Traveling across the spiral arm is a long journy, even in your nice new saucer. You start to feel your tummy rumbluing, so you
(set: $haswarship to false)
(set: $hasnut to false)
(set: $KnowsStation to false)
[[turn down the FTL drive]]
The mirror like shimmer around your ship beguins to disapate, as the stars of the milkyway come into focus. Your GPS (galactic positioning unit) marks one nearby system as "lightly habitated," you set it as your destination, and [[adjust thrusters]]You drop your ship into orbit around the systems star, a mid sized yellow sun. your tummy is growing, but pulling the system up in your ships database just shows "more info coming soon" but thats the frustraiting part about lightly habbitated systems. However, body detection shows three large gravitational bodies orbiting the star with you, as well as a smaller body orbiting one of the planets.
where will you fly?
[[the green planet with whispy cloud cover]]
[[The green planets small moon]]
[[The yellow planet, pockmarked by mountains and ravines]]
[[The gas giant, orbited by a thick ring]]
You drop your saucer down toward the surface of the green planet, and punch through the whispy clouds. The closer you drop toward the surface, you still dont notice any flora, fauna, or signs of civilization, other than the vast feilds of grassy green over the rolling hills.
Getting nearer to solid ground, you notice colorful buds and flowers amongst the green blades. It feel like a shame to crush any of this beutiful display of flowers, so you hover along the ground lookign for a clear spot to land, but a bustling of little bugs on the flowers strikes you. You tip your saucer to the side, and lean out of the drivers pod to get a closer look, and realise that these "bugs" are traveling with far too much order, and each of the buds and flowers arent naturaly grown. You are looking at the vehichles and buildings of a huge civilisation of milimeter tall people!
If you turn down your saucer's engine, and listen closely, you can barely hear the hubub of the city beneth you. as you listen you notice both a faint whine and a popping from diferent places along the ground.
[[Look around the ground beneath]]
[[keep hovering along the ground]]
[[Look for the popping]]
[[look for the whining]]
[[Leave the planet]]
As you ease your saucer down into the planet's atmosphere, you let the ships computer run recognition for unatural structures. Then, in a valley north of the eqator, you get a match: a colection of tents made of a highly reflective fabric.
upon touching down nearby, you see several of the local sentiant lifeformsstop milling about the tents and look over to you. They have tan and brown skin, with hunched bony backs, and each has a hooked bony beak.
One of the locals breaks off from the group to apreach your saucer.
[[introduce yourself]]
[[Leave the planet]]You pull into an orbit around the gas giant but from a safe distance. From high above the planet, hardly inside of the atmosphere at all, you can watch the swhiring tendrles of gas mixing and churning below you. You know each of these lasy swirles is truly a storm with winds stronger than a hurricane.
Off to the soulth around the planet, are the rings. They arent the bigest you've seen. but they are thick. You cant even see through the rocky rings to the stars on the other side.
(if: $knowsStation = true)[[Travel to the secret space station hidden behind the ring]]
[[Leave the planet]]The alien speaks, and as he does a dangling gobble under his chin wiggles, and the reflective robe he wears sparkles as it moves.
"Hello, my name is Morski SkiSkiSki, welcome to our encampment.
"[[will you tell me more about your people?]]"
"[[Will you tell me more about this system?]]"
"[[What is your favorate to eat around here?]]"
"[[I like your reflective robe]]"You lift back up into a solar orbit, where will you go next?
[[the green planet with whispy cloud cover]]
[[The yellow planet, pockmarked by mountains and ravines]]
[[The gas giant, orbited by a thick ring]]
[[The green planets small moon]]"we call ourselves the Aratusins. Our people have other camps around most the northern valleys, we make a good life for ourselves, but our day to day is dificult with a planet like this."
"[[What about this planet?]]"
"[[What is your favorate to eat around here?]]"
"[[And you?]]"
"[[I like your reflective robe]]""Our system has always been a quiet one, espesialy our planet, as close to the star as it is. lately the other rocky planet has been reciving more interstellar atention, and we have been watching with aprehension through our telescopes. More and more ships from the Glerk empire touch down there, and lately survay ships have been seen in our upper atmosphere."
"[[will you tell me more about your people?]]"
"[[What about this planet?]]""The finest food on Aratusu is the pepper nut, they grow in the cores of the tumbleweeds that blow across the valley, but even if you can catch them, the hard peppernut shells have to be hit hard with a chizzel just on the corner in order to open the shell. It takes much practice and quordination, and even then its hard work"
"[[Can I try cracking one open?]]"
"[[will you show me how its done?]]"
"[[will you tell me more about your people?]]"
"[[Will you tell me more about this system?]]""We love our planet Aratusu, we named our people after it, because it made us who we are, but work is hard, because it is so dificult to farm with the dry summers and ice cold winters. We have to stay busy to makes sure we have enouph food for the winters"
"[[What is your favorate to eat around here?]]""I represent the group since I am the oldest. I have been in this camp for over two hundred of our years, and watched each of my campmates grow! This is why I am called SkiSkiSki"
"[[I like your reflective robe]]""Thank you, our campmate Billski makes them from crystals in the sand. they keep us warm for the winters, while keeping the sun off our backs in the summer"
"[[What is your favorate to eat around here?]]"You are astonished by the diversity of design among the buildings, as well as their density in the grass. If you had stepped down from your saucer, there would have been atleast 40 buildings in the area under your foot! Some are smaller like a leaf bud, while others are larger, and bloom out like peony's. The entire expanse of the city's ground is covered in the little flower buildings, just under the tops of the grass!
