Rogue Trader: Between Session Thread

[nbneil]

Do I have any sense that I might have offended the Navigator seriously?  If not, I'll deal with that moving forward. 

If I think he is a problem and there is any chance to do some damage control, I'll go speak with him.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.  As a player, I definitely didn't think I'd get blackballed with an entire third of the Navigators in the universe.  Though the common houses are more my style over the nobles.  Also, would my Dynasty have problem with me offending them?  I don't know how that would be looked upon.

[Tadanori Oyama]

Back out of character, are we doing any acquisitions before the next session or just ranking up our character stats?

You'll get new acquisitions (hurray!). You'll also have to actually roll for these ones but, luckily, that means few limitations on the number you can make.

I'm going to place a limit on your personal acquisitions (so you can't stock pile artifacts) but your larger scale ones, regarding equipment, goods, and materials needed for your planetary construction will only be limited by reasonable availablity and time.

Of course, the exact nature of what you acquire and where you have to do to acquire it will be elements of the story. Do you want to make your buildings out of metal, cements, or plastics? Whichever one you choose, what kind and what quality? Are you willing to fly around space to get the best stuff? And how long are you willing to spend building? It can take weeks to get out of the Expanse, back to Port Wanderer where acquisition is reliable. Making your own stuff from local materials (on the planet) or harvesting local world is much faster (and doesn't waste so much fuel) but quality is never completely assured. On the other hand, you can see the product from start to finish so you know the quality with certainty.

So many little choices.

[nbneil]

I'm going to ask my senior staff for their thoughts. I'm not opposed to traveling back to Port Wanderer for something major or strategic. However we'll likely need a new Navigator when we return.  If it's rather routine materials it may be best to acquire them locally.

I'd like to ask Lorayne; Dominik, and Nathan first. (not sure if Murph will be back in after hearing the episode)

[Tadanori Oyama]

Do I have any sense that I might have offended the Navigator seriously?  If not, I'll deal with that moving forward. 

If I think he is a problem and there is any chance to do some damage control, I'll go speak with him.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.  As a player, I definitely didn't think I'd get blackballed with an entire third of the Navigators in the universe.  Though the common houses are more my style over the nobles.  Also, would my Dynasty have problem with me offending them?  I don't know how that would be looked upon.

Yes, you have the sense that you greatly offended him personally. However, you ask your Seneschal for some news and info about his Navigator House and are informed that he is something of a disliked individual. It's entirely possible that they will like you taking him down a few pegs. But he will leave your ship as soon as given the chance, there's little you can do to change that.

So it's unlikely you've alienated any major players here.

[nbneil]

Good. General question, would an astropath let anyone send communications or does she only allow them under my orders?

[Tadanori Oyama]

The astropath transendent, Caren, is going to be self aware. She'll evalute things and make choices as any other thinking person might (well not ANY other, she is a psyker after all). So she'll operate on your orders.

Most astropaths are either brain nerfed or mentally placated so they'll just do what they are "made" to do and send messages. Each one is gonna have a handler or a control person of some kind though and that person is going to be follow captain's orders so people who need to send messages as part of their job (like Nathan) can use an astropath without informing Caren directly. Most of the crew doesn't go near the astropaths because, as stated, they are psykers and psykers are dangerous.

[nbneil]

Ok I basically wanted to give the order that the Navigator doesn't get any messages out without direct word from me. (that's called spin control in my book)

I'll let my compatriots do what they will for a bit. Then I'll get down to some more business.

[Tadanori Oyama]

Shouldn't be a problem. The Navigator has been sequestered in his Tower since the 'incident' but he'll come if called to help aim the ship.

[Dawnsteel]

(IC)
Captain, if one of our immediate aims is stealth, I'd recommend we use locally-acquired materials in the construction of our facilities.  In theory, it should make our operations slightly easier to mask.  When the course of our normal travels takes us back to Imperial facilities, we might consider bringing in some better stuff then.  But to make a bunch of freight runs to-and-from Port Wanderer, for example?  Someone might notice our regular pattern of departure and arrival, and thereby either approximate the position of Valhalla, or just follow the Valkyrie in.  Less trips, less chances to notice us before we're, ahem, fully prepared, shall we say, to receive visitors.
<Lorayne makes air quotes around "fully prepared" for emphasis.  It is clear she means fortification and military readiness.>
So far as our illustrious (the sarcasm in her voice is clear) Navigator goes, sir, shall I assign a rotating schedule of guards to him?  They can be posted at the Tower door when he's in there, and escort him around if he goes anywhere but the bridge.  They can restrict his access to the rest of the ship, if need be.

