NationStates Jolt Archive

Struve 2398 system, 11.4 LY from Sol

After initial scout elements of the Vagari Home fleet had determined the system to be uninhabited, the rest of the nomad armada began arriving en-masse. Hundreds of ships dropped out of protospace, and cruised in to take advantage of the available solar energy, solar gatherers opening like petals along the sides of the many rugged vessels of the fleet. The two stars of this backwater binary system, both small red dwarfs, were so dim that the Vagari ships had to orbit as close as 0.05 AU for best results.

The command cruiser Vinsibi I, flagship of Fleet Admiral Atva, was one of the first ships to arrive, to begin forming a defensive peremiter for the habitat vessels, and other non-combatants that were arriving by the hundred. The fleet itself was a logistical nightmare, and always had been. It was several days before it had arrived in its entirety, and maneouvered itself into position. Industrial vessels began launching survey craft to prospect for useful materials among the sparse asteroid fields that seemed to comprise the only bodies of matter left over from the creation of the two stars. It looked like slim pickings, but Vagari, being true space bums, would take whatever they could scrounge.

Once the defensive perimeter was set up to Atva's satisfaction, and acceptable contingency procedures had been devised should a hasty withdrawal become necessary, the Fleet Admiral dispatched courier pods to nearby inhabited systems, including Sol, but excluding systems controlled by Valinon or their allies.

The message transmitted by these unmanned communications devices was not one of war or peace, but could be more closely approximated to space spam. Firstly, there was a request for spacefaring companies offering goods and services of any variety, from technical consultancy to liesure services, and interested in trading with the fleet. Secondly, as one might expect with spam, there was an advertisment for mercenary services, which provided a large part of the fleet's income. The message was transmitted in English and Esperanto, which, besides the Vagari native tongue and a host of obsolete alien languages, represented the entirety of Vagari linguistics.

The message invited any interested parties to lodge a response on the courier pod, stating the nature of the service offered or required, and any other arrangements that might be necessary.

OOC
What's all this, you say? Well, since I can't seem to find an excuse to get involved in most RPs going on around here, I'm setting up a front for interested folks to come to me. This should hopefully work out as a general RP thread for all interactions with the Vagari fleet, and a springboard for any specific RPs that I might get involved in. Anyone interested in dealing or interacting with us in any way, look no further than here! Since Vagari are fairly new to this area of space, there is also a fair amount of potential for first contact RPs, also.

For background info on who we are, check out the Vagari factbook here: http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=321371

Me being picky and stuff
This is an RP thread. Please keep it sensible, for the sake of my poor frail sanity. If your spelling and grammar is so bad it hurts my eyes, I may ignore you for convenience. No offence, but I like a good read.

I selected Struve 2398 AB more or less at random. If anyone owns this system, and has the post history to prove it, let me know, and I'll select a different system at random.

Two Guilder corporate entities responded to the pod. The first for construction, the second for leisure.

Vesta Shipyards is interested in acquiring a contract with the Vagari fleet. While we cannot guarantee that we have a ship in production to fit your specific needs, we are confident that something can be easily retrofitted or custom designed meet them, whatever they may be*. We produce a wide range of spacecraft subsystems and components (hull forms, pressure tanks, reactors, engine bells, etc.) for sale in addition to our line of completed vessels.

Melete Althea
Department of Public Relations
Vesta Shipyards

Follows a small selection of our previous work:
Pilgrim 150-man Mobile Research Station, under power. (http://timesurfer.linuxcowboy.net/PilgrimPower.gif)
Pilgrim 150-man Mobile Research Station, coasting. (http://timesurfer.linuxcowboy.net/PilgrimStatic.gif)
Prometheus Nuclear Freighter (http://timesurfer.linuxcowboy.net/nukerock.gif)
Asteroid Tugboat (http://timesurfer.linuxcowboy.net/tug.gif)
Interplanetary Supertanker (solid/fluid cargo) (http://timesurfer.linuxcowboy.net/tanker.gif)
*All interstellar travel is precluded. Engines and specialized equipment necessary for such voyages must be acquired elsewhere, although we are capable and willing to design a ship around the intent to retrofit with said equipment.
Jupiter Safari Co.
For when Africa just doesn't cut it.

Greetings, Spacers, Flatlanders, and potential customers!
Staright from the Jovian satellite Ananke, we at Jupiter Safari Co. are offering you the chance to see the awesome depths of the Lord of Planets and King of Gods!

