Bendross can also refer to the Planet Bendross
Group Name: The Bendross IV colonization Mission
Created by: Gene Ambacher, Jay P Hailey and Garry Stahl
Appearance: Gene's 1990s Bendross RPG, 2016 Starbase-600 Game
Number of Members: 10,000 colonists and crew on the Bendross IV as well as support crew
Nature of Members: Colonists and starship crew chosen to be the best of the best of the 2060s
Organization: Corporate and paramilitary.
Game Role: To take the PCs to Starbase 600, inadvertently.
World Role: To take the colonists to the target system and strand them there, facilitating the colonization of the system. The Target system is later known of as Dezcolia. An Orion Hell hole of diminishing technology. Just as well they never got there.
Relative Influence: On Earth, little. Another corporate boondoggle. In the Oz system, little. A new batch of survivors, refugees. civilians and recruits.
Public or Secret? Public
Publicly Stated Goal: To create a prosperous and profitable colony in the target system.
Relative Wealth: Compared to other colonization missions, above average - Arthur Bendross was shooting the works.
Group advantages: The best equipment money could buy and the best people who could be filtered through the selection system
Special Abilities: Cyberpunks, their view of what is and isn't culturally appropriate is slightly different than the usual 24th century Earth person's.
Group disadvantages: Primitives playing catch up with technology and Xenology.
Special disadvantages: Some may not be all that well adjusted.
Area of Operation: Starbase 600
Headquarters Location: Starbase 600, the Bendross IV
Public Face: Intrepid colonizers and explorers of a strange new world.
Notable Members: []
- Arthur Bendross - megalomaniac multi-billionaire financier who funded the colonization as a monument to himself. Not on the ship. Arthur Bendross did not blow a second rate fortune on this project. He blew a first rate fortune. He had plans to leave with Bendross Five. His fortune dissipated to the stars he planed to join it as King. Death, and/or Destruction denied him his chosen legacy.
- Martin Bendross - Nephew of Arthur and competent administrator. Colony CEO.
- Charles "Chuck" Aldrin - Former Air Force General and veteran In System Freight pusher. He knows as much about driving super large impulse ships as anyone in the 2060s can. Veteran of numerous conflicts. He projects cigar chomping, two fisted, gung ho idiot. But behind this facade is a very smart man who is very very good at resource management. Anyone who advocates using his people unwisely is going to get a scientific beating. After Docking, Chuck Aldrin is sort of at sea, but hunkers down to study the economics of the Federation.
- Dwayne Wu - Medical Doctor, Cybernetic Engineer, Former Army. Cyborg (Left Arm). Looks like a Black/Chinese Line backer. All about the smart. Rescued cybernetic spare parts and data from the Bendross IV
- Katerine Ozzo-Wu - Genetics engineer, molecular biologist. Wife of Dwayne Wu. Also All about the Smart. Wants to get a fresh bio-sciences degree.
- Billy Garcia - a slim, handsome man. A fast talker. Very curious about all the people.
- "Clio" Cleopatra Schwartz - cyborg, a gunsel, former US Army Lt.
- Akka Bolarian - A mathematics genius who's brain was altered by "primitive" 2060s bio science. He gets along better with RI's than anyone else.
- Georj Bolarian - Akkad's Father, Farmer and Field Botanist
- Anja Bolarian - Akkad's mother, Farmer and Field Biologist
- Jo Bolarian - Akka's brother is a systems engineer,
- Meeja Bolarian - Akka's Sister, a nurse.
History of the Organization[]
2074 - The Bendross IV Launches
2076 - Second Shift - the Bendross IV encounters a swirly thing connected to the Ghostlands.
2407 - Swirly thing deposits Bendross IV in the Oz System heavily damaged. A premature end to the voyage very late.
Fate of the Organization[]
The Bendross IV was docked at Starbase 600 and her crew was integrated into the civilian population to seek their fortunes.
