On this week’s update we check in with character animation and continue our exploration of the new flight model with looks at ship AI and audio.
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/tran…round-The-Verse
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This portfolio originally appeared in Jump Point 4.12.
There’s an old saying that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” That has never been more true than with Esperia. The company produces fully-functional recreations of both historic and alien ships, and most recently, historic alien ships. Esperia’s ability to seamlessly blend modern function and luxury with classic and long-lost ship designs makes it utterly unique in the aerospace marketplace.
Interestingly enough, Esperia’s founding in 2873 was about history, not commerce. The company only became a major player in the aerospace industry thanks to a bit of luck, a big controversy, and the tireless drive of its two founders: Jovi and Theo Ingstrom. The Esperia story is truly about these brothers who hated, loved, and pushed each other to do what no one else dared.
Sibling Rivalry
The Ingstrom brothers were born and raised in Quasi, Terra. Their parents owned and operated a vast luxury hotel that catered to the tourists that visited this picturesque, mountainside city. As a kid, older brother Jovi was fascinated by the strange alien ruins just outside Quasi and would spend hours exploring them. Meanwhile, Theo hung out in the hotel’s hangar. There, he ogled the rare and expensive ships that came and went with the guests.
According to hotel staff at the time, while Jovi and Theo were a pleasure to be around individually, they became a terror when together; the brothers constantly antagonizing or daring each other to do reckless things. Edwin Kelce, author of Resurrecting Icons (the definitive biography on the brothers), suggests that the most notable incident occurred when they were teenagers, in 2866. Jovi dared Theo to stand on the railing of one of the hotel’s third story observation decks. Once his brother finally was perched on top, Jovi bumped the railing. Somehow Theo survived the fall, suffering only a broken arm.
Despite this rambunctiousness, their father detected a strong entrepreneurial instinct in Jovi and wanted him to learn the family business. Jovi refused and instead attended the University of Jalan to study xenoarchaeology. The following year, Theo began attending the University of Rhetor to learn aerospace engineering. Theo proved to be a gifted and motivated student. Jovi was expelled his sophomore year.
Following his expulsion, Jovi worked at the family hotel for a few months. He quickly tired of his parents’ constant scrutiny and wanted to return to his studies. His parents agreed to financially support him under the condition that he attend the University of Rhetor with his brother. Reportedly, his parents, both alumni, played the legacy card and made a sizable donation to the institution to ensure his application would be accepted.
Jovi moved in with Theo the next semester. The arrangement annoyed both brothers. Theo felt that his parents had burdened him with the additional responsibility of keeping his brother in line, while Jovi resented his younger brother looking over his shoulder. Then, in 2872, the two took a trip to the Intergalactic Aerospace Expo (IAE) that would not only change their relationship, but also their futures.
Digital Archaeology
For years, Theo had been trying to get his hands on a Gailforce-model ship, known among engineering enthusiasts because it never made it to market after cost overruns drove its manufacturer out of business. While touring the show floor, Theo found a broken shell of a Gailforce for sale. Yet despite his efforts, he couldn’t talk down the private collector’s exorbitant purchase price. For the rest of the day, Theo rambled incessantly about the ship until Jovi decided to take matters into his own hands. Before anyone attributes Jovi’s actions as altruism, Resurrecting Icons claims that Jovi’s actual motivation was “to make Theo shut up.” He tracked down the collector that evening in the hotel bar and after a night of drinks, was able to talk down the price. Not only that, he managed to get a set of the ship’s original blueprints thrown in as well.
Theo used the blueprints to repair the ship, but ran into a snag when data corruption rendered a number of the pages unreadable. Jovi researched where they could obtain copies of the corrupted pages and was shocked to discover that blueprints were often harder to find than the ships themselves. The fact that the Gailforce’s blueprints had virtually vanished after only a few decades stunned Jovi.
After watching Theo repair and restore the Gailforce, he understood that ship blueprints were an essential part of aerospace history and was surprised that no one had thought to compile any kind of archive of these documents. Jovi saw an opportunity to combine his natural business acumen with his passion for history.
In 2873, Jovi dropped out of school, liquidated his trust fund, and started Esperia with the help of Theo. The company was named after a small-scale ship manufacturer, renowned in collector circles, that was tragically wiped out when the Orion System fell to the Vanduul. Esperia’s initial goal was to collect and preserve ship blueprints so more wouldn’t be lost to the sands of time.
Jovi and Theo began to buy as many ship blueprints as possible. Then they charged a recurring fee for access to these records, so collectors could restore their precious ships to the original specs. Jovi scoured the universe, paying good money for any blueprint he could find. It wasn’t long before Esperia had accumulated an impressive database, and had made a name for itself among collectors as a go-to source.
But the subscription model wasn’t lucrative and Esperia struggled to turn a profit. After Theo graduated from university, he began to buy and sell old ships he’d restored from Esperia blueprints. Jovi heavily advertised these restorations to show what was possible with their service. It wasn’t long before Theo’s reputation as a talented restorer drew more interest than the blueprints. One morning Victor Hurston was patiently waiting for them outside their small office in Kutaram, Terra. What he proposed would permanently alter the company’s course.
The Imitation Game
Victor Hurston was best known as a playboy with a penchant for exotic ships. Even so, what he proposed to the Ingstrom brothers was nothing short of shocking. Victor had come into possession of a Vanduul Glaive and asked if Esperia could get it up and running. Though they lacked blueprints and any knowledge of the Vanduul language, the Esperia team somehow got it working. A few months later, Victor Hurston unveiled the Glaive to a shocked audience at the 2877 IAE, the crowd reaching fever pitch when he climbed into the cockpit and took off. Afterwards, Victor personally thanked Esperia for their hard work on getting the ship flight ready.
Overnight, the name Esperia spread across the Empire. Many marveled at how this small restoration company had mastered Vanduul technology, while others cursed them for turning the enemy’s weapon of war into a rich kid’s toy. Theo recoiled from the controversy. Jovi embraced it, using it to advance their image and start building a brand.
Then the UEE Navy was at Esperia’s door. Government engineers had never quite figured out how to make captured Vanduul ships function properly, certainly not to the level that Victor Hurston had demonstrated, so they hired Esperia as consultants. After Theo and his team proved their worth, the government approached Esperia with an even more ambitious project — building replica Vanduul ships to be used in Navy training exercises. Esperia needed to quickly expand their operations to fulfill the government contract. Jovi worked tirelessly to make this happen and it paid off. Esperia has been on the Navy’s payroll ever since.
After expanding their operations to fulfill their government contract, Esperia finally had the facilities to produce quality replicas for the private sector too. Before long, several near-extinct spacecraft were to be found flying the Empire once again in the form of Esperia reproductions. Wealthy clients flocked for the chance to fly these limited-run collector ships.
Recently, Esperia’s special relationship with the UEE government allowed them access to the Kabal System to catalog and assess the ancient Tevarin ships found there. They have since brought to market the Prowler, the famed Tevarin boarding craft, which has been painstakingly constructed to recreate the spirit of the original ship while updating it with contemporary features and comforts. The Prowler joins replicas of the Vanduul Glaive and Blade that the company recently sold to the public under a new business plan pushed by current CEO Charlotte Hussion.
Esperia has come a long way since Jovi and Theo started it as an archive for vanishing ship blueprints. Still, the company’s dedication to preserving the past stays alive and well and continues to influence the future. Each year, eight students at the University of Rhetor receive the Ingstrom Fellowship for their work in the field of xenoarchaeology.
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spec…rtfolio-Esperia
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Alles anzeigenExterner Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.
Hello everyone,
Last Friday, we launched another exciting commercial contest, this time highlighting Tumbril’s rough and rugged Cyclone series. We’ve already seen some great submissions and we’re eager to dive into all the entries come February 8th. Check out the Spectrum announcement for contest details.
Now, let’s see what’s going on this week:
Tuesday is lore day and features a Portfolio post focused on Esperia, a ship manufacturer that has carved out a niche for themselves turning out near-perfect replicas of ships that are otherwise unavailable.
Subscribers, on Wednesday we’ll post our monthly Spectrum update, affording a sneak peek at this months flair. Keep your head on a swivel in the Subscriber’s Den for that one.
On Thursday another episode of Around the Verse will take a look at the latest Star Citizen news.
Friday will see a Roadmap update and the RSI Newsletter delivered right to your inbox. We’ll also welcome a new episode of Reverse the Verse, which will broadcast LIVE on our Star Citizen Channel. Look out for the question gathering thread and additional details on this week’s guest, up on Spectrum in the coming days.
See you in the ‘verse!
Tyler Witkin
Lead Community Manager
The Weekly Community Content ScheduleMONDAY, FEBRUARY 4TH, 2019
-TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5TH, 2019
Lore Post – Portfolio: Esperia (https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch)WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6TH, 2019
Monthly Subscriber Update – SpectrumTHURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7TH, 2019
Around the Verse (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)
Vault UpdateFRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8TH, 2019
Reverse the Verse LIVE (https://www.twitch.tv/StarCitizen)
Roadmap Update
RSI Newsletter
Community MVP: February 4th, 2019Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.
We are constantly amazed by the contributions made by the Star Citizen community. Whether it's fan art, a cinematic, a YouTube guide, or even a 3D print of your favorite ship, we love it all! Every week, we select one piece of content submitted to the Community Hub and highlight it here. The highlighted content creator will be awarded an MVP badge on Spectrum and be immortalized in our "MVP section of the Hub":https://robertsspaceindustries.com/community/mvp-posts.Don’t forget to submit your content to our Community Hub for a chance at seeing it here!
Star Citizen Screenshots by Gamerfromspace
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Gamerfromspace has captured his adventures in the ‘verse in a beautiful gallery of in-game screenshots.
Enjoy the full gallery on the Community Hub.Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/citi…In-Star-Citizen
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This week’s update looks at VFX updates in the new flight model, current work on upcoming ships, and some deadly new weapons.
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/tran…round-The-Verse
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As Good As Dunn
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.ADVOCACY ARCHIVE
INTRA-AGENCY MESSAGES2948-12-14_19:07 SET
TO: SSA LAKODA IWATA
FROM: SA JULIE NADIR
SUBJECT: DUNN INVESTIGATION — ACTIONABLESir –
Just wanted to give you an update. The op’s good to go. I’ll set up on an overlook above the Dunn Scrapyard and will watch it for a few hours before paying them a visit. I’ll use an Argo SRV to tow in a busted 325a. Both have clean regtags so there shouldn’t be any reason for them not to process it. I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to verify my confidential informant’s claims about this place being a front for organized crime.
I’ll be on comms if you need me.
Julie Nadir
Special Agent
Office of the Advocacy
New Junction, Lo, Corel2948-12-15_06:22 SET
TO: SA JULIE NADIR
FROM: SSA LAKODA IWATA
RE: DUNN INVESTIGATION — ACTIONABLEKeep me posted. We need a big win on this in order to maintain the investigation on Dunn. If the op doesn’t uncover anything, the Haubert case is heating up and might require your attention.
Lakoda Iwata
Supervisory Special Agent
Office of the Advocacy
New Junction, Lo, Corel2948-12-15_22:09 SET
TO: SSA LAKODA IWATA
FROM: SA JULIE NADIR
RE: DUNN INVESTIGATION — ACTIONABLESir –
Today didn’t quite go as planned. I’m drafting the full incident report, but I still think there’s enough suspicious activity to warrant further investigation. You’ll have all the details in the report, but the big takeaways are below:
The scrapyard refused to take the 325a, claiming they didn’t have the capacity to process it. When I pointed out that there was space in the scrapyard, the story changed to the problem being a mechanical issue with their compactor. I sang them a sob story about needing creds fast, even offered to take just below market value for it. They still rejected my offer and did everything in their power to have me leave the premises as fast as possible.
Several other peculiarities presented themselves during the day, which add to the theory that the scrapyard is a front. While there I clocked 20 employees, most without safety gear. Some just sitting around looking bored. Others were involved in a rowdy Trigger game happening in one of the hangars. The shop definitely didn’t look or feel like the bustling business it is on paper, which was substantiated by my surveillance.
