Mongoose Traveller Core Rulebook MGP 3800 Part 5 Equipment

Equipment follows the more or less normal RPG list of things, starting with a generic "you must spend this much if your SOC is this" per month standard of living costs, which ranges from 400 cr for SOC 2 to 20,000 cr for SOC 16+

Armour

Armour ranges from Jack, which is little more than a leather jacket to Battle Dress. Ablat and Reflec are still here, as special armours vs lasers. Vacc suits are listed as a type of armour.

Augments

While the game system doesn't really push it self towards the cyberpunk style of play, there are enough things here to make you into a jacker or a street samurai, if you want to. Having Augments can effect how well medical aid works on you, so it's a good idea to have med kits and bays of the same or higher tech level than any augments your party has.

Communications

This covers "man portable" gear only, with 5 classes

1. Bugs


2. Transceiver


3. Comm


4. Commdot


5. Holographic Projector

Computers

Computers now no longer weigh a ton and cost tens of thousands of credits. A model 1 computer weighs 5 kilos and cost 100 CR. There is an option of building a lower powered version than your current tech level computer which will be much smaller and lighter than one of the tech level it is emulating. Example given is a TL 10 society can make a TL 7 Computer/0 power level computer that weighs 1.25 kg and cost 6 credits. Making a computer/0 at it's native TL 7 will make it weigh 10 kilos and cost 50 cr. While hardware is more rational, Software is still all over the map as to cost and functionality

Medical Supplies

These cover the expected medikits and drugs, with the seemingly reversed "Fast" and "slow" drugs, in that "slow" makes you move faster and "fast" makes you move slower. I understand that it makes the universe seem fast or slow from your point of view, but it's still some what counter intuitive.

Robots

Not very well thought out and incomplete list of robots and drones available. Most of them are for shipboard use

Sensors

Binoculars and the like.

Survival Gear

Tents, generators, thruster packs, that sort of thing.

Toolkits

Very generic "you must have a tool kit for a skill to use a skill" sort of thing. All cost 1000 cr and weigh 12 kg

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Weapons.

Ah, yeah, gun porn...

We've got melee weapons,  slug throwers ranging from black powder weapons to Gauss rifles, energy weapons, grenades, heavy weapons and explosives.  All the Classic Traveller toys are here, from the generic "blade" to the "FGMP-15"   Fun fact.  A FGMP-15 does one dice more damage than a "pocket nuke", and is capable of auto fire.

The chapter ends with a very short and some what confusing vehicle list and rules.

Next up Spacecraft.

Mongoose Traveller Core Rulebook MGP 3800 Part 4 Encounters and Dangers

This chapter is rather dense, in that it has a lot of rules and tables and not a lot of fluff.  It starts with animal generation, which is fairly close to it's Classic Traveller roots, however the "Triphibian" has been removed, there are not any attacks that are like a human weapon  and armor doesn't go all the way up to Battle Dress.  All that being said you still get the Classic Traveller sort of animals.  A change is that Animals have STR, END, DEX and INT like a character, but have Instinct instead of EDU and Pack instead of SOC.  Damage is figured the same way for an animal as it is for a character, vs the animal having a generic hit points as they did in Classic Traveller.

After animals we have the now obligatory disease, poison, temperature, weather and falling rules.  These are pretty much what you would expect in a modern RPG, with no surprises or strange mechanics in use.

Injury and recovery.

A character that has taken damaged is either wounded or seriously wounded.  You are seriously wounded if have taken at least one point of damage to all 3 characteristics.  If one of the 3 is at full you are just wounded.  If you are seriously wounded you need first aid and/or surgery, because unless the GM is using random first blood, you are going to have a negative END DM and will get worse, not better, using natural healing.   First aid, if applied in the first 5 minutes after the wounding, heals twice the effect of the roll, as a standard medic check.  First aid on your self is a "Difficult (-2)" task.  If you a playing in a campaign where you need to be wearing Combat Armor or Battle Dress a lot, pay the extra 10,000 credits and get the medikit installed.  Having your own personal Medic 3 around will save your life, assuming you have at least one point of something left.  Getting one for your Vacc Suit is a good idea as well.

NPC.  The book says there are 5 types of NPC in Traveller, allies, contacts, enemies, rivals and patrons.  This isn't quite right because there is also mooks and bystanders, plus the McGuffion or two, but in general major NPC are one of those 5.

Allies

Willing to go way out of their way to help a character, but don't push it to often.

Contacts

While an ally will give you a gun, a contact will tell you were to buy one.

Rivals

They want to give the character a hard time, and maybe see them dead in the ditch.

Enemies

They are much like rivals, but lean much more to towards the dead in the ditch sort of thing.

Patrons

A Patron in Traveller wants to give you a job.  The Core Rulebook comes with 7 patrons, which are well done, with the Classic Traveller look and feel.  Make a note of this.  This is will come up again, with a rant attached to it.  After the 7 fully fleshed patrons there is a set of d66 tables for doing a quick and dirty patron/mission generation.

The chapter closes out with a set of generic encounter tables and sample mooks

Next up,  Equipment

Mongoose Traveller Core Rulebook MGP 3800 Part 3 Combat

Just want to say that I'm not going to be covering all the books in the series in this level of detail, but this being the core rules I feel it needs a more detailed overlook.

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Like most modern RPG Mongoose Traveller has an "roll for a initiative" and subdivided rounds.

Initiative is a DEX check, in that it's 2d6 + DEX DM. High scores goes first. Initiative rolls can be modified by leadership or tactics skills.

Each round for a character is 1 minor action and one significant action. Movement is a minor action and gives you 6 meters (4 squares). You can convert your significant action to two minor actions. You get as many free actions as you can talk the GM into, as per normal in modern RPG :-) A character may also "react" to other characters actions, allowing them to dodge or parry an attack. You may take as many reactions as you want, however each one reduces your initiative by 2 and gives you a minus one on all skill checks and attacks.

Attacks are significant actions. Melee attacks are based on STR or DEX plus your melee skill level, shooting attacks are based on DEX, plus either your gun combat or heavy weapons skill. Thrown weapons are based on DEX, plus your athletic (co-ordination) levels. Each weapon class has a modifier based on the range to the target. Human scale ranges go from "Personal" (under 1.5 meters) to "Distant" (Over 500 meters)

Unlike Classic Traveller, the type of armor you are wearing doesn't effect your chance of being hit, it removes some of the damage done to you. Armor ranges from a leather jacket ("Jack") at one point, to Battle Dress at 18 points. Mongoose Traveller doesn't have the characteristics based modifiers for each weapon, however it does have either "recoil" or "heft", which is a number that you must beat with your STR DM, or suffer a modifier to your initiative the next round equal to the recoil minus your STR DM. Damage done is based on the weapon plus the effect of the attack roll. A attack that has an effect of 6+ always inflicts at least 1 point of damage, regardless of armor worn. Damage is applied to END, then STR or DEX. A character with 2 characteristics at 0 is unconscious and is dead if all 3 are 0.

