Whisper likes this post.

Xfire Exporter:
http://export.xfire.com/

If the exporter is too slow for you, try the following.

http://swe.profile.xfire.com/profile/usernamehere/
/
To view and or screenshot your profile.
Yes you can navigate. Though some links may 404.
Fullsize screenshots and video may not be available.

Today I tried to log into Xfire.
In 2005, I joined Xfire about the same time that I picked up a discount copy of freelancer from Gamestop.
With the death of Xfire as I knew it, 10 yrs of fond memories have surfaced.
The joy, disappointment and anger over the whole Hunters Association mess.
The creation and struggle to maintain the Vanguard Federation of Freelancers.
The Fall and resurrection of The Lancers Reactor.
The creation of this very site (The Starport).
The recent demise of the -=EOA=- Players Consortium.
Microsoft pulling support and discontinuing the gunserver and the the creation of the fllistserver.
The dear cryosphere that is beginning to crumble.
The Freelancers Datapad, FlHook, Freelancer Clubhouse! - gone.

I could go on, but it would take to long.

Old friends:
Achilles of Doom
Predator & The Raven Clan - I still count myself among their ranks
Angel
Nemesis
the C.A.F. of which I was proud to be a member
Mutilator / Wyrmblight and his acerbic wit
DragoonX - he struggled constantly with his dyslexia and I was proud to know him
Rebel
Recon
Boltar - all seeing pain in the ass
captain_flint
Darth Malignant
GeneralDraxus
Goth~Chryis
GreyMark
Haunt
Hybrid
Iron_Mechanic
Lucid
Lynx
Necromancer
Odin
Okla08
Poseidon67
RavenLore
Sardaukar101
Sedition
Stupur
Viper420
Undertow / xXUndertowXx aka UdderToe
[IDL]Stranger530
[OC] Killer B - SOOOO Annoying
[OC]Remnant

These are all i can remember at the moment. As my Xfire account is queued for download.

I Hesitate to use the word “love” to describe my feelings, however, knowing these individuals and having been part of these groups was wonderful. The second childhood they brought about was certainly better than the first.

Respectfully,

• Whisper928 - {RaVeN}Seppuku - [CAF]V.A.D.I.M. - [BAF]Swan
  [LOL]Pest

Now as I did so long ago while being hunted by a fleet of angry RaVeN, I leave you with these words:
[X]Whisper - oh hell ohhelll ohhellllllll ……BOOM
Player - [X]Whisper - was killed by a missile.
{RaVeN}Predator - lol

Read Full Article Here

http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega_Strike
http://www.moddb.com/games/vega-strike

Vega Strike is a first-person space trading and combat simulator, developed for Microsoft Windows,
POSIX Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, FreeBSD and Mac OS X systems.
Many of the core game mechanics of Vega Strike are indirectly inspired by Elite.
The successors to Elite, namely Wing Commander: Privateer, were particularly strong influences.
Released under the GNU General Public License, Vega Strike is free and open source software.
See above links for more inclusive details.

PS: Privateer Gemini Gold also available.

http://www.gizmag.com/go/4004/picture/10704/

Check this out, MechWars …… The time is now.

Interesting, the many ways we can come up with to kill more efficiently/creatively isn’t it?

Resources -  in all their various forms. Additionally there is the current race to claim territory on the moon since the discovery of Helium - 3.
Space - with the creation of craft capable of exiting and entering the atmosphere on their own power without the need of multistage rocket boosters, it is but a matter of time before we begin arming said craft.
Science - with recent advances in organic circuitry, prosthetic arms/legs that exceed our own in strength, genetic enhancements and cloning. The possibilities are obvious.
Weaponry - EMP devices = take out a countries communications, financial networks and about 80% of the infrastructure; reconnaissance and combat UAV’s = with the loss of troops no longer a concern, a “scorched earth” policy will likely become the norm.

**I am sorry for my nine month absence. Its been very hard to think of anything and feel particularly inspired, and eventually the fic kind of drifted into the mists.

But no more.

Thanks to everyone whose read this. I will try and come up with ideas and chapters more quickly in the future, although I think I said that last time.

In any case, sorry again for the wait and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Story the Fourth: The Lord, The Lackey, and a Daffodil or Two.**

As you may remember from chapter two, King was carried off by a passing Rhino after his fall from the LSF building. As it turns out, this started him down a road that would take him far from his homeland and the life that he knew.

About the same time, Lord Hakkera had returned to Honshu, where all was not well. As it transpired, a gang of fifty odd genetically engineered mountain weasels had descended upon the capitol city and ransacked the planet’s only bank. Lord Edo refused to reimburse the planet, stating that he needed all available credits to fund the construction of Sirius’ largest rubix cube. This would be placed in orbit of New Tokyo in an attempt to both counter the threat of meteor impacts, (and foolish Freelancers who kept buggering into the atmosphere), and also increase tourism.