Begin your journey at your choice of ANANKE or SINOPE SPACEPORT, where you can enjoy numerous restaurants, bars, and sports arenas all in the freedom of micro-gravity. Then, take a month-long cruise on a ZEUS variable-g liner, experiencing the many picturesque views of Jupiter's mini-solarsystem on your way to the inner moon Adrastea. For those who'd rather play rugby than sit around and sight-see, ZEUS variable-g liners offer a wide range of activities in addition to the necessary excersize rooms, from zero-g racquetball to simulated moonwalks to high-g diving to prepare you for your dive beneath the cloud tops.

Once you reach Adrastea, it's just a quick 2-day crash course in liquid breathing before you finally strap into that ramship and drop into the dpeths of Jupiter's atmosphere for a 26-hour adventure among the aerial fauna of Jupiter's hydrocarbon seas! And if that only whets your appetite for more, another 50 centiounces platinum buys you a second journey to the deep the next day, with overnight accomodations provided by the Adrastea Hotel.

Call your local travel agent today!

Al-Imvadjah offers its services in building up your fleet.
http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=341516
Go here for the neccesarry info.

TAG, I'll figure out how to get into this later.

#TAG# for later posting

"This is Night Hawk to Blazing Eagle. I've spotted a target ony my radar. Request permission to investigate," the pilot said over his com unit. As he awaited the reply his scaners finished there tactical evaluation of the pod. The results showed it to be unarmed. "Request granted. See what the hell it is and if you have to bring it closer Night Hawk. Blazing Eagle out." The pilot smirked and gunned his thrusters and felt the G-forces begen to pull as the distance between the pod and his fighter began to shrink at a rapid rate. Quickly he spun his fighter around and gunned the thrusters once more to kill his speed so as not to damage both the pod and his fighter. "Looks like a courier pod," he muttered as he shifted his fighter into the hybrid form and with one of the arms grabed the pod gently and began the short fight back to his ship the PSN Blazing Eagle light cruiser class ship.
--------In the Eagle's secondary hanger---------
"Well looks like the blood thirsty bastards got someone to sell some junk to," the tech muttered as he began typing in a equaly peaceful reply: "This is the nation of Phalanix and we are interested in offering you some of our older model ships and/or weapons. If you are interested please travel to the Reach system. When you reach the system you will be given further instructions."
After that the pilot (whos fighter was now in the battloid mode grabed the pod gently and used his thrusters to gently shove it back out into space.

A few days after the initial transmission, unmanned vehicles arrived to download any messages left on the courier pods, and convey them to fleet command. Some time later, after the various offers had been considered, the couriers returned, with replies.

Re: Vesta Shipyards
"Since the loss of our own shipyards, our capacity for large scale building projects has been reduced to practically nill. We have a need for durable, efficient freight spacecraft. Currently, to conserve personnel, the transport fleet consists of groups of twenty to thirty unmanned tanker vessels slaved to a central computer onboard a controller vessel.
Is it feasible to construct a number of supertankers, with provisions for this control system, and allowances for the addition of Vagari manufactured dimension drives? The number of vehicles we order will, of course, depend on their cost, and your production capacity.
If you suggest a suitable location, under microgravity, we shall dispatch a team of technical specialists to discuss the proposal further."

-Neth Maku, Fleet Logistics


Jupiter Safari Co.
Rather than one, general response, there was a whole host of replies from individual platoon commanders, indicating a somewhat overwhelming response from the Vagari Marine Corps, of all people. Apparently, having spent the last few years largely inactive or on re-training programs, the Marines are the only really bored people in the whole fleet. Since finding that most other spacefaring nations use artificial gravity on their ships, thus rendering them mostly obsolete, the marines are at present between jobs. Around 6,000 have applied for leave to see the Jovian system, so the whole host of applications was accompanied somewhat belatedly by a message from the Corps commander, General Shek, inquiring about the number of places available on these tours, how much they cost, and what special arrangements could be made. The message notes that, at least, the marines are already trained in liquid breathing and microgravity procedures.


Al-Imvadjah
"One of our main programs at present is the re-training of our largely obsolete Space Marine Corps personnel, into a new starfighter corps. Since we have little previous experience with fighter craft, but see them playing an important role in navies we have encountered, we may be willing to purchase the Mallard RSD-1 in bulk. How fuel-efficient is it, and what type of fuel does it use? Fuel efficiency is our number one concern, as we lack the capability to reliably and consistently produce complex fuels."

