Pilot profile: Zeck Arrow

[Zeck]

Part 1, Pilot profile: Zeck Arrow


Background:

Zeck Arrow is the 4th (out of seven) child of the martian ambassador family that was positioned at Earthen embassy. The embassy had several changing locations during the history, but at the period of Zeck's childhood it was for the most of the time located in Finland so he was mostly influenced by the finnish culture. Being an ambassador family, the Arrows traveled a lot too, which widened the worldview of the youngsters.

Zeck's mother Debola Arrow was the martian ambassador and father Darius Arrow ran an interplanetary coffee, tea and spice trading company. Later the company's businesses were extended from interplanetary to interstellar under the name "interstellar Coffee Trading company" aka iCTc. This change happened when the younger generation took over the company. At that time Zeck became the head of the company's security wing (iCTc/sf, sf standing for security force). It was security force's job to escort and secure the interplanetary trading transports and larger multicompany convoys.

Some years after the founding of iCTc the company's mothership Aroma, also the HQ of the company, was a part of the interstellar multicompany Convoy 12 that was transporting supplies, materials and goods to the other human populated systems. Convoy 12 was ambushed by Mantis and almost totally destroyed. The iCTc fleet was devastated except for Zeck's fighter. It too was badly damaged and he crashed in an emergency landing on an uninhabited moon Deb-C5 nearby the battle sector. Zeck had rescued his wife Kielo from the mothership just before it broke apart in an explosion. They were both safe in Zeck's ship's escape pod on the surface of Deb-C5, but Kielo was fatally injured.

They weren't the only ones shipwrecked on Deb-C5 for some Mantis fighters had crashed there too. 32 hours after Zeck's emergency landing the stranded Mantis found their pod. Kielo was barely alive and dying. Against all expectations the Mantis weren't hostile, though they captured the humans as prisoners of war. One of the crashed Mantis vehicles was a field medic ship and though it didn't fly anymore it's equipment was still functional. The Mantis took care of Zeck's wife and their medical attention saved her life.

Later a human rescue patrol following Zeck's pod's distress call entered that sector. Zeck warned the captors that the patrol would be heavily armed and would destroy the Mantis at sight. As for compensation for the medical help the humans had received, Zeck offered the Mantis a chance to survive by leaving Zeck and Kielo in their pod, and moving away from their location so that the human rescue patrol wouldn't notice the enemy. The Mantis took the warning seriously and did what Zeck had suggested. Their own resque patrol would come to them at an unknown time.

None of what happened in Deb-C5 has been declared to be officially true by the human authorities. Zeck and Kielo were held for long interrogations before they were free to adjust back to their daily life or what was left of it. Zeck tried to find responsive ears from people and media to his story of what really happened in Deb-C5 but he was dubbed a liar or lunatic for no Mantis had ever helped a human. Zeck soon realized it would be better just to stay silent of the truth.

Kielo is still suffering from the injuries and mental trauma, and her current condition needs constant medical control. She stays in Vega 2 Starbase that provides the hospital services needed. (What Zeck himself doesn't know is that Kielo was pregnant during the attack and as for "payment" of their "hospitality" and "good will" the Mantis removed the human embryo from her body. Being too traumatized Kielo hasn't spoken to anyone from this subject.)


Current status:

Now the interstellar Coffee Traders company is utterly destroyed and no more exists as it was. Zeck has also lost three of his siblings in the ambush battle. The oldest brother, Domin, the former president of the company, is alive but in deep coma. Domin is the sole survivor of the three oldest siblings who were the only ones sharing the exact location information of company's so called backup product storages and secret sources that are scattered around in different systems. The information sealed in the dormant mind of Domin Arrow would be very helpfull for Zeck (and of course for anyone interested in coffee related loot) because in these times of Mantis war the resources are insufficient every where. At least Zeck has some assumptions for the locations, he has after all been near to them when he's been carrying out the transport escorting in the former iCTc's security force. In between the fights against the Mantis horde Zeck is trying to find these hidden storages all around the systems.

Currently Zeck is trying to revive the coffee trading businesses with help of his younger brother Led and sister Yela. Together they have established the interstellar Coffee Traders guild aka iCTg on the remains of the former iCT company. At the moment the guild's purpose is to help and support all agents and operators in coffee trading business for most of the coffee producing planets are currently invaded or othervice unaccessible. Most of the siblings's personal incomes go to funding the hospital care of their older brother Domin and Zeck's wife Kielo.

Zeck's sister Yela runs iCTg's sells department located at the moment in Vega 2 Starbase. Zeck's brother Led has a small research workshop for product developement. Both the coffee products and machinery for making the actual bewerage are developed.




***



Part 2, Description: interstellar Coffee Traders guild



"Got podded again?
Why not making the rescue waiting an enjoyment
by installing a coffee maker in your pod..."



