The Herwan Ship the HMS Endurance was the first Icebreaker of the Herwan fleet and one of the fleet's most important ships. With the 4th round of Herwan spending directly investing in Herwan artic assets, the Herwan H.A.T.CH, who had been in control of the artic waystation in the east, were chomping at the bit for more funding for artic expansion.
The first round of investments got them the artic Waystation, the third round got them the HMS Endurance, and the fourth round gets them a major artic colony, and chose one Captian Ashley Donning, a human from the Stheto region, she had served one term as deputy director of the WayStation so it was considered a no brainer to make her captain of the Endurance.
The Below deck wasn't bustling with activity, the non-skimtari were just staying below for warmth while the skimtari were above deck just performing patience. "God, why does it take so long to sail through ice? I miss the mainland so much..." Says one of the shipmates, lying on one of the tables in the mess hall. "Speak for yourself, id for one prefer to freeze than keep dealing with the bugs." "What do you care about the bugs, they only hate the skimtari, we're fine... no offense max" Everyone looks to the only off-duty skimtari who heard all of this. "None taken, good that there's someone they don't hate."
Then abruptly, and without warning, Captain Ashley walks onto the deck. "ATTENTION ON DECK," Someone yells, and everyone quickly stands to attention. Ashley also quickly stands at attention, awkward silence for a bit, and her assistant whispers in her ear. "Oh, sorry, still not used to being a captain. We are going to hit the ground in 5, I'd get ready if I were you." She stands around awkwardly, the entire deck still at attention. "Oh right, carry on," Then the deck goes back to what they were doing, and Ashley kinda just awkwardly shuffles out of the deck back to the command deck.
"Gosh, who knew being a captain would be hard? How are you holding up Josh?" Her assistant, a tall(ish) elf is scribbling on his notepad. "Meh, as the unofficial quartermaster, my tasks are going fine, we took into account the skimtari when packing and have excess, so that's fun." They both make it to the command deck and its somewhat peaceful, the ship's bridge crew are on break and the automated pilot is working within normal diagnostics. "Gosh isn't this exciting, we get to lead a colonization effort! All the snow and stu-" Then, the Comms screen pops to life, two men in very fancy suits are sitting at a desk, The Chairman of the HCC and Prime Director of Herwa, and this abrupt opening of the comms scared the crap out of Ashley. "OH, MY DEAR GODS- I MEAN," Ashley quickly stands to attention, and James is just dying of laughter in the background. "Captian Ashley," Says the Chairman. "Can we assume your journey is going smoothly?" Ashley takes a deep breath and readies herself to speak, but the Prime Director speaks before she can talk "Amazing, so we are going to need you to establish trade routes ASAP, the next wave of funding got shot down by the opposition, the funds we sent with you are the funds you will get for the foreseeable future. That's all, any questions." Captian Ashley stands there dumbfounded for a bit, "not-" "Absolutely amazing, we spent over 20 billion this project and if you fail we are going to blame you, bye."
Captian Ashley stands there, now shocked and confused. But James stands up and walks over to the captain. "Well, guess you have their support, I for one-" Then another alarm starts going "Oh for gods sake what now?" It was the autopilot alarm, they've reached their destination.
