Difference between revisions of "Ciara"

Revision as of 22:17, 24 March 2011

(Created by “Dartz”)

History

Formerly a Peacock class patrol vessel of the Irish Navy, the L.E. Ciara was sold off due to budget cuts and high running costs in early 2010. At the same time, the Athacon animé convention was stuck for a venue. A joke was made that they should buy the Ciara and launch it into space, and would have been forgotten if the con hadn't failed to find a suitable location. With financial backing from a University Manga society, and disgraced banker Patrick Kearney, the committee purchased the ship and quietly set about 'waving her for spaceflight.

Launched in late 2010, the ship spent most of her first year in fenspace shuttling freight and passengers unconcerned with comfort between Earth, Stellvia, The Island and Crystal Tokyo. As 2011 progressed into 2012 she found herself in greater demand as more fen, unsettled by rumours of ships mysteriously disappearing, decided they wanted to travel on an armed ship.

Ciara was en-route to The Island when SOS-Con was called by Haruhi Suzumiya, and quickly diverted to Port Phobos for the convention.

She spent the first half of the Boskone War based in Port Phobos, escorting bulk carriers arriving in from the main belt or responding to nearby distress calls. It was unglamorous work but necessary. The presence of an armed ship, with a squad of Sammies aboard, was usually enough to deter an attack. In July 2013 , Ciara responded to a distress call from the fuel carrier Little Grove which claimed to have struck a gravitic mine. Coming shortly after Ptichka's crash in similar circumstances, the crew rushed to the rescue, only to fly right into an ambush. Ciara barely escaped, limping to base with a third of her crew either dead or captured by the Boskonians.

After taking two months to repair and refit, she returned to her usual patrol. In December 2013, she received another distress call from a Boskonian ship. Still wary, Ciara and her crew nevertheless rescued the ship and it's crew. Their compassion startled the Boskonian captain, Paul 'Savage Eye' Platowski, who defected, turning over information about a ship running Catgirl'd prisoners back to Earth. Using this information, they were able to rescue the prisoners, and arrest their captors. Two of the catgirls, Aisha and Misha, joined the crew taking positions as an engineer and as a deckhand.

After the war, she spent another year with Great Justice, before standing down and returning to running freight between Earth, Mars and the Crystal cities. Towards the end of 2015, with the Irish Government keen to establish further links with Fenspace after the great land sale, they hosted an RTE documentary crew interested in 'The Irish emigrants to space'. The camera crew filmed their routine, and a trip to 1247 Memoria.

Heading towards 2020, she remains active on the same cargo routes, carrying on with their lives the same as a hundred other small-time freighters and passenger haulers.

Known Vehicle Quirks

• In the Navy now: As a (former) Naval vessel, the Ciara holds herself and her crew to a higher standard, expecting a little professionalism from those aboard her. The ship will generally keep herself clean and tidy, cleaning up rust, paintwork, dust and spills on her own. However, she will only do this so long as the crew meet her standards. This requires a functioning chain of command including a Captain, XO, Chief Engineer and a Chief Mate aswell as some form of uniform for the crew. Clean con staff t-shirts with some form of rank insignia seem to suffice. Passengers are exempt.

• The National Colour: The ship will always fly the Irish Tricolour from her mast. If it is taken down, a new one will take its place. If another flag is placed on a higher part of the ship than it, the Tricolour will move to a higher position.

• Dinosaur burner: Her engines will only run reliably on diesel oil from Earth. It can be shipped anywhere in space, but it has to come from Earth. Coupled with high fuel consumption if she wants to do anything fast, this limits her range a great deal and ties her either to Earth, or a station where her crew can store fuel.

• ‘Defense’ Forces: The Irish military are a defensive force only. In her previous life, the Ciara's purpose was to patrol costal waters intercepting drug runners, smugglers along with search and rescue duties. The ship 'dislikes' taking offensive actions... systems may malfunction or operate at a noticeably reduced efficiency if she's used in an offensive manner. (e.g. attacking an enemy base/ship without provocation)

• The sea of space: Even in space, the ship still behaves like she is floating on an ocean with a light swell. Not uncomfortable, but noticeable. May aggravate seasickness in some passengers, but the crew are used to it. Also produces a drag on the hull that increases with speed, similar to water, requiring her engines to be run constantly.

• Roadrunner: Her foghorn will always make a loud 'Meep-Meep', which will attract nearby dogs and especially Coyotes.

• Schroedingers bugs: A phenomenon first noticed in computers at least as far back as the 70's. The ship's computers and electronics work... so long as nobody notices that they aren't supposed to work. It doesn't matter how this realisation is made, once it happens the program involved immediately crashes and refuses to work correctly until the problem is fixed. Thank God for Open Source.

Jaguars

A pair of small Rigid-hulled Inflatable Boats carried aboard the Ciara named Luna and Artemis, their engines have been waved and modified in a similar manner to their mothership. Fast and maneuverable, on the surface they were often used to chase drug smugglers at high speed. They lack an enclosed cabin, proper navigation or any life support system, but are light, fast and can turn and stop on a penny while carrying ten passengers and one pilot. Each Jaguar is more than capable of keeping up with the mothership. A higher 'wavium content per kilo compared with the mothership has caused the Jaguars to start behaving like little kittens seeing Ciara as their mother cat.

Jaguar Quirks

Mommy!: With a mindset like a young kitten, they don't like being separated from their mother. If the pilot doesn't pay enough attention they try to wander back. If kept away for too long they start to sulk and get depressive. This has the slight benefit that if the crew aboard are incapacitated, Luna and Artemis will naturally find their way home.

Shiny!: Like above... if the pilot doesn't pay enough attention, they will wander towards any nearby lightsource.

Mouse!: Anything else small and fast *will* be chased down, unless the pilot grabs a hold.

Catnip!: When given catnip... usually via the fuel tanks, the Jaguars are noticeably 'happier' in a way nobody can quite explain.

Nursing kittens: The kittens are still nursing from their mother. They can only be refueled using diesel oil from the Ciara's onboard stores. Anything else will be refused messily and violently.

Trivia

• Banned from Argo : Due to a clerical error when she was being decommissioned, the Ciara is still fitted with her primary armament. The guns were unmodified at first, but were lightly waved for space use shortly before the commencement of OGJ. Some pacifist stations will turn her away because of them.

• Acceleration Stations : Unusually, the Ciara's main engines are an Acceleration drive, not the more usual speed drive. Her speed figures are given due to fuel consumption and drag issues. Her top speed is limited by the drag on her hull, while her cruising speed is that which allows her to achieve maximum range.

• Just ordinary folk: After five minutes of fame for startling Fenspace by launching with a military gunboat, Ciara and her crew faded into the background. Not many people know who they are without having to look them up. People know the filk song about the heroic rescue gunship caught in an ambush, but won't know it's about them.

Stories

The Ciara appears in the following stories:

• Up Like a Bird
• If at first you don't succeed

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