So here it is, Day, let's see, something like 324 since departure. Let me bring you up to speed. Warp piston still has that rattle and it keeps me up. It's one of those problems that you'd have to turn the thing off in order to fix, so I'm pretty sure that means they aren't going to let us fix it. Normally this sort of brainless crap is typical of the prow deck bunch (That is to mean our esteemed Vindicators, Archons and the assorted happy herd at the front of the boat) but today (Guessing 324) I've got more than horns on my mind. See our officers got replaced a few days before we left. Our usual stags and does got sent off to other ships or ground stations and this new herd of pious-follow-the-leader-types replaced them. Now I don't mind a little religion on a ship, hell it's considered lucky and when you're cheating the nether to give you a free ride, luck is golden. So the war was going bad and we get a clean slate of new officers, I wasn't surprised, I didn't think anything was up. Well a few days after the officers we get told we are now to be hauling refugees to, quote 'somewhere safe.' Fine, I'm good with that. Needless to say we were taking on people like immediately. I think we tagged less than half of them. In that crowd Illidan could have boarded and we wouldn't have known it. So we pack them in with the intention of cryo freezing them. There were so many we put two, sometimes three in a pod. We started out trying to keep the families together but gave up on that six or seven hours into the job. Vindicators would come in and hand us some one important (They didn't look important, just scared like everybody else) and they'd tell us to make sure they were secured as singles in their pods. As soon as we started hearing the fighting outside we stopped obeying them and packed anyone who would fit anywhere. So my crew chief, Kalhattan, can't take it anymore. See we're overloaded by this point and the drain on the crystals was already at a fifth and we hadn't even left the ground. He grabs one of the Vindys and spins him round. He tells him the situation and the Vindy says, quote, 'It's a short jump, don't worry about the drain, we'll be there and back in no time.' Well so Kalhattan did what he was told and we planned for a short friggen trip. How bad could it be if we weren't going far. I decided not to call my folks, who were as far as I knew, still in the city.
We're under attack when we leave so we leave in a hurry. I was damn sure to be already down in the engines because I didn't want to see what was gonna happen when they pulled the moorings and the planks when about ten thousand head were still trying to get on. We spool up the drives and let them hum. The EXODAR isn't like one of our home made contraptions, she rides smooth, like water over crystal. But this time she heaved into the sky, that's how heavy she was.
So we ride out the ether. We don't have any windows down in the warp piston but we're within shouting distance of the phyllies running the vector coil. They get their orders from the bridge so through them we can learn where we are and where we're going. Tell you this, Kalhattan found out we weren't going anywhere close pretty damn fast. He didn't tell us right away, but he got real mean all the sudden. (I was growing another layer of emerald over the cranks, you know, to keep it from getting to hot, and the crew chief got me to stop by hitting me with a steel pipe. "Don't waste an ounce Tsa, it's worth more than you!") Like an hour later he's still fuming. He punches the emergency comm straight to the Exarch. That button had never been pushed in all the time I'd been on the ship. I was told the only reason you ever push it is to tell the officers up front that the ship is about to explode. Well Kalhattan pushed it. He said, "Exarch, your grace, I was given to believe that this passage was to be a short one and had prepared the engines with that in mind. When can we expect a navigation plan to be sent down?" Kalhattan listens to the response real close, and so do I since my station happened to be next to the We're-All-Gonna-Die button. The Exarch himself responds. (Right then I see Kalhattan's finger over the comm button that will allow the other crew chiefs to hear as well) The Exarch says this, "Valient crew of the EXODAR, we are escaping Draenor, we do not, as yet, know where we are headed. The Shamans and Priests are conferring over the best possible choices. If there are any measures you can take to ensure the longevity of our equipment it is of the utmost importance that you do so. This could be a long trip." Now I notice that Kalhattan never hit the switch to give that message to the other crew chiefs. He thinks he's the only one who heard the Exarch admit he has no idea where the hell we're going. Kal gives the orders to reset our machinces and realign the streams as if it was his idea. He didn't want the crew to know that the people in charge were floundering. I don't say nothing either.
