Event Date: 05 Dec 21

Event Location: microTech 

Sponsor/Event Organiser: Cowl & CaptSheppard

Time & Duration: 1900 - 2200 UTC (3 hrs)

Participants: 10

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Event Aim: To undertake a multi-ship and multi-ground vehicle mission, staging from New Babbage, conducting vehicle and personnel drop off and recovery, complete with extended ground navigation and harvestable surveys.

Summary of Event:

1.   Party launch took place on time, with all personnel in chat and ready to launch.  New Babbage (NB) was the designation RV location and most party members had logged there prior to the event.  Cowl and CaptSheppard had pre-loaded a Carrack and C2 with 4x ground vehicles (2 x Cyclone, 1 x Anvil Spartan and 1 x Ursa Rover).  CaptSheppard was the first to arrive at the cityside RV location (picnic spot on the ice at the city limits) and began to load additional vehicles (Dragonfly, Roc-DS) as other party members arrived.  Cowl followed in the Carrack once a Novikov helmet had been dropped off to a party member outside the NB vehicle bays.  Sm-ut also brought a Pisces for med assistance which was also loaded into the Carrack.

2.  Loading of vehicles and party departure to the first drop-off location was delayed when several party members died on the ice for unexplained reasons.  Respawns and travel back to the start point, with a number of personnel bringing additional ships (which were subsequently left at the RV point), then occured.  Eventually, the party departed for the first drop off location which was approx. 20 km south of Calhoun Pass Emergency Shelter.  

3.  Vehicle deployment went very smoothly.  Cowl then departed in the Carrack to Calhoun Pass Emergency Shelter (CPES) to act as a marker for the ground vehicles with the party arriving some 20 mins later having navigated some very demanding terrain.  The Ursa proved to be the least enjoyable vehicle to drive, having a distinct lack of mass in realtion to vehicle size which resulted in the vehicle flipping easily.  No harvestables were found.

4.   On arrival at CPES, party members exchanged vehicles with Xray piloting the Carrack to a mountain approx. 25 km further south, again acting as a marker for the ground vehicles.  The terrain on this leg was much more navigable and the party made excellent time to the Carrack with Cowl bringing up the rear in attempt to locate some harvestables.  Again, none were found.

5.   To add a bit of challenge at the end of the second leg, Xray had positioned the Carrack close to the mountain top.  Two Cyclones managed to jump from the mountain into the Pisces hangar and, when everyone else was aboard the Carrack, Xray piloted it North to pick up Cowl.

6.   There then followed perhaps the most enjoyable part of the event as an attempt was made (with Cowl at the helm of the Carrack) to roll the ship and drop the two Cyclones out of the top deck hangar.  Whilst both Cylcones were removed successfully, and amazingly undamaged from around 900m altitude, the Carrack ended up inverted, on the ground.  Attempts to right the ship proved difficult but this was eventually achieved (not by Cowl!) by flipping the craft on max throttle against a large rock.  The Carrack sustained significant damage during this manoeuvre but remained flight capable.

7.   Cowl then piloted the ship back to Port Tressler (PT) but, with significant smoke internally, hull damage and a quite disturbing knocking sound being heard during QT and standard flight, the ship decided that enough was enough and exploded approx. 10 km out from PT.  All aboard were sadly lost as the ship broke up, with at least one party member incurring a crime stat (for some unknown reason).

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Key Points/Takeaways:

• Lack of Harvestables.  May be a result of recent tree density adjustments on microTech.  Possible further analysis to see if the harvestable density/occurance is also changed on other planets.
• Vehicle Robustness.  No breakdowns or vehicle damage experienced on either run.  Significant change from earlier ground vehicle runs over difficult terrain.
• C2 Capacity.  A single Carrack and C2 are more than adequate to run a similar event with 10x party members.

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 All in all, an enjoyable event with a memorable ship incident at the end.  Thanks to everyone who took part!