Discovery Gaming Community

For years after the time that Newcastle was discovered in 588 AS there were problems building bases and travelling in the system. Scarborough base was eventually completed in 616 AS after long delays and many problems. Ships would vanish and huge waves of strange energy would cause power blackouts for ship equipment and scanners, massive uncharted asteroid fields and strange minefields caused more problems. Attempts to build trade lanes in 776 AS failed because of Molly attacks. After the Nomad Wars in 800 AS a huge abandoned Nomad base was discovered, and the source of the energy waves and the scanner and equipment failures was ended. Ageira won the contract to manufacture gates for Leeds and Newcastle and make lane parts for travel in the Newcastle system, while Deep Space Engineering would erect the gates and the trade lanes.
Universal Shipping agreed contracts to ship supplies from Ageira to deliver to DSE.

Later it was discovered that big mistakes were made in the original costings of these contracts and the costs were to overrun by huge amounts.
The massive size of the Newcastle system was not fully explored or understood when the contracts were signed and harrassment from Mollies, Gaians and Outcasts caused massive delays.
All 3 companies run into debt and share prices plummeted.

Chakotay worked for Universal Shipping at that time as a contract manager/negotiator in the "New customer development" office of the Exploration and deep space division.
Chakotay's partner Grace Williams had been a very good friend to Chakotay after the bitter divorce from his wife and eventually they became closer, Grace was the daughter of Universal CEO Peter Williams and she worked in the Rheinland division of the company.
There were also Bretonia, Kusari and Internal (Liberty) divisions and the Procurement/Maintenance Division and the Administration/Contracts division of the company.
Engineer Scotty worked at Maintenance and was Crew chief at Bay 4 Trenton.
Chakotay had friends all over the company and many business contacts all over the main house systems and beyond that were to prove to be very important, he had also progressed through the ranks and achieved promotions to now be in control his own department.
Chakotay had proved himself to be a very sharp and knowledgable negotiator and deal-maker.
When the debt problems hit hardest Chakotay knew he had a chance to try and make his own way and help some of his friends at the same time. He had always had an ambition to run his own business and had inherited a generous investment annuity from his father when he died a few years ago.
Big job cuts were announced and Chakotay volunteered for redundancy so did Grace, Scotty, O'Brien and another 7 friends.
It was time to act.

Peter Williams CEO of Universal Shipping called a meeting with Chakotay and his daughter Grace.
He wanted to know what was going on. Old man Williams was only a year away from retiring.
He liked Chakotay and was quietly mentoring him behind the scene for promotion.
Chakotay explained that with combined savings, loans and redundancy cash from him, Grace and his friends they had enough to launch a small transport company of their own.
His plan was to buy 2 Rhino's, 2 Clydesdales and a Firefly for transport and a pair of Old Ex Navy stock Defenders for escorting, Bounty Hunters could be used to beef up the escort role
Peter Williams told them to wait while he investigated a possible different, more ambitious plan of action.

He came back 2 days later with an ambitious plan for an employee buy out of a significant part of the company, namely the exploration/deep space trading division of the company.
It was seen by the board of directors as an expensive luxury and should be cut adrift.
Peter Williams worked hard behind the scenes making deals and using all his contacts, influence and favours until the final deal was eventually signed. The 'KoF agreement' would reduce Universal Shipping debt and give birth to a new organisation.

Chakotay, Peter and Grace Williams would take control of the new organisation and apply at the Register of Companies Department of the Liberty Governmant on Manhattan for a new trading company ID.
Meanwhile they would continue to use the Universal ID until the RoC Office approved the proposals.
The Office meanwhile gave approval to start up the business, pending a full linvestigation of the proposals.
The new organisation was supported by a Personal Loan from Peter Williams, a Loan from Interspace Commerce and the lease of Bay 2 at Newark station and another loan from The Mutual Financial bank of Manhattan.
Part of the contract of the buyout offloaded a 50% chunk of the gate/lane parts contract (from Ageira to DSE) to the new company and would be a huge undertaking with very little profit.
There were 5 Gull transports and 3 armoured transports in the old exploration/deep space division and a wing of 5 Falcon escort fighters.
Grace used her Rheinland connections to buy 3 Humpbacks from Daummann that were due to be retired.
Chakotay had an ace up his sleave however and set up contracts to import Bretonian Niobium, Luxury Foods and Gold back to Liberty and also contacted his friends on Planet Curacoa and negotiated cheap off season rates for using the tourist planet as a stopover and refuelling point.
With cheaper rates in Cortez instead of using California and Manchester or London Chakotay could make a small profit on the new roundabout route.
At the same time he made enquiries with the GMG for cheaper H-Fuel in return for a supply contract to Spa&Cruise.
The plan was going to work.
Universal Shipping had offloaded it's expensive Exploration/Deep Space trading division, dumped half of a non profitable contract on the new company and reduced it's head count by 5%.
Universal Shipping would now concentrate on it's core business of trading between the house systems.
The new company would lease Bay 4 at Trenton and would also employ some Ex Ageira and DSE people who had also recently lost there jobs.

The new company was to be called 'King of Freight' and would use the ship insignia and call signs [KoF]

The Newcastle contracts took 18 months to complete, and it took another 18 months after that to repay the loans to the banks and Interspace Commerce.
Old Peter Williams retired and gave his share of the new company to Grace, who now owned a handsome 15% of the [KoF]
Chakotay owns 31% and Scotty 5% and O'Brien another 5%.
The remainder was owned by InterSpace Commerce 5% in exchange for base facilities at Newark station, private investors, the [KoF] pension fund and by the employees through a profit sharing scheme.
Next on Chakotay's mind was to chase the new contracts to the outer systems where Universal would not go.
The Tau's and Sigma's would feature in the plans for expansion Omega 49 had been discovered, the fleet of ships were modernised and new ones bought or leased, Minnesota system would prove to very important in the future.....

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Trading Policies


We trade to Bretonia, Kusari, Liberty and to some of the Tau, Sigma, Omega and Omicron systems. All of our trade is lawful and only lawful. Please contact the [KoF] if you see any employee holding unlawful goods. We will always stop when asked to be scanned by a lawful force. Our polices are as followed.

1) No carrying Contraband
2) All employees must stop when asked to by a lawful force.
3) We will form convoys with other Universal when possible.
4) We will do our best to protect our convoys and goods so they go to where they are needed.

New recruits must register with [KoF] forums and post an application.
If accepted they become Cadets and make a [KoF]-name and use the Trader ID for an assessment period (usually about 4 weeks)
After assessment the Cadet is promoted to Pilot Officer and must then adopt the Universal Shipping Reputation and ID.
All [KoF]-pilots are expected to fly at least one [KoF]-Transport ship and one [KoF]-escort ship (fighter or bomber)

Thank you for reading and understanding the KoF. We hope to see you all in space!


KoF CEO, Chakotay
King of Freight