*** Incoming transmission ***
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Comm ID: Cpt. Thomas Kirkland
Access point: Bowex Transport Black Prince, LD-14, Leeds
Target: Border Worlds Exports Management, Shipping Division
CC: Special expedition report
We have the sad duty to report, that our mission to you-know-where through the Tau systems has failed.
As per the shipping assignmment's parameters we have loaded Hull Panels on Planet Leeds enroute to the shipyard at destination. Our friend or foe identification system with the buyer was neutral, also as requested in the shipping assignment. Despite a local storm slightly delaying our launch from the planet the first leg of the delivery was rather uneventful right up to the point of where we were to meet up with the buyer.
Having entered the system we observed heavy traffic near the destination, so we set our engines to idle and hailed planetary control on open frequencies. For some time no answer was forthcoming, so we assumed there must have been some difficulty on the buyer's side and they can't send any ships for the usual cargo inspection at this time. We restarted the engines and set a slow course for the shipyard. After all if at no other point, the buyer will be able to inspect the cargo during loading the latest.
At this point some ships in planetay orbit did respond to our hails, but merely started insisting they had no authority in the matter, but they'd prefer to have our liver for breakfast, and accused the corporation of unjustified agression against the buyer's representatives. We announced our cargo in an attempt to underline the importance of our mission, but immediately a vessel IDed ROBOT_ possibly others intercepted us guns blazing. I believe it is understandable that we were more concerned with getting out before a lucky shot could penetrate the hull, then IDing the attackers. We fired not a single shots in selfdefense or otherwise during the whole mission, and took no fire except from these representatives of the buyer.
Unfortunately we had to consider the transport assignment impossible for us at the time on account of having been forced to retreat out of the system. We docked at the nearby Freeport and arranged for some local shippers to finish the delivery. We were taking a considerable loss, but this allowed us to take more profitable cargo on the return journey instead of having to write the whole trip off as a waste of time. In the end we managed to cut a slight profit on the whole.
Gentlemen, I must ask, if we receive such abuse and baseless accusations from this buyer, and the most we may hope is to get out with our ship and cargo intact, what profit is there in continued business relations with them?
We also feel oblidged to remember the brave sacrafice of our countrymen in BAF and BPA, who we observed fighting and bleeding outnumbered against Joker's thugs, and Kusari butchers in Leeds during our return to Bretonian space. The Prince is currently docked at LD-14 due to their heroic, but losing battle preventing our return to more favourable mooring locations.
#########Transmission#########
Source:Newcastle system, Scarborough Shipyard
Sender: Ian Wills, Shipping management office.
Target: Thomas Kirkland, on board the Percheron class vessel Black.Prince
CC: Bowex Archive, Personell office.
Topic: Trainee status
Dear mister Kirkland, I am hereby pleased to inform you that your status as a Trainee has ended, and that you are now considered trained in the skills of captaining a starfaring vessel, and as such, a full time employee of Borderworld Exports, with all the rights, privileges and duties that come with that status.
You are by this contract authorised to transfer, if you decide so, all your neuralnet systems from your Percheron class vessel, to a larger ship of your choice, be it a Shire, Shetland, or maybe some other craft.
Your contract will be ready for your signature whenever you happen to come to Scarborough. Just report to the level three, office 117, to Miss Troy, she'll have all your papers ready for you.
Posts: 6,081
Threads: 305
Joined: Aug 2007
Staff roles: Story Dev Economy Dev
CommID: Acting Director of Operations, Andrew Maloney
Message Source: Scarborough Shipyard, Newcastle
Message Target: All Bowex Personnel
CC: Henry VIII, standard report.
I know we are all still in shock from the raid on Scarborough Shipyard. The current death toll stands at 19 personnel confirmed dead, with the additional 72 employees serving aboard the Henry VIII reported missing. In these days of darkness, it is important that we remain strong, and do not bow to the predation of terrorists such as the Slavers Union.
The men and women of the BPA and BAF are doing their utmost to track down, arrest and deal just punishment to those foul beasts who are responsible. I implore any employee who has any additional information regarding the attack to report to the authorities immediately. This transgression shall not go unpunished!
***
Not all has been a loss though. Recent hours have seen new levels of cooperation with the Zoner founded fledgling mining corporation "Zoner ore extraction". While we will still deal exclusively with our nationalised brothers in the BMM over home gained produce, these Zoners have proved useful in sourcing the rarer materials required for the war effort that our own efforts cannot acquire.
Earlier today, myself at the helm of the Bramall and Mr. Kirkland of the Black Prince picked up the first load of merchandise. A full load of 9,000 units of Iridium were transferred to our ships via ZoE assets in the Magellan system. An agreement over pricing has been reached that will allow us to purchase the raw mineral at $2,000 per unit. This agreement is being formalised in a legally binding corporate contract as we speak.