-General Oren Shek, Marine/Starfighter Corps Command.


Reach system
In place of any message, a ship was dispatched as the response from Phalanix specified. A small frigate dropped out of protospace near the edge of the system, and made several cautious scans of the area. After some time, and satisfied there was no immediate threat, the vessel began to move in towards the system proper.

"This is Tal Kanan, authorised ambassador of the Vagari fleet, onboard the frigate Lasaar III. Nation of Phalanix, we await your instructions."

It is extremely fuel efficient, capable of trans-galactic flights on internal fuel (the R stands for recon). However, it uses petroleum-based fossil fuels, with additives for improved performance.

#tagged for later post...

It is extremely fuel efficient, capable of trans-galactic flights on internal fuel (the R stands for recon). However, it uses petroleum-based fossil fuels, with additives for improved performance.

Fossil fuels may be too difficult for us to acquire in sufficient quantities to operate a starfighter fleet. Currently, our warship fleet uses Hydrogen fueled matter-antimatter drives, as hydrogen is much easier for us to acquire.

Do you currently produce any starfighter designs which use hydrogen-based propulsion?

-Gen. Shek

"This is the PSN Tiger's Claw please fallow the ship to the planet Infurnus," the massive carrier sent to the ship, "If you need anything such as fuel at the moment feel free to ask."

We can manufacture them specially. It would simply be a matter of replacing the engines and making a few minor modifications. RSD-1h Mallard can be produced at 4 million ea. RSD-2h Seagull at 4.3 million, RSD-2mh at 4.6 million. We'll give you 100 modified Mallards free. We can also produce frigates, cruisers and other vessels to any specs that you give us.

Al-Imvadjah
"Excellent. We have been carrying considerable resources over the last few decades in hope of re-establishing our shipyards and addressing some of the defficiencies in our navy. However, since establishment of our own shipbuilding industry still seems far off, we are willing to offer you the contracts for the planned fighter corps. As well as an initial order of 264 RSD-2h fighters and 96 RSD-2mh strike fighters, we would also like to discuss the construction of a dedicated class of carriers to service the fighter force. These carriers must follow certain specifications; gravity generators will not be required, and conservation of space is essential; we favour a highly compact design. As always, fuel efficiency is of the utmost importance, and we do not mind sacrificing a certain amount of performance in favour of it."

-Gen. Shek


Reach system
"Roger that, Tiger's Claw, moving into position." The frigate Lasaar III adjusted its course to follow the Phalanix carrier, "Our current fuel levels are sufficient. However, we request that any meetings and negotiations be carried out in zero-gravity."

Confirm your request for 264 RSD-2h, 96 RSD-2mh, special carrier design. The fighters will be delivered immediately. I will begin working on the carrier's design and construction right away. How many carriers would you like us to construct?

"All right," was the reply as the dark red planet came into view. Over it several space stations and docking rings spun like tops. One of the larger ones however didn't spin. The Tiger's Claw flew towards that one as another smaller ship pulled up beside it and flew into one of the hangers on the station.

Al-Imvadjah
"We would like to order 5 carriers, each with the capacity to service 72 fighters. Also, please confirm your earlier offer of 100 free RSD-1h fighters. If that offer still stands, then we will also order a sixth carrier, with the capacity to service those 100 fighters."

-Gen. Shek


Reach System
As the station drew closer, Ambassador Kanan, who also happened to be the Lasaar III's communications officer, swallowed two of the antibiotic tablets that were colloquially known in the fleet as 'first contact pills'. They were chalky and difficult to swallow, even with a whole bottle of water to wash them down with.

"PSN Tiger's Claw" he said, slightly croakily over the radio, "This is Lasaar III, awaiting docking instructions."

We confirm the 100 RSD-1h, and the 6 carriers.

Element Class Carrier: 3 billion ea
The Element Class are each capable of servicing 108 fighters. They have cruiser type armor, with magnetic shields. They have a crew of 100, with space for 220 pilots. They have standard EW jammers and sensors. Fuel consumption is not a concern as large vehicles use nuclear reactors. Manueverability was not considered a major factor in the design, nor was top speed, so both of these suffer.
Armament:
2 ion cannons in two turrets
4 10in railguns in two turrets
10 AA turrets
6 AAM turrets

The total for the carriers will be 18 billion

((Sorry for taking so long to reply. Long day))

"Please dock at port 17. A group of armed gaurds will met you for your own safty. The meeting will take place within the hour. You may take the time to learn about our culture or explore the station."
------------Docking Port 17-------------
A group of 6 men and woman in the standard black armor holding rifles waiting for the ship to dock.

