CHAPTER 12

I was very busy the next four weeks. The cats had moved their fleet to Bruin IV and wanted to establish a trade station planet side and on my new station when it was completed. As the only person on the planet who had jurisdiction over the whole planet it was left to me and the station was also mine. I negotiated a parcel of land near Mycell for their trade station. I let them know once Black Phoenix Station was complete we could discuss space for their trade station then. They then landed a dozen shuttles and built a 10 story one acre building on their land. I knew I had probably angered the Barstow government by stealing the Kilrathi trade post but I was hoping they would just be happy to know they would be coming back regularly.

When the mining ship was finished the Kilrathi tried to buy it but I had to deny them. I also made a point to buy the rights to the other four dense asteroid fields with good mineral content for 40,000 each. The price had increased due to demand but I was getting worried someone would take a piece on my pie. The one field I currently had would take decades to exhaust but I was paranoid with the cats here. The new mining ship was christened the Hard Knocks and left with an experienced crew to join the others. I was happy to hear from lead team everyone in the mining community was getting along and lots of friendly competition for reaching quotas. I added incentives in the form of bonuses every month for the top crew.

With the failed purchase of the mining ship and their trading station established in Mycell the cat fleet left orbit and headed out system. Once news reached Barstow of the cat trading station it began a migration to the Mycell. All the available land surrounding the city had been bought up and I was an idiot for not doing it myself. In a month the population was over 10,000 and buildings were being built everywhere. Without my knowledge I was elected mayor of Mycell. It was just more things to manage but did give me a bonus +2 to social standing. I deferred to let Athena handle most of the duties such as taxes, utilities and staffing. I didn't want the becoming a crazy place so I had the local sheriff station also in charge of law enforcement in the city and doubled their staff. Taxes were applied to the development of utilities with a focus on water/sewer and streets first. Staff was limited to the deputies, fire fighters and utility men. This game had micro managing down and I was just glad I could pawn it off since I was not interested in doing it. Athena suggested I upgrade her to a level 3 A.I. with the help of MD. I was a little cautious but did it anyway. She said her efficiency had increased 250% but I really couldn't tell the difference. I purchased the Haven estate and turned its management over to Able. It was 400,000 credits because it had expanded considerably in the last few months. The crops were mostly vegetables and its value was mostly based in the soil quality. The 27 mile estate had 20 harvester mechs, a large house unit, 2 soil sifters, 2 hunting drones, 6 trucks and 3 warehouses. They dealt mostly in bulk produce. I supplied Able with all the varies seeds I had been utilizing on sanctuary deck that he did not already have and let him go at it. Able was doing his fake complaining of all the work but I had allowed him to increase his staff by 20 to help and I knew he was thrilled with the work. Everything was mostly automated with the now 54 mechs. I also purchased 1,000 square miles of completely undeveloped land for Able to work in the future. The cost was only a million credits and I made half the area that I considered beautiful as a preserve. It had a large mountain range and expansive forest.

The next ship I set in the queue was an advanced trader. I wanted Black Phoenix Corporation to have one of these to bring in goods and ship our high quality alcohol. In the three weeks it took to make this ship I finally reached sheriff V. It gave me a new companion slot. Athena chimed in that I should be looking for bridge crew and suggested I hire someone with minimally navigation 3, sensors 2, communications 2, ship gunnery 2, pilot: starship 1 and pilot: small craft 1. Well a quick requirement search found no one in this system capable so I restricted it to just nav 3, sensors 2 and comm 2. I had two hits. Both were older individuals, the first was Madeline Trent, she had retired a few years ago but was getting the itch. She had 25 years of service on a battleship as a bridge officer from the core worlds. The other was, Preston Jackson, he was in his 60s. I did not like his picture in the resume he sent, he looked devious so I hired Madeline. When she arrived from Barstow she was all smiles and very talkative. I like her immediately and was happy with my choice. I added her as my 3rd companion after I explained the procedure for becoming part of the crew. Lina and Rose were there to assure her the process was ‘managable.’

Madeline Trent

Age 55.9

Level 10

Strength 3

Dexterity 7

Constitution 6

Intelligence 12

Education 12

Social Standing 9

Life Points 73

Comms 3

Computer 5

Gambler 1

Gun Combat: Laser Pistol 1

Navigation 4

Leader 1

Sensors 5

Streetwise 2

Tactics: Fleet 1

Vacc Suit 1

When I saw that stat/ skill layout I was even more impressed Madeline. We talked on sanctuary deck between treatments and she seemed to be doing much better than any of the prior subjects, whether that was her fortitude or the fact MD was getting better I just didn't know. Her entire naval career was on various battleships of the Earth Union. She was exceptional in her duties but was forced out when she reached age 50. She had tried to retire running a B&B but didn't like the quiet life. She had been trying to sign on with one of the traders that came through Capsulite for the last year and had also applied to crew my new trader as well. She was more than impressed with Prometheus. The food in the kitchen and sanctuary deck were her favorite things, I was seeing a common theme here. Even though she was in her 50s she I am not shy to say she still looked good in a two-piece bathing suit at the beach on sanctuary deck. I was aware that I was now outnumbered 4 to 1. I needed to make sure either my next crew member was a guy or at least a women I could have a relationship with. I had not visited Marie on Barstow because she had married so I was going to stay away.