History:

The martian ambassador Arrow's husband founded the interplanetary Coffee Traders company and based it on Earth where the ambassador family's residence was. The company operated Sol system wide.

Later the next generation of Arrow's took over the company and expanded the businesses to the other systems which leaded to renewed name interstellar Coffee Traders company (though the abbreviation iCTc remained the same).

In the waves of Mantis war the company got badly crippled and was almost totally vanished in the ambush of Convoy 12. From what was left of the once prosperous company arose the interstellar Coffee Traders guild aka iCTg.


Products and services:

We provide
-high quality coffee products and raw ingredients (fresh water, coffee beans, ground coffee, instant powders, variety of roasts, special flavors)
-constantly enhancing machinery and accessories for making and enjoying your coffee (coffee makers, filters, special brewers, commercial brewers, coffee pots, brewer parts, coffee grinders, etc)
-delivery to even most hostile and hazardous environments
-installing and maintenance services for most of the equipment we provide.
-ask also for catering services (currently available only in Vega system).


Projects and operation:

-iCTg is taking part in funding fresh water resource projects in multiple locations, such as Lyris and Prosperous. Our research and developement department also takes part in developement of water refinery filter technology and distillery devices (see the R&D section below).
-we co-operate with farming colonies in Prosperous for coffee plantation projects for future coffee bean production.
-currently iCTg is a loosely based organization helping all the agents and operators in coffee trading sector.


Departments:

Sells department, iCTg/s
-all our products can be found (or ordered) and retrieved in Vega 2 Starbase.
-manager, Yela Arrow.


Research and developement, iCTg/rd
-Gemini (contacts only via Sells or Delivery department)
-Our R&D department uses all available tech and material sources to produce new inventions. Our latest succes is a fusion powered microfilter we built by combining Mantis shield and perforator technology. Ground coffee and hot water is put inside a miniature shield sphere. The nanoscopic perforator penetrates the shield at multiple points making a perfect filter for brewing coffee. This filter technology has also been applied in our water refinery projects in Prosperous (see Projects and operation abowe).
-For research and developement purposes there aren't such thing as an excess tech; we collect all the Mantis blueprints we can. Besides providing us new plans and ideas the BP-chips can be used as parts in our devices.


Delivery department, iCTg/d
-Our delivery department brings your orders through the Galaxy (Vega, Antares, Gemini and Mizar at the moment).
-The late iCT company's security force was incorporated to delivery department of iCTg, so our delivery department also secures the common trade routes on it's way.
-Besides delivering and fighting the Mantis and pirates we also explore the Galaxy and expand the guilds businesses.
-Last but not least we collect cryonite for upkeeping iCTg, our ships and projects.

 

[Delloda]

Fantastic stuff!

 

[Zeck]

Part 3, The player's voice - making of Zeck Arrow

The name Zeck Arrow is a one I use in most space themed games (more about the name later). The idea for Zeck's background and agenda as a intergalactic coffee trader came to my mind when I was still no further than on Vega 4 in the game. Being a player with tendency to play solo quite much I got podded all the time and there was a lot of hangar visits and flying back to mission planets. While in hangar I wondered what would a pilot do other than get his ship fixed? or what would I do in a similar situation? At least I would find a cafeteria or diner and get a nice cup of coffee. That's what I did in the real life too, in my own kitchen during the loooong interplanetary flights (the hyperjump mechanism wasn't implemented those days). So when I returned to planet orbit I started to comment in the chat how the coffee in hangar was that time.

Next step was writing imaginary reviews of cafeteries in Vega and Antares Starbases in my pilot message log. Here are some excerpts:

"...why isn't there a Starbase hangar with cafeteria on the V4 orbit. It's freezing cold down there on the planet surface so it would be nice to get something warm to drink after missions. On the other hand taking in consideration the current coffee quality in this system, maybe it is better not to have that cafeteria."

"Vega Junkyard hangar. The coffee here tastes like the junkyard too."

"Lustra hangar. The coffee was totally tasteless. I'n not sure if that's a good or bad thing. Ok, it's bad, because coffee should taste like coffee..."

"What? I'm already in Remo hangar! but the cafeteria is closed due to ongoing renovation"

"Cafe Francis in Goya hangar. The coffee tastes like an eraser."

"The Starbase at the Gemini jump gate. Coffee in this base is actually decent!"


From very early on I thought it would be nice to have a trading company in the game, but the trading aspect is not implemented into game and such activity relies only on players' imagination. Newertheless I created a clan that represents the interstellar Coffee Traders guild.

For this forum thread I started to outline a larger background for my character. The name Zeck Arrow originates from a martian character I used to draw in my school notebooks as a child. I thought this character in PG could and should too have roots in Mars but I also wanted the character to carry with him the finnish culture influences which relate directly to me as a finnish player. So I made Zeck a son of martian ambassador parents who reside in Finland, Earth.


