Despite losses coreward due to war with The Covenant of Longinus, Schepehyrd's interstellar influence continued to grow during the second and third decades of the 23rd century, and the Mule was a notable contributor to this. Despite the hypocrisy of Schepehyrd's self styled 'Rugged Individualist (read: Machiavellian oligarchical ruling families) /Free Trade (again, read Legal Monopoly controlled by the Oligarchy)' society, competitors arose with the opening of the Alliance's own frontiers to smaller, but still wealthy, families and corporations.

This was due in large part to early Alliance exploitation being done primarily with expensive, slow, jump 1 vessels that were designed as jack-of-all trades military craft instead of as dedicated merchanters, which both stymied the offworld trade of the controlling 5 Oligarch families (Hughes, Nestle, Rockefeller, Mackey and Rand), and soured or slowed their interest in developing stakes on other worlds within the Alliance's expanded boundaries. After all, Schepehyrd - a garden world slightly larger than Earth - still had whole continents left to explore and exploit. When Hughes finally started constructing purpose built traders like the Marathon, and later, the Mule classes, the major houses purchased them of course, but so did the likes of the autonomous Swan Alliance families of Schepehyrd ie. Swan, VanSweet, Blackeagle and Spelling. Independent interests involved in banking (Harrigan family), organized crime (Paktel Syndicate), and others even eventually diverted some of their resources toward purchasing ships to set up private fiefdoms, retreats, drug laboratories, and even tax shelters in nearby star systems.

Perhaps because of the core-ward war brought on by Schepehyrd's own blockade and ban on interstellar trade with the Dade Loop, rumors of untold wealth to be had from rich alien civilizations far to trailing led to long voyages through wilderness systems for many Schepehyrdian Mule captains fed up with running freight, subsidized or otherwise, between the Oligarch's meager Alliance holdings.

Vessels would strike out for the Directorate, sell their cargoes of chocolate and fashions from Schepehyrd, then fill up with Neu Samaran vodka, exotic spices and foodstuffs, consumer technology, artwork and the like then take a 4 month voyage through the dark to Itinic, home of the insectile Espic, and make a killing in markets too big and hungry for these itinerant small tramp traders to ever really put a dent in.

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Pictured above are the Hetta (red, top right), and the Penelope (blue, three separate views).

The Hetta, built originally for Rand family in 2221 AD, and purchased by Margaret Symes in 2240, has blown its cargo after a run-in with pirates at Serene (Hanstone 2422), circa 2242. Bereft of their cargo, and without the funds to readily afford a refit of their aging ship's cargo bay or finance replacement cargo, the Hetta's crew are lucky to be alive, but uncertain about their future.

The Penelope started out in 2220 AD as a Rockefeller ship, and served its family and successive crews well before being purchased and refurbished by Prank (A minsk from Saknussemm) in 2262 AD. Prank had his vessel fitted for a second jump 2, added model 3 computers, densitometer and neutrino sensors, removed the jettison capability of the cargo bays, converted the mid/port large cargo bay into a greenhouse/rec room, and combined the three starboard staterooms into one huge suite for his all Minsk crew to share. The port stateroom remains as a guest suite fitted for human tastes. All these modifications reduce the Penelope's max cargo to 34 displacement tons, which is all he feels he needs for a long range exploration ship.

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Just a glimpse of the future in my Traveller campaign as the current Year is 2214 with most of our different adventuring groups.