Automatic weapons have 3 options, single shot, burst or full auto. Burst fire adds the "Auto" rating to the damage done. In full auto you roll a number of dice equal to the auto rating and then group them any way you want. The resultant attacks can be applied to any set of targets within 6 meters of each other. You also only get skill level 1 with a full auto attack.

Vehicle combat is a bastard mix of the space combat system with human level damage. To put it mildly it's not very well done in the basic rules Once the "Vehicle Handbook" (Supplement 5/6) is added in it becomes much better. There is another version of vehicle combat in "Hammers Slammers", which really isn't compatible with the Book 0 + Supplement 5/6 system. Use one or the other. My personal preference is the Supplement 5/6 system.

I'm not fond of damage being applied to your characteristics, but it's an integral part of the Traveller system. I'm still working out how I'm going to replace it, if at all. The optional "knockout" and "random first blood" rules make it some what better, but I'm still not 100% happy with the mechanic

Next up, Encounters, Dangers, Healing and Patrons

Mongoose Traveller Core Rulebook MGP 3800 Part 2 Skills

Mongoose Traveller has taken the Classic Traveller 2d6+modifiers, beat a target score system and made it more consistent.  All skill roles are 2d6+modifiers, beat 8.  The amount you go over 8 on your total roll is called the "effect".  The effect determines how well you did.  An effect over 6 is, in d20 terms, a critical success.  Because it's a 2d6 it's very sensitive to modifiers, so that a plus or minus 1 is much more important than it would be on a flat d12 for example.

If you are completely untrained in a skill you have a minus 3 on your roll.  That moves your "must roll" number to 11+, assuming no characteristic modifiers.   If you have level 0 in a skill, you get no modifier, which makes your "must roll" number 8+, a much easier roll.  (41% vs 8%)

Skill rolls are ranked from "Easy" to "Formidable", which range from +6 to -6.  Most example skill rolls range from Routine (+2) to Difficult (-2).  Skill rolls are also ranked by how long it takes to make the check.  You can make a roll harder or easier  by taking less or more time to make the roll, with a DM or +/- per step up or down the scale.  You can also do an "Aid other" via task chains, which add a DM based on the  effect of each task in the chain to the next roll.  This doesn't help as much as it should

MTU errata. Instead of it ranging from -3 to +2, the full effect of the roll is added to the next roll in the chain

Some skills have specialties. Taking a level in a skill with a specialty normally gives you level 0 with the other specialties  in that skills.

The skill list:

Admin

Dealing with paper pushers, but not with legal issues

Advocate

Dealing with legal issues

Animals

A very broad skill, ranging from simple riding through Veterinary, with a side of farming

Athletics

This is a more important skill than it's name would reflect as one of it's specialites (co-ordination) is used for throwing weapons in combat

Art

This covers all creative arts, acting, dance, holography etc

Astrogation

Plotting jumps. Vital for ship based games. Jumps don't happen until you pass an Astrogation check

Battle Dress

This is one of the few skill you simple have to have to use something and is not rolled vs much in game.

Broker

Vital for traders.

Carouse

Yes, there is a skill for being a party animal

Comms

Aside for the obvious communications uses, it's also used for electronic warfare rolls

Computers

Using, programming and hacking computers

Deception

Lie, cheat and steal

Diplomat

Fun fact, it's harder to greet the Emperor than it is to negotiate a peace treaty

Drive

Ground based vehicles

Engineer

Space ship repair.

Explosives

Making things go bang with out hurting your self

Flyer

Aircraft and Grav vehicles

Gambler

Having this skill lets you add 1 to your cash mustering out rolls

Gunner

Spaceship weapons

Gun Combat

Rifles, pistols, lasers, that sort of thing

Heavy Weapons

Any thing bigger than a small arm, to include the PGMG/FGMP things

Instigate

Forensics etc.

Jack of all trades

A special skill. Each rank in it reduces your unskilled penalty by 1. Level 0 and more than 3 levels in the skill are useless. This skill can't be learned in game play and cost 5x normal cost if using the point by system. It's very powerful

Language

Speaking, reading and writing a language other than your native language

Leadership

Primary use is to increase initiative in combat

Mechanic

Fixing things that don't require the Engineer skill

Medic

Ranges from battle field first aid to surgery and long term care

Melee

Smacking people or monsters upside the head with various things.

Persuade

A more informal version of diplomacy

Pilot

Flying spaceships. Aircraft is covered by flyer

Recon

Seeing things that are either hidden or out of place

Remote Operations

Controlling drones, robots and the like

Science

This is divided into Physical, Life, Social and Space sciences, each of which has their own specializations

Seafarer

The water version of Drive

Sensors

Reading data from electronic sensor devices

Steward

The care and feeding of High and Middle passengers

Streetwise

Yo, keeping it real

Survival

Keeping it real in the woods

Tactics

Covers board games to major fleet battles

Trade

Knowing how to produce a good or service.This is the exception to the rule that if you have level 1 in a specialty you have level 0 in the other specialties.

Vacc Suit

Knowing how to wear a vacc suit

Zero-G

Knowing how to move in micro gravity and using a grav belt

Traveller Core Rulebook (MGP 3800) Part one Character Generation.

The Traveller Main Book, (TMB) to use the term that the Traveller OGL SRD uses.
First pass and first impression: Cleaned up and brought to 21st Century role playing game rules version of Classic Traveller books 1-3, more or less.

Getting out the fine tooth comb now!

Character Generation, at first glance seems to be be very close to the "Classic Traveller" mode, however even a character that is a total failure (which in this case means a 2 EDU and a failed survival roll in his/her first term is going to end up a playable character, at least as far as skills goes,  with seven level 0 skills, one career level 1 skill and at least one level 1 package skill (only 1 skill would assume a party size of 5-8 and being towards the end of the party list).   An overachieving and lucky 1 term character can end up with eleven level 0 skills, six skill levels in careers skills, one skill level from the connection rule, and 2 skills from the packages, assuming a party size of 4.

How did I come up with those numbers? Back ground skills, which is 3 + your EDU DM (1-5) are level 0 skills. You get all 6 of the service skills table as level 0 skills on joining a career, if it's your first career, one career skill level for joining, one career skill level for advancement, one skill level for connections based off an event, one skill from an event and at least 1, and as many as 4 skills from the packages (4 skills would be for a party size of 2 which would be rule rape. 2 is closer to normal).

Looking at the 12 non psionic careers in some detail:

1. Agent (LEO or spy) Good to great for sneaking around and investigating things, with a good self protection options but not really much use out side of those areas. No rank 0 skills, but does have rank 1 skills. Good planetary character option, however has both TAS and ship share mustering out benefits


2. Army. Great for breaking things and killing folk, as to be expected. There is a skill level in Gun combat (slug or energy rifle) for rank 0, which makes one of the basic training level 0 skill a wash (gun combat). There is surprising depth to the skill lists, with several important non combat options also available.
   

