TFL/Engineering Log

Jeff's engineering log for the Almighty Dollar.

### Initial entry

Took custody of new ship, rechristened Almighty Dollar. Engineering plant includes three Kearney "Sterling" fusion hypertorch engines, and one ADM "Red Star" 8 GW matter-anti-matter annihilation reactor.

Initial inspection reveals systems to be in acceptable state, but not as good as they can be. I'll begin a prioritized list of repairs and maintenance as soon as we finalize an ECrew. Right now I'll just concentrate on ensuring we have all tools, parts (or part plans) and system documentation in order.

### Leaving New Panama

As we were preparing to depart we got sidetracked by a gang of semi-competent extortionists trying to blackmail Alifred with some well faked video. Bandit tracked them to a warehouse where we stood around in the open like idiots then our bruisers smashed the place up, resolving the matter violently. Examination of the programming reveals Abs0lutXer0's fingerprints, but now I have a (possibly fake) name to use for some background research, Ang Xiu. I'll put some time into researching this thorn in my side when I get the chance, for now though we have a hold full of cargo and a schedule to keep. Engines Hot.

### Learning Curve Ball

Our navigator traced down a decrepit Wren, Morning Glory, to assist in a repossession. The bridge crew tries some shenanigans to trick her into letting us get close, and apparently they work well enough that they only have to overdraw the engines once to fly the right way. Apparently I need to be specific with my ECrew about how potentially damaging that practice is and how it is only an option if the ship is endangered without it.

We approach and the pilots play void-wrestling games while our client, Kyle Denton, tries to shut off the target with a decently encrypted override key. As frumpy as Morning Glory is, she decides to tussle and puts a hole in my fuel tank, which is not my favorite part of the day. The override fails to work for two reasons; 1) apparently our target is not crewed by complete idiots and 2) Kyle is more concerned with keeping his toy secret than actually accomplishing his own mission. So I open a tunnel through their search radar with a modulated pulse and shut off one engine and turn off their weapons power generator. Morning Glory belatedly sees reason and of course... an unidentified vessel appears and launches a few fighters at us, might be pirates, so brave Kyle is now refusing to accept the ship we captured for him because he's not prepared to defend it. So apparently fighting pirates for Kyles mission is our problem and we're going to go risk damage to our ship, passengers & cargo to help the intrepid Mr. Denton save the ship that shot at us from pirates we could just outrun; I need to start reviewing these contract terms before we sign them.

### Landing safe

Our pilot and gunner were able to dissuade the pirates from continuing their attack by heavily damaging one of the inbound fighters. We transferred Kyle Denning and his prize crew over to the Morning Glory and discovered why she was in such atrocious repair. I earned us 10K by fixing up the systems a bit and we departed for Fromeltar. Upon arrival our contact asked us to fake a fuel shortage and request tow services, which I assume did not delight our pilot. During the fake rescue we offloaded his portion of the HEU, but he noticed the additional stores and I think he became curious. We should be very careful not to get entangled with local politics... I suspect we might be supplying two rival factions.

Safely in dock, it is time to complete repairs on any stressed systems while the rest of the cargo is unloaded. It appears I might have to delegate that to the ECrew while I assist in some ground-side shenanigans as Elru and Dex try to figure out what to do about a pirate scout.

### Unweaving a web

A very busy first few days on Fromeltar, we’ve been tagged with seemingly conflicting coercion tasks from strongarms linked to Elru & Dex, both related to Cheng Stone pirate activity. One bully wants the informant tried and executed, the other wants him in his pocket.

We traced out a few leads and looked into their activity

Robin is a dock foreman passing along cargo information to feed her drug habit

Megan is a CDE consul economist who uses Robins data to predict (and probably influence) piracy

KliksZ is a shipping consultant with gambling debts who passes info on cargoes to Max Lang

Maxwell is a paranoid local capo loan shark and drug dealer who holds KilckZ’s leash. He also has a severe security fetish. Jeff set up a dead man switch to expose his operation barring a daily timer reset.

