The launch of a new vessel is forever an exciting prospect, and this is no exception. The small Ball Courier was amoung the smallest of vessels, lightly armed and not really armoured, but for the enterprising it was a start. Freedom. Their own ship to wander the stars.

AK Ball Courier, 40.703 M Solars, 100 dTon Sphere, (17 yd dia)
(4G/Move:370, dDR:10, dHP: 30, dTons of Cargo Space: 46.5, SM:+8)
Weapons: 1x Pulse, 1x Missile, 1x Sandcaster, Crew:4, Endurance: 20 Weeks, consume approx 0.03 dTons/week
10 Bunks in one room, 1 Stateroom, 1 Sickbay, 1 Workshop, No Low Berths.
Freezer space: 20 dTons
Bridge is a large Cockpit, such as shuttles have.
Life Support:11, Jump Range: 2 Parsecs

Modular Small Craft: 1 (Raft)

AK Modular Raft, 3 M Solars, 6 dTons
(2G/Move 2411, dDr:10, dHP:15, dTons of Cargo space: 4, Range in air: 16,000 miles)

Planet: Aegir (Fueled)
Date: 25 Jan 2176

Aegir is water world, Ag.

Trade Good available           Price, $ million/dTon     tons/dTon    dTons available Price Modifiers  Ideal Target Planet type

Fruits/Nuts/Vegetables         $0.0024                   5            55             -2               In, Ex, Na
Special Minerals               $0.75                     8            50.3           0                In
Pharmaceuticals                $0.12                     6            32             -4               In
Fish                           $0.02                     8            56             -2               In, Ex, Na
Textiles/Treated Skins         $0.03                     4            13             -3               In
Protective suits               $400                      2            10             -2               Ex
Grav Units/Parts               $160                      4            15             -2               Ni
Grav Vehicles                  $250                      3            20             -2               Ni
Computers                      $250                      5            8              -2

In = Industrial          Ag = Agricultural             Po = Poor
Na = Non Agricultural    Ni = Non-Industrial           Ri = Rich
Ex = Extreme (Extreme worlds are any worlds where Suits and artificial atmospheres are required)

Known planets nearby:

(1140) Labrysian Homeworld, Garden Planet, Atmosphere: Standard(Sulphur Taint), Normal and Normal, 1.06G Gravity Off limits to traders due to treaty.

(1239) 4 Gas Giants, Labrysian Colony (Gov), Garden Planet, Atmosphere: Standard(Sulphur Taint), Hot and Thin, 0.68G Gravity, Po

(1340) 3 Gas Giants, Garden Moon at the first with Labrysian Research colony (Gov), Atmosphere: Standard, Very Cold and Very Thin, 0.5G Gravity, Na

(1439) 5 Gas Giants, 3 Moonworlds, Aquitaine, 74% Water, Generation ship Colony, Pop: 600, Garden Planet, Atmosphere: Standard, Cool and Dense, 1.07G Gravity, Ag, Ni

(1440) 4 Star system, 3 GG, 2 Asteroid Belts, Atmosphere: None. Ex, Na, In

(1540) Binary system, 1 Gas Giant, 1 Garden Planet, Atmosphere: Standard, Cold and Thin, 0.84G Gravity, Ag
(1401) Main Labrysian Rebel Colony on Garden Moon on first Gas Giant, 3 Gas Giants
  Atmosphere: Standard, Sulphur Taint, 0.88G Gravity, details known only from information given by Rebels. In
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:09, Tue 11 June 2019.

So the AK version of a Hero?

Obviously to be called the Akhero!
This message was last edited by the player at 23:42, Mon 03 June 2019.

Josef walked up the ramp of the diminutive starship. His starship. The Spring Solstice, a 100-ton AK Ball class tramp merchant. He had spent almost all of his money on the craft, in the hopes of making it big on his own. While his dad left him a hefty inheritance, Josef wanted to make so much more of it. And the little starship was the first step. Someday he hoped to own a whole fleet of ships, carving out a merchant empire amongst the colonies and the Imperium.

He walks through the ship getting a feel for the layout. He had seen it on the 3-D holovid, but actually being inside of it was much more real. He first wandered into the cavernous cargo hold. Or at least cavernous for the ship as it took up almost half of the vessel. Beyond that lay the drives and power plant that would move them from solar system to solar system. Even though he had a degree in starship engineering, even now the full mechanics of how a jump drive worked were beyond him. He left that for the astrophysicists and such.

Turning towards the bow of the ship, his steps echo off of the deserted corridors as he heads past the crew quarters and up to the bridge. Deserted for now as the crew would arrive tomorrow. He had hired each for 20 kCr a month, plus 10% share of profits. He knew Kalishnakov offered more base pay, but he hoped the profit sharing would motivate the crew to perform above and beyond the average crew.

