Carthrat's journey into space - Round 3! Heaven or Hell!

[Anastasia]

Well, you've survived two topics, Carthrat. While the last arc lacked what I'd call a balls to the wall final boss battle, I'm sure I'll be able to make up for it. Any last words before we go on, Rat?

[Carthrat]

Yeah. Something that comes up a few times in this game is the whole location thing. We tend to spend a moderate amount of time in each location and whatnot.

In this version, I think that the few main locations should be as follows;

1) The Merchant Space Station.
2) That planet that begins with A and is a mid-earth industrial society.
3) Heli-3.
4) Whatever ship we manage to put together.

I think we we confine the location somewhat more and put more detail into it, we'll get a richer game.

[Anastasia]

*Nods* Sounds good. On that note...

---

Small guidance drones guide your stolen ship inside the docking bay, the unpainted metal walls dull against the black backdrop of space. Eased in, you dock without trouble next to a small cargo ship(The brightly painted BEF Exertion and a more down to earth black and chrome private shuttle.). Of course, the moment you settle in...

"This is the space station Ticondoga." Your radio systems crackles with the dry, businesslike voice of a male, obviously going through the needed motions. "Please open your shuttle hatch to admit Customs and Registration. Thank you."

Rachel glances to Carthrat at that, a bit worried. "Is anything we have on here going to be a problem for that?"

[Carthrat]

"I dunno. Tir, do you have the bribe money ready?" asks Carthrat, glancing at the plasma rifles. "I don't wanna be unarmed just yet."

[Anastasia]

With a sigh, Tir takes a C card out from his pants pocket. "Yeah, I'm ready," he grouses a bit. "I'm guessing a thousand or so Cs, no more. It's not like this is a big station, just some ants on top of shit mountain."

From his position, still leaning against one of the high backed chairs in the cockpit, "Go ahead and let them in. I'm ready to get off of this clunker."

[Carthrat]

Carthrat taps a couple of buttons, opening the service hatch. "Opening the hatch now. Any specific regulations we should be aware of, control?"

[Anastasia]

"Nothing that could help you now," the operator replies, with a touch of droll humor. "If you're carrying contraband, you're going to be in deep."

As that goes on, the hatch does indeed open, a humanoid bot, down to skin like plastic over it's body and shortish brown hair, comes aboard. It's dressed in a blue quasi uniform, with shiny buttons and a badge that says something about interregional customs. The robot strides into the cockpit in confidence, addressing all of you. "Do you have anything to declare before we search the ship?" it asks in a monotone, it's posture perfectly straight, perhaps the proverbial stick up the ass it's rules give it.

"Yeah," Tir says, flipping the  C card over to the robot, the plastic money card bouncing off the robot's chest and into it's waiting hand. "Analysing...analysing....Thank you for your 1500 C donation. You have cleared Customs." Flipping the card back with a well oiled motion to Tir, the robot departs. The moment he's out the door...

"1500 C?" Tir gripes. "Robbery! Fruad! Excessive!"

[Carthrat]

"Don't worry," replies Carthrat, wryly. "I'm sure we'll take far more back from them before we're done.

Hey, Tir, check and make sure that thing didn't leave any surprises behind. Like those micro-recorders I hear so much about.

And designed. I used to build them for pranks. So much fun."

[Anastasia]

Submerging his bitching under his breath, Tir works on the control panel a few seconds. "Let's see....no...no...Nope, doesn't look like it, and this ship has good sensors." Tir stands back up, with a small shrug. "If they got them on, they have good enough tech to fool this ship, and I don't buy that.

Hell, those guide drones," Tir thinks of those green, red and blue mini robots that guided you into the docking bay, "weren't even all that good. I think we're good to go."

[Carthrat]

"Well, get out, then, and buy me some new clothes," says Carthrat, drolly. "I'll stay back and guard the ship. For now, Rachel, stay with Tir. I ain't going out there in this crap. I'll stand out too damn much."

He pulls at the too-small uniform. "Make sure you get it in the proper size, too."

[Anastasia]

With a smile she can't quite kill, "Sure. I'll get you something that'll suit you," she promises, while Tir sighs again and glances at the C chard he holds in his hand.

"Let's go, Rachel," he says. "This shouldn't take more than an hour if we don't get held up," Tir guesses, then his smirk returns. "Don't get lonely, Rat."

With that, the two disembark, off to the station and leaving Carthrat to his own devices for a spell.

[Carthrat]

Carthrat, for his part, heads over to the ship control room, grabbing a plasma rifle and laying it on his lap while he pushes some buttons and starts trying to access the space-station network..

Ah, it's like the good 'ol days..

[Anastasia]

The network setup is basic enough - a portalway to a domain with information, ads and other such basics abou tthe station. Of note is that there are said to be at least a few high quality trading good shops here, and those are just the public ones, not counting how big the black market is here.

Beyond the mercantile bits, there isn't too much to the place. It's a overgrown trading post, and makes no bones about it.

[Carthrat]

Carthrat starts poking around the shipyard areas, making a few enquiries of his own, trying to judge the likely prices he could get away with selling a ship of his model and refinement for, along with checking out the other ships on the market at the moment (the not-crap ones).

[Anastasia]

The general market for ships looks to be fairly mobile and solid. Researching a bit, you'd guess that from the numbers you saw, that you'd get anywhere from 400,000 to 800,000 C for this, depending on the buyer and dumb luck. Maybe a bit more or less.

As for the buying market, there aren't TOO many details. Much of it is basically lures to go to a seller or group and talk to them directly, all the info you see online is advertisements that aren't really that trustworthy.