### Reweaving it, even webbier!

So it turns out that there are (at least) two informants for two different pirate cartels. One is associated with the tow company/Maxwell drug ring and the other is not. This seems to open up opportunities for completing seemingly conflicted goals. One group of thugs stole the toys form the other group; I think our heavies are going to try doing something about that. I need to look at our security procedures. How did a group of thugs get all the way up the access tube and override one of the main cargo bay door controllers without any alerts going off? I think I'm going to relocate the door controls to a subpanel and put in a dummy control system that just tells us someone is trying to pick our lock when they 'succeed'. Having a 500 amp relay designed to power a hydraulic actuator turn on a lightbulb instead is a bit of overkill, but it has to look authentic. Maybe I can set up a capacitor discharge so that the intruder gets more power to his terminals than he was expecting.

I wonder if I can pick up an old PDS turret and put it in the corner of the overhead covering the cargo bay door. That and some hyperspectral strobe lights would have been handy today. It would also be an interesting exercise to combine motion sensors and targeting lasers to just put pointer tracks on all non-crewmembers in the cargo hold. For friendlies we can either turn them off or run the frequency down below visible. For intruders, having a bunch of targeting lasers follow your torso everywhere it goes might be distracting. I need to be better prepared... this shitshow was amateur hour.

Anyway, I had a lot more difficulty getting into systems today than I would have expected. Even with the help of some rando locals the CDE consul vault was shut tighter than I had planned for on the primary... though I did see that someone had been there before me. I'll need to put some though into the implications of that when I have some time. Secondary didn't go well either. It just isn't my day when I can't hack a candy store.

We did manage to trace the stolen toys and I still have good localization, so we can at least influence the outcome here. Deciding which way we want to exert influence is another matter. I think it makes sense to let TPTB take down the strong guys and we suborn the weaker ones. That fulfills both missions and keeps the SLOCs generally safer. In any case, I don't want either set of thugs to build better toys than they already have.

### Delusions of Safety

The violation of our bank account has refocused the attention of my co-owners like few other incidents could have. We set aside our investigation of pirate activity, ignored the recovery of WMD components and put the threat of indenture on the back burner to trace down and curb stomp the thief. After a few probing forays into the local hacker community and a minor bribe we were able to partially trace RuteXcalation to a neighborhood in Mid CCW. A further bribe to a local guide allowed Elru to suss out that a successful but incautious ne'er-do-well might celebrate at a particular tavern, so we went and investigated. A little carousing and sleuthing allowed us to track the scoundrel and his girlfriends-for-hire back to an unremarkable house. I think I'm going to let that guy pass out while I take a few minutes to plan our introduction. This might also give Alifred an opportunity to sober up. He really should finish this coffee for me; I've had too much already.

### Arrestitution

Our confrontation with the miscreant hacker didn't go quite as planned, but at least yielded some positive results. We are on the cusp of suborning RuteXcalation into the Skazz system, which would gain us some time in our loan payment schedule and I recovered a military icepick, which I'll need to investigate more thoroughly later. There is also $200k of new computer equipment, which I may be able to return or keep, either way it should be beneficial. We still need to find some way of satisfying Dax's situation, probably by locating another agent (CSSD-K? or Mr. Ebony?). All that and we need to get our next contract and put this station behind us. I don't want to leave that HEU in pirate hands, but if we don't end up recovering it I think we should tip off the police with evidence after we are clear of the system, my failsafe on Max should do the trick.

### Busy Daysed and Confused

It looks like our investigations lead full circle, right back to the office manager for the FTA, Kel Kehote, who is CSSD-K!

We decided to think through our situation a bit and discuss where we wanted to go next and how we wanted to get ourselves out of the current (stack of) trouble. It's looking more like Rute Excalation might become the Solar League sacrifice and Kel might become the Scuzz puppet (but we don't have any good levers on Kel right now and no good leads on how to obtain one). Now that Kel is trying to murder us that might be easier, or impossible, who knows?

