MOD:WCU:PR0

Privateer Zero Origins of the Steltek Hypothesis, and of the Church of Man.

Preface

This project began as part of Starlord's proposed "WC Zero". Starlord's original idea, actually, did not include any privateering; it was me (chuck_starchaser) who first proposed ties to Privateer within WC0. Starlord's idea was to play Ripper/Bossman (Chen) from McAuliffe to Custer's Carnival. But according to the Timeline, Ripper graduates in 2637; and that's a problem because McAuliffe takes place 3 years earlier, in 2634. I then proposed that perhaps we should make Bossman a privateer prior to his graduation. Starlord liked the idea, but Maverick later expressed reservations about playing Bossman, and particularly about mixing Privateer and WC gameplay paradigms. I felt we could work out the paradigm shift, but I also realised that, as a privateer, Bossman might be a pirate at the time of getting his Confed Flight Academy graduation, which would make absolutely no sense. At the time of this writing I'm still waiting for a response by Starlord to my email, but assuming he will agree, here I begin to put together a separate Privateer Zero page.

UPDATE:

Starlord just expressed a bit of sadness at letting go of the idea of combining privateering and fleet combat. I suggested to him that I feel the same way, and that perhaps the best way to go is to elaborate Priv 0 and WC 0 further, separately, and leaving open the question of combining them or separating them. So, officially, as of this writing, I'll be working on the Priv 0 storyline while trying not to preclude either possibility.

Game style

Privateer Zero is intended to be fairly similar in gameplay to Privateer and Righteous Fire. A few differences are noted, however:

• Base interiors to be similar in looks to the original Privateer but modelled in 3D and including more places to go:
  • A door marked "Concourse" leading to a space with all the additional doors as per below:
  • SIM: A door leading to an arcade-like place where the player can practise dogfighting or take gunner/pilot courses.
  • Militia: A place to get jobs advertised by the (local) militias
  • Confed: A place to get jobs advertised by the confeds (or by confed militias)
  • News: A place to read news and electronic magazines
  • Parking: Where ships are kept :)
  • Travel: A place to buy tickets to travel to other places aboard shuttles.
  • Administration: Where the base or planet's governor works. Most of the time, this door is locked.
• No jump drives: Back in the 2630's and 40's, jump drives were big and bulky, and could not fit in small ships. Note that in the 2660's a big change takes place: First the Broadsword appears in 2665, featuring a jump drive. The Broadsword is officially a "heavy bomber", though. By 2667, two more medium-small ships appear with jump drives: The Crossbow bomber and the Morningstar heavy fighter. This miniaturization revolution is completed by 2669 with the Confed's Excalibur, and the availability of installable jump drives for private ships, at least in Gemini. But, to get back to the pre-war era of Privateer Zero, the large size of jump drives makes them unsuitable for small ships, such that only medium size cargo ships like the Drayman, and frigates like Caernavens, can sport one. And what this means for gameplay is that, until the player owns a larger ship, he or she must rely on a larger ship to go across systems. This is not a problem, because most jobs for small ships are escort jobs, and the escorted ship must have docking space for its escorts, precisely to get its escorts across jumps. And the player can hire a cargo ship, as well... See next point.
• Cargo ships can be hired, like in Privateer 2.
• Escort docking expansion can be installed in cargo and other larger ships.
• If your ship has turrets, you can hire gunners for them (temporary or permanent).
• If you don't have a ship, such as at the start of Privateer Zero, you can get a job as turret gunner.
• New job types, such as exploration, and transporting passengers, a la Fronteer Elite.
• New buyable items, such as "treasure maps" at pirate bases.
• Multiple choice conversations: being able to ask pre-canned questions, etceteras.

Privateer Zero Universe and Background

The map includes the entire WC universe map (LOAF's map), from Avalon to Landreich; however, most of the story takes place in or near Gemini. Many of the systems in Gemini won't have been settled, or even explored yet. Thus, there will be a need to be able to add systems, jump points and stations as the story progresses.

