Pevans
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 22 Turn 21 Turn 20 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 23
"How long to the end of the shift?"
"About 50 minutes." The two enforcers were walking along the back corridors of warehouses at Sigma Draconis. Though the System Authorities had deployed increased resources after each attack, the sabotage had continued.
"Something ahead on the scanners."
"Metallic traces?"
"Could be a false lead again."
There had been many such alarms.
"I heard a report."
"So did I. Quick - I'll call for back-up."
The men raced into the larger public space. There was a figure with a backpack and red blood was pumping from a hole in the chest.
"Call for medic, but I think it's too late."
"Hey - the sensors indicate there are explosives in his back."
A noise made them turn as a figure concealed in a hatchway raced away and further into the public areas.
Trading at Gamma Leporis consisted of CAESAR WHOLESALE buying 5 Alloys on Contract and TRANS SOLAR TRADING selling 5 back to the market.
Epsilon Eridani saw TRANSURANIC selling 4 Alloys for 7 HTs each, beating ZWILLINGE's bid to sell at the same price. TRADEWINDS sold 8 Isotopes for 3 HTs apiece, beating TSTI's bid of the same value. ISKANDER FIRE & ACCIDENT sold 2 liquors at the price of 3 HTs and SOLAR SPICE LIQUORS & MONOPOLES sold 5 Monopoles on Contract. TRADEWINDS bought 8 Spice for 7 HTs each and gained a Contractorship.
At Delta Toucanis SOLAR WINDS sold 5 Isotopes for 3 HTs apiece. SOLAR WINDS sold 1 for 5 HTs, after which ZWILLINGE sold 8 Petroleum for 9 HTs each and became Market Manager. ISKANDER FIRE & ACCIDENT bought 5 more units on Contract.
ISKANDER became Contractors in Petroleum at Tau Ceti, selling 9 units at 11 HTs. That was after ALSAFI-TOLIMAN had sold 5 units first for 10 HTs each. CAESAR WHOLESALE sold 10 Alloys at 5 HTs and also were awarded Contractor status. ZWILLINGE bought 5 Isotopes on Contract and TRANSURANIC sold 5 in the same manner
Mu Herculis saw VOGONS selling a single Alloy for 8 HTs. They were unable to sell any Isotopes as CAESAR WHOLESALE sold 6 for 4 HTs each to gain a Dealership. SWISS MERCENARY FLEET foiled VOGONS attempts to sell Liquor, selling 8 at 2 HTs themselves and acquiring a Dealership. ISKANDER and CAESAR WHOLESALE were buying Monopoles, ISKANDER buying 5 for 12 HTs each using their Market Manager's position, and CAESAR buying a single unit as the price rose. SWISS MERCENARY had high hopes of the price rising, hoping to sell Monopoles for 15 HTs and being unable to do so.
TRADEWINDS bought 6 Alloys for 3 HTs each to gain a Dealership, beating TRANSURANIC's bid of 2 to buy. VOGONS sold 3 Alloys on Contract. TRANSURANIC did buy 5 Isotopes on Contract, while ZWILLINGE sold 5 on Contract instead. ZWILLINGE also bought 5 Spice on Contract.
ZWILLINGE were into Alloys at Alpha Centauri, buying 3 units for 4 HTs each. They also sold 6 Spice using Percent. Liquors were popular: TRANS SOLAR TRADING bid 11 HTs to buy 19 units in all and gained a Contractorship. To their dismay CAESAR WHOLESALE chose this quarter to dump 10 Units of Liquor at 3 HTs. They got gaining a Contractorship while driving the price back down. Fortunately SWISS MERCENARY FLEET decided to buy 5 Units at 10 HTs and the price came up again, though doubtless not as high as TSTI hoped.
Beta Hydri saw ISKANDER selling 9 Alloys for 7 HTs apiece, outbidding TRANSURANIC at the same level. TRANSURANIC were less than pleased as the price of Isotopes rose, shutting out their bid of 2 to buy. ISKANDER used their Market Managership in Monopoles to sell 4 Monopoles for 16 HTs each and TRANS SOLAR sold 3 more at the same price before SOLAR SPICE, LIQUORS & MONOPOLES sold 5 on Contract. ALSAFI-TOLIMAN sold 3 Petroleum for 10 HTs each. TSTI sold 3 Spice at 10 HTs, ALSAFI sold 2 more for 11 HTs each, and SSL&M sold 5 on Contract.
Three sabotage attacks at Sigma Draconis this Quarter; firstly on ISKANDER who lost 10 isotopes to an unknown assailant, then on TRADEWINDS, who lost 5 Spice to a SWISS MERCENARY attack, and finally DARTH'S, who lost 7 Isotopes to an attack blamed on ISKANDER.
ISKANDER FIRE & ACCIDENT took Opportunity 41, buying 10 units of Tempus. They still increased their Reputation, though not by very much, before the impact of the sabotage drove it back down again. The Corco Iota Hull was launched, crewed with an A class crew, and equipped with Augmented Jump and 6 Light Weapon pods. It was named by the Chairman's wife and bears the scrollwork title "Mercenary". It is potentially the best weapon equipped merchant ship in the quadrant.
TRADEWINDS undermined VOGON's Reputation, accusing the obstructive Corporation of being behind some of the recent bombings. The Corporation lost 4 Reputation as the accusations stuck. TRADEWINDS then took 4 units of Slaves with OP 31 and finished the Quarter buying new Warehouses at Sigma Draconis, Alpha Centauri & Mu Herculis.
