TIEC: Jupiter Mission

[Beta Aurigae VII]

OOC: i figured this message should probably have been posted in here because this post was technically the official start of my mission to Jupiter.

IC: The Admiral made his way to the airlock with his first officer and boarded the shuttle that would take him back to the Sabertooth. After a short shuttle ride they had entered the Sabertooth's docking bay. The Admiral got out of the shuttle and was met by his senior staff, Commander Tomlinson his Chief of Security and second officer, Lt. Commander Baxter his science officer, and Lt. Balderson his Chief Engineer.

"Welcome back sir," said Commander Baxter as he departed from the shuttle.

"Thank you Commander," replied Leclerc, "I trust you kept everthing in order while I was away?"

"Of course sir, we will be ready to get under way on your command."

"Indeed," commented Leclerc, "then lets get to the bridge. I have a short address to make to the crew before we depart."

The group left the docking bay and headed for the lift at the end of the corridor, which they then rode to the bridge. When the lift arrived at the bridge each officer went to their appropriate station, the Admiral proceeded to his chair at the center of the bridge.

"All hands this is the Admiral speaking, we are just about to get underway on our first mission. The mission will hopefully be uneventfull just some routine studies of the moons of Jupiter to see if there may be any value in colonization or mining. This will be a shakedown mission before we move out of our solar system and into the unknown. That will be all for now, Leclerc out."

Leclerc then commed Lt. Balderson who had gotten off the lift a the engineering section, "Leclerc to Balderson."

"Balderson here sir," came the reply.

"Are we ready to get underway Lieutenant?"

"Yes sir, just give the order."

"Very well, Leclerc out. Ensign, set course for Jupiter full impulse."

"Aye sir."

"Ensign, what is our ETA?"

"Twenty-two minutes sir," came the reply.

"Good, Mr. Mev you have the bridge, I will be in the observation lounge should i be needed. Please inform me when we arrive."

"Aye sir," said Mev as the Admiral headed for the lift.

[Beta Aurigae VII]

"Mev to Admiral."

"Go ahead," came the reply.

"We're on the approach now sir, entering orbit of Jupiter in 37 seconds."

"Very well Mr. Mev, I'm on my way. Leclerc out."

The Admiral left the observation lounge at a brisk pace and headed for the lift. He got in and pressed the button on the touch screen that said bridge and after a short ride he arrived.

"Report," he said as he strode out of the lift.

"We've begun scans of Jupiter itself," replied Mev. "We have 63 satelites of the planet so far but only 38 have names."

"Well then, we should probably start with the Galilean moons and work our way down. Inform the pilots to man their shuttles. I want three shuttles per moon. That means we need 12 shuttles launched for Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto."

"Right away sir," said Mev and he gave the order.

"Sir shuttles have left the bay," said the Ensign on duty, "the lead shuttle will reach Callisto in 12 minutes 15 seconds."

"Very well, put Callisto up on the viewer"

Suddenly the front screen which had been blank showed an real time image of Callisto the eighth moon of Jupiter.

[Henneth annun]

As transmission came in from the X-33 from saturn, "Admiral, How is the jupiter mission going?"

[Beta Aurigae VII]

"Sir we have information and pictures coming in from the first shuttle to reach Callisto," said Lt. Commander Baxter.

"Send the information to the screen on my chair and put the pictures up on the large screen," responded Leclerc as he looked down at the small viewscreen in his armrest to look at the data before sending it down to the science lab for further investigation. Meanwhile, several images had replaced the image of Callisto on the large viewscreen.







"Sir, I have just gotten word that all threeshutles have landed on Callisto and that the other 9 are coming into range of the other three moons."

"Very well, keep me apprised of the situation Commander."

"Aye sir."

Meanwhile on the surface of Callisto...

5 crewmen from the Sabertooth had just begun a survey of the Valhalla impact basin.

"What kind of readings are you getting Edwards?" asked the team leader Crewman Ryan.

"So far pretty standard stuff sir. It has the same composition of the rest of the moon's surface, 40% ice and 60% rock/iron. It doesn't seem that this moon has no use except for mining."

"Very well, we'll continue for another 3 hours and then order all the rest of the shuttles back to the Sabertooth. Tell team two to begin drilling in some of those ice pockets we saw from the air."

OOC: I didn't include anything exciting about this moon because it doesn't really have much to it. When i find one thats interesting i'll fast forward to the exploration of that moon.

