The 101 Express

The 101 Express
Ship Class	Transport
Built by	Border Worlds
Technical information
Guns/Turrets	0 / 9
Hull strength	95,000
Cargo space	3,600 units
Nanobots/Batteries	400/400
Max. impulse speed	80 m/s
Max. thrust speed	140 m/s
Power output	45,000 u
Power recharge	5000

This is a player owned ship.

"On the stereo...Listen as we go...Nothing's gonna stop me now... Hustlers grab your guns..Your shadow weighs a ton..Driving down the 101..."

"...California here we come...Right back where we started from..."

From first launch to purchase, the ship when Dane bought her, was brand new. Outfitted with all the usual refinements, such as auto-adjusting captains chair, leather upholstery, generous and spacious crew quarters, auto-adjusting life-support environment, and full stocked galley. This ship became Dane's breakout into the world of Independent Trading, which then led to smuggling. In the Express, he's outrun pirates, Liberty Navy, Rheinland Freelancers, and even Nomads.

History

In its time, this ship has been put through a tremendous amount of punishment, and has been rebuilt 3 times.

The first time, while smuggling out Plutonium for the Gas Miners Guild, Dane and The Express were interdicted by the Kusari State Police. After dumping the cargo, the KSP Officer was joined by Navy pilots who proceeded to open fire on Dane after escorting his ship to a remote nebula. The damage toll was catastrophic, and included two engines being unsalvageable. Worst of all was the entire bridge and computer section being turned to slag - only luck saved Dane from a clear attempt to end his life. All of his sector and jump-hole coordinates were lost, as well as several irreplaceable personal items, such as his first guitar. The broken hulk was towed to a GMG friendly base, and rebuilt at cost while Dane kept a low profile.

The second & and third times came at roughly the same time, and was during the time Dane was lost in the Omicrons. After being swarmed and ravaged by Nomad's deep in Omicron Delta, The burned carcass of the Express was towed to nearby Yaren Base - both Zoners and Corsairs together helped Dane rebuild what could be rebuilt. In the end, he made a desperate push to get out, after refusing help on where he should go, and ran into another Nomad swarm. Again, the Express had to be patched together with whatever could be used, this time on Freeport 11. The end result was the unique appearance the Express held until her final days - ragged, covered in graffiti, and every bit a character in and of itself.

The Name

The 101 Express was named in honor of the 101 Freeway, or US Route 101, which runs north and south through all of California, Oregon, and Washington. Every single one of Dane's cargo runs took him through the California System, and his home, Planet Los Angeles.

Appearance

Until the adventures in the far off Omicrons, the 101 Express looked like any other Border Worlds Transport. It wasn't until its many rebuilds that it got its unique appearance. Covered from stem to stern in mis-matched hull panels, many of them from less-the-common-grade materials, and other ships. Dotted here and there with burns, hull scoring, and gouged furrows from asteroid hits, energy and plasma based weapons fire. While two of the engines were original to the Border Worlds transport, neither of them were native to The Express when it was launched. The third engine was built entirely from scratch from pieces of the original third engine, along with pieces from a broken bounty hunter fighter. Dane noticed early on that the third engine could be "goosed" for an extra 7% thrust by engaging aft vernier thrusters in "climbing" maneuvers. This became a favorite trick to drop counter-measure flares behind, throw all power to aft thrusters, and climb fast upward relative to the galactic plane - and has saved him from pursuers in the past. Easily noticeable is all the graffiti covering stem to stern, applied by a station full of bored Zoners and Corsairs with nothing better to do. Most of it is anti-house messages, testaments to the virility of certain Corsairs, humorous slogans, and discordian non-sense.

Death of The 101 Express

4 months after the rebuilds in the Omicrons, the constant damage and stress had made the Express old before her time. Unknown to Dane, micro-fractures and hull stress tears had been building and getting larger. The weak integrity of the hull patches were beginning to buckle at the seams. While passing through Colorado, one of the fractures met with a shoddy hull patch, and together opened up the cargo hold, which began venting atmosphere. Dane paid the small alarms no mind, planning to fix it the next time he pulled into a shipyard, and continued on course through the Jump Gate to Kepler

The shaking and stress of jump travel was like twisting an aluminum can full of knife cuts. The ship let out a scream of groaning metal, as the fractures and tears opened up larger. On the the other side of the Jump gate, the ship was groaning under the engine thrust, and was wrenching the keel out of place, warping the frame spines. Alarms lit up the conning board, and Dane knew there wasn't much he could do at this point. Not wanting to risk trade lane travel, and knowing that putting the ship into Cruise would rip it apart, he consented to being towed to the [[Ames Research Station].

Over Ames, the ship finally gave out, the hull wrenching itself apart. The death of the Express was quiet, and after everything of value was salvaged, she was allowed to drift into a peaceful burial inside the Denko Cloud.