Chapter 1 - 07: Pandora's Arrival

Classes were over, dinner was finished and Kanya was tired. Of course, nothing could beat the timing of the announcement that was to come at 10pm. A loud voice boomed through the speakers. "This is an announcement regarding our arrival at the trading station. Our arrival at the trade station will be delayed indefinitely due to an issue concerning our engines. We have an engineering team from the TRi Aegis to assist our own in order to expedite the process."

Kanya was too tired to bother.

***

Meanwhile, an investigation was ongoing in the engine room.

"Someone tampered with one of the limiters on the one of the zero point control modules," one of the engineers said.

A girl, probably not much older than 16-17 years of age, was next to him, looking at the same thing. "It looks like it had to be someone ranking pretty high on this ship. No ordinary engineer could have gotten access to the innards of these systems."

"Whoever did it replaced an entire board here so force it to overload."

Another engineer suddenly rushed in. "Pandora, our long range sensors just detected a group of pirate ships closing in on our position."

"The nearest pirate base is way too far off for them to have not planned this attack."

Pandora replied, "I have my suspicions, because I'm quite certain we don't have any pirates on this ship. Something else is up. Either way, this ship is ready to go. Inform the Aegis of our findings."

"Aren't we going back?"

"It's way too dangerous to return now."

"But all the equipment is back on the ..."

"I will not have all of you risking your lives over something as trivial as the analysis of the control board. An operative aboard a medical vessel is of a small concern. I've contacted the adminstration of this vessel, and they've agreed to house us until we arrive at Nakamura."

"Nakamura? Isn't that a lot further into the Dekaten System?"

"This ship cannot be allowed to dock this close to a possible attack. The upcoming trade station has been warned, and we are immediately making a jump from the trade gate from there to Nakamura. Erse already knows of this plan. Move along."

***

A loud voice boomed through the speakers again at 11pm. "Due to the risk of pirate attacks, the MV2904 will be making a jump as soon as we arrive at the trade gate. We will make a longer stop at Nakamura instead."

Assignment Due Soon

I have an assignment due soon, so I'll be working on that. While I don't expect to spend all that much time on it, I'm expecting to be spending a reasonable amount of time working through it properly. I've actually written the 7th part of Chapter 1 of the story already. If I think I'm fine with it as it is, I'll publish/post it tomorrow on my blog. For now, I'm returning to my assignment. :D

Chapter 1 - 06: Protocol Class. Maybe.

"She probably pissed off at you getting a better assignment than she did or something," the rookies suggested to Kanya as they were sitting through the protocol lecture. "No accident could ever let you forget something as important as what this lecture is about, that we happen to be ignoring," they continued.

"They've been pounded in hundreds of times even before we get the our real assignments, let alone when you're actually in one," another commented.

"So where did you get posted?"

Kanya replied in a very unhappy manner, "The Kirkor."

"The Kirkor?! Isn't that one of those 'classified ships'?"

"Huh?" Kanya was puzzled.

"A classified ship is a ship whose every move is completely secret. The only exception is that the existence of the ship and its crew are confirmed. There are 29 of those, and they usually have a Gifted on the bridge. My brother's been trying to get on one of those for years. Apparently, it's impossible unless you're handpicked or something."

"Odd though why they placed you on this ship. The crew on the Meganet generally unclassify those movements anyway, since the only reason their really classified is to prevent assasinations of the Gifted. The Gifted don't really care much since they very much think that people should know where their ship is at anyway."

"The Kirkor isn't going to go anywhere near this medical vessel, not at least for another few months. It's on an expedition to visit the Arltian Alliance. That means you're stuck here with us at least two more months. That is, of course, unless Erse decides to steal you first before you can get to the Kirkor, but that's unlikely."

"The crew of her ship said that she hasn't added anyone new to the ship for a long time. She used to go on these recruitment sprees for her ship, picking up a crew member from every ship she ever came on."

Kanya just sat silent, as the others busy chatting suddenly felt a cold glare upon them. The lecturer was obviously displeased with the heated discussion that was going on at the rear of the class.

A Difference in the Writing

As you can very well see, I suddenly switched writing styles in the newest few instalments of the story. It's probably an effect of suddenly leaving writer's block. You might also have noticed loads of Magic posts again. I'm rethinking section 6 of chapter 1, so expect to have to wait a while before anything happens. (suddenly hit by writer's block. :( )

Crazy Idea: Eternal Charm

I actually made a version of this to put in the imaginary set I was making earlier. This is probably too powerful in its current form, while the part I put in the imaginary set was tad more toned down. The one in my set practically screams symmetry, with every cost from casting cost, equip cost and activation costs set to two mana. I recognise that as the better card, but I expect to tone down the casting cost to 1 eventually. I think that 6 mana to initially give a creature an ability permanently is probably too much, but 4 mana to be able to repeatedly do it is still sound.

But every card has a starting point in the idea path, and obviously, this is among them. Notably, it can be pretty ridiculous if you have the right mana at the right time for the right reason. And yes, I do mean it to not end at end of turn. While this could lead to eventual messes, I think it is fine as is for an imaginary card.

With that being said, I'm a big fan of artifact and equipment, so I expect to make artifacts that work without colored mana, but work splendidly when fed the right mana. In addition, I expect to pour ideas in about modifying a variety of crazy aspects while trying to keep the entire set coherent and inherently playable in Apprentice.