[Beta Aurigae VII]

OOC: sorry about not answering with my next post Henneth annun. I was in the process of posting the message you see before this one. anyhow here is the reply.

IC: "Sir incoming message from the X-33."

"Lets hear it then," replied the Admiral. He was anxious to see what the X-33 had to say.

Henneth said:

"Admiral, How is the jupiter mission going?"

"Just fine captain. We are in the process of exploring the 4 largest moons. We haven't found anything good so far but we're keeping our hopes up. I have a feeling it will be a long process, 63 moons is one hell of a lot of places to look at. So how are you guys doing over on Saturn?"

[Henneth annun]

" Great! We have discovered water and coral under Titans moon!" Replied Cospel.

[Parthini]

Kale spoke to the communicator, "Send a message to the Jupiter and Saturn Crews. 'Hello, we have arrived at the moon Phobos and are sending down the crews to begin construction on a base there. We should be completed and sending down a team to Mars in about 3 weeks (2 days). I have also ordered 4 squads down to take a look at the surface. How are you?"

[Beta Aurigae VII]

"Not bad we will begin exploration of the other smaller, named moons tomorrow. Nothing exciting has turned up as of yet. Callisto however would be a great place to establish an iron mine."

[Beta Aurigae VII]

OOC: will post later guys i need to eat dinner. Europa is a great candidate for the possible lifeforms stuff.

[BealtleManium]

Henneth said:

" Great! We have discovered water and coral under Titans moon!" Replied Cospel.

ooc...Isn't Europa the one with water?

IC: Rear Admiral Pensuke, monitored the situations from his ship, The Lief Ericsson.
He pondered over this mission's specs... He had once heard that europa was host to a sub level ocean, but that was only a myth... or so everyone besides Pensuke thought. However there was only one way to test this out, and so Pensuke ordered that 2 Scout craft be sent to Europa. They were soon launced without a hitch and soon the Rear Admiral was in the command center with the other recon officers.
"Sir we are going to receive images in 5,4,3,2,and 1." As promised the images popped up on the holo projection board.

"very well, now lets see if theres anything under the ice" The controller gave the command a SC 2 started to fire blast his way past the ice. And after 500 ft of ice they found it, water. "Do a bio scan, now!" "Yes Sir" After a few minute the test came back positive, there was life under the ice! They were minute creatures, but it was a start. "send out the probe commandant" "Yes Sir!" The Probe was sent and the people in the control room were astounded. They had found a thermal vent under the ice
"what should we do now sir?" "Send a message to our comrades, tell them we have sucessfully made contact with extra terrestrial beings."

[Bonaduce Alander]

OOC: Umm..... No. That's Titan. It has an oddly thick atmosphere and they think there are "Oceans" of like methane or something like that. They don't know that for sure, but Titan is the one with the most substantial posibility for life in the Galaxy. That we know of.
At least I think that's it. They both may be like that.

[BealtleManium]

Bonaduce said:

OOC: Umm..... No. That's Titan. It has an oddly thick atmosphere and they think there are "Oceans" of like methane or something like that. They don't know that for sure, but Titan is the one with the most substantial posibility for life in the Galaxy. That we know of.
At least I think that's it. They both may be like that.

OOC Oh I remember now, the oceans on Titan are liquid oxygen... but life... not many scientists believe that life is on Titan, thats why I said Europa

[Beta Aurigae VII]

OOC: yes Europa has the ice on it. The atmophere of Europa is composed of oxygen. The surface of Europa has a close likeness to the polar regions on earth. Its is also believed that because Eurpoa has a magnetic field that there has to be some sort of conductive material beneath the surface, probably and ocean of some sort. looks like you beat me to the punch for the lifeforms BM. i was gonna post that my guys found decent sized holes in those dark streaks that are all over the place, thats where they would find the lifeforms.

IC: The Sabertooth had surveyed about 25 other small moons along with three of the Galilean Moons and had come up with no results save for a few worth mining. The only research team that they hadn't heard from so far was the Europa team. They should be reporting anytime now.

"Sir, we have an incoming message from the Europa teams."

"Lets hear it then."