Kel Kehote noticed me trying to gather evidence on him when I tripped an alarm and he sent a kill squad to the Dollar, so we laid a little trap for them. The invading force has 10 assailants, (Had, the first one through the door caught a face full of laser from Alifred). I'm going to try impeding, confusing and distracting the others while he puts more holes in them.

When I get the chance I need to refit one of the exterior cargo door motor access hatches with a PD turret that can cover the space behind us with an attenuated (low power) high ROF system... also need to finish those internal security turrets with the dinosaur stunners and the AMR Laser...so much to do. It might make sense to have a claymore crate that we can stage near the entrance as well if we keep having hostile visitors. I'm sure there are enough junk parts and broken scrap to make a nice shrapnel spray. Pack that into a crate reinforced on the back sides and mark it like industrial cargo (with hazard stickers!), shield the charge in Pb to keep hyperspectral scanning from identifying it as anything other than a trash bin. We should be prepared to surprise anybody who wants to play hardball on our home field.

### Cutting the Kelgordian Knot

The turret did well in the field test, but I can make it better. Also the mulebots need to have a little more refined programming on their ability to move injured (or imminently injured) personnel, maybe I can put in an imminent danger override? Anyway, Bandit and I kept them busy while Dex and Elru picked at them Alifred and the turret relieved them of their worldly cares. I think it was about 50% fatalities, 90% incapacitation, and 100% "I'm not coming back here again!". We suffered some damage to equipment and we'll have to refill the central firefighting tank foam reservoir. After the shooting died down SERA interrupted the enslavement debate to remind Elru that such things would cause more problems than they would solve; so he went off to take a nap and recover from his ordeal. Alifred and I went to talk to Thrope (and got kicked out of his office... I need to put an SOP into Bandit's sensor monitoring program to alert me when armed people approach) and then Kel Kehote, where we had significantly more success. It turns out the putting a cowardly slug into a small room with an angry psychopath can make him talkative (the slug, not the psychopath).

We still need to sort out the details on who gets turned over and which enemies we leave behind us as 'business partners', but it is time for us to be GONE from here. We need to get a cargo and disengage docking clamps. I'll still toss a trouble grenade after I leave though by setting up a program to tip off station security when the HEU is on the move... if Kim Taylor hasn't already recovered it and given it to us for transport. No way am I taking that stuff to Cheng Stone though, not worth it.

We still have to complete repairs and refuel too. And I want to put manual locks on the cargo bay doors... those things keep getting hacked damnit!

### On the Road Again

We finally cleared up the mess(es) on Fromeltar station and got ourselves out of there with a fresh cargo. Unfortunately it contained angry giant gladiatorial cthulapes instead of wheelchairs, like we were told. I'm suggest we add risk penalties to cargo that we don't get to inspect ourselves. We keep getting surprised by stuff not being what the shipper claims it is. I don't mind doing dangerous and risky stuff, but being surprised and unprepared is... just foolish.

Anyway, we did some careful planning and avoided most of the hiccups this time, a few improvised charges drove off some pirates tailing us and lowering cabin pressure put the cthulapes to sleep before they could do TOO much damage. The misadventure DID point out flaws in the coverage areas of the turrets, so I made more of them, along with a custom set of carbines for Dex; he now has eight of them, Antique gunpowder, ETK, gauss, laser, pulse laser, blaster, sonic stunner, electro-laser. I think I can figure out a way to mount a laser and electrolaser on the same frame and use the same barrel, that would be an interesting project and offer some tactical flexibility... next time I'm bored.

Elru got the receiver to make us whole for the SNAFU, so it all worked out in the end.

