Duchess Industries

This page describes a player group that no longer exists as such. The page remains for archival purposes.

Duchess Industries
Origin	Liberty
Alignment	Lawful/Corporation
Profile
Date of founding	816 A.S.
Date of dissolution	817 A.S.
Founder(s)	Lars Johansen
Base of operations	Trenton Outpost, New York
Primary role
High-risk, high-value shipping

Duchess Industries was a Liberty-based shipping corporation. It was founded under the name Duchess Shipping by Lars Johansen, a former Universal Shipping captain, and grew into a small fleet of cargo haulers. As the corporation grew, plans to integrate into other aspects of Liberty commerce began but came to an unexpected conclusion when Deep Space Engineering acquired the then-renamed Duchess Industries. Mr Johansen as well as several of his employees were offered positions and jobs with DSE, and some have since become quite successful.

Benefits

Members of Duchess Industries enjoyed a number of benefits:

• Petty cash as needed
• Loans as needed
• Company-paid pirate taxes
• Trading licenses
  • Bretonia Passenger License
• Convoy trading
• Company or company-paid escorts
• Bonuses for exemplary conduct, dedication, roleplay and so on
  • Free armor upgrades
  • Free advanced ship equipment
  • Free ships
  • Cake

Fleet Roster

Below is a roster of the Duchess fleet, now largely decomissioned.

Grand Duchess

The proud and busy mobile headquarters of Duchess Shipping.

Flagship

• Commodore Sofia Westwood, age 31 from Planet Manhattan, New York
• Lieutenants

• Flight Technicians
• Engineers
• Chief Financial Officer Nick Prescott, age 47 from Planet Manhattan, New York
• Chief Technical Officer Casper Pastor, age 35 from Planet Curacau, Cortez

Duchess Blue

A Mammoth Transport, the first of the Duchess ships. Current location unknown.

Duchess White

The second Duchess ship, home away from home of the founder.

Transport

• Chief Executive Officer Lars Johansen, age 29 from Planet New Berlin, New Berlin
• Flight Technician Herbert Gibbon, age 21 from Planet Primus, Omicron Kappa
• Engineer Beatrice Gibbon, age 21 from Planet Primus, Omicron Kappa

Lars grew up in a Scandinavian community on New Berlin. Ambitious as a child and ambitious as an adolescent, his home never seemed like quite enough to accomodate his enterprising tendencies. As he came of age he decided to leave the dreary and impoverished Rheinland for Liberty where he hoped to fullfil some of his dreams. After working as a freelancer for some time, he settled down on Manhattan where he met his wife. After his family grew by two, family life put pressure on his income and his entrepreneurial instinct kicked. He founded Duchess Shipping with backing from the corporate giant of Universal Shipping. He rented an office block on Trenton Outpost and after a whole lot of paper-pushing he had a respectable business sustaining his family.

His first ship was an EL-HiL51 "Mammoth" Transport, the Duchess Blue, as part of his initial contract with Universal. Universal supplied him with a flight technician and engineer: Pong Wang and Heinrich Schumaker. They were poorly-paid, but their distinctive personalities soon grew on Lars. Mere days later, Lars bought a new ship, the Duchess White, a GT-1 "Whale" Transport. It was not in perfect condition, and some time had to be spent making it space-worthy. It was a time of much bonding amongst the crew.

Shortly after it's maiden voyage, the Duchess White set out on an expedition with an Ageira convoy for a technology interchange in the far reaches of Sirius. During the trip, a Nomad was tractored on board due to corrupted control parameters following a scrimage with a wing of Nomad fighters. This Nomad saw to the death of Heinrich and Pong. After Freeport 11 sorted out the Nomad -- which led to the death of a Zoner technician -- the convoy proceeded to Planet Gammu and Primus. On Primus, Lars hired two curious monkey-people who were aching to get out into the world. The twin siblings Herbert and Beatrice Gibbon became the new Flight Technician and Engineer on board the Duchess White. They installed an advanced Discovery Scanner from Planet Gammu, astonishing Lars with their intellect and technical proficiency.

Thanks to the Gibbons, the Duchess White made it safely back to Liberty. After some days of further crew orientation, repairs, and mourning, daily operations proceeded as usual.

Duchess Gold

Third Duchess ship. Flown by the first Duchess Commodore.

Transport

• Commodore Scott Stevens, age 28 from Planet Denver, Colorado
• Flight Technician Andy Lukas, age 27 from Planet Houston, Texas
• Engineer Mary Jones, age 24 from Planet Houston, Texas

Duchess Red

Fourth Duchess ship. Flown by the second and last appointed Commodore.

Transport

• Commodore Martin Sorenson from Planet Pittsburgh, New York
• Flight Technician Moira Emerson from Planet Cambridge, Cambridge
• Engineer Viktor Scarborough from Planet Leeds, Leeds

Duke Vermillion

Fifth Duchess ship. Flown by the first escort pilot hired by Duchess Shipping.

Escort

• Pilot Klaus Klemmer from Planet New Berlin, New Berlin
• Copilot A.I. Hans developed by Ageira

Klaus and his brother Hans grew up on Planet New Berlin together but have since parted ways. While they had similar skills, they made quite different choices in career: Hans joined the Rheinland Military while Klaus entered the private sector as an escort pilot. Despite now being employed in different rival Houses -- Rheinland and Liberty -- they are quite close and still stay in touch with each other.

Duchess Silver

Transport

Captain Keval Trolin from Planet Manhattan , New York

• IT Jonathan from Planet Denver, Colorado
• Engineer Micah from Planet Manhattan , New York

Duke Crimson

Details classified.

Escort

See Also

• Deep Space Engineering (player faction)