ISNOT-ISTOO loaded their ships with passengers, once again leaving various Corporations with empty ships.
TRANS SOLAR TRADING were obviously rattled by the events of last turn and attempted to transfer goods between ships that were not in the same Spaceport. However, their Fleet jumped smoothly and Weaver delivered the passengers for the bonus. The Liquor Factories at Alpha Centauri were sold and, with the profits, the loan was paid off and 18 Spice Factories bought at Sigma Draconis. A Criminal Connection was taken out as tentative links were made with the underworld and a new Warehouse was bought at Epsilon Eridani.
VOGONS INDUSTRIES took OP2, bought 10 units and then realised that they had run out of money and were unable to pay the interest on their loan.
SWISS MERCENARY FLEET sold all of their Liquor and Monopole Factories. The Inquiry, despite their Reputation not being at zero and their high connection levels, still resulted in a small fine and with Connection Levels being reduced. It was just as well that they had disposed of their Factories, possibly anticipating the need to sell some of them with the drop in Connections.
CAESAR WHOLESALE went to the Federation banks and took out a 200 HT loan over 8 Quarters.
ZWILLINGE bought a level of Political Connections and 4 more Isotope Factories at Sigma Draconis. Reputation was improved and two new Phoenix Hulls were laid down, both cargo pod equipped, one at Tau Ceti and one at Alpha Centauri. And, finally, the brothers hired Agent Clint at Sigma Draconis and immediately went to work, assassinating Agent Poum. He was spotted making his getaway afterwards but escaped in the public areas.
Press
According to the Mu Herculis News, IFA has recently hired the "Blackhole" Private Military Company as an anti-pirate countermeasure. The IFA chairman, Mr Luca Corleone, confirmed "We hired the renowned pirate hunters to improve safety on space trade routes." Mr Corleone also denied IFA involvement in recent Sigma Draconis sabotages "Our reputation suffered and we have undertaken certain steps to restore our good name". At the same time Mr Corleone has refused comments on the operational methods of the System Police.
PRESS ALPHA CENTAURI - In another blow to the struggling company, Alsafi-Toliman Acquisition's Vice President of Business Development Daisuke Fukui announced yesterday that he was leaving the holding company for other opportunities. Prior to his resignation, Fukui had been with the company for eleven years, stretching back into the period when it was doing business as Toliman Holdings, Inc. and was known primarily for maintaining controlling interests in several popular Centaurian resorts. Originally touted as the main catalyst behind the merger that expanded Toliman's business interests outside of Alpha Centauri, Fukui had been showing significant signs of stress coping with the vastly different commercial atmosphere outside of his home system. "In Alpha Centauri, drek just plain didn't blow up. Ever," Fukui was quoted as saying two months ago after yet another act of sabotage at one of the company's Sigma Draconis warehouses. "You can even check our SEC filings. Not once has one of our hotels blown up while I've been VP. But this... this is just insane." The company chairman and board of directors would not comment at length on Fukui-san's resignation besides a short canned release stating that "Fukui's experience and dedication to [their] company will be sorely missed". "Did you know there were pirates out here? I sure as hell didn't," Fukui blurted during a particularly charged conference call informing shareholders of the loss of one of the company's ships in an attack several quarters ago. "And if I had known, I'd have ruttin' stayed in Centauri." As of noon today, Alsafi-Toliman stock was trading down 8%.
SMF Press: Amazing how a company with no criminal connections what so ever can do so much damage, must find out their secret one day.
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 | 8th | 608 | 40 | Rob Fuller |
| B | Solar Winds Trading Co | 10 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 12th | 476 | 40 | Steve Bunce |
| C | Caesar Wholesale | 10 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 10th | 498 | 40 | Simon Burling |
| D | Trans Solar Trading, Inc | 10 | 1 | 8 | 27 | 4th | 510 | 39 | Jerry Elsmore |
| E | SSL&M | 10 | 3 | 5 | 0+1 | 7th | 733 | 40 | Paul Evans |
| G | Omicron-Mira Funding | 10 | 2 | 3 | N | 13th | 870 | 27 | Thomas Frost |
| H | Trade Wind | 10 | 0 | 8 | 25+9 | 2nd | 902 | 40 | Colin Parfitt |
| J | ISNOTISTOO | 10 | 0 | 3 | 26 | 3rd | 542 | 40 | William Hay |
| K | Swiss Mercenary Fleet | 8 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 9th | 1461 | 6 | Martin Jennings |
| L | Zwillinge | 10 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 11th | 303 | 29 | Michael Martinkat |
| M | Transuranic Trade Corp | 10 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 6th | 845 | 40 | Bob Parkins |
| N | Vogon Industries | 10 | 7 | 0 | 25 | 5th | 6 | 24 | Nathan Richards |
| P | Iskander Fire and Accident | 10 | 8 | 5 | 40 | 1st | 197 | 21 | Przemyslaw Orwat |
| 'N' under Initiative Bid indicates No Move Received; ‘F’ indicates the Corp was floated | |||||||||
News
TRADEWINDS (Corp H) took OP 31, ISKANDER (P) took OP 41 and VOGON (N) took OP 2.
There were three new News Chits this turn (shown in Bold):
Turn 24 B6, C5, P8
Turn 25 P6, C2
Turn 26 C8, B9
Turn 27 P6