The Officer's Lounge on Hallus Station is a fairly open affair by Spacer standards. There's plenty of room and creature comforts as well as decoration. It's not so unusual for Officer's lounges on large stations or planetside, but you're just getting accustomed to such things. There is a bar in the corner with an ensign working there, a pool table set up across from it and several holographic displays around the walls showing famous ships and battles of the Astral Forces, artistically imagined for maximum aesthetic and emotional value. Written above the bar it says "9th Fleet Club" in faux-stenciled font. Classy up-beat instrumental music plays softly, recognizable as belonging to the somewhat dated genre Phoenix Hop.

There are a few other officers there now, in small groups of twos and threes talking as you enter. Some faces turn to glance over shoulders as you enter and then return to their conversations.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:09, Tue 21 Jan 2020.

Karsen, cover under his arm, jandered to the O club; took stock at the decor and those there, and headed to the bar for a drink, striking up a conversation with whomever is in front or behind him in line.

“Let me buy you a drink” he says with a smile, knowing that these are all ‘on the house’.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:50, Wed 22 Jan 2020.

Oscar entered the lounge, placing his cover on the rack provided near the entrance. Noting the bar, he approached, only to see that Arne had beat him to it. Hearing the fellow captains joke, Oscar gave a nod. “By all means. A whiskey and soda, if you please,” he said and looked around. “What do you think of our little fleet?”, Oscar asked as he surveyed the rest of the lounge.

A female officer, also bearing the rank of Master turns and smiles as you address her at the bar. She extends a dark olive-hued hand and introduces herself as Mistress Santos, of the Black Swan, a frigate if memory serves you. You surmise that she is not the commanding officer, but perhaps a department head.

Ensigns, though commissioned men and women, are not allowed in the Officer's Lounge except when accompanied by a senior officer or when working as lounge staff. It is likely the first time either of you have been inside one on your own and the young Ensign behind the bar asks you what you'd like.

“Whiskey and soda for the Master here & I’ll have a rum soda, unless you have some ginger beer, in case a dark&stomy” he says to the ensign.  “Mistress Santos, drinks on me, what can I get you?”

“Our fleet I don’t know yet, but our squadron looks good. Fast, dangerous, balanced.  I’ll take a fast ship into harm’s way every day of the week.”
This message was last edited by the player at 11:22, Wed 22 Jan 2020.

Diana headed into the officer's lounge, getting an odd glance or two from some of the patrons before noticing the markings of her new rank. She was too used to it to be bothered by it however, and after scanning the interior long enough to spot Arne and Oscar, she made her way over to them. Hopping up on a barstool, she ordered a glass of mixed fruit juice, after making sure it was non-alcoholic, and while the Ensign worked on her order she turned to the other two present.

- "So, you're captaining the Skirmish and the Tender i believe...?"

OOC: Just so you won't need to look it up, i've got the Interceptor Corvette :P

Entering a few moments after the rest of the squadron, Volsung paused at the entranceway and scanned those in attendance before making his way to the bar where the other newly-minted Captains had gathered. He smiled and offered a hand to them and the unfamiliar woman, "Volsung. We had little time to speak in the Ready Room; the Angantyr is an assault boat. But Captain Karsen is right, its a sharp knife we're wielding"
This message was last edited by the player at 14:11, Wed 22 Jan 2020.

Zazan had walked to the lounge with Arne and Oscar but turned away upon seeing the lounges trappings, muttering something under his breath as he did so.

Diana shook hands with Volsung, and now noticed that the unfamiliar woman was in fact part of their group, rather than someone she had previously assumed to be sitting nearby out of happenstance. She looked somewhat concerned.

- "...And yet, i cannot shake the feeling there is more to this mission."

She looked at the others, gently nibbling at a corner of her lip. The drink was ready, purple umbrella and all, and she plucked it off before gently closing it and placing it next to her drink. She then took a sip through the straw, and briefly closed her eyes in bliss. She then turned back to the others, spotting Zazan at the entrance, but briefly looked disappointed when he turned away. No matter, she could send him a message later.

- "After we've inspected our ships and crews, i'd like to have a small strategy meeting. Call it a hunch, but something about this doesn't sit well with me, and i would be remiss not bringing it to your attention. If we are going to work together, we shouldn't be afraid of sharing our opinions."

Gesturing to the barman for a beer, Volsung agreed with Diana's concerns, "It would be surprising if it was a cake run, whether deliberately or not... so I was going to suggest something ... tonight or tomorrow. I would welcome opinions on how we approach things and figured that poring over the briefing pack together with something greasy and full of MSG would tell us whether there were any particular lens we wanted to apply to ships and crew..."
This message was last edited by the player at 14:12, Wed 22 Jan 2020.

Diana hmmed for a moment, before adding her opinion.

- "Better tomorrow then. Today's likely going to be packed with ship tours and crew inspections, so we'll have a better grasp of where our strengths and weaknesses lay. Blueprints can only say so much."

Smiling, Oscar shook Mistress Santos' hand and returned the introduction. When Diana joined them, Oscar raised his drink. "The Harald Wartooth will keep our little group afloat," he said, taking a bit of a defensive tone. He was there to prove that he was more than a simple repair jockey.

Oscar listened and then nodded. "Agreed. Tomorrow for a strategy meeting. My ship is much smaller crew wise, but I have bunkers and stores to ensure they are in proper order. We need to make sure that we can support ourselves out on the frontier. But, that is a conversation for tomorrow!", Oscar said and took a drink.

Smiling and mumbling his thanks, Volsung took the beer from the barman and then turned back to his comrades and shrugged, "From our briefing, I had understood the Commander wanting us casting off shortly after six hundred tomorrow morning? At least, as soon as our ships and crews were ready?"

The young junior officer is of your rank, but perhaps not your courage and in any case, you bear the command bar above your rank marking you as first among equals, Masters of your own vessels. She sips her vodka tonic quietly nodding as she listens to you speak, curious about the new captains aboard the station. You gather from her short replies and interjections that she's been in the system aboard the Black Swan for some months now and that she operates the engineering department aboard that frigate. Currently the fusion core is undergoing a refit so they've been in port for weeks with nothing to do but polish their boots.

Diana gave a casual shrug in response.

- "Not a problem. After the inspection, we'll be leaving port, waiting out of the station's navigation lanes to get in formation and crawl our way to the edge of the system for jumping. Should take a couple of hours easy, more than enough to squeeze a meeting into."

Arne shrugs "I'm easy.  If you want the meeting shortly, we can.  If possible though, I'd like to meet my crew and walk the Sigfred before we have to face any dragons.  But that could also be when next the watches turn over."

OCC: 'Traditional' Watch schedule? Five-and-Dime? Two or Three section? Swedish Sixes?
 If I may, being a sailor, (though not navy) may I suggest a 6-18 schedule?  6 hrs on, 18 off.
 For a 20-man frigate, that means full coverage is 4 sections of 5, with ample room for rest as well as repair and maintenance.

Sensing the other Captain's preference for review underway, Volsung nodded. He would have preferred something beforehand, in case there were requisitions to be made or other adjustments, but he had time enough for a first pass of the material himself. He smiled and turned to the junior officer who had found herself drawn to their orbit, "... and how's the mood on Hallus, Lieutenant? You must be seeing ships and crew passing through with the Black Swan undergoing refit..."

Although she seems something between anxious and eager, she relays that other than her ship, most of the others have been here for a week or less at a time. Aside from crew rotations, store replenishment and refueling, most of the vessels bound through here are fresh and ready for battle.

The rumors are wild and varied: Some say there's a hidden Order of Brotherhood Crusaders who have rebuild beyond the Dead Zone and are returning in even greater numbers to destroy the Hegemony. The usual rumors are there too, some more credible than others. Bizarre alien vessels have been spotted by private prospectors, behaving in an impossible manner beyond Ultima Black and Farpoint. A new pirate king has emerged in the Dead Zones, rumored to be a long lost scion of the nameless House-in-Exile. Old Terra has returned and is seeking to once again reclaim all worlds that were hers with technology and weapons surpassing even the days of old.

As an astral officer and spacer, you know better than to put stock in such rumors. As long as there are bored midshipmen and spacer's bars, there will be outlandish stories of the Black.

Arne chuckles lightly; "Ah, the Pirate King one.  I've heard that before.  I've always liked that one.  Still, I'll take the 'under'.  A pirate or three, sure; could be some Brotherhood that 'ran away to fight another day' and are now just lost in the Black.  But aliens? Fairy Queens? Old Terra?" he sighs.  "Well, it's as good as any for divertissme.  I prefer armored slamball though; I think the Serpents (Black & Blue forever) have a solid chance this year in the all-worlds. We're going to miss the championship, but I'll take the Sigfred as my championship trophy any day of the week."

Oscar laughed at Arne comment about slamball. “They are going to to have to get past the green and gold of my Ironclads first! Divisionals are always the true test for a deep run. Lots of teams get bumped off then,” he commented and took a drink. He refused to finish in one slug, however and instead shifted topics.

“How about a bet on what is out there? Ten credits on rogue Brotherhood. Seems the most likely scenario. Arne, your take? Anybody else? Does the Black Swan want this action?”, Oscar asked with a grin and raised eyebrow.

She laughs nervously, perhaps not used to so much attention. She declines to place a bet on anything as she thinks they're all just stories, but she says that if you insist, she thinks this whole thing is part of some sort of readiness exercise to test the strength of the fleet since the war has ended. The Novarchy and the House Leadership wants to see what the impact of the war was on experience, discipline and of course what the quality of the newest recruits and captains are.

She suggests that perhaps it's posturing in preparation another inter-house war, either to prevent one or encourage one. Ultimately, she shrugs and says she's not sure, but she really wishes they'd get underway soon.

- "Nah. My money's on pirates, maybe flying ex-Brotherhood ships, but hiding out in the Dead Zone either way. Not much in shipping, but my guess is they're broking ships and weapons on the black market."

Diana took another sip of her drink as she gave her opinion on what they might run into. She didn't think the Brotherhood was that much of a threat anymore, but that meant they had a lot of ships they could no longer afford to maintain, and a lot of those would have been sold off to dubious sources.

“I have to say, I like Santos’ action.  This all could well be fleet readiness.  Not a bad angle at all.  Fairly adroit, and I kinda wish I’d though of it. Still, a bet’s a bet.  What do you want on that 2:3? 4:5? Shoeshine? Dinner?” Arne’s smile was friendly, non-hostile, but yet...

Declining to bet himself, Volsung smiled and shrugged, “I’m just pleased to put on the Ship Masters stripe and it not be a shakedown cruise in Havenspire”

"Excellent point.  Ah well, probably best not to bet anyway.  I'm going to freshen my drink and introduce myself to some of the others.  I'm ready when you all are for a quick strategy session; provided that I've had some time to meet my crew and go over the mission parameters on the Veritech. Cheers."  Arne raises his drink and heads off to mingle.

