E179 Attack the Merchant (takes 1 hour/round)
The merchant ship will stand and fight, but will not pursue if you try to escape. When the merchant has suffered eleven hits
(is within one of destruction) it will surrender and submit to boarding. You can board if you have someone to leave behind to
man the starship guns on your ship. Otherwise you cannot board and the event ends. If you board, you discover you can loot
the merchant, but the captain and his loyal crew threaten self-destruct if you do anything else. If you loot the ship you’ll be
"wanted" in this system, roll 1d6 for the result:
- 1: ship is empty, captain is nearly bankrupt
- 2: find 30 CU of platinum ore concentrate, worth 800 S base price (R229A) at any Industrial area
- 3: find 64 dead slaves — their life support failed during the battle, they are now worthless, but you won’t be "wanted" due to your piracy (slavers don’t complain to authorities!)
- 4: find six luxury skimmers, each 10 CU, you can sell one per City or Gambling area if you roll 1d6 and get 5-6 for a base price (R229A) of 400 S, each sales attempt takes 1 hour, no more than one attempt per day in an area
- 5: find 50 CU of luxury candies worth 200 S per CU at any palace, and a 2 CU unit of Vegan pomset oil (see below)
- 6: find 44 U-type robots (R222) that are all broken-down (R218)
Vegan Pomset Oil: collected from the glands of the Vegan pomset, a highly intelligent forest-dweller under protection from
exploitation. The oil is illegal in every system of this sector, with a 30,000 S fine to anyone caught with it by any authorities (plus
confiscation of the oil). However, the oil may be sold at a Space Station or Scientific area for a base price of 18,000 S per CU.