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Ban the Game
Planetoid
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2016
Humanity, the assuredly best species in the galaxy at one thing: Killing. Throughout their entire existence the only thing capable of standing up to man's destructive might is man itself. And thus when humanity took to the stars they spread like a virulant locust to every planet they could find. Quickly, the speed of travel outpaced the speed of communitication and humanity found itself factured and scattered once more. History and maps were lost to the cataclysm and dark ages that cycled through human worlds. Now, even the human homeworld is but a legend. One of utopia and unknown riches for those who seek to find it, but this story isn't about that.
Elegua, a major human colony world and main habitat of the star named after it. Outside of high orbit of the planet, a lone ship drops out of FTL. It doesn't take long before it's detected by both the orbital fleet and planetside detection. LADAR and radio pings are quickly sent to the ship but at this distance it takes a full minute to send a communication ping one way.
"This is control tower 374 pinging unregistered vessal. Transmit your registration over this channel and remain outside of MEO zone until identification is complete."
"This is FTV Altin Kurt trasmitting registration to control tower 374."
A large dump of data filled the technician's screen. Ship schematics, planetary origin, construction contract, transit history, contract of ownership, and crew logs that are all used to produce a vassal's unique identification. This vessal, strangely, only had one active crew member.
"Registration confirmed Captain Matoi. Please state your reason for visit."
"Trade. I've brought a sizeable cargo I think a lot of people here would be interested in and my ship needs a refuel and maintenaince."
"Do you have a specific destination request?"
"Just put me on the biggest city with an open dock."
There was a short pause as the flight controller gathered the nessicary information and security clearance.
"Understood. You have clearance to approach, follow the flight path I'm sending to reach Cidade De Ouro. Final docking solution will be handled by local flight control."
"Confirmed control tower. Starting my approach."
Sub-FTL travel was obviously relatively slow. Starships used jump drives to accelerate beyond light speed but it was dangerous to do so near the gravitational field of a planet. Closing the nine million mile gap between the planet and the FTL drop point took 20 hours by itself, with another 6 hour orbital wait time due to air space congestion. As the Altin Kurt made it's final approach it was quickly pinged again.
"This is control tower to FTV Altin Kurt. You are veering off of authorized descent course. Please varify."
"Uh, sorry. This ship isn't rated for fast orbital descension. We'll burn up at that descent course. This was on the registry information."
At this distance communication lag was almost zero as the ship was already in the planet's atmosphere but the pause before flight controller's next message felt like the Altin Kurt was still beyond high orbit.
"Confirmed Altin Kurt. Sending new approach vector now."
After some airborne manuvearing, it took about a half hour to land in Elegua's single all encompassing body of water. The splash of a 200 volumetric ton object displacing in water at over 200 miles an hour was quite the show and because of that ships like this had to land quite a ways away from the bubble city of Cidade De Ouro for safety measures. That didn't stop spectators from viewing the spectacle with high powered binoculars though. Coming back up to the surface after it's short dive, the Altin Kurt made a quick voyage up to the dock before the systems there lifted it out of the water and into drydock. Quarantine kept the ship sealed up tight for a full 24 hours before the airlock was finally cleared to open. Stepping out was a single woman getting a chance to breathe in some fresh planetary atmosphere for the first time in too long. As she stepped onto the dock a tall man in his 30s approached her. He was bald with black skin and wore simple green fatigues and sunglasses.
"Welcome to Cidade De Ouro, Captain Matoi. And welcome to my dock." The man's voice was deep with an exotic accent, from Ryuko's prospective, that fit his well built form.
"You own this place then?" She asked. Her own voice being very low for a woman, especially at her age of 20. She wore a black and orange jumpsuit with a white tanktop hidden beneath.
"Yes, I do. My name is Djemal. Now there is a matter of protocal we need to get done regarding your ship and cargo," he said before lifting a hand and causing a holographic display to pop up only about a foot in front of his face.
Ryuko did the same, displaying her own personal holographic interface. "Here is a copy of the registration and ownership forms. As well as the cargo manifest. 97 and a half tons of refined sodium." She continued to walk down the dock as she talked and Djemal did the same following her.
