Status: Success

Operation

Into The Grid

Greetings, programs. Tonight SCUL left behind the familiar comforts of interstellar space travel to instead descend upon the electronic microcosm known as The Grid. Eight users, one beta user, and one brand-new alpha user mounted their fully illuminated lightcycles and plugged into the grid's complex series of tubes and wires. Excess led the pack to the tune of Dr.Claw's energetic electronic soundtrack, but barely one micron into the routine, Mad Rabbit suffered a mechanical failure of its freewheel mechanism, which caused its propulsion transfer conduit to slack and derail any time Dogi attempted to coast. We determined the problem was not something we could fix in the grid, so we sent Dogi back to base to swap out his lightcycle.

Excess marked time performing extremely intricate loops around the Harvard circuit, taking full advantage of the fact that Cloudbuster was sans Disco Death Star following last week's unfortunate run-in with a low-hanging bridge. After we got our fill of hairpin turns and low clearance scaffolding, we headed up to the Davis circuit, where Dogi lay in wait on Rhinoceros to rejoin us.

From there we headed toward Alewife, where we suspended to gather input. We consumed an abundance of ice cream, and then took off again to do some more looping around the quiet back streets of the Cambridge Highlands, before entering the Great Loop around Fresh Pond, a sublime stretch of natural isolation which again was made possible by the absence of the Disco Death Star.

En route to our final destination, we again suspended at the Artesani Park along the Charles, where Dr.Claw treated us to an extended musical interlude from the Tron soundtrack, and XXIII did his usual thing and climbed a giant flagpole. Continuing on, we ventured across the bounds of the Watertown district, where we eventually reached our lightcycle derby field in a secluded hoverboard park behind the Arsenal Moonbelt.

Several users engaged in lightcycle derby, in which each cycle was fitted with an additional trailing ribbon to produce an impenetrable light wall, while others watched, and XXIII climbed more things. Dreadflint won the most lightcycle derbies. Dr.Claw did manage to win one when the last other user ran into his own wall. Our departure was precipitated when a rogue program in an adjacent field began setting off fireworks, and we wanted to avoid any potential confrontation with the Master Control Program.

The return to base was a pleasant jaunt along Mt. Auburn and Brattle Streets in the cooler than usual summer air. Back at the landing pad Sidekick introduced her appropriately named alpha user Loop, who was then mercilously hazed and promoted to beta user status anyway.
Pilot Ship Points Promotion
Datam0sh Bieber Fever 0  
dogi Rhinoceros 532.561   Ensign
DrClaw Shockwave 964.792  
DreadFlint Trez Bonz 510.097   Petty Officer First Class
Epoxy Mjollnir 525.371   Petty Officer First Class
eXceSs Chutes & Ladders 664.437   Ensign
Loop Greed 0  
Sidekick Yer Mom 357.082   Chief Petty Officer
Wombat Cloudbuster 632.173   Lieutenant
XXIII ReFLEX 611.73   Lieutenant Commander
Pilots must be logged in to see the briefing.
Taskforce Pilot
Mission Leader DrClaw
Deck Officer Datam0sh
MRC Officer BaneThunderwolf
Navigator eXceSs
Tailgunner XXIII
Com-Sat 1 DreadFlint
Tool Bag Epoxy
Flat Bag Loop
Medi Bag XXIII
Wookiee Bag DreadFlint
Ambassador Datam0sh
Chalk Bag Sidekick
Still Cam Datam0sh
Airlock dogi
Recycler Epoxy
Life Support 1 DrClaw
Life Support 2 Wombat
Damage Control Sidekick
Minister of Zoobs Loop
Mission Reporter Wombat

Mission Parameters

DivisionMAD
Date2014.07.12
Mission LeaderDrClaw
Mission Size 10 pilots
OriginFort Tyler
DestinationDigitization
Light Years23.967
G-Well Activity2.014
Technical Rating4.468