Once Athena had become a level 3 A.I. she had been constantly making suggestions and I had to limit them to one a day to avoid getting overwhelmed. Most were suggestions on efficiency but the one I had received today was something that made me sit up. It was the idea to purchase a ‘university suite’ for the Prometheus. A new option had become available for starships in the game to counter act the long time training to raise skills. A complete computer suite could be downloaded to a ship for the cost of 2 million credits and function as a university for skill training up to level three. Then a suite for each skill cost 100,000 for level 4, 200,000 for level 5 and doubling every level after up to skill level 11. But more importantly companions could learn one new skill from the suite every 6 months if they were able to access it. For me it meant an 80% reduction in training skills. I still had a large bill due for the station so I looked at my options and decided to build a mining ship next with Prometheus and sell it. I estimated it would get me about 12 million credits. I offered it to the Bryant family first to help alleviate the semi bad blood I had garnered for luring away the Kilrathi trading post from Barstow. Governor Brandon commed me and completed the sale before the ship was actually finished and was grateful I offered his family first right of purchase. I had heard some rumblings and Athena had been warning me it was a bad idea to anger the Bryant family.

I used the 12 million credits to buy the university suite and pay off my 6.5 million balance on the station. I was happy to set all three companions to auto regulation in terms of skill acquisition. I paid attention and noticed it increased my standing with them and then associated the eye twinkling I sometimes some in NPCs as a change in their status. How could I have not seen this before? Well this opened up some requests from my companions and crew as well for the university suite. Lina wanted gun combat rifle: 4, Rose wanted engineering: life support 4, and Maddie wanted navigation 5, Ellie wanted trade: cooking 6. Total cost 1,000,000 credits but I had to keep my ladies happy so I complied.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

I also needed to choose a new profession since I had maxed out the sheriff one. I had unlocked a whole bunch of choices but eventually went with Starship captain, which had 7 levels. I immediately was promoted to level two for having my existing ship and crew. This gained me the leadership skill at level 1. Which was interesting in itself because I could command NPCs effectively up to 10 x my skill level in leadership. I had planned to get a marine detachment in the future but started toying with the idea now.

Starship Captain

Level 1 No bonus

Level 2 +1 to Leadership

Level 3 +1 to Intelligence, +1 to Social Standing

Level 4 +1 to Tactics: Fleet, +1 to Constitution

Level 5 +1 companion

Level 6 +1 to Intelligence

Level 7 +1 to Tactics: Fleet, +1 to any skill, +1 to any stat

I had also cleared the navigation skill and started on learning tantric. The skill was not in the university suite and I had to purchase it for 100,000 credits. I guess only generic skills were in the database. The skill would be trained in 19 days. Much better than before! It was an impulse selection since I had the skill book and was feeling ornery lately. I had a ship full of women but had gone without for months. I found psionic skills were not in the database either. There costs were 250,000 for a skill initially and max level of assisted training was 7.

It was time to switch over production to the stations modules. Unless an emergency cropped up I planned to leave in four months when the advanced station parts were completed.

Lina had convinced me to get the schematics for the heavy battlesuits for 250,000 credits. She had requisitioned one of the unused rooms into an armory. She had an impressive assortment of weapons already and had built 24 wall units to hold 24 battle suits. I had MD squeeze them into the production runs and they would only add about an extra day. Lina also had me buy schematics for a heavy laser pistol, heavy laser rifle, plasma throwers and stun grenades. What did she think I was rich? She showed me the plans for the finished armory. It had space for the 24 heavy battlesuits, 24 suits medium combat armor, 48 laser pistols, 48 laser rifles, and 24 heavy plasma throwers. We talked about the marine force and eventually decided she would be in charge of it. The plan was only to hire 16 marines and fill out one of the bunkrooms. The marines would be divided into four squads of four each; Panther Squad, Eagle Squad, Rhino Squad and Wolf Squad. We had a 10m x 20m room designated as their future training room on ship. We ordered a combat ring, weights and aerobic equipment. I wanted elite space marines and didn't mind paying them well. The minimum skill requirements we decided on were battle suit 3, vacc suit 2, zero-g 2, gun combat laser rifle or plasma thrower 4, and melee blade 3. No one in this system qualified. But when we did find someone who did we would have the gear ready.

Rose had been busy with the station construction and refining her corvette. She was ready to show me her idea for the corvette to be produced. Sitting down with her she enthusiastically went through each of the ships systems. It was a 98 meter vessel. It had a minimum crew requirement of 7 and max crew of 70. The ship design centered on two large high output reactors. They were big enough to power a ship twice its size and were utilized for ridiculously strong shields, powerful engines, and two large spinal turret quad lasers. Eight dual lasers on port and starboard acted as point defense and fighter defense lasers but were easily effective against other corvettes as well. The ship also had a pair of forward dual missile ports and could hold 80 medium missiles. The quads and missiles allowed it to tackle ships up to destroyer size. The engines gave it superior maneuverability for combating small craft. The Marine compliment was 18 out of the 70 max crew compliment. The ship had a sleek aerodynamic design and could enter and land on a planet. The stardrive was class VII and that was better than most ships in this region. The only weak aspect was the small cargo capacity. The ship had a bay that could either hold two shuttles or 40 tons of cargo. I was very impressed and showered praise on Rose. I asked her to alternate design with a class X star drive. I said I hoped in the future we could have a pair of these corvettes act as escorts for the Prometheus as we explored the galaxy.

