A new beginning - 04
Captain’s log;
Earth Stardate 2938
USC Narada
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Have you ever had the feeling you had forgotten about something, but you really for the sake of things couldn’t remember what? I had that exact same feeling all day while going on about my business. I had made a checklist of things to do. Things to discuss. Things to help us getting a move on. A new beginning if you will.
I hate to start my logs with bad news though I will have to for now.
As logged earlier, two of my bridge staff were killed during the assault. Three more were severely injured, among a good forty other people aboard. Word reached me today that two more had passed away due to a lack of proper medical care, the third wasn’t expected to live for more than one or two days either.
This has left me with a considerable lack of people I can count on. People I really need, especially now.
As it is now, I only have my chief science, chief engineering and first officer left, as being members of my initial command crew.
Pilot first class Tom Collins – K.I.A.
Pilot first class Aaliyah Grace – K.I.A.
Chief linguistics Elise Cachet – K.I.A.
Chief medical Ralph Langdon – M.I.A. Most probably lost during the hull breach.
Chief tactical Robin “Pearl” Avis – M.I.A. Same fate as our doctor.
Chief security Alex Alden – K.I.A.
Main navigator James Briel – K.I.A.
I will have to find replacements. Rather sooner than later, and it preferably has to be done by yesterday. Sadly in our current state I do not have the luxuries of swift replacement.
It will probably be best to select the right people for the job. I already have some people in mind, but seeing as this crew was put together just a week before the incident I have to admit I do not know half the people as well as I’d want to.
Yes. The best course of action would be to discuss potential candidates with my three remaining officers and make a selection. Maybe for some posts even give out a public announcement. I have no idea what kind of passengers we have on board as well. Some of them might be very suited for a position, aside of lacking the proper training. But I guess strict rules and regulations will have to be loosened for now, to ensure our survival.
My engineers have been working ‘round the clock on that old ship we ‘picked up’ yesterday. Most of the weaponry and shield data has been extracted from the database and is being examined as we speak. In secret I’ve given the order to see if we can use any of our own systems to better our position against possible threats. Especially seeing the rather crude mechanisms on the automated fire control made me seek out the possibilities. What use is a rear turret if all it does is empty your power supply while not making a dent in the targets shields?
On a more brighter note, my chief science officer suggested a recon mission into ‘friendly’ space. Just the two of us, and a dozen or so smelly men with armaments for our safety. Maybe we could get some more information for our rather lacking database, and explore the possibility of getting more ships. It is great that we already have one ship, but with two ships we can do twice the recon. A young cadet overheard us speaking in the mess and boldly suggested we’d sell the pirated vessel and see how many scout ships we could purchase from the earnings. Plus one point for cadet Bernard. If he keeps that attitude up I foresee a bright future for him.
So it was written, and so it was done. We took the shuttle and set a course for Teladi space. One minor change, the dozen or so smelly men with armaments were left on board because it would get really crowded inside a small fighter with just two seats and some cargo storage.
One thing I noticed right away was that comfort obviously was not a requirement with shipbuilding in this time. We were sat in a small cramped cabin with just enough room for your legs and arms. Unlike the ships I was used to fly, which had a simple, automated interior with.. never mind. We were here, now, not then. My ramblings won’t solve the issue regardless.
Regarding our navigation we had some good and bad luck on our side. The good luck was that this ship contained some charts of the region. The bad luck was that during repairs the main reactor had overloaded some parts of the internal database. The star charts we had stored in here were damaged beyond recovery, so we’d have to do with the ones we had found.
Flying through this large, empty sector with inferior speeds was dull, but at least I had some company, in the form of a young, bright woman named Ashley Malone. My trusted science officer for nearly three years now. We were past the point of grief. At least to each other. I knew as well as she did that we had to resolve our pressing issues first before resorting to emotional distress. So with that in mind we discussed some of the possible steps and possible outcomes of those steps. The thing we agreed on almost instantly was not to rush the election of new staff officers. She backed up my vision on potential candidates among the civilians but maintained a strong heart for the regulations. Those would keep us alive in the end, and are needed if we are to make things run smooth.