### Another Day, Another Treachery

What does it take to work in peace? We had a coordinated hijacking attempt from a group of 'passengers' who brought some armored invaders in a box. Alifred did a really good job of bouncing around and shooting the unarmored bunch in the radiation shelter... until I had to gas them all... I mean really? eight to one? how is that remotely fair (for them)? It did keep the lawyers safe though. Anyway, while those punks kept trying to jump Alifred, Bandit and I got in a little target practice on the armored thugs, but their armor was pretty good so they lived through it (and killed one of my turrets!). Elru put the trash in an airlock and vented it. I hope the idiotcicles are still in there after all this; I'd like to know a little more about who they are. Now the thugs in shells are working their way up to the command deck. I hope Alifred, Dex, and Claudia have a good way to stop them. I mean, maybe I can smash them with the elevator?

### It's Not Paranoia If They ARE All Out To Get You

So we subdued that group of hijackers without harming the other passengers... who then turn out to be more hijackers. The second group got rowdy when Dex was busy avoiding some fighters. Alifred got shot up and went on a rampage and Bandit got shot by two hijackers in an elevator; those guys are going to get a face full of laser when they get to the next floor.

Our ship has become a perennial battleground, First in the cargo bay, now in the radiation shelter. I'm going to start preparing more surprises for these clowns. I think we need to start soft, locking up their weapons in an armory and such, but no matter what we need to be able to neutralize hostiles who are in the radiation shelter. Maybe some flashbangs and a few concussion grenades disguised as smoke detectors or something would help. Plus I have a new plasma welder that has the resistance to laser fire inherent in industrial equipment. I'll work on a way to make that guy mobile and let bandit drive it around and conduct 'plasma repairs' on hijackers (after I rewrite the safety software for Test Mode). I really don't want to have to put a turret in the radiation shelter... It might scare a peaceful passenger if we ever manage to find one.

Thinking about it some more, the RadShelter has a self contained primary and backup atmospheric control system. It should be possible to do a N2 purge on the shelter and hold the outgoing (O2 containing) atmosphere in the recycling compressor for a few minutes. I'll bet if I dropped the O2 levels to about 5-7% any potential aggressors would feel A LOT less active in that hypoxic atmosphere, even if they are on a stimulant. I'll need to check my references for the design https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breathing\_gas#Classification\_by\_oxygen\_fraction , especially for other species.

Anyway, a bunch of horrible things ended up happening before we managed to pull ourselves out of that trap (that we blindly walked into). Alifred tried to get himself cut in half by a laser rifle, but a few moments later he ended up vaporizing the cranium of the woman who shot him. The Dollar caught a missile in the induction regulator of #2 engine, and it took me longer than I would have liked to patch it; she is holding steady now but I think an overhaul is going on the schedule sooner rather than later. Worst of all though, a couple of those asshole hijackers (the second set, not the first set) shot Bandit! Can you believe that? A little petbot and they just shot him. Oh well, I got them both when they came up to the habitat deck. Useless shitheads. I'm not sure why, but my normal (very strong) aversion to terminal violence seems to have been overridden in this case. Maybe it was their casual cruelty to my best friend, maybe it was the subconscious knowledge that there was no hope for a hijacker to survive after we made port. Either way, I've never been so enraged. Maybe I need to talk to somebody about that? Bandit is going to be OK though. I'm even considering a few upgrades for him long term, if I ever get in front of this workload.

### More Work To Do

We finally made it to port, but the customs inspector found one of the special cargo doors (I'll need to do a better job of camouflaging it) and charged us a huge tariff. We got through our offload and are scheduled for yard repairs in a few days. I had ECrew spend that time doing all the prep work and disassembly so that the bill will be merely exorbitant, rather than deadly.

It looks like our next run is going to be interesting, rescuing POWs and arming them to return to the fight. I think Alifred is going to need to do a lot of bashing and shooting to make this happen. Maybe Dex and his sniper rifle can help, and maybe we can add some more drone firepower, or even hire in a new crewmember.

