Team Shift Happens
Team Information
Driver’s Log 1, March 27, 2023
In the interest of historical preservation and accuracy, I ended up here on Earth, joining a crew who calls their team “Shift Happens.” I’m told it’s a somewhat-funny pun on the Earth phrase “shit happens,” usually said in reference to things going wrong. Much to the team’s dismay, I didn’t allow them to mark up my two vehicles with their stickers, which was accepted as “understandable” when I offered to paint up a flat-bed tow truck in the Interplanetary Historical Preservation Society’s paint scheme as a fair trade. Yes, I’m aware, it’s not a fair trade. However, they did spend a while teaching me how to actually handle confrontations, and worked on building my self-confidence.
As it would be foolish of me not to include the names and roles of my fellow team members in a potentially-historically-relevant event such as this, team Shift Happens is as follows:
Kaylie Malradi is the closest we have to a team captain, and a fairly handy mechanic.
Jayde Malradi is Kaylie’s husband, and he’s both a mechanic and, as I’ve been instructed to call him in public, a “repair specialist.” This really means he has magic, but due to interactions with other teams, we’re not supposed to really use that word around them.
Kayden Grayson is Kaylie’s brother, and will be one of our radio operators. He’s also our field medic, a skill he’s proven to be at least decent in, if a little rough.
Rukari Khakrin-Veldrothan is the other radio operator, and he was a soldier once, though has admitted that with the loss of his right leg below the knee, his military days are done.
Malavera Caller-of-the-Moons, another mechanic, but also the partner of another team member. I’ve not pried into the details of their relationship, but even then, I know far more than I really wanted to.
Kivenaal Khakrin-Marinseien is the last mechanic, also our only other “Repair Specialist,” and is Malavera’s partner. He’s, unfortunately, a prankster, so I fear he’ll upset some of the other teams, or upset our security crew.
Takaraya Wintermoon is the driver for the HD-GV Home Unit, our mobile living space for this event. He is also my father, and is technically still recovering from his accident. While I hope he finds a safer job in the future, I know for now that the military is his passion.
I am Kasiya Wintermoon, the driver for the HD-GV Carry All, our equipment and supply vehicle. My job is to get this rig safely from the start to the finish, but I’m also here to gather historical information on this trip. While I can count on my father for some images, I’ve had to bring my own camera in case I want anything that is not in grayscale, and I’m using the HD-GV Mobile Mainframe units to write my logs.
This, of course, brings us to the reason I’m here. My task, courtesy of the Interplanetary Historical Preservation Society, is to learn all that I reasonably can from Nehmenweld’s history. If we find any artifacts on the trip, I’m supposed to 3D scan them for replication back home.
Of course, the other reason I’m here is to drive this truck and haul one of the two heavy trailers we’re bringing.
The event we’re on is called “Shitbox Rally.” Apparently, the Earth term for any worn-out or old ground-vehicle (they call them “cars” which, I believe is a shortening of “carriages” as they were once “horseless carriages”) is a “shitbox,” which is a vulgar term assigned to “any car worth about as much as a box of shit.” These cars are frequently in rough mechanical condition, worn out, sometimes barely road-worthy.
With $2,000 (or equivalent in their local currency), teams were to pick up a cheap “shitbox” and modify it as they saw fit to get into this run. Of course, this means most vehicles are in rather quite poor condition.
Last year, they had some issues with the local wildlife in Crugandr, which led to, this year, hiring a security crew. I met this crew the other day, and to be honest, they scare me. Not because of the weapons, but because these soldiers were the ones chosen to carry them. According to my father, “If I had recruits who acted like they do, my fur would have turned white from stress.”
Their commander, Rear Admiral Constantin Schrant, is a bit unsettling. Knowing from what I’ve been told of the previous year that Constantin fought “Dyre,” the huge “werewolves” of Crugandr, using nothing more than a bow, well… I really do not feel comfortable around him.
The others we’re working with, on the other hand, are not so bad.
Valentin Schrant, often called “Val” informally, is the operator of Robert II, the road-and-rail-going, self-propelled generator. Valentin’s goal is to provide power on this event to make camping easier and safer.
Njordal Eikeland, often called “Norse” informally, is Valentin’s friend, and is assigned as the designated First Aid first-responder. As the only person with licensed medical knowledge that I know, I hope things will be okay.
A lot of this is information I have heard second-or-third-hand, so details may not be exactly correct.
I know that sometime between the last Shitbox Rally and an event called “the 24 hours of Clunkers” (Clunker is just another name for a worn out car, so it could be considered a less-vulgar synonym for Shitbox), Valentin suffered a severe injury courtesy of a traffic accident. While Valentin was recovering, the first seven members of the Shift Happens crew were keeping him company with video calls until he recovered.
Valentin and Njordal joined the crew momentarily for the 24 hours of Clunkers, helping team Shift Happens achieve a seventh-place finish with a worn out police cruiser. During after-the-race testing, Valentin discovered a problem with the throttle on Robert II. At the same time, the idea of Shitbox Rally was brought up again, with a question about whether Robert could generate usable power for the camp.
Valentin eventually arrived here in Nevada, where he met the crew again in person and was given a basic tour of the garage. When Robert II arrived about one week later, testing began. It was around this time that I’d heard from my father about what was going on, and after hearing that they did have a way to the world of Aetherii, and would be going to Nehmenweld, I asked my father to help set up a meeting between me and the rest of the crew.
Apparently, the attempt at a normal meeting announcement was screwed up a bit by one of the crew, which resulted in… A few issues. Our initial video meeting was, quite honestly, a little awkward. Meeting in person was… A lot harder.
At the time, I was unaware of Earth being a Class 10 Death World. The highest rating one can get. I was very aware of this by the time I arrived, with a head full of nonsense courtesy of some vandals messing with the Planetary Information Archive.
As a result, I was under the mistaken impression that Humans were… Far stronger than I initially believed. My father had to force a meeting between Valentin and me, as both of us were actively avoiding one another. We found some common ground, enough to get past our initial fears. Just enough, in some cases.
Further tests were done with Robert II before Valentin and his steam-powered motor-vehicle left the country and returned to Valentin’s home.
Which… Brings us neatly to yesterday, where we met the security team (Moons help us if we actually need them to fight…) as well as Valentin and his friend Njordal. We did a little field testing with trailers, then a bit of supply gathering.
With only a few days remaining before the official start of the event, I am both excited and nervous in a way that is, honestly, hard to describe. We’re going to a world that has long been considered dead, wiped from some planetary charts, labeled in others as “unable to support life.” A planet where I interviewed someone who witnessed the Fall of Aetherii. And yet, because of magic, we can visit it and see this world, before the Fall.
Face of the Documentary/Driver of Car 
Sound Person/Driver of Car 
Secondary Camera Operator/Navigator of Car 
