The Endless Summer

The Endless Summer
Ship Class	Gunboat
Built by	Zoners
Technical information
Guns/Turrets	0 / 6
Hull strength	95,000
Cargo space	400 units
Nanobots/Batteries	350/350
Max. impulse speed	80 m/s
Max. thrust speed	150 m/s
Power output	400,000 u
Power recharge	40000

This is a player owned ship.

"This ship, its more a home to me that any I've ever known. She's beautiful, sleek lines, and elegant curves."

"With every hum and vibration, she talks to me. Every counter-thrust, and she dances."

"She's seen more, and gone farther then I ever will, and I swear her engines sing me to sleep"

The Endless Summer is a Zoner Made, Conference Gunboat, that has seen and been apart of a lot over its years. After agonizing so long, being stuck in life, unable to move forward, Dane finally received a sign when he found her. Its said, that when a life, lived fully and to its very end, fades, a new life begins, a new adventure. And for the Summer, the adventure began long ago...

History

With the Express peacefully buried inside a dark matter cloud, Dane, on the bridge of a friends ship, happened to catch sight of a faint signal on the sensors. Determined to track it down, it took them the better part of an hour. Always just a step behind, always finding just the fleetest echo when they decided to stop looking, continually teased onward. However, In time, they found it. The Gunboat was badly damaged, and adrift. Just a cursory look showed main engine and power core damage, a couple of spaces opened up to the void, and scans showed no life aboard. After towing it too Ames Research Station, Dane walked inside the vessel, and the details became clear. The ship had been badly shot up, trying to limp its way to a friendly port. Engine damage was slowing it, and with the life support system failing too, there didn't seem to be much hope. The comm systems had been up, and continually broadcasting a help message, but inside the cloud, it was like shouting into a storm. The engines gave out inside the cloud, and the crew died sometime there after. But all the logs were intact, and the stories of the ships crew were laid out. Dane took his time reading through it, learning about the people who had called this ship home.

The First Owner

Years past, when the ship was new, it was purchased by a man named Ryan White. A man whose family was dead, and found himself running away from the numbing pain inside himself. He had wasted years doing little, hoping the future held a better shake. He had killed people, some who didn't deserve it. And in the end, he had lost his one saving grace, that he had added something better to the universe. Now his own melancholy wanted nothing more then to pilot a ship far into the unknown, to have his own personal argument with God. It was then, that he learned how many friends he actually had. They were determined to stay with him, to help him, and all of them, find a new life. Find happiness at the edge of the horizon, together, in friendship. Because, well, they were family. It was that simple.

So they purchased the ship together and left behind all their old ties, building new ones on the ragged frontier. The bonds of the people on-board strengthened, through their own little dramas, crises, romances, shared sadness, and the joy that comes when you know your truly happy. They worked for companies looking to trail blaze new trade routes, carried passengers, escorted lonely trade ships, occasionally hauled a bit of cargo to the people who needed it most. With each passing day, with his new family, Ryan laid his wounded heart to rest. He finally had something to smile about.

But good things, rarely ever last.

On the frontier, deep in the omega's, Ryan and his crew came upon a stranded freighter. The ship had suffered heavy engine damage from an asteroid impact, and were getting nowhere fast. Worried about pirates, they had tried putting out a distress signal, but the same shower of asteroids had knocked out the long range tight-beam antenna, along with most of the other comm equipment. With a crew of a dozen or so on board the freighter, Ryan knew he had plenty of room, and offered them a ride to the nearest Freeport. The freighter crew, was deeply thankful, to which Ryan replied smiling "Don't worry about it, you'd have done the same for us." His smile faded as the crew drew weapons.

An hour later, and it was over. Ryan, the only one left, locked in the bridge, looked at the end of his ammo supply, and knew there was no hope. He would have laughed bitterly if he could, or tore them all to pieces if he could sum up the anger. All that was left was numbing pain. With the door almost breached, he set course for the biggest rock he could find, hoping to take his case to his creator personally. As the engines engaged behind him, the door burst open, and Ryan let out a deep breath...

Days of Ruin

The times had finally changed. For a small time ship-jacker pirate named Volcheck, he knew providence when it came, and he wasn't gonna waste this chance. After sharing a drink with some freelancer named White, all it took was 10 minutes of planning, a little cash, and the trap was set. The plan could not have gone down more beautifully. The freighter was carefully rigged to appear damaged in an asteroid shower (what, did the shields not work?), and hoping to capitalize on the kindness of certain strangers, Volcheck knew the old do-gooder would stop for a stranded freighter, deep in Hessian\Corsair turf.

After that, it was killing time. His band of pirates stuck with him because they knew he would bring them prosperity, without getting them either killed or absorbed by The Black Sails, or worse. And that was one thing Volcheck would not let happen. Freedom in this 'verse comes at the cost of bullets, because theres always someone who wants to keep you down.

With the crew dead, a few causalities on his side, Volcheck finally put an end to the gunboats captain. After a quick dabble with the controls, it was no longer heading to smash itself into a rock. The bodies of the dead were gathered into the cargo bay, and spaced. Then, it was speech time. telling his motley band all about the new day for them, the day when they'd never have to live under anyones heel again. It was a new dawn, and the sun shined only for them. They loved it, they always did. Talk well enough in this 'verse, and you can get any fool to do anything.

