Scouting ahead
Procyon is a hive of Terran activity. Numerous small scouts jump to and from Sirius on scouting missions. Once a week, a patrol of Terran warships patrol the sector as well. Of course, they are not the only ones regularly patrolling that sector.
Traders jump in all directions, carrying wares to the remote Terran colonies as well as too and from Vilani space via Sirius. Most trade ships are small 200 dTon Heros or 400 dTon Lightnings, but there area bewildering variety of others ships as well.
[Secret to Cyril Zotmund: You notice one familiar Lightning belonging to one of the most ruthless pirates just as it jumped to the Sirius system. When you mentioned it to the next patrol, however, they did not find it.]
Significantly, a slow 6000 dTon cylindrical vessel owned and operated as a mobile base by Andrew Kalishnikov Pty. Ltd. is escorted by a smaller, slimmer and faster 1500 dTon research vessel, the 'Yuri', the owner uses as his flagship. The base is used to manufacture vehicle parts, weapons and, more recently, bioplas suits for sale to remote colonies. These have recently jumped here from the Hephaiston system. It is unusual for them to be so close to the front, but you sense that something unusual is being planned.
Captain Maya went yesterday to the Yuri to plan what was thought to be the next trading trip into Vilani space. She has only returned now, and calls the officers to her office as the crew finish unloading the last goods into the Dastavka's hold.
"Ladies and Gentlemen. We have a more unusual mission. We will be leaving Terran space for a very long time, but we will not be alone. Andrew Kalishnikov has decided to move the base, escorted by the Yuri, to the remote Terran colonies in the Capella Subsystem. We will be working as scouts, but our first mission will be to jump to the Vilani systems beyond Sirius and arrange to have fuel tankers with at least 600 dTons of fuel waiting to refulel the base when she jumps into the system in exactly 5 weeks. That may sound like a long time, but each jump takes about a week, and we will have at least 3 jumps to make, so we cant waste time. We need to decide to try to sell our goods to get the fuel from Shulimik or Markhashi. The former is more developed, the latter is not so strict but poorer. We can discuss this as we prepare to jump to Sirius, so let me know if you have any business that needs taking care of before you leave."
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:53, Sat 13 June 2015.