"Europa team A to Sabertooth, we have run into the Beatlemanium research teams. It seems that they haev found lifeforms beneath the surface of the ice in a large ocean. I've done some scans and the ocean itself appears to be about 40 KM deep. The Beatlemanium researchers also report that they have found a thermal vent near the bottom, which suggests that there is volcanic activity down here. And by the looks of those streaks all over the surface the eruptions are quite powerful and pretty frequent for volcanic activity. We'll report back when we have more information for you, Europa team A out."

"Commander send a message to the Beatlemanium ship and congradulate them on a terrific find. I will be on the science deck examining the data on these lifeforms should i be needed."

With that being said the Admiral moved to the lift and rode it down to the science deck. He was so excited that he could barely contain it. The only thing that kept him from letting out a whoop of excitment and joy was all those years of naval training that reminded him it was unprofessional to let the crew see him acting like a 5 year old boy, when it came to this kind of thing.

[Parthini]

"This is Commodore Kale speaking. Admiral Leclerc, report on findings. Admiral Pensuke, glad to have you here. However, it seems you have not reported in with your ship specifics. Please send a report to the HQ ASAP. Kale out."

[Beta Aurigae VII]

"Good to speak with you again Commodore," came the response of Mev, "the Admiral is on the science deck reviewing the latest finding right now. I'll patch you through to him, one second."

"Mev to Admiral, the Commodore wishes to speak with you sir, he wants a report on our progress."

"Ok Mev, send the transmission to science station 37-4."

"Here is comes admiral."

The image of Commodore Kale appeared on the screen in front of the Admiral replacing the data on the lifeforms he had just been reading.

"Well Commodore we have searched 26 of the moons so far only about 3 worth mining and 1 we have found life on. In the oceans of Europa the Beatlemanium scientists have discovered small lifeforms. I'm sending the data to you as we speak, so you can see for yourself. My science teams on the surface have joined forces with the Bealtmanium scientists to more thoroughly research these lifeforms. Who knows we may find some other larger ones living on other oceans below the surface. I suggest that we set up colonies on Callisto, Io, and Ganymede for the mining of iron, and the gathering of silicon. More reports are coming in from the remaining moons but they are so small there is not much on them of value. I'll keep you informed of our progress, Leclerc out."

[BealtleManium]

OOC: ARE YOU NUTS?! Io, your crazy that mining station will be a cinder if the radiation doesn't get to it first

[Parthini]

OOC: BM is right. Io is very volcanic. However, periodically, it passes near Jupiter generating a 1 trillion watt current which, if harnessed, could be very useful for stations around Jupiter. Callisto, Europa and Ganymede are good choices tho.

[Beta Aurigae VII]

OOC: who said that it would be on the surface and who said it would be manned? I think that an orbital mining station is feasible for the 24th century, but whatever its no big loss to me if we don't put something with Io.

[BealtleManium]

OOC we could have the Io Olympics, whoever out runs the lava wins ;D

[Bonaduce Alander]

OOC: Go ahead, but I think all B A's atheletes are gonna have to pass, they prefer to LIVE.

[BealtleManium]

Maybe we should continue with the mission...

[Bonaduce Alander]

OOC: yea, ignore most of my posts I'm just trying to get posts. Almost at 300.

[Beta Aurigae VII]

OOC: ok guys Parthini left me in charge of the mission until he gets back so all questions about the status will be asked by me. i'll pm the stuff to Parthini so he doesn't have to waste time searching for them when he gets back in a couple weeks. i will get the request status posts out sometime tomorrow after my next normal post.

[Perugio]

What's happening next?

[Beta Aurigae VII]

OOC: well Perugio, BM and I are going to finish up with the Europa stuff with a few "hitches" and then when we finish that up we will wait for Parthini to get back so he can finish up his Mars stuff, so we can end this episode and see if anyone else wants to join up. then we can start the next episode.

[Beta Aurigae VII]

IC: All the reports were in, all 63 moons had been searched and all but the three science teams on Europa had reported back to the Sabertooth. After all the teams were debriefed the Admiral chose 6 of them to be shuttled to the surface of Europa to assist with the investigation. 3 deep sea minisubs were to be used for exploration of the other oceans beneath the surface. When the teams had reached the suface they immediatly began to drill through the ice and send in the submarines for more detailed scanning.

"Admiral, Submarine 3 is sending a message."

"Put it on the viewscreen."

An image of the inside of the submarine appeared.

"Sir, we are just about to dive below communications depth so I thought we should report our findings so far. We've found more of those small sea creatures that we are studying now, but we have also detected lifeform readings a lot farther down and they appear to be a good deal larger than the ones we konw about. We can get a clear scan because there is some sort of interference down their so we need to take a closer look. I'll report back when I am back to communications depth, Sub 3 out."

"Well, this just gets more interesting by the minute," commented Leclerc.

"You have command of the bridge Mev, I'll be sending status requests to the other commanders," said the Admiral got up and left the bridge.

He reached the communications level and composed a message to each of the respective commanders:

"Leclerc to Pensuke I would like a status report please. More of my crews are on the surface now searching another underground ocean, they think that there may be larger lifeforms farther down but the results so far ar inconclusive."

[BealtleManium]

Pensukekept himself up to date on the SC reports, he too had seen the readings of life forms below the current depth. However, Pensuke was hesitant to send a SC down. "Tri Configure the Scouts" "Sir?"
"We need a clearer picture, and the capabilities are multiplied by how many SC are in the area" "yes sir"
Pensuke watched the screen as the three SCs neared each other. Suddenly the screen lit up with an infra red picture, there were large large jellyfish like creatures. Pensuke's jaw almost dropped, but luckily he caught himself before anyone noticed. The image continued, there were pods of these strange creatures, a whole society. "Hurry, radio the Beta Aurigaens, we need to warn them!" "yes sir"

[Beta Aurigae VII]

"Sir we have an incoming message from the Lief Erikson. Its says that they have found out what those larger creatures are below the surface. They are large jellyfishlike creatures. They also advise that we pull our sub out of there immediatly."

"Well, there's nothing we can do, they are out of communications range. Do we have any reason to believe these life forms are hostile?"

"I'm not sure sir."

"Well then, I say that we find a way to get a message through to the sub under the water to be extremely cautious. And then I think the Admiral should get talking with the captain of the Lief Erikson to figure out our next move concerning these creatures."

"Mev to sub 2."

"Go ahead," came the reply.

"Is their anyway to get a message through to Sub 3, it's an emergency?"

"I don't think so sir, wait a minute. If we boost the signal strength of the trasmitter on board our sub and then narrow the bandwidth we just might be able to get a message through to Sub 3."

"Good, how long will it take to make the modifications?"

"Already done sir, what would you like me to send to them?"

"Tell them to bring their sub back to the surface immediatly and make no move to contact the large lifeforms."

"Very well sir, message sent. We won't know if they got it because unless they make the same mods to the transmitter they can't respond. So we'll know in about 20 minutes whether they got it because they should message us when they can."

"Good," replied Mev. "I want all the sub team to report back to the surface immediatly, yes that includes yours, and I want them to sit tight until we have discussed plans with the Beatlemanium Admiral. Keep me informed of Sub 3's progress back to the surface, Mev out."

"Mev to Admiral."

"Go ahead."

"Well sir we have had some interesting developments. Head up to the bridge and I will explain them to you."

"I'm on my way."

When the Admiral reached the bridge and Mev explained the situation, the Admiral also thought it wise to discuss strategy with Admiral Pensuke. So they sent a message to the Admiral requesting a meeting.

[BealtleManium]

"This is truly grim" Remarked Rear Admiral Pensuke. Yes it is sir, it seems that the AB sub is going for a little dive with the natives..." replied 2nd Lt Isaac Winstrom
"Prepare my X-36" "yes sir" 5 minutes later Pensuke and 2 members of the blue impulse took off from the Leif Ericsson and headed for the AB ship

[Beta Aurigae VII]

OOC: okay we gotta speed this up a little bit, it's getting too drawn out. Also, i assume BM that the AB ship you speak of is my ship?

IC: With all the science crews safely back on the surface of Europa, sub three had made it back just fine, the Admiral and his command crew met with Admiral Pensuke to discuss what to do next.

"Well, my opinion is that we keep studying these creatures as long as they show no hostile actions. After another 3 days of studying a colony should be set up for further and more extensive research. However, all the submarines down their with these creatures will be armed just in case. All submarines are also to keep a large gap between themsleves and the creatures so we do not provoke them into an attack. A large gap means just within scanning distance if at all possible. After the aloted three days our two ships shall return to the moon base to go through all the matinence stuff and i would like to put in the new upgraded lasers and engines into my ship. What do you think Admiral Pensuke?"