***

Inconcistency problem

Following the ingame story line causes some problems with creating ones character's personal story. When doing the story missions there is hardly time to read the plot messages during the fights and even if they are read afterwords not much of the story stays in my memory. It would be nice to have a way to check the facts later and also some basic knowlegde like what year it is in the story line and how long the war has been going on would be usefull. Writing this I haven't yet got to Earth myself, but it seems that things there are not so bright as Zeck's history lets us understand. Most propably his old parents no longer reside there, most likely they are dead. (I have no idea what's going on in Earth.)

Situation in Sol leads to couple alternatives I can choose to go on with Zeck's story:
1) I can re-write the previous parts to fit better the game story line (if ever I find a decent source for official story and timeline).
2) I let Zeck's story to be what it is, after all it's only fan fiction and is based on my experience of this game. I can make it what ever I want.
3) I combine the two previous alternatives and use the situation to create some new twists to Zeck's story.

I think I've already made my choice and It'll be the option mentioned last.

 

[Zeck]

(Grinder mentioned in this story has nothing to do and is not to be mistaken with a pilot with the same name.)

Part 4, An empty collar - a story of a dog

The following events took place at the time the way to Gemini system was just opened.

Zeck Arrow was on a trading flight delivering some fertilizers from Antares to a surface colony on Prosperous, Gemini. As soon as he arrived to the small farming community, he noticed a dog breeder's kennel. There were antarean harrier (a dog breed from Antares now brought to Gemini too) puppies every where and as he learned they were on sale he just couldn't avoid buying one.

Back in home at V2 Station Kielo took the little puppy as her own treasure. Little did Zeck understand of the importance of the dog to his wife, for she hadn't still spoken a word of their unborn child, actually a mere embryo the mantis had stolen from her at Deb-C5. The dog was named Grinder after coffee grinder. It had a nasty habbit to chew all the furnitures in Arrows's small flat, hence the name.


***

Later, when the human pilots had began to take back the Mizar System, Zeck was scouting the surface of planet Baumar. As Kielo was still going trough heavy therapy treatments on her mental and physical traumas, the dog Grinder had to occasionally fly with Zeck as it did this time too. Every now and then Zeck had to drop Grinder down on surface to mark his territory in it's canine manner. One time it sensed some local baumarean critter and took a chase after it and poor little Grinder was never since seen or found again. "Kielo will never forgive me", Zeck thought and searched for many days for it, but all he finally found was Grinder's loose collar. It still hangs on a wall inside Zeck's ship.

 

[pbhuh]

I didn't read it whole, but nice you try to make a story.

 

[defacto]

Very good

 

[Zeck]

Part 5.1, Fighting and filosofing

Zeck knew too well he was detected by a patrolling mantis Death Squad, but he chose not to flee right away with a "whoosh" of the latest after burner model he had installed after paying a big pile of cryonite for it. No, this time he let the DS follow his MST-FF1 Fusion Storm named Tuli, Fire, as if he hadn't noticed them at all. The stalking chase went on in maze like web of canyons on the surface of Baumar until a good looking side canyon emerged on the starboard. Zeck turned there and activated the after burner. He wanted to reach the bottom of the little dead end gorge as fast as possible, before the DS noticed the sudden change in his so far route. At the bottom he took a little circle on the end wall to rise a good amount of surface dust with the remaining jet of his AB to create a cloud to distract the mantis radars. This time it worked. From the mids of dust cloud he saw the DS moving along the main canyon ahead. The roles of the predator and prey were about to change, it was his time to do the chase.

"Are you really going to do this all by yourself?" he asked in his mind. "I've done it before, I can do it this time too" was his answer. As he committed the launch of the first salvo of rockets to the mantis ship in the tail of the DS's formation, he closed his eyes for some kind of prayer, perhaps for forgiveness because he was about kill living beings, perhaps for asking for luck because he had no idea if he was to survive the forthcoming fight.

The first rockets hit the target and accompanied by some blaster fire they tore the Rocketeer ship apart with a loud explotion. What a dark irony that the Rocketeer was shot down with a weapon based on it's own technology. There was no escape pod visible amids the debris that had just a moment ago been an alien ship. What kind of species didn't equip their ships with escape pods? Were their leaders simply indifferent of their soldiers' lives? Did they think they had endless swarms of willing pilots to sacrifice their lives for the good of their kind? Was it their honor to die along with their ships? This was a disturbing issue. Soon Zeck reasoned it couldn't be the honor thing and actually it was more likely they had some kind of escape from death after all. Why else would they have a unit specialized to rematerialize the destroyed ships? By what technological witchcraft the mantis had reached this achevement, the ship resurrection, was beyond Zeck's comprehension, but it certainly meaned their pilots had to survive shot down in a way or another, unless they too were brought back from death.