[nbneil]

(IC)
I agree with your assessment.  It may attract unwanted attention by returning to Port Wanderer too often.  It is best to only acquire key strategic materials there.  We should wait until we have cargo to justify a return trip.  Otherwise, as you noted anyone doing due diligence on our operations will question our acquisitions and lack of liquidation.  Unless Dominik or other senior advisers oppose the plan, we should start collecting the materials needed to build our facilities.  The defense and profit generating structures should be as secure as possible and constructed of the highest quality materials possible.  Living quarters and other vital operations buildings should be the next priority.  Finally, the lowest quality materials can be used for non-essential structures and xenos housing.  Lorayne, feel free to let me know if you have another priority rank.

As far as our other problem, I don't want to risk offending his House more or making him unstable.  Have some of your men observe him discretely.  Report any suspicious behavior to me.

(OOC)
Do we have intelligence on nearby planets with resources useful for constructing our base of operations?  We should probably not stray too far as of yet.  But if only standard or sub-standard materials are available on Valhalla, we need to get something better soon.

[Tadanori Oyama]

You have your own scans and the reports of the survey team. Your lander craft don't have interplanetary flight ability but they carry enough goods to supply their load in crew for a month or two. You could fly to another world in system, drop a lander, and come back later to pick up whatever goods they managed to harvest, resupply them, repeat.

Valhalla is the primary mineral supply world in the system, which is why it was listed as the prime concern. There are other planets in system but you haven't gotten a complete report back on all of them or even a really accurate count (planets are very far apart after all). Until you send out dedicated probe devices or do a full system swap with the Valkyrie your information on the system is limited to your own sensory equipment (which has a range of a few million kilometers).

What you currently know is that between 3 and 8 other planets or planet scaled object exist in the system. The star is a massive example of the yellow category and has a major asteroid belt between itself and the local planets which helps to deflect much of the radioation from the star, allowing worlds to exist nearby that normally would be unlikely to sustain human life. It also makes for an unusually high number of eclipse events as major fixtures cast their shadows on world sections.

Valhalla has two moons which seems to posses extremely dense mineral deposites, making them impossible to scan from orbit.

[nbneil]

Well it seems like there is a lot to do. How many landers and probes do we have available? My thought is to begin any scanning with landers on the moons to determine which minerals are available. While doing that my inclination is to then use the Valkyrie to scan the rest of the system. It is particularly interesting to scan the asteroid belt for any threats or potentially wreckage. To be safe, any landing parties should have security escorts in case of hostile threats.

Lorayne, agree?

[Tadanori Oyama]

You've got five landers, which has space for one thousand men. Equipment takes up space. For example, 1 void suit is 1 space so five hundred people can use a lander if each of them needs a void suit. Larger equipment takes up more space.

You have hundreds of small probes you can fire out to do scanning. They send back information until they leave transmission range or their battery burns out, whichever comes first. The closer you fire the probe to what you want to scan the better the results so somebody with experience operating the sensor equipment (and with good aim) would be best to 'position' the probes.

I agree, scanning the asteroid belt would be a good start. When your ready you can position the Valkyrie. Make sure to note which senior staff you are leaving on the planet and which you are bringing with you.

[Dawnsteel]

Lorayne realizes that organizing the new colony's security force is an important task, and she is working at it with zeal, but truth be told, it's probably boring as all hell.  She volunteers to join the scanning voyage, for sure.  She has great aim, but I'm not so sure about her skill at operating sensors.

[nbneil]

Dominik definitely goes. Gearus can stay on the planet to oversee construction if our enginseers do not require him. If Caren can leave an astropath to send any distress signals, that is preferable. Nathan will oversee the planetary ops while we're away. Illian comes with us to prevent "accidents" with the locals.

If that's all, i'd like to scan the moons on the way out toward the asteroid belt.