crashed and burned into the pressure-solidified interior of the planet. A few still orbited, kept up by motive power that had through some freak coincidence survived the ravage of the Scourge. The satellites had been mostly isolated, since their job had been to send materials to the rest of the Benalia system, not to interact directly with anyone. Still, the destruction had been immense.
And so several dozen modified fighter craft had dipped into the intensely frictionate atmosphere of the gas giant, their scanners hampered, searching for satellites that were intact enough to be valuable. Even the lightest of gases tore at the crafts' hulls, constantly threatening their structural integrity. The fighter pilots faced an environment as deadly as any enemy craft. They had to keep constant vigilance, ensuring that their hulls did not overheat (even nullcomposite hulls could overheat when careening through atmosphere at supersonic speeds), that their shields didn't stay down after impacts with solid particles, and they might have to flee at any moment.
They found working satellites. They sped back to Benalia II, where the factories were still ground-based. Work was begun on first repairing the found satellites to get them back in operation as soon as possible, and then on producing simpler copies that could more easily be made with the available materials on Benalia II. This was a major project - the nanoassemblers were not yet functional, the composties were in short supply, and many of the functions had to be reverse-engineered to be understood.
Later, President Jonathan Domini was aboard a Fighter craft that had been pressed into transport, overseeing the launching of the first satellite built within the last year. Scores of reporters were also present, having crowded aboard any spaceworthy vessel just to cover this event. "Milestone ... sign of independence ... proof of sustainability" and a hundred other phrases were thrown about as freely as water.
(OOC: I CAN'T GO ON. I'm having too many moral objections to writing pulp science fiction!
)