This time the Resurrector didn't bring back the destroyed Rocketeer unit. Maybe it wasn't ready to operate or it was dedicated to resurrect only the Commander unit as they many times seemed to work. The other Rocketeer was the first to react to Zeck's opening turning it's head agaist Zeck's Storm and opening return fire. The two Marauders and the enigmatic Resurrector 'turned on their lamps' as some pilots said when a unit activated a shield or a protector, because of the sound they let out. The Commander was the last to turn. These nasties always had that mean look on them. The terror of their ability to stun their enemy was something Zeck was never going to get used to and most likely it was best not to.

He had to get rid of Resurrector first if he wanted to eliminate the whole DS. He had already activated the perforator to penetrate the Resurrector's shield sphere and he was just about to ignite the it with the thermoblast when the stun shock hit his Storm. The hull trembled as the motors tried to keep running unstable with no succes to thrust the ship forward. Heavy vibrations and strange sounds traveled through the ship's structure and on the outside the enemy fire was heavily beating the armor.

To be continued in part 5.2

 

[Louiis]

Amazing RP!

Nice!

 

[Dark_Lord]

Yeah and nice pics too.

 

[Zeck]

Part 5.2, Fighting and filosofing

Continues straight from the previous part

The only option Zeck had was to activate the repair droid and wish for it to become functional before the enemy fire carved critically through his passive defences. He was still stunned with nothing else he could do but to wait. He was already about to lose it when the repair droid started to work on the damage gained and damage yet to be received, and in it's wake the curse of stun wore of. Once again the roles were about to change.

He continued from where he was interrupted by the stun attack; igniting the shield protected Resurrector. Waiting for the preparatory heating procedure of the thermoblast to pass in the hail of concentrated enemy fire demanded again a little more patience and cool nerves, but once the big enemy ship was embraced in flames it all payed back. The aim computer was still to be activated and when it became operational Zeck started to deliver all the 'e' he had stored in his energy tanks in deadly forms out of all his weapons.

The Resurrector pilot must had panicked for it had it's after burner activated but it was only aimlesly or blindly dashing here and there almost igniting it's fellow units with the flames covering it. All the enemy ships took some collateral damage from the next set of rockets, but as the vision cleared after the flash of explotion the Resurrector was no more. The remaining Rocketeer and two Marauders were soon too only no more than a set of scattered metal and electronics casting showers of dimming sparks and smoke around them.

Zeck felt already heroic for a passing moment. Only the Commander unit was there and it was literally peeled of it's armor and covering plates by a series of lucky, or just well aimed, shots from Zeck's blasters. Couple more hits and the mantis Commander took it's last breath in a form of crushing implosion followed by a fiery explosion accompanied by an electrical storm released from it's breaking stun devices.

What ever Zeck's battle prayer had been, he had survived. He collected some interesting looking parts and a bunch of cryonite dropped from defeated enemy ships, and noticed the battle had almost totally depleted his energy resources.


***


Couple minutes later he arrived to an energy field nearby. He was set on fire by the mantis Pyros following him, but luckily there were other human pilots on the e-field that responsively secured his arrival.

It was time to refill the e-tanks with 'blueberries' and cook some coffee with self produced brewing equipment installed inside Zeck's ship. While there he once again overheard a too familiar discussion on the public chat."Come on dude, get your own Harvs!" said one to the other. Another typical statement in these discussions was "Don't kill my mantis!" Did they even think how it sounded? "Don't kill MY mantis!" Their mantis? Were they mantis commanders themselves then or what? Zeck hated the mantis as much as any human pilot, but he still couldn't understand the way some humans thought about their enemy. The idea to declare some set of enemies ones own source of beneficial drops sounded nothing but perverted, as if this was some kind of sport or game instead of war.

Another typical topic for fiery arguing on public chat, many times related to the previous one, was someone accusing somebody of stealing valuables dropped from mantis ships. It had to be common for every pilot to get something almost priceless to be snatched right before their noses before their own collector had secured the loot. The only comprehensive way Zeck could handle those situations was to think that as far as any valuable, collected by him or anybody else, went to support the humankinds efforts against their enemy, he couldn't call it stealing.

 

[Zeck]

Part 6.1, Enemy outside, enemy inside.

The businesses had started to look good. Adding Mizar bases to the trading web the interstellar Coffee Trader's guild had now four systems to operate in. And there sure was enough deliveries to take care of and trade routes to secure. If the businesses kept evolving like this, it might be possible to reorganize the actual iCT company and recryte more pilots to occupy all the systems. It was more or less a necessity too with the amounts of trading connections, customers and routes growing at the current rate.

Zeck Arrow was on the way home to V2 Starbase. He had only a small time window in his schedule for a short visit. Closing in the hangar bay entrance he dreamed of having a mothership again, to reside there instead of tiny Starbase flat.

First he visited the hospital along the way to residential sector to see his brother Domin. It felt more like visiting a tomb stone in cemetery for Domin was still in coma without any sign so revive soon. Before leaving the hospital Zeck went to info counter to check that all the payments he had committed had arrived in time. Then he left the hospital.