I logged all activity that occurred at the scrapyard today and it was significantly lower than expected. Exact numbers will be attached, along with a detailed explanation about why they’re red flags. I think we may be on to something big here.
I’ll be back in the office tomorrow. Let me know when you’re free.
Julie Nadir
Special Agent
Office of the Advocacy
New Junction, Lo, Corel2948-12-16_07:13 SET
TO: SA JULIE NADIR
FROM: SSA LAKODA IWATA
RE: DUNN INVESTIGATION — ACTIONABLERefusing to scrap a ship isn’t a crime. While the behavior you’ve outlined is indeed suspicious, there’s not enough evidence to back up your CI’s claims. With our current caseload, I cannot justify any additional hours being spent on this.
Come by tomorrow at 15:00 for a debrief. Before then, familiarize yourself with the attached Haubert case file.
Lakoda Iwata
Supervisory Special Agent
Office of the Advocacy
New Junction, Lo, CorelAttachment: CaseFile_NH81315E.tbf
2948-12-16_08:40 SET
TO: SSA LAKODA IWATA
FROM: SA JULIE NADIR
RE: DUNN INVESTIGATION — ACTIONABLEUnderstood. See you then.
Julie Nadir
Special Agent
Office of the Advocacy
New Junction, Lo, Corel2949-01-24_23:03 SET
TO: SSA LAKODA IWATA
FROM: SA JULIE NADIR
SUBJECT: DUNN INVESTIGATION— NEW EVIDENCESir,
Last month, although my attention was focused on the Haubert sting, something still wasn’t sitting right with the Dunn case. To be clear, I dedicated my work hours to resolving the Haubert investigation, but I kept an eye on the scrapyard off the clock, meticulously noting everyone coming and going. I poured over the scrapyard’s public records and tax filings three times.
Thankfully, I finally managed to make contact with local law enforcement. Turns out a former detective had opened a case on Dunn last year. They received a tip about potential contraband moving through the business, but once word of the investigation was made official, there was pressure from higher-up to shut it down. All files related to the case were transferred and vanished. The detective had backups of some of the case files before they got wiped and sent them along.
The files document Dunn using a long list of fake SRV regtags to inflate their profits. It’s proof they’re scrapping way more ships on paper than in reality to launder millions of creds. I got curious and ran a few of these fake SRV regtags through the system. Each of these fake ships “towed” wrecks to the same few scrapyards, which includes Dunn and even one on Castor. I compared the fiscal reports for each of these companies and found them be almost identical. It has to be a system-wide money laundering operation for one of Corel’s major players.
The report and all related documents will be ready for your review tomorrow morning.
Julie Nadir
Special Agent
Office of the Advocacy
New Junction, Lo, Corel2949-1-25_06:36 SET
TO: SA JULIE NADIR
FROM: SSA LAKODA IWATA
RE: DUNN INVESTIGATION— NEW EVIDENCEFind me when you get in. I need you to debrief me on everything, including exactly how you obtained these files. The legitimacy of the entire case hinges on it.
Lakoda Iwata
Supervisory Special Agent
Office of the Advocacy
New Junction, Lo, Corel2949-1-26_13:22 SET
TO: SA JULIE NADIR
FROM: SSA LAKODA IWATA
RE: DUNN INVESTIGATION— NEW EVIDENCENadir, where are you?
Lakoda Iwata
Supervisory Special Agent
Office of the Advocacy
New Junction, Lo, Corel2949-1-29_04:37 SET
TO: SC LEN TEXIERA, ASC FREDDY AGUILAR
FROM: SSA LAKODA IWATA
SUBJECT: URGENT — SA NADIRSA Julie Nadir was found dead in her apartment last night of a single gunshot to the head. This was a professional execution.
To give you a clearer context, SA Nadir recently revealed to me that she caught a big break related to an old investigation of the Dunn scrapyard. As you’ll see in the attached comms, SA Nadir continued to pursue her investigation in an unofficial capacity, during off hours, and not under my direction. Upon hearing this, I arranged SA Nadir to debrief me immediately. After several days passed where she was unaccounted for, I paid a visit to her apartment. That’s when I discovered SA Nadir’s body.
Her home terminal was still on, with all her findings on the Dunn investigation sitting on screen. I’ve gone through the files, and Nadir’s ultimate conclusion was that the scrapyards tied to Dunn through fake SRV regtags are a front for the Benini clan. Taking down these shops would be a significant blow to their ops throughout the system. While this might explain why she was targeted, it doesn’t explain why the Benini clan would just leave her terminal and case work untouched.
Which got me thinking, who would serve SA Nadir this case on a platter?
It’s too clean. Too convenient. I can’t back this up yet, but in my opinion, I think a new syndicate might be making a move into the system. Getting rid of the Benini clan’s cash flow would be a huge win for the Advocacy, but would equally benefit a criminal rival looking to carve out space for themselves in the underworld.
I’ve attached the case file, which includes all comms between myself and SA Nadir related to the case. I’d recommend reading SA Nadir’s report first. The case is laid out beautifully. The Advocacy lost a good investigator today.
Lakoda Iwata
Supervisory Special Agent
Office of the Advocacy
New Junction, Lo, CorelAttachment: CaseFile_WI57421S.tbf
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spec…As-Good-As-Dunn
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Alles anzeigenExterner Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.
Hello everyone,
Last week we celebrated Australia Day with a screenshot contest that had everyone showing off their best flight formations using the Gladius Valiants we made available over the weekend. Now that the contest has come to a close, we want to thank everyone for submitting their screenshots and celebrating the land down under. We’re currently in the process of selecting the victors and will announce them soon.
On Friday, we also kicked off another contest, highlighting Tumbril’s rough and rugged Cyclone series. We want you to take your filmmaking skills off-road and make a commercial for these tenacious beasts. Check out the Spectrum announcement for all the juicy details.
Challenge coin accepted! The One Empire Anniversary Coin was distributed to all backers who pledged prior to the $200 million milestone. It can now be found in your hangar. As always, thank you for your support!
Lastly, the Daymar Rally took place yesterday with 3 different divisions (Rover, Buggy, and Bike) battling it out for glory and rewards. We were blown away by the amazing experience and want to say ‘well done’ to everyone involved. Streamers, Racers, Support, Security, and more: it was great seeing all parties come together to create the filthiest race in the ‘verse .
Now, let’s see what’s going on this week:
Tuesday is lore day and welcomes a Advocacy Archive post about a young agent’s growing obsession into investigating a shady scrapyard.
Thursday will bring another episode of Around the Verse where we’ll take a look at the latest Star Citizen news.
Friday will see a Roadmap update and the RSI Newsletter delivered right to your inbox. At 8 am PST (4 pm UTC) we’ll also welcome back Reverse the Verse, which will be broadcasted live on our Star Citizen Channel. This week, we’ll have the game’s Live Director Todd Papy on the show to answer questions about the development of Alpha 3.5! Post your questions on Spectrum and vote on the ones you want to see addressed most.
Have a great week!
Ulf Kuerschner
Senior Community Manager*Image credit to Lincoln Reyes
The Weekly Community Content ScheduleMONDAY, JANUARY 28TH, 2019
-TUESDAY, JANUARY 29TH, 2019
Lore – Advocacy Archive (https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch)WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30TH, 2019
Australia Day Screenshot Contest Winners AnnouncementTHURSDAY, JANUARY 31ST, 2019
Around the Verse (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)
Vault UpdateFRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1ST, 2019
Reverse the Verse LIVE (https://www.twitch.tv/StarCitizen)
Roadmap Update
RSI Newsletter
Community MVP: January 28th, 2019Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.
We are constantly amazed by the contributions made by the Star Citizen community. Whether it's fan art, a cinematic, a YouTube guide, or even a 3D print of your favorite ship, we love it all! Every week, we select one piece of content submitted to the Community Hub and highlight it here. The highlighted content creator will be awarded an MVP badge on Spectrum and be immortalized in our "MVP section of the Hub":https://robertsspaceindustries.com/community/mvp-posts.Don’t forget to submit your content to our Community Hub for a chance at seeing it here!
Citizen Expanse by WailanderTv
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.For all you Earthers, Martians and Belters out there, WailanderTv created a fan intro to the science fiction series. 10/10 wouldn’t skip.
Enjoy the Machinima on the Community Hub.Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/citi…In-Star-Citizen
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In this week’s update we look at controls in the new flight model, get sneak peeks of ArcCorp and its moons, and learn how to pronounce Gladius.
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/tran…round-The-Verse
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Die Verantwortlichen von Cloud Imperium Games haben einen Einblick in die Finanzen der Entwicklung von Star Citizen gegeben. Aus dem Dokument geht hervor, dass das Studio seit 2012 bereits über 200 Millionen US-Dollar für das Spiel ausgegeben hat. Durch…
Quelle: http://www.pcgames.de/Star-Citizen-S…Dollar-1273843/
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Writer’s Note: Brothers In Arms: Part One was published originally in Jump Point 3.5.
The heads-up display on Gavin Rhedd’s Cutlass dimmed at the edges. Green triangles representing the members of his security team distorted to form horizontal spikes of flickering static. He smacked the side of his helmet. It was a practiced move, and one that had snapped the HUD back into focus in the past. This time, the display flickered, faded and then died.
A heavy breath sent a thin veil of vapor climbing the visor of his helmet. Condensation obscured the view of black, empty space ahead.
Empty like the dead heads-up display.
Empty just like it had been for weeks.
There were brigands and marauders plaguing every planet in the ’verse and he couldn’t find one damned gang. Nothing was working out like he’d planned.
On the navsat, the other three members of Rhedd Alert Security fanned out to either side. His brother Walt was locked into position directly to port. Jazza and Boomer were painfully out of position.
Sloppy.
Everyone was getting bored and careless.
Boomer was the first to break radio silence this time.
“Hey, guys?”
“What’s up, Boomer?” Walt was the first to respond.
“I’m cold.”
Jazza didn’t follow orders better than any of the others, and her banter had the comfortable cadence of friendly rivalry. “Then put on a sweater.”
“Hey, Jazz?” Boomer fired back at her.
“Yeah?”
“Take your helmet off for a tick.”
“Why’s that, old man? You want a kiss?”
“Nope. I’m hoping you get sucked out and die when I shoot a hole through your cockpit.”
Gavin sighed into his helmet before triggering his mic. “Come on, gang. I want comms dark. The miners on Oberon hired us to take care of their pirate problem. And the three of you chattering on an open channel won’t help us find them any faster.”
“I’m starting to hate this system,” Walt muttered.
They were all tired and strung out from weeks of long hours and no action. But Walt was killing their morale by giving voice to that frustration. This whole thing — Rhedd Alert Security, abandoning smuggling to go clean, applying for Citizenship — was something they’d agreed to do together. Gavin and Walt. Brothers. Going legit and starting a business.
It seemed a good idea when they were dodging system alerts and dumping a fortune into forged tags. But some things don’t change, and Walt was the same old Walt — all talk and no follow through. It wouldn’t be long before he came up with some excuse to move on to clearer skies.
“What’s wrong, Boomer?”
“Cold, Gavin. Think the heat’s out.”
Wonderful. Something else to fix. Maybe Walt wouldn’t be the first to quit after all. Dell would leave if Gavin let her father freeze to death over this rock.
Jazza barked a laugh, “Yep. That sounds about right for this outfit.”
“Jazza, will you shut up already? Which part are you having trouble with? Comms or dark?”
“Yes sir, Big Boss Man.”
“Jesus. I got more respect from you guys when we were criminals. Boomer, by all the Banu gods, why didn’t you tell me you were having trouble before we left the hangar?”
“I, uh . . . I figured to keep quiet until after the mission. Until we got paid, you know?”
This should have been a quick in and out job. But after weeks of fruitless hunting, even if they eventually drove off the pirates, the job would be a net loss.
“Hey, guys?” Jazza was really starting to get on his nerves. He told her as much. “Shut your hole, Gavin. I just wanted to let you know I found something.”
Gavin quickly studied the navsat console. The area looked empty other than the four of them, so whatever she’d found wasn’t showing up on any of his feeds. He smacked his helmet again in mute hope that the HUD would spring back to life.