Element Class Carrier: 3 billion ea
The Element Class are each capable of servicing 108 fighters. They have cruiser type armor, with magnetic shields. They have a crew of 100, with space for 220 pilots. They have standard EW jammers and sensors. Fuel consumption is not a concern as large vehicles use nuclear reactors. Manueverability was not considered a major factor in the design, nor was top speed, so both of these suffer.
Armament:
2 ion cannons in two turrets
4 10in railguns in two turrets
10 AA turrets
6 AAM turrets

"We will need to request some slight modifications to the design, before we can confirm this order, namely the removal of the rail guns and ion cannons. We also wish to confirm that no manner of artificial gravity systems are included.

Since these carriers service 108 vehicles, we would like to reduce our order to 5 carriers, and order an additional 80 RSD-1h fighters."

-Gen. Shek

Reach System

The Lasaar III confirms the directions, and maneouvers carefully into dock. After a quick scan of the humidity and oxygen levels on the other side of the airlock, the Vagari seem to find it to their satisfaction, and the hatch opens, to reveal Ambassador Kanan, and a party of five others - two men and three women. They all wear the same uniform; slightly shabby red flightsuits, with a selection of gold and black insignia on the shoulders. The Ambassador and his party are all quite small, none of them being taller than 5'4", and all appear to be more or less the same age, in their mid twenties. The other five seem to be slightly nervous, and almost appear to be hiding behind Kanan, as he floats out of the airlock (I'm assuming we're under micro-gravity as requested).

"Greetings." the ambassador offers the armoured figures, "I am Ambassador Tal Kanan, and these are my advisors." he indicates the other five, who are all clutching small, compact computers, and peering about nervously. "I'm afraid they only speak Vagari, so all comments will have to be addressed to me."

4 Kzinti attack craft slowly gliding through the system, there were only a handful of the survivors of 4th invasion of SOL which failed... barely. The Savage hunter, Fighting Fury, Roaring Thunder, and the Shining Destruction had all be equally defanged in one way or an other.
Only the Savage Hunter had working weapon systems but it's bridge was completely depressurized from a missile that had slammed into the side of it, only a weak hull patch had allowed the ship to continue on with it's crew still alive.

The Figthing Fury had a large portion of it's outter hull stripped off killing 70% of her crew and leaving the surviving with little room to live in. Roaring Thunder had it's engine damages spilling fatal amouts of radiation into the ship, the engine engine room have to be completely sealed off to prevent the radiation from killing the remaining crew, and the Shining Destruction had it's entire bridge crew killed by liquid metal from a laser beam that hadn't quite made it through the ships hull she was the least damaged of the 4.

Tar'nir-Captain sat at his chair in his armored space suit the only thing protecting him and the 2 other kzinti in similar suits from the cold vaccum of space

"Warning 6 minutes of oxygen supply remaining'

The tiny speaker in his helmet chirped in periodically to Tar'nir-Captain's great annoyance. Tar'nir-Captain was the brother of Rrowl C'mef the leader of wunderland and like his brother he displayed the unique ability of a high inteligence than most Kzinti, being able to adapt on the fly instead of just "screaming and leaping" into certain death which saved his ship and the 3 others.



(OOC: sorry it took so long to reply but jolt kept eating my replies (took to long to post them) )

((The whole station has no gravity system hence the not turning))
One of the armored figures steped foreward and spoke in a rather calming way "Welcome to the Reach system. The meeting room is being set up at the moment. Is thee anything we can do for you during this wait?"

Struve 2398 system
Out in the asteroid field, hundreds of small mining vessels were chewing up the floating debris in search of valuable raw materials, and shuttling them back to the many refinery ships of the fleet. Beyond the asteroid field, were several layers of patrolling craft, forming the defensive perimeter.

The sensor frigate Hul-Haran IV was in the outer layer, co-ordinating a group of picket corvettes. Kim Niabi, first communications officer, was at her post on the bridge, when a transmission came through from one of the corvettes, "Hul-Haran IV, This is Bright 2-Alpha, picking up four bogeys at four hundred thousand klicks, please confirm radiation signatures."

Kim glanced across at the captain, who nodded. She continued with procedure, "transmit co-ordinates and standby."