And considering that he needed to make money to pay the crew, Josef headed back to his quarters to pull up offerings for the planet, and to find information on possible destinations. Scrolling through the freight available, Josef decides to put as much as he can into his hold.

But that is only half of what he needs to do. Before buying anything, he needs to see where he can sell, so he scans through all the systems within two parsecs of Aegir, looking for those with the highest potential. Heavily industrialized systems generally have less farmland and thus he can demand higher prices for food stuffs. So he searches for those and any that have no farming capability at all.

Once he has gathered this information, he heads out to make some deals.

After examining the planets that are within range of his ship, Josef decides to try the one with 4 stars (1440). He has little knowledge of what any of these planets hold, so their shakedown cruise would entail a lot of knowledge gathering to determine what were good stops within the area and if he can set up any supply chains between some of the planets.

He makes notes in his PDA of the companies that are offering freight, and then heads off to the fishmonger to make a deal on their current inventory and talk about setting up a contract for the future.

In reply to Josef Barenski (msg # 4):

In reply to Josef Barenski (msg # 4):

It is not particularly hard to find fish for sale. The local markets bring up a curious variety of seafoods, with many vendors representing numerous boats at sea working.

Freight at this time is very limited. A number of Labrysian vessels ply the routes, but only a handful of Terran vessels can be found. There are some in other areas of the outback, but few.

Note the the following details made available to you:

John Locke:   (Karl Marx Class)
               Aegir - Chrysolite Run
Loch Ard:     (Lightning Class)
Bounty:       (Lightning Class) Used to do merchant cargoes to and from Terra.
               Tunguska, Thalassa, Wallach, Chrysolite, Yenesei, Sionnach
Buffalo Bill:(Lightning Class) Recent arrival fleeing Vilani crackdown
              Aegir, 1739, 1836, 1437
Sampson:     (Hero Class) Recent arrival fleeing Vilani crackdown,
               Works the Labrysian cluster.
Yamamato:    (Hero Class) Recent arrival fleeing Vilani crackdown,
               Aegir-Aquitaine Labrysian
               Works the Labrysian cluster.
Tennis:      (Ball class Freighter)
               Chyrsolite to Aegir, then to 1739, 1836, 1437 then back to Chrysolite.

Marble, Bearing: Two AK Ball Couriers to work as messengers across the AK empire, may also take high value freight.

The Labrysian fleet of scouts patrol in pairs. Route followed is
Darsei > 1540 > 1740 > 1739 > 1738 > 1538 > 1437 > 1337 > 1237 >
Aegir > Dirac > Darsei
They leave once per week, and take about 13 weeks for the run.

Labrysian Merchant Vessels

Labrysian Light Freighter x10 (8 internal Trading, 2 unknown routes. Colonization?)
Labrysian Freighter x4        (3 Internal Trading, 1 with Chrysolite)
Labrysian Fuel Tanker x3      (2 based at Capella(1440), 1 at Hibernia)

Make a Merchant roll to negotiate better (or worse) prices...

See link to a message in this game
for how it works if you have not already done so. Prices given are always market prices.

OOC: Rolled 15 under my effective merchant skill, if Charisma matters. Otherwise, 12 under.

07:52, Today: Josef Barenski rolled 7 using 3d6 with rolls of 1,3,3.  Merchant Roll (Skill 19, Charisma 3).

In reply to Josef Barenski (msg # 6):

[OOC: Actually, Merchant is IQ+3 = 18, unless I am missing something? Charisma...well, you are primarily trying to influence others to accept your price, so I think I will allow it to assist Merchant in negotiating a price, so 14 under.]

You successfully negotiate the price of fish down to $18,000 per dTon, for a 10 dTon lot.

Finalizing the deal with the fishmonger, Josef sends his ship's berth information and 180 kCr payment to purchase a 10 dTon lot of fish. Next he turns his attention to looking at textiles, tapestries, cloth, and textured skins to find items that are unique to this world and that he could get a good price for elsewhere.


OOC: 15:44, Today: Josef Barenski rolled 15 using 3d6 with rolls of 6,5,4.  Merchant Roll to buy Textiles/Treated skins.

Made it by +3 (+6 w/ Charisma)

In reply to Josef Barenski (msg # 8):

The Negotiations for the treated shark skins manages to reduce the price after some haggling to $27,000. The Fishmonger tells you the fish is ready to be picked up at the starbase. It should be transported frozen.

Cargos            Amount (dTons) Price paid ($ k/dTon)
Fish              10 dTons       $180



Current Funds: ??
Planet: Aegir (Fueled)
Date: 25 Jan 2176

With a price better suited to his needs, Josef puts in an order to buy as many of the sharkskins that he can, up to 30 dTons. He also schedules a load time for the fish for the morrow, when the crew should show up.

