List of things: -Space vehicles/travel -Land (planetary) vehicles/travel (Note: some space vehicles are planetary capable) -Customizable weapons systems, personal and vehicular. -Varied locales: Desert planets, ocean worlds, earth-like planets, gas worlds, moons, space stations of varying types from bounty posts and bars to refueling ports to trading stations to shipyards, the far reaches of space, and maybe a little beyond. -Unique abilities: A mix and match system which will allow improvement of skills, advancement of some special abilities and powers from a multi-branching system, and a unique power you may choose from the start. (Note: I may use a semi-class system here, or I may just go it from scratch and make up my own.) Here are my objectives: -A bounty system for all those bounty hunters out there -A trading system for all those that like making trade runs -A system for establishing your own trade organization -A method for entering the service of one of the several governments out there -A way to discover the “powers that be” and possibly interact with or join them -A story and plot elements that follow several characters and involve as many players at a time as possible, or perhaps in shifts based on their group affiliations. -Involving all players possible and having somewhere to go with it. Watcher database file/galactic cluster 11037: Galaxy R527: (A long time ago, in a galaxy…oh, you’ve heard that one…) “Command, X-327 Phoenix is prepared to engage test flight.” “Roger, X-327. Engaging pregate protocols.” A massive shipyard affixed to an even larger space station hung in space. Near the space station three concentric rings floated, the first orange, the second blue, the third red, each surrounded by a larger white ring, and each of the white rings connected by pylons to the next. They all had diameters large enough for massive space vessels to fit through. Around the area many ships were flying, but between the station and the rings were massive carrier/battleships, and moving from the shipyard to the first of the rings slowly was a much smaller ship. Its exterior was black and smooth, reflecting the twinkling light of the stars. The front of it was sleek and cone shaped, opening to a slightly more flattened out section where two small wing stumps extended slightly to the sides. Right behind these were located the main engines of the craft. “Pregate protocols complete. Beginning opening sequence.” The red ring began to rotate, and as it did, a dull gold glow began to take form in the shape of a spiral in its center. “Opening sequence complete. Beginning secondary gateway opening.” The blue ring began to rotate now. It seemed that as it did so, the outer fringes of the gold spiral began to stretch, being drawn from the red ring to the blue one, making the shape of a spinning cone with the jagged edges of the spiral beginning to fill in with the look of particles of gold on a black canvas as the two rings rotated in tandem. “Secondary gateway opening complete. Beginning final gateway opening sequence. Locking destination…locked. Tracer beam sent. Destination gateway opening synchronized.” The orange ring began to spin as the others had, drawing the fringes of the cone from the blue ring to it, extending the spinning cone who’s sides were now streaks of gold and silver on black. “Waiting on return tracer beam…return beam received. Stabilizing…gate stable. Opening…now.” The orange ring began to spin faster, and the red one slowed down slightly. This caused a discrepancy as the two ends were spinning at different speeds and the middle one was somewhere in between. A flash of light, followed by another, and the tip of the cone began to fade from existence, being replaced by a solid blue glow. “Funnel open. Gateway opening sequence complete. X-327, you are clear for hyperspace jump.” “Understood. X-327, initiating jump.” The large jet on the trailing end of the small ship ignited, sending a solid bright cone of heat out and propelling the ship forward quickly. “Initiating Phoenix program X-001.” The dark black of the ship shifted to a dull orange as it approached the gateway, and wings extended from the hubs on either side to their full length. The sleek craft sped up and the streaks of gold and silver reflected off of the smooth orange surface. The small experimental craft seemed a mere speck as it neared the gateway that had been designed to fit many ships greater and larger. As it crossed the threshold of the first ring, it experienced a strong acceleration, sending it flying forward and into the open blue end. For several minutes nothing happened. Then the computers began to show data readouts. The techs and scientists on hand studied the readouts carefully. Then the communication officers received a transmission from the destination gateway. The message was displayed in text format. For several minutes messages went back and forth, but in the end, it seemed the testbed ship had vanished. It had entered hyperspace, it has passed the mid-transit checkpoint, but it did not arrive at the destination. Sensor readings were pulled up, the data as the ship crossed the checkpoint was laid out. Transmissions went back and forth between both ends…for the next several hours no one on the staff would get a break from examining the bits of data for any clue and a few ships which were readied prepared to launch into the gate as soon as clearance was given. *****