[[keep hovering along the ground]]
[[Look for the popping]]
[[look for the whining]]
[[Leave the planet]]
As you hover around, you realise that this city doesnt travel across the entire planes like you thought at first, but instead, the entire metropolis could fit inside of one or two square miles. Around the city is a wall that extends up obove the tips of the grass. You can hear the popping louder now.
[[Look around the ground beneath]]
[[Look for the popping]]
[[look for the whining]]
[[Leave the planet]]Following the faint sound of the popping takes you out past the edge of the city in the grass. As the sound starts to get louder, you see a fortified beehive like structure in the grass. The structure is under assault by three walnut sized warships cicling around it. The source of the popping is firecrackers that each side is lopping at each other.
[[look closer]]
[[Grab the warships]]
[[Step on the Fort]]
[[Leave the planet]]You find that the source of the whine is a serise of toadstool sised platforms, in a less dense area of the city. A huge crowd of dust like people covered certain areas of the platforms, while others had speakers which blased out the whine.
[[listen for a bit]]
[[add your own drum beat to the sound]]
[[Look around the ground beneath]]
[[keep hovering along the ground]]
[[Look for the popping]]
[[Leave the planet]]This moon is small enouph that your saucer can make a full orbit in under a minute. Giving the moon a once over, You notice that a huge portion of it's surface is is covered by a dark, reflective, green green slime. Among the slime lakes, you notice some industrial torwers of pipes and pillars, as well as a single bright landing beakon.
[[do donuts around the planet]]
[[Head toward the industrial towers]]
[[Head toward the lakes of goo]]
[[Land at the landing beakon]]
[[Leave the planet]]As you listen you notice some suptleties to the while, parts where it picks up or undulates, but it isnt really your kind of music.
[[add your own drum beat to the sound]]
[[Look around the ground beneath]]
[[keep hovering along the ground]]
[[Look for the popping]]
[[Leave the planet]]In your opinion, the music is missing a beat to tie it together. so you do a bit of drumming on the hull of your saucer. You think its a marked improvement, but you notice that you can actualy hear the people shouting angrily and booing, so it must not be to their taste.
[[Look around the ground beneath]]
[[keep hovering along the ground]]
[[Look for the popping]]
[[Leave the planet]]The warships seem to fly using a propellor and sails to locomote, some sort of rod on the underside is dropping the fire crackers, which each leave a scorchmark on the fort below.
The fort seems to also have many small holls on the surface, from which smaller, faster projectiles were fired back up at the warships.
[[Grab the warships]]
[[Step on the Fort]]
[[Leave the planet]]You step a foot out of your saucer, and step onto the fort, it flattens with a crunch. the warships deactivate, and an army dust sized foot soldiers ride into the ruins on ground cars. "hopefuly those were the bad guys," you think to yourself.
[[Leave the planet]]
[[Grab the warships]]
[[keep hovering along the ground]]You grab the warhsips because they look cool. you notice that if you squeeze them a certain way, they will fire their little explosive payload on command, so you stash them away into the saucers cabinet system. back on the gorund, the fort is fireing of colorful fireworks in celebration.
(set:$haswarship=true)
[[Leave the planet]]
[[keep hovering along the ground]]Morski hands you a chizel, mallet and peppernut in its shell. You didnt realise how hard it would be to hold all three in your hands, and still strike the chizel, the more force you try to apply the harder it is to aim the mallet, and after a couple tries, you hit yorself in the finger and drop the peppernut. so you hand it back to Morski in defeat.
"[[will you show me how its done?]]"Morski says "ah we can show you," he trudges back to the encampment and comes back with a fellow aratusin, who he introduses as Bruasu SkiSki, aparently Bruasu is training to be the lead peppernut opener, an honored position of the tribe. The atrusin strikes the peppernut shell three times around the corner, but only the third strike opens it.
"[[Can I try cracking one open?]]"
(if: $haswarship is true)[[Give Morski the warship you captured]]\
(else:)[If only you had an easier way to open the shells...]You grab the little warships to show Morski, you fire one of their small xplosives right into the sweetspot of the peppernut and the explosion knocks the sell right off! Beaming, you hand the warships over to Morski, who you supose is a little too stunned to speak. Morski nods, and takes the warships away into the tents.
After a moment, Bruasu, the other Atratusin comes back aout with a few peppernuts, and gives them to you. "well, these will be much easier to harvest now..." he says. something in his tone just doesnt feel thankful "you can take them with you when you go"
(set:$hasnut=true)
[[Leave the planet]]Using a small moon's gravety well to slingshot around is a great way to build up torque, only a few laps around the planet gets you zooming fast enouph that your eyelips and lips pull back, as you are forced back into your chair. you have to ease off the throttle before your saucer spins out.
