.:Incoming Transmission:.
.:Comm ID: Rick Tiltman:.
.:Topic: A Business Offer:.
Jess,
Normally I avoid sticking my nose in the business of my business partners but really, we need to talk.
Just a short while ago I flew out into the South Dallas Debris Field to run a short salvage operation and I cam across one of your salvage vessels operating out there and I was frankly shocked. The venerable Hegemon has been in service for many decades with only minor changes to the design, it's extremely simplistic design and modular frame allows it to be customized to mine everything from the frigid clouds of Cortez to the hellish fields of Omega-11 it has time and again proven it's ability to survive wherever it mankind has needed resources extracted no matter how extreme.
That being said I am disappointed, for many years we have worked alongside each other from the dark depths of the North Dallas Debris Field to the relatively peaceful clouds of New York and the grim task that is cleaning the wreckage of the Liberty-Rheinland and Sirian-Gallic War. So I wonder why you never inquired about our Salvagers?
Salvagers are built to harvest large amounts of riches from the debris fields of Sirius with a dizzying array of tool arms, generous cargo bay and powerful tug capable engines resulting in an unmatched ability to salvage even the largest parts from space while at the same time protecting them from anyone that might oppose them.
While it is the hallmark of the most successful clans within the greater Junker community, the Salvage Frigate class, while built upon the same basic core philosophy, grows to be as varied as the families that crew them with each passing generation. As such the vessel is almost never seen outside of the hands of Junkers, as the ship is by no means sold, so much as it is almost grown through years of combing and love of their crews.
That being said, from time to time as Junker families die either by age, or some other unfortunate series of events their Salvagers become derelicts left where ever they were last parked. Usually they are given to a new family, or melted down at Vieques, however I as the Arbiter have the poer to gift them to people or organizations who have shown sincere friendliness and kindness to Junker kind. A friendliness that I feel DSE has more than shown on more then one occaision.
Just recently we have found two such unfortunate ships:
One, "Trashlantis", was found adrift in Hudson, my bet is the unfortunate family was murdered by the Xenos while crossing the border from Rheinland.
The other, "Crash.Grab" was found adrift in New London, I suspect based on the holes it ended up on the wrong end of The Enclave or Gallic Royal Navy some time near or after the end of the Gallic War.
I am putting these on the table, but there is a price, I know DSE is constantly retiring Mastodons and Heavy Tankers. I am looking to expand The Congress' shipping fleet, remote stations in Puerto Rico don't supply themselves you know and currently The Voerde is barely keeping up with the needs.
My proposal is as follows:
I entrust "Trashlantis" and "Crash.Grab" to DSE.
DSE gives us 2 Mastodons and or Heavy Tankers that are being retired from service.
While I wish I could say I was shocked to hear of the Hegemon being used as a mining vessel, I am not surprised. The economic sector, specifically involving mining and ores, has been left to suffer as Liberty focuses on its military might. Limited resources and funds have been allowed to go into the research and development of a new vessel to keep up with houses such as Rheinland and even Gallia.
The question of your Salvagers is particularly tricky. I say this because having worked so close with the Junkers for so long, I understand the importance of the Salvagers and how they are passed down for many generations. I am also aware that new components are often not very easy to come by and when a ship reaches the end of its life it acts as a kind of 'organ donor' to continue the life of the other ships flying your flag. As I respect the importance these ships have, I am not one to try and get my hands on these - as much as I would be honored to have the opportunity to fly one.
With those being the reasons I have not enquired about obtaining one in the past, I am going to have to deny the offer for the same reasons, I hope you understand this is purely out of respect.
However I do have an idea that I believe you may see benefit in, and it would mean the hegemon will be a ship of the past in our fleet. I would like your assistance in upgrading, and testing a number of mammoths for use by Deep Space Engineering. They are sturdy ships, and they are significantly lower profile and easier to manage in the fields. While they are unable to hold as much as the Hegemon, or the Salvager, it will be suitable for our line of work until an alternative is established.
I will fund the upgrades, and testing. As per usual, I do not expect you or your men and woman to do things for free. I will also set aside a portion of our profits to go into researching and developing a new vessel that may replace this entirely at some point. In addition to this, I believe I will be able to find one or two mastodons and/or heavy tankers to pass on to you.
.:Incoming Transmission:.
.:Comm ID: Rick Tiltman:.
.:Topic: I can work with that:.
Jess,
All fair points, these Salvagers will be decommissioned as per standard procedure. That being said, there is still another offer on the table, our "Wrecker" Junker Gunships are small light ships that we mass produce. Not nearly as much towing capacity as a Salvager but respectable nonetheless they also have more than enough defenses to fend off any would be interloper. Additionally, unlike the Salvager, Minimal modifications would be needed to allow for Non-Salvage operations and (In theory) they could be used to harvest other ores with relative ease.
As for the Mammoth proposal,
It does have the potential for a number of modifications. They certainly wouldn't be pretty but if we essentially ripped the arms off of some of your existing Hegemon's or any of your defunct CUV-39M "Mender" Repair Ships then surely we could get those things able to at least manipulate some of the smaller pieces of salvage while dissecting some of the larger ones as needed. (On the note of the CUV-39M "Mender" Repair Ships I have long speculated as to their salvage capabilities however due to lack of available resources no testing ever occurred as it wasn't seen as worth the expense. This might be worth looking into if you were interested.)
Additionally, where would you like this work to occur? Baltimore surely is capable of many of these modifications but it is likely crowded with commercial work, Vieques is more than capable of performing any work on the Mammoth we'd need to augment any arms or tools to it though given it's remoteness it may be much more difficult. Or does Chesterfield now have Ship Maintenance Capabilities? Also as for funding my men will appreciate it, but what of the Mastadons or Titanics?
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