Discovery Gaming Community

After delivering the last group of ambassadors to Curacao to the diplomatic conference we stopped at Baltimore Shipyard for the refitting of the Reverie.

With great pleasure I can announce that the overhaule of the Reverie at Baltimore Shipyard is finished. The name, logo and painting on the hull, as well as the intirior decoration have been restyled to the new corporate design. The crew livre is brand new, matching to the design and arrived on time. Every single crewmember is overwhelmed by the new design.
First Maat Mathew Davis was first speechless, when he saw the new logo at the Main Entrance Hall. Then he said: "This logo is ******* beautiful. Who the **** came up withis this? He should get a ******* bonus!"
I myself must say, that the people at Baltimore Shipyard did a very fine job, and fast too. I am sure that our customers will be very pleased with the new looks of the Reverie.

For those I haven't had the pleasure of meeting, my name is Jonathan Seabourne and I am the director of White Spa Lines division. Our main responsibility is to be the public face of OS&C, to pursue dramatic adventures that inspire our clients to step aboard our starships.

To that end, I've been publishing Wanderlust, the in-flight magazine for the Breezewood and am eager for new articles for our next issue. If you have any dramatic or interesting encounters our there, or pursue strange or unusual routes, contact me so we can tell all of Sirius about what you're up to.

You can check out our past issues here. I look forward to having many other voices contribute to our next issue, the first in our new revamped livery!

I am growing increasingly concerned about the security situation in Kusari. The blood dragons and GC seem to be growing increasingly bolder and xenophobic which does not bode well for our business in Kusari space. The Kusari military, meanwhile, does not seem to be stepping up to match the motivation of their criminal elements. In particular, I fear for the Mackinac. Even being in a relatively "secure" system still makes me feel like she is a long way from law enforcement that is properly motivated to defend her.

I know Mackinac is an important layover for some of our more... unusual asset procurement, and far be it for White Spa Lines to tell another directorship how to do its job. But I hope the other "friends" the Mackinac has made are sufficient to guarantee her safety. With Shetland still nationalized, it will be hard to expand into the Gallic market without a Kusari port of call leading to the Taus.

I wanted to report a curious incident to the rest of the Luxury fleet. I was transporting passengers from Baden Baden to Gran Canaria earlier today and wanted to try and scount a faster route through the Omegas. Assured by some.. questionable information I made my way to Omega-5, well known for its extensive jump hole network. The local corsairs seemed to have no interest in an OS&C liner, so I took refuge on their side of the battle lines.

I ran into a freelancer named Joshua.Graham who proceeded to tell me about a jump anomaly in the hear of the system.
Needing to justify my wild goose chase outside of house space, I decided to follow him. The jumphole was indeed there in the middle of the system and lead to an uncharted system well outside our starcharts. The system was densely packed with asteroids, almost too dense for a liner to slip in between, but Graham showed us the sights the system had to offer.
There is a mining field rich in some sort of rare material that other vessels were exploiting and a derelict Liberty dreadnought. Graham had some speculation that the Liberty ship might have been part of the lost reflief fleet from the super gate project in Alberta, but of course that's just speculation. We made our way back to Omega-5 without incident and I proceeded to find a jump hole to Omega-47 to get to Gran Canaria.

The uncharted system is a very interesting place to visit for OS&C captains looking for a new wow factor. I also heard that there was a way to enter the system from Brittany. The presence of a GMS mining vessel seems to indicate that there is a way to Gallia through the system, but I have no idea where said jump hole leads to on the other side and whether it would be worth it to use as another point of entry to the coveted Gallic market. As things stand, I doubt a liner navigating the dense asteroid field would save much time.

I would first of all like to express the gratitude of me and the crew for the warm welcome we have received since becoming a proud member of Orbital Spa & Cruise family. Since joining OS&C the Boundless Pleasure has been flying en-route between New London, Curacao, Manhatten, New Tokyo, the Hawaii, Baden Baden and back to New London. During these travels certain questions have been raised and I was wondering if any of my fellow captains could help with answering these.

1. Near Planet Kyushu we encountered a station which we could not dock with to the dismay of several passengers. The station is operated by the Hoshizora Travel Company. I have included a picture of the station to this message. Does anyone know if this station would be worth getting docking rights at?

2. What are the company policies of establishing routes to Gallia space and are there any of my colleagues who have had dealings in this sector?

2.1 If so which stations or planets could be profitable?

First, I look forward to seeing the Boundless Pleasure in action.

Secondly, I have also run across the Hoshizora Travel Agency and have been most curious about it but I did not attempt to dock. Investigating it further would be a boon to the company overall either as a lucrative opportunity or as research on our competition, so I advise you look into it and tell the rest of us what you find out (all while making a name for yourself, of course!). Breezewood's been avoiding Kusari recently (we had a nasty incident involving the kidnapping of crew members on top of the Mackinac incident) so I am a little gunshy about exploring it myself.

As for Gallia, I've made several exploratory trips there without incident. The police and military seem to have no issues with us operating there for the time being (EFL and the Union Corse, our main rivals in Gallic space, are occupied with other things at the moment). Gallia is just really out of the way to justify the trip and the journey sends you though a lot of space with few friends around to call for help. The Zurich passage through Rheinland space has been more profitable than passage through the Taus from Kusari for the Breezewood, but expect a lot of longer hauls for comparable profits that you could find on shorter routes in Sirius proper. That being said, it is a nice change of pace. Also, as much as it pains me to admit it as a Liberty corporation, their trade lanes are easier to dock with.
Also, be careful with potential contraband (Gallia still has laws against exotic entertainers on the books) and especially when dealing with Enclave forces you might run in to. I recommend keeping some wine handy to pay off Gallic pirates.