[[Head toward the industrial towers]]
[[Head toward the lakes of goo]]
[[Land at the landing beakon]]
[[Leave the planet]]So far as you can tell, the industrial towers are completely automated. They look like huge steel piles of organs, with their mash of twisting and undulating tubes and wires. Teath and drills crunch into the rock surface around their base, smoke and steam belch from their vents, and more of the slime partialy covering the planet oozes from the pipes.
[[do donuts around the planet]]
[[Head toward the lakes of goo]]
[[Land at the landing beakon]]
[[Leave the planet]]The goo is thick and dark from some angles, but bright when it catches the light of the star just right. The goo is so thick, it doesnt truly flow, but more settles like a jello. You thought the goo would have been stinky, but it it actualy smells a bit tang, like citrus, and smells tastefully sweet.
[[do donuts around the planet]]
[[Head toward the industrial towers]]
[[Land at the landing beakon]]
[[Leave the planet]]As you pull in to the bright beakon, you open the beakon on your ships computer. It is tagged as a fuel up station and convinience store named "The Hydrogen Providor"
As you drop closer, you see several fuel pads, as well as a landing lot around a donut shaped store.
[[Fuel up]]
[[Grab a snack]]
[[Leave the planet]]You drop into one of the fuel pads, and open up your gas tank from the ships computer. As the fuel snake attatches to your saucer, the ship computer prompts you to select your fuel, then pay at the counter inside.
[[Grab a snack]]
[[Talk to the clerk]]You head into the store, and look around at the shelves. There arent any interesting snacks that catch your eye, just the same old stuff from any Hydrogen Providor youve seen. The Hotmeat station is out of order, so you grab a bag of simple cereal chips that remind you of home.
[[Talk to the clerk]]The Clerk is tall, almost twice your height, but most of it is neck, so you find yourself face to face with his nametag which says "Glabaglerk" He has yellow rubbery skin, and eyes set apart on wide stocks. His hands each have three fingers ending with a suction cup. You recognise a young member of the Glerk species, one of the most prevelent intergalactic species. You decide to makes some smalltalk while you pay.
"[[Whats up with all this machinary and the slime?]]"
"[[Why did you take a job on such an uninhabited system]]"
"[[Isnt it lonely? out here, so far from other Glerk]]"
"[[whats the best place to get some real food in this system?]]"
[[Leave the planet]]
"Oh who knows really, its all part of the Great Glerk Plan. All I know is that it keeps our fuel reserves full, and its been spreading across the planet quick! Belive it or not, our glerk machines have covered over 18% of the planet's surface already, without even making our second lap around the star! Thats the power of Glerk enginerring for you!
"[[Why did you take a job on such an uninhabited system]]"
"[[Isnt it lonely? out here, so far from other Glerk]]"
"[[whats the best place to get some real food in this system?]]"
[[Leave the planet]]"You know there is one great place nearby, you dont even need to leave the system to get there, but the thing is, Im not really suposed to tell anyone... its a pretty small place, really just a hole the sky so to speak, but I think theirs a waitlist to get on their list. But for real, as long as you dont tell anyone, I would let you know the place in exchange for one of those spicy fruits from that other rocky planet around this star. Ive really been craving one."
(if: $hasnut is true)[[Give Glabaglerk the pepper nut you were given]]\
(else:)[he must mean from the rocky yellow planet]
"[[Whats up with all this machinary and the slime?]]"
"[[Why did you take a job on such an uninhabited system]]"
"[[Isnt it lonely? out here, so far from other Glerk]]"
[[Leave the planet]]"to be honest it is sometimes, but Glerk and plently of other species do come through the system. And anyway, this will be a great moon to be long term, I might even stay here after my mission is over. Soon this whole moon will be bustling with Glerk, ive heard of all kinds of plans, for malls, restraunts, and matbe even a warp gate being built out here!
"[[Whats up with all this machinary and the slime?]]"
"[[Why did you take a job on such an uninhabited system]]"
"[[whats the best place to get some real food in this system?]]"
[[Leave the planet]]"well its just dupty you know... all the Glerk I know before me went out and did our mission work for the Great Glerk Plan. Once we volunteer for our mission, we truly dont get much say in what part of the universe we are sent to. But you know, this system isnt as uninhabited as you'd think, theres more and more trafic through here each week!
"[[Whats up with all this machinary and the slime?]]"
"[[Isnt it lonely? out here, so far from other Glerk]]"
"[[whats the best place to get some real food in this system?]]"
[[Leave the planet]]"Oh yes just what I was craving!" exclames Glabaglerk, he suctions the peppernut with one of his fingers and tosses it in his moulth to suck on. around the pepper nut, he tells you that there is a satalite space station orbiting the gas giant, hidden behind its ring. "I promise it has the best food in the system" he tells you.
(set $knowsStation to true)
[[Leave the planet]]The station is shaped like a pirate ship's steering wheel, with the main drum of the ship rotating about a sentral docking pod, with spokelike elavators conecting the two. You pull into the dock to park your saucer, among about 15 to 20 other ships.
End of Chaper one!