In the months that followed, Volcheck and his pirate band raided up one side of Sirius and down the other - they hit transports carrying food, passengers, anything with money. They dueled and trounced other would-be pirates, blowing smoking holes in transports and gunboats alike. In only 3 months, they earned respectable bounties with every House, and even one from the Outcasts. Drunk on his fame and fortune, Volcheck drenched himself in money, and increasing disregard for human life. It became common practice to open fire on passenger liners, then extort money from each individual escape pod - those that didn't pay up were blown away, to serve as examples. Then came the kidnappings.

Attacking designated hardened transports for VIP's, Volcheck knew he could get even bigger payoffs attacking those that had more money. While less than successful with the first attempt, it shot his bounty up. That made him retirement material for any bounty hunter willing to take up the contract. And try they did...

Redemption

One of those Bounty Hunters was named Ramirez. Despite his name, he was Liberty born and bred, and found himself on the wrong end of a gun involving the deaths of three people. All he ever wanted to do was help people, But prison changed that. While it made him harder, it eroded him at the core, replacing old values with hate. Then the slaverey came. Hardened and harder still, grinding labor, and that little spark grew into a flame. That spark was anger.

When his prison ship was raided, Ramirez put his boots on the line for the Liberty Rogues. There, his already eroded moral compass was lost, and his anger found new meaning. But over the years too much death, too much petty lawlessness, the hate and anger burned itself out, leaving Ramirez old before his time. Weary, he finally put a stop to it all. he shoot his gang leader on board a passenger ship, who was getting ready to have some private time with a woman passenger. After that, he took a few rounds from former friends, but managed to kill the last of them. Bleeding, the ships medic patched him up, and he was called a hero, thanked by the passengers and crew for his heroism. Ramirez didnt care. he knew it would mean nothing. And it didnt - when the ship was rescued, he went straight back to prison. To hell, and to grinding labor. But, in this case, something DID change. Men, simple, hardy, who looked just as weary as he did, but with a reknewed vigor in their eyes. They made him an offer - find his honor again, do what you did on board that ship, everyday - hunt the scum that make victoms of the weak. Do it, because its right. Do it, because you get paid.

A humble beginning - and sometime later, he joined a pack of five Bounty Hunters after a pirate murderer named Volcheck who had become drunk on his fame and inhumanity. A bloody firefight in space, and the ships were torched. The red gunboat hauled in his pod, and Ramirez wasnt gonna back down now. Too many men see the end coming and just give up. Not this time. Not ever. that old spark came alive again, and instead of letting it rage like a fire, he harnessed the flame, built it bigger, higher. He was ready.

Volcheck opened the pods, shot a couple of the Bounty Hunters in the kneecaps to subdue them, tied them up, sat 'em down near the airlock. A spacing party. When he came to Ramirez's pod, he opened it, put a hole in his shoulder, and another in the meat of his thigh. He fell on the deck, holding back screams, heard their laughter, built up that fire. And when the pirate had turned his back on him, saying something to arrouse laughter, Ramirez leapt on him. He mangled him, grabbed his gun, shot a few more pirates. He took a round, but kept going, adrenaline making pain faint and unimportant. He free'd his wounded compatriots, and even shot up as they were, they cleaned the ship out, room by room, pirate by pirate. Volchecks bloody reign of 4 months was over. Ramirez, wounded, tired, let the flame breath out, and had a smoke.

A year passes. Wounds always heal, and friends always come. Ramirez applied with the right people, and took the gunboat for his own. He found friends that put their lot in with him, hoping to find redemption just the same. They prowled space, finding people who made prey of the weak, killed them, and did the paperwork. Content in knowing that each pull of the trigger made the sector safer. Because of his wounds, Ramirez had trouble walking, and became a fine leader over the time. But we all make mistakes. He pushed his crew into a fight they couldnt win, hoping to grab victory through luck like they had done countless times before.

A cannon round rippled hull plates. Alarms and heartbeats and the rushing of blood. That old flame wouldnt spark. Dead friends, dead dreams. A flare in space, the last bomber becoming free floating atoms. Too far away. Life support: damaged. Engines: damaged. Comm's: damaged. Hull breaches, power fluctuations. Nothing to do now.

Too far away...

A New Home

With the last entry read, Dane came to know the story of the ship. It would take alot of money to fix, for whoever would own it now. Which, in this case, would be Dane, according to salvage law. The sign he had been waiting for was here. He knew his life needed to move forward, with a vessel that had been to the stars edge and back, seen all the places he wanted to go, and knew the value of a friend. With all the money he had saved smuggling, fixing it to its pristine state was no bother. And on that day when it launched, reborn, with Dane, himself reborn, everything was perfect.

He gave his last farewell to his family, cut ties with all of his trading contacts, let his close friends know where to find him, and headed to the stars...

The Name

The Endless Summer is named for freedom. For a child, the first concept of freedom comes when school ends, and summer begins. In those brief three months, which for a kid can be ages, there is nothing holding them back. In a way, children also learn that good things never last, as summer ends, and school begins again in the fall. But Summer always comes again. Endless Summer means exactly that. Endless Freedom.

What? No Crew?

Its true. While gunboats are supposed to have a crew, Dane's Endless Summer does not. Because of his navy mechanic background, and with the help of a few volounteers, he's rigged a complex jury-rigged automation system to most of the controls. Now, all bridge stations are routed to newly installed panels around Dane's command chair - he can access propulsion, navigation, communications, and even weapons from one spot. Manual engine adjustments still need to be done from the engine bay, and the system isnt perfect. It's only really good for basic point to point flight, and simple self-defense. In a pitched battle, either Dane will get bogged down with trying to handle everything, or the automation system will fail. Either way, the ship is at a major disadvantage combat wise.

But as a vessel that is, essentially, Dane's home, the automation allows him to find his peace wherever the winds take him