A lot of stuff is happening that the player may never come to realize or understand without analytical effort. Here I will explain what's going on in detail, and therefore you should NOT read it; as it may be a terrible spoiler...

Characters

• Deiter Lang: "Spice merchant", food tycoon, influential among the pirates based on Drake, Sherwood. Main distributor for the planet Palan, both for its food and spice products. "Spice" isn't just any spice, though: When people say "spice" they mean "THE spice". A nut similar to nutmeg, used in fine cuisine, but whose concentrated extract is used in the production of Ultimate. Spice grows in very few planets, in the entire Confederation; --Palan being one of them. Besides Ultimate destilleries in secret pirate bases, the main consumer of Spice is exiled Pilgrims in hidden systems. Damien Lang made his fortunes in piracy and racketeering, but is now trying to become a food and spice tycoon. Deiter Lang's son, Damien, will take over Deiter's food empire, after his father's violent death. Later in the story, Deiter forges a truce between the Drake pirates and the Merchants Guild, acquiring greatly favored status with both parties, and helping him choke off Romulo Lynch's access to cheap food, and drastically cutting his profits.
• Romulo Lynch: A business tycoon, but fair; a man of his word, and not a gangster at all. (The same will not be true of his young son, Roman, or of his nephew, Regis, when they grow up; but that's far in the future...). Mr. Romulo Lynch has gradually acquired a near monopoli in Gemini's asteroid mining industry. His company, Lynch Mining, legally owns almost half of all asteroid mining bases in Gemini, including over two thirds of those producing gems and iron. Iron's main consumer, however, is the Terran Confederation, for the production of durasteel, which is what most ships are made of in pre-war times. This is a bit uncomfortable for Mr. Lynch, in the sense that just as he has a near monopoli of production, the Confed has a near monopoli of consumption. This is not the kind of "free market" paradigm that's good for stable profits; it's an unstable situation that can lead to stalmates or deal breakdowns. And the Confeds have a Secret Service that's known to be dangerous. Therefore lynch would like to "diversify", while at the same time softening the immediate impact of floating prices of ores on Confed shipyards: Rather than try to get total mining and refining monopoli, Lynch plans to go into banking and lending, so as to be able to legally lend money to the Confed. He will at some point start a company called Lynch Trust, such that he can let the prices of ores rise and fall as per offer and demand, but be able to say to the Confed "Uhm.. The price of iron is higher this week than it will probably be next week, but I can lend you the difference, and you can pay me back when the price goes down". The trick will work, --too well, in fact; but he will get greedy and try to hook other parties on credit also. But his more serious problems will commence after he founds the company Lynch Shipping. He will fall out of grace with the Merchants Guild... which will cause the price of food at the bases he controls to rise, affecting his mining profits. He will try to address this problem by taking control of Bronte Corporation, a non-producing, food-producers' consortium, based in New Detroit...
• Young Lemuel Monkhouse and Masterson: Freshmen Oxford students. They look a bit crazy, hippyish, and firmly believe the Steltek Hypothesis (and talk about just nothing else); and insist that artifacts and remains of the Steltek have been uncovered by the dozens, but that the Confed keep supressing the news and confiscating evidence. Legends about the Steltek have survived among the Varni and Smopok: The Steltek learned, from painful first-hand experience, that most civilizations will eventually self-destroy; that the key to avoid self-destruction is to exercise control of their own technological advances. Although they live in isolation at the core of the galaxy, the Steltek try to help other civilizations wisen up, by using "agents", which are usually robots made to resemble a typical member of the civilization they infiltrate. The work of the agents is benign, Monkhouse and Masterson believe, and amounts to raising public awareness. Steltekers have achieved physical immortality, and don't aim to conquer other civilizations, because they believe that diversity is good for the galactic ecology. They do, however, collect genetic samples of races they encounter, and had been doing that with humans long before the latter became space faring. Monkhouse and Masterson want to help the Steltek agents by spreading the word about the Steltek, and their story; and have founded a small club, called "The Steltekers' Club". So far, at the beginning of Priv Zero, they are the club's only two members.
• Miss Smithers: Librarian at Oxford and friend of Madamme Silverspring.
• Madamme Silverspring: A rich widow who is one of the main funding benefactors of Oxford. She's taken a liking to these kids, Masterson and Monkhouse, and is willing to pay for whatever services they need in the pursuit of their interest in the Steltek.