“It’s a hull,” Jazza said. “Big one. Looks like a stripped Idris. Looks dead.”
“I’m not seeing you on . . . crap,” Walt said. “There you are. How’d you get way the hell out there?”
“Easy, folks,” Gavin said. “Boomer? You head toward Jazza. Walt and I will hold position.”
“Copy that.”
An Idris represented a fair chunk of creds as salvage. Strange that no one had claimed it. They were in Oberon to chase off pirates, but a little scrap job on the side was a welcome bonus.
“Jazza,” Gavin said, “I’ve got nothing near you on sensors. You think it’s just some floating junk?”
“I think so,” she spoke slowly, uncertain. “I thought I saw a heat trace, but I’m not seeing it now. Going in for a closer — Jesus!”
“Jazz,” Boomer’s voice was flat. The old man was all business. “Break right, I’ll pull this one off you and lead them back to the boys.”
“Can’t shake him.”
The navsat showed three new ships. A 325a with scrambled tags closed in on Jazza. Walt streaked past, already accelerating toward the fray, and Gavin turned to follow.
“Pull up hard,” Boomer said. “Bring him back around — Damn it.”
“Talk to us, Boomer,” Walt said.
“Jazza took a big hit. These guys are each sporting a Tarantula — the big one.”
“Hold tight,” Gavin said. “We’re nearly there. Walt, my HUD’s out. I need visual to fight, can you engage?”
“On it.”
“Hold on, Boomer. We’re coming.”
Walt was an incandescent streak ahead of him. The nearby space seemed deceptively empty without the visualizations that his HUD instrumentation would normally project. Only Oberon IV, looming beneath them, gave him any sense of perspective.
Walt’s voice crackled into the oppressive silence. “Boomer. I’m coming in low at your three o’clock.”
“Copy that.”
“I’m going to strafe with the repeaters to get their attention. You give that 325 a broadside he can’t resist. I’ll shove a missile somewhere the sun don’t shine.”
“Hurry, Walt. I’m too old for a three-on-one.”
“On you in five. Four. Three. Break now!”
Up ahead, razor thin beams of red slashed across space. The lasers streaked straight and then abruptly fanned out as Walt yawed around a pirate ship.
“Boomer!” Walt’s words tumbled out in a rush. “I can’t take a missile shot with you between us.”
“Can’t shake him.”
“Well that Tarantula is going to shake you plenty if you don’t.”
A missile streaked toward one of the pirate ships. Gavin saw a stuttering series of small flashes inside the cockpit, then the 325a vented a blazing ball of burning oxygen and went dark.
Gavin dropped into the swirling tangle of ships and added his own laser fire to the melee. Rippling blossoms of dispersed energy glowed against a pirate’s shields.
“That’s done it,” Walt said, “they’re gonna run.”
He was right. Realizing they were outnumbered, the remaining pirates turned together and accelerated past Jazza’s drifting ship.
And with them would go any hope of a profitable job. “Pen them in and stitch them up, guys.”
“Screw that,” Walt pulled up, quickly falling behind. “Let them run. They won’t operate here once we steal their hideout. We win, Gav.”
“This job won’t even cover our fuel costs, Walt. We need those ships.”
“I got ’em.” Boomer yawed around to pin the fleeing ships between them.
“Boomer,” Walt cried, “don’t!”
The pirate pair turned nose to nose with Boomer. Their guns sparked twice, muzzles flashing, and Boomer’s Avenger bucked from the impact. Most of the starboard wing spun away in a blaze of erupting oxygen. The pirates flew straight through the floating wreckage and streaked away at full acceleration.
Gavin cursed and slowed. Without his HUD, the fleeing pirates quickly faded from view. “Boomer? Talk to me, buddy.”
Boomer’s Avenger drifted slowly away toward the black. Then it burped, venting air and Boomer’s survival suit out into open space.
A new, flashing red icon reflected up and off the canopy of Gavin’s cockpit. He didn’t have to check the console to know it was Boomer’s recovery beacon.
He let his hands fall away from the controls, closed his eyes and let his head slump backwards. His helmet struck the headrest with an audible clunk. Colored lights sprang up to swim in front of his closed eyes.
Resigned, he cracked one heavy lid to peek out at the intruding light source. His HUD had decided to grace him with a reappearance.
“What. The hell. Was that?” Walt pronounced his words biting precision.
“Tarantula GT-870 Mk3,” Gavin recited in detail.
“I know about the damn guns, Gavin. I mean sending Boomer after them. We won. We had them on the run.”
“These ships don’t repair themselves, Walt. Maybe you haven’t done the math, but we’re broke. We need the salvage.”
“Salvage is nice, but Dell is going to kill you if Boomer is hurt again.”
“I’ll deal with Dell.” Gavin rolled his shoulders and settled his hands back on the controls. “Put a call in to Oberon. Let them know we took care of their pest problem and that we’ll tow away the clever little base the pests were hiding in to block scans. Then get Jazza patched up. Assuming the pirate survived, the two of you can drop him off before towing the salvage home.”
“Got it,” Walt’s voice was caustic, “money first. Good job keeping our priorities straight”
“Damn it, Walt. Will you stow the lip for two minutes so we can pack up and get everyone home.”
“Fine.”
“I’ll get Boomer. Can you please go see if you can get Jazza back up and running?”
“You’re the boss, little brother.”
Gavin pushed his family troubles to the back of his mind. Prioritize. First things first, take care of the crew. Get Boomer home. Repair the ships. Pay down some debt. He rattled off a painfully long list of critical next steps and one item kept rapidly, forcefully climbing its way to the top.
They really needed to get another job.
Walt beat the others back to the hangar. He matched rotation with Goss system’s Vista Landing and drifted along its length until he reached the Rhedd Alert hangar. He slowed and then stopped at three sets of wide double doors, each painted an alarming shade of red.
Hazard beacons floated in front of the first set of doors. Short bursts from tiny thrusters kept them in place a dozen meters out while a work crew applied high-pressure, ghost-grey paint over stencils of the Rhedd Alert logo.
Walt drew in a proud breath that pressed his chest against the confines of his flight suit. It looked cool having their name up in big letters on the side of the complex.
Then the moment soured.
The hangar and support staff were dead weight around their necks. The painting crew and logo were all part of the lease agreement with the station, but they served as a pointed reminder of the permanence of the commitment. Walt gnawed at his bottom lip, uncomfortable with the weight of the obligation.
He tried to put the sense of buyer’s remorse aside, but it sat heavy and rekindled his anger at Gavin. His brother wanted this company so much. Dell did, too.
Success — legit success — meant they could leave the old routines behind, forever. No more hiding. No more flipping tags every couple weeks to stay ahead of the Advocacy. Starting a company and working toward Citizenship was a big deal, but at what price?
Employing folks and applying for Citizenship was fine, but it started to lose luster in a hurry if success meant getting someone killed. Walt had to make sure Gavin saw that. They were all tired, but this was too important to wait.
“Knock knock, Dell,” Walt said. “Open up.”
D’lilah’s voice came over the comm immediately. She’d been waiting. “Bay 3, Walt. And mind the paint crew.”
“I see ’em. Glad to be home, Dell.”
Gavin touched down last, and Walt was waiting at the foot of the ladder when his brother slid down to the deck.
“Don’t start with me,” were the first words out of Gavin’s mouth.
“Listen,” Walt said, “Maybe I was out of line to second guess you during a fight, but we need to talk about what happened out there.”
“We won, okay? Right now I need to get Boomer to the med techs, and then contact Barry about another job.”
“Barry got us this job, Gav. I’m not sure if you noticed, but it really didn’t end so well.”
“We got sucker-punched by some thugs. That’s what happens when you get sloppy.”
He was talking about procedures and performance. Two of their ships got shot up, Boomer wounded and Gavin was grumbling about tight flight formations. Walt stretched his fingers, willing them not to form fists. His brother tucked his helmet under one arm and stepped to the side to move around him.
“Damn it, Gavin,” Walt grabbed the shorter man’s shoulder and pressed him back against the ladder. “Would you slow down for two seconds?”
He’d caught Gavin by surprise, but his younger brother was fast. Gavin slapped the hand from his shoulder, threw his helmet to the hangar deck and planted a two-handed shove of his own into Walt’s chest. “What’s your problem, Walt?”
The hangar grew quiet. A quick glance to either side showed the rest of the staff looking very hard for something productive to do, as far from the brothers as possible. Walt leaned in and hissed, “I’m trying to keep you from getting someone hurt. What’s the point of Rhedd Alert if we get everyone killed for one crappy job?”
“One crappy . . . ?” Gavin’s eyes were wide, showing white all around the edges. “You need to wake up, Walt. This was our only job. I got half the ships in the squad with parts falling off. I got Boomer freezing his junk off in nothing more than his flight suit. We can’t jump systems to hijack the next ship that comes along any more. This is what we signed up for, man.”
Walt was getting hot again. He knew he should walk away, but Gavin was still missing his point. “I know what I signed up for.” He knew that they had to make good on jobs, but why die trying just to pay the bill collectors? “And I remember why I signed up, too.”
Gavin stepped in again. Closer. “Oh yeah? And why’s that?”
“You, Gavin.”
“So everything’s my fault? Because I made you join up.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
“I know I screwed up the bid on this job. I should have priced it higher. But guess what? I didn’t. And this is all we had.”
Walt lowered his voice, getting right in Gavin’s face. “That’s not what I meant and you know it. I’m here because you want this.” He jabbed a stiff finger into Gavin’s chest. “You want it for Dell. Because you’re afraid she’ll leave if you can’t pull it off.”
And then Gavin was on him.
They went down hard and Walt’s head cracked against the deck when they landed. Gavin was compact and built like a Sataball defenseman, but Walt had length and leverage. It was a dichotomy they had put to the test a hundred times since they were boys, with nearly uniform results. But Gavin just didn’t know when to give up.
The tussle was short and ugly. In seconds, Walt had one forearm jammed into the back of his brother’s neck, with the other propping himself up off the deck. Gavin’s face was pressed into the cold steel of the hangar floor.
Then the scuffed toe of a black work boot crunched down painfully on Walt’s fingers. His stranglehold on Gavin relaxed, and the smaller man started to squirm free. That was, at least, until the socketed head of a heavy wrench dropped on Gavin’s shoulder, pushing him back down, face first and flat onto the deck.
“Oomph.”
“Now, now, boys,” Dell said. “What are the neighbors gonna think?”
Walt winced, gritting his teeth as she ground his fingers against the steel deck. He craned his neck around to look at her. D’lilah’s boots were cinched tight by pink laces with a white skull-and-crossbones pattern stitched into them. She wore worn, canvas coveralls that hugged strong legs, pockets bulging with tools and spare parts. Her dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail that hung over one shoulder, and she’d dyed the last couple inches a bright, electric blue. The color was new since they’d left for Oberon. It was a playful accent that wasn’t echoed in the angry blue of her eyes.
“Oh. Hey there, Dell.” Walt struggled to keep a pinched note of pain from his voice. “Hello to you, too.”
“Unless the next words out of your mouth tell me where my dad is, you’re going to be working your stick left-handed.”
Gavin answered her. “Ease up, Dell.”
“Who’s got him?”
“I do.” Gavin nodded back toward his ship.
“Well then.” She lifted her foot and Walt yanked his hand back to rub at aching knuckles. He glared at her, as sour a look as he could manage while kneeling on the deck. Her smile feigned a sweetness that did nothing to thaw the frozen fury in her eyes. “I’ll fetch the buggy. If you two are done snuggling, it sounds like my dad has a date with the techs in the med center.”
Dell swung the wrench up to rest over one shoulder, spun on the balls of her feet, and strode away.
Gavin rolled over onto his back with a groan. “That woman is going to kill us one of these days.”
“Think we could outrun her?”
“You, maybe. There’s not a dark enough hole in the ’verse for me to hide.”
“Yeah, well,” Walt pushed himself to his feet with a grunt, “that’s your own damn fault for marrying her.”
