Olympus RPG Blog

Unconquerable, Part VI

With Jones, and Smith’s body, placed in cryo-stasis, the Crew set out for the ship’s reactors, along with the original Zhodani crew’s Chief Engineer and three others he picked from among those that had been awakened. Everyone was prepared for the worst, expecting a fight. It was a relatively short trip aft of the habitation rings, and they arrived at the main corridor connecting the two reactor sections without incident. On a figurative coin-toss, they headed first for the starboard reactor; at a distance, ’round the corner, they spotted several securitybots apparently engaged in a firefight with an unknown (but easily guessed) foe. The Crew stopped briefly to decide how to proceed when someone spotted a head briefly poking around the port-side end of the corridor—no firefight over there, so they decided to check it out, hoping to catch their competition off-guard.

Haank cautiously eased his rifle around the corner, using the HUD-link to remotely spy out what was waiting there; there were two armed spacers covering the approach with storm carbines, and they appeared to have spotted the rifle. Unsure of the other crew’s disposition or purpose, but unwilling to simply go in shooting without cause, the Crew decided to give diplomacy a chance. Buck, wearing space armor, stepped around the corner in as non-threatening a manner as he could, announcing their non-hostile intent to approach, citing the nearby presence of the ship’s automated security forces as good cause to be quick; the rest followed just behind Buck, though the other intruders demanded they keep their distance. Abe called out to see if any among them had been injured, and offered to help; as it happened, one of the three had been shot by robots earlier, and the leader nervously accepted the offer of aid, allowing the lot of them into the reactor room. One of the intruders kept watch on the corridor, and was joined by Haank at the other side of the entry. Another spoke for the group, and kept a rifle trained on the strangers as he pointed Abe to the injured man; Abe got right to work patching him up, directing him to remove his vacc-suit top. Buck tried to keep himself interposed between the rifle and Abe, and politely quizzed the man about their situation while explaining his own. The Zhodani crewmen stood to the side and kept out of the way. Haank sized up the opposition, and decided they looked somewhat inexperienced. Ella joined Buck in his attempts to learn more about the others; the leader wasn’t interested in chatting, treating the Crew as a potential threat (for good reason), but they were able to get a few facts out of him: there were around nine more of them, and they had no interest in giving up their prize. Buck discreetly wandered over to the nearby terminal to see how the reactor’s progress was going, but the leader bristled when he attempted to sit at the console and start typing; Buck backed off.

After determining the competition was entirely unbothered by the legal issues involved in taking the ship from its surviving crew—that is, an act of piracy—and might resort to less savory means to keep it, Haank left his post at the entryway and explained the matter to the Zhodani in their language. Buck noticed the leader was listening to the conversation in Zhdent, though he would not admit to speaking the language; the man’s demeanor had shifted to one of concern, as Haank told the Zhodani they may have to retake the ship by force, and he insisted his injured comrade get his suit back on, nervously pointing his storm carbine at anyone that moved. Ella demanded he lower his weapon, joined by Buck, as the situation escalated to shouting. At a movement by the leader that Sam interpreted as “hostile,” he raised his looted gauss rifle to fire on the one guarding the corridor, but the leader reacted quickly and fired, crippling Sam’s weapon arm. In an instant, the entire Crew started leapt into action: Haank swung around and shot the corridor-guard in the ribs, just before Sam finished him off, and began advancing toward the leader in an intimidating manner; as Buck was raising his weapon, the leader shot him in the chest-plate, the heavy slugs stopped entirely by his space-armor, after which, Buck unloaded his own weapon into the man, killing him. The fight was over in a matter of a few seconds, with the leader dead, the corridor-guard grievously wounded and unconscious, and the previously-injured pirate surrendered.

Haank informed the Zhodani that the situation was now under control. Buck sat down at the terminal and started poking around; he discovered that the intruders appeared to have isolated the terminal from the ship’s computer network, allowing them to take control of the reactor systems—since turning it on was what they wanted anyway, the operation was allowed to continue. Haank informed the Zhodani Chief Engineer that they were handing over the reactor system to him, and would be moving out to retake the starboard reactor; the Zhodani crew elected to remain in place to babysit the operation, but agreed to call back to the rest of the waking crew for backup. The Crew decided to take with them the surviving, wounded pirate, who said his name was Tony Trois, to help convince the others of their capabilities and intentions.