It's a full day after departure (Still no heading) and the refugees in the pods can't wait any longer. We spare up some power so that we can begin freezing them. They'd been waiting cramped in the pods the whole time and they are just miserable. It's such a sad site that I sleep at my station to avoid walking by the the little windows on the way to the crew bunks. Anyway, the Exarch decides that he's going to address the refugees before we put them under. In case we end up dead in the nether I'll summarize what he said. "They've a lead on a planet where the Burning Legion had been thwarted and that that was where we were gonna try and get to. Pray, pray, Naaru, Naaru, good luck, good night." So we coma the refugees and everyone we don't absolutely need to run the ship. Anyone familiar with Netherships will know that this means the crew is now in charge. But not this time. The Exarch, the council of the faith and enough Vindicator muscle stays awake to make sure we don't do anything stupid (or smart for that matter). Five more days go bye and still no heading (The Phyllies in the Vector Coil are about to eat their own Necklobes out of sheer boredom).
So we start to complain. Bear in mind they were still bothering to tell us that this would be a two way trip. We'd be back to use the EXODAR to save our families (I know we left millions behind and Light save them, but by that time we also knew that not one crew member had a mother, father, sister or brother or even a pet canary in any of the pods). We wanted to go back. We needed to go back. Anyway, we complain to much. Since we could have turned the ship around ourselves the Exarch wasn't going to let us get out of hand. He sends us a Vindy to hear our greivences and hear our explination for why the ship wasn't fully Nether-worthy upon departure. (Remember Kalhattan's little exchange with the Exarch?)
The Vindicator who comes down to the crank-and-grind (That's nether speak for the ass end of the ship) is none other than the same bastard who told Kal that the trip was gonna be short. Kalhattan doesn't metion this to the Vindy. Kal, on a good day can be pretty fair, and he knew everyone was confused and scared as hell the day we left. So the Vindy made a mistake or heard some bad information, that's just ether through the piston. The Vindy and Kal (And Rae from the Vector, Usil from Cryo, Halric and Noss from hard stores, Gyrson from the snowflake and Tymara from the greenhouse) talk things over. The Vindicator lays it out. We may be the last Draenei alive. We're going to some cess pool named Azeroth. They were still praying for coordinates (you heard right, literally PRAYING for coordinates). Anything the crew did that endagered the ship would be considered as a threat to the survival of our race. Kal made only one request after hearing the gravity of our situation. It was this: we, the crew, need assurances that once we arrive on Azeroth we can take a skeleton crew back through the Nether and try to make another trip back home. (Partially to get more refugees if possible or to at least have the option of fighting it out using the EXODAR....biggest meanest ship in the fleet) I guess we the crew just wanted this to be said. To be seen to have said it. The Vindicator promises to report back to the Exarch that the crew is in full support so long as it is understood that we actually going back to Draenor.
Well that's not what this Vindicator does. He tells the Exarch that the crew can't be trusted and next thing we know we have armed guards watching us work. What's worse is they treat us like we were holding the whole race hostage.
Day 17 we get coordinated for Azeroth (God knows they are the wierdest setting we'd ever seen. We were pretty sure they were gonna teleport us into a sun). We hit the Nether like hammer. It's a mess. Everything starts going wrong immediately. Its all we can do to keep the boat together.
Long shifts, 200 days.
Plus a few more.
Equipment starts to fail. We are forced to cannabalize parts of the ship we arent using.
Day 270 The rattle in the piston starts. Sure sign of eventual failure. A priest (not a technician) tells me that it will serve. I mention that if it fatigues to much on this run we won't get it started again without a full drydock for a refit. I ask if they have a drydock on Azeroth. I get no Answer.
Day 303, We release two and a half thousand refugees into the Nether. They died in Cryo for lack of comsumables. We are told that it's our fault for not preparing the ship properly. Tymara looses it on a Vindy, 'prepare for what! we didn't even know where we were going!' Tymara gets beaten lame but her name is still on the work roster because there isn't anyone who can replace her.
Yesterday. Found out where they keep the booze. Get drunk in the mess. (They've started eating the ravagers...tastes like crap) The Vindicator who misrepresented the crew to the Exarch is there. He gives me an earfull for my state. Slaps me around a bit. I warn him off. I tell him that my chief Kalhattan has him on record saying the trip was gonna be short, neat and repeatable. I tell that Kal saw him closing the doors on the however-many outside. I tell him that Kal has a comm straight to the Exarch so the he should shut his Vindy ass or the Exarch would know of this Vindicator's failings. Bang, something big hits me upside the head.
Today, I just heard Piston Crew Chief Kalhattan accidentally flew out an air lock. The Exarch said over the intercom that it was a tragic loss to the crew and he and his skills will be missed. Mostly, by me. I want to go home.
Subject: You will know me by the Hoof in your eye.... 
Tue Sep 30, 2008 7:35 am