Several systems away, on a station much larger and better appointed than Vista Landing, Morgan Brock scowled at a set of numbers on her mobiGlas. She lifted her eyes, shifting her gaze over the top edge of the screen to stare at Riebeld. The salesman sprawled casually in what Brock knew to be an uncomfortable chair. She made sure that it was uncomfortable, so no one felt confident when sitting opposite her desk.
Riebeld somehow pulled it off, though. It was that braggadocio that made him such a good breadwinner for her company. Irritating, yes. But good for business.
She powered down the mobiGlas. “The net profits on this estimate are based off a twelve percent commission.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I think we both know that your negotiated commission is ten, Riebeld.”
“And I think we also both know that this job could double the size of the company within two years.” He sat forward then and leaned on her desk. “I want twelve if I bring it in.”
“And you think I’m going to just give it to you?”
“I know you will.”
It was her turn to lean forward. It put her too close to him, and he should have backed off. He didn’t. “And why,” she asked, “is that?”
“Because I know that you’re not going to let principle stand in the way of profit.” His toothy grin was bright enough to deflect lasers. She was used to predatory smiles from men, but with men like Riebeld, it only meant there was money on the line. His mobiGlas chirped beside them. Riebeld had an incoming call.
He ignored it.
She waited for the incoming alert to stop.
It did.
“You get twelve,” she said. “But anyone who helps bring it in gets paid out of your cut, not mine. And I want three options for one-year extensions. Not one. Bring it to me with three or I won’t sign it.”
“Done.”
“Fine. Now get out.”
He did and Brock leaned back in her chair. She was going to need more ships. Riebeld would get the extensions or he wouldn’t. They gave him something to work toward, and he’d get sloppy if he didn’t have a challenge.
Good sales guys were like racehorses, high maintenance and temperamental. Most days, they were nothing more than a pain in the ass. Come race day, though – you always wanted one in your stable.
There was a quick knock on her door. Riebeld didn’t wait for her to answer before he shoved his head in.
“I won’t budge on the options, Riebeld. I want three or no deal.”
“No,” he said. “It’s not that. Navy SysCom just put our Tyrol contract up for rebid.”
“What?”
“Yeah. We’re allowed to rebid, but they’re putting it out for open competition.”
“Why the hell would they do that?” Escorting UEE scientists to the research facilities in Tyrol wasn’t their biggest job, but she’d put a lot of work into it. They’d spent years clearing the shipping lanes in the Charon system — lucrative years, admittedly — and now the missions were pure profit and promised future growth.
“I don’t have the full story yet, but apparently they are trying to push low-risk contract work out to local companies. Some brainiac in accounting identified the Tyrol run as a candidate and boom, Major Greely pulled the contract.”
“See what you can find out,” she said. “And get to work on the rebid.”
“Already got it covered.”
“And Riebeld?”
“Yeah?”
“Find me the name of that accountant.”
It was late when Gavin left the station. By way of apology, he invited Walt to join him on the short trip to Cassel to meet with Barry Lidst. Whether Walt came along as reconciliation or simply to avoid another run-in with Dell was unclear. Regardless, he didn’t seem inclined to talk about the argument as they flew, and Gavin saw no reason to bring it up.
Barry, a Navy SysCom accountant by trade and freelance rainmaker by inclination, had grown up with the brothers. He had left Goss to join the Navy while the Rhedd boys stayed to work the smuggling routes with Boomer and their father before he passed.
Officially, Barry was responsible for negotiating contracts between the UEE Navy and private vendors, but he also managed to broker a few off-the-record jobs on the side. He was, if anything, an opportunist, and Gavin trusted him about as much as he trusted any of the shady characters they’d worked with in the past. Which is to say, not at all.
The fact that Barry was involved with Dell before leaving to join the Navy didn’t factor into his opinion at all. Nope, not in the slightest. Still, Barry had come through with their first legitimate job. With luck, he’d have more.
Gavin swallowed hard, focusing on the fact that they needed work. Walt kept quiet. By the time Cassel swelled, massive, blue and inviting against the gold and turquoise bands of the Olympus Pool, Gavin could feel his brows drawing down into a scowl.
The brothers landed and made their way to a club that catered to the resort world’s local crowd. It was busy, of course, but Barry was waiting and had managed to find an open table.
“I was beginning to think you two bought it in Oberon.” Barry’s naval uniform was cut from some shiny material that was either freshly pressed or engineered to be wrinkle-free. It looked tragically uncomfortable, but did a reasonable job of hiding a rounded gut.
“Oberon took a bit longer than we thought,” Gavin forced a smile, “but we got them.”
“Everything go okay?”
“Absolutely.” He injected confidence into his words and hoped it sounded genuine. Walt looked at him sharply, but Gavin ignored him. They had to appear capable or better jobs were going to be in short supply. “Pirates are not a problem.”
Barry motioned them to sit and his voice took on a somber note. “Word is that Dell’s dad got busted up. He okay?”
“Jesus, Barry,” Walt said. “How’d you even hear about that?”
“I’m the government. We’ve got our eyes and ears everywhere.” Gavin stared at him and raised an eyebrow, waiting. “Yeah. Well,” Barry shrugged and took a sip of his drink, “those miners on Oberon might have mentioned something.”
“Boomer’s fine. Our ships took more of a beating than he did,” Gavin turned the subject away from his team getting shot up on the job. “I was surprised to hear you were in Goss system.”
“Mom retired here on Cassel,” Barry cast a sour glare around the room when he said it. “I’m just here visiting. Can’t stand it with all the tourist traffic, but she loves the shows and exhibits and stuff. Anyway, I’m glad you guys were able to help out in Oberon.”
“Happy to.”
“Stuff like this comes up from time to time,” Barry said. “It’s not like we don’t want to take care of it ourselves or anything. We do. But the Navy can’t send troops after every brigand and thug in the ’verse, you know? Particularly when they’re camped out in an unclaimed system. So, yeah. No one minds if we feed these jobs to indies like you guys.”
“Well,” Gavin said, “we’re light on work right now. Got anything for us?”
“I might have something — not UEE work, but still a decent job. And I know the client will be happy with your rates.”
Gavin’s heart sank a bit, but maybe they could increase their price without chasing Barry away. He encouraged the accountant to keep talking.
“The job is close, just a couple hops away. It’s hard work, but I can hook you up if you’re interested.”
“What’s the job?” Walt asked.
“You ever heard of molybdenum?” Gavin’s face must have looked as blank as Walt’s. “No? It’s a rare metal used in electronics and stuff. You find it near copper deposits. You know what? Doesn’t matter. A friend of mine knows a guy who just got his hands on the mining rights to a moon.”
“Mining,” Walt muttered. “Why is it always mining?”
“I guess the whole moon is riddled with tunnels and caverns. Apparently there used to be a bunch of copper there, but now all that stuff is gone. The only thing left is the molybdenum. This guy, he’s got three weeks to start producing or he loses his lease to the next prospector in line.”
“Barry,” Gavin said, “if you’re looking for a team to wear hardhats and swing pickaxes, you’ve got the wrong guys.”
“Naw, it’s nothing like that. They’re empty now, but someone set the caves up as a fortified base. Smugglers, probably. They put auto-targeting turrets in there. My guy told me they’re all over the place. Around every corner. Anyway, it’s all Banu tech. A group of them must have hopped over from Bacchus.”
“So what’s the job?”
“They need someone to comb through the whole thing and take out the turrets. They can’t send mining equipment and operators in there until it’s clear. Those guys don’t have shields.”
“That’s it?” Gavin asked.
“Yup. That’s it.”
Walt watched Barry across the table with a bemused tilt to one eyebrow. “That’s the most boring job I’ve ever heard of.”
“Hey,” Barry said, “if you want something with a little higher chance of combat, I’ve got a UEE escort contract up for bid. We were getting absolutely fleeced by the incumbent contractor. I finally convinced the major to rebid the job.”
Now that sounded exactly like the job Rhedd Alert needed.
“Tell me more about that,” Gavin said. “About the escort job, I mean.”
“I, uh listen,” Barry said. “I wasn’t really serious about that. No offense, but that is an armed escort through some pretty rough systems.”
This was it. The chance they needed. “Our guys can do it,” Gavin said.
“It’s a small job now, but it’s scheduled to mature into something big. I don’t even know if you have enough ships to meet the contract requirements.”
“Give us a shot. If we perform, I’ll find the extra ships and pilots.”
“The outfits that sign on for gigs like this are generally ex-military. Highly trained. Lots of contacts in Navy SysCom. Most of the contractors we use are actually based right next to the Navy in Kilian System. I was joking, guys. Forget I mentioned it.”
“No, we can do this. What’s the run? How many —”
“Gav,” Walt interrupted, “we’re talking naval flight formations and tactics. Superior weapons systems. Maybe we should get more info on the turret thing in the mulberry mine.”
“Molybdenum.”
“Whatever.”
“Come on, Walt. This sounds perfect for us. And I’d put you or Jazza up against an ex-Navy pilot in a heartbeat. Any system, any time.”
“Fellas . . . hey, listen,” Barry said. “The UEE is trying to push local work to local contractors. The big defense companies are fighting it. If you feel like sticking your hand in the middle of that fire, I’ll forward you the RFP. Good enough? In the meantime . . . about my buddy with the moon mine?”
Gavin half-heartedly followed along while Walt and Barry discussed the turret job, but in his mind they were already escorting UEE ships through hostile space. Walt startled him out of his reverie when he hushed a surprised Barry into silence.
“Wait,” Walt said, “back up a second. These Banu weapon systems. Did you say this stuff came out of Bacchus?”
“Probably. Why?”
“This moon . . . Barry, where is it?”
“Oberon VI, why?”
Gavin’s heart sank again. A glance at Walt did nothing to reassure him. His brother’s smile looked fantastically strained.
“Ah, come on,” Barry said. “You’ve already done good work for these guys.”
“They’ll kill us,” Walt said.
“Naw,” Barry waved at them dismissively, “They love Rhedd Alert.”
“No,” Walt said, “not the miners.”
“Who?” Barry looked concerned now. “Who’ll kill you?”
Gavin answered. “Our team is going to kill us if we drag them back to Oberon.”
“Hey,” Barry relaxed, “it’s a small ’verse. You’re going to end up passing through there sooner or later. Might as well get paid for it. Am I right?”
“Yeah,” Walt said, “but Oberon?”
“I did mention it pays, didn’t I?” Barry keyed something up on his mobiGlas. He turned it so they could read the projected display. At the bottom was a number. A not-insignificant number. Gavin stared at his hands as Walt absorbed the figures.
Walt’s head made an audible clunk when it struck the table. He groaned something muffled and to the effect of, “I can’t believe we’re going back to Oberon.”
TO BE CONTINUED…
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/seri…n-Arms-Part-One
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Hello everyone,
Happy Monday! A few members of the CIG team spent their weekend exploring PAX South and attending the annual Bar Citizen event on the River Walk. We had an absolute blast, as usual, and want to thank everyone who came out and said hello.
Now, let’s see what’s going on this week:
Tuesday welcomes another detailed lore piece with Brothers in Arms Part 1, where we follow two brothers as they struggle to go legit by opening a private security outfit.
Thursday will welcome another episode of Around the Verse where we’ll take a look at the latest Star Citizen news.
Friday will see a Roadmap update and the RSI Newsletter delivered right to your inbox. Haven’t subscribed yet? Head to your Account Settings right away and never miss one of our newsletters again!
We’ve also got some fun activities planned for this weekend! First, we’ll be kicking off another commercial contest on Friday – tune in to Around the Verse this week to discover more details about this contest’s theme. Then, we’re celebrating Australia day in style. Starting on Friday, and through the weekend, we’ll be making the Gladius Valiant available to fly for free to all existing backers. This Free Fly will be coupled with another awesome screenshot contest – keep an eye out on Spectrum for more details!
Finally, we know how eager you all are to see additional columns added to the Roadmap. We’re still going through milestone planning and should have an update for you in the coming couple of weeks. We’re fully aware that many of you would like a specific date so that you can rest your F5 finger, but we want to make sure we’ve covered everything intricately before pushing out the update.
See you in the ‘verse!
