In reply to Kaengarr Ruzokh (msg # 164):

"Ms. Blue is a facilitator, she finds people who needs things done and then finds the people to get those things done. She hired our group for a mission, which we just recently accomplished. I thought about it and realized she would be a perfect source of information about the region and so I put her on retainer to keep us appraised of things we might find interesting."

Given that it's around lunch time, the Count invites everyone to have a bite with him, "There's a restaurant that I've heard of...highly recommended...I'll contact Ms. Blue to meet us there and we'll discuss the mission/future and have a great meal."

While walking towards the waiting vehicles he calls MS. Blue to arrange the meeting.

OOC: Assuming the group is joining him?

While not being hungry at all Khea joins CountDarrel. After all sticking with him might lead to her again working on a ship and being friends with someone in good standing in the Imperium clan will be useful.

During the drive Khea spends the time working her computer to find out who or what Darrians are and stares at disbelieve at the startchart showing the distance this ship must have travelled.

  Eating frequently was no trouble for Kaengarr - he was a Vargr, after all. Being in the dark about these mysterious arrangements was bothersome though, and he put that to the others during the ride. "We're going to hear about another mission from this person? I still don't know what the first one was about!"

In reply to Kaengarr Ruzokh (msg # 167):

Smiles at Mr. Ruzokh, "Well, I suppose the best way to answer that, it paid well, we succeeded, everyone survived and no lives were lost...and, I think we did something beneficial for this world. Seems like a win-win."

Making sure the driver has the directions correct for the Golden Griffin restaurant, The Count turns back to his companions, "A job well done, and I am sure with your contribution our group will be able to accomplish even more."

"I guess we will find out shortly what she has in mind." Walter says, as he joined the others in the ride over to the Golden Griffin.

In reply to Walter Zeller (msg # 169):

"I'm sure that it can't hurt to hear her out, and, there was a logical reason I spent 25,000 Cr on maintaining an ongoing relationship with her. Remember, the costs of obtaining information are finite, the cost of ignorance is much, much higher."

Sam was less convinced working for Ceruleanne again, would be a good idea. But given limited options she tagged along. She was even less happy about Darrelll becoming the boss. She wasn't sure if he had even acted in any military vids, let alone actually commanded. That could cost someone their life. That would need discussion.

  And one that they all refused to be specific about, which meant that there was something dodgy about it. That could easily end up coming back to haunt them... and now him, too.

OOC: After the ship inspections, concerning the
Modified Type A2 Far Trader Last Chance; 20 years old.
Assume payments; pay just MCr5.5.
Good condition; full software, weapons, extras.

What were the extras?

The more I've been thinking about it...I'm warming up to the "Long Shot".

Yes, it's a 100 years old ;-( But, the potential for it can't really be beat. There are some technical issues to still be hashed out (looking over some of the numbers concerning fuel), with time/effort/Credits/luck, we could really turn it into something special.

Getting rid of (selling) the
Maneuver Drive: Type J/Thrust-3:17tons 36,000,000 and the Auxiliary Bridge: 20tons 3,000,000, Mining Drones: 10tons 1,000,000, 1/2 the repair drones:9 tons 360,000,000 (?)

That gives us an additional 56tons (for whatever Note:-18/27 tons for 2/3 weeks maneuver fuel), and if we can sell those items at say 40%, that should cover the cost of the modifications + throw in a annual overhaul.

Then we could add more weapons, or better small craft, or let your imagination go wild.... ;-)

Anyways, like I said, the potential is there, if we give it some deep thought.

I am not so certain about the Long Shot. We still have to buy the ship first and it is very expensive because of its equipment which means we have to take a high loan.

The Jump-3 is unusable without Drop Tanks or more fuel space as we would die in jump space because the reactor would run out of fuel which also keeps life support running.
And then there are other things which need remodelling. Maybe additional turrets, making room for more cargo space, maybe upgrading the Launch or adding additional Fuel Processors (it currently would take nearly 4 days to refuel completely).

If all that is fixed it would be a great ship, but the up front costs are very high.

In reply to Kheaiftouaw (msg # 175):

Good points.

I've confirmed that if we have to buy the ship, we can use ship shares.

The fuel part is the easiest part to fix (and I think the GM might be willing to just directly convert 18 tons from the cargo to fuel.(?))

And any modifications regardless of ship type will be expensive. Keep in mind, SDBs were designed to be easily repaired/modified...that was one of their strong points in a long term siege environment.

I was kind of looking at it from it's uniqueness.

Trying to acquire all the perks the ship has, including that fact that it already has a large number of military/intelligence spec upgrades, would be very hard to accomplish IC. I doubt that there will be many opportunities like this to come along.

That in and of itself, in my opinion, is probably the greatest "selling point".

It already has most of the things that we were looking for as a "group ship", cargo space, weapons, serious sensors/electronics, luxuries, a monster computer, etc...

Like I mentioned previously, this is just an option, but, for me, after pondering  the pros/cons, the Long Shot stacks up very well against basically any other ship we might logically have the possibility of acquiring.

Plus it's pretty cool.

Not trying to convince anyone, just putting forth my thoughts on it.