Before purchasing anything else, Josef pulls up prices to rent, or buy, refrigerated containers for the fish.

In reply to Josef Barenski (msg # 10):

There are 13 dTons available of treated Sharkskins, worth $351 k. Installing a Freezer section of the hold wold cost $1000 + $100/dTon of space, and reduce cargo capacity by 1 dTon. Otherwise, Freezer containers have a capacity of 4 dTons each and a size of 5 dTons, and cost $3,000 each.

Cargos            Amount (dTons) Price paid ($ k/dTon)
Fish              10 dTons       $180
Sharkskins        13 dTons       $351


Current Funds: ?? - $531
Planet: Aegir (Fueled)
Date: 25 Jan 2176

Josef looks at the different options for freezers on his ship, and after running numbers through his head, decides on setting 20 dtons of cargo space into freezer storage. Spending $3000, he contracts out the upgrade.

With his hold half-filled, he looks through the offerings before deciding to pursue the pharmaceuticals.


15:29, Today: Josef Barenski rolled 6 using 3d6 with rolls of 1,1,4.  Merchant Roll. To buy Pharmaceuticals. Made it by +12

In reply to Josef Barenski (msg # 12):

You manage to negotiate the price of various pharmaceuticals down to $108 k / dTon for a 12 dTon shipment.

Cargos            Amount (dTons) Price paid ($ k/dTon)
Fish              10 dTons       $180
Sharkskins        13 dTons       $351

Unfrozen space: 13.5/26.5
Freezer space: 10/20 dTons
Current Funds: $9,300 k - $200 k (Personal) - $534 k - $80 k (wages) = $8,486 k left over.
Planet: Aegir (Fueled)
Date: 25 Jan 2176

Note, newly hired crew paid 1 month in advance for hiring, since there is no wages insurance!

Buying up all 12 tons of pharmaceuticals, Josef shells out almost $1.3M for the load. With 35 tons of his cargo space eaten up with cargo, one ton for the refrigerated section, and a ton allocated for supplies, Josef realizes he only has 9 tons left. He negotiates with the vendor selling the fruit, seeds, and nuts, to see if he can get a better price.

While heading to the merchant, he sends out a request, purchasing one ton of supplies for the crew and the voyage.


OOC: 17:25, Today: Josef Barenski rolled 14 using 3d6 with rolls of 4,5,5.  Merchant Roll to buy nuts,fruits, seeds, etc. Made it by +4


Unfrozen space: 25.5/26.5
Freezer space: 10/20 dTons
Current Funds: $9,300 k - $200 k (Personal) - $534 k - $80 k (wages) - $1,296k (pharma) - $12k (supplies) = $7,178 k left over.
Planet: Aegir (Fueled)
Date: 25 Jan 2176

In reply to Josef Barenski (msg # 14):

The fruit has a limited shelf life, but can be frozen. He offers it for $2,180 if you will take 9 tons.

The supplies are sent to the ship rather promptly. As if they had done this before...

Sealing the deal on the fruit, Josef purchases it. His business dealings completed, he heads back to the ship to supervise the loading of the freight.

On the morrow, the crew should arrive and they'll head off. They'll spend several hours in system getting everyone familiarized with the ship before heading to the jump point to jump to 1440.

Unfrozen space: 25.5/26.5
Freezer space: 19/20 dTons
Current Funds: $9,300 k - $200 k (Personal) - $534 k - $80 k (wages) - $1,296k (pharma) - $12k (supplies) - $2180 = $7,175,820 left over.
Planet: Aegir (Fueled)
Date: 25 Jan 2176

Freight Handling 14, if necessary.

In reply to Josef Barenski (msg # 16):

You manage to get the goods aboard, snap freezing it in order to ensure it will arrive in good condition. Fresh fruit in asteroid belts always demands a premium, and snap frozen is second best!

The crew begin to arrive the night before with Engineering's Caroline Horne arriving the night before. Kat had been around, and growing up in the colonies near Terra saw her develop a curiosity that led her to the outback sectors, where you found her looking for work. She avoided the bigger companies, as she reckoned it was no different from a government job in the way they ran things. She got there early and started to set up her workshop.

Jessica was next. Probably a little OCD, but you appreciated that in a navigator. She had her own ideas about how nav. computers should be set up, and she arrived early to make sure it was so.

Feel free to come up with some background stories for your allies. I may need to modify them, either for colour or accuracy.