Kielo wasn't at home. Zeck thought maybe she was in a medical treatment, though such wasn't scheduled on that day, at least if he remembered correctly. With only a short time to stay on the Base he thought he might find and meet his wife in the medical sector. Again the hospital was his way point.


On his way back to the medical sector his sister Yela came to talk with him on the busy and crowded walk lane.
"Do you know already?" she asked.
"What?"
"They have taken Kielo to somewhere else."
"Oh, which floor is she in now?" Zeck asked not fully understanding what his sister ment.
"No, you fool! They have taken her outside the whole Starbase."
"Who?"
"You know who."
It was less than six months since Zeck and Kielo were released by the human authorities after long interrogations about what happened in Deb-C5 and now they were back, it seemed.
"This is unbelievable, Yela. Are you sure?"
"Yes, you have to meet her doctor, he might know something."
"I don't have much time but I guess I'm going to take the time needed."
"Damn sure you will take all time you can for this! She's your wife. How can you even think of scheduling..."
"Ok, ok! Calm down sis. I guess these news just came out of nowhere...not giving me time enough to realize...I think I've been too busy with my trading flights for a very long time."
In many ways Zeck had been out of his own home life carrying out duties for the guild. On the other hand what else he could have done to support their living.
"Now, don't you care about guild's businesses, I'll handle the tradings in a way or another", Yela said.
"Right. I'll meet the doctor now and then I'm after Kielo."
"Do that. And be carefull, brother."
"Always."

 

[Zeck]

Part 6.2, Enemy outside, enemy inside.

"There was very little I could do when they came", said doctor Arvidson. "I declared them 'this is my department and she is my patient and you authorities have no authority over me here'. But they did."
"Any guess where they took her?"
"No."
"Any reason why they took her?"
"They said nothing. I've made my own conclusions though."
"Yeah?"
Arvidson stared Zeck with a sad and serious glance for a moment. Then he lovered his gaze to his hands that were fiddling the lapel of his white coat before continuing.
"There are things I cannot speak to you this time, for my patient's safety."
"Understood, but tell me what you can."
"It might be that some information from our treatment reports has leaked to the authorities without us giving it."
"What kind of information."
"This is not an easy thing to ask...During the time you two were on Deb-C5, did you know your wife was pregnant?"
"Mitä!?" ("What!?") Zeck said in finnish as the emotions took over. It hit like no stun ever or like all the stuns he had ever experienced together. "No!?", he continued.
"That's what I thought. She let us know it only two days ago", said Arvidson.
"Do you mean...Did she lose the...The..."
"What she told us was the mantis you met down on Deb-C5 removed the embryo from her."
"Oh my god!"

The revelation was horrific. If it was true no wonder his wife had been so traumatized after on.
"Handing over human embryo to an enemy such as the mantis is serious threat to mankind, no matter in what circumstances it happened. You understand now the authorities's interest in your wife?"
Zeck only nodded his head not cabable to speak.
"There are many more things I know, but I can't share them with you at this point. It's for your safety this time, ok?" Arvidson said laying his hand on Zeck's shoulder.
"Yeah, I think the bomb you just dropped is enough for this session."
"I bet the authorities don't want you to mess with their actions and therefore they might be interested in your movements. They might be listening to your telecommunication..."
"That's why my sister didn't contact me immediately via communicator."
"Yes, I adviced her not to."

Couple dark suited characters entered the clinic reception lobby outside Arvidson's personal office, they could be seen through the thin glass walls.
"It might be better if I chose to exile for a while", Zeck said after he noticed the well suited men looking around the lobby.
"Take the side door to maintenance corridor. Go right and after two junctions..."
"I know the plan b route, this isn't the first time. Thank you so much, doctor."
"I wish I could have helped more."
"Maybe some day you can tell me everything you know."
You don't know what you're wishing you poor man, Arvidson thought as Zeck went out through the side door, for the good doctor knew such things that could totally tear a man apart.

 

[Zeck]

Part 6.3, Enemy outside, enemy inside.


The maintenance tunnel took Zeck safely towards the hangar bay but the suits were running right after him behind the corner. The authorities dared even open handlaser fire inside the V2 Starbase as they chased Zeck to the hangar. According to their non lethal hit rate and "Stop!" shouts it was obvious they didn't shoot to kill, they wanted him alive. The laser fire had raised an alarm on Starbase and soon there were local V2 security forces chasing the trigger happy black clad agents too. Finally when Zeck arrived to the hangar, his ship was ready to fly, thanks to his sister Yela who had prepared the ship for his sudden departure while he was discussing with doctor Arvidson. At least Zeck thought it was his sisters doings.