Tyler Witkin
Lead Community Manager
The Weekly Community Content ScheduleMONDAY, JANUARY 21ST, 2019
-TUESDAY, JANUARY 22ND, 2019
Lore – Serialized Fiction: Brothers in Arms (Part 1) (https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch)WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23RD, 2019
-THURSDAY, JANUARY 24TH, 2019
Around the Verse (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)
Vault UpdateFRIDAY, JANUARY 25TH, 2019
Roadmap Update
RSI Newsletter
Commercial Contest
Screenshot Contest
Australia Day Free Fly
Community MVP: January 21st, 2019Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.
We are constantly amazed by the contributions made by the Star Citizen community. Whether it's fan art, a cinematic, a YouTube guide, or even a 3D print of your favorite ship, we love it all! Every week, we select one piece of content submitted to the Community Hub and highlight it here. The highlighted content creator will be awarded an MVP badge on Spectrum and be immortalized in our "MVP section of the Hub":https://robertsspaceindustries.com/community/mvp-postsDon’t forget to submit your content to our Community Hub for a chance at seeing it here!
4K Mobile Wallpaper Pack #1 by NarayanN7
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Check out Narayan’s set of epic mobile wallpapers, all captured in 4K.
Enjoy the full gallery on the Community Hub.Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/citi…In-Star-Citizen
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In this week’s update we see how hover bikes will work in the new flight model, and how devs are re-targeting animations to make female playable characters unique and authentic.
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/tran…round-The-Verse
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Hello everyone,
After testing 3.4.2 on the PTU over the weekend, we’re aiming to release the patch to the live servers soon. As always, we want to thank everyone who helped test the latest build, as it wouldn’t be possible to have such a quick turnaround without you guys.
Last week, we distributed the Buy Back Tokens for the first quarter of 2019 and posted a schedule for the entire year on Spectrum. Check the Announcement to know when the next Token will drop and read our FAQ if you’re looking for more information about how this system works.
And with that, let’s see what’s going on this week:
Tuesday will carry a lore post presenting a new episode of Spectrum Spectator, a docu-series currently highlighting reformed criminals.
Thursday will welcome another episode of Around the Verse where we’ll take a look at the latest Star Citizen news.
Friday will see a Roadmap update and the RSI Newsletter delivered right to your inbox. Haven’t subscribed yet? Head to your Account Settings right away and never miss one of our newsletters again! We’re also aiming to publish the Star Citizen Fankit, including wallpapers, music and holoviewer files that should serve as a powerful resource for all of you content creators out there. It’ll also include a style guide answering all the questions about what you can and can’t do with Star Citizen assets.
See you in the ‘verse!
Ulf Kuerschner
Senior Community Manager
The Weekly Community Content ScheduleMONDAY, JANUARY 14TH, 2019
-TUESDAY, JANUARY 15TH, 2019
Lore – Spectrum Spectator (https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch)WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16TH, 2019
-THURSDAY, JANUARY 17TH, 2019
Around the Verse (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)
Vault UpdateFRIDAY, JANUARY 18TH, 2019
Roadmap Update
RSI Newsletter
Fan Kit
Community MVP: January 14th, 2019Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.
We are constantly amazed by the contributions made by the Star Citizen community. Whether it's fan art, a cinematic, a YouTube guide, or even a 3D print of your favorite ship, we love it all! Every week, we select one piece of content submitted to the Community Hub and highlight it here. The highlighted content creator will be awarded an MVP badge on Spectrum and be immortalized in our "MVP section of the Hub":https://robertsspaceindustries.com/community/mvp-postsDon’t forget to submit your content to our Community Hub for a chance at seeing it here!
The Asgard Legion by WailanderTv
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Check out WailanderTV’s second Star Citizen Machinima in which he portrays the heroes on board of the “Sleipnir”, a vessel deciding the fate of the ninth fleet.
Enjoy the full video on the Community Hub.Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/citi…In-Star-Citizen
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Holy Foley! The wild world of practical sound fx, new flight system updates, procedural layout tools, and a full on map attack, in this week’s update.
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/tran…round-The-Verse
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Hello everyone,
Welcome to 2949! We hope that you all enjoyed the holiday season. We celebrated in the ‘verse with not one, but two holiday themed contests. We were taken aback by the incredible submissions that came through for our screenshot and greetings card contests. If you havn’t seen the submissions or winners, make sure to check them out on Spectrum.
And with that, let’s see what’s going on this week:
As we mentioned before the holiday break, there will be no new episodes of Calling All Devs this month. We’re taking some time to evaluate the best ways to provide all of you with awesome content. We’ve received a lot of feedback in 2948 about our various shows, and we’re taking some time to evaluate the best ways to provide you with the best possible content. To that end, we’ll likely be making some tweaks throughout the new year.
Tuesday is lore day! Galactic Guide will take us to Kabal, a seemingly abandoned system once inhabited by the Tevarin.
Wednesday brings the January Subscriber’s Newsletter.
Thursday will welcome another episode of Around the Verse where we’ll take a look at the latest Star Citizen news.
Now that we’re all back from holiday, the team is heads down and focused on delivering Alpha 3.5. We’re currently in the midst of doing additional planning for 2019 so look for a full update to the Roadmap in the near future. We appreciate that many of you are eager to see what’s coming, and what’s beyond 3.6. Rest assured we’re equally eager to get that information to you. If there are any updates to the Roadmap this week, we’ll update the schedule below accordingly. Stay tuned.
See you in the ‘verse!
Tyler Witkin
Lead Community Manager
The Weekly Community Content ScheduleMONDAY, JANUARY 7TH, 2018
-TUESDAY, JANUARY 8TH, 2018
Galactic Guide – Kabal (https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch)WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9TH, 2018
Subscriber’s NewsletterTHURSDAY, JANUARY 10TH, 2018
Around the Verse (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)
Vault UpdateFRIDAY, JANUARY 11TH, 2018
RSI Newsletter
Community MVP: January 7th, 2018Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.
We are constantly amazed by the contributions made by the Star Citizen community. Whether it's fan art, a cinematic, a YouTube guide, or even a 3D print of your favorite ship, we love it all! Every week, we select one piece of content submitted to the Community Hub and highlight it here. The highlighted content creator will be awarded an MVP badge on Spectrum and be immortalized in our "MVP section of the Hub":https://robertsspaceindustries.com/community/mvp-posts.Don’t forget to submit your content to our Community Hub for a chance at seeing it here!
2949 Calendar by TwentySquares
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.TwentySquares has captured some stunning screenshots to show off 2949 in style. Looking for a calendar for the new year? Well, now you’re covered.
Enjoy the full calendar on the Community Hub.Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/citi…In-Star-Citizen
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Squadron 42 Monthly Report: December 2018
This is a cross-post of the report that was recently sent out via the monthly Squadron 42 newsletter. We’re publishing this a second time as a Comm-Link to make it easier for the community to reference back to, and plan on following this process for future Squadron 42 Monthly Reports.
Attention Recruits,
What you are about to read is the latest information on the continuing development of Squadron 42.
Read on for pertinent details from our planet-wide operations on Squadron 42-related work over the last month, as well as intel on an exciting new dispatch. The information contained in this communication is extremely sensitive and it is of paramount importance that it does not fall into the wrong hands. Purge all records after reading.
Over and out,
UEE Naval High Command
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.The Road to Glory
Today sees the unveiling of our Squadron 42 roadmap, a useful piece of intel that tracks the progress of development in detail. Much like the Persistent Universe roadmap, this is linked to our JIRA tracking system, and thus lets you see at a glance the work remaining on the game as we thunder on toward the finish line. Of course, also like its Star Citizen counterpart, the Squadron 42 roadmap is not necessarily exhaustive and may be changed or updated as development continues. Make sure you read the caveats, and enjoy this insight into the process.
This monthly project update will work as something of a companion piece, shedding more light on specific work done by each development team, while the roadmap will provide dynamic real-time tracking of progress weekly.
Without further adiue, let’s see what the devs fighting the good fight on the frontlines have been up to…
AI
This month, Ship AI’s focus was on optimizing the Tactical Point System. They now have multiple queries bundled together in a batch from different threads, which allows more control over the cost of the overall system. They submitted several optimizations for the character movement system, which can now update all the components in a multithreaded batch approach and will utilize the maximum the CPU resources during the game update. A pass for thread safety of several subsystems was performed, including the attention target component and communication system. This is required to eventually move the Subsumption component update to the multithreaded batch update step.
In FPS Combat, the ‘Defend Area’ assignment was introduced; correctly achieving this behavior requires monitoring the mastergraph transitions to evaluate if the recipients of the Subsumption event can actually process it. In the Defend Area example, they might be executing any regular behavior when receiving the assignment. If the behavior can handle the request in a specific way, great. If not, then the mastergraph takes care of selecting one that can. Alongside this, they’re adding new behaviors to improve combat and patrol to respect this assignment.
New behaviors and functionality to support stealth gameplay were implemented, with new audio and visual stimuli being added to allow players to draw the attention of guards, prepare traps, and open up otherwise blocked paths.
Work also continued on the bartender for Lorville. To achieve several functionalities of his behavior, they implemented the first pass of UseChannel routing and are continuing to expand the usable functionalities.
The Usable Builder Tool received a new feature too: it’s now able to correctly preview different characters using different usables so that designers, animators, and programmers can easily test and verify the content as it’s delivered.
Animation
On the Story front, the Animation kicked-off production passes on a handful of Squadron 42 scenes. They’re also working to finalize the Armorer character for SQ42 – itself a large and intricate task.
Audio
Audio worked closely with the SQ42 composer Geoff Zanelli to establish themes for the game’s different races and important characters. This, combined with the second round of music implementation, allowed the team to better support pacing and overall development.
The Dialogue Team worked to ensure animation and design had all the assets required to successfully implement their conversations, comms, and cinematics.
Character Art
The Character Art Team polished the Vanduul armor and concepted the Navy Gunner’s outfit.
Cinematics
After completing the CitizenCon SQ42 teaser trailer, Cinematics took time to verify that each scene was functioning correctly from start to finish. This mainly involved the Shubin Station art pocket, but also other things like the battleground around Vega II. Once complete, they worked on a pivotal scene for the game featuring a key character not revealed yet. This involved using a new method of character hair and skin creation (tweaked for more realism), and small modification to costumes.
The Cinematic Animation Team carried on with regular scene work. Having completed first passes for much of the game’s narrative, they transitioned to scenes where a full implementation pass with a state machine is required. They also supported the engineers working on key workflow tools.
Along with navspline improvements, new functionality was added to allow the team to edit multiple cinematic sequences at once. Previously, TrackView only supported a master and child sequence and didn’t allow editing of the master if the child was edited, or vice versa. Some SQ42 scenes feature characters on capital ship bridges reacting to things they see through windows, which requires the team to split sequences between interior and exterior. The new multi-sequence workflow allows multiple sequences to be open and active at once and syncs the timelines for both the master and child.
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Engine Tools
The Engine Team resumed work on GPU skinning. They added vertex velocity support (motion blur), completed several optimizations to skip zero weights (improved throughput), prepared background data, and made the first pass on memory layout and LOD support.
They also made the execution of ray collision checks and the defragmentation of grids run concurrently. This achieved a 30-50% speedup for physics planet terrain computation, reduced the number of cell queries on planets, and improved proxy mesh generation of terrain ground volumes.
Terrain rendering improvements were added (glow forward pass) as well as fixes for water volume and ocean rendering. The existing hair shader was improved, and a new depth of field algorithm was created to improve quality, performance, and fix halos around silhouettes.
Part of the team worked on additional culling refinements in the zone system to submit fewer objects to the renderer, as well as various low-level optimizations to reduce load on the render thread.
Engineering
Engineering actualized a system to allow variable limits on how far players can move their heads when looking around. The default amount is overridden by the outfit and helmet, so wearing heavy armor will restrict how far they can look.
Pickup and Carry was finished off, including the solving of an issue when interacting with items in EVA.
Developments on the female character continues. Because of her different sized skeleton, the team implemented animation-driven inverse kinematics to allow her to reach a ship’s controls without the need for new animation sets.