The Crew moved out to the corridor and followed it to starboard, finding numerous “corpses” of fallen androids strewn about the corner. As before, Haank spied around the corner with his rifle, spotting numerous enemy troops there, well-armed and dug in for a fight. Ella nudged their captive around the corner to announce the Crew’s desire to parley; he complied. Ella was allowed to step around the corner unarmed. She still had her pistol on her hip as she did so; the opposition demanded it be taken and slid forward on the floor toward them, but she instead reached for it—drawing some alarm—before slowly pulling it free with two fingers and handing it back around the corner to Haank. She demanded to speak to their captain, also a former Navy officer, but he would not leave the reactor room to talk in the open, demanding instead that Ella come into the reactor room to speak—she refused, choosing to shout back to him instead. After a bit of Navy-related small-talk establishing each others’ former credentials, she informed the opposing captain that the original crew was awakening from stasis, around 300-strong, and would be taking back the ship; the opposing captain was unconvinced, and completely uninterested in giving up his prize. Thinking back on the loss of Smith, and the numerous injuries the rest of the Crew were still suffering from, Ella decided the Zhodani really didn’t need any further assistance, and turned back down the corridor to leave, pulling their captive back with her.

The Crew marched back to the medical station in the habitation rings, captive in tow, and collected Smith and Jones. As they made their way back to the hangar deck, Ella revealed that she had in mind to take the intruders’ ship as a prize, as it would likely be unmanned, or at least, under-manned. When they arrived at the hangar, they saw the other ship, the Aegis, alongside the Spinward Star; an unknown hull-class at around 200-tons. However, someone spotted movement inside—it looked like they would have to fight for it.

Notes

• Ella’s player was absent; she was played by Buck’s player instead, which was an interesting dichotomy, as the two characters are completely opposite
• The dice finally cut us a break this week, for the most part; no catastrophes to speak of

Unconquerable, Part V

Of the Zhodani crew released from stasis, three volunteered to accompany the Crew to the bridge to help get the computer shut down—the two techs, and one other. Smith and Jones, both still unconscious from their earlier wounds, were placed on stretchers to be hauled along, rather then leave them behind. However, the stretchers would make crawling the service tunnels virtually impossible, so the Crew opted for the more open route, which would undoubtedly have them run afoul of the ship’s automated security forces; they prepared for the worst, entrusting the Zhodani volunteers with scavenged gauss rifles.

They made their way to the nearest elevator cluster that had not been sealed full of securitybots. As they approached, they could hear one of the cars activate, summoned back to the central ring, no doubt to pick up more armed androids; they all piled into an empty car, but waited for the other to reach its destination and begin its return before activating their own. At the “top,” after disembarking, Buck quickly moved to disable the elevator doors, as before. They determined the correct direction around the central collar to reach the shaft leading mid-ship, and began cautiously floating toward it, keeping an eye for trouble. A couple of securitybots were spotted at some distance around the curve, and the Crew and their company hasted to hide themselves behind whatever cover presented, pulling their stretcher-bound comrades aside; Haank reassured the Zhodani crewmen, quietly reminding them that the robots would not be trying to kill them, so they should hang back if a fight erupts. The “autonomous” androids spoke to each other, as would any other sapient being, referring to sabotage of elevators and such. Some tense moments elapsed as the robots approached the Crew’s hiding places, passing within hands reach of Buck, to the fore, but they didn’t spot anyone as they turned back the other way, having been summoned elsewhere. The Crew discreetly followed behind them to their intended passage, leaving the robots behind as they continued ’round another way.

Floating down the passage forward, the Crew felt a hum begin to reverberate through the ship’s structure; they identified this as the reactor being started up, and the Zhodani agreed. The crew of the other ship had clearly been working to get it online this whole time. Buck estimated it would be an hour or two before it would be fully warmed up.

They found the elevator-cluster that would take them to the sub-bridge level; they entered, and took it to the topmost cargo deck, Buck having sealed off the doors to the sub-bridge itself earlier. They found the hold there mostly empty. Haank asked one of the Zhodani where they might find access to the sub-bridge from here, and they pointed out the spot, in the next hold-chamber. When the bay door opened, though, they started as they saw rows and rows of securitybots, statue-like, in some sort of standby mode; the formation appeared to be missing a few, clearly having been dispatched to bring in the intruders. It was decided to take the chance of alerting them to get past to the access hatch, so they proceeded cautiously. There was no reaction at all from the androids, until the moment Haank and Buck started to remove the hatch cover; a number of robots suddenly activated…and moved out in a hurry for the elevators, completely ignoring the intruders amongst them, to the intruders’ surprise.

Continuing their mission, Buck was in the service tunnel as the Crew were deciding to remove Smith and Jones from their stretchers, when the ship’s artificial gravity suddenly engaged, dropping everyone heavily to the floor. Abe checked on his patients, and discovered the Smith had landed badly in the process, and was bleeding out badly. The Crew stopped everything to do what they could (as it was, little) to help Abe, as he frantically tried to save the still-unconscious Smith. Stripping him out of his vacc-suit, which was full of blood, he administered regeneratives and performed CPR as Smith nearly faded—he was still alive, but only barely, in desperate need of a blood transfusion to replace the significant loss. Ella might have torn her own arm open to provide it, but the Crew unanimously decided they would abandon their current mission to return him to the nearest medical station for proper treatment—which happened to be the same place they had left, earlier.

Now with full gravity, the return trip to the medical facility was much more difficult; they went back the same way they came. The stretchers had to be carried all the way back, and maneuvered into the elevators, taking care not to jostle them too much. Fortunately, they encountered no resistance whatsoever as they hurried back, and they arrived at the medical station in good time. Abe immediately sprang back to work, as Smith was fading fast. But he was too far gone, and the medical supplies available at the station were designed for Zhodani patients; Abe eventually had to be pulled away by the other Crew, having failed to save their fallen comrade.

Reeling from their loss, the Crew discussed their next move: the other crew had clearly gained an advantage, but the security forces seemed preoccupied with their activities rather than the Crew’s, which gave them time they didn’t have before. It was decided to start waking the other Zhodani crew to aid in taking back their ship, starting with whatever medical officers they could locate, who could then assist in waking the others. In a half hour or so, there were nearly thirty Zhodani crew up and about; the ranking officer among them was the Chief Engineer. Haank gathered those Zhodani that were awake and, matter-of-factly, tried to explain the situation: the war had ended in a truce, though the “ship” was not aware of it; the Crew was here for salvage until they discovered the crew still lived, at which point they were working to help them take it back from the other free-traders that had boarded, who were currently starting it up. Haank’s efforts were received coldly, though the Zhodani made no attempt to turn on their rescuers. Haank, translating for the others as needed, discussed their tactical options with the Chief Engineer, who insisted that the ship’s engineering section should be taken back ASAP, as they had less than an hour before it would be fully charged up, at which point the intruders would likely take full control. It was agreed that engineering was the most likely location of the other intruders, as the reactor would require some babysitting during the startup process, so they would be expecting resistance. There was an arms station nearby, and Buck was commissioned to bring his tools, and help get it opened, as the Zhodani crew were still locked out of the system (by the former crew of the Proud Mary); what arms and armor were available (not much, given that the ship was designed to be defended by the androids) were taken up by the Zhodani crew. As prepared as they could be, the Crew and a chosen handful of Zhodani, led by the Chief Engineer, set out to assault the engineering section.

Notes

• The securitybots stopped right in front of Buck in the hallway; the GM randomly rolled which direction they would turn as they about-faced to leave—lucky, that time
• After four sessions without it, gravity is finally returned, to our chagrin 😛
• Having to backtrack, we’re running afoul of our justifiable attempts to cover our six by sealing off the elevators
• The GM had the injured make a HT check when the gravity came back on, and Smith failed critically; then the GM made a Death Check for him, which failed by one (accounting for one level of Easy to Kill—without which he would have survived). If I’m not mistaken, Smith is the only “party” loss this group has experienced since I started playing. Though he was only an NPC, and originally a red-shirt, we had grown rather attached.
• The dice continued to be uncooperative at critical moments; once again, a much-needed Diplomacy attempt (with the waking Zhodani crew) was thwarted

Unconquerable, Part IV

…Continued. The Crew continued to resist the securitybots’ attempts to capture them, still cornered in the cryo-room, while Crewman Beqr cowered in the corner of the lab. The unidentified fog continued to fill the adjoined rooms, but dispersed out the open door, having little effect, as the Crew were in sealed vacc-suits.

Smith, in the lab, went for the stunned securitybot’s gauss rifle which he had previously knocked away and turned it on its former-owner, while Haank shifted to firing at the one still grabbing at Buck, who was backpedaling and trying to reload his gauss pistol. As Smith cleared the line of fire, Haank returned to firing on the robot in the lab; the two finally filled it with enough holes that it could no longer function. The Crew noticed that some of the cryo-tubes had been damaged by gunfire, resulting in some noticeable injuries to some of the occupants; Abe abandoned the fight and went to work trying to get to the injured to aid them, starting the process of waking them. Ella, almost panicked by the revelation, also abandoned the fight to help Abe, ordering the others to move the fight out into the lab, rather than risk the ship’s original crew any further. As Jones slipped through to the lab, he was caught by another securitybot coming in, and thrown out into the hall, where another pair were waiting for their opportunity to enter; he frantically tried to escape down the hall past them, gliding uncontrolled in freefall, barely escaping more gauss-fire. The robot in the lab turned to gun down Smith, who succumbed to his wounds after putting up an admirable fight; of the two androids in the hallway, one turned to pursue Jones, while the other followed into the lab. Buck spotted his captured gauss rifle floating nearby, and abandoned his pistol to reload the rifle instead; at the same time Haank’s pistol was emptied, and he began to reload. Sam had made his way to just beside the doorway, and pulled the floating “corpse” of one of the robots out of the doorway, covering himself from the incoming reinforcements; as one of the robots in the lab pressed through to the cryo room, Sam tossed the android-chassis at it, knocking it back. Haank was mid-reload when the other securitybot pressed past and grabbed him by the vacc-suit, to throw him out; he tried to finish, but for his being tossed about, ended up letting go of the magazine, and started trying to wriggle free. Sam saw Haank’s predicament and seized the opportunity of the android’s distraction to jump on its back, wrapping both arms around its head, (hopefully) blinding it. Meanwhile, Ella had spotted Smith floating away in the lab, and she pressed past the struggle in the cryo room to render first aid; the other securitybot ignored her as a non-combatant, continuing to press into the cryo room. He hung on for dear life as the robot tried to peel him off its head, while Haank slipped free and finished reloading, he and Buck firing into the thrashing android’s exposed flank. Some seconds later, the robot succeeded in dislodging Sam, and threw him through the doorway, and straight through the lab; Sam bounded off the ceiling and out into the hallway. With only Haank and Buck remaining in the fight, they concentrated fire on the remaining assailants until they finally succumbed.

With the fight over, and the fog mostly cleared, the Crew quickly collected themselves, knowing there would be more to come. They found Jones, unconscious and near-death, in an office down the hall; Haank did what he could on the spot, and guided him back to the lab. Ella finished her patch-job on Smith; he would live, but was in bad shape. Some minutes later, as Abe tended an opening cryo-tube, its occupant started awake with a scream, thrashing wildly about; the others observed Abe also scream, clutching his helmet, in some sort of reaction to his patient’s condition, before passing out. Haank quickly dove for a sedative hypo, and with Ella’s assistance in holding the injured crewman still, managed to administer it; the man settled down instantly, unconscious. Ella used some smelling-salts to awake Abe, who was then forced to dope himself with a powerful painkiller to combat a crippling headache.

Some minutes later, the endangered crew were tended to, and shaking off their long hypersleep; some had not survived. The Crew hurriedly discussed what to do next: they assumed there would be more security forces dispatched to their location at any time, which they would be hard-pressed to survive; they had to tend to their injured comrades, and now, those of the original crew that had been awakened; they still had no idea as to the whereabouts or disposition of the crew of the other free-trader that had docked; they still had no plan for the ship itself, except to move it to a new location. There was talk of cutting their losses and leaving (although Buck insisted they should keep the ship, until it was pointed out to him that since the original crew was aboard, and there was no ongoing war with the Zhodani, it would be considered an act of piracy to take it), but they were all in agreement that whatever their decision, they would not leave the original crewmen to fend for themselves against the securitybots, who were bent on following their last orders to place the crew in stasis. With Haank as the middleman, they discussed the situation with Crewman Beqr and his colleagues; they said the only way to take control of the ship was to disable the ship’s computers—it wouldn’t stop the autonomous security units, but it would allow them to control the ship itself, at which point they might be able to contain the security forces—two of the awakened crew were computer techs that could do the task.

Now resolved, the Crew knew the best place to attempt to disable the computer was from the bridge. They decided they would be better served by taking the maintenance crawl-ways back the way they had come, but they would have to get past the elevators, some still full of trapped androids. There was no choice but to press forward, so they all set out for the bridge.

Notes

• Sam’s player was out for the session, so I took him over; he didn’t die on me, despite my efforts 😉
• This session was mostly one big fight, especially considering it had started the previous session. No idea why it took so long, except that the androids were pretty damned tough, and refused to die, combined with our lack of preparation for this particular threat
• The dice were still being pretty uncooperative, but less so than last time; pretty sure Jones experienced a malfunction at one point during the shooting
• There was a lot of light grappling in this fight. Though Technical Grappling had been released already, we haven’t had the opportunity to wrap our heads around it, so we aren’t using it yet. Sam (ST10) was damned lucky to have held onto “the bull” for as long as he did
• We very nearly lost both red-shirts in this one; would have been sad to see Smith go
• Abe’s incident with the awakened crewman was planned between the GM and player, as an excuse to allow him to improve/reveal his latent psionic abilities
• This session coincided with the theatrical release of Gravity, which the GM had seen before the rest of us; it was already having an influence on the zero-gravity antics (I’m betting the robots’ tactic of tossing the intruders down the hall was a result), but perhaps moreso next time, when everyone else has (probably) seen it as well

Unconquerable, Part III

The medibot that surprised the Crew declared that they were not allowed in this area, and attempted to shoo them out the door. As waking up a crewman was their best shot at getting things working on the derelict warship, they were not willing to leave. The robot did not appear to be armed at all, except that it could undoubtedly call down more securitybots, the presence of which would force the Crew to hurry the process of waking the crewman, neverminding the obvious consequences of any exchange of fire. If they attacked it, they would have to disable it quickly before it could call for help. Without other obvious option, Haank tried to hide his rifle behind Buck as he raised it, hoping to surprise the medibot, and opened fire; Smith, growing impatient, also opened fire about the same time. The others followed suit. As the helpless medibot was riddled with needle-fire, debris flying off in all directions, it continued to politely insist it not be fired upon, lest the cryo-tubes be endangered, and informed the intruders that security had been dispatched to their location—they hadn’t been fast enough—before its power systems finally failed, and it hung, limp and lifeless, in freefall.

Abe immediately started the wake-up procedures for the chosen crewman, moving as quickly as he could—normally takes ten to fifteen minutes—as they expected a troop of securitybots to arrive at any minute. Meanwhile, everyone else surveyed their surroundings to determine their best defensive options. There were two entrances to this cryo room: to port, a long hallway lined with living quarters leading to one of three elevator clusters; to starboard, a medical office that opened into the rest of the medical area, a maze of offices and operating rooms that included another, closer elevator-cluster. Buck made for the starboard elevator-cluster, the closest, and began disabling the doors, as he had on the bridge, taking Smith with him for cover. Buck finished in time to hear the elevators activate, and the two hasted back to the cryo-room, where Haank and Ella were observing a handful of the up-armored securitybots exit the port elevator-cluster, advancing tactically down the corridor. Haank took careful aim with his gauss rifle at the lead robot, but when he pulled the trigger, nothing happened; he quickly cleared the electrical contacts and reseated the magazine, and lined up another shot. He fired again, and missed. Having been attacked, the securitybots sought nearby cover and hid there, calling out, in Zhdent, for the intruders to lay down arms and surrender.

Abe continued working; they figured they had another ten minutes to go, so they needed to delay. It occurred to Ella that the securitybots were likely attempting to avoid a firefight in the vicinity of the sleeping crew, lest they be caught in the crossfire, which gave the Crew a bit of leverage to negotiate. Ella requested the securitybots speak Galanglic—they complied, and repeated their demands—and (speciously) threatened to kill the defenseless crew if they didn’t back off, but they were unconvinced of her sincerity. As they continued, fruitlessly, to attempt to negotiate, another handful of securitybots exited the elevators to join the others, bounding tactically down the hall, closing in on the Crew’s position. Eventually, Ella gave up trying to talk her way out, and had Buck seal the door closed; they knew it wouldn’t prevent an assault, but might slow it down anyway. As Buck finished, they could hear the robots’ quickly advancing steps outside, eventually moving through the hallways to surround the block.

As Buck moved to the other door to seal it off as well, Abe announced that the crewman was waking. Crewman Beqr shook the long sleep out of his head, and surveyed his surroundings, to find he was alone in the company of “the enemy”; he was understandably confused and frightened. Haank tried to calm him down, speaking Zhdent, and explained the situation a little at a time (as it would undoubtedly be a bit of a shock): the War was over, the sides having agreed to a cease-fire ten years back, and his ship was derelict, left behind by those who had stolen it; Haank offered to allow him to view the ship’s logs. As the information settled in, Haank explained that the Crew was here to salvage the ship, but are running afoul of its automated security, and would appreciate some help in bypassing it; in exchange, he offered, on the Crew’s behalf, to help wake up the remaining crew, and help them get home, wherever that might be. As they helped Crewman Beqr to the starboard door, it became clear that the young crewman didn’t quite trust these Imperials, and had no idea how to properly proceed, to the point of near-panic. The Crew opened the door and called out to the securitybots, informing them they were sending someone to negotiate. The robots recognized Crewman Beqr and advised him to step aside and allow them to seize the intruders, while the Crew encouraged him to take charge (being the only legitimate crewman currently active) and demand security stand down. The Crew, via Haank, tried everything they could think of to negotiate an exit, but the ship’s computer, cut off from the outside world, had no idea the War was over. After some prodding, the robots stated that the intruders were to be held until the captain—who was deceased—returned to deal with them; also, Crewman Beqr would be placed back in cryo-stasis. Crewman Beqr was no help at all, mentally paralyzed, as he just couldn’t process what to do in this highly unusual situation; he ended up retreating to a corner of the office and curling up there, out of the way.

