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By Brad Cook

It’s been almost a tazura since they cut short my prison sentence on Artur and sent me on this little milk run. Seems simple enough: deliver these computer components to the TerraCorp Crystal Fab in the Ore Belt sector. I even get to sell the parts and keep the money. Seems too good to be true, but anything is better than hard labor on a prison planet. I just don’t know if I can trust this Ban Danna guy who plucked me off that transport ship.

Ban put me in touch with Elena Kho, a TerraCorp VP who gave me this assignment and promised more once I return. I admit I’m tempted to take off with this ship, to make up for the one that was impounded when they caught Bret and I trying to steal a craft. I figure I might as well save that move for later; if I get a twitchy feeling about this deal, I can just bail and go freelance.

A Chance for Redemption

I still don’t understand why they want me, though, when Artur is full of convicted ship thieves. The only thing I can figure is that someone somewhere watched the security vid of our attempted escape and appreciated my flying skills. If that Argon Destroyer hadn’t shown up, I would have been home free. I wish I had been able to win Bret a rehab assignment too, but Ban says he’s staying where he is for the time being. I have a feeling he and I will get to work together again soon, however.

Yeah, I think what we did was lousy. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I could get into the usual excuses — I ran away from my mother and my father went missing many mazuras ago — but maybe, above all else, this opportunity will let me redeem myself, assuming TerraCorp doesn’t have sinister motives. Maybe I’ll even learn what happened to my father.

In the meantime, the dull nature of this milk run has gotten me thinking about my future plans. Ms. Kho said that I’m free to buy and sell resources — pick up some energy cells in one sector and sell them to a factory in another, that sort of thing. It’s a good way to make extra cash that I can use to trade in this Argon Discoverer for something better and outfit it with the best weapons systems available.

One Small Step into a Brave New Future

From there, who knows? There’s pirate activity in every sector; I could even make amends by taking out a few of them. Sure, I’ll get their cargo too, but maybe I’ll show Kho, Danna and whoever else is watching my progress that I can do the right thing. And with the wealth I score, maybe I can even set up my own base station in a corner of some sector. Assemble my own fleet of ships, get Bret back by my side…

Yeah, that could work out real well. I better end this log now. The south gate in the Home of Light sector has dropped me off in the Ore Belt sector, and I can see the TerraCorp Crystal Fab in the distance. A couple pirates are lurking nearby, but they’re looking for bigger fish right now. I hope. There’s some talk about a race of creatures called Khaak that have been causing bigger problems than pirates ever could, but I haven’t run into them yet. It’s probably just an Argon thing aimed at keeping us in line.

I’m getting ready to dock with the factory. Wish me luck. This is Julian Gardna, newly assigned TerraCorp pilot, signing off.

Stay on Target. Engage in ship-to-ship combat against a wide variety of spacecraft.

Site: X2: The Threat
Publisher: Virtual Programming
Mac Developer: Virtual Programming
Developer: EgoSoft Software
Genre: Action

Game Media

The Final Frontier. Watch where you wander: pirates — or worse — may be lurking behind the next asteroid.

System Requirements:

Mac OS X
1.2GHz PowerPC G4 processor or higher
256MB of RAM
ATI Radeon 7000 or nVidia GeForce3 (ATI Radeon 9600 or nVidia GeForce4 Ti or higher recommended)
2GB hard disk space

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Telling Time

The Teladi, a greedy and lazy race that drives a hard bargain in its trading practices and that would rather buy technology than develop it themselves, created a standard known as Zuran time. It’s certainly surprising that such a boorish group would put in that kind of effort, but many believe the Teladi only did so to exert political influence over sectors that have blocked them from trading.

While most species use Zuran time when communicating with each other, they don’t like its seemingly arbitrary units, so they keep their own time systems for internal use. Merchants and the military, however, find it useful for conducting their business.

Sezura: The smallest increment, it’s roughly equal to 1.7 seconds
Mizura: 96 Sezuras, or 2.72 minutes (163.2 seconds)
Stazura: 96 Mizuras, or 4.352 hours (261.12 minutes)
Tazura: 7 Stazuras, or 1.27 days (30.464 hours)
Wozura: 7 Tazuras, or 8.89 days
Mazura: 7 Wozuras, or 62.23 days
Jazura: 8 Mazuras, or 1.36 years (497.84 days)

The Teladi also use these terms, which few have bothered to adopt:

Quazura: 22 Mizuras, or 59.84 minutes
Inzura: 8 Mizuras, or 21.76 minutes
Sun: 1 Jazura

The X-Universe Races

X²: The Threat takes place in something called the X-Universe, made up of seven races. Hyperspace gates connect the various sectors in the universe; each sector typically has multiple gates that lead to different places.

Argon: The Argon Federation comprises the most powerful group of planets. Its capital, Argon Prime, is home to the finest scientific and cultural achievements known to the universe. A male Argon named Frann Herron is President of the Federation. Julian Gardna is an Argon.
Boron: The Boron are strong allies of the Argon. Their ships are the best in the universe, behind the Argon’s. They currently keep trading agreements with the Teladi and the Paranid, but their relationship with the Split is strained and they have no contact with the Xenon. They have an elected government, but they keep a royal family that acts as figureheads: Queen Atreus and her daughter, Princess Menelaus. King Rolk was killed when a cruiser crashed into a space station.
Paranid: This race trades with the Argon but has no other contact with them. It’s allied with the Split and the Teladi while the Paranid relationship with the Boron is lukewarm at best. They conduct strange rites that befuddle other races and live on planets too hot for other life; both of those factors keep them from building better relationships.
Split: The Split control territories that used to be controlled by the Boron, a fact that often leads to small skirmishes. They are very aggressive, which at one time led to a war with the Xenon which ended in a public truce, one that is currently on shaky ground. The Split barely tolerate the Argon and trade with the Paranid but can’t forgive them for not joining their battle against the Xenon.
Teladi: Most races in the X-Universe suspect that the Teladi secretly finance pirate operations. Many have found it odd that their ships have been attacked by pirates after they’ve refused to trade with the Teladi.
Xenon: The Xenon do not belong to any trading organizations and seem to have no interest in aligning with any other race. No one knows the location of their home planet, although the Argon are supposedly planning an undercover trip into Xenon territory to find it. Woe to the traveler who accidentally stumbles into Xenon space: they tend to shoot first and never ask questions.
Khaak: Nothing is known about them at this time, including whether or not they really exist.

in X2: The Threat