Mission of Gravity

This is a postal (or PBM) game of Star Trader run by Mike Dommett and published in my postal games 'zine, To Win Just Once. This is the web version of the latest turn. Follow the link for an introduction to Star Trader.

Sections: Report, Corporations Table, News, Press, GM Notes, Star map (separate page)

Previous reports: Turn 19 Turn 18 Turn 17 Turn 16 Turn 15 Turn 14 Turn 13 Turn 12 Turn 11 Turn 10 Turn 9 Turn 8 Turn 7 Turn 6 Turn 5 Turn 4 Turn 3 Turn 2 Turn 1 Start-up

Turn 20

    "Where did they come from?"
    "I don't know, but I'm not staying to find out. There are several ships overdue already this Quarter and I don't intend to add to the number." The TSTI commander reached for his control panel and pressed the red button set up for a jump back to start of track.
As the ship twisted into Nul-space he pressed another control.
    "Due to unforeseen circumstances, we regret to announce the delay to Flight..."

ZWILLINGE instituted a blockade of 4 of the 8 systems this quarter with varying results. Many ships jumped and ignored the blockade but some were intercepted.

At Beta Hydri a TSTI ship was intercepted, but escaped with an Emergency Hyperjump. The intruding ship, Twosome, was eventually rounded up by Federation forces and brought into the Spaceport.

At Tau Ceti, a TSTI ship also escaped with an Emergency Hyperjump. The blockading ship remains in orbit.

At Mu Herculis SSL&M's North's response to interception was a missile attack which blew away the Doppelganger.

At Sigma Draconis VOGON's two ships, War and Death, escaped with Emergency Hyperjumps, but TTC's TTC Americium and ALSAFI's Lock were both intercepted and captured. None of the three ships here was found by the admittedly weak local Federation forces.

ZWLLINGE's REPUTATION was of course by now rock bottom, but to many people's amazement the Inquiry did not find them guilty. Perhaps it was the lack of injury caused, except at Sigma Draconis and a possible sense of guilt at accusing the Corporation so often because the sabotage attacks were continuing, but now it was SWISS MERCENARY who were apparently behind the destruction.

CAESAR WHOLESALE were looking to take advantage of an opportunity chit that had vanished and will be annoyed.

TRADEWINDS FOUNDATION took OP 5 and bought 10 units of Furs.

ISKANDER FIRE & ACCIIDENT sold a Warehouse at Epsilon Eridani and repaid their loan to the banks. They then went back and took out a larger loan over 4 Quarters of 909 HTs, paying 43 HTs a Quarter interest. They bought 2 new Monopole Factories after Increasing their Political Connections.

ZWILLINGE hired agent Badger at Tau Ceti and increased their Political Connections. They then sold all their Spice and Isotope Factories at Sigma Draconis. They now have 5 ships instead of 4 and an acquittal before the Board.

VOGON INDUSTRIES bought a cargo pod for Death, but otherwise did little.

SOLAR SPICE, LIQUORS & MONOPOLES celebrated their ship's safe arrival by buying a new Monopole Factory at Mu Herculis.

TRANS SOLAR TRADING INC. sold their 17 Monopole Factories for a large profit and bought 17 Isotope Factories at Sigma Draconis, along with two Warehouses. Passengers were more elusive and paying those whose ships failed to deliver them (interception by Zwillinge not counting as an Act of God) was costly.

TRANSURANIC TRADE CORPORATION bought Warehouses at Alpha Centauri and Sigma Draconis, an Alloy Factory at Gamma Leporis and equipped the TCC Fermium with a mix of Cargo, Passenger and Light Weapon pods.

ALSAFI-TOLLIMAN were also buying Alloy Factories, 3 of them, and a single Warehouse.

ISNOT-ISTOO bought a cargo pod for ISNOT to replace the Passenger pod transferred to WOTUSAY.

SOLARWINDS increased their Business Connections to 6 and bought a Petroleum Factory at Delta Toucanis.

SWISS MERCENARY FLEET, apart from losing 16 Reputation, bought 4 Liquor factories at Alpha Centauri and 2 Monopole Factories at Mu Herculis.

The trading was brisk at Gamma Leporis. VOGON bought 3 Alloys at 1, while TSTI sold 5 on Contracts and TRANSURRANIC bought 5 also on Contracts.

At Epsilon Eridani SOLAR SPICE, LIQUORS & MONOPOLES sold 2 Liquors for 9 HTs, and also sold 5 Monopoles on Contract. ALSAFI sold 3 Petroleum on Contract and ZWILLINGE sold 12 Spice for 3 HTs each to gain a Dealership.

Delta Toucanis remained trading-free this Quarter.