At that point, the securitybots charged through the lab in an attempt to execute their mission; the Crew opened fire. The robots pressed their way into the cryo room through a hail of gauss-needles, attempting to close and wrest away the Crew’s weapons. Some of the Crew took advantage of the lack of gravity to move to the ceiling, clearing lanes of fire. Smith emptied his gauss rifle into the assaulters’ chassis, slowing their advance. Haank’s gauss rifle misfired again, and he immediately transitioned to his pistol, unloading into one of the robots that was previously “stunned” by Smith. The robot in front failed to disarm Jones and moved on to Buck, turning its back to the others to its own peril—it fell—before another followed into the cryo room. Smith’s gauss rifle ran dry, so he charged into the lab to knock away the rifle of the still-recovering robot there. Abe, having determined his sonic stun pistol to be all-but-useless against the medbot, found a fire extinguisher, and was preparing to do…something with it, when the room began to fill with a fog billowing out of the ventilation system. To be continued…

Notes

• This was the second session done entirely in freefall; there was quite a bit of three-dimensional movement in the fighting, mostly just switching from floor to ceiling to get out of the line of fire
• The dice continued to refuse to cooperate this session; Haank ended up with concurrent 17s resulting in rifle malfunctions, and a 15 on the diplomacy attempt toward the end
• Smith, once again (played by Abe’s player), showed what a combat-monster he was, in spite of his actual stats to the contrary—he did a lot of damage. Also, he actually emptied the magazine on a gauss rifle—something not witnessed in quite some time (with 60 a shot magazine)
• A bit of a combat surprise: Haank’s ETC Heavy Pistol w/ APHD actually ended up doing equivalent damage, per shot, to the high-powered gauss rifles, versus the Unliving robots, thanks to the larger piercing type (pi instead of pi-) plus the same (5) armor divisor
• We ran into some weirdness fighting the robots this time, in that there is nothing in their stats to say they can’t be “Stunned” or suffer the usual head-blow effects; the GM ruled that since they weren’t specifically statted such that they were immune, then they weren’t—which is how GURPS 4e normally works
• Along a similar line as above, we ended up “negotiating” with robots, which feels weird for the same reasons. In this case, designated “autonomous”—having limited or full AI—and not being statted otherwise (that is, they didn’t have Indomitable or anything similar), they were ruled susceptible to manipulation
• Had to wrap mid-fight, to be continued next session

Unconquerable, Part II

Still in freefall, and darkness, the Crew forced the doors, and exited the elevator shaft. Across the hallway, there was a door that read “Bridge” in Zhodani; they all took up defensive positions as Buck worked on forcing it open. Once successful, the door opened to reveal a pair of up-armored-and-armed security androids on the other side; they raised gauss rifles and demanded the intruders’ surrender. The intruders opened fire, instead. The brief but frenetic engagement ended with both androids disabled, and Haank, Sam and Smith suffering significant, but non–life-threatening gauss-needle wounds. Abe patched up the wounded as best he could, given they were all in vacc suits.

The plan was to get the ship running, and attempt to move it to a new location, such that nobody would be able to find it, coordinates be damned; after that, however, they were still unsure how to capitalize on this bounty. Buck made immediately for the bridge’s forward console, finding a terminal suitable to continue his intrusion efforts. Knowing there was another crew aboard, undoubtedly looking to claim the ship as well, the rest took up watch positions while Buck worked. Upon review, Buck determined that gaining secure access would take a really long time, maybe even days—he was an inexperienced hacker (the source of which, again, he would not elaborate), and this system was well-fortified. Before he started, though, he went about breaking into what he easily could, and managed a few helpful items, among them a better deck map, the captain’s and other logs, and a cargo manifest. He passed off everything he found to the others, along with a copy of his Zhodani translation program (so they could actually read the stuff), so they started sorting through the available data. Buck was unable to get into the security system to find out where the other uninvited guests were, or to open any locked doors, or to operate any of the ship’s systems; predictably, anything remotely sensitive required identification and authentication. There was talk of stripping the “real” captain’s voice-print from the logs to forge identification, but it would remain useless without the authentication codes.