He was soon out of the Starbase and took a couple of bluffing jumps from system to another. The final jump brought him back to Mizar space where he was about to stay for a while to calm down from the escape stunt. The way to Sol was blocked in this system and while searching for information where the vigilantly operating authorities had taken his wife, Zeck decided to advance his way to Sol where his family roots and parents were. He planned to continue the fight against the mantis under major Ivanova's command untill he had enough information and a solid plan to locate and resque his wife. Finding his wife might have been as simple as turning himself in to the authorities who would then take him to the place where they kept Kielo, but there was no way to tell if it really was what they would actually do.

Something fluid had overheated inside the air conditioning module inside the dashboard of the ship and a load of steam leaked out inside the cockpit. The gust of steam hit the dome and Zeck was already about to clean it away with a rag before he noticed the steam had drawn visible some markings on the inner surface of the cockpit dome. They looked like letters drawn with fingers. Zeck cooked some hot water with his coffee brewing equipment, poured some of it in a cup and moved the steaming cup around under the dome to bring the whole message visible. It was a cryptic one:

SECRETS MADE OFF ICE
LIES UPON LIES
ICE IS HARD AND COLD
FROZEN SECRETS OLD

ICE IS CLEAR BUT OFTEN BLURRED
A CRACK IN ICE MUST BE SEARCHED
TO FIND OUT WHAT IT HIDES INSIDE
TO SEE THE TRUTH, MELT THE ICE

Now what was this about!? And from who was this nonsense poem? Zeck opened the maintenance panel on dashboard and it seemed the air conditioning module was set up to leak steam on purpose. It wasn't Yela's style to make such tweaks and invisible messages, but who else in V2 hangar could have had the code signal to enter Zeck's ship? No one else should have the access code. There was no answer for these questions. Zeck thought it might be better to fly to his brother Led's workshop in Gemini to run some diagnostics routines on the ship to scan it for security and maybe to find out something about the one who had prepared the primitively triggered message.

 

[defacto]

Me wants mooooooore

 

[Zeck]

Part 6.4, Enemy outside, enemy inside.

This time Zeck couldn't anymore ignore the awkward sensation about the people he knew acting strangely when discussing with him. It was like he was a protagonist in a story and every one else but him knew what that story was about. Like people were afraid of something, watching for what they said and carefully choosing the words they used. Zeck had noticed it already with Yela and doctor Arvidson, and his brother Led was no exception, but Zeck didn't have the guts to say it aloud. He wasn't confident enough. After all it could be just his mind playing tricks after the late big news and strange events occurred.

The brothers had already discussed the situation with Kielo's abduction or, depending on the point of view, her being taken into custody. There was no information if she had been forcefully arrested, but by the offensive way the suits had acted with Zeck in V2 Starbase it was possible. Led didn't have any other advice for his brother but to keep his head cool.

The test procedures on Zeck's ship ran smoothly along their discussion as the chat derived to business topics.
"Some couple of weeks ago I found an abandoned grocery storage with a caffeine content", Zeck said.
"Really, a good one too?"
"You could spell it with capitals", Zeck said smiling. "We just have to figure out how to transport the loot. Due to it's vast proportion it's not an easy one to move. It'll require a bigger ship or multiple visits, and either way a lot's of courage, luck and propably some fire power too."
"It's a hostile location then. Where is it?"
"Not so far away."
"I see see", Led said. The double 'see' referred to CC. Led had understood what location his brother meaned with 'not so far away' without him declaring it to be Commerce Central.

"There's nothing wrong with the ship", Led said after running the test procedures.
"Thought so, but I wanted to be sure."
"Yeah, it was good to check it anyways."
"What about the steam bomb?"
"Heh, it was harmless as you propably noticed when it went off. Just some common household equipments were used to build it, such that anyone can buy from any local store. The trigger was timed, set from starting your engine. 10 minutes count time if I analysed the chip's programming right."
"Common items, huh. So there's no clue of any specific operator who would use this kind of homebrew gadgets?"
"No. Could be anyone. The finger prints on the dome might be usefull. There might be even some dna left from our mystic visitor in the cockpit. Too bad I don't have the lab tech required for dna investigation."
"What about the finger prints then?"
"I'm not sure if I can find their owner by myself but at least I can scan them for further use."
"Ok, you do that. What do you think about that message, 'ice and lies, et cetera?"
"At least it's spooky. I have no idea what it might be about, but I'll take a better look on the paper later."
"Too bad the original on the dome had time to vanish mostly."
Though Zeck had tried to fly as fast as possible to Gemini to show the steam drawing to his brother, only some of it came visible when re-steamed again. The good thig was Zeck had written the poetic message on a piece of paper.
"You know, I have a lot of things going on here with the workshop", Led said and led the conversation to another direction: "- which reminds me; did you bring me any blueprints?"
"But of course. There's a whole bunch of them. Mostly the same old ones you have your storage shelves filled with, but there are couple quite interesting new ones too, I think."
"Let's see them."
The brothers unloaded the big metal crates holding loads of blueprint chips from Zeck's ship.
"Well you sure haven't been lazy", Led said. "Oh my! You know what this one is?" Led asked picking a sooty chip from the crate.
"Tell me already."
"This, my brother, is a jackpot!"
Led inserted the chip to a scanning device to check it was the one he assumed it to be and to make sure it was still functional and not damaged or corrupted in any other way.
"Oh yes! They call this one the Mizar Master Blaster, congratulations Zeck!"
"Wow! And it dropped all by accident."
"I would so much like to make a virtual dub from this one, but I guess it's too risky, I could harm the original."
"Yeah, better keep it safe, but if another of this kind drops, it's all yours. Now, go scan those finger prints, I'll stack the blueprints in your shelves meanwhile."
"Ok, mister Mizar Master Blaster owner sir!" Led joked laughing.