Oscar said a farewell to Arne and looked at his own drink. With still some in it, Oscar looked at Diana. “So, what were you doing before this assignment?”, he asked.

Diana looked at Arne, placing her drink back on the counter to avoid spilling it over the pants of her uniform.

- "Me? Not much, had most of my education at a smaller academy orbiting Bothislia. Made Ensign without a hitch, spent a year working my way up to XO on the Destroyer Thakun and... well, here i am."

She paused for a few seconds, before smirking.

- "Okay, so i made that sound way more exciting than it actually was. The Thakun is a great ship, but it's owned by a House that's been in decline for a while now, so they've signed a partnership with that Academy to use it as a training ship. Keeps it affordable for them while also saving face. Most of its crew are Ensigns leading a rotation of underclassmen these days, so they can train students as well as let their graduates gain a little experience at the same time."

She took a deep, audible breath before taking a quick sip and turning back to Oscar.

- "So, nothing all too glorious i'm afraid... How about you?"

There is a small group of other officers that look approachable, other young men and women who seem more approachable. It occurs to Karsen that actually, there aren't that many senior officers in the whole club at the moment.

Oscar nodded his head as Diana told her story. When it came time for his reply, Oscar looked at his drink. “Nothing as exciting as second in command of a destroyer. House or not, that is a great accomplishment. I just finished a tour as the commanding officer of the salvage team aboard the Diving Bell, an Iridium-class Rescue Tender. We spent the tour extracting the cruiser Lestate from an asteroid. The ship had a drill mishap and emerged with a majority of her neatly embedded inside the asteroid. By the time we cut her free and removed the debris, we could fire up the main reactors and let her coast on internal power. She will need to be in the yards for a year to refit, but the Lestate will serve again,” Oscar finished.

He looked around, “I have to say, I’m looking forward to doing something beside simple repair and recovery. I have been doing that long enough. If we get into a scrape out on the frontier, I want to be able to say I wasn’t forced to the side lines.”

- "Hey, like i said, most of the excitement was serving on an actual Destroyer where most were expecting 'Vettes and private sector ships. And the second in command was technical, it would be more accurate to say i was one of the graduates apprenticed under the captain, and since the other teachers were department heads they could still overrule me. Like i said... Academy ship. But hey, bragging rights~!"

Diana picked up her drink, and motioned it at Oscar after he was done with his own tale.

- "See, you've been in a cruiser, and you've seen action outside of simulations. Most exciting story i got was one of my roommates in the Engineering track going nuts on designing her own ship, blueprints and everything. She was pretty hyped about the possibility to design the ship she would end up serving on. All hobby level, of course, but if i spot a ship of the type name within the next ten years or so, i know it'll be hers. Got to have a dream, right?"

She took another long sip, and placed the glass on the counter again.

- "So, you just want to see some action, or do you have a dream to chase beyond that?"

Listening politely to the chatter between the other Captains, Volsung sipped on his beer before excusing himself after a time - seeking out the other small huddle of officers

"Takagara, eh?"

The laughter is bitter and not welcome to your ears. These off duty officers are drunk.

"Daddy get you a command?"

There are three men who are impuning your honor here in the Officer's Lounge. They're insulting you and none of them are noble as far as you can tell, at least none of them are part of the Primary or Secondary Houses. You'd be within your rights to call for a duel, but at the same time, they're overstepping the bounds of civility. The Lounge could ask them to leave before they caused trouble if you brought it to their attention.

Pulling up a chair at the table the three men were sitting at, Volsung glanced at their shipsuits, casually noting names and ranks even as he took in the extent of their inebriation. For a few moments he considered calling them out, but it was not the start he wanted with his fellow Captains close by. He needed another way through.

He took a small pull on his own beer, shrugging, "'Daddy' had be running messages between the docks he ran in the yard above Volaris soon as I was old enough to pilot a shuttle, then enlisted me in the House corps hunting down debtors and crooks looking to sell out our supply runs to raiders..."

He shrugged, recalling his father's low status in the House, but still within with the opportunities that brought and how hard he had been on his 'spare' son, "Soon as the Brotherhood mess kicked off he volunteered me straight into service. Fast track, teaching new enlistees enough not to kill themselves in combat shuttles... fast enough they could cycle them out to the grinders. And after that..."

He chose not to revisit those later memories and placed his beer upon the table with a solid clunk, "So... No, and perhaps in a small way... Yes."

The drunken off-duty officers are clearly not excited by your answer. They were hoping to rile you up and get a rise out of you, but instead, you simply rolled with their punches and whole room is watching them as you keep your cool and reply civilly. They're upset, but also embarrassed. They expected an undeserving scion of a noble house, but instead your answer left them without rebuttal. They make some noise, blow you off and go back to their drink, not willing to push it further.

Plenty of bark and no bite. There are a number of approving murmurs around the room and several officers raise a glass to you or nod their head.

You made a good first impression.

Acknowledging the murmurs and nods with a small smile or slight nod in return, Volsung was silent for a moment - weighing up options, considering whether to throw the embarrassed officers a lifeline.

They were drunk, cooped up perhaps like the Lieutenant from the Black Swan with less to occupy their energies; or simply enough to revel in supposed last freedoms before drilling out in the Black. Such behaviour was ... understandable, though not readily forgivable. It was also deflected, not handled since they were still drunk and spoiling for ... something, and leaving that behind for someone else wasn't right, nor not clearing the void between folks who might have his back in the next mission.

With a careful breath he took a second small sip of his beer and then a few steps to join them, "Sounded like you were seasoned folks, seen your fair share of scions further up the pole than me. You stationed here on Hallus, or heading out into the Black?"

--> ** Post-timeskip ** <--

Diana slowly nursed her drink while waiting on the other two Captains of King Squadron. While she had received word of her promotion to Commander -- on her first mission as Star Master, no less! -- the official ceremony was still being prepared and the budget promised them being made available. Still, there were a few things she had wanted to discuss, and she suspected Mysh and Hargrave could pretty much guess what they were already. It was unfortunate that Takagara had been reassigned on short notice, but she supposed the Hegemony had its reasons.

For now, after a mission that had caused a lot of overtime and shared headaches, their respective crews were on leave and the three Captains were due a preemptive celebration of their own.

Oscar entered the lounge, his HUD registering that Diana was there before he even had a chance to see her. He gave a smile and nodded. “Commander,” he said and grabbed a cup of something hot from the refreshments.

Oscar picked a seat and inhaled the smell of his beverage, enjoying the aroma before taking a drink. Leaning back in his chair, he fidgeted slightly before clearing his throat. “It’s been a hell of a first cruise,” he said.

Diana gave Oscar a friendly nod as she saw him enter.

- "Not a Commander yet, not officially anyway. But yes, it's been a wild ride... Speaking of, how about you, heard they're giving you the Medal of Courage?"

She paused for a few seconds, and grimaced.

- "Ugh, damn task oriented mind... Okay, my mind can't relax until i say this, so when Zazan gets here i plan to discuss what upgrades we're going to get for the Squadron."

Oscar shook his head. "The Three only know why I'm the one getting it when it should be those we lost getting the tributes and commendations. My first command and I managed to get my XO killed within a week. That doesn't sound like medal material," he said, trying to keep from getting riled up about it and failing. When he calmed down again, he looked at Diana and took a deep breath to steady himself.

"I was actually hoping to talk about that too. In fact, in light of what we encountered out there, I think the Navy needs to seriously reevaluate what it is we are facing. We can discuss that when we are all here. How is your crew holding up?"

- "Pretty good, but then again the Valdar barely suffered any damage, we managed to save most of Sigfred's crew and they were more than competent to begin with. Your XO was unlucky, wrong place wrong time. It's unfortunate, but it can happen. How's morale on yours?"

Diana took another sip, offering Oscar room to respond.

Oscar shook his head. “I feel like they see how much Artin was propping me up on my first command. Six spacers is not a big crew and they had been together much longer than I was there,” he trailed off.

- "I know what you mean, the previous Captain of the Valdar was an incompetent political appointee and the crew had been doing everything themselves. They were happy he left, but with me being both the newest and least experienced crew member on board, that meant i had some respect to earn myself even if they were too professional to say it. and between you and me, i got this close to seeing casualties in that boarding action on Sable."

Diana held her thumb and index finger an inch apart, before reaching over to pat Oscar on the shoulder.

- "My advice, give 'em time to mourn, and move on. They know your XO's death can't be blamed on you, you held a service for him and those spacers are probably drinking their asses off toasting to his memory as we speak, but once they get their uniforms back on, pick an XO and go back to business as usual. He propped you up for a reason, don't let command collapse in his absence: You owe him that much."

“I still have to write the letter to his partner on Haven. What do I say? How do you comfort someone in a damn letter? It just feels insincere no matter how much I actually mean it and that why I can’t bring myself to do it yet,” he said. Oscar took another pull of his drink and looked up at Diana. “Have you had to write that letter before?”

Diana let out a brief chuckle, but corrected herself quickly and shook her head.

- "Hey, i got promoted the same day you were, remember? Besides, at twenty-four i'm not exactly a font of knowledge and experience. Post-Academy i've had like a year as an Ensign tops, if my Academy hadn't been located on a ship to double as term of service i wouldn't even have made the requirements to be a Master."

She looked at her drink, taking a deep breath.

- "And now i'm a Commander... Pretty sure that's going to piss some people off."

She softly cleared her throat, and turned to Oscar again.

- "Still, that letter... Pretty sure Zazan can help. He's got experience, and judging by the scars and chem burns i'm guessing he's had to write at least a couple of letters over the years. Not sure what exactly he did, but it probably involved a lot of danger pay."

Oscar nodded. “You’re right. I guess I forget that none of us have been at this long. I was used to gutting dangerous hulks, not fighting starships in actual engagements. I guess I’ve never asked. What got you here?”

- "Lack of parents."

Diana smirked, and continued after a few seconds, when figuring the half-answer had sunk in properly.

- "But kidding aside, you know the Hegemony takes care of orphans as wards of the state, right? And with 'take care of' i meant that the vast majority of them end up serving in some form or another? Basically that."

She paused for a second to take a sip and wet her lips before continuing.

- "From my point of view, it didn't sound half bad. Education, three squares a day, housing, stable income, healthcare... Anyhow, turned out i was good enough at it that i spent the last six months of my year's rotation as XO."

She looked at Oscar.

- "So how'd you end up here anyway?"
This message was last edited by the player at 23:12, Fri 20 Aug 2021.

Oscar shrugged. "Honestly, I don't think I should really be here. I grew up in one of the Covas on Bothislia. Bothislians can take to the spacer life quickly. I had a knack for stripping parts off junk and selling it. Had a salvage business for a bit, but when the Hegemony sent out the call for good spacers, I took the offer. OCS followed by a stint in a breaker team near Gryphon. A good performance there got me a tour on an Iridium-class ship. I was technically part of the reserves then and we spent three years prying a destroyer out of an asteroid after a spike drive mishap."

Oscar got up and refreshed his drink, offering to do the same for Diana if she wanted it.

"That tour got me pulled from the reserve ranks to commanding the Wartooth here. I had a good job when they offered me this post. I figure why not, it's a nice pay increase and I get to work with modern tech. I guess combat shows how harsh the Void can really be. I got used to the comfort of my salvage suits," he said as he resumed his spot.

Diana nodded, both in understanding of his motivations as well as the offered refill.

- "True. Bothislians can practically bunk in a broom closet, so i guess that makes us the least likely to complain about personal space out there."

She took the now full cup again, and waved it gently in Oscar's direction.

- "Yeah, i recall you mentioning something about that before we left... The Diving Bell, correct?"

She took another sip, and continued.

- "Truth be told, it feels... weird to have this much budget. I served on an Academy-run Destroyer, this would be enough to buy it outright two or three times over. Not to mention i now outrank a lot of my old teachers. I'm still having trouble coming to grips with it."

Oscar nodded. “You’re spot on. The Diving Bell was a good ship. Lots of freedom to take during the day. I was in charge but it didn’t really feel like it, you know? Not with two different teams of less than a dozen crew.”

Oscar smiled as he listened to Diana talk of budget requirements and ranks.

“You actually bring up a point that I was going to broach later but maybe you can give me your opinion now. With our budget allowance and a generous take in prize money, what would you say to consolidations in crew and ships? I feel it’s obvious that whatever place Sable-1 came from, there are going to be more than scout ships. We could likely pull a few strings and maybe get ourselves a cruiser. Scout cruiser that can refuel with scoops and take more of a beating than a handful of frigates. Hell, with a machine shop and fuel scoops, we would be almost independent of supply needs, save crew and food.”

He seemed to be getting excited about the idea and continued on before trailing off. Oscar looked a little embarrassed at his own enthusiasm.

Diana frowned in response, taking out some notes and leafing through them.

- "Hmm... I must admit, i have no idea what this... Scout cruiser hull is. Do you have some details on that, it's possible i know it under a different name."

Oscar smile slightly and nodded. He tapped a few times on his tablet and then showed Diana an article from the Hegemony’s databases.

“Back when the Houses were still in the early stages of fighting the UB, the Admiralty had the idea for a scout ship that could operate for months without resupply and be able to harass enemy support stations and patrol squadrons like ours. The only class that comes to mind is the Volaris-class. I’ve seen a couple in the shipyard mothball inventories over the years. Will likely need a refit, but a Volaris was no slouch. If I remember correctly, she had two Fractal Impactor turrets and a torpedo tube for main guns. The big deal was her fuel scoops, extended stores, and a munitions forge to keep her reloaded for a deployment. I guess they were deemed too costly for the specialization,”

Oscar made a motion on his tablet and brought up the specs for a Volaris-class scout cruiser.

OOC: This is a rough design of a cruiser sized ship that we could “build”. Obviously what is here is up to changes if this is the way we want to go. As far as roleplay, I figure the cost is to pull a hull from mothball and getting it ready to sail. All of the parts we “buy” are just costs for retrofitting modern weapons and equipment.

Budget 8.5m official + PC contribution

Logistics Ship Hull 7.5m

Power=40 Max
Mass= 40 max

Fractal Impact Casters x2 ————-400k 10P 2M
Torpedo Tube——————————500k 10P 3M

Ammo Bunkers————————————0P 2M
Torpedos: 8 Torpedoes(2.5k/torpedo)
Fractal Impactors : 16 Impactors (500/Impactors)

Point defense lasers———————250k 4P 6M
Hardened Polyceramic Coating——-625k 0P 3M

Armory —————————————50k 0P 0M
Workshops————————————-5k 2P 1M
Fuel Scoops———————————125k 2P 3M
        Fuel Bunkers x2 ——————-62.5k 0P 2M
Extended Stores x2———————- 250k 0P 6M
Lifeboats ————————————62.5k 0P 1M
Munition forges —————————-300k 3P 3M
           1 Raw Material Bunker—————- 0P 1M (50k worth ammo)
Spike-2 —————————————250k 3P 3M

Total Power = 34
Total Mass = 36

Diana clenched her teeth when she saw the list, breathing in to form a hissing sound.

- "While i did consider a cruiser, i'm... honestly not a fan of that model. Looking back on our battles, i'd like something with a little more firepower, as it took us way too long to take down that enemy cruiser.So to invest in something that has less hardpoints than a patrol boat... is not the answer, i think."

She looked up from the list at Oscar.

- "For now, i think our main focus should be on getting everyone into bigger, more durable ships. Personally, i was looking at a standard Frigate for four million, with the intent to turn it into a flying Doom Fortress. Here's what i have."


Budget 8.5m official + PC contribution

Frigate Hull 4m

Power=15 Max
Mass= 15 max

Spike Drive-2:   2/2 100k
Atmo Config: -/2 50k
Advanced Fire Control System 1/- 100k
Armory: -/- 20k
Ship's Locker: -/- 20k
Lifeboats: -/1 25k
Fuel Scoops: 2/2 50k
Wraith Shuttle: -/2 300k
Reduced Fuel Bunker: -/+1 20k
Auxiliary Power Unit: +5/1 100k

Plasma Beam: 5/2 700k (2 hardpoints)
Plasma Beam: 5/2 700k (2 hardpoints)
Plasma Beam: 5/2 700k (2 hardpoints)

Total Power = 20
Total Mass = 16

Total Cost: 6.885m credits

Diana pointed out the figures she had written down. There were some things crossed out and remnants of annotations in the sidelines, but not to the point that it was hard to make sense of.

- "It's stretching the limits of the hull to the maximum, and had to cut into the fuel bunker and get rid of the extended stores to fit the fuel scoops in, but i ended up with a ship that's got one hell of a broadside. That'd leave us with 1.6 million in budget, so with the remaining funds we could get a merchant vessel to replace the Sigfred, and rather than load her up for combat i can put the Fuel Scoops on there and tool her for utility."


Budget 1.615m remaining official + PC contribution

Free Merchant 500k

Power=10 Max
Mass= 15 max

Spike Drive-2:   2/2 100k
Atmo Config: -/2 50k
Extended Stores: -/2 25k
Armory: -/- 20k
Ship's Locker: -/- 20k
Lifeboats: -/1 25k
Fuel Scoops: 2/2 50k
Contextual Camo Field: 4/2 500k
Auxiliary Power Unit: +5/1 100k
Mining Equipment: 1/1 25k

Sandthrower: 3/1 50k
Sandthrower: 3/1 50k

Total Power = 15
Total Mass = 15

Total Cost: 1.515m credits

She took out her comm and opened the calculator function, murmuring out loud to herself as she typed and added more annotations with her other hand.

- "With this, and replacing the Fuel Scoops from my Frigate writeup with a combination of a Hardened Polyceramic Overlay and a set of two additional Auto-Targeting systems for the remaining Plasma Beams, that would put the price on 7.285 million credits. Add the 1.515m from the Free Merchant and we'd end up on..."

The final figures were entered, and she looked pleased at the result.

- "8.8 million. Only 300k over the budget. I'd recommend spending an extra 100k or so on Combat Field Uniforms for every crew member in the Squadron, but that's a personal recommendation."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:17, Sun 22 Aug 2021.

Oscar looked over the details. “If we are going to request a new frigate for the squadron, we don’t need to get the free merchant. The Wartooth can be retrofitted with fuel scoops if scrap her reaper battery and convert some of the cargo space. She honestly doesn’t need the reaper with the added firepower of a frigate.”

Oscar stared at his own tablet before addressing Diana again. “With Volsung gone, I’d like to transfer my crew to the Angantyr. I want to be more in the fight and give my crew a chance to be in a true warship, not a tender. If we convert the Wartooth like I mentioned, we can increase the Angantyr‘s firepower with a mag spike array. Expensive, but it can help narrow the gap between us and anymore ships like Sable-One. I’d have to strip her boarding tubes out if we wanted to make room for more ammunition or even install an aux gen to supply power to targeting and NAV upgrades. Thoughts?”

Diana nodded, listening to Oscar's input.

- "True, but my intent with the merchant was to have it use its camo field while harvesting asteroids or high orbiting a sun for fuel without the need to be escorted. The field would have it look like an asteroid itself, and if its sensors pick up anything it could inform us and head back before whatever it is realizes that that's not really what it seems to be. The sandthrowers are there for AA purposes should it get caught out. In combat it should be about equal to a patrol boat, but i do not intend for it to have a main combat role."

She looked at Oscar, taking out her electronic notebook and making a cleaner version of her suggestions, with the added modifications. If Oscar wouldn't have his dataslab on him, she'd offer him hers, with the relevant programs already open.

- "While i am not opposed to transferring your crew -- I mean, given the frigate's crew requirements i had intended to transfer the Valdar and Sigfred crews to it myself -- if you get a price tag ready we can add it to the options to discuss with Zazan when he gets here. Assume you'll have the full budget to spend, we can mix and match later if required and we'll need to work in any alterations Zazan wants to make to his own ship as well, i still need to finalize these designs."
This message was last edited by the player at 10:21, Mon 23 Aug 2021.

Zazan walks into the room, datatablet in hand and nods to the commanders. He sets about making his drink, adding a few shakes from a small canister he pulled from his pocket.

He makes it clear that he is listening to see where the conversation is at.

Having finished with her own revisions, Diana spotted Zazan and waved him over to them.

- "Ah, good to see you here. Oscar and i were just going through some ideas on what to do with the budget. We wanted to wait for you to begin, but we got a little overexcited. Did you get a chance to look at a couple of ship designs, or have any planned changes to the Randver in mind?"

Zazan shakes his head and lets out a brief sigh. "Nie Nie Commander, Ze fact of ze matter is I have allowed myself to get into ze weeds on the repairs to the Randver.

The fighting left it with significant fracturing in ze starboard plating which was causing hundreds of micro-leaks. The crew made a valiant effort but after 2 weeks we were still losing air. After ze shipyard got done with our brave ship, ze secondary drive coolant pump regulator was indicating open when manually overridden. While looking zat particular problem, I discovered that the B-train communications wiring harness was somehow generating a Corona discharge due to a localized short to the dorsal plasma transformer which caused a full shipwide evacuation.

So no, I have not have shifted to focus on ze future."

Zazan takes his seat and glances at the data slates in front of the other captains.

"Ah, a cruiser, that is an interesting idea. You could have yourself a nice lead ship Commander Hersson. "
This message was last edited by the player at 15:19, Mon 23 Aug 2021.

Oscar smiled at the fellow Bothislian and waited for Zazan to sit and finish before speaking again.

"Did the system vent the transformer like it should? If not, that seems to be a damage control fault somewhere in the local network for the transformer. Considering the DC circuits are redundant and if your comms system had a short, that over a hundred locations to manually check for a tripped sensor. That is a secret that would likely take weeks to ferret out," he replied and let his mind work over the hypothetical problem. Oscar seemed lost in thought, idly rubbing the edge of his mustache as he did.

OOC:I'll let Zazan get caught up and I will need to get home from work to make another ship post.

Diana shook her head in response.

- "Well, the offer to get her into dock is open. I had considered a cruiser, but i myself feel it is too early for one, and would like to get everyone into bigger, more durable ships first before stepping up to the next classification."

She pointed out her designs and her reasoning behind them. She had reworked it a little, adding additional Fuel Bunkers to allow a second jump, Fire Control systems for all three weapon systems and stronger armor replacing the Atmo Config.

- "There are some alternatives, for example i could drop the fuel bunkers in favor of replacing one of the Plasma Beams with a Flak Emitter Battery for a more general design, which should also drop the overall price down by 225k to only have us be 30k over budget. I'm not the greatest fan of munitions based weapons, as they can run out."

Diana's Datapad entry:

Budget 8.5m official + PC contribution

Frigate Hull 4m

Power=15 Max
Mass= 15 max

Spike Drive-2:   2/2 100k
Hardened Polyceramic Overlay: -/2 250k
Advanced Fire Control System 1/- 100k
Advanced Fire Control System 1/- 100k
Advanced Fire Control System 1/- 100k
Fuel Bunkers: -/1 25k
Armory: -/- 20k
Ship's Locker: -/- 20k
Lifeboats: -/1 25k
Wraith Shuttle: -/2 300k
Auxiliary Power Unit: +5/1 100k

Plasma Beam: 5/2 700k (2 hardpoints)
Plasma Beam: 5/2 700k (2 hardpoints)
Plasma Beam: 5/2 700k (2 hardpoints)

Total Power = 20
Total Mass = 15

Total Cost: 7.240m credits

-----

Free Merchant 500k

Power=10 Max
Mass= 15 max

Spike Drive-2:   2/2 100k
Atmo Config: -/2 50k
Extended Stores: -/2 25k
Armory: -/- 20k
Ship's Locker: -/- 20k
Lifeboats: -/1 25k
Fuel Scoops: 2/2 50k
Contextual Camo Field: 4/2 500k
Auxiliary Power Unit: +5/1 100k
Mining Equipment: 1/1 25k

Sandthrower: 3/1 50k
Sandthrower: 3/1 50k

Total Power = 15
Total Mass = 15

Total Cost: 1.515m credits

Total Cost: 8.755m credits -- 255k over budget.

Zazan replies to Oscar as he glances at the proposed changes. "One would think, but apparetnly ze whole comms system is galvanically isolated from the main boards in ze CIC to reduce ze impact of radiation on ze network so ze harness was happy to sit at 4.16 kilovolts without impacting ze effectiveness of ze system.

So we are leaving the existing 3 frigates as is, modifying ze Wartooth and adding a additional frigate?

Also it appears we are adding ze cost of a free merchant hull? Aren't we reusing ze wartooths hull? Would that free up 500k?
This message was last edited by the player at 18:23, Mon 23 Aug 2021.

Oscar made a friendly pointing gesture at Zazan before tapping his nose. "Good work on fixing it until the shipyards can bring in the specialists. Spacers are great and getting a ship back to dock, but nothing beats a true repair job."

He looked over Diana's figures and made a few modifications before showing the other two the data. "Here would be my changes to your plan. We are still a frigate squadron, so I agree with Diana getting a proper warship to anchor our formation. The idea of a support vessel for extended operations is good too, but I think we would find more use from getting another tender, one that is space bound, and making some slight modifications. Mining equipment is not fast enough to fill a hold unless you do it en mass. I'd rather have that 20 tons of space. We ensure she has a sensor array similar to the Wartooth's and use the extra power for an auto targeting system to help the crew with the sandthrowers,"

"As for the Wartooth, here is what I would like for a wishlist but if Zazan has upgrades, we can change it up. The sensor array is scrap, but the fittings would allow for us to put in one of those nice new ECM warfare suites. Convert the workshop spaces to house an auxiliary generator and we can then upgrade the reaper battery to a CPC with advanced Fire Control. It would turn the Wartooth into a effective fleet support vessel with some firepower and a bit of cargo space leftover."

Oscars' Datapad entry:

Budget 8.5m official + PC contribution

Frigate Hull 4m

Power=15 Max
Mass= 15 max

Spike Drive-2:   2/2 100k
Hardened Polyceramic Overlay: -/2 250k
Advanced Fire Control System 1/- 100k
Advanced Fire Control System 1/- 100k
Advanced Fire Control System 1/- 100k
Fuel Bunkers: -/1 25k
Armory: -/- 20k
Ship's Locker: -/- 20k
Lifeboats: -/1 25k
Wraith Shuttle: -/2 300k
Auxiliary Power Unit: +5/1 100k

Plasma Beam: 5/2 700k (2 hardpoints)
Plasma Beam: 5/2 700k (2 hardpoints)
Plasma Beam: 5/2 700k (2 hardpoints)

Total Power = 20
Total Mass = 13

Total Cost: 7.240m credits

-----

Free Merchant 500k

Power=10 Max
Mass= 15 max

Spike Drive-2:   2/2 100k
Extended Stores: -/2 25k
Armory: -/- 20k
Ship's Locker: -/- 20k
Lifeboats: -/1 25k
Fuel Scoops: 2/2 50k
Auxiliary Power Unit: +5/1 100k
Cargo Space: -/3 (Holds 60 tons raw materials)
Workshop: 2/1 5k
Survey Sensor Array: 2/1 50k
Auto-Targeting System: 1/- 50k

Sandthrower: 3/1 50k
Sandthrower: 3/1 50k

Total Power = 15
Total Mass = 15

Total Cost: 945k credits


---


INS-Harald Wartooth Refit

Knarr-class Corvette Tender
Type: Free Merchant
Cost: 1.420m
Speed: 2
Armor: 2
HP: 20 (13 Damage)
Crew: 6/6
AC: 4
Power: 10/10
Mass: 15/15
Hardpoints: 1/2
Class: Frigate


Fittings:
Spike Drive-2: 2/2 100k
Fuel Bunkers -/1 25k
Atmo Config: -/2 50k
Extended Stores: -/2 25k
Armory: -/- 20k
Ship's Locker: -/- 20k
Lifeboats: -/1 25k
Survey Sensor Array 2/1 50k (Destroyed)
Cargo Space -/2 (40 tons)
Aux Generator: +5/1 100k
ECM Suite: 2/1 100k
Advanced Fire Control System 1/- 100k

Weapons
Reaper Battery: 4/1 100k
Charged Particle Caster: 10/1 200k (600k supplement from Oscar)

Defenses
Augmented Plating -/2 500k

Total Power = 14
Total Mass = 15

Total Refit Cost: 500k credits

Total Squadron Cost:  8.685m credits -- 185k over budget.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:00, Mon 23 Aug 2021.

Diana looked over the proposed changes, taking a deep breath.

- "Yes, the three patrol boats we have we will keep, the new Masters coming in will likely command them. I'm captaining the new Frigate and taking my own crew with me, as well as those rescued from the Sigfred as they've bunked together for several weeks on Ultima Black, which gives me a full crew complement. In this scenario, we would only need to bring in less than ten new crew members."

Having read the data in the meantime, she pointed out some things.

- "I'd disagree with the removal of the Camo Field from the merchant. The whole idea for it is to not be perceived as a threat, and the sandthrowers' ammo is otherwise indistinguishable from common micrometeorites. You are correct about cargo space, so let me just..."

She made some alterations to the data, and looked the Wartooth data over again.

- "I don't really understand the choice for the particle caster. Even with the APU that's two-thirds of the entire ship's power drain into one thing. Since it's a tender, may i suggest the following?"

More alterations followed, and she showed the data to the other Captains.

Modified Data:

Budget 8.5m official + PC contribution

Frigate Hull 4m

Power=15 Max
Mass= 15 max

Spike Drive-2:   2/2 100k
Hardened Polyceramic Overlay: -/2 250k
Advanced Fire Control System 1/- 100k
Advanced Fire Control System 1/- 100k
Advanced Fire Control System 1/- 100k
Armory: -/- 20k
Ship's Locker: -/- 20k
Lifeboats: -/1 25k
Wraith Shuttle: -/2 300k
Auxiliary Power Unit: +5/1 100k

Plasma Beam: 5/2 700k (2 hardpoints)
Plasma Beam: 5/2 700k (2 hardpoints)
Flak Emitter Battery: 5/3 500k (1 hardpoint)

Total Power = 20
Total Mass = 15

Total Cost: 7.015m credits

-----

Free Merchant 500k

Power=10 Max
Mass= 15 max

Spike Drive-2:   2/2 100k
Cargo Space: -/2 (Holds 40 tons raw materials)
Extended Stores: -/2 25k
Armory: -/- 20k
Ship's Locker: -/- 20k
Lifeboats: -/1 25k
Fuel Scoops: 2/2 50k
Contextual Camo Field: 4/2 500k
Auxiliary Power Unit: +5/1 100k
Mining Equipment: 1/1 25k

Sandthrower: 3/1 50k
Sandthrower: 3/1 50k

Total Power = 15
Total Mass = 15

Total Cost: 1.465m credits

-----

INS-Harald Wartooth Refit

Spike Drive-2: 2/2 100k
Fuel Bunkers -/1 25k
Atmo Config: -/2 50k
Extended Stores: -/2 25k
Armory: -/- 20k
Ship's Locker: -/- 20k
Lifeboats: -/1 25k
Survey Sensor Array 2/1 50k *Repaired*
Cargo Space -/1 (20 tons)
Aux Generator: +5/1 100k
Workshop: 2/1 5k
ECM Suite: 2/1 100k
Cargo lighter: -/2 25k
Advanced Fire Control System 1/- 100k

Weapons
Reaper Battery: 4/1 100k
Sandthrower: 3/1 50k
Sandthrower: 3/1 50k

Defenses
Augmented Plating -/2 500k

Total Power = 15
Total Mass = 15

Total Refit Cost: 480k credits

Total Cost: 8.960m credits -- 460k over budget.

- "That would actually make the refit cheaper since you wanted to bankroll it, King Squadron remains 20k within its allotted budget in new ships and you'd actually have a fair bit of money left over. Workshop, ECM Suite, Cargo lighter to help transfer materials from the merchant, the works. Weapons wise, you could replace the two Sandthrowers with a Plasma Beam, and removing the Fuel Bunkers would then allow the Wartooth enough space for an Extended Medbay, though the cost of the refit would jump to 1.130 million, which would have all of us chip in."

INS-Harald Wartooth Alternative Refit

Spike Drive-2: 2/2 100k
Fuel Bunkers -/1 25k
Atmo Config: -/2 50k
Extended Stores: -/2 25k
Armory: -/- 20k
Ship's Locker: -/- 20k
Lifeboats: -/1 25k
Survey Sensor Array 2/1 50k *Repaired*
Cargo Space -/1 (20 tons)
Aux Generator: +5/1 100k
Workshop: 2/1 5k
ECM Suite: 2/1 100k
Cargo lighter: -/2 25k
Advanced Fire Control System 1/- 100k
Expanded Medbay: 1/1 50k

Weapons
Reaper Battery: 4/1 100k
Plasma Beam: 5/2 700k (2 hardpoints)

Defenses
Augmented Plating -/2 500k

Total Power = 15
Total Mass = 15

Total Refit Cost: 1.130m credits
This message was last edited by the player at 20:31, Mon 23 Aug 2021.

Oscar looked over the numbers for a while before making a few adjustments.

"I think you're right, Diana. The CPC doesn't fit well with the purpose of the tender. I have been mulling it over and realized that for all the guns that we can bring to bear in a fight, two critical portions of our mission were handled by boarding forces. I think that we can use the Wartooth as a trojan horse. The thing is that she is still going to look like a tender, but we can utilize that cargo space more effectively. I propose converting it to a barracks and having a Special Forces team attached to us. In fact, I think we might be able to secure a Wraith shuttle that can provide stealth insertions and possibly boarding actions. I would use my portion of the prize to supplement but it shouldn't be too costly. The new tender could take over maintenance duties while the Wartooth serves a covert operations vessel for the squadron. Thoughts?"

INS-Harald Wartooth Refit

Knarr-class Corvette Tender
Type: Free Merchant
Speed: 2
Armor: 2
HP: 20
Crew: 6/6
AC: 4
Power: 10/10
Mass: 15/15
Hardpoints: 1/2
Class: Frigate


Fittings:
Spike Drive-2: 2/2 100k
Atmo Config: -/2 50k
Extended Stores: -/2 25k
Armory: -/- 20k
Ship's Locker: -/- 20k
Lifeboats: -/1 25k
Survey Sensor Array 2/1 50k (Repaired)
Extended Life Support: 2/2 250k
Wraith Shuttle: -/2 300k
Advanced Fire Control: 1/- 100k

Weapons
Pulse Laser: 3/1 100k

Defenses
Augmented Plating -/2 500k

Total Power = 10
Total Mass = 15

Total Refit Cost: 750k credits

Power Armor for Spec Ops team (Assume 6 operators)

I am hesitant to suggest fielding a frigate without extended stores. Swapping ze wraith shuttle to ze wartooth would free up the mass to accommodate ze extra provisions.

I will say the Hegemony is quite adept at optimizing g their patrol boat hull configurations. There is little to be improved upon the ships currently in ze squadron. Quite efficient in both power utilization and tonnage.

Diana grunted as she ran the numbers in her head again. The APUs, she realized, weren't compatible with the power generators in the ships themselves and would threaten to overload the internal couplings in the case of battle damage, not to mention the failsafes that assumed power was only supposed to be coming from the ship's own generators. More reworking was required, it seemed... And truth be told, Zazan's words sounded like a challenge.

- "Okay, i reworked the numbers again. I had to drop the Flak Emitter from the frigate since the APU is a no-go, but i tinkered a little bit and enhanced its armor to be effectively comparable to a Battleship. And between that and its dual Plasma Beams, it should be able to beat most things that are supposed to be giving Frigates trouble."

Corrected Data:

Budget 8.5m official + PC contribution

Frigate Hull 4m

Power=15 Max
Mass= 15 max

Spike Drive-2:   2/2 100k
Extended Stores: -/2 25k
Hardened Polyceramic Overlay: -/2 250k
Advanced Fire Control System 1/- 100k
Advanced Fire Control System 1/- 100k
Auto-Targeting System 1/- 100k
Thermablative Layering -/2 500k
Armory: -/- 20k
Ship's Locker: -/- 20k
Lifeboats: -/1 25k
Wraith Shuttle: -/2 300k

Plasma Beam: 5/2 700k (2 hardpoints)
Plasma Beam: 5/2 700k (2 hardpoints)

Total Power = 15
Total Mass = 15

Armor 15, effectively 20 due to Polyceramic Overlay.

Total Cost: 6.94m credits

- "Next up is the Free Merchant. Again, removal of the APU forced me to drop its Sandthrowers, but i managed to fit Atmo Config and a Cargo lighter in. I have considered removing its Spike-2 for a basic Spike Drive to possibly fit some more fittings in, since that would give us the time to clear an area prior to its arrival if necessary, but that is something i'd very much prefer to discuss with you first."

Free Merchant 500k

Power=10 Max
Mass= 15 max

Spike Drive-2:   2/2 100k
Atmo Config: -/2 50k
Cargo Space: -/1 (Holds 20 tons raw materials)
Extended Stores: -/2 25k
Armory: -/- 20k
Ship's Locker: -/- 20k
Lifeboats: -/1 25k
Fuel Scoops: 2/2 50k
Contextual Camo Field: 4/2 500k
Mining Equipment: 1/1 25k
Cargo lighter: -/2 25k

Total Power = 9
Total Mass = 15

Total Cost: 1.34m credits

- "And lastly, Oscar's refit is fine as-is as far as i'm concerned, though personally, given the new role in boarding targets i'd try to get an Extended Medbay in there. If the Merchant is downgraded to Spike-1 we could switch the Survey Sensor Array over to it and that would free up the space for it on the Wartooth at comparable overall cost. As for the Wraiths, i'd like Wraith Shuttles on all combat vessels eventually to allow easy in-Squadron transportation without docking Frigates, so having it on both is fine -- I already slipped in Extended Stores on the Frigate through other means."

INS-Harald Wartooth Refit

Spike Drive-2: 2/2 100k
Atmo Config: -/2 50k
Extended Stores: -/2 25k
Armory: -/- 20k
Ship's Locker: -/- 20k
Lifeboats: -/1 25k
Survey Sensor Array 2/1 50k (Repaired)
Extended Life Support: 2/2 50k
Wraith Shuttle: -/2 300k
Advanced Fire Control: 1/- 100k

Weapons
Pulse Laser: 3/1 100k

Defenses
Augmented Plating -/2 500k

Total Power = 10
Total Mass = 15

Total Refit Cost: 600k credits

Total Cost: 8.88m credits -- 380k over budget.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:44, Tue 24 Aug 2021.

"I think that we should focus on making sure that the tender can come to the rescue after a fight. The camo cloaking is a nice touch for it, which should let her linger without too much problem. I would suggest that we remove the mining equipment as that space could be used to add more fuel bunkers. Same with the cargo lighter, more room for cargo and fuel. We will have two wraith shuttles in the squadron if we need to move cargo or personnel around. The tender will already have the equipment to field repair ships, so the truly bulky stuff shouldn't have to be moved. With these changes, we have a tender that can repair the squadron enough to get back into Hegemony space and survive another day. Plus, with the added fuel bunker space, she can immediately refuel the squadron for a spike and go stealth to refill the bunkers for later."

Proposed Changes

Free Merchant 500k

Power=10 Max
Mass= 15 max

Spike Drive-2:   2/2 100k
Cargo Space: -/3 (Holds 60 tons raw materials or 30HP repairs)
Extended Stores: -/2 25k
Armory: -/- 20k
Ship's Locker: -/- 20k
Lifeboats: -/1 25k
Fuel Scoops: 2/2 50k
Contextual Camo Field: 4/2 500k
Fuel Bunkers: -/3 75k


Total Power = 8
Total Mass = 15

Total Cost: 1.315m credits
This message was last edited by the player at 17:45, Tue 24 Aug 2021.

- "Well, Wraith shuttles can't actually carry cargo in any meaningful amounts, but ship-to-ship docking could still be used in those cases i suppose. Also, lowering the cargo space by one mass unit would open up the possibility for a Workshop, since the Wartooth is removing theirs. That should allow it to construct the more intricate spare parts from the materials in its own cargo hold, right? We could even send a message for it to be constructed ahead of time so it'll be ready when we drop by."

Diana rubbed her chin as she looked at Oscar's counterproposal.

- "Personally, i'd love to see how well this would hold up during an actual mission. Adding a second merchant would give us the equivalent of a poor man's Fleet Fuel Tanks without actually needing a Carrier-class, and of course we would scoop fuel twice as fast. Additionally, if one were optimized for holding fuel and the other for refilling raw materials, we'd have essentially set up a Spike-capable mobile outpost at roughly the cost of a basic Patrol Boat hull. What do you both think?"
This message was last edited by the player at 18:26, Tue 24 Aug 2021.

"I would support the acquisition of a pair of free merchants that are focused on squadron maintenance. We could acquire another pair of Knarr-class tenders; one without the sensor array and fuel bunkers to make room for the cargo lighter. The other would be able to convert cargo space to fuel bunkers and the array, plus workshop, into fuel scoops. Then the entire squadron can be spike ready shortly after we drill into a system."

"In addition, having three of the same class of ship in the squadron would likely confuse the enemy into thinking we might be a convey or merchant fleet since the Knarr's started life as cargo freighters. It will be a nasty surprise when the three of us can unleash firepower to protect ourselves and maybe deliver an nasty surprise via boarding action."

- "True, in case we'd spike into an unexpectedly hostile system we could be out again before the enemy could react on us. The reason i had initially designed the merchant was to have a place to repair and refuel so that we would not get taken out by attrition."

Free Merchant 500k

Power=10 Max
Mass= 15 max

Spike Drive-2:   2/2 100k
Cargo Space: -/2 (Holds 40 tons raw materials or 20HP repairs)
Extended Stores: -/2 25k
Armory: -/- 20k
Ship's Locker: -/- 20k
Lifeboats: -/1 25k
Fuel Scoops: 2/2 50k
Contextual Camo Field: 4/2 500k
Fuel Bunkers: -/3 75k
Workshop: 2/1 5k

Total Power = 10
Total Mass = 15

Total Cost: 1.32m credits

- "So with my own proposed alteration included, this would be the current setup of the merchant? The second would not need the Workshop since it is already present on the first, so it could have Mining equipment instead and refill the stock of raw materials for repairs instead. Since the Wartooth would have a functional Survey Sensor Array already, there would be no problem in having the Wartooth tell the merchants where to set up so they would not need an Array of their own."