   MTU errata: "Gunnery" is replaced with "Heavy Weapons" for the Cavalry specialist.

   
   


3. Citizen. Good to great support character, however has almost no combat skills. No rank 0 or rank 1 skills.
   

   MTU errata: Colonist gets Gun Combat at rank 0, not  rank 6!

   
   


4. Drifter, the you can always take this career career. Skills all over the map, depending on the specialist taken. Scavenger is a good generalist space crewman character. Wanderer is a dark reflection of Agent and Barbarian is, well, a barbarian. Rank 1 skills, 14 based survival/advancement rolls, which makes it a hard career to either avoid mishaps or advance in, as apposed to the normal 12 base careers, which have trade off options.


5. Entertainer. More useful as a patron than as a playable character, however has people and creative skills to burn. Rank 1 skills or ability adjustments. Journalist makes a good character in an investigate campaign, however lacks the self defense options of an Agent. If you think your group needs a "Face" this would be a good career to use to generate it.


6. Marines Great for breaking things and killing folk IN SPACE! Spaced based version of Army and only career in TMB that has Battle Dress skill. Rank 0 and Rank 1 skills. Rank 5 officers are SOC 10 minimum.


7. Merchants. Good to great for space based characters that don't really expect to be shot at on the ground. Merchant Marine specialist best non-naval space based career, covering all the major space skills, other than Astrogation, which is available as an Advanced Education skill. A mix of Merchant Marines and Star Marines is a good general group of people for a "Traveller" or "Free Trader" based game. Free Trader specialist is almost as good, however lacks the Gunnery skill. Broker is a star port, not a starship based career in the main, but given that the "broker" skill is a service skill which means the other 2 specialists can get it, Broker is the weakest of the 3 specialists careers of the Merchants.
   

   MTU errata,the "Free Trader" benefit represents 10 years off the mortgage, not 5% off the cost of the ship.

   
   


8. Navy. Great space based characters that are more about blowing up or capturing hostile space ships than trading on the ground. Flight Specialist best over all, however none of the specialist are weak. Rank 1 skills. Rank 6 officers are at least Barons.


9. Nobility. Drifter for people with SOC over 9. Damn near impossible to enter unless you have a high SOC DM, but if you do have a high enough (10+) SOC, you get in for free. Assuming a SOC of 9 or greater, which is what you really need to be in this career, you can not fail a Dilettante survival roll, other than on a natural two.  The Administrator and Diplomat specialists give good "people skills".  Dilettante makes a party animal.  No combat skills, other than Melee (blade). 10, 12, and 11 based survival/advancement rolls, which means this is an easy career to survive and advance in.


10. Rogue.   Tends to generate a combat character, however there are a surprising number of non combat skills.  Rank 1 skills.  The "Pirate" specialist is a very good choice for a solo or small group space based character, as all the important space skills are included,  plus melee blade, which is fairly effective in "inside a ship" combat environment.  A mix of all 3 careers would make for a good "Burn Notice " party group.   Only major skill missing is "Broker", which really only matters if you are planing on doing a merchant legit buy and sell stuff based campaign.
    

      MTU errata, the Corsair benefit gives you the ship free and clear, as the idea of a pirate with a mortgage  on his/her ship is just to silly for words.  "Ship Share" is replaced with "Armor" and "Two Ship Share" is replaced with "Ship's Boat"

    
    


11. Scholar.  Generates fair to good support characters, for planetary based groups.  While a scholar has a good chance of getting a ship, they can't run it by them self, having no "bridge" skills at all.  Rank 1 skills


12. Scout.  Good generalist characters, missing only "paper pushers" type skills.  Only one that with out house rule changes that can get a ship that is more or less free and clear.  Rank 1 skills.  (note, unlike CT, MGT scouts have ranks, just no titles to go with those ranks, other than "Scout" for rank 1 and "Senior Scout" at rank 3.
    

    MTU errata, "Ship Share" replaced with "Air Raft".

    
    

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As a wrap up, what's the best Career?  In my opinion it's a toss up between "Merchant Marine", "Pirate" and being a multi-specialist scout, however, given the "Skill package" system, a decent party can be made from any career mix.

Which brings us to the wild cards for skills.  By using the "Connection" rules, you, in addition to having a reason to be an adventuring party, gives any character, of any career, at least two "free" skill levels, in any skill, even those not on their career lists.  This can cover some of the "missing" skills for other wise strong careers.  The "skill packages" are designed to insure that a party will have at least level 1 skills in the skills they must have for a given campaign type.  This is very useful, assuming you know what type of campaign you will be running.  The skill package types are

• Traveller


• Mercenary


• Trader


• Starship


• Explorer


• Diplomat


• Investigator


• Criminal

Traveller and Explorer being the best all around packages, with Trader and Starship being the 2nd best, assuming a "normal"  Traveller type game.  The other 4 tend to be rather campaign specific.

As in Classic Traveller "aging" is used to prevent making 4+ term super skilled characters.  Injuries are also used to generate medical bills, however most careers have some sort of "insurance" which will cover most, if not all, of the cost of recovery.   Anagathics exists, however will generate medical bills, and double the number of survival rolls a character has to make.  Medical bills are a good reason to start generating cash, even if you don't have a ship to pay off.

Alternate generation systems:

• Solo generation .  As normal, however the GM will provide a list of NPC for the character to generate "connections" with, as opposed to the normal system of the connection being a player character, and you just get 1 skill at level 1 instead of using the skill package rules.


• Iron man.  Classic Traveller all the way.  No mishaps, if you fail a survival roll, you died.  Start over man.


• Select skills.  Instead of rolling for a skill, you just select one.
  

  MTU errata, your career skill is selected, your advancement skill is rolled.

  
  


• Point buy.  Just say no.  This has the least "CT" feel of all the methods.   I can see this being used by game groups that have grown up with less random character generation systems.  That being said, the fact that it doesn't use careers at all makes it really not a "Traveller" character generation system at all.  And because ranks have to be bought, and don't give any skills or benefits, you will almost always end up with rank 0 characters, at least by min/max type players.
  

  I am using this as a basis for the XP system I'm using, but that's post character generation.

  
  

All the alternate systems, other than point buy, can be used together.

Character generation ends with a short bit on doing aliens, with very short examples of all the 3rd Imperium /OTU  major races, plus uplifted Apes and Dolphins.   Of these, Aslan, Vargr, Zhodani and the uplifts have been superseded by their own books, which I will get to in due time.

Next up, Skills and Combat.

