Signal GK, refueling stations and the law

[far-trader]

First,

Welcome aboard Lycanorukke

Second, with thoughts like this don't keep them to yourself. I love it. An out of the way secret base for Mega-Corp special missions and maybe commerce raiders, or those Impy black ops.

Both tougher to crack and get the fuel (maybe) but oh so much fun after :devil:

Puts my pirates idea to shame it does (yes it was cliché )

And you'll have be a fair bit wordier and stray off topic at least a bit before I'd accuse you of rambling

 

[fiat_knox]

If the base was J-1 out of the nearest system, the refuelling station would likely permit the stricken vessel only enough fuel to reach that system, and billing it accordingly.

The station, if it was being kept in good repair, would be visited once every couple of weeks by a tanker sent out by the company that owns it. It would check for damage to the station, transfer credits which had been taken from ships, tot up the fuel purchased, replenish fuel stocks used and move on to the next station in the chain.

The one drawback to putting a station up in a hex is that an uninhabited hex is a big place. It's one parsec across: which means that if the ship misjumps and lands there, it could end up one light year out, and face a long, slow death regardless of how many refuelling stations there are in the hex.

So if this happens to a player characters' ship, you just have to hope that the Referee is going to be kind and have the characters land close enough that they can make it there if they conserve fuel and cruise along for a month or two without drives and running on minimum life support.

 

[Lycanorukke]

Puts my pirates idea to shame it does (yes it was cliché )

Thank you for the greet, and I didn't mean cliché in a bad sense but just that corsairs seem a bit overused at times.

And you'll have be a fair bit wordier and stray off topic at least a bit before I'd accuse you of rambling

I may push my luck then with some of the other 'mysterious fuel depot' ideas then..

1) It's a setup. A rival power (Solis, Sword worlds, Zhos, etc) have dressed up a station to look like an Imperial one. The 'misjump' was actually programmed in by an operative during the PC's last stopover. The rival power is hoping the PC's will blab far and wide about this 'lucky encounter' and the rival will be able to scream about 'Imperial aggression' and 'not respecting our sovereignty' in order to force some concessions or to sabotage a 'outreach program'.

2) It's legit. The station was lost a while ago. It was part of a research into new fuel efficiency. The hydrogen in the tanks is actually 'super hydrogen' (doped with fusion catalysts, metastable hydrogen, whatever). Of course the project was abandoned due to it being too dangerous. When they jump the 'super hydrogen' causes massive power spikes, the jump bubble is lit up like a Xmas tree, and then they emerge the power plant goes into overload - to dump enough power for a shutdown they have to activate everything - thrusters at full power, weapons blasting, transmitters and sensors on full, etc. Oh and by the way the power surge caused them to misjump to a system which shoots Impies on sight. Especially ones charging in at several G's with weapons blasting...

3) It's legit - but old. The hydrogen has out gassed and only enough remains for a short jump to the nearest system...curiously the same one which shoots Impies on sight.

4) It's legit...but it's an old Vilani station. The system acts like an annoying bureaucrat and refuses to pump fuel until form 98-B is filled out in triplicate, followed by proper protocol for the delivery of fuel in accordance with procedure 981-C, receipts and a report for the nature of the GK. And do any of them speak Vilani?

5) It's legit...but when docking the PC's notice an old Type-S or A2 also docked. On inspection they find this ship also appears to have misjumped several years ago to this spot...but there is no sign of the crew. The captain’s log mentions something about going to the station computer to fill out the paperwork for a signal GK....

6) It's legit. However the station was scheduled for destruction, but a computer malfunction resulted in the sequence failing. As the PC's boot the system to load up the fuel, red lights start strobing and a pleasant voice announces you have "X minutes to reach minimum safe distance". As things go on steam starts jetting from fittings, lightning arcs, small fires start etc (like the final sequences in the Aliens movie). Can the PC's get enough fuel and get away in time?

 

[Kilgs]

Well, the purpose of the thread was to discuss the theory of emergency fueling procedures at unmanned stations. It was an idle thought based on the remarkably sharp questions/actions of my players.

But... in my game, the station is simply there to get them out of a misjump. The station was a former government subsidized station to provide a jump point between the Imperium and another planet's government. The planet stopped making payments and DSL just locked it up and left it. Cheaper to do that then jump it back.

Really it was just there to give the Engineers a chance to suit up, go EVA and have tense exploration of a derelict station. They need to rip the astrogation coordinates out of it and fuel up. All of the above ideas are excellent but I gots me a PLAN. And they need to get there first!