From the logs, the Crew was able to determine the overall purpose of the ship: an experimental, nearly fully-automated warship, prepared for planetary invasion during the War, which was stolen from the Zhodani by the crew of the Proud Mary, who left it behind in an out-of-the-way orbit to be salvaged later. Those logs left by the former-captain of the Proud Mary post-theft indicated that they planned to sell off the pieces for a hefty sum (selling the ship, whole, would be nearly impossible); also, he was unwilling to simply kill off the entire crew, instead remanding them to cryostasis—meaning a number of the original Zhodani crew were still aboard. Haank hit upon the idea of waking one of the frozen crewmen who might have sufficient security access to help get the ship moving. Buck dove back into the ship’s computer and managed to find the location of the occupied cryostasis tubes, in the aft habitation ring. After much discussion about the pros and cons of leaving the bridge unattended, it was decided to take the chance, and make for the cryo-tubes; if the Zhodani crewsicles would not cooperate, they would have to return and hunker down for the lengthy hacking process.

All together, they proceeded down to the sub-bridge level the same way they got up, and looked for a way down that didn’t involve the elevator-cluster full of armed securitybots, but they couldn’t find anything suitable. Buck sealed the lifts to the bridge, to hopefully frustrate the competition should they make their way here. They did manage to find a maintenance access, leading into the airducts, service tunnels and crawlspaces—extensive on a ship this size—and decided to take their chances with the duct-maze. As they floated along, they stopped briefly to hear the far-distant sounds of gauss fire striking bulkheads echoing through the tunnels, and presumed their competition was running afoul of the ship’s security—would probably only slow them down a bit. With a combination of inertial compasses and spacer experience, they managed to keep from getting lost, and ended up where they intended, dropping into the corridor in front of the habitation rings’ lift-cluster. Once again, Buck forced the doors open, cracked open the overhead service panel, and they ascended/descended out to the habitation ring. Fortunately, the elevator-shaft opened directly to the medical area they were looking for, and they quickly found their quarry, resting peacefully in their cryo-tubes (though not all of them had survived ten years of stasis). None of the Crew knew enough about Zhodani culture to accurately recognize ranks and such, though the coveralls were a dead giveaway for “maintenance” types; they were looking for a non-officer, as he would be far less likely to be psionically trained. As they identified a likely candidate, and started checking the displays for life-signs, they were all startled, turning to see what was obviously some sort of medical android, demanding to know their business here…

Notes

• This entire session, including the fight at the beginning, was under freefall conditions; we started to feel the pinch of the Free-Fall skill cap
• The dice were being particularly unkind to all this session, except for Smith (played by Abe’s player), who managed to do most of the robot-killing, full-auto all the way. Haank used the boost setting on his gauss rifle for the first time—a surprise to the other players who weren’t aware of it—doing quite a bit of damage to set up Smith for the kill-shot
• Reinforced our discovery from last session about how inefficient gauss weapons are versus machines
• Not sure why we didn’t think to break out the translation software last time—problem solved anyway (for now). Most of the PCs had a handheld computer available to make use of it

Unconquerable, Part I

Now that the entire crew was inside the massive, derelict, Zhodani vessel, they started to look around their immediate environs. There were no lights, and no gravity. There was atmosphere; Buck tested it, and determined it was breathable—some of the Crew removed their helmet, revealing it to also be very cold. There was minimal power, enough to provide minimal life-support. They went straight for the nearest terminal to try to get a layout of the place. To no ones’ surprise, it used the Zhodani language, so it would be up to Haank, the only one among the Crew who could speak or read it, to find what they needed. And find it he did—a basic overview, at least—though it took a while for him to acclimate to the foreign operating system. In order to find out what the ship’s mission was here, they were looking for the bridge or auxiliary; they identified the bridge, and the directions they would need to take. Haank snapped a photo of the map, in case they couldn’t pull it up later.

