Deep Space Scanner

Having stumbled on a couple of pirate bases and hundreds of raider vessels while flying various ships, it became obvious that the surrounding space was filled to the gills with bad guys.

While I was apparently able to dispatch these guys with relative ease now using FRG Thor and even CRV Alannis, they still caused me headaches in SVG Excavator and SVG Speeder (although I almost never took her out any more, as she was now obsolete).

In addition, I knew that somewhere out there was a force of ships large enough to blockade the Trading Guild, which were far larger and stronger than my own empire.  Therefore the raider force must be pretty significant.

So it became desirable to locate and map other bases, and either avoid them, negotiate with them, or wipe them out... which I was becoming quite good at, it seemed.

I made plans to build a large deep space scanner.

Scanner scaffolding braces the structure while it is being built.

The scanner would be able to scan 4 sectors in all directions for enemy vessel activity, and scan the entire star system for bases and derelict space craft.  The Trading Guild advised that their own bases employed a cloaking system that bypassed the Geiger signature detected by the scanner, so their own structures would remain invisible to me.

The underside of the docked structure requires its own power and data feed to the station's core.

An independently docked structure, the scanner extends far above the station.

The scanner is docked to the station as an independent structure... effectively it's a vessel.  The station's own Geiger resonance needs to be isolated for the scanner to work, so attaching it directly causes the scanner to fail, requiring that it is its own structure.

Having it separate like this also will allow it to be undocked and moved as Dry Station expands and grows over time with new additional structure.

The scanner towers above the rest of the station, giving great penetration into deep space.

Once the device was fully operational, I engaged it and performed it's first scan of the system (hit P in game to see system/galactic map).

To my great surprise other bases began popping up on the monitors throughout the system... it seems I was surrounded by structures not my own...

My local sector had only my own Dry Station, the local Trading Guild shop and my own vessels in it.

My local star was smothered in other structures... enemy or derelict was unknown at this time.

My star is one of very many in the local area.

After some few hours of scanning telemetry, the device's systems were able to plot every star and wormhole in the entire galaxy... I was an insignificant speck in a sea of stars.

It was time to scout and map every one of those structures in my local space, to identify if they were enemy, friendly, or derelict.

The Library

As time went on I found that one thing tended to lead to another.

For example the build of FRG Thor required me to use particular types of components (for example shield capacitors), which in turn required particular types of materials (for example Rammet and Sertise capsules).

As I had since breaking free of the now obliterated Gundabadt, I had been purchasing materials and even components from the nearby Trading Guild station, however the station was having supply issues due to pirate blockades in a nearby system, and were unable to provide me any more than I had already purchased.

As a result, I was reaching a point where more and more items were now unable to be built or purchased, and the only way I would be able to build these items for any more vessels and expand my budding empire would be to mine and process the minerals myself.  Or destroy the blockade.  If the Trading Guild couldn't despatch the blockade, then clearly I would have no chance, so really, the only option was to find, mine, and process the necessary minerals myself, and use them to manufacture my own items.

But I was new to this, having been a process slave in Gundabadt I knew nothing about minerals, asteroids, what they looked like, where they could be found, et cetera.

I would need to begin exploring, sampling, and cataloging my discoveries.

I knew this would require a huge amount of processing power, and so the concept for a Library addition to my shipyard station was born.

Databases and servers whir and blink as they wait to absorb, catalog, and as required present compiled information about the discoveries I made.

Everything from asteroids found, mineral content, resources, capsules, refineries, technologies, building techniques, blueprints for ships, research, starbase and asteroid field locations, and a host of other information would be fed into these servers and processed by their AI into a range of useful information.

Connected to the main deck of my shipyard and the basic factory I had previously built, the library is almost as power-hungry as the entire shipyard and factory to date, warranting the addition of another 2 3x3x3 power generators.

To protect the delicate servers from random pirate fire, the Library has a much denser structure than the rest of the shipyard's facilities, and is wired directly into the power grid.

This Library Wing adds a further 10x5x10 structure to the basic factory and power/shield generator grid structure connected to the shipyard, and is helping to form a small station attachment to the entire structure.

With the docking arms (completed with ship maintenance systems and cargo siphons) added to the station some weeks ago, the entire shipyard complex is becoming much more like a small station now.

Dubbed "Dry Station", my shipyard was almost a small port nowadays.

Pirates seemed to give me wide berth these days, although occassionally a sniper or two would sit outside the range of my homing missile turrets and pepper Dry Station with long shots... but they did little more than give me a smirk if one managed to actually strike the base instead of sail by through empty space.

Excavator absorbs Gundabadt

SVG Excavator's maiden voyage was to undertake that which had created the need to upgrade SVG Speeder in the first place - salvaging the battered remains of Gundabadt Station.

I ensured she was well supplied, all systems were operational, and she was fully ready and able to fly. Once all checks came back green, it was time to ease out of dry dock, slowly starboard and upwards to clear SVG Speeder which remained stationary where she had been throughout the build process offering a small amount of turret protection to SVG Excavator while she was without armour and shielding during the initial stages of build.

Unlike CRV Alannis, SVG Excavator's engines did not penetrate the structure from bow-to-stern, but were instead stern-fitted shallow-mount uni-directional fusion outlets.

She was slightly larger than Alannis, but had less shields and thrust, in favour of her primary function - salvage cannons.

Once clear of the shipyard and Speeder, I set the navigation computer to the coordinates of the now derelict Gundabadt Station, and engaged her engines full throttle.

She was about as clunky as Speeder, due to her greatly increased mass, even with the Unidirectional Shallow-mount Fusion Outlet engines (which provided much greater thrust than Speeder's naked thruster module engines).

My rapid-mobility ship "Taxi" can be seen top right, used to quickly get between shipyard, trading guild station, factory, other ships, or even to retrieve pirate wrecks left drifting after coming into range of my automated defenses.

When I arrived at Gundabadt I tested out Excavator's salvage digitisation cannons and was very impressed to see the station melting away before my eyes at a far greater rate than was possible with Speeder.  The entire station was converted to digital mass signatures and stored in my personal storage bank in just under 6 minutes... over 30,000 scrap alloy and a further 30,000 scrap crystal circuits.  A large cinnibar asteroid in orbit around the station was added to my hold within another 2 minutes.

SVG Excavator performed admirably. I had not yet had a need to test her out under fire, however she performed her primary duty as a salvager with great efficiency.

Another successful build.  Soon I would take her out to the asteroid fields to retrieve some more materials, especially some of the rarer elements needed to construct some of the more higher end technologies like shield capacitors and rechargers.  I had depleted the local trading guild's supply of these items, and other ships would need me to construct my own which meant obtaining the required elements...

Gundabadt was gone.  Nothing remained but digital mass signatures of scrap in my hold and some drifting atmospheric molecules where it had once been in space.

This was my space now.

A Humble Beginning

My name is Dry Broez.

I am a freeman miner from Upsuli system, having recently bought my freedom for my descendants by honor-killing my former master and enslaver Haft Nexshrakt of the clan of Gundabadt.

Now my destiny is my own, and with it I have discovered the thrill and also the fear of unprotected freedom.

For now I tip-toe through space, and have set up a small processing plant within the protection and convenience of a Trading Guild shop that I discovered during my escape from Gundabadt station.

I mine nearby asteroids mostly consisting of Cinnibar, Lukrah, Sand, and some Fertikeen. This has earned me enough to build a small processing plant, a small mining craft fondly called "Speeder", a rapid-transit speeder craft called "Taxi", and a small radar-deceiving, lightly armoured battle-scout called "Gustav".  The processing plant has been fitted with a small basic armoured turret to bolster my defenses, but my proximity to the Trading Guild station as well as my secretive mining approach seems to have kept my operation safe from assault so far.

But I'm not content to be a mere miner hiding in the shadows.

I have dreams... ambitions.