LucByard Posted November 13, 2016 (edited) Location: G02 - Freegate Tags: Vehicle, Land vehicle, Spying. High above the bright white pearl known as Freegate, tension had been slowly mounting. Octan vessels moved freely while independent and alien presences were monitored, cross-referenced and where appropriate, directed to a boarding station for inspection. The name hung in the air like a stale fog – MANTIS. That knowing feeling… They’re there but always just out of the corner of your eye. It had been only six months since the quarrel had ended; on Donwarr in Aprilin - the execution of a famous Octan pilot, sending a shockwave across the Galaxy… But the dust had barely settled, the borders drawn, when Freegate was retaken. When you’re being too careful, it’s easy to miss little things. Like a small Octancorp pod-like vessel appearing from Freegate’s nearby anomaly, receiving the formal greeting from traffic control and being left to go about its business. It was easy to miss when it assumed a high orbit and detached the GATE drive it had used to get there. It was easy to miss when it relayed the position of all the local traffic back through the anomaly and barely worth noticing when the white, green and red Quadstar descended towards the planet and entered the atmosphere. How the previous owner had ever kept this damn thing level through atmo entry was a mystery to the red-haired pilot of the Quadstar as it was buffeted around by the thickening atmosphere. Quadstars were renowned for their manoeuvrability, clearly this came at a cost to stability. Eventually she was through and gliding towards the surface. Transmitting the traffic data to BigSal had been the easy part; if only that had been her only mission. She hadn’t been told much but that was intentional; at least they’d been honest and told her that her part was high risk. They were looking something thet Octan had, data, co-ordinates maybe but if it were restricted it would be protected by a high-level cypher, and that cypher would be held by R.E.D., Octancorp’s Regulations Enforcement Department. It turned out they had gotten lucky; a source had suggested that R.E.D. were relocating secure data servers to a new facility across Freegate’s icy deserts by heavy speeder. They were well shielded from remote hacking but not impervious… if you can get close enough. To stop anyone getting close enough, each heavy speeder was protected in relay by a fighter escort… a Quadstar. Yseult’s mission was to reach the speeder shortly before a handover, relieve the previous escort, hack the container, then allow the real relief fighter to take over and depart without anyone knowing she was there. It was a short window but that wasn’t all. Quadstars don’t have GATE drives and with the escorts being locally deployed, she’d had to leave the GATE unit that brought her here in orbit; it would be obvious she wasn’t local if she turned up with one. If it’s not there when I go back… I’m stuck here. Her sensors located the speeder… Right where they said it would be. She closed in and contacted the fighter escort, reading its callsign from the transponder telemetry on her screen. “Oscar X-ray One Six Seven, this is Bravo Bravo Four Four Zero. I am here to relieve you.” She waited tentatively… “Copy that Bravo Bravo. You’re earlier than expected.” Yseult relayed the answer that had already been prepared for just that question. “There is a strong tail-wind on the intercept leg. You should return to base at higher altitude or you may not have enough fuel to get back.” Silences of even a second felt like small eternities… “Copy that Bravo Bravo…” the voice finally came back. “I stand relieved”. Through her side-facing canopy, Yseult watched the previous escort begin to climb and bank away. Don’t have long… let’s get this done. She immediately contacted the heavy speeder. “Red box two, this is Bravo Bravo…” She announced. “… I am going to perform a visual inspection, please stand by for close proximity formation.” The speeder acknowledged but she was already closing in; she wasn’t asking for permission. She activated the equipment Ellie had installed on the Quadstar and it automatically went to work, giving Yseult’s HUD progress information. The Quadstar was directly along-side the speeder, as close as she dare get without spooking the drivers. Progress was slow… Painfully slow. She manoeuvred up over the top… Slightly better once the equipment had adjusted to the new position. Before long, the hack was in and was extracting the cypher. A blip appeared on her screen. The telemetry registered it: Charlie Alpha Nine Two Two… the real relief Quadstar. Yseult looked at the progress bar. The extraction was taking too long… too long. “Bravo Bravo…” a voice came over the comm. “… This is Charlie Alpha… Almost didn’t see you there, is everything alright?” Think, quick. The hack was nearly done… just