The cube was later destroyed by the Hogosha who feared the contamination of foreign devils; also, they detested rubix cubes. There is not one Hogosha alive who can solve one. Before this incident, Hogosha operatives had been known to carry out armed raids on toy shops in which all rubix cubes were seized and shot. It is rumoured that they tried to pass some off as Dom Kovash artifacts, but that’s another story.

Anyhoo, in an attempt to repair his planet’s economy, Lord Hakkera constructed a quaint florists shop in the capital city. He encouraged others to create similar shops around the planet. No one was overly confident that this would accomplish anything, but they had little else to do so they did their lords bidding.

Two days after his shop opened, King fell through the roof after the Rhino’s pilot, (who had been delivering a shipment of Colman’s mustard promotional hats to the planet), discovered the hitchhiker on his roof and did a barrel role.

King, who was somehow none the worse for ware after his short trip through the vacuum or his long fall through the roof, picked himself off of the floor and inquired as to where he was.

Lord Hakkera was not pleased with this new development, his shop had not had many customers and he was certain that the few people who had come in were snickering at his bright pink apron which he had been told by his tailor was ‘a required garment for florists’.

However, Hakkera realized that he could make use of the Libertonian half wit, and promising him a free ride home on board a luxury liner in exchange for thirty four years of service, he put King to work, watering the cacti and feeding live voles to the Kyushu fang vines.

King did these tasks gladly, encouraged by the promise of three servings of lettuce, (a rare commodity), on board the luxury liner which would take him home to his trial and execution, long after he’d have been declared a deserter from the service.

A few weeks in, a customer entered the shop and requested a dozen suitably pretty flowers to give to his wife for their anniversary. Lord Hakkera was at this time attending a conference about mountain weasel traps. (They didn’t want to be caught out again once they’d sorted the economy out).

As a result, King was left in charge of the shop. Whilst the customer was gawking at the King shaped hole in the roof, he went to the back and examined the assorted plants.

The prettiest looking ones he could find were Kurile swamp weeds, which despite the unpleasant sounding name looked quite nice. King removed a dozen of these from the aquarium in which they were kept, let them rinse for a few moments, and then wrapped them and handed them to the customer.

The thing with swamp weeds however, is that if you don’t keep them in water they shrivel up and release a poisonous gas into the air that can cause eyes to shrink.

And shrink they did. No sooner had the customer, who shall forever remain nameless, grasped the flowers then his eyes seemed to vanish. In a moment of panic he flailed about the shop, causing havoc and mayhem and inadvertently stepped on one of the three Ripper mines that were clustered in the far corner of the room near the door. (Hakkera had bought these cheap on eBay and planned to drop them on the heads of any who sought refunds.)

Long story short, BANG! SMASH! WHOOSH! ARGH! shriek Clink, clink, clinkety clnk, sudden halt to all sound effects in the aftermath.

On second thought let me try that again.

Long story short, a violent explosion reduced ‘Hakkera’s floral distribution hut’ and sent King flying once more, this time onto the roof of a passing Drone. And thus he sailed off to his next adventure.

Hakkera, upon his return, was a little upset about his shop being reduced to ashes. Since King was nowhere to be found in the wreckage, he instead ordered a swarm of his loyal servants to take flight and hunt King down. The tale of their hunt shall be told in another um, tale.

Thus endeth this story.

**Thanks to all reviewers and sorry for the half-year or whatever it was since my last update.

Story the Third: The Hispania, What really happened.**

The hundred-year war was nearing an end, the Alliance’s forces were all but gone, their only remaining outposts were Europa and Pluto, the only thing they had left to hope in were the five colony ships, each of which were, (during the time this chapter is set in), nearing completion.

After a century of mayhem and destruction in which each side fought fiercely for control of the Disney world that had been constructed on the moon, (300 miles from any other colonized Luna areas curiously enough,) the Coalition bigwigs had finally realized that mass slaughter, although fun to watch, wasn’t going to win them Disney world and the extra revenue from tourism.

Consequently, they resorted to the use of radio messages to distract allied ships and soldiers during engagements. This tactic proved remarkably successful, after all, if you were fighting for your life on the frozen wastelands of the dark side of the moon, with fear and adrenaline fueling your body, had all sense of reason destroyed by the heat of combat, and all of a sudden all your targets hid and started screaming in unison through your helmet’s communication unit; ‘Whoosh! Boom, twang, pzziow, clink, clink, clinkety, clink, weasel!’ Wouldn’t you be confused?

The allied types certainly were, the resulting confusion allowed the Co-allition soldiers to shoot at the enemy and kill them with contemptuous ease.

