Privateers, Pirates and Mercenaries!

I have a ship I'll be uploading eventually to add to the pirate fleet.

*BUMP*

So, questions:
1) Will our fleet just be comprised of the Hades Gate, Dark Flame, and that ship I haven't gotten around to posting (EDIT: and Ant's ship ), or will there be more? I assume that's all we're starting out with, but I just wanna double-check.

2) Will be able to buy more ships later on? There's still some pirate designs I wanna build/upload, so the answer to that question could affect how high they are on the ol' priority list.

3) Resources/Currency: We sorta established the system, and then never did anything with it. I feel like we should figure out the specifics on that: what resources there are, what currencies there are, etc.

I'll be posting a ship eventually....eventually... It's gona be a pirate version of that weird colored ship I put up as a WIP.

The Hades' Gate should be coming very soon. I just have to finish the long description, write the stats (which means a lot of counting and guesstimating  ) and take some pics. I HOPE to have it up this weekend. It will NOT disappoint, and is well worth your patience.

@ Mighty - I was actually thinking about the fleet the other day as well. I think we maybe oughta have another one or two larger-sized ships. and a few escort-like small ships similar to the size of the Defiant Class or even Rhode Island class.

I'll wait for Arik on that. 

But if it's escorts you need, the Trampled Hope design is open for anyone to use if they like.

Dino: Yeah, that's what the ship I have to upload is based off of.

EDIT: J-red: I believe Arik mentioned he saw the fleet as the dreadnought (Hades Gate) with a few support ships in the 300-meter-or-so size range, so something between that and your suggestion sounds about right.

Actually, the Trampled Hope is a generic alien escort (with a little customization) I believe you mean my generic alien cruiser. But yes.  






EDIT 

The Hades' Gate is now uploaded. Bow in awe and tremble before your doom.

*BUMP*

So I believe everything's all ready... what's the holdup?

(Also, we still haven't decided on any trading resources, so we need to do that... and I need to make a new version of the map...)

EDIT: In fact, none of my questions from before were answered. Is there some issue or something?

Agh, sorry, I'm on it.

To your questions from earlier:
1- Yeah, those ships should do just fine for now.
2- Yes, you'll be able to buy more ships and stuff later.
3- We should probably, at least for Dino's sake, but that's not something we need immediately. And for the most part everything's going to be purely story-based, with little to no game mechanics, so a lot of the technicalities can be made up on the spot to fit the needs of the storyline. Not that doing that hasn't backfired royally on me in the past, buuut we'll deal with that if/when it happens.



Anyway, let's start then.




"...My name is irrelevant for now. What is of importance to you is that successfully completing this raid will gain you fifty thousand STUs-worth in your preferred currency, as well as anything you can take from the convoy. Do you have any further questions, Captain?"

The man paused briefly--at least it was assumed he was a human male, not that anyone knew for sure. The holoimage on the viewscreen was nothing but a silhouette on a blank white background. Yet that silhouette's unseen gaze seemed to penetrate the pirate captain, see his every intention, know his every thought, anticipate his every response. At least, the way that this mysterious individual seemed to flawlessly manipulate him gave no reason to doubt that seeming omniscience.

OOC: Are all the pirates there or are we all out doing piratey things in the time this is happening?

Btw, new character:
Name: George
Affliiation: The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything
Race: Vegetablearian
Bio: George is a would-be pirate, but he's too lazy to do anything but eat cheese puffs.

Free cucumber if you get the reference.

Tetra's in the holographic-FTL-transmission-reception-room-of-no-lighting talking to your group's mysterious contact. The rest of you are off licking the transwarp drives' spark plugs and visiting space-Boston in the falltime and other piratey things. *Takes cucumber *

[OOC] TBH, coming up with that stuff seems pretty easy; I'll work out a prototype chart and PM it to you. I already have some idea for it... [/OOC]

  Talvis considered the offer. Normally, he would have rejected it out of hand; he could gather 50,000 STUs easily enough by finding some minor world to ransom, and then bolting for the location of the nearest illegal bazaar. It was decent coin, true… but that much for just a dilithium convoy? Either it was the move of a pawn in some larger behind-the-scenes cold war, or it was an ambush- neither of which Talvis found particularly appealing.

But…

  The Hades’ Gate had fallen on rough times. About two weeks ago now, a mole in the ship’s comms team had uploaded their coordinates to the Federation’s central intelligence databanks- and before anyone knew what was happening, they were fighting for their lives against the PCG supercruiser Arondite and countless smaller vessels. The damage on the Wreker alone had cost him a small fortune in repairs; his flagship nearly broke him. Furthermore, though Talvis had ensured the mole’s final moments had been spent revealing all he knew about the extent of the infiltration, the confidence from his usual customers had tanked- no one would say it to his face, but some were beginning to question whether Talvis was losing his edge.

Simply put, he needed the money.