Officer Caroline Horne, Engineering
Officer Jessica Lang, Navigator
Officer Deangelo Malone, Pilot
Officer Kenny Stafford, Gunner/Cargo Master

Given clearance and launching from the planet, you are able to take your time reaching the jump point for 1440, before engaging the hyperspace drive.

Given this is their first jump, I will get you to roll the 4 rolls to enter Hyperspace:

Navigation (Space): to identify the jump point accurately.
Piloting (High Performance Spacecraft): To get there.
Navigation (Hyperspace): To get the jump right.
Mechanic (Jump Drive): To activate it.


Unfrozen space: 25.5/26.5
Freezer space: 19/20 dTons
Current Funds: $7,175,820
Planet: Aegir (Fueled)
Date: 25 Jan 2176

After Josef had finished supervising the loading of his cargo, he headed to his quarters to make sure his books were all up to date, and to study the data he had on the planets around them. He felt comfortable that he had made wise choices for this first trip, but only time would tell if he had.

When each crew member arrived, he brought them up to speed on the situation, let them find their bunk space, get their gear stored, and configure their workspace to their needs. Once everyone was present, he laid out the course they were taking and let them go about checking their stations before lifting off.

Standing on the bridge, he watches Jessica and Deangelo go through their procedures as they guided the little craft to the jump point. When they got closer, Josef headed to his stateroom to strap in while the ship transitioned to jump.


All checks passed
09:49, Today: Josef Barenski rolled 8 using 3d6 with rolls of 4,2,2.  Mechanic (Jump Drive), Caroline, Skill 16.
09:48, Today: Josef Barenski rolled 11 using 3d6 with rolls of 2,4,5.  Navigation (Hyperspace), Jessica Skill 16.
09:48, Today: Josef Barenski rolled 8 using 3d6 with rolls of 4,3,1.  Pilot (HPS) Deangelo Skill 16.
09:47, Today: Josef Barenski rolled 8 using 3d6 with rolls of 3,4,1.  Navigation Space, Jessica, Skill 16.

In reply to Josef Barenski (msg # 18):

The hyperspace jump was smooth, as usual, though being in a new ship, folk often strapped themselves in for the first time. The small craft handled well, a credit to it's builders, despite the low cost. The week in hyperspace would pass quickly.

[OOC: Feel free to practice a skill or something similar when in hyperspace. Each jump takes a week regardless of distance.]

Approximately a week later, the hyperspace alarm goes off, indicating an exit from hyperspace was likely soon.

When you do, you you find a system with 4 stars and massive asteroid belts, fueled by three gas giants.

Once the transition to hyperspace has been completed, Josef relaxes. He knows all too well that it is the trip from the planet to a jump point that is the most dangerous leg of any journey. Once in hyperspace, there is little to do beyond standard ship routines.

For their first journey, Josef socializes a bit with the crew. He had known all of them from his time as a starship designer, but this was the first time they had all flown together. They share old stories and tales. When he is not out amongst the crew, Josef spends his time getting the books together. He hadn't realized the amount of bookkeeping was required to run a starship, and he hoped his inexperience wouldn't be a hindrance, but they were still a small operation so their ledgers were quite simple.

When the alarm sounded for the transition out of hyperspace, Josef and the crew armed themselves on the chance that their might be trouble waiting. But all they had to worry about were the four bright stars in the center of the system and setting a path to the largest settlement here.

OOC: Working on accounting during trip. Current plans are to head towards the largest settlement / spaceport in this system to begin the process of selling his cargo.

In reply to Josef Barenski (msg # 20):

Long before you enter the asteroid belt, you are met by a patrol of four fighters. Labrysian fighters are twice the size of Vilani or standard Terran ones, and the flight was a little imposing, yet at the same time comforting. Their computers interrogate yours and identify you as friendly, though new.

"Welcome, new Terran trader. The Asteroid belts are a little tricky. Please follow the lead fighter, and we will try to destroy any small troublesome rocks."

They break off, with the lead one going in front of you with a surprising burst of speed (8G!) and the others forming a triangle slightly behind you, two above and to the sides and the third below you. Flashes from their plasma cannons indicates that they do indeed fire at stray rocks whilst the lead fighter leads you on an intricate path through the belt.

After two hours, though it seems much longer, you arrive at a particularly massive asteroid about 900 miles in diameter that has been tunneled into. Directed to dive into a massive canyon and then to land in a large cave structure, you manage to do so. Suits will clearly be needed here.

[OOC: Frozen food is preferred over dehydrated supplies if people have the option, so unless you direct otherwise, people will eat frozen foods first.]

Unfrozen space: 25.5/26.5
Freezer space: 18.7/20 dTons
Current Funds: $7,175,820
Planet: Aegir (Fueled)
Date: 02 Feb 2176
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:11, Tue 11 June 2019.