SPACE TRADERS FLIGHT TRAINING MANUAL

Space Trader's Flight Training Manual
Introductory Data

Welcome aboard this Cobra Mk III trading and combat craft. The ship has been supplied to you by Faulcon deLacy Spaceways, by arrangement with the Galactic Co-operative of Worlds whose Space and Interstellar Pilots Exams you have just successfully completed. The small flight manual supplied with the craft is designed to familiarize you with all aspects of space flight, combat and trading, and we hope that it will be of use to you.
	The Cobra Mk III incorporates Zieman Deflection Shields, fore and aft, 4 hull mountings for Ingram 'rapid-fire' pulse lasers, a Lance & Ferman 'seek & kill' missile system, a Holodirect and ThruSpace GravDistort communications system, and provision for a cargo bay extension.
You begin your career, your ship equipped with a single forward-firing pulse laser, three homing missiles, 7 light years of fuel, and the sum of 100 Credit (CR), ready to embark from a space station in orbit around the planet Lave. The Cobra Mk III is the best of the medium-range, medium capacity fighter-traders, and is an ideal ship for new traders intent on building their fortunes, or new combaters who will constantly need to finance the cost of both armaments and non-combative equipment. The ship is highly maneuverable, has a good C-holding factor during hyperspace transit, can hold sufficient Quirium H-fuel for a 7-light-year single jump and has full Autotrading Systems Link for use at space stations.
Further, it is protected by dual Zieman Energy Deflection Shields, powered by four energy banks, and has a powerful, rapid-fire pulse laser mounted on the forward hull segment. Flight controls are elegant and simple, and the bridge is equipped with both HoloDirect and ThruSpace GravDistort communications systems. Its life support functions are varied and flexible to ensure maximum comfort during trading and hunting operations. Pilot licenses are only issued at the planet Lave, and it is likely, therefore, that you are now docked at a Coriolis station in orbit around that particular world. Lave is a rich, agricultural dictatorship, but is a reasonably safe world at which to begin your endeavors. GalCop and the Lave Authorities allow practice docking and departure runs to all their space stations here, and you would be advised to take advantage of this facility. Interior Of A Cobra Mk III The Cobra is essentially a single-pilot trade-ship, but has been designed to support a second person, provided that person is of ordinary human or humanoid dimensions and physiology. The ship itself consists of five main areas: The cargo hold fills the bulk of the mid-space area, and the cargo bay doors open downwards. The capacity in an unmodified Cobra is 20 1-tonne canisters. Extra cargo space may be acquired by extending the cargo bay, which does not affect maneuverable. Tonne canisters (TC) attach magnetically to the cargo arms within the bay, and two AutoShuttles occupy the central space. The bridge has seats for pilot and co-pilot, a MedStim Center, entrance to the escape pod, descent well to living quarters, communications console, special suit locker, RemLock supply case, attachment facilities for AutoDock System and a hand-weapons locker. The main wall is occupied by the scanner screen, astrogation console and main systems monitors. The drive sector houses the directional thrusts, the System Space Kruger 'lightfast' motors, and the Irrikon Thru-Space drives. Also here are the rear laser housings, the ECM capsule, the Zieman shield generators, and energy banks, and the Witch-Space fuel condensers (Quirium). There are both internal and external access panels. Radiation level is high. The living and hygiene section is below the main bridge, and reached through a descending gravity well. Two bunks, food dispensing facilities, waste disposal (including high-tox copper exudate for Aonians), SynPleasure ralaxapads, and videos. The equipment level runs throughout the ship, and houses all energy banks for lasers, plus the missile rests, with dispatch shafts to the lower hull. The communications center is here, and the escape pod (with a seperate entrance from the bridge) life support systems, cryogen tanks (two) and forty cubic meters of FacsEnvironment for emergency use.

	A view of the bridge of a Cobra Mk III clearly showing scanner screen, astrogation console and main systems monitor.
The Status Page The 'Present System' refers to the planetary system which your ship is currently in; while the 'Hyperspace System' refers to the system into which the hyperspace is locked. There are four possible 'Conditions': DOCKED means they you are docked in a space station at the Present System; GREEN means that there is no immediate danger; YELLOW indicates enemy ships in the vicinity; Condition RED signals a high-risk on-going death-type combat situation. 'Legal Status' refers to your Galactic Police record. If this is CLEAN you have nothing to worry about, but as an OFFENDER or, still worse, a FUGITIVE you are likely to be attacked by police ships. The 'Rating' is a dispassionate assessment of your performance in combat so far. Current cash and fuel is also displayed, along with a list of ship fittings. f8 The status page is always retrievable by pressing f8.

A new pilots rating is 'harmless'; his legal status, 'clean'

	Commander Jameson's rating is 'dangerous', which is not surprising when you consider the equipment and cash he has managed to amass. In fact, as his staus suggests, this has not been achieved without sailing quite close to the wind.
Your Rating As A Combater To become an élite combater requires great skill and great patience, because expert trading is essential before the necessary more powerful armaments and equipment available to the Cobra ship can be brought: beam lasers , more missiles, energy bombs, a docking computer, galactic hyperdrive, etc. As you sail through space between the stars, and as you trade, you will live with your combat rating. You will begin as HARMLESS. If you survive you first skirmish you may be reclassified as MOSTLY HARMLESS. But on the slow climb to a status level that reflects a growing talent for combat you will have to engage many different ships, in many different skirmishes, in the System Space of many different worlds.

You will be classified as POOR, then AVERAGE, then ABOVE AVERAGE, then COMPETENT. Then you will become DANGEROUS, then DEADLY. And at last, a few will become ELITE.

Your kills are photographed and transmitted by TS ComDirect to the nearest GalCop Federal Law Center. Your rating as a combater will increase in direct proportion.

Fly your cobra craft wisely and carefully. Remember: other pilots may be attempting to increase their own combat rating by attacking either innocent traders, or police Vipers (the ships of the GalCop Police Force). If you resort to such tactics (or if you adopt the fast-credit routine and trade in illegal goods) then your combat rating may rise, but your legal status: CLEAN > OFFENDER > FUGITIVE, will make you Public Enemy Number One with the Federation Crime Monitoring Authority and you will not be left alone.

Status page originally accessed by SPACE BAR, always recalled by f8