 

[Zeck]

Added picture to part 6.3

 

[defacto]

Very nice

 

[Zeck]

Part 6.5, Enemy outside, enemy inside.

A week and a half after the handlaser fire heatened escaping episode in V2, receiving the steam message and gaining new high tech blaster, Zeck received a customer call. He shouldn't have received it in the first place for part of his low profile staying in exile was not getting any customer calls, actually any calls at all. But some how this one got through. Zeck was bored traveling an interplanetary flight and decided to answer.

"Yes?"
"Mister Arrow, this is Osman Sandatüruk speaking."
"How may I help you, sir?"
"The client I am representing would like you to fly over to my current residence in the merchant ship Bazaar of Stars for business meeting."
"Who is this client of yours?" Zeck asked.
"That information I unfortunately cannot give you at the moment, by my clients request."
"That doesn't sound too promising for our businesses. By the way, what kind of businesses are we talking about?"
"Well, you are a coffee trader aren't you, mister Arrow?"
"You're right about that, sir. But I'm a capable fighter pilot too."
"Oh yes, of course. We are aware of that and it is one good reason why we would like to transact with you: we know you can secure the deliveries."
"Where is this Bazaar of Stars located?"
"Vega space. The detailed location will be given..."
"Vega, I don't know about my schedule and flight plan right now, sir", Zeck said interrupting the previous speaker because flying to Vega space didn't sound a very good idea at the moment and the whole call sounded like it could be a trap.
"Mister Arrow, I happen to be a very good in sensing people's emotions and motives by their body language or even by the voice, like your voice over the communicator. It is part of my expertise, very usefull in handling the public relations. Now, please don't be provoked in any harmfull way as I say this, but should there be any reason for you to 'cloak yourself to walk in public' in Vega space at the moment, don't let it hinder your businesses with me and my client. We too have reasons of our own to 'cloak ourselves' from some eyes that I won't mention in this discussion though. Anyway, we propose you a very generous deal. And there's more to it. You might not have visited Bazaar of Stars before, but at least you must have heard about it?"
"I've heard about it. Does it really have an actual bazaar alley inside it?"
"Oh yes it does! It should be named a wonder of today. There are plenty of traders here that would surely want to make further deals with you."
"I really don't know about this..."
"You know, this call was deliberately directed to your communicator by Yela Arrow. Does your sister's choice to direct my call to you affect your decision in any way?"
"Well. Can you send me a secure route map to your location? I want to avoid the Starbases and other such establishments."
"Call me as you enter the Vega space, I'll send you the detailed route map then. I hope we'll meet soon in Bazaar of the Stars, mister Arrow."

The whole thing about Yela directing the call to his ship could be made up. Trap or not, I'm flying there, Zeck thought and routed his navigation computer to the jump gate.

 

[Zeck]

Part 7, Something of the more technical side

This time we take a look to ship production industries the iCT company was once involved in. Zeck's adventure story will continue in episode 8.

In the days of it's glory the interstellar Coffee Trader's company ran a space ship production line of it's own. Or almost it's own, some assosiative instances were involved in the production, funding and development. A program to produce four basic ship models fitting the common class standards (Storm, Engineer, Tank and Shock) was announced in publicity.

Only the ICTC-41791/ICTC-A1791 Storm light fighter, commonly known as ICTC-A or AMPI-LF, advanced to mass production, before the war interrupted the industry (the assembly factory was destroyed in orbital strike bombardment). Of the three other ship classes, ICTC-M Engineer, ICTC-K Tank and ICTC-H Shock, there were only some partially finished prototypes or only scetches on a designin board.

The base for ICTC-A was a lisence for an old high altitude aerial fighter Sky Shark that the company bought from it's earlier owner. Sky Shark had horizontal wings that were altered to sloped position in the developement of ICTC-A. The wing position was changed because the ship was ment to be used in space flights, not in aerial environment, so the horizontal upthrust of the plane was not a priority. The sloped position was supposed to make ICTC-A more nimble too. The prototype had wings that bended at the mid point, but they were redesigned back to straight form.