Progress has been made on the usables builder tool, which allows the content creators to drop in a character and play all the related usable animations, move locators around, and generally test a setup without having to go into the game.
As part of comms, a ‘Tannoy’ system can now pump audio to multiple parts of an environment. For example, an announcement to a single ship’s hangar or a more global ship-wide announcement.
The ship AI Team helped out with the new Intelligent Flight Control System (IFCS), tweaking ship behavior to better utilize these new flight controls for a better dogfighting experience.
Environment Art
Art began using their new hard surface shader and new blending features for wear and tear. This enables a more realistic appearance of localized damage without a jarring transition between worn and pristine areas. They’re paying particular attention to make sure wear looks natural and unforced. One of the high-level goals for SQ42 is for every asset and its features to sit in a scene naturally, feel unforced, and for the lighting to have a slightly softer, more realistic feel (except for some areas where the intensity is cranked up to 11).
Lighting focused on the Javelin found in an early campaign level, taking into account the emphasis on making one key light do more of the work. This new approach looks great and is less demanding on the engine too. Tweaks to a control room seen close to the end of the campaign progressed, with the aim being to set the correct tone for the narrative and gameplay moments that spread from it.
Props seen throughout the campaign (including monitors, screens, wiring looms, hatch covers, ropes, destructible lights, and pressurized items) all received attention, this time to determine how they break or deform when damaged. Several key events take place where these assets need to react correctly to gravity, decompression, damage, pulse, etc.
The vast Shubin mining station gained more detail to the supporting structures around it. Development of the facility’s Bridge (as first seen in the CitizenCon 2948 trailer) continued, which comes in at around three times the size of a Bengal’s.
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Gameplay Story
The Gameplay Story Team made swift progress throughout November and continuously added more scenes to their Q4 list. They are currently working on 38 scenes for the quarter and are expecting to add several more by the end of the year.
Graphics
The Graphics Team worked on several shader effects, including the resurrection of the caustics water effect, which is needed in several locations throughout SQ42. The new hard surface shader was rolled out to the entire team and should improve performance, allow new surface shading features, and enable more dynamic wear & dirt effects.
Performance was also a focus, with most attention on the low-level texture and mesh streaming systems to help squeeze as much content in with as little performance impact as possible.
Level Design
The Level Design Team converted the older sables inside the Idris to a more efficient and flexible system, which also incorporates crew behaviors for things like ‘off-duty’ and ‘mess hall’. Level work is an ongoing collaboration with the Art Team and is constantly reviewed at senior level.
“It’s all going well and now that we have almost all the scenes in the levels you really get a great feel for the story flow and pacing.”
Cockpit scenes are coming to life thanks to ‘Render to Texture’ technology, while the new IFCS system is fully implemented into SQ42 and making a huge difference to dogfighting. Regular feedback and suggested improvements mean spline technology and flight controls are constantly refined.
Narrative
The Narrative Team continued plugging away at [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] as well as [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] and that was a lot of fun.
Props
The Props Team continued work on the assets required for NPS interactions and activities by creating additional sub items used by the engineering crew and the storage cases to house them. The larger maintenance machinery assets are now ready for the animation and cinematic departments to use in their work, too.
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.System Design
The System Design Team integrated the New Flight Model into enemy ship AI, ensuring that they are still engaging to fight against and don’t become unbalanced. They noticed that the new IFCS currently causes too much unwanted ‘jousting’ behavior, so are currently looking into ways to modify it.
Dialogue wildlines for the ship/FPS/social AI were reworked to unify them within the same overall structure. Collaboration with the audio & writing teams ensured the system works properly for all systemic dialogue in the game. The team is also working to develop tools to automate the setup of dialogue lines.
Stealth gameplay elements continue to be developed, which require the AI perception to be upgraded to cater for peripheral vision, as well as various audio events and stimuli from environmental sources, such as throwing a pebble to distract enemies.
Tech Animation
The Technical Animation department progressed with the initial batch transfer of male animations to the female skeleton. This included updating low-level assets for animation database referencing to ensure she can run around and fire weapons. It has been successful and handed off to animation for further review and polish.
Some much-needed toolsets for authoring skinning data on the many different costumes were finished. Used in conjunction with the existing toolsets, these will make skin authoring a more efficient process.
An interesting dilemma was presented recently, whereby the team needed to show some sort of fluid dynamics, which usually require intensive calculations The Technical Animation department came into its own and used the existing physics solution to create a dynamic yet economic fake for the various glasses & cups in the bar scenes.
Multiple animations for cinematics and gameplay were added, as were several new tools to the animation pipeline along with bug fixes and additions to existing tools. Time was also spent fixing several smaller bugs like animation compilation errors, missing integrations, weapon entities, and DBA setups.
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Tech Art
The Tech Art Team analyzed the full requirements of the character ‘DNA gene pool’. In order for the next-gen facial customizer to work most effectively, a limited pool of heads with specific and unique shapes is required. Relevant factors are gender, ethnic origin, age, physical constitution, and distinct facial features such as hooked vs. pointy nose, thin vs. full lips, and so forth. Several scenarios with varying pool sizes were created to determine the mid-to-long-term plans for populating the pool. The planned release of the new customizer will initially use as many heads as possible from the selection scanned, providing they fulfill requirements.
The team also worked on the asset authoring tools and pipeline for the new cloth/softbody solver, which was first showcased at CitizenCon. Optimal simulation mesh topology and vertex density are key to making it work efficiently and fast enough while yielding high-fidelity visual results. Another important factor is creating the best possible binding between the high and low res simulation mesh – this can only be fully automated for simpler cloth asset types and requires artistic ‘guidance’ and fine-grained control in more complex cases. The team went to great lengths to ensure the authoring tools provide this capability in a convenient, easy-to-use way.
UI
Last month, the SQ42 team specced-out improvements to how AR mission objectives are displayed to the player. For both the PU and SQ42, they’re aiming to create a common unified methodology for how important information is imparted regarding type, position, whether it’s obstructed, etc. They’re also looking at the long-term requirements of missions and building a system to help to surface important information when it’s contextually needed.
Another major feature worked on is the area map. Pre-visualizations of how the map could be were built procedurally using existing underlying systems, such as the room system. This informs not only the overall layout but also how it becomes more defined as the player traverses the environment for the first time.
Vehicle Features
The team spent the month on Vehicle Scanning improvements. The groundwork necessary to allow ships to aim at the engines on target ships has been completed, and the feature itself is nearly ready to be rolled out. Scanning nav points for destination info have been completed and are also ready for implementation.
VFX
VFX continued to iterate on lightning effects by putting the new texture noise functionality through its paces, which will allow them to create much finer detail up close at a fraction of the previous cost. They also developed a tool to allow artists to create VDBs (including gas clouds) more quickly and with more control over the finer details.
Thruster improvements were made to more closely match the VFX. They gained new effects and functionality including damage, overheat, and misfire options.
R&D for a Xi’an missile launcher kicked off too.
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Weapons
The Weapon Art Team carried on with the Multi-Tool rework and made progress with the Kastak Arms Ravager-212 and the level two and three upgrades for the Hurston Dynamics Laser Repeaters. They also made minor adjustments to the iron sights on a handful of weapons to improve the sight picture and to make them more user-friendly when no optics are attached.
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Covert Intel
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Conclusion
WE’LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH…
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/tran…t-December-2018
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Wann ist denn mit dem Einzelspieler-Part Squadron 42 von Star Citizen zu rechnen? Darauf gibt es nun eine ungefähre Antwort. Das Entwicklerstudio Cloud Imperium Games hat nämlich vor kurzem eine aktuelle Roadmap veröffentlicht. Demnach ist mit einer…
Quelle: http://www.pcgames.de/Star-Citizen-S…warten-1272014/
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Star Citizen Alpha 3.4 Available!
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Alpha 3.4
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Today, we open Alpha 3.4 to all backer!
Alpha 3.4 launches several massive technical upgrades to the game including:
- The Lorville Central Business District, including the Hurston Dynamics Showroom and Transfers Commodity Exchange
- Six new ships including the Freelancer variants and the Anvil Hawk
- New armor, helmets, and a new personal weapon
- Two ship weapons have been reworked and their offerings expanded
- New visual updates to quantum markers and turrets
- Expanded the mission system into Hurston and surrounding moons
- And more!
And of course, you can read the comprehensive Alpha 3.4 Patch Notes here.
3.4 Flyable Ships
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.With this major milestone of Alpha 3.4, we’re introducing newly flyable ships, as well as updating some older favorites.
The list of new & updated ships includes:
- Anvil Hawk
- RSI Constellation Phoenix Emerald
- MISC Freelancer Variants
- Origin 600i Touring Module
- MISC Reliant Kore Improvements
Please enjoy the trailers below and find even more information on our 3.4 Flyable Ships page here.
Bug Reporting
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Remember, while there’s a lot to explore in Alpha 3.4, the game is still just a portion of the Star Citizen experience! You can help the team improve future releases by reporting bugs and other issues using the Star Citizen Issue Council. The amazing feedback from Star Citizen backers is what has allowed us to iterate on the PTU so quickly, and we’re eager for feedback about the Live release as well. You can access the Issue Council here.
Finally, we would be remiss if we did not thank our incredible community of PTU testers for helping make this patch the best it can be! Your dedication is exemplary of the UEE’s finest defenders!
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/tran…ha-34-Available
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Breaking news on Squadron 42, 3.4 and more, in this week’s update.
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/tran…round-The-Verse
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Letter from the Chairman
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.Hello everyone,
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.2018 brought some pretty big things in the universe of Star Citizen; our first planet, Hurston, our first major landing zone, Lorville, four new moons, 32 new flyable ships, Face Over IP, much improved performance thanks to Object Container Streaming, Network Bind Culling and a complete overhaul of the game code to run on multiple CPU cores simultaneously. We had our largest CitizenCon to date in Austin, Texas and just recently wrapped up a really fun Anniversary Event. How cool was it to make the journey to Lorville, visit the Intergalactic Aerospace Expo West and get an up close and personal sneak preview of some ships that are coming to the ‘verse, or fly dozens of already flyable ships? It has been exciting reading the posts from people discovering the project for the first time and seeing so many people having a blast playing Star Citizen.
As we look forward to the holidays, I wanted to give you all a couple of updates. The first item of news is the Squadron 42 public roadmap is going live today. As with our Persistent Universe roadmap, this is linked to our company’s internal JIRA tracking system, so you can see at a glance the work remaining to complete the game. It was a lot of work to make sure every remaining task was broken down in detail and estimated to the best of our ability, and the same caveats will apply to the Squadron 42 roadmap as they do to the PU one, but our plan is to be feature and content complete by the end of 2019, with the first 6 months of 2020 for Alpha (balance, optimization and polish) and then Beta.
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.When we started the campaign for Star Citizen and Squadron 42, I said that the crowdfunding would go towards development of the game, and that the amount would define the scope and ambition of what we were working on. That is a commitment I am proud to say we have been upholding; its why we have over 500 staff around the world working on the games and have spent very little on marketing.
You can see this investment into development in the UK financials that we publish every year on Companies House. In a further effort at transparency we have decided to publish our historical financials from 2012 through 2017 on our new corporate website to allow all of you to see not just how much money we raise via the public counter, but also how the money has been spent globally.
All of our marketing is community focused and viral; events we host for all of you, in-fiction lore, commercials that help flesh out the world, and PR outreach. The fact that we have raised over $211M via word of mouth and viral marketing is staggering and a testament to how amazing a community all of you are. Everyone at Cloud Imperium is humbled to have your trust and support on this journey together.
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.As a result, we are building two of the most ambitious games ever embarked on in gaming, with budgets that are unmatched by all but the very biggest projects.
Having a great game is only half the battle. As we look towards the release of Squadron 42, we have been acutely aware that having a AAA game that matches the biggest single player games out there only goes so far if no one knows about it. The games we will be competing with for attention have tens and, in some cases, hundreds of millions of dollars of advertising behind them.