Rose was waiting for me to assign her a new project. I didn't have anything in mind and asked her what she thought. She was prepared ad gave me a few options. She had been toying with a smaller mining ship, the size of a corvette. This would allow the station to produce them after we took the Prometheus out of system. She had an idea to build 300 meter trading station in orbit over Barstow that could produce shuttles and fighters. She had been working on new fighter and shuttle designs. The third option was a cruiser yard. The problem was there was not sufficient infrastructure in this system to support it yet. Typically a cruiser yard was serviced by a 1000 meter station and had a few hundred support personal.

I spent two weeks thinking on it. I was changing my mentality. Instead of heading to the core systems and establishing a base there I figured I had a great start here. If I was going to establish this as my base of operations I should be worried about defense first. I asked President Bryant about putting a 300 meter trading station in orbit. We had a frank discussion that my current projects were raising the price of raw materials and also there was already a 300 meter station and 200 meter station in orbit above Barstow. It seems letting his family purchase the mining ship had not gotten me into their good graces as of yet. I learned from Athena that a large-scale immigration was taking place from Barstow to Bruin IV as well. There was a backlog on passenger transports. While the Bryant family was making money on this they were also losing valuable citizens. I was a little angry at the president’s attitude and he really seemed to be trying to get more out of me. So working with Athena I found some options to increase the flow of immigrants. We decided to build a university in Mycell and a military academy as well. The university was 2 million for an initial max student population of 500 plus an additional 10,000 credits for each increase to student population. The military academy was 1 million for 200 cadet population and cost 15,000 for each person beyond. It was cheaper to actually build more universities to get the population up but the quality of the university was reflected in the population. Every year both of the facilities produced personal equal to one quarter their population. Being a game there would be no delay and the first class would graduate in a year. Pulling intelligent young people from Barstow and also building up a defense force seemed like a great idea. I just hoped President Byrant did not see the military academy as a threat.

I decided to build the university with 3 million in funds. This meant an initial population of 600. I set the profit to neutral and 10% students received full scholarships. This allowed me to recruit some of the brighter minds away from the universities on Barstow. I let Athena handle to other 40 some odd settings. Athena set up the university with an agricultural focus to help the entire planet, smart. The university was built into the city of Mycell and I had also requisitioned enough land close by to expand the university to up to 20,000 students in the future. During this time I also took a 1 square mile plot of land adjacent to Mycell and boardering the university to be made into the city park in the future. I let Able know it was a project he could complete in his spare time. I paid a premium for this land but since I was paying with taxpayer money I didn't care. The annual cost per student not on scholarship was 1,500 credits. The future benefits to the economy would be outweigh this initial investment. I called it Chevalier University as I wanted to put my name on it.

The military academy would be geared toward space navy and I set it for 240 cadets costing me 1.6 million credits. I also set it to free tuition making it have an annual loss of 600,000 credits. I set entrance requirements as extremely high as well as I only wanted the best and brightest. The good thing for a cadet is there would only be two years of low pay service required after graduating. The academy had four career paths as well, engineering, officer training, battlesuit combat marine, and gunnery. I had to supply the academy with 128 medium battle suits meaning 10 extra days before I could depart the system. I had queued the first four corvettes built to be part of the Bruin Defense Force and would crew them with low cost personal from this academy. I set discipline to highest it could go. I let Athena know I was looking for highly competent and professional military personal and let her handle the rest of the settings. I placed the military academy about halfway between Mycell and my ever expanding brewery/distillery/winery. It would be a month before both the university and academy would enroll its first class. Athena said applications were already being submitted. I let Athena control who was actually going to be accepted. I called the facility Black Fleet Academy after my corporation.

The game also sent me a letter congratulating me on my ‘one year anniversary’ as a FIP player. I was awarded a free stat and free skill point. The skill point was golden because it was an auto raise and did not require a training period. The stat point was added to education and the skill point went to pilot spacecraft 3. This was good because Athena said getting my piloting to 5 was very important for combat.

Skill levels worked this way:

Skill Level Ability

NA generally no idea about skill but similar skills may help

1  basic knowledge and use of skill, high school equivalent

2  a typical professional, skill equal to bachelors degree

3  an advanced practitioner skill equal to masters degree

4  better than average knowledge, has vast experience in the field

5   knowledge level is professional in level, equal to doctoral degree

6  top of the field, only one in 20 million people have your skill level

7  you are probably the best on an average planet in this skill

8  you are probably the best in an entire system in this skill

9  you are probably the best in a region of space in this skill

10  you rarely ever fail in this skill and can perform amazing feats

11+ you are questing to become the best in the universe!