Companion Trader OXZ

Convoy Services Agency (C.S.A)

We at C.S.A. are delighted that you, the adept and ambitious Merchanter, have discerningly chosen us, Galaxy One's undisputed experts in the selection, hiring, and maintaining of reliable crews and ships, for the hazardous business of interstellar convoy work.

At a modest cost, we can put together and offer to you a close-knit Group of experienced pilots of that formidable and generations-proven trading vessel, the Cobra IIIc fighter/trader.

Leave the tedious administration and management chores to our staff while you conduct your invaluable vocation of keeping the million worlds supplied with the goods and products they most need in these uncertain times.

Terms and Conditions

Convoy companions expect wages and regular maintenance for their ships, which you, as part of your contract with our Agency, and as convoy leader, have undertaken to cover from your account. In addition, you have agreed to pay the convoy 3% of your station earnings, as bonus and incentive. In return for your protection, each companion will pay you 10% of their total trade-earnings at every Main Station market your convoy docks at.

The wages (0.05 of initial cost) are levied upon docking, the maintenance fees (0.075 of cost) every 10 (ten) trading runs.

Should you wish to terminate your Convoy Contract with us at any time, we must charge a dismissal fee (0.5 of cost) to cover any losses, compensation, or legal fees incurred during service.

Points to Note

It ought to be superfluous to point out, although it is something we always do, that you are not an escort! - You are Convoy Leader, and it is your job, your only job, to ensure the security and cohesion of your Group from Witchpoint to Station Aegis. This task primarily entails keeping your companions in scanner range - and preferably within viewscreen-sight - at all times. Should a member-vessel fall behind for whatever reason, it is your responsibility to make sure this ship rejoins the convoy at the earliest possible moment. For this you will need to reduce speed or even retrace your course until the companion re-appears on scan.

On the whole, our pilots have excellent astrogational skills, and will do their utmost to locate and rejoin your Group, should they become separated. We like to state that none of our crews ever becomes 'lost' in the common sense of that term. We select, vet, and test all of the pilots on our lists exhaustively before offering them to you, our esteemed client, for consideration.

C.S.A. employed pilots are schooled to keep their Leader informed through comm of their position at regular intervals during transit from Witchpoint to Station Aegis. On arriving at Station Aegis, your group will disperse and leave for docking or planetfall under their own command and at this point your duties and responsibilities as Leader end until your next departure from Station.

Bigger Companions

Should you determine that our Cobra IIIc companion-traders are of too modest a cargo capacity for your merchanting requirements, we will be only too pleased to offer you the sister service to this our Companion Trader - a new service we have dubbed the Python Squeeze...

Please find all the details of Python Squeeze HERE.

Many of our customers like to lead TWO groups on their runs: A convoy of Cobra IIIs along with a convoy of Python IIs (not forgetting the flight of 'Little Friends' which most veteran and safety-conscious convoy leaders now feel is de rigueur in these dangerous and miscreant-beset times for every Galactic Chart).

Little Friends

Having indicated and stipulated that Escort duties do not fall within the purview of your Contract with us, we at C.S.A. strongly recommend that you as Leader avail yourself of a good fighter-escort service.

Our affiliated company M.L.S.S. (Merchanters' League Ship Services) will be delighted to supply you with a flight of robot-piloted Mamba IIe escorts to accompany your convoy's every trade-run.

These A.I. pilots, unlike you (an organic life-form like your companions), are merciless hunters, programmed to scour the scanner space around your vessels for potential attackers. Their neuromechanical nature renders them merciless, and they never let go. Once located by one of them, the likely threat is invariably neutralised before it has time to scan and lock you.

'Little Friends' Escort Service may be contacted here:

Engage and hire a "Little Friends" Escort flight

Recommendations

Auxiliary Pylon

Auxiliary Pylon OXZ - Auxiliary Pylon download - adds in a pylon to pylon-less ships. For cargo pods only - not missiles! Full details HERE.

GETter HUD

GETter HUD download - the only HUD in the inventory designed by Traders for Traders, showing digital speed and cargo hold contents in place of missiles. BB thread.

Full details and illustrations HERE.

FE Ships

FE Ships download (BB Thread) and

FE Ships Player

FE Ships Player download (BB thread) favour the Trader/Explorer and bring core ships into line with those of Frontier First Encounters, expanding cargo-capacities across the board.

Goods Containers 10-50 TC

Goods Containers download, externally mounted 10-, 20-, 30-, 40- or 50-ton cargo cannisters, fitted to any spare missile pylons, will speed your course to riches and larger ships. BB Thread.

More Moolah Market

More Moolah is an enhanced and extended Market for the zealous merchanter. 5 (five) new commodities for industrial and agricultural economies; 9 (nine) recast display aliases for the Oolite goods. More variety, more realism, more trade possibilities, more moolah.

Essential OXPs

Market Observer, it goes without saying, enhances the Merchanter. experience greatly. Running with weapons offline is always to your advantage.

C.S.A. regards the following basic upgrades as useful if not primary:

Cargo Space Refit
Cargo Pod
Goods Containers (pylons permitting)
Overdrive
Auto S.O.S.: S.O.S. does mean 'HELP' doesn't it? - for when your 'Little Friends' might be otherwise engaged...
Little Friends
Advanced Space Compass
and a beam laser: if not for its destructive potential, then for the quality of its reticle! However, it must be conceded that most convoy leaders prefer the Military Laser, if only perhaps for its cachet value. Convoy Companions need to be impressed, and at least made to feel safer.