Bowex InfoNet (inRP) - Printable Version

#########Transmission#########
Source: Newcastle system, Scarborough Shipyard
Sender: Brian Gray, chief engineer aboard the Lionheart
Target: Bowex flight reports
CC: Bowex Archive
Topic: Severe situation

This is chief engineer Brian Gray, aboard the Lionheart, filing an after flight report:

Yesterday, the day was as good as it gets, the engines working like a charm, no pirates, we were hauling ore to Rheinland for some miners of Dublin. On our second return trip, however, when we exited the second trade lane in Stuttgart, and were about to jump in the Omega 7 system, something happened on the bridge.

At first, we were just standing there, near the Border station Ulm, dead in space. I heard an intercom call for medical crew to the bridge. By the voice, I'd say it was the Navigator, Mister Green. Poor Manfred sounded scared.

Anyhow, I decided to go up there, but while I was giving orders to the engineering crew about the maintenance, the ship started moving. I thought everything would be allright, and we all braced ourselves for the system jump.

The jump never happened.

Instead, the ship had hit something while at full speed. The entire hull started to whine, as the engines slammed us against an obstacle. If we weren't in our seats, we would've been dead.

Anyway, to my amasement, the ship continued to move on.

We checked all systems, only to find out that the secondary reactor was overloading with fuel, a pump stuck by the shock of the collision into maximum setting. It exploded later, luckily only damaging some more hull.
I and my two men ran up to the bridge, but the doors were locked. When we finally managed to cut open a hole inside, the sight we saw was eerie:

Only the emergency red lights were working, and there were bodies and blood everywhere.. tossed around by that collision.

The captain was "lucky" in that he was stuck between a gunnery console and a chair, which kept him from flying around. However, he has some broken ribs and is uncontious. To my knowledge, he is still out. The navigator, Mister Manfred Green, was also alive, slammed against the auxillary engine control console. It seems that he was the one that sent us into the gate, as we had later discovered. I don't know what caused all of this. Some rare recordings we got from some Rheinland Military vessels indicate that the Captain went berserk and started to jump around the bridge, at one moment discharged the weapons, and then fainted. After him, the Navigator was in for a similar ordeal, walking around and finally stumbling down, hitting his head and in the end, punching the engines into emergency speed.

To cut the long story short, we managed to get some control of the ship back, and limped back into Stuttgart space on manouvering thrusters, and finally dragged ourselves back to Scarborough. We lost almost all of our cargo, our supplies are also floating somewhere with Rheinland.

Here I attach a photo from a Scarborouh surveilance camera, taken when the ship docked. It shows the extend of the damage taken:

[Image: th_Freelancer2010-02-1303-28-53-19-1.jpg]

I still don't know what caused all this, but I heard there were some other occurances of temporary madness in Stuttgart at the same time. Personally, I'm scared, and I hope the ExSec will soon investigate this. I know that there are a lot of things out there in open Space, but I really never ever heard of something like this.

Chief engineer Brian Gray, signing off.

#########Transmission#########
Source: Newcastle system, Scarborough Shipyard
Sender: Ian Wills, Acting DO of Bowex
Target: Bowex flight reports
CC: Bowex Archive
Topic: Injury reports

Greetings gentlemen.

While Chief Engineer Grey was good enough to inform you all of the quite unfortunate events that happend in Stuttgart, I now have the pleasure to inform you that Navigator Green and Myself are scheduled for full recovery by our doctors.

Now, full pension shall be payed to families of the unfortunate crew members that didn't have as much luck as Mister Green and I.

On to the matter at hand: The Lionheart has been fitted with a new engine nacelle, and the front armor is repaired, along with long range antenna that was ripped off. She should be ready to fly shortly.

However, Mister Green and I shall remain on Scarborouh untill we get cleared for further flight duty. We had some ... strange experiences during this entire mess, and I would like that the company medical staff first investigate this. I will be in constant contact with the bridge crew, so I can be consulted if the need arises.

Best regards,

Ian Wills, Acting Bowex Director of Operations

Signing off.

Greetings, Sirs

I'm in awe, that I am. I don't think I've ever before seen riches so plentiful, or a convoy as huge as I have been part of today. Why even the captain... I...

Well, in any case the day started normal enough. We and a couple of ships took off from Leeds in a convoy carrying refugees, and finally arriving in Dublin on our way to the Rhineland to buy military equipment for the lads on the front. Now, you must understand, that the convoys usually attract a few miners willing to forego the long journey to the Rhineland refineries in exchange for a percentage of their profits. Well, today as soon as the broadcast sent the call, they came in an endless stream. I've never seen anything like this. BMM, IMG, even storage hulks came up to offer us their cargo. We were overwhelmed, burried under the piles and piles of raw gold ore.

[Image: 15-02-2010-Dublin.jpg]

We were forced to call in other Bowex transports to carry all that was being offered. The Lionheart, the Keynes, the Wheatstone, the Somerled, the Walpole, even the Majestic Skies turned up at one point, and we were loaded to the brim with prescious gold ore. Gold ore, that we procured at a bargain price, thanks to the negotiation skills mostly of misters Wills, and Roy. I've never seen so much ore in one place, and I doubt I ever will again.

