IM notes "Uh, how much of our funds do we have left after the purchase?"

"Probably not enough to come even close. I have 45,000 credits in the bank. I do have 4 ship's shares left after my buy in."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:20, Fri 26 Apr 2019.

By moving the Dust Runner over to a non-berth area of the starport, you avoid the berthing fees, but it wasn't really being enforced anyway as the point of them was to get ships to move it and out quickly. With so little traffic coming in, the berths weren't really needed.

Additionally, due to the war, all mortgage payments were suspended for the duration because the banks realized you couldn't earn any income if you couldn't leave the planet. And what would the bank do with all these impounded ships, sitting there requiring the bank to pay berthing fees and maintenance.

Also, for the above reason (and a few others), you were able to negotiate an impressive deal to swap the two ships. Government subsidizing of lost revenues and such enabled you to swap the two ships through a broker who did some financial prestidigitation to reduce the owned mortgages. He could quite get rid of all of it, but the Darrian Far Trader has a lot of remaining value.

Clive had originally quote a 100MCr price for the ship, but he'd set that price to scare away anyone who wasn't really interested. The actual book value of the trader was around 68MCr.

So, at the end of the 3 years, you've managed to get the engines fixed... since there wasn't any great rush to do that and most of the engineers had their hands full with the war effort, they could work on it in their spare time... at a reduced rate.

You've done enough odd jobs to keep up on the maintenance.

You are now down to a crew of 7: Luise, Arc, Harry, IM, Kraig, Roland and Steve.

Once given the okay, you've got about a month before departure to work on any last minute details... such as buy cargo, if that's what you want.

You also still have a standing offer to move the Baron off world.

"Do we want to add a hard point and a turret for self defense?" he asked, "Or let that go for now and concentrate on making money? I realize I'm new to the ship, just joining the crew a few years ago."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:32, Fri 19 Apr 2019.

Kraig spent a great deal of time training and working out as they had a good deal of downtime.  He also immersed himself in the trading and brokerage operations in the system to keep his skills sharp.  He also went out and shopped around to upgrade his equipment and weapons.  When the others had gathered back at the ship he looked over their findings.  "Good work overall guys.  I would say we upgrade our weapons as much as we can afford.  If we're going to be doing borderline work the weapons will be helpful." He considered their options.  "I can broker some cargo if we want to start out with something straightforward.  Also, do we want to take the Baron off world?"

Harry spent a lot of time learning the Trade and Broker side of the operation to help out and astrogation for space to go along with his gunner and comms and computer skills plus he spent time learning a few languages.

"I have money to help out as well, I have my share in the ship plus four more that can be used for upgrades and cargo for us. No harm in making some credits on the side."

"What do we name her? We have to rename the ship, it may as well be a good name.

"I have money toward upgrades too, what do we want to do and how much will it cost?"

"How much does he offer for the move and where to?" The Baron
This message was last edited by the player at 13:16, Sat 27 Apr 2019.

"Let's decide on what kind of weapons we want to put on board, and then see what they cost," Luise suggests.

"If we can't afford what we want... cash up front, we might be able to get a government subsidy because of the war. Otherwise, we could just add to the mortgage. I'm reluctant to go that way because we just got out from under our last one. So, it's clear ether from here on out."

"As for the Baron... he still hasn't made up his mind where he wants to go. The entire sector is vulnerable... or already an amber world."

"He's limited to Regina Subsector because of his title. His options are: Feri, Efate, Boughene, Pixie and Kinorb."

"Anyway, we're getting ready to fly, so, Kraig... do you want a specific destination for your cargo first, or are you willing to take a chance on what's available and hope we can sell it where we go? I'm currently thinking we should head for Feri."

"Single turret laser, add a missile or sandcaster? What do we want? I have four ship shares besides the million credits I used to buy in, that's 4 million credits, what do others have on account?"
This message was last edited by the player at 14:19, Sun 28 Apr 2019.

"I vote for all of the above!" Steve chimed in.

"Seriously, though, lasers have more control. You start throwing missiles around and things just get destroyed. That's okay if you're the military trying to eliminate the enemy, but that's not what we're looking to do, right?"

"Two turrets, twin lasers in each, and a sandcaster."

"So, what's that add up to? 500,000Cr for each twin turret, a pair of pulse lasers for 1MCr, a pair of beam lasers for 2MCr, and a sandcaster for 250,000Cr."

"What's that? A total of 4.25MCr. Surely we can swing that."

"I can kick in a million credits with a share. Who else?"

"I don't know anything about ship weapons," Arc offers, "but I do know we've got 14 MCr in the ship's fund right now. If we accept Harry as a crewmember, that's 15 MCr."

"Any reason why we can't use that to buy weapons?"

"That's even better, I can do better if asked as well as far as shares go. I have money to invest. I had a good muster out from the Imperial Navy."

Kraig considered.  "I have seven shares I can throw into the mix.  I don't want to leave her with a mortgage hanging over our head.  I'd also rather use our ready cash for cargo and operating expenses."  He thought for a bit. "Let's go with the double lasers and a sand caster in two triples.  That's the best bet by far Steve."

When Louise spoke up Kraig nodded.  "Feri is fine.  I'll work my magic with that in mind.  If we can take the baron along as a paying customer or at least to garner good will then all the better."  He looked around.  "If everyone is ok with the weaponry we can cash in the shares into a common pot and we can go shopping."

"I'll keep one share for emergencies for now and invest 3 million from my shares. I'm an expert gunner by the way." Harry replied.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:59, Fri 03 May 2019.

IM offers 250k Credits in addition to his one share.

"That's 3.25 million more credits, I think we can afford to arm her. As it takes a while, we better get that started, two lasers and a sandcaster in twin turrets. We should be able to defend ourselves quite effectively." Harry says.

OOC - who's captain?

Kraig nodded.  "I'll get started on working out vendors and yard time to get the weapons installed.  Do we want to do any other engineering work while we're laid up?"

OOC: I think Louise might be the captain...

"Let me know if you need help Kraig, and I'll give you a hand. Do any of the drives need updated or overhauled? It would be bad to be stuck in deep space with a broken engine."
This message was last edited by the player at 13:34, Wed 08 May 2019.

"Are you impugning my skills, little man?" Roland says... with a twinkle in his eye. He's really trying to see what this new person is made of.

"I can keep this ship flying with bailing twine, chewing gum and duct tape if I have to! But it ain't never gotten to that point on my watch!"
This message was last edited by the player at 19:10, Wed 08 May 2019.

Harry smiled, "Never doubted you for a second, it's the ship that doesn't always play by the rules!" he says with a glint in his eye.

Kraig chuckled.  "We've kept up with the maintenance and the engines were overhauled but knowing engineers there is always more to do." He considered.  "Still with the weaponry, sand caster ammunition and the software upgrades to support the fire control we'll be spending plenty.  I'll also look at cargo."  Kraig looked to Harry.  "I'd be glad to have your help."

Harry nods and says "Tell me what you want me to do. I'm the new guy and don't want to step on anyone's toes."
This message was last edited by the player at 11:46, Thu 09 May 2019.

IM notes with a twinkle in his eye "We need to start looking for trouble to get into."

He pauses a moment "If we are going to shoot trouble for profit, we need to start finding a paying patron while finish up the ship."

In reply to Ignatius Maor (msg # 37):

"That sounds like a profitable idea. While we work on getting turrets and lasers you start looking for a patron. We'll help when we're done."