At Tau Ceti TRANSURANIC sold 6 Alloys for 1 HT each and gained a Dealership. ZWILLINGE sold 5 Isotopes on Contract and then a further 6 using Percent and TRANSURANIC sold 5 more on Contracts. ZWILLINGE sold a further 4 Petroleum on Contracts.

The bulk purchase of 24 Monopoles by TRANS SOLAR TRADING INC at Mu Herculis dominated things there. A Dealership came their way, of course, and then they sold all their Monopole Factories at the top of the market - indeed several Corporations paid 110 HTs for a new Monopole Factory. VOGON sold 1 Alloy for 5 HTs. ISKANDER sold 9 Isotopes for 5 HTs and a Contractorship, shutting out VOGON's bid of 7 and ISNOT-ISTOO's of 5. VOGON wanted to buy Liquor at 1, but SWISS MERCENARY FLEET managed to sell 2 Liquors for 2 HTs apiece. VOGON and ISNOTISTOO had wanted to buy Monopoles, too, but could not compete with TSTI.

At Sigma Draconis ZWILLINGE sold 5 Isotopes on Contract, as TRANSURANIC bought 5. SOLAR WINDS' bid of 3 to sell was too high. ISKANDER sold 8 Petroleum for 9 HTs each and gained a Dealership. ZWILLINGE managed to dispose of 5 Spice on Contracts as the price fell; not so ISNOT-ISTOO, whose bid of 7 to sell was too high.

Alpha Centauri had TRANSURANIC buying 6 Alloys for 2 HTs each, but no position. They then sold 12 Isotopes for 5 HTs each and were made Contractors. SOLAR WINDS failed to sell Liquors at 4, but SWISS MERCENARY sold 5 on Contracts. ISKANDER sold 10 Monopoles at the price of 13 for a Dealership and ISNOT-ISTOO sold 7 Spice for 8 HTs each and gained a Dealership too.

Beta Hydri saw TSTI selling 1 Alloy for 5 HTs. ZWILLINGE sold 6 Isotopes for 2 HTs each, then CAESAR WHOLESALE bought 6 back for 5 HTs before ISKANDER sold 2 more at 5HTs. ISKANDER used their Market Managership to sell 5 Monopoles at 16 each and then CAESAR WHOLESALE sold 2 more at the same price. ZWILLINGE sold 4 Petroleum on Contract, TRADEWINDS sold 5 Spice at 8 HTs apiece and, finally, ALSAFI-TOLLAMAN sold 2 more at the price of 9 HTs.

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Press

1,000 Credits for the head of the saboteur. Turn Poum and the Corporation harbouring his terrorist activities to the authorities and receive the reward. Let all other Corporations unite for Operation Enduring Freedom and remove this pestilence from the Quadrant. Thank you. It was not fun. At least I stayed through the pain. It must also be some sort of record for presence before the Inquiry Board. ZWILLINGE
(of course that would be the Board that found you innocent this Quarter...)

Those who steal from SSL&M are welcome to keep what they get, by damn! Pevans van Rijn

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Corporations Table

Corporation letter & name		Conn'n Levels Bus/Crim/Pol			Init Bid	Turn Order	Cash	Rep'n	Player
A	Alsafi-Toliman Acquisitions	10	4	4	0	9th	386	40	Rob Fuller
B	Solar Winds Trading Co	6	0	8	0	11th	135	33	Steve Bunce
C	Caesar Wholesale	9	9	2	50	1st	204	33	Simon Burling
D	Trans Solar Trading, Inc	10	0	7	15	5th	1637	40	Jerry Elsmore
E	SSL&M	10	3	5	12+1	6th	67	40	Paul Evans
G	HDQUS	10	2	2	N	13th	919	26	Player Wanted
H	Trade Wind	10	0	8	20+9	2nd	694	40	Colin Parfitt
J	ISNOTISTOO	10	0	3	0	10th	274	40	Bill Hay
K	Swiss Mercenary Fleet	10	0	10	0	12th	337	24	Martin Jennings
L	Zwillinge	6	2	2	19	4th	1798	8	Michael Martinkat
M	Transuranic Trade Corp	10	0	3	2	8th	567	40	Bob Parkins
N	Vogon Industries	10	7	0	15	5th	55	40	Nathan Richards
P	Iskander Fire and Accident	10	8	5	30	3rd	645	40	Przemyslaw Orwat
'N' under Initiative Bid indicates No Move Received; ‘F’ indicates the Corp was floated

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News

TRADEWINDS took OP 5 this turn.

There were four new News Chits this turn (shown in Bold):
Turn 23 B2
Turn 24 C1, P3, B6

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GM Notes

Player wanted to take over Honest Darth's Spaceships; Position viable, player circumstances dictate: Apply to myself or Pevans.

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