Our chatter was interrupted suddenly by a high pitched beep and some red lights turning on. Apparently the gravidar had picked up a potential hostile ship. Upon further investigation it appeared to be a transporter. Having no clue why a transporter would be hostile I was quickly reminded that this was a pirate vessel. The computer must be set to highlight non pirate ships as hostile. A few fine tunings later and the scanners were once more relaying proper information to us, and were set to warn in case of pirates in the area.
The trip through the Maelstrom was uneventful. We ran into exactly
zero pirates. This was quite different that our own time. No one would ever survive flying though here. Pirates used the nebulae to hide and strike from. Viciously and relentless.
After a dull period of chitchat we located the northern exit of this system and we found ourselves in Teladi territory. Ironically called “Merchants Haven”. I bet those Teladi do not mind the pirates at all. A quick observation run was made passed all visible stations, mapping them for our ease. The lack of dense clouds made it easy to spot the next gate, to “Grand Exchange”.
Our intention was the same as in the last sector. A quick scanning of all the stations and then moving on. Though when we reached centre of the sector our board computer started beeping again. Six red dots showed up on the gravidar, marked with an X. The same X we found on the map in this ship for the sector north of here. I flew the ship in for a closer look and asked the computer to indentify the ships.
http://i45.tinypic.com/2py7ztu.jpg
Xenon? Isn’t that the Commonwealth name for A.G.I.? We’re off to a great start if we run into these kind of threats right away. Evasive actions were taken as we flew off to the east, flying in a circle around the Xenon ships in the middle. They were truly wreaking havoc in here. The computer indentified the lead ship as a “Q” class. A most deadly frigate that was seen more and more often these days. I decided to take a closer look and found out that the warnings our computer gave off were quite justified. The ship seems capable of mounting a lot of weapons and looks menacing at that.
http://i50.tinypic.com/zxsbv6.jpg
When I back off swiftly the gravidar notifies me of a ship jumping into the sector.
It’s recognised as a Phoenix destroyer class ship. That should be able to take care of this incursion!
http://i50.tinypic.com/oa2bkl.jpg
Or.. not. It was as I feared. The targeting systems of these weapons are way to primitive to be effective. Fire from the Phoenix is shot at the current position of the Q. That is quite okay, as long as the target is stationary, which this particular Q isn’t.
The result ? A lot of plasma bolts flying through space. None striking target though.
http://i46.tinypic.com/2a5ai6s.jpg
I take one more look at the Q before fleeing through the Western gate, into Argon territory. I was trying to barter for this ship at the shipyard, but I don’t think the situation allows for this.
http://i50.tinypic.com/5ui7gx.jpg
After checking our map we find that the closest shipyard was to be found at Omicron Lyrae, an Argon one. This would get us awfully close to Terran space, but there was a mutual agreement that we couldn’t just barge in there, tell our story and expect the USC to believe us. Earth would have to wait for now.
Most of the journey after that was uneventful, aside of two things.
The first one was a small armada of Argon ships in “Black Hole Sun” that was heading to the Xenon sector “X472”.
http://i49.tinypic.com/2hf89zk.jpg
http://i48.tinypic.com/208u143.jpg
It was tempting to follow them but we had a duty to perform.
The second event was an unfortunate one. Just as we entered Omicron Lyrae we witnessed the collision of a large Argon ship with a nearby asteroid. The ship exploded in a bright flash of light.
http://i50.tinypic.com/344a7n7.jpg
No survivors were seen on our scanners. In between the debris we found two containers with some left over goods. One with a missile and one with some energy cells. We picked them up from between the debris in the hope that no one would see. These items were to be used to boost our finances.