Mongoose Traveller, a slow read over

I'm going to start a "slow read" review of the Mongoose Traveller (MGT) line of books. The MGT line starts with the Traveller Core Rulebook and goes on for 40 plus books.  I'm going to be reviewing, or what ever it is I'm doing the "Books", "Supplements", "Compendiums" rule book series and the Third Imperium series of back ground books. I'm going to be (re)reading and reviewing them by their Mongoose series number.

Phase II Data of Bonehmi

Basic Data

System Name: Bonehmi

UPP:D-89586A-6 843 M7 III

Semi Extended Data

UPP:D-89586A-6 852 M7 III
Size 13281 KM diameter
Athosphere Dense tainted
Hydrographics 55 % Water
Population 871,555,000
Government Captive Government
Government by an imposed leadership answerable to an outside group. A colony or conquered area.
Law Level 10
Contraband:

• Technology


• Weapons


• Tavellers

Tech Level: 6
58.2 AU from star

Geographic Data

Size 13281 kilometers diameter
Core Molten Core
Density 0.900 x Standard
Planetary Mass 1.019 x Standard
Surface Gravity 0.957 x Standard

Local Calender

Year length - 58,213.872 Standard Days 42,167.209 Local Days
Day length 33.133 Standard hours

Ground investigation protocol in progress.

This post is open game content

Bonehmi physical data

Basic Data

System Name: Bonehmi
UPP:D-895???-? 843 M7 III

Semi Extended Data

UPP:D-895???-? 852 M7 III
Size 13281 KM diameter
Athosphere Dense tainted
Hydrographics 55 % Water
Population ?
Government ?
Law Level ?
Contraband: ?
Tech Level: ?
58.2 AU from star

Geographic Data

Size 13281 kilometers diameter
Core Molten Core
Density 0.900 x Standard
Planetary Mass 1.019 x Standard
Surface Gravity 0.957 x Standard

Local Calender

Year length - 58,213.872 Standard Days 42,167.209 Local Days
Day length 33.133 Standard hours

Stealth craft start overflights to day to expand human data.

This post is open game content

More fun from the miss jump.

It seems that not only did we miss jump in space, but in time.  While subjective time was a week, it's now "08 June 1112", at least based on the pulsar adjustments to the time clocks.  I'm am adjusting ship time to reflect this.  Class III Survey of Foreven 0233 Alpha begins tomorrow, ship time.

A summary of the campaign so far.

The IISS Meriwether Lewis was attacked in it's home port. After a quick reload of it's missile load out, it was sent into the Foreven sector so scout and report on "The Republic Space Force", if it could be found. The reporting on the "Republic Space Force" if found, was an addition to the ship original orders of doing a Class III survey of the Foreven sector

This entity is using Imperial designed craft, with no serial numbers on any parts. The crew are all clones, with each flight being a single genotype, but all the genotypes were related, as if they were brothers or sisters.

On the first jump into the Foreven sector, to Ake (Foreven 3238), the Lewis miss jumped, ending in Foreven 0233, roughly 33 parsecs from where they should be. At maximum jump that puts them roughly 9 jumps from returning to base, which allowing for 2 days per jump refueling puts them about 100 days from RTB.

In the post jump maintenance/investigation phase it was found that the jump drives had a subtle maladjustment that caused the miss jump. DNA evidence on the fuel flow rate limiter indicated that the adjustment was made by some one from the family that the genotype of the attacking "Republic Space Force" fighter's pilots had come from. This does not match any on board genotypes.

Sr. Scout Jamison and his command staff are now deciding on if they should do a max speed return to base, or do a deliberate survey of the Foreven sector, per their original pre attack orders.

The Saboteur

Dr. Darst's report has been given to me. Other than Lt. Urdar, Warrant Gahagan and Petty Officer Shao, only one other DNA trace was found on the module, one that was a brother level match for the clones they found piloting the fighters that made the attack on station.

If the saboteur is any of the crew whose DNA was found on the module, we dead anyway, so I'm working on the assumption that during the chaos of the missile load change, he sneaked in and made the changed.

I am therefor calling off the internal security measures and will be launching the surveyor as soon as it's crew is happy with it's status. External system survey work from the 'Lewis is to start on the next watch.

The miss jump was deliberate.

Pilot's Log.

We miss jumped.  We are on the far side of the Foreven sector.  I spent the last 4 days going over my jump calculations.  They seemed to be correct, with in normal tolerance for that jump, which isn't really all that uncommon.  When I wasn't looking at them I was down in the jump drive chamber.

Today, we found the problem.  There was a counterfeit depot seal on the fuel flow rate limiter.  It was turned all the way 180 from normal.  Even an experienced eye would not have noticed it, unless you knew the some what weird marking system used on that device.

We have a traitor on board or there was one at the scout base or one got on board during the load out change.   I have informed the Sr. Scout of these developments.  He was not pleased to put it mildly

Well Damn.

We miss jumped.

Haven't had a chance to make a log entry, trying to find out where we are. We got lucky, we hit a system, but we are way the hell out there. Foreven 0233. There seems to be 2 other systems within a parsec of this one. Will start with this system, while Urdar and the engineers find out what the hell happened. Was it just jump space being jump space or do we have a malfunction.

A clean ship is, well a clean ship.

L'Sgt Hester came up to me day before yesterday and asked if it was OK if her squad "squared away the ship", as there wasn't much for them to do, because we weren't a big enough ship to have a proper small arms simulator range.

I thought about it, and given the normally sloppiness a scout ship "No interference with ops, stay the hell out of the Jump drive and power supply sections and have fun." The whole squad looked like I just gave then 1000 credits each. Cpl Myrmidon bellowed "Squad Honors!". And lo and behold they all snapped to a attention and gave me a hand salute. I returned it as best I could and said "Well, carry on then." As they left, L'Sgt Hester turned to me with a smile "I'll have some one give you some lessons in returning a salute. Might be important out there dealing with military run worlds."

Lt. Urdar looked up from his console. "You have an odd crew Sr. Scout. Your have a Vargr gunnery pack that has divided the ship's company in to 3 packs, and every one has taken it in stride. If some one says "Superior leader" or "combat leader" every one knows who you are talking about. It would not surprise me at all if wolf motif decorations start showing up in marine country soon. On the other hand, the Vargr seem to have some clue about assigned chain of command. You have a 6 term Bosom, who started in the scouts then went navy. Your IM squad is not only willing, but volunteering to do ship work. You have a full blooded Vilani pilot who isn't hidebound and likes playing with the engineering crew. The closest thing to a "normal" crew section is Engineering, and even there they don't seem to mind having the pilot act as an acting Engineering officer. In other words, you have a crew full scouts. I strongly suggest you look at all their ratings and assign as needed, regardless of service of origin. You know, like it was a scout crew."

Hmm. Something to think about.