ICTC-A can hold the basic tech attachments; blaster, collector, afterburner and repair droid, and standard storm tech; rockets, aim computer and perforator, but not the thermoblast. Instead of thermoblast a stinger unit can be attached to the ship. Stinger device adds stun type effect to blaster fire while activeted. The stun effect cumulates with each succesfull hit. All four class ships were to use the Stinger. The weaponry is carried under the main wings. The pictures in this document don't show ICTC-A armed.


The model was popular outside the company itself too and was licenced to many military and security forces.


The tiny ship shown in the interstellar Coffee Trader's guilds logo is no other than a ICTC-A:



***

The four stinger tech adjusted class ships were the ones that were openly announced to be under or on their way to production. But there were some other plans too that were developed in secrecy. Two main classified projects were the Trapper class ship and the ECG aka Emergency Cryonite Grinder technology.

There is no graphical documention of the Trapper class ship, but it is known to be planned to have 8 equipment slots. A list of possible equipments has been found:

Slot 1 Blaster
Slot 2 Collector
Slot 3 Repair
Slot 4 Afterburner
Slot 5
Slot 6 Trapper Shield
Slot 7 Trapper Beam
Slot 8 Scourge

Also some descriptions of the uncommon equipments has been found:

Trap Shield or Trapper Shield
A shield cast on enemy. Works like normal shield sphere, but keeps all the enemy fire inside the shield. Should the enemy use rocket type weapons the missiles will explode inside the sphere inflicting the damage to the trapped ship itself. Trapper shield neglets all the other effects cast on targeted ship during it's activation.

An example of a situation where Trapper shield is cast on enemy:
-step 1, a Trapper Shield is cast on Enemy-1
-step 2, Enemy-1 was about to launch some rockets that are launched after the Trapper Shield was cast on it. Enemy-1 takes damage from it's own rockets as they hit the Trapper shield's sphere.
-step 3, Enemy-1 tries to shoot with blaster. The blaster fire stays inside the Trapper Shield. It doesn't necessarily harm the trapped ship, but some ammunition types might ricochet and hit the ship itself.
-step 4, Enemy-2 tries to help Enemy-1 by casting a Repair Target on Enemy-1. The effect doesn't function because Trapper Shield is still active on Enemy-1 and "shields" the healing effect.
-step 5, Trapper Ship (or any other) is shooting Enemy-1. A regular perforator is needed to penetrate Trapper Shield from outside.

Trapper Beam
A collector beam that can get a hold of an enemy ship. Small enough enemy ship can be then dragged into Trapper ship's cargo. Enemy ship can then be stripped of it's valuables and either destroyed and jettisoned or released intact. An enemy with powerfull enough afterburner may be able to escape the Trapper Beam.

This device was wanted to be developed because many times as the enemy ship was shot down also the valuables like blueprints were destroyed. Some law enforcement instances wanted this kind of technology to catch criminals.

Radial Scourge
A whip or scourge like radial weapon that can carry different effects on it's hit depending on the type of the Scourge. Eel Scourge can stun the enemies it hits, Scythe Scourge delivers damage similar to blaster fire, Heal Scourge works like repair field. Only one kind of Scourge can be installed at a time on a Trapper ship.

***

On the list of possible equipment for Trapper ship the slot 5 has no title. It is believed to be saved for the ECG, but in that case the slot 1 should have a title for special blaster weapon type named Cryonite Powder Plasma Blaster or CPPB

Emergency Cryonite Grinder / ECG
The Emergency Cryonite Grinder was to be the base for totally new kind of energy usage in ships. The original idea was to create power source for ships equipment in a situation where normal energy was depleted. Not like the other equipments the ECG stays active as long as the activation key is held down. It doesn't have cool down time either. While activated the device grinds the cryonite stored in the ship to atomic powder that can be used as a substitute to energy orbs to power the other devices or enhance their performance. In the test runs the cryonite consumption was too big and the ECG based technology seemed to be far too expensive in comparison to the benefits it brought. Still many ECG powered or boosted devices were developed.

Cryonite Powder Distractor / CPD
Spouts a cloud of cryonite powder behind the ship to distract enemy radars and lockable missiles to secure the ships escape from such hazardous situations.

Cryonite Powder Plasma Blaster / CPPB
A blaster with regular blaster functionality that can be remarkably amplified with a feed of cryonite powder accelerated to jet of plasma.

Instant Devouring Collector
Can collect any targeted object in an blink of eye, when supported by a set amount of cryonite powder.

Multitargetting Computer / MTComp
Ship can target multiple targets on the same time. Targets can be enemy ships or collectibles. When ships are targeted any multishot attack will distribute the shots between targets. When collectibles are targeted they can be collected with a single activation of collector. If a IDC is installed all the collectibles will be collected simultaneously, not in a usual blink of eye speed, but a calculated speed.

 

[godman]

Wow im suprised i have never read that much in 30-60 min loolz that was realy good keep going