Not long after we located the shipyard. We requested permission to dock and got on board. To my relief there weren’t many people around. I told Ashley to stay with the ship while I’d search for a ship dealer. Not long after I returned with an Argon male. He gave the ship a few quick looks and told us he’d pay us around 900.000 credits for the thing, if we kept all the equipment, weaponry etc. on board. Not knowing anything about the current economic state I told the good man we’d be returning with an answer within the day.
A new goal was set. Gauge the prices and get a general feeling of the economy we were dealing with. Was 900.000 credits worth a lot here ? In my time, you’d buy half a scout ship for that amount. After a quick peek on the price list of ships for sale here, a standard, empty scout ship would cost me around 80.000 credits. Was the ship we had taken valuable, or just the equipment we had ? I wanted to ask the dealer, but he had walked off already so things were up to us to find it out.
We undocked the ship and set a course for a more safe location. A bit away from the stations. Once there we checked the ships database for any information regarding prices.
It seems that the Traders Guild has set minimum and maximum prices for wares so that certain wealthy people could not become more wealthy by exploiting others. A quick check up later provided us with some general information about the wares we had in our cargo bay. The results showed that the weaponry we had on board was worth about 1/10th of what the merchant just offered us for the ship. The shields alone about 1/10th as well. It seemed to me that we’d be better off stripping the ship of it’s equipment and sell just the hull. The equipment could be of more use to us, seeing that all new bought ships came without any, unless requested and paid for dearly.
First things first though. The energy cells we had just picked up were sold to a factory that was requesting some. We had picked up an amount of 255 units which were sold for 19 credits each. We had just made our first lousy 5000 credits. A trip to the equipment dock gave us the possibility to sell off the missile. Another 3000 credits were earned that way.
Upon returning to the shipyard to make the deal we were told that we could sell our ship right away, but to purchase a new one our personal data had to be verified first, to see if we were eligible to buy. Not knowing what the man was on about, I asked for an explanation. He told us that all citizens had to have a specific standing with the local authorities before purchase of a ship could be authorised. They wouldn’t want some enemy of the federation purchasing one of their destroyers now wouldn’t they ? The dealer offered to check out our passports but I had to inform him that we didn’t have any.
The look in the mans eyes showed confusion. Why didn’t we have a passport.. meh. Even if we did tell him he wouldn’t believe us, so instead I asked where we could request one.
A trip had to be made to Argon Prime where we could file out a request. A background check would be made and we’d be considered a member of the Federation. Not of high enough standing to purchase a simple scout ship, but that wouldn’t be a major issue the man assured us. All we had to do to gain enough notoriety was showing a little goodwill. Help some factories out by supplying goods and we’d be up to the point of purchase quick enough.
We both thanked the man for his time and returned to our ship. Travelling to Argon Prime? That sector wasn’t even on our map, and if memory served, not even remotely close either. But what had to be done had to be done. A message was sent back to the USC Narada informing my first officer of our status and new objectives while we set course in the general direction of Argon Prime. I wonder what kind of trouble we’d run in to before we get there. If even.
Just as I closed my eyes for a moment to relax I suddenly remembered what I forgot. Our Teladi prisoner aboard the USC Narada. He’d have to wait some more I’m afraid.
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A minor change was made to my notoriety. I forgot that the USC Commander starts out with "AFT Earth Access" which I've reduced to "Asteroid Belt Access" due to plot relations.
I've also changed the links to the pictures. I accidentally put up the wrong links, instead of the direct links to the images
As said before, I will spoil some goals. I shall put them up in spoiler tags so people that do not wish to know them can skip them!
Short term goal 1:
Get a few light craft with explorer software to get the universe mapped
Short term goal 2:
Reach Argon Prime. Get a passport and get sufficient notoriety to purchase said ships. Possibly working up reputation with the other factions as well
Short term goal 3:
Establish contact with USC/ATF forces
Short term goal 4:
That's it for now. Long term goals will be kept hidden for now!
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