Liberty and Gallia have yet to sign a formal treaty of recognition, meaning the two are still in a state of war under some definitions, and that hits us as a Liberty chartered corporation, so tread carefully. There is much risk, but much reward, for exploring the reaches of the confederation.

One last tip is to hit up the shipyards as you explore around the sector. Desperate travellers whose ships conked out of them tend to congregate there, desperate for a way to complete the final legs of their trips. Transporting pilgrims to Baffin is also a way to keep the ships filled while travelling back from more exotic routes in the Omicrons and Omegas.

Recently you mentioned that you wanted to hear if we had any interesting encounters. Well, I guess you might have heared already about this one, but I wanted to tell you myself, might make a good story for the Magazin of yours.

The Reverie had recently an unpleasant episode with a Navy vessel, callsign "Inceptor", in Manhatten Orbit. During this the "Inceptor" fired two torpedoes at the Reverie, which struck home. The pilot claimed that he accidentaly fired them and wanted to target some other ship. Honestly, I doubt that, but thats only my personal opinion. Reveries shield crumbled immediatly with the first hit. The second damaged her significantly. Mathew Davis, my first maat, suspected, that only because we had some additional armor installed, nothing worse, like hull breaches, happened. Nevertheless, we had some power failures, damaged turrets and damaged outer hull platings. We had to dock at Manhatten again. The Reverie is currently moored for several days at Manhatten to get the repairs done, a total of more than 800.000SC.

Our guests at this time were a bit more than 3500 Envoys from New Tokyo. They booked the Reverie for a journey to Grand Vista Orbital, in Sydney Orbit, where they have a symposium. I hope we can get them there still in time. Naturally they are all terrified now. I had to calm some of them personally, had a few shouts and angry protest. Can't blame them, they, as we all, escaped death only narrowly. I guess it was sheer luck, that nobody died because of the torpedo hits. The worst that happened to our guests was one broken wrist, lots of broken glass and thus a lot of cuts, and many bruises. Our chef is furios, because his kitchen is completly messed up and a hugh pot with tomorrows gulash was ruined. And there are a lot of bruised egos of all the people who stumbled and fell when the whole ship rocked at the impacts. But these are only minor things.

What made me angry was not only the lack of skill of this Navy Pilot, who seemd not to be able to use a targeting computer, but that said pilot had the audacity to tell me, that Envoy passangers are illegal and I have to pay 100SC for each of them. Of course I checked our regulations and Libertonian Law just to be sure. Surprise, I couldn't find a single word about that. The Pilot than graciously "let it go this time because he had fired at us".
I can't describe how angry I am because of all this. Incompetent people who carelessly endanger the lives of thouthand innocent people for a petty penny!

But I get beside the point.
This incident gave me some things to think through. Maybe we should increase the armor of the Reverie, but this would cost even more space. We just are in the process of aquiring two docking bays for her at Freeport 12, which cost all the lower deck cabins. And if we switch to capital armor upgrades, it will reduce space even more. We travell rarly to the outer Systems like the Omicrons. But when we encounter torpedoes even here in House Space, maybe we should armor up. What would you say, Jonathan?

Well thats about it. I already filed an Official Protest with the Liberty Navy, and included a copy of our Black Box recording. There should be a copy of it in the OS&C database already. But I link it here for you anyway, so you can use it if you want. I have no answer from them Navy yet, but such things normally take a while I guess. If I hear from them, I'll let you know. If you have any more questions, let me know.

First, I am glad that the Reverie came through in one piece and that there were no fatalities. Not every captain can say they've survived being torpedoed by a captial ship. I imagine you're in a very exclusive club right now, though one that is exclusive for a reason.

I checked in with a Navy officer I've had contact with in the past. Seems the Inceptor is on their radar for playing fast and loose, which is not unheard of for secondary fleet officers bucking for promotion to the big leagues. Sadly, Liberty's fleets are rather independent of each other, so there is only so much the primary fleet can do to crack down on them. But he's on their radar now, and if there are other such incidents, they'll drop the hammer. Said officer also offered to compensate you for the losses, which I thought was a kind gesture on his part. I'd rather have the goodwill of the Navy in lieu of credits, so if the repair bills are an issue, let me know and I can wire you the funds you need from White Spa Lines coffers instead.

You handled it well, though. If your ship does not keep a full time legal officer, I highly recommend doing so. Breezewood does not carry a dedicated medical bay, but we do carry lawyers that have passed the bar in all partner houses. A competant steward can figure out the basics of first aid, but out in space the intricacies of house law are our main defense and it takes a dedicated professional to wield it correctly.

On the shielding front, that is your prerogative. Breezewood does not opt for capital armor, preferring to use the extra cargo space for more amenities. To be fair, it functions mostly as radiation shielding for us. We try to charm our way out of heated discussions whenever possible. We've only come close to destruction twice, once due to some rogue Rheinland gunboats and once outrunning some nomad gunships in the more scenic Omegas, and both times we managed to make it through. I would not sacrifice the extra cargo for extra defense that I may never have to use. If you're getting into a gunfight where that level of protection is needed, odds are it is really only going to delay the inevitable. But I leave that up to you, there might be a niche market for oligarchs who want to travel in style with extra protection.

I'll see if I can spin the torpedoing into a positive for Wanderlust. You'd be surprised what appeals to people who book OS&C tickets. There are groups of people who collect space mishaps, most of whom would have been disappointed to learn that you didn't have any hull breaches!