If you see one of these ships, feel free to seek them out for communications if you have enquires. Otherwise, treat our new-found business partners with the utmost respect. They provide us an important service that would be otherwise unavailable. Oh, and Mr. Kirkland successfully passed the B-word test. Clever chap, if I might say so myself. Diplomatically answered 'mole'.
#########Transmission#########
Source: Leeds system, Border station Durham
Sender: Andrew Duke, Ex/Sec pilot
Target: Company headquarters, Planet New London, New London system, Ex/Sec Captain Andrew McLean
CC: Bowex Archive, Security office.
Topic: Rare materials; Gallia
Greetings sir,
Today, while patroling the New London system, I have met a Zoner, coming from the Tau systems, from a place called Gallia.
He was hauling a substance called Prometheum in his hold, he said it is very rare and found only in Gallia, who's government is actively trying to stop the export of this aforementioned substance.
It had made a mess of my scanning attempt, and is supposedly radioactive. I had contacted the nearest Bowex office, and was allowed to purchace three barrels of the substance for 50,000?.
It is currently stored on board my Mafic deep space recon vehicle, parked on Border station Durham, in secured barrels.
I would like to receive instructions about this substance, and where to ship it for research purposes.
Also, this Zoner was very kind and provided some information about Gallia, for instance, that there seems to be some sort of civil war under way currently, and that the Royal Military, or some similar body, is trying to stop another faction, called simply the Council, from contacting Sirius. While I was under the impression that this Gallia was nothing but another pirate group, it seems I was in error.
Comm ID: Ex/Sec Captain Andrew McLean
Message Source: Planet Leeds HQ
Message Target: Anrdrew Duke, General Comm System
CC: Strange Materials, stranger people, and our oppertunity to profit from them
This would appear to be an intreguing discovery indeed, If you can get those samples to Cambridge as soon as possible, in particular the Ministry of Defense reserch complex, as from what I read of Promethium, it is highly radioactive, and can be dangerous if not handled with care. Also, it must be ascertained whether it is capable of fueling a weapon such as the one that was used on Planet Cambridge, and could pose a threat to settlements and stations Bretonia, and more importantly, our profits.
***
As for its origins, while we leave most of the scouting of Kusarian defenses to the BAF, I do have a couple of chaps stationed in Tau 23 on the gate construction site, and with all the lads from the BAF tied up with the war, I think it would be a good idea to take the initiative and try and see if these 'Gallians' are friendly or not. But more importantly, we must ascertain any oppertunities for the Company to profit from any exotic goods they may have access to.
As such, I shal send two scout pilots to see if contact can be made with these strange fellows, and if they have goods to trade, and an opertunity for us to profit from them. I should have a report to share from them in a week or so hopefully.
***
On a final, more general note, I have been kept rather buisy in the office with paperwork recently, but I shal be back in the cockpit more often in the coming days.
And I would just like to add my sincere condolonces to the families of those lost on the Henry VIII.
I'm sending the books of the Black Prince and the Empress Matilda attached.
As you can see we've had quite a busy few days.
Three trips in particular are notable.
1/
Despite my serious misgivings, a mr Jeffries has approached me aboard LD-14 about a shipment of MOX to be hauled through the Taus. Owing to my previous bad experiences with the buyer, I was very glad to have been able to join the Director's prospection party also heading to the Taus.
THis time the journey was more eventful than the actual delivery, though that is not saying much. Shortly after takeoff we discovered that some of the barrels in the cargo hold were leaking. With all hands otherwise occupied I was forced to dispatch mr Jose (a "Zoner" we took on board at LD-14 as passanger) with a mop to keep the the ship in a state resembling cleanness. This, of course, also resulted in an unscheduled pitstop at the Jumpgate construction site in Tau-31 to deliver mr Jose to the much better equiped medical facility there.
As it turned out it was just as well we stopped there, as this way our transport was safely moored at the time when some Gaians chasing us from Edinburgh intercepted our party. Attending at the time to mr Jose, I am sadly unable to provide much information about the encounter, but it couldn't have gone too badly, as the Gaians were already gone with no loss to our group by the time we prepped the Prince for launch.
We also had to persuade an IMG miner to look the other way while passing through to our destination, but no other violent encounter hindered us until we reached the buyer's patrols near the Jumphole. Our cargo must have been well anticipated, as even a battlecruiser seems to have turned up in honor of our arrival. Well, either that, or they were just very eager to be refueled first. No problems with payment, though.
2/
With the delivery complete, our convoy joined mr McLean on his rounds to inspect his signal relays from the deep space drones. Despite our lack of entuhsiasm this part of our journey also took a profitable turn when following a lead on some combustible substance acquired by mr Duke we stumbled upon a space station of unconfirmed origins. The people there spoke the Trade Language in a very strange and heavily accented dialect, but in the end we managed to scam... erm... we managed to acquire a full load of high quality tobacco for a very compressed price.