The Alliance tried to use this tactic against the enemy, however they had little success seeing as all Coalition servicemen and women had been trained to resist odd phrases. At random times throughout each day, their ships intercom would burst out with something odd like ‘swing-batabatabata-suhwing-batter!’ and ‘Good God Sir, what happened to your shoulders?’ (That last one wasn’t that good was it?) This helped to protect the Coalition types against gibberish. Alas it worked to well, and the Coalition types became immune to all spoken language. Consequently, the coalition military had to learn to communicate through a series of clicks and hoots.

Anyway, I’m drifting from the title heading. The allied types, as you know from the opening sequence, hastily created five sleeper ships, (I’m working from the final opening sequence, I never actually saw the other one, I don’t have broadband, (starts wailing uncontrollably)).

Um yes well, sniff anyway, where was I? Yes, the five sleeper ships were constructed and named after places or things with cool sounding names from their patron nations. These ships were all filled with people and assorted beasties that could be used as livestock or domestic pets. All of which were placed into suspended animation and shot into space in the direction of the Sirius sector.

All was not well on board the Hispania however, Chief Zachary Blatherspoon, charged with overseeing construction of the Hispania had been suffering from depression and piles in the final days of the war. Consequently he had taken to binge drinking. On one fateful day he uttered to a junior technician,

‘Don’t worry kid, I’ll fasten up the tertiary fusion reactor, you get home.’

Truth be told in his drunken state what he actually said was far less polite, and coherent, it was more like,

‘Ah get out ya klutz, can’t you do anything belch what? Go on, scoot.’

With that the frightened technician charged out of the door as Blatherspoon hurled tools at him with surprising precision. He then turned to the reactor, which he then crawled into and slept until the ghastly fumes suffocated him.

Little did he know that his poor choice of where to sleep would have a ghastly effect on the stability of the Sirius sector, and would lead to a particularly nasty war of attrition. Not to mention mass drug abuse.

45 years into the voyage, the tertiary reactor was brought online by the onboard computer when the primary and secondary ones were shut down temporarily for maintenance. The superheated fuel combined with the conveniently placed stick of dynamite that was resting in Blatherspoon’s pocket resulted in widespread fiery nastiness.

After the surviving crew had been revived and had sufficiently recovered from their deep sleep, the fire had consumed half the ship. They lost thirty people trying to put it out, and in reality it was the computer that did most of the work, all the crew thought to do was shriek and throw their helmets at the fire. Some also chose to shout ‘Back!’ menacingly.

It didn’t work.

Anyway, when the fire was put out, some of the crew went to the reactor and found chide Blatherspoon’s charred skeleton. Somehow, the shrapnel that had embedded itself in the wall had been wedged there in such a way that made it look like the following sentence, ‘He’s a liberty saboteur, they want you to fail.’

And the rest you already know.

I’ll try and get a new story up much sooner next time.

**Thanks to Jummeh and Hahukum Konn for reviewing on and to all TLR reviewers. Enjoy this next chapter or you shall be attacked and killed by a weasel.

Story the Second: Liberty Security Dementia (LSD).**

The villainish, weasely Outcasts were facing financial hardship in recent times, The Liberty peace keeping forces had finally figured out that by not asking before they scanned passing ships, that they could sneak up on potential criminals and blow them away whilst they were blissfully ignorant of the fact that their contraband filled cargo hold was known to the police.

Originally, as you know from countless ‘I’m scanning your cargo hold for contraband’ messages, they gave this pointless piece of information to pilots, giving the smugglers more then enough time to run for the metaphorical hills.

The Outcasts, whose main source of income came from Cardamine distribution, decided that something had to be done to overcome this obstacle before this new method of policing spread to the other colonies.

Dr. Antonio Tourella, who had for ten years been trying to a suitable drug that would have the same effect as Cardamine but that he could still get high on so as to forget the depressing thing that was his life. (His wife had left him, his daughter had been cut to pieces by the local grass and one of his co-workers had an annoying habit of nailing his underwear to the ceiling of his house.)

Anyway, what he came up with, as you may have guessed from the chapter title, was LSD, or at least something very similar. He urinated in the mixture a few dozen times due to the face that Don Benitez had confiscated his toilet. Don’t ask me what he did with it, I don’t know.

Anyway, the Outcasts took this wondrous narcotic and got one of their best infiltrators, a woman called Elena, who had only seven fingers, to travel from place to place and spike the Liberty authorities coffee supply with lysergic acid diethylamide. (That should make LAD then shouldn’t it? I know that would clash with Noam Chomsky’s ‘Language Acquisition Device’ but… On second thought, never mind).

LSF headquarters was the first target, as the assorted LSF types trudged into their workplace; they all sat at their assorted desks and ingested their morning coffee. Seeing as Synth paste produced the caffeine filled beverage, coffee was now a solid and had to be consumed with a knife and fork.

It wasn’t long before the effects started to show themselves, King, who’s desk was actually located on the ceiling, (he didn’t actually have a desk job, but President Jacobi had given it to him as suitable compensation for his part in the Nomad’s destruction. In other words for acting as cannon fodder and getting in Trent’s way as he tried to take the shield generators around the Nomad’s city down.)

Sorry, I keep drifting from the subject; suffice to say, he started hallucinating, he soon came to believe that he was being chased by a huge, flying beer glass that was constantly shouting the words,

'You’ll pay for stealing that sparrow’s wallet! He needs a new kidney by the way. Damn it, what’d I have to mention food for, I haven’t eaten in three days. Stupid dieting. Tell me something, what does angst mean?"

Again and again the words would repeat themselves as King charged from one end of the building to the other trying to evade the beverage holding hallucination.

Now you might be expecting me to write something about King falling from the roof to some ghastly death, possibly landing on someone’s car and shattering the windscreen, possibly landing on a random person called Floyd, a humble ALG employee with no hands and a wife called Bertha.

Wrong, I have much more grand plans for King in this collection of stories, (actually that’s a lie but I’m still not going to kill him.) King did fall from the building, but he landed on the hull of a low flying Rhino and was whisked away to some distant part of the planet. No one seemed to care.

Right, now we get to the mentions of Juni’s hallucinations.

She soon found herself hallucinating that she was being shot at by several co-workers who were now, for some reason, all resembling Herr Von Claussen. Since you get Von Claussen look-alikes in every system I guess its not that surprising.

Anyway, firmly grasping a fully loaded needler rifle that was hidden underneath her desk, Juni unleashed hell in the room. Three janitors and two agent types were gunned down. The rest were already hiding under their desks due to the grotesque apparitions that they were seeing.

Another LSF commander, named Fredrick, Bertram, Laurence, Henry, Stewart Hill, (Fblhsh for short), eventually returned fire, believing Juni to be his brother who had slept with his wife on the day of their marriage.

He missed and destroyed two pot plants. He also ended up shooting a passing seagull, or at least the Manhattan equivalent, what it was doing inside is up to you to figure out.

Whilst the madness continued, the Outcasts met their assorted quotas, received an unnervingly high amount of money, their smuggling freighters were then destroyed by a Freelancer named ‘Mandarin’.

Four stupid LPI pilots flew into the sun, believing it to be the sight of buried treasure, specifically the quasi-legendary golden radish of New Tokyo. The battleship Missouri, whose crew’s coffee had also been spiked, flew into the zone-21 minefield; the crew believed that the mines would magically disperse, as they sometimes appear to do in the game. Needless to say there were no survivors. And a few other things happened, I would explain but I’m trying to keep all the chapters more or less the same length.

Final count, fourteen injured, two thousand and thirty seven dead.

**Thus endeth this story.

Another comes soon.**

Author: Richard the Pedantic
Published: From:11-02-04; To:10-23-05
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**Greetings all, what follows is a hopefully humorous collection of nonsensical Freelancer short stories. Read if you please and tell me what you think.

Story the First: Orillion and Cooking.**

With the Nomads banished to wherever the Hell they went after they were sucked through the Hyper gate, the Order found itself with very little to do. For all Orillion’s talk of ‘We’ll be ready for them next time’ and ‘The threat isn’t over’, it soon became apparent that the Nomads weren’t going to return any time soon.

All those that hadn’t joined the Order so as to defend their homeland from the alien menace had joined because they had been swept away by the romantic notions of honourable outlaws, fighting for humanity and so forth. They had all believed that they would be hailed as heroes at the end of the war, receive unnervingly high deposits in their bank accounts, fame, prestige and frequent fornication with star struck members of the opposite, (or same depending on their sexual orientation,) sex that possessed the I.Q of a severed finger.

The truth was that these people received pitiful cash rewards of three dozen credits from the evil order of greedy bastards that is Interspace Commerce. The Order persons were however awarded with complimentary baskets of turnip-flavoured muffins from Republican Confectionary Inc., courtesy of the new, sugar loathing Rheinland Chancellor.

As you may have guessed from the lack of any news stories relating to the Order following the conclusion of the storyline missions, prestige and fame was denied to them, and space of the colony news service was reserved for kidnapped Manhattan artists and overachieving BMM executives with pickaxes in their skull.

Sorry I’m drifting from the subject, suffice to say that when the Order found itself with nothing to do expect guard the pretty, swirling Hyper gate, desertion became commonplace. Those that remained within the Order tried to amuse themselves with a colourful pinball machine that Orillion had made for them. When this novelty wore off, they set up a debating team and discussed the pros and cons of Kusari’s foreign policies for a total of fourteen days.

Orillion, who couldn’t give a toss about Kusari’s foreign policies, decided to pass his free time in another way. He gathered to him a chef’s hat and costume from Tshushima depot, (What they were doing there in the first place you’ll have to decide for yourself), a fake moustache for visual effect, and assorted kitchen supplies from a guy called Jim who was his brother’s friend’s father’s employer’s son’s hairdresser’s local vicar who also worked in a failing shop on planet Denver named ‘There be shite within.’

Anyway, when all was prepared, Orillion tried his hand at preparing a simple yet tasty dish for the remaining crew of the Osiris, this was a welcome gesture of good will as the ‘Suspiciously brown’ flavoured Synth paste that the crew had been eating for a month was driving everyone to insanity.

It didn’t occur to Orillion however that he didn’t know the first thing about cooking. He didn’t even know what an oven was. Consequently he crammed too many slaps of beef into a kettle.

The resulting explosion led to a large hole in his right leg.

Despite being told he’d be confined to a wheelchair for a month, Orillion remained un-deterred. The crew were less optimistic about Orillion taking up the chef’s mantle this time and decided o abandon ship and wait in a nearby transport that had been delivered a supply of garlic. The stench of garlic lingered throughout the whole ship was overpowering. Three people fainted, ten more people were violently sick, and one person, a woman named Amy, who was unhealthily fond of pretending to be a vampire, shrieked and ran from here to there shouting that she needed to get off the ship or she’d die. In the end they threw her out of the airlock.

Orillion, who had now seen the logic in reading instruction manuals, had slightly better luck his time. Actually, that sentence may give you the idea that he got it right and created a fine, garlic filled dish of some description. He didn’t.

Despite the fact that he knew how to use an oven, he had no idea what to do with the garlic gloves. Hence he simply stuck them together in the shape of a top hat via the use of an unhelpfully sticky plastic explosive.

The resulting explosion did not kill Orillion, but a flaming piece of blunt metal struck him on the head and put him into a coma that he remained in for the next three chapters. Everyone else returned to the Osiris, put out the fires, erected several air fresheners around the place, and buggered off to Curacao, where they could eat lettuce. The moral crisis in the Order was over.

**Thus endeth the first story.

Tune in next week for the next one.**

The above posts are a way to explain the features of Freelancer.

FTL Travel: Character warping(switching ships) , Joining the server(sudden
appearances in space).

FTL Communication: Private, Group and System chat.

Trade Lanes: :roll: The obvious reasons.

Enjoy!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Answer(s) to FAQ:

When we first started that bit of creative reasoning, I tossed the idea around on a sites dedicated to the ideas of space travel, parallel universes, etc.
Afterwards Robert and I developed masive migrains pouring over the following.

String Theory Site
Nonlinear Dynamics And Chaos
Relativity The Special and General Theory
The Uncertainty Principle
Maglev 2000
WAVE GRAVITY AND QUANTUM RESONANCES
INTERSTELLAR TRAVEL BY MEANS OF WORMHOLE INDUCTION PROPULSION (WHIP)
The EPR Paradox and Bell’s Inequality Principle
The Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Argument in Quantum Theory
Stephen Hawking’s page - See also my link on (WHIP)
Ping Koy Lam - A major milestone toward that impossible dream was achieved last summer by Ping Koy Lam at the Australian National University. He successfully teleported a beam of light. “We cannot teleport matter as yet,” he says. No one claims building a teleportation machine will be easy. What is more important is that no one is saying it will be impossible.(associated links below)
ANU Quantum Optics
ScienceWise at ANU - National Institute for Environment - ANU

FTL Communication:

After mastering the technique of wormhole creation, it was thought that distance had finally been conquered. But despite of this communication still needed to be transmitted at the speed of light, and though wormhole did shorten distances between distant regions, interactive communication remained impossible. This problem was quickly identified as being one of the most important handicap remaining in the conquest of deep space.
It wasn’t until the famous Azbel-Wuthrich experiment that the functionality was demonstrated with success. Industrialization quickly followed, leading to one of the greatest stock market surge ever as thousands of companies extended their reach to the whole known universe.

The roots of the solution lay in an ancient paradox, often called the EPR paradox, the name shrouded in mystery. The EPR paradox is famous for contradicting quantum physics in some very important ways. Specifically it shows another old physic theory, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, to be untrue. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, believed to be named after a place or a person, affirms that the exact state of quantum particle cannot be determined with full accuracy, no matter how refined the measurement equipment is. The classical example being the measurement of the velocity and position of a free particle: to be able to measure the position of a particle you must be able to ‘see’ it. This means that you have to illuminate it at least with one photon. But the collision between the photon and the particle changes the velocity of the particle, thus making it impossible to determine what the velocity was before the position was measured.

The Principles of Jump Gate Technology.

Jump gates are built around artificial wormholes, created by exploiting gravitational resonances found in binary systems. This resonance is as a friction between gravitational waves of stellar objects, the more massive the objects, the stronger the resonance between them. Positions of planets in a solar system, as well as the complex structure of dust rings around heavy planets illustrate this resonance.
In binary systems there exists strong resonance phenomenons, where the gravitational field of two stars in a stable binary formation would interfere with each other, like ripples from two wave sources.

These stable wave patterns come in a succession of standing wave patterns, similar to those created on a guitar string. The strongest resonance is the 1:1 resonance (the first harmonic, so to speak), with two stationary node points situated in the center of each of the two stars. The second strongest resonance is the 1:2 resonance (the second harmonic), where an additional stationary node point appears in the field exactly mid-way between the stars (if of equal mass), and so on for successive resonances.
At the node points, the rapid oscillation of the gravitational field in opposite directions creates strong shear in the contravariant energy-momentum tensor. Under normal circumstances this stress is dissipated by high-frequency graviton radiation, and does thus not create any noticeable macroscopic phenomenons.
But if this stress is confined and forced to build-up in a limited region of space, then the tensor-field will eventually develop a steadily growing high-curvature tentacle like structure in the space-time continuum. More specifically, the tentacle constitutes a self-avoiding 4-manifold that attempts to grow farther and farther from itself. The tip of the tentacle, where the curvature is highest, effectively acts like a magnet on space-time, and for high enough curvature it can eventually induce the creation of a small tentacle in remote high-density regions, that can reach to the tip and spontaneously combine. An analogy of this phenomenon is when lightning strikes ground, where the tip of the downward lightning actually creates a small upward lightning emanating from the ground and the two combine somewhere above the ground, thus closing the electrical circuit.
The main device of jump gates is a so-called mass boson sphere, based on one of the fundamental physic fields that mediates mass, and thus interacts strongly with gravitational waves. The sphere is filled with mass boson plasma, which reflects gravitational waves, pretty much in the same way as a mirror reflects light. By adjusting the plasma density so that it reflects the high-frequency gravitational waves…

…involved in the dissipation of tensor shear, this radiation is trapped within the sphere, thus leading to a steady net increase of the gravitational stress within the resonance node, which eventually leads to the creation of the high-curvature tentacle. An analogy of this is the laser, which builds up a highly coherent and intense beam of electromagnetic energy by enclosing oscillators within a reflecting cavity.
The distance between the two ends of the wormhole depends on the mass of the suns in the binary system and on what resonance node the jump gate is located. In order to connect two jump gates a trial-and-error method is needed, often lasting many years. This is because the tentacle created by the tensor-field cannot be controlled or directed in where to open. But by having another jump gate in a nearby system build up gravitational-stress in it its own, without reaching critical point, at the same time that the tentacle is growing, then the likelihood of a connection being made increases statistically, although many attempts are still often needed. This is similar to raising a metal rod in a thunder storm.
The first jump gate versions limited in the way that once a wormhole had been created and a ship slipped through a new wormhole had to be made before another ships could pass. As it could take several days or even months to re-connect the two jump gates, passing was slow. Later versions of jump gates allowed the jump gates to hold the wormhole open for a longer time and modern day jump gates can keep a wormhole connection open for several dozen years before it has to be reset. Also, the first jump gates were only able to connect and hold a single wormhole at a time but today they can hold several wormholes open at the same time, allowing jump gates to be connected to several other jump gates at once.
In an average binary system the jump gate has a range of around 5 light-years, provided the jump gate is constructed on the third resonance node. More powerful jump gates can be constructed on the second resonance node between the stars. Because these nodes are much farther from a solar system (often up to 0.5 lightyear away) and, more importantly, are also harder to harness, they have only recently started to be utilized. On the other hand, they have much greater range than the basic jump gates.
There are several strict limitations on jump gate travel. First of all, jump gates can only be constructed in systems with two or more suns, because of the resonance nodes. This effectively makes one in every three systems ineligible for jump gate construction.
Secondly, only one jump gate can be in operation in a system at any given time. This is due to the erratic fluctuations in the resonance fields caused by a mass boson sphere; if more than one such sphere is active at the same time in the same system, they both become highly unstable and impossible to operate.
And thirdly, ships can only travel through wormholes if both ends of it are connected to a jump gate. This means that ships must travel between systems in normal space in order to build a jump gate. The reason for this is the extreme dilatation of the metric along the longitudinal dimension of the tentacle, meaning that the spatial coordinate along the length of the wormhole is expanded, while the radial component is cyclically curved.

A spaceship entering the wormhole is subject to a strong metric gradient that would put its structural integrity in jeopardy. This can be prevented by locally countering the stretching around the immediate vicinity of the ship. Here the mass boson sphere plays its second role in the gate mechanism. When the ship goes through the mass boson sphere, a mono-atomic layer of mass boson gets deposited on the ships surface. This layer counters the stretching of the ship against the metric gradient, enough to keep the structural integrity of the ship for the duration of the trip through the hole. This doesn’t mean that the gradient is completely wiped out, and even seasoned space veterans still know the feeling known as ‘going down the drain’ when entering a wormhole.

Originally posted in the Vanguard Federation of Freelancers.
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How Trade Lanes came to be:

Even with advanced propulsion systems it took space ships days or weeks to move between planets in a solar system. Anything that could quicken this travel was thus of immense interest for everybody.

Various efforts were made to increase the speed of ships, but most of them failed either because of too high fuel volume and cost, or because they were too limited in scope. The most successful attempt was that of the old Colonists, who built acceleration gates that employed gravity in an unique way to slingshot ships between planets. This gave the ships enough momentum to fly between planets in a much shorter time than before. But the original colonists never discovered how to build inter-stellar jump gates, so their acceleration gates were limited to their home system (where they still exist today).

The Latin phrase “In-Vitro” means “in an artificial environment outside the living organism.” Thus, “In-Vitro” refers to the group of humans who were not only fertilized outside the womb, but had also gestated in a tank, to be “born” as young adults.

During the Alliance/Coalition War, the cost in human life was devastatingly high in the civilian population as well as in the military. Terror attacks claimed far too many. Combat and battle claimed even more. Everyday, the losses mounted. Humankind made the decision to increase its numbers artificially, not with the electronic intelligences that were now the enemy but with artificially gestated humans who could become highly skilled soldiers. Government and industry worked together to build a multitude of In-Vitro facilities around the country, facilities where these soldiers could be grown and trained.
After artificial fertilization, In-Vitros gestate in tanks, with umbilical cords at the base of their necks delivering the nutrients and basics they need as they remain suspended in a sleep state and under accelerated development. After about six years, their physical development is equivalent to a natural-born human at eighteen years of age. When they are “harvested” from the tank and awakened, they have the physical qualities of a fully grown human, but none of the intellectual or emotional attributes. They don’t understand love of self, love of family, love of friends, or love of country. They don’t understand the human world or anything about its society and how it evolved over the millennia. And nothing is done to remedy that deficiency. Instead of receiving any social education, they are indoctrinated into the art of killing.
Watched daily and trained by Monitors, they are never allowed to question anything. If they do, they are considered “defective” and promptly “erased.” They are never released outside the facility until it is time for them to enter combat. Unfortunately, the production of In-Vitro soldiers was, “too little too late” as the saying goes. The Alliance was defeated and forced to flee into the uncharted reaches of space.

With the colonization of the Sirius sector, humankind found itself with a population of In-Vitros lacking purpose and reason. A social movement arose to incorporate In-Vitros into human society, to educate and develop them, to cultivate them for labor or possibly even other ventures. In response, there is a palpable backlash against it, as many feel that the In-Vitros (commonly referred to as “NippleNecks” or “Tanks”), were to dangerous to the fledgling governments and were to be placed in cryo-stasis at an undisclosed facility. The last record of In-Vitro use was 80 years ago during the Sigma 13 battle of the failed Imperial Expansion War, after which they simply abandoned their ships and for all intents and purposes …. ceased to exist.

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This was written as a sort of back story to my character.
As well as a counter point to the CAF.

C.A.F. stands for Cybernetic Artificial Facsimile, and the C.A.F.'s (commonly called “Silicates”) were manufactured to serve humankind. Created in the image of the “maker,” they were designed in several distinct models and epitomized what the creators felt was beautiful and physically appealing. They do not look at all like the mechanical electronic contrivances that they are…except for their eyes. Their eyes are opaque red orbs with crosshairs.
C.A.F.'s also communicate with one another via modulation schemes through wireless telephony. When they communicate thusly, the only sound humans can detect are electronic beeps and chirps. Silicates are networked remotely so they know one another’s position and operating state. In addition, they are capable of storing, and retrieving common knowledge. They share data on demand.
Although the C.A.F.'s were programmed to comprehend the abstract, their programming did not include original thought and creativity. They merely understood and responded…until a discontented programmer inserted a computer virus into the C.A.F. code pool. The instruction: “Take a Chance.”
That one single act triggered a storm of destruction. It became compelling ideology in C.A.F. behavior, leading them to define all activity in terms of risk and gamble. Eventually, the C.A.F.'s rebelled, indiscriminately taking human life, slaughtering the life forms they derisively called “Meatbags.” They unleashed a volley of terror that lasted nearly ten years, until humans finally overcame them. In the aftermath, many of the remaining C.A.F.'s seized a number of military craft and fled into space, where they continue to plague humankind, tattered and malfunctioning, with no one no to repair them.
There have been rumors that the program was actually an “Aggression” package created by the Coalition, in order to use the C.A.F.'s for long range strike teams and recon. Some scientists have speculated that the “Aggression” package may have pushed the Silicates into the realm of spontaneous intuition (i.e. Artificial Intelligence). It is also rumored that the so called “flight” from deactivation, was in fact their pursuit of the Allied “Sleeper Ships”. It goes without saying, whether you believe the official or unofficial reports, that the C.A.F.'s have stayed true to the orders they received so long ago……
“Find the Allied scum…and erase them”.

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Reposted per the CAF request.

Sol System: Post Exodus

Humans call them “Nomads.” No human truly knows what they call themselves, but it served the war effort well to demonize the aliens. When they first appear in the Sol System after the Exodus, the Nomads are humanoid in form and encased entirely in polymorphic armor, a faceless, evil presence we can neither see nor understand. Our reaction to them is simple: they are evil and must be destroyed.
The first encounter with them was catastrophic. They attacked the Fringe colonies in the night, without provocation, without warning. The colonists had no chance. The attack sparked the Nomad Wars, and before humankind was fully prepared, the Nomads were bearing down on the Solar System. They had routed Earth’s finest combat squadron and were preparing to attack humanity’s home world.
The enemy seems to know much about humans. It appears that the Nomads have been watching humankind for a long time, perhaps from the television and radio signals beamed into space for over the years. Scientists suggests that the Nomads may already know an early Native American language that is being used as code, perhaps because they gave the Navajo the language. They also know something about English.
Their technology is superior to human technology in some ways, comparable or even less advanced in others. They are disciplined and even predictable in their combat tactics. It is from the C.A.F. that we hear that the Nomads have been watching Earth for an incredibly long time. These rebel C.A.F.s who have been in league with the Nomads, helping to educate them about Earth cultures and beliefs. All that the humans know is that Nomads fear we may discover something …… something they want hidden.

The Exodus:

A war between two major factions, the Coalition and the Alliance, has been waged in the Earth’s solar system for decades. Eventually, the Coalition gains the upper hand and the Alliance, sensing defeat, builds a group of five colony ships in secret. Each ship represents one of the major members in The Alliance: the Kusari (Japan), the Rheinland (Germany), the Liberty (America), the Bretonia (Britain), and the Hispania (Spain). Fortunately, all five escape the Coalition blockade and head toward the Sirius sector carrying thousands of colonists.

The sleeper ships arrive at different times, in different locations. The Sirius Sector is a region of space with many star systems surrounded by four distinct landmarks. In the ‘north’ is the gas, oxygen, and hydrogen rich Crow Nebula. In the ‘south’ is the volatile, yet mineral rich Walker Nebula. To the ‘west’ is the rocky Barrier, a massive and long asteroid-filled region rich in useful metals. And finally, to the ‘east’ is the mysterious Edge Nebula.

Five great ships. One was lost en route. The names of the other four now are legend: Kusari, Rheinland, Bretonia, and Liberty….

Of the five sleeper ships, the Liberty arrives first. This allowed the colonists to choose a centralized location with a mix of resources and habitable worlds.

Arriving after the Liberty, the Rheinland selected the region adjacent to the Walker Nebula for its resources, specifically diamonds.

The Kusari arrived next, and selected the region near the Crow Nebula.

Bretonia arrived a full 20 years after the Liberty, due to the fact that the starboard engine was disabled during the Exodus and chose a region in the Barrier.

The remains of the lost sleeper ship Hispania have yet to be located. But there are
rumors…

When we Arrived in the Sirius Sector, we swore never to forget…But we have forgotten that which once bound us together.
The Alliance is almost a forgotten concept and the four houses of Liberty, Rheinland, Bretonia, and Kusari bicker while piracy runs rampant. And while they bicker and fight amongst themselves, the remnants of an old foe approach.

Originally posted at the Vanguard Federation of Freelancers.
Inspired by the Lancer games and the SAAB tv series.
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Sol System: Pre Exodus

It is the year 2160. Mankind has colonized the solar system and two political entities have emerged: an “Alliance” consisting of American, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, British and German forces, and a “Coalition” of Russian, Chinese and Middle-Eastern interests. The war begins with a surprise attack on Fort Kennedy, where a peace treaty turns into a bloodbath: all of the inner four planets are overrun, including Terra herself, and the Italian and French fleets are utterly lost. The Alliance fleet regroups at Triton, Neptune’s moon, and attempts to regain lost territory. It is in this last ditch effort that the 45th Volunteers squadron, under the command of Captain Robert Foster and Wing Commander Maria Enriquez, aboard the re-commissioned British carrier ANS Reliant become immortalized in Alliance history. Through the valiant efforts of our soldiers and the scientific advances in “In-Vitro” technology, we were able to hold our own for a time.

Sadly, in the end the limitless resources of the Coalition, along with their production of Cybernetic soldiers, pushed us back territory by territory. We eventually retreated to the Jupiter system where our greatest minds came together and formulated the Exodus Initiative.

Nice lil’ tool.

This would make a nice addition to the new site our admin team is building.

Please add to the General/Fansite:

Vanguard Federation = http://vanguardfreelancer.org

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You might also consider contacting/adding the Global Player Rankings site
at http://www.cryosphere.f2s.com/Freelancer/globalstats.html
Considering its longstanding association with the Freelancer community.