Bowex InfoNet (inRP)

[Skipper]

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Comm ID: Cpt. Thomas Kirkland
Access point: Franz Herzog Hotel, Planet Nuremberg, Munich, Rhineland
Target: Border Worlds Exports Management, Shipping Division
CC: Transport report

Would you like to read the message now? (y/n) y_

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G'day Gentlemen.

I'm sending the books of the Black Prince and the Empress Matilda attached.

As you can see we've had quite a busy few days.

Three trips in particular are notable.

1/
Despite my serious misgivings, a mr Jeffries has approached me aboard LD-14 about a shipment of MOX to be hauled through the Taus. Owing to my previous bad experiences with the buyer, I was very glad to have been able to join the Director's prospection party also heading to the Taus.



THis time the journey was more eventful than the actual delivery, though that is not saying much. Shortly after takeoff we discovered that some of the barrels in the cargo hold were leaking. With all hands otherwise occupied I was forced to dispatch mr Jose (a "Zoner" we took on board at LD-14 as passanger) with a mop to keep the the ship in a state resembling cleanness. This, of course, also resulted in an unscheduled pitstop at the Jumpgate construction site in Tau-31 to deliver mr Jose to the much better equiped medical facility there.

As it turned out it was just as well we stopped there, as this way our transport was safely moored at the time when some Gaians chasing us from Edinburgh intercepted our party. Attending at the time to mr Jose, I am sadly unable to provide much information about the encounter, but it couldn't have gone too badly, as the Gaians were already gone with no loss to our group by the time we prepped the Prince for launch.

We also had to persuade an IMG miner to look the other way while passing through to our destination, but no other violent encounter hindered us until we reached the buyer's patrols near the Jumphole. Our cargo must have been well anticipated, as even a battlecruiser seems to have turned up in honor of our arrival. Well, either that, or they were just very eager to be refueled first. No problems with payment, though.

2/
With the delivery complete, our convoy joined mr McLean on his rounds to inspect his signal relays from the deep space drones. Despite our lack of entuhsiasm this part of our journey also took a profitable turn when following a lead on some combustible substance acquired by mr Duke we stumbled upon a space station of unconfirmed origins. The people there spoke the Trade Language in a very strange and heavily accented dialect, but in the end we managed to scam... erm... we managed to acquire a full load of high quality tobacco for a very compressed price.

In short order we were enroute to Liberty to unload our fresh cargo.



We made our way through the Barrier Pass without incident, except for encountering a silent ship drifting through our path without active drive. The resulting debate about the plausability of ghost ships continued right up to the point, where we were ambushed by Rouges just as we entered Liberty space. After much mucking about and generally making a mess of the siruation, including the loss of a few crates of our cargo we managed to get past this obstacle and found a buyer in short order in the Liberty core systems. On our return journey we even managed to withness our alied Liberty Navy in action mopping up the Rogues disrupting our journey earlier. We did, however, stray too close to the battle and suffered some additional losses as a result, but all in all we managed to bring in a fair profit on the journey.

3/
Upon our return to Bretonia we quickly received a priority broadcast from BMM about some ore needing hauling, so bidding the Director and his escort farewell, and taking advantage of my recent promotion (for which I would again like to express my gratitude) we returned to Scarborough and taking half my lads I took command of the Shire class transport Empress Matilda.



Having loaded the transports a hearty four ship convoy started it's way through the Omegas towards the Rhineland to return with much needed military supplies. We were all quite tired by this point and with half the crew on the Black Prince, half on the new Shire, very much undermanned. This did cause some trouble during the journey as we ran into some temporal anomaly, and we were separated from the rest of the convoy in Omega-7. Thankfully mr Duke, to whom I'd like to express my deepest thanks, returned to search for us once the convoy was safe, and we managed to make the delivery deadline despite sporadic Hessian sightings on our way.

The convoy having fallen apart, and our busy previous schedule notwithstanding I ordered all hands to put in some R-and-R and moored the ship at Planet Nuremberg.

Should you need to contact the Black Prince, I left my First Mate, mr Roberts in charge there. He should be fully capable of handling any deliveries with the rest of the crew at his disposal until we return with the Empress. Just, don't let im haul any alcohol.

Yours,

Thomas Kirkland

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