The corvette's sensor log was transmitted, and passed on to the Hul-Haran IV's detection room. The detection officer on the bridge reported the status of the scanning procedure, "Standby for mass scanner cycle... phase 1 complete... phase 2 complete... phase 3 complete... scanner cycle complete."

The results of the scan came up on the holographic display in the centre of the bridge, showing radiation levels and magnetic fields, and a whole load of trajectories and figures. The detection officer confirmed, "Contacts definitely artificial."

The captain instructed comms officer Niabi, "Alert the Task Commodore, and order our contacts to identify themselves."

---

Shortly after, a broadband transmission was directed at the Kzinti ships; a female voice speaking in heavily accented english, "Unknown craft, you are approaching the Vagari Fleet Delta defensive perimeter. Identify yourselves immediately. I repeat, identify yourselves immediately."


Reach System
Ambassador Kanan exchanged a few words with his party, before addressing the armoured figures again, "An offer was made shortly ago, for us to explore the station and learn of Phalanix's culture? Perhaps we could do this, while preparations are being made?"

"Yes of course. Would you like a tour first or would you like to learn about our cluture?" The lead figure said as the others behind him slung there rifles over there shoulders.

Reach System
Ambassador Kanan exchanged a few words with his advisors in Vagari. Then there seemed to be some kind of a disagreement, so the group went into a huddle and quietly argued it back and forth. This went on for a few moments, until there were only two disagreeing voices remaining. After that, the issue appeared to be settled with a round of rock-paper-scissors.

Ambassador Kanan turned back to the waiting Phalanixians, "We have decided to take a tour of the station first."

"Alright then. If you would fallow me please I'll begen showing you around," the leader says as he opens the door of the docking bay that leads into the station. The magnets in his boots keeping him on the ground.

"We will need to request some slight modifications to the design, before we can confirm this order, namely the removal of the rail guns and ion cannons. We also wish to confirm that no manner of artificial gravity systems are included.

Since these carriers service 108 vehicles, we would like to reduce our order to 5 carriers, and order an additional 80 RSD-1h fighters

Reduced order confirmed, addditional fighters confirmed, payment intended for the 6th carrier will be redirected toward fighters and refitting the carriers. No gravitational systems were put on the carriers.
We have added an additional 1AAM and 1AA turret to each carrier. The carriers will be ready and delivered by RL wednesday. Fighters are on their way.

Tar'nir-Captain and his 3 other bridge crew sat at a table eating military rations in small bites, they had survived this long on them and they weren't about to let that change, while the rest of the crew hustled about.

"sthodat.." one of the bridge crew muttered in Hero's tongue contemptly as he chewed in a piece of military ration. he Was chez-weapons operator he like Tar'nir-Captain only had half a name. the other's ear and tail twitched representing laughter. off in a shadowed corner a computer monitor flashed to life with a repeating beep beep beep every 3 seconds or so. Tar'nir-Captain stood his fur bristling in annoying and anger. Tar'nir-Captain promptly walked over to teh computer terminal and brushed off the debris with a single foul swoop he then proceed to stop the annoying beeping sound. satistified that the speakers would never annoying them again he procceeded to play the the transmission ...which was in audio only.

his fur bristled again, a low ticking noise emitted from his throat and his nostrils quickly closed then opened again every few seconds in frustions

"Does the one fanged god enjoy mocking me?! he cried as he slashed the air infront of him jsut barely missing the computer terminal. the room quickly filled with the scent of tar'nir-Captains Anger and the otehr Kzinti's fear.

Unknown craft, you are approaching the Vagari Fleet Delta defensive perimeter. Identify yourselves immediately. I repeat, identify yourselves immediately."

some how one of the speakers had managed to survive the full onslaught of Tar'nir-Captain's rage. he blinked playing teh transmission again. he had heard every word the first time but he was shocked to recieve a message from anyone other than the Kzinti craft that had been travelling with him.

Tar'nir-Captain quickly regained his composure and his ears adn tail twitch furiously once more in laughter.

the one Fanged God has a cruel sense of humor he mused to himself as he began typing a text only transmission, perhaps they could tell them exactly how long they had been travelling for, and where they were in retrospect to their home in the Epilson Eridani.

"I am Tar'nir-Captain of the Kzinti attack ship Savage Hunter, if you can tell we are here than surely you can tell we are in no shape to seek combat, all are trying to d is find our way home

Tar'nir-Captain's english had a wunderland accent to it, most kzinti had learned to speak the human language while they were young cubs so that they could interact better than the humans ... and so they would not mispalce a accidental look in the eyes as a challenge among many other reasons.

Bob was curious. Groombridge 34 was by no means crowded, but his people had spread widely in nomadic fashion and exploring new systems was in his blood. Advertising their presence wasn't, however.

Struve 2398 wasn't too different from Groombridge 34, and not that far off, and nobody'd really taken a peek lately, so it was with some surprise that Bob popped in-system and found radio activity on his scanner. Out on the system edge it was faded and distorted, but clearly there was somebody here. Quite a few somebodies, in fact, which would be interesting news to take back home.

Bob clicked on his radio, sending a tightbeam transmission towards home. That would take ten years to arrive, of course, but it never hurt to hedge your bets in case something went wrong, and a decade is a short timespan among the stars. He turned towards the system and stared as if trying to resolve the presence by naked eye.

OOC: Nice to see I'm not the only one paying attention to the nearby red dwarf stars.

Taged for later post

Re: Vesta Shipyards
"Since the loss of our own shipyards, our capacity for large scale building projects has been reduced to practically nill. We have a need for durable, efficient freight spacecraft. Currently, to conserve personnel, the transport fleet consists of groups of twenty to thirty unmanned tanker vessels slaved to a central computer onboard a controller vessel.
Is it feasible to construct a number of supertankers, with provisions for this control system, and allowances for the addition of Vagari manufactured dimension drives? The number of vehicles we order will, of course, depend on their cost, and your production capacity.
If you suggest a suitable location, under microgravity, we shall dispatch a team of technical specialists to discuss the proposal further."

-Neth Maku, Fleet LogisticsSupertankers are among our simplest and cheapest designs. We can turn out a fully-fitted three-tank ship in 21 sols at nominal capacity. At maximum capacity, models predict that each yard could turn out a tank per day. Removal of crew space and lifesupport systems in favor of remote operation equipment can further reduce time and costs. You are welcome to send representatives to Skheria, our offices in Tripolis, or any Point of Entry city-station.
Melete Althea
Department of Public Relations
Vesta Shipyards

Jupiter Safari Co.
Rather than one, general response, there was a whole host of replies from individual platoon commanders, indicating a somewhat overwhelming response from the Vagari Marine Corps, of all people. Apparently, having spent the last few years largely inactive or on re-training programs, the Marines are the only really bored people in the whole fleet. Since finding that most other spacefaring nations use artificial gravity on their ships, thus rendering them mostly obsolete, the marines are at present between jobs. Around 6,000 have applied for leave to see the Jovian system, so the whole host of applications was accompanied somewhat belatedly by a message from the Corps commander, General Shek, inquiring about the number of places available on these tours, how much they cost, and what special arrangements could be made. The message notes that, at least, the marines are already trained in liquid breathing and microgravity procedures.
Thank you for your interest in Jupiter Safari Co. We hope this informational pamphlet will provide you with all the information you require. If you have further questions, don't hesitate to contact our offices in Tripolis.

Approximately 600 berths are available on every newly-constructed ZEUS liner, with 200 at the axis, 300 at sixthweight, and 100 at thirdweight. With rising popularity, it is quite possible that certain liners may be expanded to 1200 persons, but these are not yet available at the time of publication.

One twentieth of the accomodations at each level are luxury class. Two fiths are working class, in which travelers share some regular duties with the crew, and the rest are passenger class. The cheapest accomodations are, of course, working class, but these slots are filled only by application to ensure that suitable personnel are on hand. Particularly skilled individuals may be able to pay most or all of their fare in this way, bringing the liquid cost of a cruise to zero. Passenger class accomodations range from 110 to 130 ounces platinum / equivalent. Luxury class accomodations begin at 320 ounces.

All classes have access to standard excersize facilities and regularly scheduled simulated moonwalks....The pamphlet continued describing the various recreational facilities available to different customer classes, workshifts and avavilable jobs for working class, etc. At the end was attached a handcrafted, non-mass-produced, addendum.General Shek,
At no extra cost we can outfit a liner or two for 100% micro-g operation to better serve your men. Given the high volume, we are confident that a reduced-price arrangement could be worked out, especially if a significant fraction is willing to take working-class positions. As liquid-breathing training is built into the cost of berths, a guarantee of its non-necesity in your case already presents an opportunity for price reduction.
Zenotryphon Herodotus
Director of Customer Relations
Jupiter Safari Co.