### PPPPPPP

Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. It seems like we finally got our act together enough to think through and prepare for an operation instead of showing up and hoping we can make things work. We got some intel, hired specialists to support our objectives, prepared equipment, revised plans based on new information... it's almost like we're professionals.

We're going to put down out of sensor range of the camp and have the assault team travel overland. We may or may not use the AD as air support, we'll have to see.

Flashback... for the sake of the completeness of the logs, we bulked up on habitat containers, took on bulk discount passengers, transported everyone to Blaog Delt, dropped off our riders, delivered our 'special cargo', arranged for a weapons purchase and pickup and did an overflight of the camp with the AD and dropped a sensor drone. The camp zapped the drone, so we know they are not entirely asleep.

Anyway, it's just us, our assault team, our empty habitat modules and a pile of armaments against the prison camp. I think we've got a good plan and are well prepared. We'll evaluate how piss poor our performance becomes when the shit hits the fan... I love scatological puns.

### Freedom For My People

After a fairly intense fight we managed to take control of the Varana HQ and force a general surrender. The assault team wasn't quite as effective as I had assumed they would be (apparently they are not 4 Alifreds). Anyway, after they managed to get themselves pinned down I separated them from incoming fire with a thermal smoke grenade and let them recover some momentum, and then they pulled a coup de gras by blasting the primary officer and his guard to bits, thereby convincing the survivors to stop playing rough.

We still have a tasklog full of work to do, securing the building, all the computer systems, interrogating the prisoners, freeing the POWs, finding the mined metal, summoning the Dollar, loading up the goodies and getting our tails out of here... maybe turning the guards over to the authorities, if running a POW camp is illegal here?

Anyway, I want to make sure they don't somehow get reinforced while we're still here. Lots of work to do.

Note: The robobug army slaved to Bandit's tactical picture update network was very effective. I think I'm going to make a portable container for them that he can carry on his own so that is a perennial resource for us; scratch that, he has an unused internal cargo compartment that will serve perfectly. At $50 apiece and 100 to the pound even Bandit's internal payload can carry more than we'd ever need.

### I wasn't expecting a parade, but this?

So, we managed to secure the site and rouse some of the prisoners, but their leader seems oddly resistant to being rescued... from a POW camp, where he was enslaved! go figure? Anyway, we got the POWs onboard and flew out of there. After finally convincing the POW leader (Yun Patril) that we were on the same side we flew off to collect the gold (and some BONUS GOLD that the prisoners have been skimming, though I'm not sure how much of that is for us to share). We went to pick up the first two caches of gold and got intercepted by a flight of 3 fighters who were stupid enough to not go away when asked. Alifred won in a fast draw competition and shot down one before it could even fire, and swatted the others out of the sky as they made their initial pass. After the smack down we just loaded the last of the gold and jetted out for Korsigar.

### Project List

* Claymore crates
* Relocate door controls (trap normal controls against hackers)
* Mines
	+ Exp
	+ distress
	+ EMP
	+ cryosleep lifeboat?
* Self propulsion & control rig for plasma cutter / welder (Bandit as primary controller)
* [X] Excavator attachment for cargo loaders
* Rad shelter upgrades
	+ O2 control system (hypo to hyper) and CO2 control system (flood with CO2?, hope you are wearing a mask!)
		- Emergency masks for every seat, plus extras (masks controllable by software like on BalogDelt)
	+ Permanently mounted multispectral light and noise (reusable flashbang), installed as part of normal equipment upgrade.
	+ Reinforce door to command deck
* Manual locks for all exterior doors and bridge/crew quarters
* Upgrade camouflage on special holds against THz radar
* Upgrade Bandit skills to include Piloting (Helicopter) to maneuver the drone, Observation to provide useful reconnaissance, and Forward Observer to correctly call for distant attacks. Also build an automated mortar (grenade launcher?).
* [X] build dozens of robobugs to tie into Bandit's surveillance and targeting network.