Mission Summary

Today we had an early launch for a kid-friendly daymission. It was Saturday, so of course we experienced another bout of annoying radiation. Experienced youngling Lulu joined us for her 2nd official mission, and Spud enlisted the so-called Tater Tots -- Happy Fry, Star Fry, and Curly Fry -- for their first official mission. Navigator Pastry Queen led us out through familiar territory in Harvard Constellation and down Brattle Street to our first destination: a snack stop at Sofra in the Watertown System. From there we went a few blocks down to a playground on the outskirts of the Fresh Nebula, where the kiddos frolicked and attempted (and succeeded!) to flood the water feature.

* Watertown-Cambridge Greenway from Fresh Nebula down to Watertown Square Constellation
* Stop at the wooden boats along the Watertown side of the Charles Asteroid Belt for more shoreleave
* Crossed bridge from Watertown Square into Newton, and along the riverside wormhole all the way back to Christian Herter Park
* Pilots formed a human shield around the younglings at intersections and in other areas of close proximity to transports
* All younglings who set out on ships made it the entire length of the longer-than-expected mission without spacewalking or otherwise hitching a ride in a bucket!
* Mission leader Kilo3 declared mission success despite a slightly higher than anticipated technical rating
* Tater Tots "hazed" on the landing pad, where despite some bashfulness, they were showered with glowing compliments and permitted entry to our hallowed ranks

Mission Report

Hi ho! Stella the cadet here, with your mission report from stardate 250614. It was a radiation vibe, but we grooved on.

Kilo3 led a successful Satur daymission of 15 pilots, with PQ on navi and happenstance gunning the tail. While the team was green¹ and statistically anomalous², we busted the funk through the Harvard Constellation and the Watertown System. PQ kept us on a junior-cadet friendly wormhole-based route that avoided heavy transport activity and took us through lush corridors of botanical matter. We passed multiple crews of asteroid pilots on their own heavy-matter missions as we flew along the edges of the Charles Asteriod belt, many of whom greeted us as equals. The mission pilots and cadets did a great job of keeping the junior cadets in the safe inner circles when we encountered transports, and the junior cadets did a great job of flying their ships with skill, enthusiasm, and good judgement.

We met all objectives on an impressively non-dramatic mission! No bags were needed (aside from sticker bag), no mechanicals were called, and everyone who started the mission on their own ship finished the mission on their own ship, even the younglings! Spud and Acehole have done a spectacular job of growing hardy sprouts; the (kinetic) force is strong in them.

Pre-flight, the Tater Tots helped EndCashBail inventory the medi kit. After he erroneously referred to them as "small humans," Happy Fry informed him in no uncertain terms that in fact he was the small human³ and the Tots were huge. Update your notes accordingly.

Our first stop was at Sofra, where many nutrient bars were purchased. A quick jaunt down some quiet space station corridors took us to the Glacken Youngling Enrichment Center. Mission documentation was accomplished, fruit was thrown, snax were eaten, and the younglings engaged in some enthusiastic hydroengineering (more on this later). Many strawberries were consumed, resulting in this critical piece of life advice from Acehole "When you have kids, triple the berry budget." Curly Fry, despite being the smallest of the group, seems to have some kind of interspace portal into which she can fit nearly infinite numbers of whole strawberries. It was really quite hypnotic.

Then back to the ships for the journey to the Riverfront Park Dot Spot, where we promptly sank some ships under Water. The younglings tried mightily confine Vagrant to another boat, but soon learned that you can't keep a good pilot down. Happy Fry did her best impression of Washington crossing the Delaware and various pilots adjusted their wardrobe to account for the radiation abatement. More snax, and DrClaw told us how Water got her flip-up kickstands.

While the combination of radiation and other critical events drawing civilian traffic limited the number of high-fives and waves, the vibes were posi the whole way through. A number of transports gave us waves and some high quality beep-beeps, and the mission was bookended by some especially posi interactions. A large fire-suppression transport gave us some tremendously enthusiastic waves and a big HONK HONK as we left the starbase, and a respected civilian elder got down to funk as we began our final approach vector to the starbase. Her hat was pink and her vibes were immaculate. happenstance did a particularly impressive job of collecting high-fives through the expedient method of saying loudly "HEY WOULD YOU LIKE A HIGH FIVE" every time we passed a civi. Padawan learners, take note.

After returning to starbase, we (very, very gently) hazed the Tater Tots before admitting them to SCUL. They're good sprouts, Spud.

Back at Starpilot home base, I asked the junior cadets what their favorite parts of the mission were:
Lulu: "I liked playing with the other kids and playing at the park. But not how they flooded it!"
The Tater Tots, as one: "Flooding the park!!!"

Well. Seems like there may be some dissension amongst the younglings. Hopefully they will be able to find common (dry) ground somewhere amidst the floodwaters.

That's all for today's mission report, folks. Stay posi and fly strong.

<sup>1. Seven pilots to four cadets and four junior cadets!↵
2. The Tater Tots and Lulu significantly skewed the age and height distribution. Spiders Georg would be proud.↵
3. Point of order: EndCashBail is 6'5", but the Tots speak with conviction.↵</sup>