- "As for new ships, i think the way forward as a fighting force would be the Frigates. A Wraith shuttle and a Cargo lighter take up the same amount of space, so there would be no problem with swapping one for the other in a future addition, and we retain our strike power. Or, leave it out altogether if the two current shuttles are capable of fulfilling transportation duties, and swap out the Plasma Beams for Flak Emitter Batteries, in order to create a dedicated anti-projectile vessel. But that is talk for the future, and there would be little to gain from spending budget we do not yet have."

She tapped on her datapad again, calculating something.

- "So that would leave us... 360k over. We'd have enough of the original budget left over to pay for nearly half the Wartooth's refit. I wouldn't mind sharing the remainder. Zazan, are you chipping in as well? Ehm... Also, does this complete the budget allocations? There are some other topics i'd like to discuss as well."
This message was last edited by the player at 19:35, Tue 24 Aug 2021.

"I have no further shipyard concerns. I would like to here if my fellow Bothlisian has any ship refitting he would like to get done."

"Well, we are 360k over without ze second Free merchant so I am assuming its acquisition will wait for another successful cruise.

As I mentioned, I cannot find a single improvement I would do on ze ships provided by the Hegemony. Ze crew on the other hand, I have...opinions."

Diana gave a brief nod, happy to have finalized the budgeting talks. Though she wanted to discuss some other points related to expenditures as well, by far the largest part of it was now done. She listened with interest when Zazan wanted to bring up the crew.

- "Oh? Have you been having trouble? Admittedly i seem to have lucked out with the Valdar, but by all means, share your opinions. We might even find something to improve and come out better because of it -- i know the same holds true for the designs we agreed upon a moment ago."

"A penal crew from Athlas III and a...imperfect XO from Lynn's world made ze last cruise quite interesting. I am scheduled for several cyberware surgeries to keep up with all of the...excitement.

But that is of little concern to you my dear captains. Regarding how my crew works with ze squadron, I am considering purchasing power armor for the Randver's Astral Troopers. Is there any other gear that should be procured?"

"Also we should bring on several translators or linguists to assist in deciphering ze ancient language...Hindi.

"Agreed. If we can secure powered armor for troopers, that would be a big boon. The problem would be ensuring that all of the personnel we are equipping have the required training to effectively use them. Do we know who the replacement crews will be yet?"

Diana perked up when she heard Zazan bring up gear.

- "It's good that you bring it up. I wanted to suggest outfitting the entire crew of King Squadron in Combat Field Uniforms with accompanying shields. It's the heaviest armor available that does not impact work efficiency, and the shields can be placed within easy access. The cost would be about ₡ 1100 per crew member, and the added armor would give them some degree of protection from internal shrapnel as ships take combat damage. Back on Sable One, i can say with certainty that only due to immediate medical aid i had two wounded to report, rather than two fatalities. Not to mention, if we run into our Atomic Era friends again, the shields should be able to withstand most of their small arms fire, which should even out their numerical advantage somewhat, and i doubt they'd take heavy weaponry along into boarding actions."

She picked up her glass and motioned at Zazan with it, before taking a swig.

- "Powered armor... If your troopers have training in it, go right ahead. We're delving into personal funds now, so while i wouldn't stoop to telling you how to spend it, consider the Squadron-wide Combat Field Uniforms and shields as my recommendation for a standard gear upgrade. Are there any suggestions on weaponry?"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:00, Tue 24 Aug 2021.

"I can agree to the squadron-wide uniform upgrades. I think it is a solid idea. As for weaponry, I think that our standard armory components should work, but I would like to find out if we can get that SpecOps detachment to nail down anything more specific. Some of the heavier weapons like cutters or LMGs would likely do as much damage aboard a ship as the boarding party in the wrong hands."

"Considering ze boarding actions of the last cruise and fittings of our new ships, we should....invest in ze training of our Troopers to use power armor.

Powered armor is invaluable against more primitive societies who cannot punch through its defenses.

I believe we should allocate funds for each ship to be so equipped. At minimum I will be ensuring ze Randver is trained and outfitted.

As for weaponry Captain Hargrave, armories aboard ze corvettes are well stocked with whatever we will need.

Shields on ze other hand will do nothing to negate the power of ship-borne weapons so only boarding parties without power armor would make use of them."

OOC: Powered Armor negates damage from TL3 and below and the Armories provide any TL4 weapons and armor needed, I am assuming 10k powered armor is not stocked in the the typical armory. Shields on ship crew that never see small arms fire can be omitted. Power armor and shields do not stack
This message was last edited by the player at 17:45, Wed 25 Aug 2021.

"Powered armor will be a force multiplier for us. Something that we will definitely need considering our current limited capacity. That said, we will save some funding by switching my Wraith shuttle to boarding shuttles. With the extra 250 thousand, we can dig into training and outfitting the squadron personnel. As for the extra bunks, what would your opinions be on hiring PMCs to fill in the gap if regular forces are not available to us."

OOC: Remember that Exosuit 1 is required for powered armor. Assault suits are only 1 AC more and only require Exosuit 0.

Zazan checks his notes "er....my apologies dear captains, I meant to say assault suits.

OOC: whoops! assault suits still have the tl3 and below invulnerability so lets go with those.

- "I second Assault suits and training for all crewmembers, ourselves included. The advantage is too great to pass up on. Full Power Armor may provide problems with movement within the ship corridors, Assault suits tend to be less bulky while offering approximately the same level of protection from both weaponry and hard vacuum. Should this happen, we would have up to six hours to send out the Wraith and boarding shuttles to recover spaced crew. We would issue a set of Glowbugs to all of them to make them easier to spot. On the topic of boarding shuttles, keep in mind they would only be able to cut through thin armor (5 or less) or make use of existing hull breaches in order to be effective."

Diana though on Oscar's suggestion for a while.

- "PMCs... Probably not. They're well trained and experienced, true, but i'm guessing Command wants to keep the events from our previous mission silent until they know what to make of it. Getting exterior forces involved might prove counterproductive to that goal. I'd also stock the armory with Combat Field Uniforms and shields for all crew regardless, keeping the Assault suits for when we are about to enter ship combat. It would save on power cells, and we do not yet know how many of the crew would pass their Exosuit classes."

- "I had also been looking at purchasing a vehicle, but we would not have the room to stow it so we would have to make due with the Wraith for ground missions until we can get our hands on a cruiser, which would also have Hydroponics. I could reach out to my friend again, see if i can write something up? Expect a cost of twelve to fifteen million though, i agree with Oscar's initial assessment that a Logistics Ship would fit our initial needs much better than an actual Battlecruiser would, so we'd be needing at least a couple more Frigates to properly back it up."

OOC: S takes up 1 ton, M 10 and L 50 tons of cargo space, we don't have that unless we'd be cutting into the merchants. Cruisers have 200 tons per mass unit though, as opposed to 20 per for Frigates.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:56, Wed 25 Aug 2021.

"Fair point. PMCs may not be the answer for quality boarding operatives. I would like to point out that while we might have the finances to train and equip everyone in the squadron for Assault Suits, I do not think that expecting them to execute normal duties during combat in such bulky armor is feasible. Certainly if a ship is repelling boarders, but not during ship to ship combat. I would suggest sticking with the Combat Field Uniforms for standard combat operations."

Oscar looked at his datapad again and had a stray thought about his upcoming surgery before it vanished and he continued.

"That would leave a handful of assault suits per ship. Everyone can still get qualified on them, which we help limit gaps in the case of casualties. As Zazan pointed out, everyone should be ably equipped from the armory. Granted, I will still work to ensure that our raiding force is as well equipped and trained as possible. I would also like to note that my recent foray into Sable-One has led me to filling in some gaps in my own knowledge. When the raiding force is deployed, I will be joining them as a technical expert and combat engineer. Again, for now, we will be woefully short-handed during boarding operations unless we can disable the enemy first. If that happens, my raiders can be supplemented from the troopers in the other crews."

He stopped and looked at the other captains. "I just want to make sure we are good with the idea of having a dedicated boarding vessel. Now would be the time to discuss the overall plan of attack for future missions and ensure that we have several different plans. We are still in the planning phase for refits, so changes can certainly be made if we don't think that this is a realistic goal."

- "Well.. Personally, i think you'd be better off with Boarding Tubes rather than Boarding Shuttles. In my experience, the main focal point of a boarding action is not only the quality of the troopers, but how many you can deliver in the shortest span of time to overwhelm an enemy crew. It would also enable it to be useful against ships with thicker armor. The remaining Mass-Unit could be assigned to cargo space to allow us to bring more raw materials for repairs."

Diana frowned for a moment, remembering something.

- "Which reminds me: Now that we're discussing gear, may i suggest having a Comm server on every ship, in case of Comms failure? I know mine has seen a lot of use in the previous mission, so having it available in every ship's locker would be a sound precaution to make. Similarly, a Personal Drone would allow for damage assessments without risking the crew in an EVA walk, or in potentially hazardous areas."

"A good suggestion," Oscar said when Diana mentioned the boarding tubes.

"I think Comm Servers are going to be a required item, if only because I might be biased about losing comms during battle," Oscar replied with a chuckle.

Zazan nods generally to the proposals.

"Have we has any word on whether OMNI or OSI will be providing an intelligence liason?

Following ze debriefing from ze last cruise, I am expecting ze spooks will take quite active...interest in any future patrols in ze area.

Diana gave a firm nod in response, already taking out her datapad again.

- "Okay, so our total crew count would num-- Ahh crud."

She let out an audible sigh as she leaned back, hitting her back against the back of her chair.

- "You know what we forgot? You're converting the Wartooth to a boarding ship, which is fine mind you, but for a Knarr-class, 'Extended Life Support' would still mean you'd have about half the total crew of a regular Patrol Boat... Marines included. You're not going to be boarding anything with those numbers."

With a soft murmur of 'Back to the drawing board', she picked up her datapad again.

- "Okay, so since we're planning to have a merchant anyway, i could convert the Wartooth to become that merchant, and you could transfer to the Angantyr. That means we'd have a Frigate and a double refit, for the following totals:"

Budget 8.5m official + PC contribution

Frigate Hull 4m

Spike Drive-2:   2/2 100k
Extended Stores: -/2 25k
Advanced Fire Control System 1/- 100k
Advanced Fire Control System 1/- 100k
Auto-Targeting System 1/- 100k
Armory: -/- 20k
Ship's Locker: -/- 20k
Lifeboats: -/1 25k
Wraith Shuttle: -/2 300k

Weapons
Plasma Beam: 5/2 700k (2 hardpoints)
Plasma Beam: 5/2 700k (2 hardpoints)

Defenses
Hardened Polyceramic Overlay: -/2 250k
Thermablative Layering -/2 500k

Total Power = 15
Total Mass = 15

Armor 15, effectively 20 due to Polyceramic Overlay.

