Greetings, whoever is in charge of Livadia Shipyard.
We want to extend an inquiry over the construction and purchase of a vessel. Specifically, we want to hire your shipyard to build us a Nephilim. Don't worry, we'll bring the requisite materials to do it, but we need to know how much money we need to put in to cover space and labor.
Rest assured, we can be quite generous.
Oh, right, why would a shipping and engineering company want a Nephilim?
Obviously, to serve as a massive office and command ship, and from our understanding, the Nephilim has plenty of space to store the paperwork. Also, we hear it is quite generously armed, which should serve as a nice deterrent against the odd criminal or alien crossing our path.
Why not a Corvo or Bustard?
Do we look like plebeians to you? We want the room, and we want to protect our paperwork with some decent equipment. Also, aesthetically pleasing ships catch our eye.
In short, we want a Nephilim to serve as a command ship for our expeditions and engineering sites in the Edge and Nomad Worlds, and we are willing to overpay your workers by an unseemly amount (and you'll get a nice cut as well) to process the materials you will tell us go into the Nephilim, should you choose to accept our offer.
Get back to us on details at your earliest convenience.
Regards,
Wallace Binghamton
"What? I heard they're easy to maintain."
Triple Hazard Pay, Inc.
Although we are not "in charge" of the Shipyard, OSI has a significant operation there, and we are members of the Confederation of Freeports, that's why this message came to my desk.
And I'm pretty sure I can answer your request too. Because the answer is pretty easy if you ask any Zoner: unfortunately we have to deny your request. The Nephlim is the most protected Zoner ship of all, more so than the Whale, even. It's a tremendous effort to build one, a mobile space city, so to speak, a Zoner exclusive ship, and only the most trusted captains are allowed to command one.
So, no, the Zoners will not allow one of our almost sacred 'Colony Ships', as some call them, to go to anyone's hands.
Sorry for wasting your time on this request.
Best regards,
David Starr
Chief Executive Officer
Omicron Supply Industries
As a followup to Mr. Starr, he is indeed correct. The Nephilim is the pride and joy of the Zoners, and is a closely guarded ship. Building of such is a monumental task, exceedingly expensive, and utilizes most of the space at Livadia to construct just one thus preventing other construction endeavors there. On top of all that, as mentioned, the Nephilim is of Zoner make, for Zoners only. I only know of one Nephilim that is not in the hands of the Zoners, and that was provided to the Order High Command due to our relationship with them and the years and years of alliance and cooperation.
As much as you claim the other vessels are plebeian in nature, those will have to suffice for what you are requesting.
You are saying that despite neutral and having open borders with everyone, you cannot sell US your ships, which are apparently sacred or something?
The one group that seems to exist to have bigger, well-armed groups walk all over it is telling us
Some people who should seriously reconsider Wrote:No.
After I finished laughing, I did a little figuring. The board got together and told me it could be done after I outlined it to them. So here it is:
If we sent a team of engineers to assist you in expanding your facilities, along with the materials needed to expand the facilities, to the point of a specialized berth being installed specifically for a special-order Nephilim, and brought in our own personnel to assist in construction, so as to not tax the capabilities of Livadia to the extent that you have described, that would solve the "facilities" problem quite nicely... and you would have those state-of-the-art facilities to keep after our Nephilim is deployed. If we went through that much effort to get that ship, obviously, we're not going to anger the one group of people who can reliably maintain it, so us not using it to terrorize the villagers is a given, so you can trust us enough insofar as it will not fire upon or otherwise threaten the well-being of Zoners.
Rest assured, we have the resources, both material and financial, to pull this one off, AND you would gain a reliable (and reasonably well-armed itself) associate in the process.
If this looks good, shoot us estimates.
Regards,
Wallace Binghamton
Chief Negotiator
Triple Hazard Pay, Inc.