a little longer. “Charlie Alpha, this is Bravo Bravo. I am performing a visual inspection after the driver reported a vibration.” She checked the scanner… closing fast; they’ll be visual soon. The previous pilot was unlikely to have looked at Yseult’s ship in any detail but if this new one were so inclined, it wouldn’t take much to spot Ellie’s modifications and start asking awkward questions. The other fighter was close now, approaching from the rear… I’m an easy target like this. She thought back to Donwarr and how she’d been shot down. She felt her heart beating, her breath shortened, sweat formed on her brow. A nervous twitch in her left index finger as it hovered over the trigger… “Bravo Bravo, this is Charlie Alpha, I’m in position… Don’t stay too long… There’s a strong tailwind on the intercept leg, you don’t want to run out of fuel on your return to base.” Panic set in… He knows, he knows. He must have seen the previous escort and contacted him… I tried to send him higher… hoped they would miss each other… What do I do? What do I… Yseult’s HUD beeped… ‘Package complete’. Get out of here. “Copy that Charlie Alpha.” She tried to say as calmly as she possibly could, cursing every nervous wobble in her voice. “I’ll try a higher altitude.” She cut the communication and didn’t wait around any longer, pulling back on the flight-stick and forward on the throttle, she climbed as fast as she could. Away, away. As she reached low orbit, she checked her scanner… she wasn’t followed. A deep nervous sigh of relief filled her helmet as she tried to convince herself to calm down. She looked about… it was busier. Something was going on but she couldn’t see what. Her Quadstar had automatically encrypted and transmitted the captured cypher to wherever Big Sal was expected to be by now… All she had to do was leave. I took around thirty minutes to inconspicuously manoeuvre the ship around into the high orbit she had left the GATE drive in, now all she had to do w… GONE! It was gone. Yseult frantically checked her scanner. It must be here, it must. She checked and checked and checked again, there was still no sign of it… What do I do? What do I do? Spoiler Judges: Do not judge the Quadstar. Here's the truck without the payload. Here's the thruster cluster. The shipping container. The colour scheme uses black to to separate the red (representing the Regulations Enforcement Department) from the green and white. This represents the department's belief that to be effective, they need autonomy from the rest of Octan although they never truly have it and this can cause inter-departmental and command structure tensions. Door detail. Doesn't actually open. I'm still working on designs for that. The containers stack with slots on the bottom fitting over those two roof ridges. There is also a fold-up clamping pin mechanism that can be used for top-latching. And finally my 'for the internet' shot. Edited November 13, 2016 by LucByard Story added. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Henjin_Quilones Posted November 13, 2016 I love that space-semi truck! The shipping container is excellent, too. Great work! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Professor Thaum Posted November 13, 2016 Wow !! That's a nice spacetruck ! Great design ! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Boxerlego Posted November 13, 2016 Excellent Build! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LucByard Posted November 13, 2016 (edited) 4 hours ago, Henjin_Quilones said: I love that space-semi truck! The shipping container is excellent, too. Great work! 4 hours ago, Professor Thaum said: Wow !! That's a nice spacetruck ! Great design ! 2 hours ago, Boxerlego said: Excellent Build! Thank you everyone (although I left a window open to make it definitely a land vehicle ) Footnote: my original ideas for what became the 'Jade Sun' and 'Fighter escort' chapters was this truck coming out of the anomaly (yes, it would have been a space-truck for that version) and Yseult following it until a fighter approached from the surface and chased her off. Not getting this finished and wanting to join the MANTIS tribute builds caused a rapid rethink of how to present and execute the story differently. The upshot was Vyken Tyros who would have just been 'some pilot' but is now a character with (hopefully) some depth and who will be worth bringing back. Edited November 13, 2016 by LucByard Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kodan Black Posted November 15, 2016 What an incredible semi truck. Love all the greebles on the front too. That shipping container is very slick, hard to believe you turned something so ordinary into an exceptional minibuild. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andromedas Gates Posted November 21, 2016 The judges awarded you 5 points. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites