D3 - SMR - Books

[Claudius Reins]

Reins arrives partway through the night, prepared to see about looking over the books at the maintenance facility, he is wearing his still suit, with his jacket, cummerbund, tie and cloak over it.

[Kannon]

His look caused snickers as he went from men in striped overalls as he was seeking some foreman's office in the yawning hold of underground spice harvesters' repair facility. The fountains of sparks rained from left and right, and the noise of men working metal was deafening, the smell of it - nauseating.

[2 Threat: Oppressing Conditions.]

[Dorian Drake]

Dorian could appreciate someone who took the care to look their best, he himself proudly wore his shining stillsuit with the shield belt and red sash around his waist, along with his inseparable two kindjals, foregoing the robes in the caves and in the partial mercy of the moonlight.

He kept a vigilant eye on the Analyst. Hopefully the man was up to task of finding any irregularities on the books.

[Claudius Reins]

Claudius makes inquiries in a polite and official tone as to the location of the foreman's office, making his way that direction if he can pick it out of the chaos. He does his best not to get in any workers way or to interrupt the work too much. He does notate though what the workers are doing and how many harvesters or other vehicles appear to be currently being worked on.

[Kannon]

The found him, taking a moment to hydrate himself from the catchtube in his stillsuit. He looked at them with tired, blue eyes.



"Auditors, eh?"

There were five harvesters in repair docks, of different models and sizes and in different level of disrepair. One was definitely cannibalised for parts and stood there as irreparable husk of soon-to-be scrap. Two were worked on, and looked like they were about to be refitted for imminent use.

[Claudius Reins]

Claudius nods and smiles, "The Emperor thanks you for you cooperation and apologizes for in inconveniences our presence here may cause, we would rather not interfere with your work, but would need to see your records, and maintenance logs."

[Kannon]

"They are there." The man gestured to haphazardly distributed cabinets full of randomly stuck paperwork. "Make whatever sense of that you want. Sorry for the state of it, but they don't exactly encourage us to be anal with all of that turd. They're after the spice, not really how we manage to make spice get to their hoards day on day off. We have enough work as is." He pointed to the hangar. "Don't flint up that pump, you moron! It's the last one!" He shouted at someone there.

[Claudius Reins]

"There could be no spice without your efforts, you are true heroes of the Empire, even if most people do not notice, thank you for your cooperation" He steps toward the cabinets.

[Dorian Drake]

Dorian looked at the cabinets of paperwork and was glad he wasn't the one who had to make sense of it. Of course, he would help in what way he could, but hopefully that way wouldn't involve sorting or collating.

Addressing the foreman, Dorian asks, "Don't they bring you replacement parts? I would think the top priority would be keeping these harvesters up and running."

[Kannon]

[2 Threat: Total Mess]

[Understand 3+1 (Total Mess) will get you data on a subject of one stated problem related to the spice mining equipment. Every point of Momentum spent over it will provide another batch of data on another problem. This can be assisted.]

"They do and they don't. It's never enough. Lately, they really don't. Hard times, eh? They always come."

[Dorian Drake]

Dorian watched while Claudius started working his way through the cabinets. He tried to help, looking at a few papers to see what was relevant, but he might as well have tried to sprout wings and fly up to the peak of the Mt. Dmitri.

Turning back to the foreman he asks, "How has that affected spice loads. I hear about harvesters being lost to the sands like it's a regular occurrence. I can see you're down one here for spare parts. Do you still have the same quotas to fulfill?"

-----
SMR3, Books assist, Understand 4 + Truth 5, TN 9: 1d20 19
0 successes

[Kannon]

"There's been a decrease in production here, and quotas practically never drop. I have no idea how the Harkonnen are compensating for that, but that's their worry, not mine."

[Claudius Reins]

Reins steps over and begins looking through the record, pulling out a small wooden box with beads, he begins figuring numbers on it.

Truth/Understand - Financial Anaylst/Attention to detail TN 16 Crit 8, 3 Threat for extra dice +1 Successes for trait,+1 Success for using Level 1 Abacus: 4#1d20 20 19 20 2

(I think thats 4 Successes and 2 Complications?)

[Kannon]

[What's the problem you're researching?]

[Claudius Reins]

Reins looks into repair numbers, cross referencing with Harvester information and looks into exactly how many or what percentage of harvesters never return to the facility, and thus might count as lost.

[Kannon]

The loss rate for the last quarter has so far been at 36%, which was a two-digit increase from the previous one. However, harvesters cannibalised for parts were included, and specific reasons for loss were not listed, whether it was loss to external factors or decommission. In addition, the number of working factories off Splintered Rock was higher in previous quarter as some losses were not replaced from the Wind Pass import/manufacturing as part of move of some operations to the False Wall South, so the higher percentage was also a function of a smaller base, but the straight numbers weren't sufficiently noted for comparison, just percentages. It was unclear to what extent the the high loss rate was attributable to a smaller base. Data remained inconclusive.

[Complications incorporated in the account.]

[Claudius Reins]

Spending a determination to reroll 3 of the dice to try for more information.

Truth/Understand - Reroll for Reins on Maintenance Center accounting roll: 3#1d20 15 14 9
(3 Additional Successes)

[Kannon]

And what do you know! On a more diligent second attempt, through smart cross-referencing of previous quarters, Claudius discovered that around two thirds of the increase was due to operational loss, attributed to factors that seemed baloney in aggregate if not for the thinning of spare parts supply this centre would have less to do due to fleet erosion. Even loss of some aircraft was listed as 'Fremen attack'.

[Got some Momentum there for more questions?]

[Claudius Reins]

Additional Questions:

How often are Harvesters complete losses

What kind of damage is repaired on Damaged air vehicles

How often does an individual harvester need to be repaired / how many runs before it has to come in for regular maintenance barring mishaps

[Dorian Drake]

"There's been a decrease in production here, and quotas practically never drop. I have no idea how the Harkonnen are compensating for that, but that's their worry, not mine."

After spending a short amount of time getting in Claudius's way with the papers, he returns to the foreman. "You said the quotas are the Harkonnens' problem not yours. I'm surprised they aren't breathing down your necks... or doing other things to it. They don't seem like the understanding or forgiving type."

[Kannon]

Additional Questions:

How often are Harvesters complete losses

What kind of damage is repaired on Damaged air vehicles

How often does an individual harvester need to be repaired / how many runs before it has to come in for regular maintenance barring mishaps

Almost always if there is loss, it is complete. There is either slow deterioration due to sand, use, or bad parts, or a worm or a raid takes it all that nothing can be salvaged. The rate of complete loss is 36% x 2/3 over the last quarter, so c. one quarter of the whole fleet.

Mostly environmental damage, but combat trauma happens. Flapwings are most vulnerable, and rotors.

Basic maintenance used to be after every mission, now it's dropped to 2-3 for the Splintered Rock. More thorough maintenance at the centre is done when something breaks in a way preventing further operation. This, on average, happens around tenth to fifteenth mission for a new harvester, and then intensifies to 6-7 on average. There is indication that harvesters nearing their term stop to be repaired and are run until they finally break. They constitute the highest percentage of complete losses. Decommissioning through neglect?

[Claudius Reins]

(Can I tell what kind of combat damage to the flying vehicles, and infer Terrorist weaponry access from that? )

[Kannon]

[From some projectiles. That's all there is from the documents.]