TL 15 Mini Surveyor aka IISS Fighter

TL 15 Mini Surveyor aka IISS Fighter
20 dTon TL 15 Hull (1 Hull, 1 Body)

Bonded Superdense Armor level 6 stealth, heat shielding, radiation shielding, self sealing.	1
TL 15 Particle Beam fixed mount	0.6
sJ M-dive (9 G)	3.75
sL power plant	3.375
Fuel (2 weeks)	2
Cockpit (2 persons)	3
States room / Lab combo	4
Survey Sensors	1.5
5 TL 15 Prob Drones	0.75

Day 4 in jump

I never liked the middle part of a jump. Seems that is when shit breaks. So far so good

Inspection completed

Inspection completed.
Far less problems that I feared. Need to rebuild one of the UHF transmitters and attempt to fix the air fresher on the Clark, the name give to the surveyor craft. Turret number 5's primary servo is about to burn out, I've got the gun pack replacing it. Some cables need to be replaced around the secondary power units, but that can wait.

I found rodent sign in the life support units. First land fall that allows it we *will* get a ship's cat or two.

I know that the Skip, the Bosum and both engineers are going nuts over the jump dim I did. I strongly suspect it's going to be several jumps before they figure out what I'm doing. It's simple, if you step WAY out side the box. Given my engineering back ground they are going to be looking there first and for most. They will be wrong.

I keep forgetting how weird jump space is...

Space ships shouldn't make "whoosh" noises in space. They do, some times, in jump. Just plain weird.

Smart Missiles and Nukes

Smart Missiles and Nukes as the load out.

Some one likes us.

And doesn't like some one else.

Still no clue how he did the jump dim

Still no clue how he did the jump dim. I will find out. Before the eng's and the skip does...

Day 1 Jump

All things indicate a nominal jump. Inspection continues of non drive and power plant related ships components. No major issues found.

I really need to look over more than just the header information on my ships roster. I had planned on doing that during the shake down cruise, due to the lack of time given before ships company arrived. Might as well do it now, since there really isn't much else to do in Jump.

How did he do that?

Lt. Urdar did a jump dim before sending us off into jump space. Got to find out how he did that before the skip and Warrant Gahagan and/or Petty Officer Shao do.

Lt. Urdar is turning out to be not your standard Vilani. I think I like that.

First Jump with this crew

No jump sickness reported on entering so we should not have done a miss jump on entry to jump space, which is good. I'm going to do a total ship check over, less the drives and power plant while in jump. Not quite as good as doing a normal space systems test but the best I can do. For all I know we are going to come out in "Republic" space on exit. Won't that be fun.

Lt. Urdar managed to do a jump dim on entry. This is not a Vilani designed ship, so there isn't a simple command to do that. Got to figure out how he did that. I'm not going to ask, that would be cheating.

Shake down cruise? Well, sort of.

A patrol cruiser from the naval base arrived to act as a relief in place. We were given orders to return to the naval base for new loaded out.

A way larger than normal group of yard apes were waiting for us when we docked. At least I assumed it was larger than normal, having never docked at a navy base before. Both Bosum Higgs and Lt. Urdar looked a bit stunned by the size of the shore party, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say it was larger than normal.

They removed all our missiles. Replaced them with 200 smart missiles and 100 nukes.

Nukes.

Scout ships don't carry nukes. We do now it seems.

While I was dealing with this little detail, I was given an order packet from the Scout base.

Once the load out was complete, move to jump point Zulu, then jump for Ake (Foreven 3238) verify status of previous IISS survey [D5356AA-8]. If post jump system analysis of ship's systems showed major issues I was to return to base, otherwise to proceed at my own choice of next planet fall on the primary mission.

Given Ake status as a Imperial client state, little change in the survey is expected. Low gravity world, fairly dry, breathable, if thin, air. Near terminal nutcase in charge. Port, such as it goes, is Imperial, going with their client status. Don't think I' going to allow shore leave, for starters with a law level of 10, the odds of NOT having at least one crewman arrested is as near as damn all is nil. While not the wild unknown, it's not Imperial space, exactly, which makes it technically an operational jump, not a "crew and ship effectiveness evaluation cruise" to use the formal term for shake down cruise.

I decided to treat Ake as world where first contact would not be needed but a full survey was needed, to test out all ship systems.

As a closing note, we were to consider Imperial designed military craft not transmitting Imperial code 4 or Darrian code 3 as "hostile" and to take action as need to protect ship. As of this time there were no Imperial naval ships in the Urnian sub-sector, but there was at least 2 Darrian tasks forces operating there. Darrian vessels were to be considered as Imperial for all reasons having to do with intelligence or classified material.

Very strange news coming from HQ

Seems that the fighters recovered, while "down to the last rivet details" were MK XXXLV fighters, they had no marking. None. Not even serial numbers on parts that should have serial numbers. While not all the bodies were recovered, it seems that of the ones found each team was a set of clones, and the basic clone stock from each group was a related as brothers and sisters, (the group that attacked the Decatur was female) Jump tracking of their exit vectors has them going Spinward, with what appears to be a jump 4 power level. So, there is some one cloning both imperial fighters and, it seems their pilots, out in Foreven. I'm starting to understand why they are sending a FS-II not just a normal FS on this cruise.

Seems the shake down cruise is being held here

Just got a joint messaged from Scout base and the Navy.  Stay more or less in place, deploy all surviving drones as a wide area sensor net and await further orders.  Lt. Urdar, surprisingly, offered to lead most of the crew and marines on a point by point examination of the ships systems that can be tested while powered up, but not under way.  I asked him isn't that traditionally the bosom's job.  His reply surprised me given his Vilani back ground

"Can't be slaves to tradition, plus I think that Mr. Higgs, the Lance and Pack Lord Ghaekelig all have some ideas that they want to kick around with you about our load out, which, frankly I have no clue about.  I do, on the other hand have a great deal of knowledge about engineering matters, having spent 8 long years in the engineer department on the  INS Havok, first as a mate, then as a 2nd engineer.  I had hopped that getting an Imperial commission would get me out of there, but no, I stayed.  At least I spent 6 years out ranking the petty officers there.  Several of them learned that sending the baron's son off to clean the grease pit's wasn't a funny any more.  Before you ask, yes, I have taken the title.  It's a hereditary title based on a great 4 time grand father finding some new way to make widgets of some sort at twentieth of their original cost.  Some sort of widget that the Army and Marines seemed to think was important then.  I don't know what it is or even if they still use them, I just know I get 50,000 credits a year, more or less, as my fee simple, and I'm a peer of the Imperium.  I've been to the moot twice.  Not going again, if I can help it.  And no, I do NOT want to be called by my honors, not even in fun.  So, can I be off finding the grease and shorted wires?  I'd also like to do an EVA and check that laser hit, make sure the armor wasn't degraded."