Total Cost: 6.94m credits

-----

Wartooth Refit:

Spike Drive-2: 2/2 100k
Fuel Bunkers -/3 75k (+50k)
Atmo Config: -/2 50k
Extended Stores: -/2 25k
Armory: -/- 20k
Ship's Locker: -/- 20k
Lifeboats: -/1 25k
Survey Sensor Array 2/1 50k
Workshops 2/1 5k
Cargo Space -/2 (40 tons)
Contextual Camo Field: 4/2 500k
Fuel Scoops: 2/2 50k

Weapons
Reaper Battery: 4/1 100k

Defenses
Augmented Plating -/2 500k

Total Power = 10
Total Mass = 15

Total Refit Cost: 600k

-----

Angantyr Refit:

Spike Drive-2:   2/2 100k
Atmo Config: -/2 50k
Extended Stores: -/2 25k
Boarding Tubes: -/1 50k
Armory: -/- 20k
Ship's Locker: -/- 20k
Lifeboats: -/1 25k
Extended Life Support: 2/2 50k
Advanced Fire Control: 1/- 100k

Weapons
Plasma Beam: 5/2 700k

Defenses
None

Total Power = 10
Total Mass = 10

Total Refit Cost: 150k

Total Cost: 7.69m -- 810k below budget

- "Which grants us plenty of budget left over, and arguably enough to get that second Knarr-class as a new ship. I had to leave the Survey Sensor Array out of the Angantyr refit in order to retain its Plasma Beams, but regular scanners should suffice for asteroids anyway and we'd have plenty of stored material to begin with. Not to mention, we'd be entering a system with six units of fuel in storage, for six ships: Exactly the amount we'd need. We'd refuel and the merchants would set the scoops to work."

Free Merchant 500k

Power=10 Max
Mass= 15 max

Spike Drive-2:   2/2 100k
Cargo Space: -/2 (Holds 40 tons raw materials or 20HP repairs)
Extended Stores: -/2 25k
Armory: -/- 20k
Ship's Locker: -/- 20k
Lifeboats: -/1 25k
Fuel Scoops: 2/2 50k
Contextual Camo Field: 4/2 500k
Fuel Bunkers: -/3 75k
Mining Equipment: 1/1 25k

Total Power = 9
Total Mass = 15

Total Cost: 1.34m credits

Total Cost with second Merchant: 9.03m -- 530k over budget
This message was last edited by the player at 22:35, Wed 25 Aug 2021.

"When I had originally asked to transfer, I had not taken the crew size into account. Granted, I also was so focused on remaining with the Wartooth that I tried to stay within a boundary that was of my own doing. Refitting the Angantyr makes much more sense for the purpose we I envisioned. Having a dedicated platoon for raiding and boarding forces would be much more adventurous that a small squad."

"That pointed out, I have no changes to your proposal here. I would like to volunteer 405 thousand credits to the new total. This will cover 200 thousand for the ships and I would like to ensure that the Marine platoon is trained for and provided powered armor. That would be an estimated total of 205 thousand, but I have more to give if required."

"I can split ze remaining 330k with Commander Hersson at 165 each for ship acquisition and refit."

- "Yes, for boarding actions you and Zazan could coordinate your efforts since both the Randver and the Angantyr are equipped with Boarding Tubes. Those are more combined Marines than a standard Patrol Boat has crew, plus they'd all be in assault armor, AND attacking from multiple directions -- there would be very little capable of making a stand against that."

She picked up her Datapad again.

- "Okay, so: The new Frigate has a crew of 40, another 40 for the Angantyr refit, the Valdar and Randver both have 20 and another 12 for the two Merchants, makes 132 crew members in total. That's ₡ 145,200 in Combat Field Uniforms and modern shields, and an additional ₡ 33,000 for Exosuit Training for everyone makes ₡ 178,200 in all. Add ₡ 5,000 for five Comm Servers, ₡ 792 for a set of six glowbugs as standard issue to use for emergencies such as power failure makes... a little under  ₡ 184,000 total. Add to that the ₡ 530,000 we're over budget and that makes ₡ 714,000. Assault armor for everyone would put the total on roughly ₡ 1.5 million. Technically doable, but assuming Marines would roughly number a quarter of the total crew that would put the price tag on ₡ 912,000. With Oscar's ₡ 405,000 that leaves ₡ 253,500 each for Zazan and i to chip in, or ₡ 502,000 from all three of us if we want to get the assault armors for everyone."

She then looked at Zazan and Oscar.

- "The assault armor numbers are estimates, but anything below 36% of the crew should keep the total personal contribution below a million, ship costs included."

"Oscar nodded and leaned back in his chair, finishing the now cold beverage he had been working on. "I guess the only thing to do now is to finalize the paperwork and put the orders in for processing. Unless I am missing something?"

- "Actually, i'd like to implement a Squadron XO. I suggested doing as much on Black, and the logical choice is one of you. There are times when i need to sleep or be otherwise unavailable, and appointing a Squadron XO to take command during my absence would streamline the chain of command immensely."

Diana folded her hands, and leaned forward on the table.

- "There are benefits to both of you: Zazan has years of experience that i still lack, and Oscar can provide a counter to my tendency to be overly cautious. I would like for you to decide among yourselves who gets to be Second and Third in Command. I have no preference myself, and the position would rely on how well you could reach a consensus without me being able to break a deadlock anyway."

Zazan raises his remaining eyebrow at Hersson then turns to Hargrave "Eh.....what would you prefer Captain?

Oscar put up his hands jokingly like he was backing away from something. "It's all yours. I am having enough trouble transitioning to the role of an active duty Ship Master as it is. In any case, you are the more senior officer and certainly more capable in the field. I put myself in two dangerous situations that should have killed me. I'm not about to let myself be rewarded for that."

Diana nodded in response.

- "Very well then. Zazan, you are now my Squadron XO and second in command of King Squadron. Oscar, you will be King Squadron's Marine Tactical Officer, and have operational command of all Marines in King Squadron. If you're going to be in the thick of it alongside them, then at the very least you could help me streamline the process by placing them all under your command to reduce response time. As for the assault suits, i'm going to err on the side of caution and have suits ready for half of them: Twenty on the Frigate and the refitted Angantyr, ten on the Valdar and Randver each, and another two each on the new Merchant and refitted Wartooth given their likelihood of EVA maneuvers. That would total 64 suits, bringing the total amount to ₡ 1,098,000. Taking off Oscar's ₡ 405,000 and the ₡ 2,000 i already spent on shields for the Valdar crew prior to heading out, that leaves Zazan and my share on ₡ 345,500 each."

She clasped her hands together, taking a deep breath.

- "And... i think that's everything. I'll try to get a telepath or two assigned to King Squadron as Psych Officers, there's a good chance for success given that we've got a fair amount of crew rescued from the Sigfred, and their abilities could come in useful talking to POWs even without Hindi loaded up in the torcs as they are masters in interpreting body language."
This message was last edited by the player at 16:17, Thu 26 Aug 2021.

Oscar nodded. "That seems appropriate, given the circumstances. However, as our new Commander, I would like to get your input on a topic."

Oscar inhaled and calmed himself before continuing. "Considering the...things that we encountered out there, I would like your permission to look into filling our assault force with warbots. I know a few people in the industry and would foot the bill for them. The expanded life support can be used for the maintenance cradles. Plus, it would limit the exposure of good spacers to unknown and alien threats. We can also keep a few in storage for repairs or replacements. I would be able to exert tactical control in the field."

Diana thought on it for a moment.

- "No objections per se, and they would be categorized as Marine gear so they would fall under your new command, but i would like to see the specs before signing off on them. I'd need to know what they're capable of first."

Oscar smiled. "Of course. I'll make a few calls and see what models I can find in the right numbers. I'll forward a proposal for your approval before refits are complete."

- "Good. We may even end up discussing modifications like we've done for the ships, two sets of eyes see more than one."

Diana reached for her mug, found it empty and went over to the bar for a refill, asking Oscar and Zazan if they wanted anything and bringing it back for them if they did. Once she had sat back down, she lifted her now full mug again.

- "Then, with all the bookkeeping out of the way, let us finally start celebrating our successful foray into the unknown, and our triumphant return. Cheers."

Oscar raised his own mug, having taken Diana up on the refill. "Cheers!"

"Clear Water, Clean Air!" Zazan lifts his drink in the Bothislian tradition.

"Looks like you both will make a true spacer out of me yet."

"So ze Angantyr will be helped by Hargrave, and I assume you will transfer to ze Frigate with your crew? If so we'll need captains for ze Valdar and the Wartooth.

Would the XOs of ze Valdar and ze Angantyr qualify?"

- "The XO of the Valdar would, her previous Captain was an incompetent so she is capable of running a ship, though i will ask her opinion rather than assume her repsonse. The Angantyr's XO i know too little about, though Oscar's previous XO was a casualty so he may just want to transfer over and retain its current XO. The Wartooth's existing crew of five should more or less fill the gaps in the Angantyr's roster, and given the performance reports, the Angantyr crew would benefit from the incoming Wartooth crew's experience. The refitted Wartooth and other merchant shouldn't require an experienced crew given their non-combat function anyway, so i see no issue with staffing them with incoming crew."

She ran some of the numbers in her mind.

- "The Sigfred had twelve survivors, though Karsen was one of them. Since the Wartooth and new merchant would only require a crew of six, should we assign the Sigfred crew to them? Admittedly the situation was a little hectic at the time so i am unclear whether the Sigfred's XO was among those rescued, but they could use the quiet and the confidence boost routine would bring. Or i could fold them into the crew of the new Frigate and have them all in one place for easier Psych Eval."

"If I may, I am looking at promoting within the Wartooth's crew to XO. That said, my Helms officer has proved a very capable individual and I will recommend she screen for command as soon as possible. My tactical officer is someone that I want to groom for command as well. Might I recommend slotting the Angantyr's XO to command the Wartooth, allow my Helm officer to become XO for the Valdar and get some training in the role? I will be taking my tactical officer to my new command as XO, unless his interview for the position is woefully dismal."

Diana hmm'ed for a moment.

- "That IS a possibility, and i will let you decide for the Angantyr and the Wartooth, though admittedly if my XO chooses to captain the Valdar she will most likely promote a member of the crew she knows to her XO as the position would be new to her as well."

She tilted her head, contemplating something.

- "Why not do the same thing i just did for King Squadron? You'd captain the Angantyr with your tactical officer as XO, and your Helm officer as assistant XO -- essentially Third in Command -- since both of them have no prior experience at being an XO? That way, when you're on a boarding mission your tactical officer becomes acting Captain, and your Helm officer acting XO, allowing you to fully focus on your Marines. And the Angantyr's XO could captain the Wartooth with an XO of their choosing. If the Sigfred's XO survived i'd have them captain the other merchant with an XO of their choice from the Sigfred crew. Then, once we get a second Frigate, we'll see how the new Captains and XOs have performed and reshuffle accordingly."

She made some notes, drawing arrows between them.

- "Should the Valdar's crew and XO choose to follow me to the new Frigate, i think... it would be better to have someone from the Randver promoted to captaincy. That way, field promotions would be distributed evenly. Zazan, in the event that the Valdar is available, would you have a suitable candidate in mind?"

"While the XO of ze Randver is capable, I would like to....keep an eye on her if possible. My crew is lacking in discipline, they wouldn't survive back on Both.

And from experience, it is better for an Ensign to be a new face for a crew, lest past...relationships meddle with ze officer's training."

"You cannot blame me for looking out for my crew. I will conduct interviews and have my final decision regarding my choices within the week."

- "Understood. I'll talk to my XO and take your advice under consideration. Though, in all fairness, a familiar face can ease the transition to a different role."

As the discussion quiets down Zazan gets to work writing on his data pad between sips and contemplative stares at the ceiling. After a few minutes he sighs. "Writing to next of kin is never something one gets used to."

Oscar shook his head. “Diana and I were talking about that very problem before you joined us. I feel like I should do something more than write a damned letter but I just don’t know what.”

Zazan shakes his head."It is not your place to foster every war orphan, provide for every widow and widower, nor wipe every tear.

You lead your men into harms way and spent lives so ze lives of your comrades and innocents would be spared. We live in service to ze Hegemony, for all of its good and all of its faults. Hegemony is now responsible for ze loss felt by ze kin of ze fallen. And believe me when I say that ze fighting and the dying is best left to ze soldiers, ze sailors, no one else.

Your role now is to provide context. Why and how ze life of a loved one was spent in service to ze Hegemony, its Navy, and its citizens. You are the human voice to an entity.


The other commanders would remember Zazan's service record with the Bothislian Special forces and his counter-terrorism operations before the war with the Brotherhood.

Diana nodded in agreement with Zazan.

- "Agreed. While this may sound incredibly harsh, what else are you going to do, invite them for dinner? Yes, a letter sounds barebones and impersonal, but anything else is going to feel awkward. Not to mention, if you act guilty, people are going to suspect you are guilty, and that's a very bad place to be. Yes, if you had sent someone else your XO would still be alive, but you'd be here struggling with writing a letter either way."

She took a deep breath, leaning forward again.

- "Look, you're not the one that ordered your ship fired on. That cruiser did, and the culprits are in custody. You can't give out details and they know that, but just letting them know the ones responsible have been apprehended is vague enough not to break any rules and would give them a little piece of mind. The Hegemony would issue a press statement sooner or later anyway, there is no way they'd be able to keep this quiet with the amount of unknown ship designs they hauled back to Hegemony space and the sudden interest in Hindi that will follow."

Zazan furrows a brow, "Ze Hegemony can be quite adept at keeping information away from prying eyes when it sets its mind to it.

And if you permit me to be....candid Commander, your words would suggest Captain Hargrave oversaw some workplace accident rather than lost a subordinate in a conflict of sovereignty.

We are leaders who order Men and Women to face death...It would be wise to treat those consequences with respect lest you lose respect yourself."

Diana nodded. She had tried her hand at this 'honey and the stick' method she had heard about, but didn't think it was working out.

- "My apologies. I did not mean to insinuate that the matter should not be treated with respect, merely that Oscar shouldn't blame himself for it. That road leads to hesitation and second-guessing and, though my own experience was onboard an Academy ship, i've found there is little that hurts morale more than an indecisive officer."

Oscar raised a hand in a gesture of easiness. "I understood what you meant, Diana. I guess it is harder for me because I have not seen combat before nor have I trained and prepared myself for combat duty. In addition, I don't think that I expected our first mission to be so intense or critical to the future of the Hegemony. Hell, Arne and I were taking bets on whether it would be pirates or Brotherhood, not some unknown factions that may or may not be related to each other. It gets so muddled in my head. On salvage teams, you work together for years. Rank doesn't really come into play unless something goes wrong and even then you're only disciplined so much unless you try to hide a secret or create one by covering something up."

He hung his head for a minute before inhaling sharply and brushing his hand through his hair. "You're both right. I know you are. It just doesn't make it any damn easier."

Zazan's jaw clenched and unclenched a few times before relaxing.

"No it does not, but perhaps we can talk something that is more breath of fresh air, are either of you providing commendations?"

Diana nodded in response.

- "Yes, two Wounded Hearts for the two injured aboard the Valdar. I... could give out Starwings for participating in the boarding action as well, but i am hesitant, both because my squad saw no living enemy during said boarding action and because i feel it is somewhat gauche to award myself a commendation."

She then turned to Oscar.

- "Before the topic is dropped, i would prefer to say one more thing on it. Oscar, you're planning on going to lead Marines in boarding actions. No matter how well trained and equipped they are, you will lose troops. This is fact, boarding actions are notoriously dangerous for a reason. In other words, you risk writing a lot more of those letters, so please do us a favor and sleep on it for a night, and ask yourself if this is something you really want, or if you're trying to compensate for something. Yes or no, i will accept your decision and not think lesser of you because of it, but i want to make sure."

"I am going to be recommending the Bronze Nova [Bronze Star] for Arty, considering he helped keep the Wartooth in action until his death. I'll let the brass explain to me why they might argue against awarding it to him. He's earned his honors, that's for damn sure," he said before pausing a moment. "I'm going to put in a Naval Achievement Commendation for Scarborough, my Helm. She showed remarkable raw skill in the fight and she deserves recognition for it."

Oscar played with his mustache a few seconds before leaning on the table towards Diana. His tone was quiet but not defensive or offended. "I'm not a Marine. Hell, I am not combat trained. I am going to keep as many of them alive as I can. Not out of some sense of noble duty, but because they deserve to come home. Not all of them will live through the tour, you're right, but the Saints and Secret as my witnesses I will bring every last one of them home. If I have to write more letters then I will be damn sure it is not the only thing their loved ones have to grieve over. I have seen what happens when a suit breaks and a salvager is lost. When you have to tell a distraught love one that there is no body because it is too dangerous to recover or pressure turned it into a meat tin. You can't fight the Void or environments, but you can fight the enemy and that is what I want to do. Because fighting along with the Marines is something that I can do to prevent more death the only way I know."

Zazan tries to keep the emotions from his face, though a conflicted look might be perceived if either captain looked closely enough.

"And we'll make sure to get you home in one piece yourself.

Turning to Hersson,
"I do recommend Starwings for all who suited up and went into ze maw of ze hostile ships including yourself and Captain Hargrave. Such an action must be commended, not diminished or qualified by contact with ze enemy.

I will also recommend a commendation for Gunner Bayali of ze Randver for her single-handed destruction of Draken-1.

Diana thought for a moment, before replying.

- "Hmm... Okay then. I'll recommend my squad for Starwings, though i'm going to ask one of you to recommend me for my own Starwings. Giving medals to myself really doesn't sit well with me. I'd also like to put the crew of the Valdar up for a Meritorious Unit Commendation, for rescuing enemy combatants along with survivors of the Sigfred, providing medical aid without prejudice and fair treatment of POWs, while the ship had 56 people aboard on a maximum crew complement of 20, with 24 of them POWs in holding cells, and 12 in Medical from the Sigfred. Even with careful rationing and the air scrubbers on full blast, life support was running on fumes when reinforcements arrived and i'd like to see that degree of conduct under pressure rewarded."

She looked at the other two captains.

- "Not to mention, we'll also have a lot of Astral Trooper badges from getting the entire crew Exosuit training."

Oscar gave Zazan a nod in thanks and turned to Diana. "I can't say I blame you, but I don't mind putting you in for your wings."

I do hope that at least one of the deck officers in ze squadron will know how to play Chess. This last cruise was quite disappointing. I had worked through all of my remote moves by ze time we spiked into the Ultima Black System.

I am also quite curious as to what the data records showed in ze stations drone.

Secrets....many secrets there.

Diana gave Oscar a nod in thanks before turning to Zazan.

- "Can't really say it's my kind of game either, sorry. I could ask around for you though?"

She took a deep breath, followed by an audible sigh.

- "Indeed. To be fair, i don't know if we'd get sent out to Ultima Black again after this. On one side, us and our crews are 'in the know', but on the other i could just as well see Command decide that encountering not one, but two individual factions allied with each other on the border of Hegemony space, right out of a war with the Brotherhood, may be well above our pay grade. I'd say chances are abut even myself, though Ultima Black is going to get locked down tight either way."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:50, Wed 01 Sept 2021.

"Where else would you send a squadron with first hand experience with a hostile enemy? Back into ze fray iz where I believe we will go. If not Ultima black, it'll be in ze sector.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:27, Sat 04 Sept 2021.

- "Unknowns, not hostiles."

Diana looked at Zazan as she corrected him.

- "Fact of the matter is, we know next to nothing about either faction, to the point of not even speaking the same language. It would make sense for the Hegemony to deescalate the situation until they know what they're dealing with, and the best way to do that is by not waving the people that took out a cruiser and its escorts in their faces. It depends on their foreign policy, and we've brought back a LOT of people to interrogate: Even odds."

Zazan shrugs "I am not a politician or a noble but to me if an unknown ship fires first rather than signal or communicate, it seems like a hostile to me."

“Gunboat diplomacy has worked too often not to be at least considered. Hostile or not, we have proven that we can beat them. We were caught off guard and still were able to come out victorious but at high cost. I have a feeling that the Hegemony will likely go to a shoot first mentality to prevent more subterfuge tactics like the nuke trap.”

"Speaking of nobles, ze whispers in the ducts told me that our patrol has generated quite some attention from ze fairer classes of our lovely gasball.

Pride is also felt for ze prodigal children of Covas Sparka and Thakun, though  ze children should write and visit more."

A raised eyebrow betrays silent mirth through dry delivery.

- "Makes sense. We got an unexpectedly good result for the Hegemony, it's only logical that a number of people are going to flock around and peck at the breadcrumbs. It's a fad -- it'll pass in time."

Diana smirked before hiding it behind a sip of her drink.

- "I will send them a letter though, but later, so i get to sign it with Cmdr. Hersson. I feel i am allowed that luxury."

Oscar revealed a genuine smile at the mention of his home. “Do you think that it means we can get some decent slamball seats that won’t require us to sell a frigate? I could use a crowd and some overpriced food to relax.”

Diana failed to suppress a chuckle at hearing Oscar's comment.

- "Heh, if a crowd and overpriced food is what you were looking for, you wouldn't have had a reason to leave Bothislia."

She thought for a moment.

- "Note to self: When the time and budget would come to allow us to get that Cruiser, reassign some cargo space into a slamball arena and allow the crew to form teams."

Zazan's screen shows a Chess match, possibly with some of the Station's personnel while he chimes in,, "Back in my day, you put on your enviro-suit and played Slamball outside like our ancestors. Our sailors could use some extra EVA training."