"So you're a salt merchant?"
"I said refined sodium not table salt. It's all in bullion bars."
"Of course. Just a joke. So, since you plan on selling it here I presume, how do you want to handle the taxes? Money or goods?"
"Goods."
"Very well. The inspector will come by later to examine the cargo and collect the tax with it. I can begin refueling with the push of a button and can have my own inspectors come in today to get started on an overhaul. What fuel package would you like?"
"Refined, and keep your inspectors off for now. I'll be doing the inspection myself before any repairs get done."
Djemal paused for a only a brief moment before continuing. "If the effectiveness of my repair team is in question then you don't need to worry. I can assure you my team works to code and we'll have your ship in the green in a standard maintenance cycle."
"Yeah well my ship's not built to modern code and half of my repairs your team will probably pick up on as broken anyway. Besides, the longer my ship is here the more you get paid anyway."
"Hmmm...Alright. I'll schedule your overhaul for later after you submit the maintenance inspection. Speaking of pay. How will you be handling the fees?"
"I'll pay when I leave after the overhaul and finding a buyer for the sodium. It shouldn't take too long. Besides it's not like I can go anywhere while the ship's drydocked like that."
"Of course, If I felt like you couldn't pay I could just seize the vessal anyway, but I'm sure neither of us want to go through the red tape for something like that. Would you like a lead for conducting the sale?"
"No thanks, but I'd like an ISP recommendation if you have one."
"I do, I'll send it to you as well as a few resturant and hotel recommendations and a few other local interests. There, I even paid for 3 weeks service on the house." Djemal stopped and turned to look at the hull of the Altin Kurt from a distance. "So why are you flying around in a ship like this?"
"The Kurt?" Ryuko stopped and turned to look back at the man. "It's not like getting a replacement is cheap. Don't have much of a choice in the matter."
"With a cargo size like that I'm surprised you haven't been able to finace a more modern starship. Is a ship that size really only crewed by a single person?"
"You haven't seen the inside. They don't build multiperson mining ships like that anymore. Getting something to replace the Altin Kurt would probably take a custom construction contract which is rather expensive. But no, she's designed to be crewed by two people. One of the reasons I'm here." She looked back at her screen, surfing through pages and getting lost in what she was doing. "Anyway, thanks for the free internet but if there isn't anything else I have to take care of something."
"Of course. Your ship will stay docked here and my contact information is in the package I sent you but you can usually find me around here if you have any problems. Have a nice day."
After the two departed, Captain Matoi got to work searching Elegua's local internet. Checking for local companies she could sell to but mostly trying to find leads on crew members. Eventually, she placed an advertisement for a pilot on a local board before setting off into the crowds to do some bartering in person. Cidade De Ouro was a cluster of bubble cities. Floating domes with umbilicals down to the ocean floor for transportation and mining, as well as allowing the city to stay in one spot and sink below the surface to hide from storms. At least half of the bubble's volumes were always submerged but sunlight from above reached easily through the entire city with suplimentory artifical lighting handling everything else. The streets were bustling with people. Matoi was rather savvy in situations like this, finding dock workers, ship's crew, and other passengers to chat up with to gather bit of information about people and groups of interest in buying the cargo she was carrying. Refined sodium is a valuable commodity on almost any planet, useful in a wide variety of industries from food production to atmospheric processing. Even in a rich mining planet like Elegua, sodium would be used to clean chloride pollution from refineries and to filter it out of the local oceans. Eventually, she got a tip about an oceanographer center down in the umbilical which might be interested in purchasing refined sodium in bulk. She would have to wait to pursue that lead. In the meantime, she spent her days inspecting the Altin Kurt, filing nessicary repairs and part orders all by herself to send to Djemal's people. The Altin Kurt was a very old ship and one that took a lot of elbow grease to keep in working order. Despite the Capain's protest's, large portions of the ship's internal components needed to be completely replaced if she wanted to keep it flying. Taking the time to work out her finances, the bills were really starting to pile up. Between the docking fees, ship service, restocking, and lodging, she'd be looking at a bit of at least 63,000 credits. With her own work on the ship finally done and the report handed to Djemal's men, she had two weeks to burn before the Altin Kurt would be ready to take off again.
Elegua, a major human colony world and main habitat of the star named after it. Outside of high orbit of the planet, a lone ship drops out of FTL. It doesn't take long before it's detected by both the orbital fleet and planetside detection. LADAR and radio pings are quickly sent to the ship but at this distance it takes a full minute to send a communication ping one way.
"This is control tower 374 pinging unregistered vessal. Transmit your registration over this channel and remain outside of MEO zone until identification is complete."
"This is FTV Altin Kurt trasmitting registration to control tower 374."
A large dump of data filled the technician's screen. Ship schematics, planetary origin, construction contract, transit history, contract of ownership, and crew logs that are all used to produce a vassal's unique identification. This vessal, strangely, only had one active crew member.
"Registration confirmed Captain Matoi. Please state your reason for visit."
"Trade. I've brought a sizeable cargo I think a lot of people here would be interested in and my ship needs a refuel and maintenaince."
"Do you have a specific destination request?"
"Just put me on the biggest city with an open dock."
There was a short pause as the flight controller gathered the nessicary information and security clearance.
"Understood. You have clearance to approach, follow the flight path I'm sending to reach Cidade De Ouro. Final docking solution will be handled by local flight control."
"Confirmed control tower. Starting my approach."
Sub-FTL travel was obviously relatively slow. Starships used jump drives to accelerate beyond light speed but it was dangerous to do so near the gravitational field of a planet. Closing the nine million mile gap between the planet and the FTL drop point took 20 hours by itself, with another 6 hour orbital wait time due to air space congestion. As the Altin Kurt made it's final approach it was quickly pinged again.
"This is control tower to FTV Altin Kurt. You are veering off of authorized descent course. Please varify."
"Uh, sorry. This ship isn't rated for fast orbital descension. We'll burn up at that descent course. This was on the registry information."
At this distance communication lag was almost zero as the ship was already in the planet's atmosphere but the pause before flight controller's next message felt like the Altin Kurt was still beyond high orbit.
"Confirmed Altin Kurt. Sending new approach vector now."
After some airborne manuvearing, it took about a half hour to land in Elegua's single all encompassing body of water. The splash of a 200 volumetric ton object displacing in water at over 200 miles an hour was quite the show and because of that ships like this had to land quite a ways away from the bubble city of Cidade De Ouro for safety measures. That didn't stop spectators from viewing the spectacle with high powered binoculars though. Coming back up to the surface after it's short dive, the Altin Kurt made a quick voyage up to the dock before the systems there lifted it out of the water and into drydock. Quarantine kept the ship sealed up tight for a full 24 hours before the airlock was finally cleared to open. Stepping out was a single woman getting a chance to breathe in some fresh planetary atmosphere for the first time in too long. As she stepped onto the dock a tall man in his 30s approached her. He was bald with black skin and wore simple green fatigues and sunglasses.
"Welcome to Cidade De Ouro, Captain Matoi. And welcome to my dock." The man's voice was deep with an exotic accent, from Ryuko's prospective, that fit his well built form.
"You own this place then?" She asked. Her own voice being very low for a woman, especially at her age of 20. She wore a black and orange jumpsuit with a white tanktop hidden beneath.
"Yes, I do. My name is Djemal. Now there is a matter of protocal we need to get done regarding your ship and cargo," he said before lifting a hand and causing a holographic display to pop up only about a foot in front of his face.
Ryuko did the same, displaying her own personal holographic interface. "Here is a copy of the registration and ownership forms. As well as the cargo manifest. 97 and a half tons of refined sodium." She continued to walk down the dock as she talked and Djemal did the same following her.
"So you're a salt merchant?"
"I said refined sodium not table salt. It's all in bullion bars."
"Of course. Just a joke. So, since you plan on selling it here I presume, how do you want to handle the taxes? Money or goods?"