When we were finally ready to set out, we found our way out of Dublin barred by a group of Mollies. Fortunately, a Bounty Hunter gunboat, the Mary Poppins was in the area, and we were able to hire it as escort. The Mary Poppins then called on reinforcements, and our hails to the BAF were similarly answered. The gathered ships of war made short work of those disgruntled miner rejects, and our convoy of no less than eight great ships was finally under way.

[Image: 15-02-2010-NB.jpg]

Our cargo was most prescious, and our escort less than plentiful. Though, mr Wills would say a few Shires with capable gunners indeed required none. Nevertheless, I for one was fairly shaking in my seat as we traversed the Omegas and most of the Rhineland. Indeed as many in the convoy failed to reign in their glee at such a demonstration of the might of the corporation, I was afraid their shouts and singing would be audible to every pirate in Sirius, not to mention the Corsairs and other bloody scavengers hiding in the asteroid fields right around us. My fears proved to be unfounded, however, and we made the delivery quite safely.

[Image: 15-02-2010-Munich.jpg]

The bulk of the day's business finished, the convoy started unraveling and some ships, including the Bounty Hunter escort, parted with us to go on their own separate ways. However, there was still the shipment of military equipment that needed transporting to the front lines, the original business our convoy set out from Leeds for.

[Image: 15-02-2010-Stuttgart.jpg]

The journey proceeded smooth enough with most of the anxiety and stress that a more normal sum total value of our cargo allowed. The only remarkable incident was an encounter with a Rhineland farmer near a disrupted tradelane. The poor fellow was riling against Synth Foods ruining his business and poisoning the population in a sinister conspiracy. While his claims were somewhat extreme, we could not help but agree with him on the point of organically grown foods having a definite edge over our usual Synth Foods patent spacer rations, when he allowed us to buy some samples from his products.

[Image: 15-02-2010-Ring.jpg]

With all the gold deposited at Rhineland by this convoy, I believe Bretonia's purchases for the front are well catered for for weeks, probably months to come. Not to mention the hearty profits the corporation should have been able to pocket. There is no doubt in my mind that we have accomplished a great deed today, indeed.

I'm sending the books of the Black Prince attached for review.

Yours,

Matthew Roberts

Greetings, Sirs

I'm happy to report, that the three crew members, who were rescued from the pirates are well on their way to reintegrate into the corporate structure. Ms Bramston will be released from hospital during the week, and Bob Taylor is already taking shifts on the Black Prince.

In the meantime, we are continuing our cooperation with BMM in the steady shipment of ores to the Rhineland. Though, with the large convoy not so long ago, the smaller scale orders warant lesser security measures. Instead of convoys, we have been utilizing the felt of various contracted mercenaries.

[Image: 28-02-2010-Edinburgh.jpg]

For the maximization of the transport efficiency, I would like to express my particular thanks for management for having assigned the storage ship Nine Days Queen to this operation.

[Image: 28-02-2010-Dublin.jpg]

As always, I'm sending the books of the Black Prince attached for review.

Yours,

Matthew Roberts

#########Transmission#########
Source: Newcastle system, Scarborough Shipyard
Sender: Ian Wills, Acting DO of Bowex
Target: Bowex flight reports
CC: Bowex Archive
Topic: Injury reports

Greetings gentlemen.

I know it had been a while, but I have been busy, and haven't gotten around to filing these reports.

I am hereby pleased to announce that our contract with Hessians is working.
Lionheart, escorted by Mister Tuff and Mister Douglas, had docked with Freital base, the place that our new Rheinland associates have specified is a good source of the Blood Diamonds. We have shipped these, at a later date, to Liberty.

Also, I am happy to announce that we have managed to make first contact with the Blood Dragons.
These Kusari revolutionaries are working to undermine the current government, which had established itself through a coup. I believe that a relationship with these gentlemen, who are working towards sabotaging Kusari economic might, could provide beneficial to Bretonia. I was free to offer them some goods for trade, which I believe they might be lacking, and have in exchange requested that they provide some other goods, that we may find in short supply.

The deal is yet to be settled.

Also, a last thing I shall mention today, is the fact that Mister Roberts and I, and our collective crews, naturally, had a most peculiar experience yesterday.
While we were loading our great ships with cargo in Newcastle, we have picked up strange transmissions on a wide band. Our wireless operators had managed to triangulate the source to near the system's star.
On a closer examination, we have encountered this vessel.
It seems to be some sort of advanced deep space probe, possibly a sentient AI system. It was examining the Newcastle's star, sending probes deep into star's corona.
When we approached it, a communication channel was opened and we were able to contact the entities that were in control of it.
Now, I would like to mention that the said vessel seems quite sturdy. Where our dear old Shires would certainly melt, it stood without any problems, very close to the star's "surface".
After some time, we have learned that the said entity was there to recharge it's power plant, or some other similar activity.
It declares it was attacked by the Kusari fleet and had sustained damage. To put the long story short, the entity had transmitted us scans of some Kusari fleet vessels as well as some Corsair ships it had encountered. These match what we have in our database of these ships. The entities seem friendly, or at least, not hostile to Bretonia.
Roberts and I have assisted it to recharge it's systems by using our weapon arrays on it's receiving arrays. A brute force method, but it worked.
As far as we know, the vessel was escorted out of Bretonian space by the Armed Forces.

This concludes the report of recent activities.

Best regards,

Ian Wills, Acting Bowex Director of Operations

Signing off.