The Bendross IV was considered destroyed and a failure until it turned up at Oz, sill a failure at the mission it was intended to accomplish. The Bendross ships were about par for First Diaspora efforts, fifty percent.
- Bendross I -- Made the trip and sabotaged at the destination
- Bendross II -- Destroyed leaving Earth by Neo-Luddites.
- Bendross III -- Successful mission, completed Bendross I as well.
- Bendross IV -- Lost in a swirly thing, ended up at Oz 300 years later.
- Bendross V -- Never launched, destroyed in the AI War.
Ship details:[]
- Ship Name: Bendross IV
- Brief description of ship: A spine with cylindrical modules attached - and a warp drive section tacked on the back.
- Fleet role: Colonizer
- Age: 12 years old when refit as a low warp colonizer.
- Built: 2062
- Length: 317 meters
- Distinguishing Marks (Odd paint job, repair scars etc.) The Bendross IV was a heavily altered normal space tug. It also had the Bendross Corporate Logo painted all over it. This normal Space tug then had a warp drive stage built onto the back.
- Equipment Quirks and Problems: The Bendross IV was a five-of-a-kind conversion. All were prototypes.
- Equipment Advantages: When completed the Bendross IV had the most advanced impulse drives and warp drives of her day, and could outrun most of the ships in the Earth system, including military ships.
- Shuttles, number, any odd ones?: The Bendross IV had large numbers of cargo shuttles, landing tugs and excursion crafts.
- Primary Power: The Bendross IV used a first generation revised matter/anti-matter reactor. It successfully operated for 2 years and then was abandoned, as passage through the Swirly thing damaged it.
- Secondary Power: The Bendross IV used a robust array of fusion reactors for all operating power.
- Primary Weapons: The Bendross IV mounted a powerful Laser cannon on the nose to clear obstacles in her path.
- Secondary Weapons: The Bendross IV mounted two missile launchers with a small variety of conventional and nuclear missiles
- Service History: The Bendross IV was one of a number of sub-light freighters designed to support colonization and exploitation of the Solar system. The economic ruin of the third world war destroyed the finances and will to pursue such activities.
This lead to the giant normal space freighters being docked, sold very cheaply and exploited poorly for the ongoing war on Earth.
When news of the invention of Warp Drive and first contact broke, there was no real plan or organized concept of how to use this new technology and new ideas.
There was a general feeling that Earth was on the verge of destruction.
This lead to a sort of frantic land rush feeling. The ship known as Bendross IV was sold to speculators seeking to exploit the land rush away from Earth.
Then the ship along with four others of similar construction was bought by the Bendross Corporation. Four of them were fitted out as colonizers. The fifth was never finished as the AI War interrupted further construction.
Bendross IV was not aimed in the same direction as the previous two Bendross ships. (Bendross II having been destroyed by Neo-Luddites) Arthur Bendross sent it after the stolen warp ship SS Savanna, figuring that nut LaSaille knew something, Target Q, which Bendross IV never reached, was contacted later as Dezcolia, a fallen Orion world.
After a two year voyage through interstellar space the Bendross IV encountered a Swirly Thing courtesy of the Ghostlands. This threw her into the Oz System, 300 years in the future. The Bendross IV, on contact with ADF ships, dumped her damaged Warp Drive section, and was towed to Starbase 600 where it was hard docked and became archaeology.
The crew has been systematically looting the Bendross IV for items and supplies, although they already have all needs provided for by the Federation. Old habits die hard.
Enterprise-D Scale[]
Crew: 10,000 Mostly in cryogenic hibernation. 12 - 24 people awake on watch. On a scale of 1 - 1000 where 1000 is The Enterprise-D
- Science capacity - 100
- Crew Comfort - 100
- Duration - 4000
- Medical facilities - 100
- Tactical maneuvering - 10
- Strategic Speed - 3
- Defense - 3
- Offense - 3
- Versatility - 50
- Internal Security - 10