  Talvis let a slow, deep sigh escape his nose- the closest he really ever came to showing emotion towards clients. ‘Well, I still don’t know who you are,” he finally said, in his clipped, icy monotone, “but I must admit, you’re good. Quintuple-layer encryption, complete voice alteration, beaming your signal halfway across the galaxy… I don’t know if you’re Tal Shiar or Section 31, but I suppose it doesn’t matter. Trash a convoy for fifty thousand Standard Transaction Units, plus the spoils- you have a deal. Send the coordinates to my ship and give us some time to make the necessary preparations,” Talvis paused then added, “Actually… how will you know when the convoy is destroyed? I assume you want to maintain silence on this channel, and I have a vested interest in getting my payments in a timely fashion…”

*Meanwhile, Talvis is alerted by a flashing light that he has another transmission incoming, text only.*

While the contact responded, Talvis covertly pressed a button on his chair, projecting the text message onto his retinal HUD. After waiting for it to initialize, he began skimming the words, while simultaneously listening to the contact's response.

[OOC] Double posting! I seem to do this more than everyone, don't I?

Anyway, my main motivation for this is because it's important and I want everyone to see it. As you may have noticed, it's the working resource list for the RP. It's fairly simple: each material has a name, a short description, a worth per unit* in STUs, and a short list of alternate uses. Prices will fluctuate depending on circumstances (AKA Arik's whim), so this is mainly meant to act as more of a baseline than anything concrete.

Resources:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since I showed this to Arik, I also came up with a quick currency exchange table:

Currency Conversion:

Once again, pretty self explanatory: Each currency has a name, abbreviation, worth in STUs, and a stability rating (which is basically how likely/much rates are to fluctuate).

That's all for now; happy pirating, and fly safe!**


*Probably just going to be metric tons, but that's up in the air ATM.
**Fifteen points each if you caught the EVE Online references.
[/OOC]

*The text displays for Talvis to see:* Do you have extra junk floating around? There's probably a treasure hidden in there somewhere! Let Dave & Dave Traders come and clean it out for you! *The message was obvious, someone wanted to know if Talvis had any goods to sell.

Tetra, could you could put the tables in spoilers so they're not going off the screen? If not that's fine (how'd you even get those tables anyway?? ), but it would make it easier to read stuff on this page.



"If you're concerned about your payment, I'll have the first 15,000 sent to your accounts in advance. I expect that will be enough to strengthen your forces beforehand as well, if you should need it. And don't worry, I'll know when you've finished."

[OOC] So the site put its trollface on and decided to delete my message. Arrrrrrgh...

Arik- Spoilers are up. As for how to get the graphs, you have to go into the edit message/preview screen- for whatever reason, that has more options than the standard text box. You’re also going to have to flick between the “Switch editor mode” settings if you want to keep your sanity intact; displaying the code side makes editing/writing other stuff easier, but the final display mode makes typing in the actual graph easier. It’s suboptimal, but workable. [/OOC]

Talvis dismissed the ad; he did need to sort through his cargo hold, but now wasn’t the time.

  When the contact finished speaking, Talvis shifted in his seat slightly. There was no doubt about it now: this guy was part of some shadow organization, probably Tal Shiar. The information was oddly comforting- if he was Tal Shiar, it would almost certainly be a shot at the Romulan Republic and their allies, which means he was probably about to start a war-  and wars were good for business. Besides, these secret organizations almost always paid their dues.
  With a slight pause, talvis lifted himself out of his chair, saying “Very well, then; it’s a deal. I’ll hit your convoy- just give me some time to gather my forces and make the necessary preparations,”

OOC: *cough*TheadwassupposedtobeasecretcommniqueforwonderingifTalvishadanyillegalgoodstodisposeofwhichIfiguredTalviswouldrecognize*cough* Just trying to enter Turtrell into the story, he could always be recruited to help hit the convoy if you want, just sorta reply to the ad and draw him into it.

"Excellent. The convoy will pass through the route designated in the coordinates in exactly 90 hours. You have until then."

With that, the transmission cut off.


OOC: Okay, here's where I could use some help getting a thorough understanding of the map...

[OOC] Arik- I can help with that... provided I know where we are. *reminds himself to finish/upload the new map version*

Ant- Gotcha, already have an idea of how to get you on board. [/OOC]

{OOC} So, I've been sitting here following along wondering... what's the setting exactly? Where are all of us respectively? Are we in the same room? In different ships, various locations around the Hades' Gate? {End OOC}

[OOC] My thoughts exactly. I'm pretty sure it's just me in the room, and Ant's character is somewhere else- but other than that, no idea. [/OOC]

OOC: @ Tet: What's your idea?

@Jonneh: I just kinda placed my character somewhere and made up a setting idea for him. Basically following along the lines of this advice. (read below the comic).

*Turtrell sat at his computer station in his ready room, located just off the bridge. The multiple screens in the closed loop system showed him all sorts of information, varying from what he sold dilithium for on average compared to the average on the market to what prospective sellers might have what to juicy targets he might even take for himself to the status of his ship. He flipped through the tabs on the screens, taking in the information, updating it, reading updates, and generally keeping himself up to date and well ahead in his buisness. His ship with it's well-paid crew cruised through space, heading from one back world black market towards Romulan territory, where plenty of fat shipping lines laden with weapons flew, albeit much more heavily guarded.*