OOC

Apologies all, for the long delay. My connection went down last monday, and it took Telewest nine (NINE!!) days to sort it out. I'll make a post tomorrow, when I'm a bit more awake.

Struve 2398 system
Hul-Haran IV recieved the text transmission.
"I am Tar'nir-Captain of the Kzinti attack ship Savage Hunter, if you can tell we are here than surely you can tell we are in no shape to seek combat, all are trying to d is find our way home"The captain glanced to the Detection officer, who nodded, "All four ships are heavily damaged. It could be a trick; feigning injury is a common pirate tactic, and one we've used ourselves."

"Not a trick one would use in the presence of a large defense force, though." said the captain, "I'm prepared to afford them the benefit of the doubt, at least for now."

A group of corvettes moved in behind the Kziniti ships, as the Hul-Haran IV transmitted, "You must have a long way still to go, then. This system is uninhabited, and your ships don't look in good enough shape for FTL. Which system are you trying to get to?"


Al-Imvadjah
A pleasure doing business with you. Once the ships have been put through various trials, we'll supply you with a performance report for your records.


Reach System
The Vagari moved fairly effortlessly through the weightless environment, Kanan leading the way. The others started arguing amongst themselves again, before Kanan made some comment in Vagari that silenced them.

"How large is the station?" he asked his guides.


Sol System
In the outer reaches of the system, barely inside the orbit of Neptune, a Vagari personnel shuttle dropped out of proto-space, accompanied by two frigate escorts. The Vagari had always been fairly wary of approaching Sol, due to its crowded nature and unpredictable political climate, and the presence of an escort for this short trip represented those fears. Two small frigates wouldn't be particularly effective at warding off a determined pirate attack, but while any unarmed and unescorted ship is always an inviting target due to the general lack of risk in attacking it, a single shuttle probably wouldn't be worth the effort of engaging its escorts for.

While one of the two escorting frigates conducted scans for a better entry point further in the system, to cut out as much sub-light travel as possible,
two messages were transmitted by the other frigate, one to Vesta Shipyards, and the other to Jupiter Safari co. on behalf of General Shek.

Vesta Shipyards
Greetings. I am Dr Han Reyes of Baranos IX academy of engineering. My team and I would like to discuss the design of the proposed supertankers for the Vagari fleet. We're currently at about 25AU from Sol, looking for a better drop point closer in; could you give us co-ordinates for Tripolis, unless there is a more convenient location?
-Dr. Reyes
Jupiter Safari co.
Although we are a society based on absolute equality, my men will be happy to draw lots for accomodation class. Dumb luck is pretty much the best way of distributing priveliges while retaining equality, so if privates turn up with luxury fares, and lieutenant-colonels with working class fares, nothing should be amiss. During downtime, marines are expected to share duties with our own ship crews, so I would expect all of my men to be up to scratch in that regard, although this depends on how much specialist training your ship operations require. We should have sufficient stores of platinum to cover any costs, although if that proves not to be the case, I can guarantee we have more than enough other refined raw materials of equivalent value, and I can provide an inventory if it becomes an issue. Cobalt and copper, in particular, we have in surplus. As I'm aware, there have been a total 5,764 applications, which, given your stated capacity, will take at least 10 trips. Without wishing to monopolise your resources and deprive other potential customers, how long is it likely to take to schedule all of our bookings?
-Gen. Shek

"The station totals out to 3.5 kilometers. The main docking ring is 3 kilometers while the module where all systems are held is 2.5 kilometers," the leader replies.

Reach System

Kanan translated for the other members of his party, and another small argument broke out. None of these arguments seemed to contain any agression, just amicable disagreement. Bickering seemed to be the general method of arriving at any conclusion, for the Vagari.

"That's quite large, at least, by our standards." Kanan concluded, "We had a mobile shipyard ten or so years ago that was roughly this size, although we can't seem to agree on the precise size."

He glanced back to his party, who seemed to have stopped arguing again, and turned back to their hosts, "Please, continue with the tour."

"Actualy this is one of our older stations. The newer models have gravety generators in them. Currently near the sun in this system they are working on a massive 5 kilometer long and 3 kilometer high station," the guid said as he continued walking.

Reach System
"What will the purpose of a station that large be?" Kanan inquired. Meanwhile, his group of advisors were inspecting every piece of machinery or junction box, or electronic device they passed along the route, arguing in Vagari about it's apparent design and purpose, and arguing about architecture when there were no other items of interest to squabble about.


Struve 2398 system
Rurukar I was one of the newer ships in the Vagari fleet, having been purpose built fifteen years earlier as a specialised academy and training centre. Vagari weren't in the habit of keeping secrets from one another, but the purpose of Rurukar I was unknown to most, who merely dismissed it as just another of the many academy ships where the next generation was trained to take over the running of the fleet. Some of the ships in the fleet were over six hundred years old, and had long and illustrious histories, but not so Rurukar I.

Professor Jan Tiel was in charge of, what was by Vagari standards, a top secret project, codenamed Project Angel. He was getting on into his sixties, and was possibly one of the oldest, if not the oldest, members of the Vagari population, who were typically administered euthenasia once they reached an age where their productivity dropped off, typically around sixty. Professor Tiel, however, was an expert of rare genius, and the driving force behind the project. His expertise in brain chemistry and neural networks made him vital to the development of the fleet's first psionics. Therefore, his age had been listed on the fleet database as '59' for quite a few years now.

Unlike one might expect of a man in his position, Tiel's enthusiasm for his project was not fuelled by a desire to carry on living. The use of euthenasia to cull unproductive members of the fleet, and free precious resources for the rest of society, had become ingrained into the Vagari psyche for so long now, that it was more or less considered a natural death, and the belief had grown that knowing the time of one's death allows one to make better use of the time spent alive. In any case, Tiel was happy to continue working on the project he had made his own, simply because it was required of him, and was beginning to regard his eventual death as a sort of well earned rest.

The twenty members of Project Angel, the so-called Angel Guard, although, Tiel would admit, this was a rather pretentious monicker, were gathered into the main lecture theatre, for what would be a defining moment in the project. Tiel watched them settling into their seats around the spherical theatre, the only individuals in the entire fleet whose entries in the database simply showed up as 'classified'. He'd come to regard them as his children, in a way; he had been guiding their education practically since birth. The Angels were now sixteen, and after extensive training and conditioning, he would see if his work had paid off.

"Do I have everyone's attention?" Tiel called over the waning conversations, "Good. Firstly, let me tell you all how pleased I am with the results from your most recent examinations. Not only did you all pass, but the margin of success was considerably higher than I anticipated."

Tiel waited until the self-congratulatory murmurs exchanged between his students died down, and continued, "Today, will be the defining moment of this entire project; I am going to deactivate the neural inhibitors that have protected you throughout your training, and we will see just what your full potential is."

There were a few excited murmurs, before Tiel raised a hand to silence them. "I have full confidence in your abilities. Brace yourselves." He raised his other hand, holding a small device, no bigger than a keyring, with a single button and a LED on it. He pressed the button, and the LED went out.

There was a long period of silence in the theatre, as Tiel watched them intently. They seemed nonplussed for a good few moments, and Tiel was beginning to worry that, after all the work they had spent on developing a mental framework for psi, that the Angels, who had been genetically engineered specifically for the project, hadn't the potence to utilise that framework.

Then, almost laughing, a girl near the back blurted out, "I know what you're thinking!"

Another of the Angels responded, "I know you know what I'm thinking."

Another called out, "I know you both know what each other is thinking."

The chamber suddenly became loud with voices, as each of the Angels vocalised their sudden new thoughts. Eventually, Tiel had to wave his arms and shout over them to calm them down. "I'll call that a successful awakening, well done everybody. Now, remember what you've practiced, and keep your minds guarded. Your final tests will be more rigorous than any so far, and after that, this project will be declassified. But first, I think you've all earned some liesure time so..."

Tiel found that he didn't need to finish the sentence. They were already extracting themselves from their seats in anticipation of his words. He was almost jealous, in a way. But more proud than jealous.

OOC
This was mostly a reference scene, but the initial awakening would have sent out a brief but strong psi signal, that a psi-capable nation or individual might pick up on.

"It has a dual purpose. A plasma colection facility and the Elite Zero G trianing center. Since most of the equipment runs on plasma here the scientists are learning new ways to harvest plasma directly from the sun," the guide responded yet again as a fiant laugh could be heard as he listened to the arguing members of the party he was escorting.

Reach system
Ambassador Kanan frowned, "Harvesting plasma from the sun?" he repeated, sounding somewhat dubious. He translated this for his party, who, predictably, started arguing about it.


OOC: Damn those fools at Telewest! I should sue them, for killing this thread. ;)