• Andropolos Belisarius: An officer within the secret Black Ops branch of the Confed. No one knows his age, or about his past; few know that he even exists, let alone seen him face to face. He appears to believe that only through constant war a technological race can evolve and prevail. He founded the Belisarius Group, of which group almost no one has yet heard about, except its own members. Andropolos is believed to be able to read minds, and is said to have killed former members of the Belisarius Group for lying to him, even about some insignificant detail. The group is small, in numbers, but highly efficient. They were active instigators of the Pilgrim War. They are planning to instigate a war with the Kilrathi, but presently are trying to delay its starting time, as they believe the kilrathi aren't a strong enough oponent to guarantee a lasting war. First they want to set up a spy network to help them out, should they need help. This spy network, drawn from pirate groups and secret service officers, will later be known as the Mandarins.
• Craig Bodeno: Administrator with the Exploratory Service, headquartered in Basra, Palan. Well dressed, soft spoken and amiable on the surface. He has the power to control which explored systems are put into the official maps, and which are to remain hidden. He is Secret Service, and a member of Belisarius Group. His main job is to climb up the ladder of power in the ES and remain a sleeper there until his help is needed. But later in the story he will become a bit of a spy-master, keeping tabs on the Steltekers Club.
• Young cadet Leanne Mullings: A fresh recruit with the Confed Militias, her kill scores are rising so rapidly that some of the more senior officers with the militia decide to frame her in order to end her career. Their plan succeeds and she has no choice but to become a fugitive and a pirate. In Drake, she meets Deiter Lang, who helps her get a new identity, "Lynn Murphy", in exchange for her becoming his personal pilot/body-guard. After Deiter's death, she finds a job with the Merchants' Guild, and will eventually become the Lanes and Safety officer.
• Benjamin Galliot: Young employee at Exploratory Services, at the start of the storyline. A bit crazy. When Craig Bodeno receives orders to watch the Steltekers Club, he promotes Ben to Administrative Assistant and sends him to penetrate the Steltekers Club. Ben enrolls at Oxford, befriends Masterson and Monkhouse, and promises them he can get access to ES ships and jump point analysis equipment and computers, to help look for Steltek remains in unexplored systems. Later in the game, the Belisarius Group are concerned about the Steltekers' rising popularity, and ask Bodeno to use his plant to control or derail the Steltekers' Club. Ben at first tries to moderate Stelteker ideology. When that fails, he gets instructions to go the other way and turn it into an extremist ideology, opposing all technology. When that also fails, he splits the Steltekers and founds the Church of Man, changing his name to Father Bennegelli. He no longer answers to Craig Bodeno. Craig thinks his spy has gone crazy, but what has actually happened is that Belisarius have taken direct control of him. Much later, when he comes to know that the Steltek actually exist, and to understand the intentions of Belisarius, he refuses to cooperate, so they try to kill him and replace him with an engineer from Black Ops Research and Development. Ben escapes to the Fariss Quadrant, where he meets Deiter. Deiter helps him get a new identity, Hunter Toth; and learns from him about the Steltek. He then launches on a crusade to try and obtain Steltec relics, believing that they can give him an edge in trying to iron an arms deal with the Confed.
• Young Warrant Officer Terrel: Boss of Confed Decomissionings division at a Confed base in some system in Avalon. When asked by the Secret Service to write off ships as having been recycled that were actually being siphoned off, he requests transfer. He is refused transfer, so he threatens to blow the whistle unless transfer is granted. Transfer is then granted, but he fears for his life, so he hires a privateer to escort him to his new base, Perry. This will be a difficult mission, as the attacking Black Ops pilots are aces.
• Menesch: Lawyer, and former Secret Service agent, hired because of family links to important people; fired for his ineptitude. His gift for speaking out of both sides of his mouth and promising the moon to more than one party, leads him first to mediating deals between enemy factions, and later to politics. His political career gets heavy funding from shady quarters within Confed. Money laundering is an art and a science, and what better way than to have a corrupt guy at the top of a whole administrative chain? He gets elected, with a bit of ballot fraud, to governor of a planet in the same system in Avalon where Confed Decomissionings has the space station where Terrel is Warrant Officer. Then he begins the heavy transfer of Confed Talons to pirates, --at the beginning only accepting pay in gems, but eventually accepting any form of payment; and he gets caught, thrown out of office, and charged with corruption of every sort. He escapes across Gemini to the Grovsner Colonies; --a legal heaven for pirates and Mandarins. During his stay in Grovsner he meets Mandarins who introduce him to Khal. He is also noticed by Belisarius agents, who, much later in the story, will propose to him to become the arms supplier for the Retros. While he was in office in Avalon, and accepting only gems as payment, pirates become very selective in their merchant shipping attacks, looking for cargos of gems above all else. It is at this time that the Merchants Guild decides to refuse transportation of gems for Lynch, and Lynch decides to found Lynch Shipping; --at the beginning just to get the gems moving, but later to save costs on iron shipments as well, leading to the Merchants Guild cutting him off, etceteras.