You might consider talking to Valeska, as she was on the ship while it was operating. In some peculiar legal acrobatics, she seems to be the sole claimant on the ship now, though no one's quite sure what that means yet.




The Last Chance extras are:

Reflec armor
Self-sealing hull
Triple-lasers (2 pulse, 1 beam)
Model-3/bis-fib computer
Basic military electronics
Luxuries
1 repair drone
Software: Intellect, Evade-2, Fire control-3, Auto-repair-1

I like the idea but part of me is also thinking that a jump capable SDB is going to attract attention wherever it goes. We are less likely to get attacked by pirates but if they see how it is decked out, they might send a large force to take it or we could be in a system and get "conscripted" into their navy to fight some foe.

It's not an SDB any more. While it has a few remaining SDB perks, it is hardly the combat vessel that an SDB is. Normally, an SDB is a missile platform; that's what makes it so dangerous... having a couple hundred missiles to throw at the enemy.


Also, when Khea was making he adjustments to the jump drive in engineering, she did notice some peculiar configurations of both the jump drive and the maneuver drives. She didn't have a chance to really look it over; she chalked it up to both Human idiosyncracies and the fact that the ship was 100 years old, converted and modified.

We've seen the thing, so would it be fair to suppose that the Rock Dancer probably isn't the sort of ship we're after what with it being a miner?

  Between paying 12 mil+ at an auction and having to pay to refit the thing vs taking 5 mil now and putting it toward a suitable ship...

In reply to Kaengarr Ruzokh (msg # 180):

Definitely not the ship we need.

I'm also of the mindset for the quick Crs, although maybe we can milk it just a little more? (I know, greed is not a virtue.)

Using ship shares, and spending some hard cash, we could really trick out a ship...

More on this in IC.

That is correct but the scanners might show it as such due to its size, configuration, etc.

That's true, but remember that it is a bit larger than the standard SDB, though SDBs can run from 200-1000 tons. SDBs are almost never encountered with the jump shuttle attached so that alters its configuration/profile significantly.

It's certainly going to be big for a trader.

Is it actually possible to separate the jump shuttle from the Long Shot or do they have been permanently fused when the ship was converted to a miner?

The two ships were 'permanently' fused together and the SDB's maneuver drives were moved rearward into the jump shuttle, which had small engines but a lot of fuel tankage. The SDB didn't have a jump drive.

That may have been one of the things Khea noticed... the dual power plant. The SDBs power plant was larger, and it was also moved aft and combined with the jump shuttle's power plant. Same tonnage and rating as a single unit.

"Is there something that I can help your crew with? I feel like I could be of use," Valeska said to no one in particular.
This message was last updated by the GM at 01:55, Wed 06 Jan 2016.

"Ms. Brandenberg, sorry we didn't have much time to get acquainted, things have been pretty hectic. I want to personally thank you for coming to answer any questions concerning the Long Shot, she's a very interesting ship."

Picking up documentation about the Long Shot, "We have been discussing a number of issues concerning the ship...

1. The fuel situation, it doesn't make sense to have a jump-3 ship, which consumes 180 tons of fuel, to only have enough fuel to make that jump, and then have no maneuver fuel (or for life support/etc), is there something we are missing?

2. I have a Engineer rating/maneuver-1, I was looking at the maneuver-3 engines X2 configuration, and taking into account the computers' capability...there's something strange in their set-up, can you explain that?

3. One of the most puzzling things, the repair drones in the ship's paperwork lists them at an astronomical price, basically 20 MCr. each, is there some clerical error or something else?

4. The legal proceedings about the ship is, well, very out of the ordinary, can you explain that?

5. For a 100 year old, jump converted SDB (TL-14), there is still a tremendous amount of military/intelligence grade hardware/upgrades to the ship, can you elaborate on that?

I want to apologize if this seems like an interrogation, but, honestly, I am extremely intrigued about this ship. "
This message was last updated by the GM at 01:56, Wed 06 Jan 2016.

"You are very welcome. Let's see...
1. The jump drive is 10% more efficient than standard drives, which means it only uses 162 tons of fuel for a Jump-3, leaving 18 tons for standard power plant operations.

2. Yes, the ship is capable of Maneuver-6; you see, both maneuver drives can operate at the same time by a micro-second sharing. Like how a computer can scan all its peripherals because the peripherals operate at a much slower rate than the CPU, the maneuver drives work in alternating pulses.

3. As for the repair drones, they aren't really worth the price they are listed at; they are just carried on the books that way, but I have no idea why.

4. Ha, no. I really can't shed light on that mystery.

5. Again, I can't speak for the whys and wherefores on how this ship came to have such modifications. Only that they are there and I know some about their operation. I was hired on fairly recently, but trained well during my time on it.

Does that about answer your questions?" Valeska asks with a smile.

"I should mention, that as part of the standard share of the crew, I'm owed 3.8MCr, so if there's any chance of a buy-in, I could use some of that to do so.. I wouldn't mind staying on board. She's become a bit of a home to me. So please keep that in consideration."
This message was last updated by the GM at 02:07, Wed 06 Jan 2016.

Yes, this thread in particular seemed to vacillate between OOC and IC. I've moved the IC ship discussion over to the Long Shot thread. Problem solved.