Duchess Industries

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Duchess Shipping
Origin	Liberty
Alignment	Lawful/Corporation
Profile
Date of founding	817 A.S.
Founder(s)	Lars Johansen
Current leader(s)	Lars Johansen
Base of operations	Trenton Outpost, New York
Primary role
High-risk, high-value shipping
Secondary role
Lower-risk, lower-value shipping

Duchess Shipping is a small shipping company based in Liberty. It maintains several shipping contracts with other corporations, primarily supplying outlying bases with supplies and construction sites with materials.

Duchess Shipping does not limit itself to Liberty space, no respectable shipping company can these days, but recognizes the laws of all Houses as well as those of factions controling other systems. Shipping outside liberty is limited, however, and it is focused around bringing supplies and other merchandise back to Liberty and their contractors.

Organization

The company is loosely organized and managed. Duchess captains are required to follow Sirius House laws, but otherwise have extensive freedoms regarding their contracts, trading, and other activities.

The company is led by the Council which consists of the Commodores from both the Freight and Escort Departments as well as the Chief Officers. The Council makes all the major decisions, including the promotion of captains and pilots.

Freight Department

New captains are given a commencement package consisting of an EL-HiL51 "Mammoth" Liberty Transport and an interest-free loan of 10 million credits. After the captain has filed all his paperwork and recieved his IFF transponder, he becomes a probationary member of Duchess Shipping. He may then trade and join Duchess convoys freely.

Over time, the captain proves his reliability, trustworthiness, and dedication to Duchess Shipping. When the Council decides that the captain is worthy, they may promote him to Commodore and give him an interest-free loan of 70 million credits to purchase and equip a GT-1 "Whale" GMG Transport. This promotion marks the captain's entrance into the Council.

Escort Department

New escort pilots are given a commencement of a CTE-4000 "Griffin" Civilian Light Fighter and an interest-free loan of 10 million credits. After the pilot has filed all his paperwork and recieved his IFF transponder, he becomes a probationary member of Duchess Shipping. He may then fullfil Duchess escorting contracts and join Duchess convoys freely.

Over time, the pilot proves his aptitude, trustworthiness, and dedication to the Duchess Shipping. When the Council decides that the pilot is worhty, they may promote him to Commodore and give him an interest-free loan of 40 million credits to purchase and equip a CTE-6000 "Eagle" Civilian Very Heavy Fighter, a CTE-10000 Civilian Bomber, or to further equip their Griffin. This promotion marks the pilot's entrance into the Council.

Recruitment

We are currently looking to hire a limited number of transport captains and escorts. If you are intested, contact the current leader.

Benefits

Members of Duchess Shipping enjoy a number of benefits:

• Petty cash as needed
• Loans as needed
• Company-paid pirate taxes
• Trading licenses
  • Bretonia Passenger License
• Convoy trading
• Company or company-paid escorts
• Bonuses for exemplary conduct, dedication, roleplay and so on
  • Free armor upgrades
  • Free advanced ship equipment
  • Free ships
  • Cake

Member Ships

Below is a list of the Duchess ships.

Grand Duchess

The proud and busy mobile headquarters of Duchess Shipping.

Flagship

• Commodore Sofia Westwood, age 31 from Planet Manhattan, New York
• Lieutenants

• Flight Technicians
• Engineers
• Chief Financial Officer Nick Prescott, age 47 from Planet Manhattan, New York
• Chief Technical Officer Casper Pastor, age 35 from Planet Curacau, Cortez

Duchess Blue

A Mammoth Transport, the first of the Duchess ships. Current location unknown.

Duchess White

The second Duchess ship, home away from home of the founder.

Transport

• Chief Executive Officer Lars Johansen, age 29 from Planet New Berlin, New Berlin
• Flight Technician Herbert Gibbon, age 21 from Planet Primus, Omicron Kappa
• Engineer Beatrice Gibbon, age 21 from Planet Primus, Omicron Kappa

Lars grew up in a Scandinavian community on New Berlin. Ambitious as a child and ambitious as an adolescent, his home never seemed like quite enough to accomodate his enterprising tendencies. As he came of age he decided to leave the dreary and impoverished Rheinland for Liberty where he hoped to fullfil some of his dreams. After working as a freelancer for some time, he settled down on Manhattan where he met his wife. After his family grew by two, family life put pressure on his income and his entrepreneurial instinct kicked. He founded Duchess Shipping with backing from the corporate giant of Universal Shipping. He rented an office block on Trenton Outpost and after a whole lot of paper-pushing he had a respectable business sustaining his family.

His first ship was an EL-HiL51 "Mammoth" Transport, the Duchess Blue, as part of his initial contract with Universal. Universal supplied him with a flight technician and engineer: Pong Wang and Heinrich Schumaker. They were poorly-paid, but their distinctive personalities soon grew on Lars. Mere days later, Lars bought a new ship, the Duchess White, a GT-1 "Whale" Transport. It was not in perfect condition, and some time had to be spent making it space-worthy. It was a time of much bonding amongst the crew.

Shortly after it's maiden voyage, the Duchess White set out on an expedition with an Ageira convoy for a technology interchange in the far reaches of Sirius. During the trip, a Nomad was tractored on board due to corrupted control parameters following a scrimage with a wing of Nomad fighters. This Nomad saw to the death of Heinrich and Pong. After Freeport 11 sorted out the Nomad -- which led to the death of a Zoner technician -- the convoy proceeded to Planet Gammu and Primus. On Primus, Lars hired two curious monkey-people who were aching to get out into the world. The twin siblings Herbert and Beatrice Gibbon became the new Flight Technician and Engineer on board the Duchess White. They installed an advanced Discovery Scanner from Planet Gammu, astonishing Lars with their intellect and technical proficiency.

Thanks to the Gibbons, the Duchess White made it safely back to Liberty. After some days of further crew orientation, repairs, and mourning, daily operations proceeded as usual.

Duchess Gold

Third Duchess ship. Flown by the first Duchess Commodore.

Transport

• Commodore Scott Stevens, age 28 from Planet Denver, Colorado
• Flight Technician Andy Lukas, age 27 from Planet Houston, Texas
• Engineer Mary Jones, age 24 from Planet Houston, Texas

Duchess Red

Fourth Duchess ship. Flown by the second and last appointed Commodore.

Transport

• Commodore Martin Sorenson from Planet Pittsburgh, New York
• Flight Technician Moira Emerson from Planet Cambridge, Cambridge
• Engineer Viktor Scarborough from Planet Leeds, Leeds

Duke Vermillion

Fifth Duchess ship. Flown by the first escort pilot hired by Duchess Shipping.

Escort

• Pilot Klaus Klemmer from Planet New Berlin, New Berlin
• Copilot A.I. Hans developed by Ageira

Klaus and his brother Hans grew up on Planet New Berlin together but have since parted ways. While they had similar skills, they made quite different choices in career: Hans joined the Rheinland Military while Klaus entered the private sector as an escort pilot. Despite now being employed in different rival Houses -- Rheinland and Liberty -- they are quite close and still stay in touch with each other.

Identification

All transport ship names begin with Duchess, all escort ship names begin with Duke.

All ships sqwuak a Universal Shipping IFF and carry a Universal Shipping ID.

All freight ships carry three primary crew-members: the captain, a flight technician, and an engineer. Verious supplies are also carried as needed.

All escort ships carry a pilot and some carry a co-pilot. Various supplies are also carried as needed.

Roleplay

The primary, but OOC, goal of Duchess Shipping is to increase the population of traders who roleplay often and well. This will be the deciding factor in everything from acceptance into the faction, to promotion, to not being kicked out.

To further increase roleplay between traders and pirates, long-term manifests will be posted publically. Pirates with access to the USI system (Lane Hackers, for example), or sources within Ageira, Interspace Commerce, the source of the shipment, destination of the shipment, and maybe even somewhere along the route of the shipment will be able to legitimately use these manifests to ambush and intercept these shipments. Roleplay mandatory, of course.

Another goal is to introduce newer players to more factions. Contracts will be sought with other player factions, primarily for roleplaying and only secondarily for profit. This would make the faction serve a dual purpose for new players: teaching them how to trade on Discovery and giving them a better feel for which factions are right for them.