I'm posting this here because I want my big new update to be at the top of the next page. Terribly sorry about that. In case anyone does notice/care, I'll add some content:
The Starfarer known as Starlight was typical of many a space-drifter. He had worked his way up to posession of a Falcon class Cruiser, which, being of a handy bent, he organised his crew into re-engineering during long FTL flights into the uncharted regions of the sector and the dark space between systems where valuable resources may still hide. Ever extending the endurance and performance of the vessel, the crew struck out deep.
Eventually, by sheerest chance, far away from any known historical traffic lane, in the dark of inter-system space, amidst a drift of forsaken rocky debris, the ship's jury-rigged long-range sensors registered an incredibly strong metallic return.
It was here in the dark where Starlight found it; A vast drifting hulk. A space-borne industrial arcology, rent open by some ancient violent cataclysm, it's vast hulk peppered with the craters from exotic energy weapons discharge. Of its apparently human makers, there was no sign but drifting ash in the vacuum.
Entering the depths of the hulk, moving through the dusty haze left by its former inhabitants and their living spaces, floating through that vaporised, burnt remnants of long-forgotten life suspended like a mist of forgotten memories, Starlight found his fortune, at the very least.
It isn't known what happened on that hulk. It isn't known what killed half of Starlight's trusted crew and tore his Falcon asunder. It's known only that Starlight returned to civilisation with a vessel almost unrecognisable as half of a Falcon, patched together with unknown midline technology.
Starlight apparently called in every favour he had and even as hungry corporate and governance eyes fell upon and begun to take a look at the curious equipment on his salvaged starship, he was soon off again into the depths of space, calling upon his friends and allies to aid in the obfuscation of his trail as he mounted an opportunistic expedition.
Nothing was heard of Starlight for many months. That was until he opened for business.
In a quiet portion of an asteroid belt just off the beaten track, Starlight had quietly built an industrial complex in the midst of the heavy mostly-iron rocks. Making use of retrieved manufacturing equipment and the local space-borne resources, he and his allies had quickly built up a little shipbuilding empire, self-sufficient and well defended with newly constructed ships and an extensive network of traps and sensors.
Starlight was no longer worth the trouble to attack, not with things they way they were and besides, if the mega-corporations and government bodies wanted access to these newly rediscovered technologies, it was now cheaper to buy then to try and take.
The Ark itself has never been found by anyone else and Starlight, despite some serious efforts having been made over the years, isn't telling.
Starlight mostly keeps to himself, building up his little industrial asteroid community, where a liberal attitude usually holds sway, but troubles are not welcomed. He has been known to actively intervene where slavers and pirates are concerned however.
The Jade Claw Cartel appeared around a year after Starlight opened for business. Spreading insidiously about the sector, the Cartel made a fortune with ingenious boot-legging and black-marketing schemes. Soon, worringly, they were everywhere.
The Jade Claw Cartel has been Starlight's most active opponent, continually stepping up both overt and covert warfare against the Shipwright and his community. Over recent years, they have apparently begun to manufacture their own ships.
Experts are unable to determine where these designs came from, but they share some design principles with Starlight's retrieved technologies - as well as with technologies far more recently developed. It is not known has this has been accomplished or by exactly whom, as much of the Cartel's upper structure can only be guessed at.
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Topic: Starlight's Starships, v0.9.7.1 (Faction Standings, HullMods, minor fixes.) (Read 71293 times)