Mission Summary

Radiation was threatening yet again, but ultimately held out for our early launch. Waltor christened his new pedal-assisted "geriatric" ship Pink on the launchpad. Pastry Queen led the way en route to splash pads, squirt fights, and refreshing refreshments, despite the significantly lower than anticipated temperatures. At the Timothy J. Toomey Jr. playground, water features were activated, squirt blasters were deployed, and a veritable parade of random community younglings followed our lead and joined in the saturated fun. Some construction workers sang along with our life support. Patent Pending was the victim of a fortuitously-timed plasma failure just before our ice cream stop at Luna Christina's in Inman Constellation, where Kilo3 appeared out of nowhere to munch ice cream and assist in repairs. Pastry Queen gave multiple pilots piggyback rides, before leading us again to the Cambridge Common, where pilots took turns dumping fuel and attempting to mount The Mighty Nein. Otnaut was knighted in an intimate private ceremony before we departed. One final brief stop was made at the Aeronaut Allston Beer Garden for its closing days, to take in the oompa stylings of a SCUL-adjacent Honk band. Two blocks later, Diva declared mission success mere minutes before 20:00, to the pulsing sounds of our neighbor's sonic disruption. Silent running back into the fort!

Mission Report

Cadet Stella, once again reporting in. Fifteen pilots (and three cadets) departed. Sixteen pilots (and two cadets) returned. Otnaut has joined the glorious ranks of SCUL pilotry on a delightful daymission full of funk, ice cream, and only a little bit of mechanical failure (as a treat).

Despite last week's extreme solar intensity, missionday dawned somewhat grey and radiation-esque. We gathered at Fort Antwerp at 1400 hours for the usual pre-flight checks, affectionate ribbing, and pre-launch shenanigans. WalTor helped me out with some mysterious metal identification as I inventoried Tool Bag. Otnaut (apparently believing that he can bribe his way into the fleet¹) offered many pilots food capsules of molecularly reconfigured botanical material² and many pilots accepted this offering. In addition to the usual fleet maintenance, many pilots also stowed various hydroprojection devices about their person and/or ship to ensure that we successfully met our mission objectives.

After gathering the battalion, we christened WalTor's shiny new bionic ship "Pink"³ and he proudly demonstrated the bionic thrust capabilities, the sonic omni-disruptor, and the blinkenlasers. He also related vomit's inspirational words behind this build: "WalTor, you need a ship you can keep up on." (Several pilots near me: "Yep, sounds like vomit all right.") Cheers to vomit for the motivation, cause that's a darn fine ship.

We departed the launch pad with Diva's fabulous flamingo shields bringing up the style, PQ⁴ bringing up the nose, Cosima bringing up the tail, and DrClaw bringing up the vibes. Kilo3 bade us farewell on the launchpad and distributed high-fives as we flew past -- an earlier instance of unscheduled ship abandonment meant that they couldn't join us on the mission, but they still SAVED THE DAY (more on this later). SweetJP, PQ, and Lordmcfuzz all engaged in some high-flying trickery on their HARVs as they got their wiggles out. We flew through several old radiationfields and collected assorted high fives from passing civilians -- including one civi who high-fived PQ and then Tango and then realized there were sixteen other pilots behind them and settled in for the long haul. Good SCUL spirit there, civi-friend. We salute you.

While the earliest phase of the mission featured a number of unscheduled cargo drops from various pilots, soon our gear figured out that staying on the ship was better than abandoning it and settled down. Our first stop at the Timothy J. Toomey youth dampening field let all pilots dismount, unstow their hydroprojection devices, and proceed to engage in mutually-assured dampstruction. Several pilots were facing the wrong way when Truck Stop (?) activated the water feature and quickly learned that they were standing in a radiation zone. SweetJP and moose showed off their juggling skills with Tango's reusable water balloons, Diva distributed tiny but surprisingly powerful hydropistols, and everyone (who agreed to be dampened⁵) was dampened. Several younglings watched in envy until they were also equipped with hydropistols, including one tiny sprog whose clear and visible desire warred with their shyness until they got a hydropistol. At which point they were filled with AWESOME AND UNBRIDLED POWER and chased their adult around with visible glee. Behold: the power of SCUL.

After packing away the hydropistols, the battalion continued on to our second stop. Patent Pending called a mechanical mere moments before our arrival at Luna Christina's, where a wild KILO3 appeared to save the day and assist with the patching of St. Christopher's plasma casing; End Cash Bail again acted as gantry. Many pilots consumed ice cream molecules and Diva got her first taste of Luna Christina's wares. SweetJP did some unsanctioned high-altitude stickering. PQ earned a medal of strength for demonstrating their ability to lift Tango and Lordmcfuzz above the rest of us groundlings AND saved the day by manually realigning St. Christopher’s plasma casing—the last step in getting her space worthy again. Several civilians admired The Mighty Nein and got stickers and invitations to join us on future missions. Pilots got frisky and played some grabass and Lordmcfuzz raided SweetJP's sticker bag without buying him dinner first.

Upon the conclusion of repairs, we continued on our way and passed a municipal MRC crew plying their trade. They boogied to our groove and got down⁶ to the funk. We continued to the Cambridge Common, where several pilots ventured forth to the Portland fuel dump, SweetJP and Wombat had their way with The Mighty Nein, Tango caught the Bieber Fever, AND OTNAUT EARNED HIS PILOT WINGS. Diva kept the knighting on-theme and used one of the hydropistols as the weapon of elevation, Otnaut took his sacred oath to SCUL, and we all brought it in for a battalion hug. Congratulations, Otnaut, and welcome to the gang.

Down one cadet and up one pilot, we remounted our ships and continued to our last stop at the Aeronaut Allston Beer Garden and listened to some great cantina music from Velvet Dirtmunchers and some SCUL-affiliated pilots. More ship-swapping and End Cash Bail and Cosima spent some time in Lust. After some boogying and assorted high-fives, we continued on the last leg of our trip. As we approached the launchpad and the end of the mission, a large heavy transport pulled up alongside PQ as we waited at a pulsar. "WHOA HOW DO YOU GET ON THAT THING", the transport pilot asked. "Practice", said PQ, and the pulsar strobed in a fit of spectacular dramatic timing and up they swung and away we went.

Upon our return and assembly at the launchpad, Diva declared the mission a complete success and distributed hydropistols as the spoils of war, Truck Stop pinned us, and we made our way back to the Fort. Our neighbors got in on the funk-busting business making silent running a touch superfluous, but good practice nonetheless. All in all, a splendid day-mission full of good snacks and good vibes and good friends and new pilots.

Stay posi, my friends, until next flight.

<sup>1. Correctly, as it turns out.↵
2. Stroob-rhoob gloob.↵
3. You'll never guess what color it is.↵
4. PQ was one of several pilots on their second or third mission of the day. Please eat a snack.↵
5. This was a notably consent-forward hydrofight.↵
6. Impressive, as they were already subterranean.↵</sup>