"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?"