"Goods."
"Very well. The inspector will come by later to examine the cargo and collect the tax with it. I can begin refueling with the push of a button and can have my own inspectors come in today to get started on an overhaul. What fuel package would you like?"
"Refined, and keep your inspectors off for now. I'll be doing the inspection myself before any repairs get done."
Djemal paused for a only a brief moment before continuing. "If the effectiveness of my repair team is in question then you don't need to worry. I can assure you my team works to code and we'll have your ship in the green in a standard maintenance cycle."
"Yeah well my ship's not built to modern code and half of my repairs your team will probably pick up on as broken anyway. Besides, the longer my ship is here the more you get paid anyway."
"Hmmm...Alright. I'll schedule your overhaul for later after you submit the maintenance inspection. Speaking of pay. How will you be handling the fees?"
"I'll pay when I leave after the overhaul and finding a buyer for the sodium. It shouldn't take too long. Besides it's not like I can go anywhere while the ship's drydocked like that."
"Of course, If I felt like you couldn't pay I could just seize the vessal anyway, but I'm sure neither of us want to go through the red tape for something like that. Would you like a lead for conducting the sale?"
"No thanks, but I'd like an ISP recommendation if you have one."
"I do, I'll send it to you as well as a few resturant and hotel recommendations and a few other local interests. There, I even paid for 3 weeks service on the house." Djemal stopped and turned to look at the hull of the Altin Kurt from a distance. "So why are you flying around in a ship like this?"
"The Kurt?" Ryuko stopped and turned to look back at the man. "It's not like getting a replacement is cheap. Don't have much of a choice in the matter."
"With a cargo size like that I'm surprised you haven't been able to finace a more modern starship. Is a ship that size really only crewed by a single person?"
"You haven't seen the inside. They don't build multiperson mining ships like that anymore. Getting something to replace the Altin Kurt would probably take a custom construction contract which is rather expensive. But no, she's designed to be crewed by two people. One of the reasons I'm here." She looked back at her screen, surfing through pages and getting lost in what she was doing. "Anyway, thanks for the free internet but if there isn't anything else I have to take care of something."
"Of course. Your ship will stay docked here and my contact information is in the package I sent you but you can usually find me around here if you have any problems. Have a nice day."
After the two departed, Captain Matoi got to work searching Elegua's local internet. Checking for local companies she could sell to but mostly trying to find leads on crew members. Eventually, she placed an advertisement for a pilot on a local board before setting off into the crowds to do some bartering in person. Cidade De Ouro was a cluster of bubble cities. Floating domes with umbilicals down to the ocean floor for transportation and mining, as well as allowing the city to stay in one spot and sink below the surface to hide from storms. At least half of the bubble's volumes were always submerged but sunlight from above reached easily through the entire city with suplimentory artifical lighting handling everything else. The streets were bustling with people. Matoi was rather savvy in situations like this, finding dock workers, ship's crew, and other passengers to chat up with to gather bit of information about people and groups of interest in buying the cargo she was carrying. Refined sodium is a valuable commodity on almost any planet, useful in a wide variety of industries from food production to atmospheric processing. Even in a rich mining planet like Elegua, sodium would be used to clean chloride pollution from refineries and to filter it out of the local oceans. Eventually, she got a tip about an oceanographer center down in the umbilical which might be interested in purchasing refined sodium in bulk. She would have to wait to pursue that lead. In the meantime, she spent her days inspecting the Altin Kurt, filing nessicary repairs and part orders all by herself to send to Djemal's people. The Altin Kurt was a very old ship and one that took a lot of elbow grease to keep in working order. Despite the Capain's protest's, large portions of the ship's internal components needed to be completely replaced if she wanted to keep it flying. Taking the time to work out her finances, the bills were really starting to pile up. Between the docking fees, ship service, restocking, and lodging, she'd be looking at a bit of at least 63,000 credits. With her own work on the ship finally done and the report handed to Djemal's men, she had two weeks to burn before the Altin Kurt would be ready to take off again.
