1 member
Ballast and Bone Flotilla / BNBF
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Social -
Freelancing
Welcome to the BNB: bed, board, and ballistic support. Pirate-looking ships, suspicious hospitality. We haul, mine, salvage, fight, rescue, and make room for new hands, old hands, and tired bastards who just want to make a little cash, talk shit, and get home in one piece.
History
Ballast and Bone Flotilla was not founded in any hall of note, nor under charter from any House, Guild, or patron worth naming. Like many things that endure in the black, it began as circumstance: a broken convoy, a scavenger crew too stubborn to drift clear, a few armed hulls that stayed when leaving would have been easier, and a growing number of pilots who discovered that survival is more reliable when carried in company.
What followed was less a formal founding than a pattern. Freight too awkward for the respectable lanes. Salvage too risky for timid hands. Rescue work too far afield for those who preferred clean contracts and cleaner hulls. Ballast and Bone became known in the outer routes as the kind of flotilla that arrived looking like trouble and behaved like shelter: scarred ships, open holds, spare bunks, hot engines, and enough guns to make opportunists reconsider their life choices.
Over time, the name stuck. So did the habit. Haulers, miners, salvagers, medics, escorts, drifters, and the occasional lost soul with more nerve than sense found a place among the fleet. Some came for coin. Some for cover. Some because the BNB would patch a hull, share a berth, point them at honest work, and only laugh at them a little.
That remains the custom of Ballast and Bone. We keep ships moving, cargo secured, wounded breathing, and bad ideas just this side of catastrophic. We have no particular love for polished authority, but we know the value of a steady hand, a loaded turret, and room in the hold for one more.
If you want a place where the lights are on, the airlocks cycle, and nobody expects you to be more than useful and decent, you’ll find us where the lanes get thin and the work gets interesting.
https://discord.gg/vmxM98d7kB
Manifesto
We are not a navy.
We are not a corporation.
We are not a throne for some self-important bastard with a title problem.
We are Ballast and Bone.
We keep to the old truths of the black: fly in company when you can, keep your people breathing, keep the holds moving, and do not mistake cruelty for strength. A ship is worth little without a crew, a crew is worth little without trust, and trust is built the hard way — by showing up, pulling your weight, and not becoming the kind of problem that has to be put out an airlock.
We believe a flotilla should make room. Room for fighters and freighters. Room for miners, salvagers, medics, turret gunners, box-haulers, idiots with brave ideas, and newcomers who only own a starter and the good sense to ask where they’re needed. There is no shame in low energy, low funds, low experience, or wanting a quiet job after a long day. There is only shame in acting like the rest of the crew exists to feed your ego.
We are here for good company, good profit, good stories, and the occasional very questionable decision. Some nights that means a clean operation with everyone sharp and locked in. Some nights that means bunkers, salvage, hauling, mining, rescue, bad plans in worse ships, and somebody asking whether this is legal only after the shooting starts. Both have their place. We know when to laugh, when to work, and when to tell a fool to get lost.
We do not demand worship. We do not care for peacocks. We do not mistake sweat for virtue. If there is a job that must be done, we do it. If there is a fight worth taking, we take it. If there is profit in the wreckage, we scrape it. If there is a new hand who needs a seat, a turret, a bunk, or a borrowed hull, we make room.
That is the custom of Ballast and Bone:
Rough hulls. Open holds. Suspicious hospitality.
Be useful. Be decent. Don’t be a dick.
The lights are on. The lock is cycling. Welcome aboard.
https://discord.gg/vmxM98d7kB
Charter
Article I — On Purpose
Ballast and Bone Flotilla exists to keep good company in the black: to haul, salvage, mine, escort, rescue, recover, fight when needed, and make honest or nearly honest profit in the doing. We are a social flotilla first, an operational one second, and we hold that a crew worth flying with matters more than any single contract, hull, or ego.
Article II — On Company
No pilot is required to be a duelist, a grinder, or a zealot to belong here. There is room in the flotilla for fighters, freighters, miners, salvagers, medics, turret hands, rookies, old scars, and tired bastards who simply want good company and a little coin. A member of Ballast and Bone is expected to contribute where they can, speak plainly, and remember that not every hand aboard came for the same kind of night.
Article III — On Conduct
We keep a simple rule and enforce it with enthusiasm: do not be a dick.
Cruelty, ego games, pointless bullying, harassment, bigotry, and the sort of swagger that makes a room worse rather than better are unwelcome aboard our decks. New hands are to be treated like crew, not glass ornaments and not target practice. Correction is welcome. Contempt is not. We make room for people; we do not make room for assholes.
Article IV — On Command
Leadership exists to keep the flotilla moving, settle disputes, make calls when needed, and throw disruptive fools over the side metaphorically, and where necessary otherwise. Officers, moderators, and event leads serve the company; the company does not exist to decorate them. Respect is earned by judgment, reliability, and keeping faith with the crew, not by titles, volume, or posture.
Article V — On Operations
Some nights are loose and social. Some nights require a steadier hand. When an operation is declared serious, those who join are expected to listen, communicate, and pull in the same direction. Real life outranks game time; notice is appreciated, not demanded as tribute. Commitment matters. Coercion does not. We do not turn leisure into unpaid labor, but neither do we waste the time of those who showed up ready.
Article VI — On Profit and Spoils
A good flotilla keeps the holds moving and the rewards felt. Cargo, salvage, mining take, mission pay, and found opportunity should be handled with fairness, clarity, and common sense. Help the new pilot get their footing. Share the extra hull when fortune coughs one up. Do not skim, hoard, or get clever with crew profit unless you enjoy explaining yourself to the quartermaster and the rest of the room.
Article VII — On Readiness
A scarred ship is no shame. An empty wallet is no shame. A starter hull is no shame. Show up willing to learn, willing to help, and willing to laugh when the plan goes sideways, and you will find a berth here. Ballast and Bone keeps spare seats, spare jobs, and often spare ships. Nobody should be left off the deck merely because they arrived light.
Article VIII — On Temperament
We favor competence without peacocking, confidence without cruelty, and humor without spite. We believe in good stories, good company, suspicious hospitality, and enough firepower to discourage bad manners. We like pirate aesthetics, ugly hulls, and practical ships that do real work. We are not here to be a navy, a corporation, or a cult of somebody’s self-importance.
Article IX — On Final Custom
Ballast and Bone keeps to a simple custom:
rough hulls, open holds, and room for one more.
Be useful. Be decent. Don’t be a dick.
The lights are on. The lock is cycling. Welcome aboard.
https://discord.gg/vmxM98d7kB
