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[Blackrat]

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Introduction

They burned the sky!

You were on the last transport from ISS to colonyship Unity. Looking through the window you saw the black ship appearing from nowhere, immediatily opening fire at Earth. It seemed to launch thousands of glowing missiles that exploded as they reached the athmosphere. Zeus and Juno tried desperatily to harm the ship but to no avail. Your last image of Earth was a burning planet in the background as Zeus rammed the black planetkiller, and then it was gone as your transport docked with Unity...

It's been over a decade since Earth was caught in the middle of Areq'dah civil war and destroyed but the vision haunts your dreams still. You grew on this barren rock, in colony-station Unity listening to freighterpilots telling stories of the wonders of the universe:

-About Earth. How it's covered by a red cloud which no sensor can penetrate.

-About Areq'dah killing themselves to almost extinction in their civil war.

-About Galactic Rebuplic of Free Stars, formed by the former slave-races of Areq'dah imperium, and how they overthrew their distracted masters.

Unity

Unity is a colony of about 60 thousand humans, situated in an asteroid-belt in the star system Idar. In the same system is the homeplanet of Korg, a race of philosophers who look a bit like mythological minotaurs. Unity is divided in three facilities sitting atop the three largest asteroids in the belt. Most of the asteroids in there are full of vanadium and so Unity has a rich mining industry. And because of this, Unity has very good trade-relations with many worlds.

The ruling body, Council of Unity consist of twenty elected councilors, but it is widely rumored that the true ruler of Unity would be Vincent Angel, the richest human in the universe, owner of Angel Industries, which in turn owns much of the mining corporations and trading companies on Unity and other colonies.

The Black Hole is the favourite tavern of the pilots in Unity. It's the place where many of the colony's kids spend most of their time, listening to the pilots telling stories of what they've seen on the other side of the universe. Black Hole's owner is actually a Korg named Shrew. He is big even for a Korg and can be quite a frightening sight when angried but he is peaceful and very friendly by nature. It is here where you (a group of friends who grew up listening to his stories) met and eventually befriended Stewie, an old freighter-pilot who decided to retire from flying and founded the Far-Star trading company. He has given you the command of his old ship and an adventurous job in the company. And the Council has given you the status of privateers: you may prey upon any ship that isn't part of Unity's fleet and you will always have a safe haven to return to, as long as you pay ten percent of your raiding profits to Unity.

Rebuplic of Free Stars and other stuff

Travel between stars happens trough a jumpgate-network (quite similar to the Babylon 5 series).

Humankind is divided into factions by allegience to the 21 colonies. (Kind of like nations) none of the colonies are currently at open war with one-another but the covert war of spies, sabotage and raiding the trade-lines is going strong.

The government of Moonbase, the biggest of the colonies, declared itself as representive of humanity in The Rebuplic of Free Stars. They try to give orders and make laws for every colony but in truth they don't have any authority over the rest 80% of humankind.

The Rebuplic consists of so called younger races that haven't yet exceeded progress level 7, with couple exceptions. Every member-race has right to govern it's own people as they see fit. There is however a special military organization that has a mandate to maintain peace across the Rebuplic.

The elder races, who have vast emprires beyond the influence-area of the Rebuplic, are mysterious and mostly strange creatures to behold. Some of them visit the Rebuplic from time to time. Their reasons for doing this remains a mystery. It is speculated that inside their borders lives many more younger races who are still unknown to the Rebuplic.

There are rumours of even older, almost god-like species who go about on their own businesses, not even noticing others.

Private freighter Gold Greed.

Type: Ultralight              Size: Colossal (-8 size)
Subtype: Fast freighter       Tactical Speed: 3,500 ft. (7 sq.)
Defense: 9                    Length: 185 feet
Flatfooted Defense: 6         Weight: 500 tons
Autopilot Defense: 5          Targeting System Bonus: 3
Hardness: 30                  Crew: 4
Hit Dice: 20d20 (400hp)       Passenger Capacity: 4
Initiative Modifer: 5         Cargo Capacity: 350 tons
Pilot's Class Bonus: 4        Grapple Modifier: +16
Pilot's Dex Modifier: 3     
Gunner's Attack Bonus: 4     

Attack: 
2 firelinked needle drivers 12d12 (78) range 4000 or 
2 needle drivers 8d12 (52) range 4000

Power core: Fission reactor.
Engines: Ion engine, thrusters
Armour: Vanadium
Defense Systems: Autopilot, magnetic shield, radiation shield,sensor jammer
Sensors: Class III sensor array, targeting system
Communications: Radio transceiver, laser transceiver
Weapons: 2 firelinked needle drivers 
Grappling Systems: Grapplers

Star Map

about the ship

the hatches #2 and #3 are actually in the ceiling. This floorplan doesn't include the cargohold which infact surrounds the maindeck. In the upper hold there is also four storage-rooms of which one will be fitted as med-bay.