LucasLaughing Posted October 11, 2015 Location: E11 – The Fascini Cluster Tags: Octan, Exploration, Land Vehicle, Spaceship Lu's Log - 11 Oktobrinali 3815 I'm on the far outer edge of the Fascini Cluster today, mapping one of the larger asteroids and seeing if I can repair a malfunctioning “Turtle” rover. CLAPPIE, please confirm that the rover's seismic cannon has been deactivated. Roger that, Lu. This rover is as helpless as a human. Alright buddy, let's see what's ailing you... OCS Axle calling Lu, urgent. This is Lu, go ahead. Lu, we've got eyes on a M.A.N.T.I.S attack craft nearing your position. Copy that, you want me to see if I can get the Turtle under cover? Uh, negative. It appears this ship suffered a Gate Transit Anomaly. We just had a pair of Sentinels do a flyby, and they confirmed it's unoccupied. A Gate Transit Anomaly. I shudder. We lost a lot of good people exploring Andromeda, before our scientists perfected the G.A.T.E. system for ships. The incidents all started the same way: a ship would enter a gravitational anomaly, intending to travel to a different system. What happened next varied, for reasons that are still unknown. Sometimes, the ship would appear at the other end with no sign of the crew. Sometimes, the crew would appear without the ship. Sometimes parts of the ship and parts of the crew would appear, all tangled and intermingled. Usually, though, both ship and crew would simply disappear. That's what happened to my parents. I think a lot of us who lost someone that way held out hope that they'd be discovered as we explored more of the Andromeda Galaxy. So far, though, there's been no trace. The voice from the Axle pulls me back to the present. Lu, in about 20 minutes that ship is going to smash into an asteroid. We want you to fly up, and see if you can take control of the ship before that happens. As they fill me in on more of the plan, I have to admit: it might work. Technically, my Lo-Grav Exploration Sled is rated for short space hops, and the gravity on this asteroid is low enough that reaching escape velocity will be easy. When I ask how I'm supposed to get into the ship, I'm told that, like most ships, this one uses OctanSoft flight control software, so if I can get my CLAPPIE unit within a few meters we should be able to exploit a diagnostic “back door” in the program. Finally, they assure me that several Octan ships are headed my way – they'll arrive too late to grab the M.A.N.T.I.S craft before it crashes, but they should be able to rescue me if anything goes horribly wrong and I end up drifting in space. The ship appears to be a prototype M.A.N.T.I.S ship, so I can see why the Axle wants it. They'll tear all the secrets they can out of it, and then sell it back to M.A.N.T.I.S for a hefty salvage fee. Lu, can we keep it? Maybe... I mean, no. No, just worry about getting us inside. CLAPPIE goes silent as he interfaces with the ship's computer. 10 minutes later.... Uh, CLAPPIE, how's it going? Very well, thank you. How are you? Looks like rain today and -- -- 2 minutes remain. CLAPPIE has incredible processing capabilities, but they're not infinite. I can tell when CLAPPIE is using most of it's resources, because it reverts to it's basic OctanSoft personality, just like on our first mission when it was trying to analyze the alien artifact. Finally, the canopy opens. This is a sweet ship. I try not to think about the things her original pilot left behind, and what the fate of that pilot might be. It's a tight fit in my hazard suit, but it works. Okay, systems online, powering up engines, we are good to go. Show me the stars, Lu! Alright, CLAPPIE, hang on to something! Full sized pics on my flickr. Asteroid background source. Full asteroid build: I'll be putting up some more pics of the M.A.N.T.I.S. ship in the next day or two, once I'm done editing them. More pics/info about Turtle rover: The Turtle is one of Ocan's oldest rovers. This one is a “thumper” model; it fires a metal slug into the ground, and scans the returning seismic waves to search for underground awesomeonium deposits. Travel mode: Firing mode, with side anchors extended into the ground: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
woofmcmoose Posted October 11, 2015 Great use of the Blacktron jetpack as the base for the exploration sled. And glad to see you recognise MANTIS have the coolest ships! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mediumsnowman Posted October 11, 2015 Woah, awesome build with even better editing! Great job! Those GTA's sound scary... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kodan Black Posted October 11, 2015 That Mantis ship is really cool! I like the asteroid landscape and Turtle too. Nice to see Clappie make an appearance! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vedauwoo Posted October 12, 2015 Damn....! Everything is awesome! lol Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mccoyed Posted October 12, 2015 Very cool space build. Especially those first few shots... really capture a free floating vibe. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LucasLaughing Posted October 12, 2015 Great use of the Blacktron jetpack as the base for the exploration sled. And glad to see you recognise MANTIS have the coolest ships! Thanks! I'd been wanting to see if I could work the Blacktron jetpack into a build, and finally got something I was happy with. MANTIS does have some cool ships, but mostly all my white pieces are waited to be sorted and put away, so I had to go with something different this week Woah, awesome build with even better editing! Great job! Those GTA's sound scary... Very cool space build. Especially those first few shots... really capture a free floating vibe. Thanks guys! I picked up some black poster board to use as a background, and that's made it a lot easier to get a "space" background. That Mantis ship is really cool! I like the asteroid landscape and Turtle too. Nice to see Clappie make an appearance! Thank you! I'm hoping to start working on a more cohesive story, and CLAPPIE will definitely be one of the main characters... Damn....! Everything is awesome! lol Thanks! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
StarHawk3 Posted October 12, 2015 The asteroid surface and the Mantis ship are great. I like how the ship slowly emerges from the darkness. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
goatman461 Posted October 12, 2015 i like that flying octan "vehicle" (?) and you did a great job with the greebling thoughout Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andromedas Gates Posted October 13, 2015 The judges awarded you 5 points. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mrcp6d Posted October 14, 2015 CLAPPIE's back! I'm digging all the gizmos on your rover here. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LucasLaughing Posted October 14, 2015 The asteroid surface and the Mantis ship are great. I like how the ship slowly emerges from the darkness. Thank you! I was trying out different settings on my camera - quite a few ended up totally black, but I liked how that one ended up. i like that flying octan "vehicle" (?) <...> Did I get my tags messed up? I figured the turtle rover would count as the land vehicle, the MANTIS ship as the spaceship, and the little octan flier as a way to move between my two plot points and you did a great job with the greebling thoughout Thanks! CLAPPIE's back! I'm digging all the gizmos on your rover here. Thank you - and yes, I'm hoping CLAPPIE will be back to stay Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
goatman461 Posted October 14, 2015 Did I get my tags messed up? I figured the turtle rover would count as the land vehicle, the MANTIS ship as the spaceship, and the little octan flier as a way to move between my two plot points I just didn't know what to call your octan flier Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kai NRG Posted October 16, 2015 Excellent build, I really like the ground work and the MANTIS ship as well! Neat pair of Octan vehicles as well! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dannylonglegs Posted October 19, 2015 (edited) Sorry I didn't respond to this earlier, but this is totally lovely! everything here is great, from the asteroids to the vehicles, to the really unsettling story! I love unsettling stories! Great job! Also I like how GTA also stands for grand theft auto, which is more or less what Lu is doing! ~Insectoid Aristocrat Edited October 19, 2015 by Dannylonglegs Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Garmadon Posted October 19, 2015 Super cool M.A.N.T.I.S. ship (though I hate to say it! ) LL, and great job on the other vehicles and the asteroid as well! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LucasLaughing Posted October 19, 2015 Excellent build, I really like the ground work and the MANTIS ship as well! Neat pair of Octan vehicles as well! Thanks! Sorry I didn't respond to this earlier, but this is totally lovely! everything here is great, from the asteroids to the vehicles, to the really unsettling story! I love unsettling stories! Great job! Also I like how GTA also stands for grand theft auto, which is more or less what Lu is doing! ~Insectoid Aristocrat Thank you! I've been wanting to start digging more into the story of the early disappearances, and some of the unsettling artifacts. And yes, I was quite pleased with the clever double meaning for my title Super cool M.A.N.T.I.S. ship (though I hate to say it! ) LL, and great job on the other vehicles and the asteroid as well! Thanks! I know, I hesitated to make an awesome MANTIS ship, but all of my white parts are still in my "needs to be sorted" bin Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