Organizations

• AVR Ships: Ship sales and repairs, Gemini monopoli, headquartered in New Detroit. In spite of its monopoli status, their situation isn't as good as it might appear. Few have patience to save money towards a Centurion purchase while avoiding the temptation to get a Talon in the black market; and their sales of Orions and Galaxies have been dropping as more buyers prefer to buy Demons from Enigma, or Draymans from Sol. Another problem is their inability to finance purchases: Most financial institutions avoid financing ship purchases, in light of the high risks involved, given the extent of piracy in Gemini.
• Belisarius: See Andropolos Belisarius, above.
• Rondell: Founded by the original settlers of Palan. Over time, one client comes to dominate their exports: Deiter Lang. At one point they become alarmed that Lang appear posed to buy Rondell, and they decide to IPO the corporation as a public company. To their dismay Lang buys most of the shares at the IPO. The trend of producing less food and more "spice" continues. Many citizens of Palan feel queasy about their spice output being mostly for Ultimate production at pirate bases. On the other hand, they enjoy the fact that their planet and system is largely spared from piracy. Later they feel equally ambiguous about Rondell's growth and its acquisitions of many other food producing companies around Gemini; and the growing use of slave labor at those other agricultural planets. On the other hand, they enjoy the full employment that Rondell provides at their own planet. Being often mentioned as the planet with the largest share of business with the Merchants Guild is a source of pride that helps forget the other details.
• Bronte: A food producers consortium created by non-aligned food producers to help each other remain out of the clutches of growing Rondell. Later in the story, Romulo Lynch first becomes their benefactor, and eventually owns Bronte. That's after Lynch's fall out with the Merchants Guild.
• Corcoran: Corcoran was a small refinery until Romulo Lynch became its main shareholder. It was his first step in a plan to monopolize the production of durasteel from iron ore. His action caused share prices of refineries to more than double over the next month; but Lynch quietly abandons the plan, though he keeps his Corcoran shares. His change of heart came when he realised that having a durasteel production monopoli was of little use, when the Confed shipyards had a near monopoli of consumption...
• Confeds (political branch):
• Confeds (military branch):
• Exploratory Service:
• Merchants Guild:
• Mercenaries Guild:
• Militias (confed):
• Militias (local):
• Pirate base Drake:
• Pirate base KM252:
• Pirate base Pentonville:
• Secret Service:
• Y-12: