**********************************PSI 5-2************************************
***** . *** . ** . .***%***%%***%***. . ******** . *****************
*****. ** * *** .*** *****%***%%***%*** .***********. **. ****************
***** **. *. ********. *****%%**%%**%%***. ************** *****************
***** . . *** . **** ******%%%%%%%%**** . . ** . *** .******************
***** ********** *** .********%%%%**********. ******** .*******************
***** .***** ***. *** *********%%*******. ** .*******. ********************
***** ****** . ** . .*******%%******** . *******. . . **TRADING CO.***
*****************************************************************************
Haul'n grub. Kill'n pirates. Hav'n fun. Does life get any
better?
Copyright Jerod Underwood Park 1997
All rights reserved
Name pending on permission of use off of the original
PC game called "PSI 5 Trading Co." by Accolade.
PRE-LOG: In a time long, long ago in a place un-definable
by others, there existed a life form which called itself Human.
And then a lot of stuff happened and
Humanity evolved. The Human race
literally raced out into the stars. But the stars didn't care.
Then, the Humans started raiding the stars for their
combustible fuel supply. Still, the
stars didn't mind. Then, the Humans started killing off the
stars. And then, someone, somewhere, far, far away, noticed the
changes in the night sky. Then, that someone turned over and fell
back to sleep. And then the Humans started to experiment with
creating stars. Eighty-three million life forms died. No one
sued. Then
Humanity sent out exploration ships
into the darker corners of the universe. No one listened. Then,
the Humans began to colonize other worlds. Some
intelligent life forms capable of
space travel became annoyed. But then, the ultimate atrocity
occurred. The people of the Earth decided to send their
Star Trek channel to other worlds. The
universe revolted. Life for Humanity
became ugly. Mighty ugly. Time passed. Lives passed. Tempers
flared. Each generation carried on the traditions of
Universal War ??. (no one really knows
for sure the number of wars that were waged throughout the
universe.) Only one thing remained for sure. It was all Earth's
fault. Yes. Planet Earth is getting the blame here. Somehow, it
was reasoned that if Earth hadn't nurtured
Humanity, there would be no war.
Though war tried to annihilate the Human species, no one
but man ever managed to plot the location of Earth. And so,
Humanity thrived. And so the Humans
boldly went where everything else wanted to kill them.
And, so the PSI 5 Trading Company
came to be. Designed to get food to hungry customers located on
other worlds at any price (so long as it was profitable). A
company with the logo of King Neptune's
Tri-dent on their work badges. A company with pride in their
heart. And a company true to their cliental. (Again, so long as
it was profitable.) PSI 5 ports were
popping up on every space station and planet that would allow it.
Business was good. Really good. But, the war waging aliens didn't
like this. After all, Humans were bad. Really bad. And if
profitable fortunes could be continuously lost due to {piratism}
and destruction of the offending ships, then
PSI 5 would cease to deliver and the
Human infestations on these alien's worlds would go away. Really
away.
But, PSI 5 fouled their
attempts again and again by equipping their
freighter ships with professional crew
members and systems of the offensive, defensive, and purely
useful (and useless) way. Really way. The aliens returned to the
state of annoyance.
Later on, the Humans found new races. Friendly races.
Which, in turn, knew more friendly races. And then, within' a
year, Earth had a planetary alliance
with a countless number of friendly species. (Then again, Earth
made sure the cable TV connection was cut off from the rest of
the universe.) And, so the Earth Alliance was born. The
Earthlings were happy. (Now, say it with me,) Really happy.
And then 50 years passed. Some boring stuff happened. (At
least, where the game story is concerned.)
Then, on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the
foundation of the Alliance, Earth received a gift of great
importance. Reall... The gift to travel to far locations in a
short period of time. The gift of The
Gravitron Ring. And thus, Humanity
expands.
To the PSI 5 Company, this
means money. The ability to leave port with a full shipment of
food cargo, enter The Gravitron Ring
seconds later, and within' a minute, start unloading the
merchandise to the clients at their colonized world. All without
the threat of attack by pirates. This
was good. R...
And to make each run even more profitable, they hollowed
out every freighter down to only
necessary propulsion and navigation equipment so as to haul all
the more cargo. And the only person on board was a combination
captain and navigator.
And so the business of hauling food and supplies to
colonies continued undisturbed for thirty years. Business was
good. Fantastically good.
But the pirates couldn't stand
for this. So they put their technological abilities to work and
came up with an effective means to putting a stop to this
success. They created an enormous
electro-chemical barrier around entire
planetary systems to keep out the
freighters and other Earth Alliance
ships. The PSI 5 Trading Company was
completely un-prepared for this. A drastic action had to be made
soon. Before any colonists starved to
death. Or, more importantly, before profit margins went
skyrocketing down. So, a desperate act of retro-fitting all
PSI 5 freighters
with necessary equipment was put into action. Captains quarters
became crowded down when a navigator and targeting systems were
thrown in. Shipping bays were
tightened for the use of a more advanced
repair station. These class ship,
originally designed to accommodate only one automated
workdroid, now had to support an
entire RoboRepair crew and officer.
Engine propulsion systems were completely un-changeable, due to
their shear bulk and lack of time to install speedier ones.
Weapon systems were necessary for defense, but the newer class
ships were never designed for such systems. So, several exterior
ports were installed onto the outer skins
of each ship. These ports would accommodate
Gunnery Pods. And the major weapon,
called a Plasma Bolt, is used to punch
a hole into the system wide barriers was also installed on the
skin of the ship, approximately on the nose section. Fortunately,
shield generator technology has come a long way since the ships
of eighty years ago. They run straight off of ship's power
conducts and take up very little space. So, their installation
was a piece of Martian Cake.
On the down side, attaching all this equipment onto a
ship utilizing engines designed to put
out little more than enough power then was needed for
engines, ship's computers, lights and
life supports means a dangerous
situation could occur while power is of the utmost necessity
during a fire fight. Unfortunately, the generators are a part of
the engine. One won't work without the other. And to get better
generators, you need better engines.
And with exception of the three Gunnery
Pods, the ship has no room for extra generators, only
batteries. Which will very quickly
drain when the generators go down.
On a strange note: These ship designers never seem to
plan ahead in the electrical department. Funny, but true, the
problem has existed for over a hundred years. Yet, no one has
even attempted to fix that problem.
Click here to read about the arcade body.
Click here to read about The Gravitron
Ring.
Click here to read about the stages that
make up the game.
Click here to learn about the terms of
the game.
Click here to return to the home page.
Copyright Jerod Underwood Park 1997
All rights reserved