Warrant Higgs and I looked at him as if he had just grown an extra head. This was not at all what we had expected out of him.  That was more back ground info than I had expected from him.
"You have my full permission to do so Mr. Urdar, that seems very Scout of you. We'll make a scout of you yet." He smiled, tipped his hat, then left the bridge, bellowing for Warrant Gahagan.

All this would wait until ordered to return to base of when the power plant ran out of fuel, which ever came first, but with a fission plant that might take a while.  For now we wait.

Don't like this

The skip sent me out on SAR in the surveyor, I took along 2 of the marines just in case. Took several hours but the R was "Recovery" not "Rescue". No survivors, however it looks like 4 of them took poison instead of waiting around to be rescued. In one case that made sort of sense in that his fighter had lost life support, but the other 3 still had full life support and at least 2 weeks fuel for it, plus they had fast drug, which means they had literally years of life support options. Methinks that some mind control is at work here.

Well that was a different.

We watched the 8 tracks coming in, with ever precise tracking information. As expected they were fighters.  Not as expected they seemed to bog standard Imperial Light Fighters, Mk CCCLV class. While the Three five five isn't terminally cutting edge for fighters, it's still in common use by imperial forces, and very very few are being sold to out side of solid allies.  The fact their transponders are IDing them as 'Republic Space Force Interceptor Flight 1077" is equally odd.  The only republic in the the sector is Republic of Edan, and they I know don't have CCCLV class fighters, the Imperium having lost that arms deal the to the Zhodani.

"Guns, once they enter effect missile envelope, let them have it. Use l-s-l-s please."

"Could you say last in something other than scout please Superior pack leader?"

"Look, Shoot, Look, Shoot, Don't volley your next set of birds until you have seen what the first did. We don't have enough on board to just play at being a missile boat."

"Understood. Only bite again after you see where the prey is bleeding. A wise battle tactic. Estimated time is 35 minute to enter effective envelope. Will show them our teeth ot them then Superior pack leader."

Got to tell him to not call me that, but I suspect that's a waste of time. If he gets in his head that I'm not the pack leader, things could get if not ugly, weird. This is not my first cruise with a Vargr crew mate, it is however, the first with a whole, if small, Vargr pack. Might be the first for the IISS as a whole.  At least he agreed to my tactics, even, as I suspect, he would have just fired off volley after volley if given a chance.

At about 15 minutes to engagement range Mr. Urdar reports

 "Vector change, 2 separating from main group, appear to be on vector towards the drones."

Great.  Just what I wanted to hear. Time to make a tactical call and earn those big credits -  "Guns keep missile track on main group, we will deal with the leakers as we can.  We can lose drones, that's their job being a decoy".  Wonder what the tactics teacher at Scout Pilot Academy would have said about that.  "You find your self out numbered by units that can, under optimal happenstances blow you out of space and you didn't jump?  Are you crazed or what?"  He was of the "Scouts don't fight, we scout" school of thought, vs the much more offensive "Scouts only fight a little bit, normally just we bug out"  Well the Merry isn't your normal Imperial Scout ship either.

"I understand Pack Leader, ignore the hunters on the false trail until we have shown the pack at large our fangs"

Is he going to translate every tactic I pass to him into a Vargr fighting adage?  Could be worse, at least he's doing it in Anglic, not just barking at me.  At least I know he knows what I'm thinking when he does that.  Might not be a bad idea.  Got to think about that.

Watching the count down clock, at 0:30 before the magic effective range count down mark "Guns, get some at zero". A single bark, which might have been an exited "Aye" can back.  At T minus 0:15 Mr. Urdar made a tiny vector adjustment, then grunted and smiled as the birds left the tubes. I've never been on a ship that fired a full 6 round volley at one time.  I would have thought I would have felt something, but if grav plates can make our 4G wobbles not affect us, they can deal with a little light recoil. Heard them launch, but only until they cleared the tubes,  nothing after, of course.  More like hearing a cannon fire on a planet than rockets being fired. Makes sense, once their exhaust gas was not hitting the tube the vacuum of space wouldn't let us hear them any more.

"Birds away and flying true.  9 minutes til vector closing. Tell the Lt. that his roll allowed for perfect straight vectors for both turrets.".

"Thank you guns"

We wait.  We wait some more.  At 4 til closing the boogies do a star burst separation.  Pack leader Elig must have thought of that, or we got lucky and each bird had picked it's own target because our cluster followed the vector changes like they knew it was going to happen.  The howl from the turrets tells me they planned that.  Good to know that the "blast it until it stops moving" reputation of Vargr gunners didn't seem to be the case here. The computer tracking board went from a 3 way screen to an 8 way screen as Urdar made some adjustments. On vector close, 2 boogies just stop showing on the screens, and 2 took off on random vectors, like there was no one alive at the controls. The other two just kept coming. "Guns, One turret on each of the leakers, they are getting with in range, and I'd rather not take any hits."  I get an "Aye/bark" in return.

While the turrets slewed to the their new attack vectors the hostile fighters returned fire with their pulse lasers, just with in their range. One of the drones dropped off the scope, one shot went high and wide on us, and one hit, but the armor took the damage.

While a light fighter might, if lucky, survive having a solitary missile attack it, having a  full triple turret, either missile or beam laser aimed at it in effective range, with highly trained crews, is not really something that they can be expected to survive. They didn't.

"Out jump signature, from  location of the mother-ships"

Humph. What the hell was that? To far away from Zhodani, Vargr or Aslan space to be any of them, didn't seem like Sword World Confederation tactics and I would bet money that wasn't Droyn. Hiver and K'Kree were out of the question, based on ship size in the case of K'Kree and sheer range to their space in both cases.

"All hands, report and stand down, Mr. Higgs, take the surveyor out for SAR please."

Never say you are bored on a stake out.

"Skip, it's been 5 hours, I've got an idea to both keep us sharp and give some training."

"What you got boats?"

"Both of the special training troops are boat rated, and did well enough in my little sim I ran on them that I'd let them fly. Let's load up the whole scout squad in the surveyors, launch it and go into what passes for scarred rabbit mode for them. Have the Lewis go into rolling stealth, the drones go in to hide and evade mode, have the pack try and get firing solutions on the drones and the boat under manual control. To make life interesting, the surveyors will need to stay with in .5% of it's starting position with regards to it's initial location post launch with us. That's going to cause turret masking every now and then."

"So, the scouts are rabbits and the Vargr are the hunters? How are we going to avoid possible friendly fire?" "Disable launch/fire from you station it's the yellow flashing button. Push it until it turns green." I clicked the button.

"I'll run the points. Right now scoring will be based off seconds not in sights for the scouts, good firing solutions for the guns."

"Well make it so boats".

A series of commands were issues, and once the surveyors had cleared the Merry, emissions went stealth, and random darting around in place started. Grav plates made it where you didn't really notice, but we were no longer just holding in place.

Dr. Darst had visited all the people that were not in uniforms that included a medical read out and issued an arm band version, early in the waiting period.

After about a half hour into the "game" I got a private buzz from med bay"Sr. Scout, is there a reason why all the gun crews as well as they away scouts would be having higher than normal heart rate and respiration rates?"

"Well, they are taking pot shots at each other. No live ammo, but using the ranging lasers and local control on the missiles, as if they were launched."

"Well that would explain it. Thank you, please warn me next time so I don't start looking up what to give a hyper Vargr that doesn't knock them out or make them high. I don't think we have any thing that does that, by the way, and I'd just a soon not have high Vargr on the ship"

Well, crap.  "Find one, and when we RTB get oh, 12 doses"
So, we were playing "shoot the pirates when all 3 sensor officers, who were not playing the game (Mr. Urdar running the ships eyes, and the scouts not running drones on the surveyor running theirs (muttering about non stable platform) and the on board scouts using their sensors.

 

"Jump foot print, 4 light seconds 800 dt class, military grade drive."  About ten seconds later "Beta and Zulu reporting same in their scan zones."

A minute later "Multiple 10 dt craft launched.  8 on vector our postion.  Zero/Zero at current 6G acceleration 149 minutes."

'Surveyor, back off 20,000 km, go dark, set drones for active and have them start a circle based on our position off set by 1/4 light second. Guns you have local control, release current tracks, go to weapons free.  Laser turret one, configure for point defense. Get some Gun Pack

Battle stations, I say again, battle stations

Oh, joy

This is not what I had in mind when I said I wanted an early shake down cruise.  This is not my idea.  For starters it's 3 hours earlier than the launch window I requested.  For seconds, it's the wrong side of the planet to jump to Jinx and for third I got a message, from the Imperial Navy of all things, to "scan and report, engage targets of appropriate size, evade others.  Weapons free."  That means any thing not transmitting imperial or Darrian id codes that I think is small enough to shoot at eats lasers and/or missiles.

"Boats, would you be as so kind as to prep the surveyor for personal transports?"

"Lance Sergeant Hester, please have the away team report to the boat bay, assist, if needed Mr. Higgs, and stand ready for launch. You may stand by in the surveyor or in the bay at your option."

"Medical stand down, but stay put."

"Guns, stand down one turret of each type, slave to active turret.  Rotate gunners on the half hour.  We are at weapons free, however wait for my command."

"Engineering, prep for non linear maneuver.  After than make sure the J-drive can take a crash jump."

"Helm, plot alternate jump to 876-574."

"Scouts, launch a triplet of drones,  give me a triangle deployment about a half light second out."

I got my reports back then I changed over to all hands, "Crew, despite what you might think, this is for real, not the start of the shake down, so let's stay collected.  For all I know this might be a Navy drill that we got tagged for being a mixed crew."

After about an hour,  scouts reported in.

"All hands, now we wait and see why we are here."

What the hell?

06:30 Ship and high port time.  Slightly after dusk down station time.

"This is not a drill Emergency all hands on deck, this is not a drill."

Stations start reporting in, not it's like we have a lot of stations to report.

Mr. Urdar reports "Flight Ready".  Well, duh, we are all three on the bridge when Skip Pushed The Button, but still at least Mr. Urdar had punched up the flight computer and had the manual system on standby.  I had the scanners up and running, seeing a lot of planet and a lot of navy, who's IFF was showing "systems down", other than the 2 ready destroyers  which showed "about to launch", with  target points Beta or Zulu depending on which tin can.  That with us going to Alpha that's pretty much a full system scanning deployment.

I assume that the howls in the back ground from guns was  two of the gunners deciding on who got what turret, probably Ghaekelig'd brothers Elevg and Avlig.  Pack Leader Ghaekelig barked and reported "All ready all guns Superior Pack Leader".  Superior Pack Leader being what they call the skip.  L'Sgt Leigh is "Combat Pack Leader".  Skip and the L'Sgt seem amused by this.  I've heard at least one Marine call her "Pack Leader" and I don't think he was being ironic.  Hard to tell with Marines, they always sound either dead serious or drunk.  He wasn't drunk.  Skip has made if very clear he is either "Sr. Scout or Skip",  the IISS don't have ranks.

"Med Bay ready".  Given that she sleeps in the "private" part of the med bay that shouldn't be too hard.  I did notice that the intercom light for that one came from the bay half of the stateroom, not her personal half.  She was at least in the right spot.  You can't reach that button unless you are behind the treatment table.  Good design that, give the IISS credit there.  In the original Navy type 'T' design they were about 30cm apart.

This was quickly followed by the Marines reporting, "A team ready for boarding action, B team ready for anti boarding and all ready for under way". As per naval, but not scout tradition, the Engineering crew did not give a verbal report, but all the tell-tells, lit up green other than the jump, given that we were with in 100 diamaters of a large object.  This the planet we're orbiting.  "Need to speak to them about that" mutters the skip Udar just grunts, I turn my head and tell him to save his breath "Eng's never say squat unless their shit has gone to shit.  Trust them lights, Skip"

"Mr.  Urdar, set course for point Alpha, launch when cleared."  The skip must be taking voice lessons from the Vargr, that almost sounded like a bark.

Something must be up, because Scout Flight Control came back with in 30 seconds "Meriwether Lewis, you a cleared for launch.  Get some"  Naval command followed in about 15 seconds, "Decatur and Henderson, clear to launch. find and report"

"Get some?  Find and report?  Ah, those are a combat comments.  What the bloody hell is going on? Is this really not a drill?

"Once clear station, Full thrust Mr. Urdar"

And the shake down cruise, if that is what this is, starts.

We leave tommorow on shake down curise

Lost 2 days while the post "commander" found the papers I sent about a longer shake down cruise. One of the first mix service/mixed race crews in Scout history and they want me to just have a 1 jump, 3 days real time, then jump back? I Don't Think So.

Current plan. 3 days here in Raweh doing ship system tests Jump to Jinx, run post jump system test and gunnery practice for a full t-week, then jump back, refuel and rearm, the off to Foreven.

I would have liked 4 and 8 days real space, but I'll take what I can get. Crew, other than Lt.Urdar, and Warrant Office Higgs thinks the cruise starts in 8 day. Nothing like an "emergency launch" for a crew test.

On ship now

Well, the pack is on this scout ship. Seems like we are being exiled to the Foreven sector. They claim it's a exploration but I know better. Seems like that paper from "President" Orsguz means we're "Navy" not "Pirates". Navy gets to work with the Imperials. Pirates get shot. Better exile that shot if you ask me, but I'm still on the fence there. Should have just blown the coils on the when we got caught. Meh. At least they gave us the guns, not the mops, like the others on Evdadvur ended up.




They seem to have 2 packs, the one must be not in as much favor as the other because they all live in one big room, unlike the other pack which all have 1 or 2 person rooms. They gave us 2 person rooms, but with a large door between them, so we can make it a proper pack room.

Of the favored pack I'm not sure why Higgs isn't the pack leader, he clearly has more charisma than Jamison. The ways of humans are strange some times. Boat master Higgs says that we leave for a practice cruise in 8 days.

Rest of crew arrives

The rest of the crew has been assigned and the Imperial Marines have settled in.

All 7 Engineers are Navy, Warrent Officer 2nd Saundra Gahagan ,Petty Officer 2nd Javier Shao. Petty Officer Nita Heimbach and Able Spacers Serena Knebel,Tyrone Haverland and Lou Kraatz. The Imperial Navy doesn't seem to think a "Class FS II" rates a commissioned engineer, but who am I to complain, the Imperial Scouts don't even have ranks. It's what you know, not what you are wearing on your shoulder boards that matters.  Well, if we had shoulder boards.  It's still what you know that matters.

The ship's doctor is a civilian, Dr. Tia Darst, this is her 3rd cruise with a scout ship.

The assigned Exploration branch Scouts are Jean Peete, Odessa Demko, Don Panther, John Morrison, Rhett Hansrote, Elease Cotey,Jeni Glacken, Voegrouan, Kelly Ference,Ashlee Alumbaugh,Dollie Capozzi, Lonnie Lona, Zel Boatner and Loraine Cossey, none of which have "Sr. Scout" status.  All of them other than Loraine are on their 3rd tour of duty.  Loraine has a tour with the Army, as a heavy weapons gunner of all things plus 3 tours in the IISS. Voegrouan is Imperial Vargr and is a bit leery of the gun crew.

I've requested a extended shakedown cruise, i.e leaving earlier than the 9 days it's scheduled for. I suspect I should be getting a reply with in the day.

What We got so far

The Skipper seems like a decent bloke, for a Sr. Scout at least. Knows what what, and who is who, so should be, Haven't named my Surveyor yet, NOT naming it it after the wife or any of the Ex-wives, leaning toward "The Short Bitch" it not being a proper cutter and all. The less said about the navigator the better, only line officer on the ship. They tend to be prigs. Also his first scout crews. Not sure I like this mixed service crew, course I've been scout and navy, so I might be, I may be a bit biased there. Gunner are Vargr, which is always good, assuming I can win over Pack Lord Ghaek. All scored high on the blast a rock tests, so I'm not worried about them missing. Missing in combat is bad. Very Bad. I get the feeling they got their training as a crew on a "Vargr navy" ship and are working it off. Hate to have to slave the turrets to my station. Sergeant Leigh is about what you would think a Imperial Marine NCO on her first solo command would be. That's a good thing as well. Not sure about the marines proper, only meet 2nd fire team leader Myrmidon. Need to tell skip that's a name, not a title. He's a Corporal, which means we "only" have have 2 NCO's. Myrmidon is on his 3rd ship assignment so should be smooth with at least 2nd team.

Getting more crew

Pilot - Lt. Khudu Urdar, full blooded Vilani, should be fun
Master Gunner and Pack Lord Ghaekelig
Gunner Ghaekelevg
Gunner Ghaekavlig
Gunner Lagoullkellang
Gunner Frekavlangg
Gunner Zaenvuzdzor
Gunner Tsueerrnun
Gunner Saenknaeaegh
Gunner Ogzkoerrgh
Gunner Khueghaeksvurr


Vargr Pack and Gun Crew. Should be extra super Fun.

Still waiting on the rest

Getting the crew together.

Or, at least that's what the fine folk at the personnel say it is. So far, My roster is as follows.

1) Master and Commander IISS Meriwether Lewis - Alexander Jamison, at your service m'lord.

2) Ship's Bosun, Warrant Officer Higgs, rated as a surveyor, gunner and master of arms as well. He's a scout that has a lot of navy time or a naval Warrant that has a lot of scout time. Damn glad to have him either way. The surveyor bird and crew are his.

This leaves a Pilot, a Navigator, a set of Engineers, Ship's Doctor (and I will, by all that is Holy, get a Doctor and Surgeon, not just a medic), my gun crews and the actual scouts.

I have been informed that Lance Sergeant Leigh Hester and her merry band of armored cutthroats will be boarding soon. She and her head myrmidon arrived a few days ago and were Less Than Pleased at the conditions of their barracks area. Nothing that we did, of course, but it seems that Lance Sergeants can see grains of dirt and grime at the quantum level. Cleaning is To Be Done. Her marines seem happy at polishing the floors walls, and ceilings in their area for the time. That and getting their massive, to my less violent eye, amount of arms and armaments together.

Shakedown cruise starts in 10 days, I hope we will be ready.

After shakedown, 10 days refit, then we be come the first major Imperial Interstellar Scout Service long range patrol of the Foreven Sector in 200 years.

The Meriwether Lewis (Class FS-II "Far Reach" Survey Scout)

1000 dTon hull, Streamlined

Armor 6pt Bounded Superdense	50
Stealth, Heat shielding, Radiation shielding, Self sealing hull.
Holographic Compact Bridge (+1)	15
Very Advanced Survey Electronics TL15 (+2)	3
Enhanced Signal Processing TL15 (+4)	1.5
Jump Drive P TL15 (Jump 4)	67.5
Maneuver Drive P (4 G)	32.25
Fission Power Plant P TL15	64.5
Jump Fuel	400
Fuel Processor (2 days)	10
Power plant fuel	28
10 Hardpoints 3 Triple Missiles 4 Triple Beam Lasers 3 Triple Particle Beam	10
Hanger 1 IISS Surveyor [4 on board] 50 2 Mini Surveyors [2 on board each] 40 2 TL 14 G-Carriers 20 1 Survey and Exploration Vehicle [6 on ship] 15 2 TL 12 Stealth Grav Planes [4 on ship] 10 Ships Boat 20	195
Barracks and arms rooms	21
15 Statesroom Sr. Scout & XO Boatswain & Navigator 2 Engineers 2 Small Craft Engineers 2 Small Craft Engineers 2 SEV Crew 2 SEV Crew 2 SEV Crew 2 Stealth Crew 2 Stealth Crew 2 Lab Scouts 2 Lab Scouts 14. 15. Opened as Barrack space for 10 Vargr Gunners	60
Med bay	4
3 Labs	12
Library	4
200 Smart Missiles	10
100 Nuclear Missiles	5
Luxuries	7.25

The Meriwether Lewis gets its orders

The Meriwether Lewis gets its orders

[caption id="attachment_324" align="alignleft" width="425" caption="The Foreven Sector"][/caption]

We have received our orders, and it's a tall one. We are to explore, classify and chart the Foreven Sector. It's expected this will take several years to finish.
Those helpful boys and girls over in stellar mapping have supplied what amounts to a blank map for us.

That's a freaking lot of unexplored space for one Class FS-II Scout cruiser to cover by its self.