VS-6.8 Celebration Story

Our story commences in the Salamina harbour, where the cruiseship MS Bremen was waiting to sail away on a cruise to the Bermuda Isles.

Using her newly acquired thrusters, she backed away from the quay and sailed towards the far end of the bay, where the entrance to the open sea awaited.

The captain kept watch to ensure nothing went wrong.

Only the captain did sometimes have problems concentrating, as his mind kept wandering off to his main interest, which was NOT sailing the ship.

The days came...

...and went...

...and nothing very eventful happened for some time.

Not that the passengers minded that. A bit of rest was exactly what they wanted. And if they did want some excitement, they would just pay a visit to the cinema...

...or enjoy themselves near the swimming pool.

Near Gibraltar, they encountered a replica of the ship-of-the-line Santíssima Trinidad.

It was truly a sight to remember. And it was quite nescessary to remember something interesting, as the next couple of days crossing the Atlantic were just as uneventful as the ones before.

But all sense of boredom disappeared in no-time when the ship encountered a major storm the day before they were to arrive at the Bermuda Isles, including thunders unlike anything the captain had ever seen before!

"We came too close to the Bermuda triangle!", the captain shouted to the First Officer.
"We have to get out of here, captain!"
"Turn the ship around!!!"
But before the First Officer do that, the ship was struck by one of these strange bolts.

Meanwhile in the Virgin Islands VS pub:
"We lost contact with the MS Bremen!", Alan Winter proclaimed while running down the stairs.
"But that's my would-be girlfriend aboard that ship!", replied Pieter.

"Everyone aboard the Golfkliever!", Pieter said, just seconds before falling into the water. Christoph, while pulling him out of the water replied: "You haven't built her yet, remember?"
Andrés: "Better take my Tartessos. That's the closest you can get."

And for the next couple of days, the tallship sailed at full-speed towards the Bermuda triangle, hoping against hope that they would be able to find the missing cruiseship and, more importantly, Pieter's would-be girlfriend.

By the time they reached the spot where they lost contact with the Bremen, the storm had disappeared. And so had the cruiseship.
"Could she have sunk?", Mike Hense asked.

"I wouldn't know. The echo-sounder shows all sorts of things. We might do best to check out the sea-floor...", TLAM Strike suggested.

So: Not much later, they had rounded up a submarine to do as they suggested.

Mike over SubCom to the Tartessos: "Good gracious! There are DOZENS of wrecks down here. But no Bremen in sight. Appears as she hasn't been sunk."
Charlotte: "Ah. Good. But then what DID happen to her!?!"

"We might do well to send out a call for help", Alec suggested
So: Not much later, all VS users set out with their boats from their homeports in search of the missing vessel.

And so did the Navy...

Eventually, in the dead of the night, a call came from the mighty Ever Renown that she had received faint, distorted signals from the Bremen.

In the end, the cruiseship was found stranded on the coast of Southern Florida.
"How are we going to get her out of this mess?", Jason enquired.

"This requires specialist equipment. This requires Jonatan and the VS Tugboat Inc.!"

Not much later, the Minnie arrived.
"Are you sure she can handle this situation, Jonatan? After all, she's only steampowered.", Pieter asked. It was the last thing he said, before...
*SPLASH*
"I was only JOKING, Jonatan!"

"Ehm... Jonatan? Why is the tow cable purple?", Pieter asked.
"Because it's not a virtual, but a fictional one. You've got to come up with SOMETHING when it hasn't been implemented yet, right?"

After lots of effort, the VS Tugboat Inc. managed to get the cruiseship back afloat. The community went aboard to see if things were OK on the ship.

"We got hit by lighting unlike any I've seen before and all steering was lost. The wind blew us up onto the beach.", the Captain told them upon arrival.
"That's just some changed lightning graphics by me!", Jonatan replied.
Everyone burst out laughing!

Pieter sneaked away from the bridge, to find his would-be girlfriend.
"I missed you so much!", he yelled when seeing her.
"Just the man! YOU designed and built this boat! I should've been SAFE here!!!"
*SPLASH*

After that, all ships set away in the direction of the sunset; the Bremen, with aboard Pieter and his girlfriend, to complete the cruise; the Tartossos, with aboard the rest of the community, in the direction of another adventure.