Other companies in a similar situation have normally tackled this problem by partnering with a Publisher for the marketing and sales of their game. As you all know I am not in favor of putting my destiny in the hands of a third party. On the other hand, I don’t feel it would be right to go back to all of you to raise funds to market the game to other people; most of you already have a copy earmarked for you and I still strongly feel that the money brought in from our crowdfunding should continue to go to the development of Star Citizen and Squadron 42.
Because of this, we started to investigate ways to raise money to fund the upcoming marketing and release needs of Squadron 42. We turned away some approaches from Private Equity and Venture Capital because we were concerned about them fully understanding what makes our company tick and pushing us towards short term decisions.
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.During this process we were introduced to Clive Calder and his son Keith, who have both been interested in the confluence of entertainment with the ability to directly connect with an audience online. Clive founded the most successful independent music company, Zomba, which was home to some of the biggest music acts in the world. Keith is an independent film producer whose company Snoot Entertainment’s most recent films are the critically acclaimed Blindspotting and the Academy Award-nominated Anomalisa. During our first meeting, we got on like a house on fire, with Clive telling me about how he wished that when he built Zomba you could have connected to the fans of an artist bypassing the myriad of media gatekeepers in the way Star Citizen does, and which wasn’t possible 15 years ago. Keith and I swapped war stories about the film industry and talked about how refreshing it is to be able to utilize crowdfunding to create a project that normally would fly against what is currently considered mainstream.
During the course of these discussions it became clear to me that if Clive and Keith joined us as investors in our company, we’d have true partners that respected what we had built, but also fully understood the ins and outs and the patience required with a business based on creating entertainment. Taking in like-minded partners helps us solve the need of funding the marketing and release of Squadron 42, but also stay attuned to what makes us special.
Externer Inhalt robertsspaceindustries.comInhalte von externen Seiten werden ohne Ihre Zustimmung nicht automatisch geladen und angezeigt.So, it’s with this that I would like to announce that we have closed a minority investment into Cloud Imperium US & UK, from Clive’s family office and Keith’s Snoot Entertainment for $46M for approximately 10% of the shares in the Cloud Imperium US and UK companies, which is a testament to the value, future potential and longevity of the company.
As part of this process we’ve taken on two outside board members. The first is Dan Offner, an experienced lawyer and entrepreneur with over twenty years of experience in Interactive Entertainment, who is Clive and Keith’s board nominee and second is Eli Klein, a long term friend who has been acting as an advisor to the company over the past couple of years.
The control of the company and the board still firmly stays with myself as Chairman, CEO and majority shareholder.
We wouldn’t have taken anyone on board if we didn’t feel that they were fully aligned with our vision, philosophy and could add valuable insight in navigating the business challenges ahead.
This investment helps secure our independence. We may not have the resources that an Activision or EA have to launch one of their tentpole games, but we now control our own destiny in marketing Squadron 42, especially as we have a secret weapon: all of you! Between the power of the best community in gaming to help get the message out and these additional funds we will be well positioned to enable Squadron 42 to enjoy the success that it deserves.
Beyond this, this investment gives Cloud Imperium the ability to take the long view when needed and allows us to grow as a company. I couldn’t be happier.
So I would like to welcome Clive, Keith, Dan and Eli to the Cloud Imperium family, and I look forward to great success with them and all of you.
See you in the ‘Verse!
-Chris Roberts
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/tran…om-The-Chairman
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Writer’s Note: Phantom Bounty: Part Four was published originally in Jump Point 3.4. Read Part One here, Part Two here, and Part Three here.
Mila was a traitor. She’d risked her career as a bounty hunter . . . had betrayed her partner, Rhys, to free Casey. Was it all worth it? Had Casey been telling the truth about her father developing bioweapons?
Mila snuck a glance at Casey as she returned to the co-pilot’s seat. The dark-haired woman offered her a small smile, then harnessed herself into her seat. Mila’s childhood friend. A terrorist.
The emptiness of space loomed before them, nothing but darkness beyond Devana’s forward screen. Mila gripped the controls so tightly her hands ached.
“I’ve managed to mask our signal,” Casey said, “but it’s a temporary fix only. We have a half hour. No more.”
“How . . . ?”
Casey explained the method, and Mila shook her head, partially in awe of the hacking skills required, partially in dismay over the length of the resulting prison sentence if she were caught at it.
“Could have used that trick myself a time or two,” Mila muttered.
“Not if you want to stay on the right side of the law.” Casey cleared her throat. “After this is over. Of course. Just picked up the signal on the scanner. Gotta be my contact. The ship’s waiting a few clicks from the jump point.”
Mila’s hands grew tighter on the controls as she glanced at the scanner screen. Space normally held the dual promises of endless possibility and endless danger . . . but today it held only danger for her.
“Any sign of the Advocacy?” Mila asked tightly.
“Not yet. But . . . they’ll follow. They always do. Get me to my contact, and we’ll execute the plan.”
Mila tried to calm her breathing, but her heart was racing, and she couldn’t make it stop. It was supposed to be simple. Mila would pull up next to the contact ship; Casey would knock her out, then transfer to the other ship. When Rhys and the Advocacy found Mila, she’d tell them Casey took her ship and ran with it. Then everything could go back to normal. Or almost normal. Would Rhys believe the lie? Could she lie to him?
This was stupid. So stupid. She’d acted rashly. There was no way she could lie well enough to convince the Advocacy and Rhys that Casey had somehow escaped the containment pod, overpowered her, and then locked her inside. But Mila didn’t have another solution.
“Straight ahead.” Casey plotted new coordinates, and Mila followed the trajectory.
A long, sleek yacht came into view in front of them. A few thin lights gleamed along the length of the 890’s hull. The owner of this ship had plenty of money; Casey’s contact was the real deal.
“Freelancer,” came a voice over the comm. “State your business.”
Casey replied, “Tell S Whispering Wind approaches.”
“Around which sun does the finest planet orbit?”
“Ilios.”
Mila’s heart skipped a beat and she slammed a hand over the comm, silencing it. “Ilios,” she hissed. “Like the project?”
Casey’s brows rose for a split second, then her expression smoothed. “Exactly like that.”
“I thought you destroyed all that data.”
“S has cleared you for docking,” the comm interrupted, “but we’ll need to scan you at close range.”
Casey pushed Mila’s hand out of the way and hit the comms. “Roger that.”
“Tell me what’s going on,” Mila hissed. “What is this about Ilios?”
Casey sighed. “I can’t tell you about S. Or Ilios. If I did, I’d have to kill you.”
Mila tensed in her seat. There was no hint of humor in Casey’s voice. None. She was serious.
“I risked everything for you!”
“Look . . . all I can say is that People First has friends in high places. They support the cause. But not all friends are created equal. Many do things . . . for their own reasons. And can be persuaded to help if you offer the right terms.”
Mila pulled the ship up beside the much longer 890. “This contact is connected with People First? And what were her terms for you, to get you out of here and betray PF?”
The 890 commed them before Casey could answer. “We detect two life signs in the Freelancer. S says you were supposed to come alone.”
“I needed help getting here,” Casey replied tersely.
“S says both of you must board. Or we leave.”
Casey glanced at Mila with a veiled expression, “I’m sorry to drag you into this. But we both have to go over there.”
“No.” Panic rushed through Mila, and she tightened her grip on the stick. “No way. That wasn’t the deal. You go over. I stay here. Or I’m leaving.”
“Evony.”
“Don’t call me that,” she said through gritted teeth. “My name is Mila now.”
“Mila,” Casey’s voice was low, soothing. “How do you think it’ll look if we fly away now? They’ll shoot us out of existence and jump without a glance back. You have to go over there. I’ll make sure S sends you back here.”
“How will you make sure?”
“I just will. Now suit up. We’re wasting too much time. S definitely won’t be happy if the Advocacy shows up at her door. But I’m pretty sure you understand that.” Casey left her seat and headed back to suit up herself.
Mila stared at the yacht, trying to decide if she could outmaneuver it and escape. But then what? She had to get rid of Casey, not keep her on board. She let out a frustrated sigh, unbuckled, and headed back to her gear. She ignored Casey, not meeting her gaze.
Her injured shoulder, shot by Casey, cried out in pain as she pulled her suit up. She slapped a new numbing patch on it and continued dressing. As she closed the suit up, her hand touched her necklace.
Mila’s heart twisted as she pulled the bronze token over her head. She stared down at it, at the infinity symbol, the special iridescent “good luck” stones dangling from it, and a new wave of regret washed over her.
Rhys had spent some of their last creds on this. To make her happy. Mila took the necklace and tucked it in the space between the bunk and the wall. She didn’t deserve it. And it hadn’t brought her good luck anyway, had it?
When Mila got back to the cargo hold, Casey was suited up, her helmet under one arm.
“Ready?”
“Yeah,” Mila mumbled.
They both latched their helmets on, then Mila depressurized the cargo hold and opened the back ramp. She and Casey pushed off the ramp and drifted toward the 890’s rear lift. When they were inside the empty space, the cage lifted under them, and artificial gravity gently resumed. A light turned green above them, and Casey took off her helmet. Mila did the same.
They stared at the double doors before them, waiting in tense silence.
The doors finally slid open, revealing a broad-shouldered man in a dark grey flight suit. “S will see you now.”
The man stepped into the lift, one hand gripping a pistol, and gestured for Mila and Casey to enter the ship.
Mila squared her shoulders and met the man’s hard glare with one of her own. She wouldn’t be afraid of these thugs. She’d faced off against dozens of wanted criminals and come out on top. She could do it again.
Another pair of guards met them in the next corridor where it widened. One of them patted Casey and Mila down and removed their mobiGlas as the other kept his gun trained on them. When they were satisfied, they led them down the corridor and into a well decorated lounge.
Mila’s eyes darted around. The lounge was on two decks, and more guards looked down at them from behind the rail of the upper deck. By the taste displayed here, Casey’s contact was old money. It could have been owned by Mila’s parents or any of their friends on Terra. Silk panels from Rihlah, famous Terran brocade applied to the benches, a delicate glass and metallic table at the center, and a very impractical glass chandelier hanging from the middle of the ceiling. Iridescent stones decorated the chandelier, and Mila’s hand almost went to the spot where her good luck necklace used to be. They looked just like the stones on it.
Two more guards entered, bringing the total to five on the main deck. Mila’s lips parted as a woman, apparently the mysterious ‘S,’ walked in behind them.
It was the woman from the market stall where Rhys had purchased her necklace.
Mila did a double take. No . . . there were differences. This S was petite, with space-black hair and light blue eyes, just like the woman at the stall. But the woman before her wore a well-tailored suit and robe, not loose skirts. And her hair wasn’t done up in braids, and she didn’t have a nose ring. She looked more . . . well-preserved — her skin smooth, a product of youth treatments. This was not the same woman . . . but Mila would be willing to bet they had some relation to each other.
The woman walked up to them with a smile, and exchanged kisses on the cheek with Casey.
“Brought a friend?” she asked, raising a brow at Mila.
“Like I said. I needed a ride.”
“And who is this?”
Mila didn’t answer, just tried to keep her expression blank. She couldn’t let this woman know she knew anything about her.
“She’s just an old friend of mine,” Casey said, her voice light.
The woman’s eyes darkened, her polite demeanor fading a fraction. She gestured to one of the guards.
“Come with me, Elaine. Let us talk over here.”
Casey followed her to an ottoman near the center of the room, while the guard grabbed Mila’s arm and pulled her to the edge of the space and out of earshot of Casey and S’s quiet conversation. Did S know who Casey was originally? She’d called her Elaine, the name she’d used on Tevistal.
The two of them engaged in an intense, quiet talk for a few minutes and then Casey lifted the sleeve of her suit and peeled off a piece of her skin. False skin. Mila went cold at the sight of it. Casey hadn’t mentioned any hidden data . . . or details on the price for her passage. Casey scraped a chip from the skin and passed it to S.
Casey was selling data, probably Phan Pharmaceutical data. Had she lied about everything? Was she just stealing data to sell to competitors? Anger started to bloom in Mila’s chest, and she fought to keep her mouth shut. All that mattered now was that Mila get out of this alive and unscathed.
Casey finished her transaction and returned to Mila.
“What was that?” Mila hissed.
