Ch. 0
Beginning
 
You are Anonymous, Supervisor-Captain. You have recently been sent to your first assignment.
And what a prestigious assignment it was! Not every freshman gets a goddamn interstellar vessel for their first bond.
The fact that Customs and Departures practically booted you out the airlock without bothering to check if your shuttle was there first WAS a little disconcerting.
Alas, the time for introspection was over. You have arrived at.. in.. your charge.
You can feel years of training holding you up, pushing you forward as you step aboard your new home for the foreseeable future.
 
And then, suddenly, the Bond bites home. You black out, and gentle robotic arms carry your comatose body to your quarters.
 
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A sweating man glares into his office videophone, the beautiful view of his penthouse office windows forgotten.
"Did it take the bait? Is it goddamn LEAVING YET?"
>Yes sir. The new Supervisor is aboard. The Celestia has broken communications with us, and is accelerating out-system.
"What is the course? It's not going to melt a few habitats on it's way, is it?"
>No, sir. The vessel is moving at low power, to system north. It appears to be obeying the Lighthugger standard departure protocol.
"Good. Heaven's Gate, that was almost a disaster! I KNEW giving autonomy to one of those things was a mistake. Supervisor or no Supervisor... starships need CREWS in command, dammit."
"Er, no offense, Administrator."
>No offense taken.
>The Celestia is filing a flight plan. They are headed to a system outside the edge of human space. A standard yellow dwarf, but no other notable features observed.
"Well. Better out there than headed towards the core. File it for the records, and let's try to forget this ever happened..."
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Far above the plane of the ecliptic, a vast glittering shape turns ponderously in the starlight.
6998m of ice-covered, conical hull orients itself into a new course.
The internal spin rings are brought to a gentle stop.
And, at the ends of their kilometer-long spars, two vast engines open their throats, and begin to spit matter and light.
 
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