In short order we were enroute to Liberty to unload our fresh cargo.
We made our way through the Barrier Pass without incident, except for encountering a silent ship drifting through our path without active drive. The resulting debate about the plausability of ghost ships continued right up to the point, where we were ambushed by Rouges just as we entered Liberty space. After much mucking about and generally making a mess of the siruation, including the loss of a few crates of our cargo we managed to get past this obstacle and found a buyer in short order in the Liberty core systems. On our return journey we even managed to withness our alied Liberty Navy in action mopping up the Rogues disrupting our journey earlier. We did, however, stray too close to the battle and suffered some additional losses as a result, but all in all we managed to bring in a fair profit on the journey.
3/
Upon our return to Bretonia we quickly received a priority broadcast from BMM about some ore needing hauling, so bidding the Director and his escort farewell, and taking advantage of my recent promotion (for which I would again like to express my gratitude) we returned to Scarborough and taking half my lads I took command of the Shire class transport Empress Matilda.
Having loaded the transports a hearty four ship convoy started it's way through the Omegas towards the Rhineland to return with much needed military supplies. We were all quite tired by this point and with half the crew on the Black Prince, half on the new Shire, very much undermanned. This did cause some trouble during the journey as we ran into some temporal anomaly, and we were separated from the rest of the convoy in Omega-7. Thankfully mr Duke, to whom I'd like to express my deepest thanks, returned to search for us once the convoy was safe, and we managed to make the delivery deadline despite sporadic Hessian sightings on our way.
The convoy having fallen apart, and our busy previous schedule notwithstanding I ordered all hands to put in some R-and-R and moored the ship at Planet Nuremberg.
Should you need to contact the Black Prince, I left my First Mate, mr Roberts in charge there. He should be fully capable of handling any deliveries with the rest of the crew at his disposal until we return with the Empress. Just, don't let im haul any alcohol.
*** Incoming transmission ***
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Comm ID: 1st mate Matthew Roberts
Access point: Franz Herzog Hotel, Planet Nuremberg, Munich, Rhineland
Target: Border Worlds Exports Management, Exploration and Security Division
CC: A transport's missing
I told the Captain this was a bad idea, so I have.
But did he listen to me? No he didn't.
We should never have split the crew. Oh, god almighty, so we shouldn't have.
But he said that ore needed hauling. Nothing you can do once the captain's done make up his mind, you see.
Nothing at all.
You see, I fear captain Kirkland got himself into trouble.
I believe he's sent the report to Shipping HQ about how we split the crew between the Black Prince and the Empress Matilda in order to be able to help deliver an urgent shipment of ores from BMM to Rhineland. Well to do it, and to do it quickly captain Kirkland took command of a Shire class transport, and me remained with half the men on the Black Prince. This certainly was taking risks, mind ye (heck, I have barely enough men to man the guns, and the Prince is a much smaller craft), but we were flying in a convoy, and the shipment was indeed urgent.
Now you see, things started going wrong as the convoy dissolved upon reaching destination. I suppose it was necessary to bring both the Empress and the Prince back to Bretonia, but I wish he'd at least have coordinated with me. Sirs, I doubt the captain could as much as fire a shot to defend themselves.
I also need to report that we managed to catch a somewhat garbled message after the one attached. Audio only. It sounded like the captain. He was saying he and the crew were alright for the moment and moored at some asteroid. He was urging us to pay the ransom, Sir, and save them from all kinds of horrible death. Sounded like he was reading it, though, Sir.
Oh, gods, I hope they're alright. Young Billy, one of their mechanics' mates was only just turned 19, Sir.
comm id: Mart Bellock, captain of the Wheatstone
Loaction: Planet Leeds
message begins:
Just dropping a quick note here. I've been hauling some ore for the BMM lads to Rheinland lately, bringing back some fine pieces of machinery to shred Kusarians. I've ran the blockade at the TAU 31 gate twice in a day now. It seems the noodles' aim is off by miles. They can't stop the Bowex prowess.
I've been planning some trips to Liberty, but word has it it's complete pirate-pandamonium there. So I may head off into the Border and even Edgeworlds perhaps. Get some of that rare alloy from Freeport 11.
#########Transmission#########
Source: Newcastle system, Lancaster trade center, Bowex HQ
Sender: Ian Wills, Acting Director of Operations
Target: All Bowex ships
CC: Bowex Archive
Topic: Missing personell and material resources.
Gentlemen, the situation is grave indeed.
I would like all transport ship captains, as well as all ExSec personell to report here.
We cannot allow our ships to just go missing like this anymore, and end up hijacked, crew kidnapped, our people's lives in jeopardy!
I am personally in control of the Lionheart, and I know for a fact that Andrew Duke, of ExSec, is in control of a Mafic class Super heavy fighter, as well as one Havoc class Bomber.