Casey’s expression was tight. “She’ll let you go back to your ship just as soon as she checks my payment.”
A new guard ran through the door. “Madame. The Advocacy was spotted by our scout. We need to jump. Now.”
“Wait — no.” Mila looked toward the door they’d come in. “Send me back. Send me back now.”
S shot them a glare and gestured to the guard behind Mila. “Take them each to a room until after the jumps.”
Jumps. This was starting to get a lot more complicated.
“Let me go back to my ship!” Mila’s voice rose.
Casey dug her nails into Mila’s hand and leaned close, whispering. “They won’t let you now. Keep it together if you want to survive this.”
Mila lurched to the side, trying to make a desperate run back out to her ship.
The guards closed in on her, grabbed both her arms, and dragged her the other way. She went limp, no longer fighting it as the realization of what had happened sunk in.
They took her up a flight of stairs and opened the first door they came to, pushing her inside.
“Harness up. We’ll be jumping soon,” one of the guards said.
The door slid closed and she heard the lock engage. Mila took a panicked look around the small room, and then sank down in the jump seat. Tears brimmed in her eyes as she buckled in. She’d messed up.
She’d always been able to get out of scraps before. Always. But not this time. She just kept sinking deeper into a pit that appeared to have no bottom.
The ship hummed softly as it powered up, and in mere minutes she felt the woozy sensation of the first jump. Another soon followed, and Mila’s hope died as they travelled further and further away from her ship.
When the Advocacy found the empty Devana . . . they’d know. They’d know she’d helped Casey escape. They’d think she was working with her.
And it would be true.
The stomach-lurching feeling of the third jump let Mila know her old life was over for good. Now she was a criminal . . . on the run. She could try to say Casey had kidnapped her, but why would she have? There was no good way out of this. And Rhys knew the truth; he’d known about their shared past. If the Advocacy pressed him . . .
Would Mila even get off this ship alive?
When the yacht powered down, Mila unharnessed herself and paced the small room.
Hours passed, and a guard brought Mila food and water. The reconstituted food tasted like death, like a last meal before the end, and a terrible one at that. She could barely wrap her mind around what she’d done — how much her life had changed in just a few hours. Then the locks disengaged on her door again, and she turned as it slid open.
Casey slipped through and quickly closed it. “The guards are busy . . . for the moment. This might be our only chance to talk.”
“You lied to me. You knew.”
“No. I didn’t. I’d hoped to get you back to the ship.”
“I can never go back now, Casey. Not ever.”
“Shh. I’m Elaine here.” Casey looked completely calm, unbothered by the fact that Mila’s entire life was hanging in the balance.
Mila rushed Casey and shoved her against the metal wall. “They’re not gonna let me walk out of here, are they? I’m an unknown entity. I was never supposed to be here.”
Casey winced with pain and her forehead creased with worry. “S — Sybil — will make sure she knows who you are before she lets you leave now. And when she finds out you’re a bounty hunter . . .”
“Well, I think I know something about her. There was this woman selling trinkets at the market—”
“A younger sister. You don’t say a word about knowing anything, understand? She’ll kill you if she thinks you know anything about her. She operates under the illusion that we don’t know anything.”
Mila backed away from Casey, feeling dizzy. “You lied to me. You’re selling data—”
“Not bioweapons! When we do jobs, we collect harmless, or even beneficial, research and sell it to fund our cause. But I’m funding my escape with it this time.”
“What is it? What did you just sell?” Mila’s voice rose as she spoke, and she tried to calm herself down, but her mind was racing.
“The formula for a medical treatment that hasn’t been patented yet.”
“How can I believe that?”
“Look, we don’t have time for this.” Casey placed her hands on Mila’s shoulders, forcing her to look her in the eyes. “You know about her family. She’s going to find out about you. There’s no way she’s letting you just go back to your regular life now. You have one choice.”
Mila shrugged off Casey’s hands. “What?”
“You come with me. I’m going to try to convince her to let us disappear together.”
“No!” Mila began to pace the room again. “I can’t just . . . leave the Empire.”
“If you stay — you just freed me and left your ship stranded next to a jump point. They’ll know you helped me. You have no other choice.”
“You think I don’t know what it looks like? You have to help me get off of here. Have them drop me off somewhere so I can . . . somehow make it right.”
“You know too much! About me — about PF — about Sybil.”
Red crowded around the edges of Mila’s vision, and it took everything she had not to wrap her hands around Casey’s neck and squeeze. “I helped you. You’d be dead if it wasn’t for me. You have to help me fix this. Help me get out of here.”
Casey folded her arms across her chest and glanced back toward the door. “I can’t.”
“You. Will.”
“They’ll catch you—”
“And it won’t matter to you either way. You’ll be long gone, hiding in Xi’an territory.”
Casey met Mila’s eyes and sighed. “Fine. Get yourself killed if that’s what you want.” She reached into her suit pocket and pulled out a translucent swipe card.
“Stole it off a guard.” Casey smiled ruefully. “This should get you into the corridor at the end of this one. They have a little 85X there. I know we’re stopping at a planet soon. Backwater, but plenty of places to hide. I’ll distract the guards for you. When I knock twice on your door, wait five minutes, then it’s time for you to go.”
Mila stared down at the card in her hand.
“Thank you again, for helping me. I owe you my life.” Casey wrapped her in a quick hug that Mila didn’t return. “I really am sorry. Try to be safe.” Casey gave her one last sad smile. “If you change your mind . . .”
“No,” Mila said, her voice breaking. “I’m going to fix this.”
The knocks came after Mila had given up on Casey ever following through.
Two knocks.
Mila grabbed her helmet off the floor and hugged it to her chest.
Heart pumping a chaotic rhythm in her chest, Mila waited through five tense minutes, then swiped the card Casey had given her. The door slid open to reveal an empty corridor beyond. She barely breathed as she gingerly stepped into the corridor and looked both ways. She turned right, as Casey had directed her to, and hurried toward the end. It curved right, taking her to a new door.
She said a quick prayer to the Banu god of luck that the room beyond would be empty, then scanned the card.
The door opened into a hangar bay. The 85X sat at the center of it.
An alarm sounded, and red lights began to flash in the bay.
Mila was sweating freely as she latched her helmet on.
“Hey!”
Someone tackled her from behind, shoving her down on the floor. She fought back, twisting in the man’s grasp until she saw him face to face. A guard, the one who had warned Sybil about the Advocacy’s arrival.
Mila slammed a gloved fist into his unprotected face, and he stumbled backward. She desperately climbed forward, trying to get into the 85X cockpit, but the guard followed her.
Depressurize Bay. The small words flashed in the corner of the cockpit’s interface. As the guard grabbed her leg, she hit the button on the screen. A whole new set of alarms joined the ongoing din. The man’s eyes widened, and he scrambled away from her, toward the hangar door. He scanned his key card, trying to make it open, but it was sealed shut. He would die if she didn’t do something.
Mila paused the depressurization and lurched out of the ship. She crashed into the man, seeking the pistol he held in his grip. She slammed an elbow into his gut again, and he released the gun. She picked it up and trained it on him.
“Last chance to get out!” she yelled. He stared at her wild eyed and scanned his card again.
This time the door opened. Several guards waited beyond, but he yelled something to them and they didn’t try to enter.
The door slid shut, and Mila climbed back into the ship, tossing the pistol into the seat beside her.
She brought up the Starmap, her hands shaking with adrenaline, praying that it would display more than a void. They were in orbit over a settled world! She chose a landing site to the west of the closest city. She could abandon the ship there, hide in the wooded hills, wait it out until she was sure Sybil and her guards had given up waiting for her to emerge. She chose her destination, and then completed the prep sequence.
The countdown began. She harnessed herself into the seat as the hangar bay opened, revealing black space behind.
She throttled up and took off, leaving the 890 behind.
Mila headed directly planetside, sparing little attention for the ship at her back. If they shot up the runabout, she would have no more worries herself. There was nothing she could do but speed to her landing site.
She pictured Rhys. His handsome face, his reassuring words, the way he’d held her. That smirk she’d probably never see again unless she got caught or found a way to fix this impossible situation.
As she entered the planet’s atmosphere, she spared the time for a few tears.
A few days ago she’d been hunting the Phantom.
Now she needed to become one.
Five Months Later
Mila wove her way through dark alleyways, keeping her head down, a hood concealing her face. A lock of her newly short-cropped blonde hair fell into her eyes, and she blinked as it irritated them. The green colored contacts she wore felt dry, scratchy. But at least from afar she wouldn’t be recognized.
She glanced back at a huddle of transients gathered round a rusty heater, and turned down the next alley. She’d reached the hostel sector.
It was dangerous being back in Tevistal so soon after the Incident, but she’d run out of options and time. A dozen small-time jobs had funded her existence along the way, but now there were even more bounties on her head.
She’d been hunted for months, had been nearly caught, but so far she’d always gotten away. And this was the one place they’d probably never expect her to return.
Mila gritted her teeth and walked down the dark alley between two hostels. A cracked globe flickered, guiding her to a hostel entrance. She pushed open the door, and the scent of piss wafted over her. It barely registered. This place was only half as filthy as most of the places she’d slept the past few months.
Voices rang through the thin metal walls. Arguments. The sound of two people moaning and grunting. An old vid playing at full blast.
Mila found an unoccupied room and went inside. Dim sensor lights lit up the room. The place had a film of filth coating it, but it would do.
She shut the door behind her and activated the second-hand mobiGlas on her wrist. Her hacking program did a quick job of activating the RoomTab. The lights and power came on in response, and she pulled her mobi away. It would stay on until she ran her program again. No creds needed. Which was good, because she didn’t have many left.
A glance around the now well-lit room brought a flood of memories back. The pain came with it, weighing Mila down. She sank to the dirty mattress.
She and Rhys had tracked the Phantom to a room like this once.
Mila did something she hadn’t done for weeks. She brought up the news search she’d saved to her mobiGlas, to see if anything had changed since she’d last checked.
PHAN PHARMACEUTICAL CEO UNDER INVESTIGATION
She rewatched the vid of Casey’s father being arrested with the sound turned off. Owen Phan’s face was the same regal countenance she remembered from growing up. When Mila had first heard that the truth about the biological weapons had leaked, it had been a relief to learn that Casey had at least been telling the truth about that. And even more importantly, Mila’s mother had been kept completely clear of the breaking scandal. Knowing that Phan wouldn’t be making weapons anymore was the only glimmer of light in these recent dark days.
Almost without thinking, Mila accessed another archived news story.
An image of herself flashed in the air before her. Or at least what Mila used to look like. It was the photo the Advocacy had been using on her bounty.
EVONY SALINAS CHARGED WITH AIDING AND ABETTING “THE PHANTOM”
The article speculated on the nature of the terrorism, on the relationship between Mila’s parents and Phan Pharmaceuticals, and on Mila’s motives. Even with the revelation of the biological weapons it hadn’t changed the fact that the Phantom had wreaked havoc for months. Casey, and by association Mila, were still considered criminals.
The article had included a small photo of Rhys as well. He had been held for questioning, but with no proof of any wrongdoing on his part he had eventually been released.
Mila reread the final line.
Evony Mila Salinas is still at large, with several bounties on her head for crimes ranging from petty theft to terrorism.
She scanned back up to see Rhys’s face one more time, but it was like a knife through her heart. She turned off the mobi.
She needed to get to Xi’an territory fast, and she only knew of one woman who could get her there. Sybil.
But she’d been unable to dig up anything useful on the woman. All she knew was that she was related to that peddler who had sold trinkets in the Tevistal market square on Pilgrim’s Day. So that’s who Mila needed to find. Sybil might have her guards shoot Mila on sight after what she’d done . . . but Sybil had helped Casey — for a price.
And Mila was desperate enough to pay just about any price Sybil asked. She’d learned a few weeks ago that Rhys was hunting her down, trying to bring her in, that her time was running out.
Maybe . . . maybe if he did find her again in Xi’an territory, free of Advocacy influence, she could explain. She could hope for his forgiveness, if nothing more.
But until then, she’d be a Phantom. Doing what she needed to stay free.
THE END
Quelle: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/seri…ounty-Part-Four