They navigated to the elevator cluster they intended to use, which wasn’t terribly far away. Suddenly, the lights and gravity turned on. A disembodied female voice demanded, multiple times, in Zhodani, that they identify and authenticate themselves—Haank translated—but they had no proper answer; Haank answered “Rescue” to no apparent avail. They reached the elevator cluster, and as the elevator doors opened, to their surprise, they were met by an android-type security robot; the robot repeated the voice’s demands. As the Crew was unable to come up with a satisfactory reply, the robot then demanded the intruders surrender themselves; predictably, the Crew refused. It then produced a gauss pistol from a leg-holster and attacked with an unworldly speed and grace that made it difficult for anyone to hit it, as the Crew immediately opened fire, having no remaining alternative. Haank drew his pistol, but in his haste, it slipped out of his hands; he transitioned to the gauss rifle instead. Abe circled to the side of the cluster, for cover, having naught but a stunner to his defense; he kept an eye to ensure they weren’t flanked by another. Smith was hit, but not badly wounded. The robot was hit numerous times, but gauss weapons, as most of the Crew were armed with, aren’t the best suited for destroying machines. Haank circled to the other side of the cluster, and managed to get outside the robot’s field-of-vision; he was able to damage it enough to slow it down, such that the rest could finish the job.

The Crew were convinced this would not be the last of it, so they got moving immediately, into the elevator. It ascended through many decks to the top of the ship; as it passed through the main hangar deck, they could see through the viewports many formations of what appeared to be heavily-armed robotic combat-troops, along with space-fighters in their launch tubes. The elevator eventually stopped at its limit of the sub-bridge deck, and the Crew would have to board another elevator to get to the actual bridge. They left the elevator, and found a control station nearby, so Haank went back to work trying to find details about the ship, with Buck providing some guidance through his knowledge of computer security (the origin of which, he cared not to explain); again, the foreign operating system proved tricky to master. The others took up defensive positions around the area.

Without warning, a holographic image of a human(oid) female appeared in the hallway near the Crew, and again, in Zhodani, demanded the intruders identify and authenticate themselves. Haank tried “Emergency”; ineffective again, but nobody else could think of anything. The image declared that security was being dispatched to their location. Buck quickly left the control station and put an ear to the elevator doors—something was coming up—so he grabbed his tools and set about hastily disabling the doors before anything could emerge; he succeeded, mere seconds before the elevator and its occupants reached the sub-level. Buck continued to disable the other elevators in the cluster, as they were also activating. The image then declared that they had five minutes to identify and authenticate before anti-piracy measures would be implemented—Haank still translating; in a moment of clarity, Haank asked the “ship” to use Galanglic instead, and it did so, allowing everyone else to converse with it directly. Abe asked if there was someone they could contact to recover their “forgotten” authentication codes, and the image indicated they should contact the “civilian captain”; asked who that was, the image responded with the name of the captain of the Proud Mary—a clue. The Crew started frantically firing off any potential password they could think of relating to their ship’s former owners, and scanning the data they had copied from the smuggled OSD for clues, still to no avail. They asked the image to identify the ship in the hangar, hoping it would recognize the Proud Mary (having momentarily forgotten the transponder had been updated after the official change of ownership); the image identified not only the CV Spinward Star in the hangar, but another 200-ton vessel—the competition had arrived. Haank halted his fruitless attempts to bypass the computer’s security (despite Buck’s assistance) to try to find some more detailed deck plans, to identify a core terminal that might provide a better platform for intrusion, but every bit of useful information was (understandably) locked down, requiring authorized-access.

As the remaining minutes waned, the Crew abandoned their position and fanned out to find some sort of access to the actual bridge level above; they located the other set of elevators. As the last seconds before anti-piracy protocols ticked away, the Crew scrambled into the elevator, barely getting through the doors in time. As expected, the elevator went completely dead in an instant; the lights cut out, as did the artificial gravity. The sudden dropout of gravity hit Abe the wrong way, and with help, he barely got his helmet off in time to keep from vomiting inside his suit. Using Buck’s toolset, the Crew pried off a service panel in the roof of the elevator, and ascended to the level above.

Notes

• For those that don’t already know, the ship is courtesy of Future Armada. We all highly recommend supporting this outfit, so they can continue to make more
• Sam’s player was out this week, but since the GM expected him back next time, we did not leave him behind on the ship, so we wouldn’t have to run a split-party or jump through hoops to get him back to the rest
• It was fortunate that Haank speaks Zhodani (at Accented, anyways), otherwise this whole thing would have been far more complicated
• The dice were not being very cooperative this time; lots of failures, and Critical Failures in some spots (like Haank’s Fast-Draw attempt)
• This party is feeling the pinch of not having a dedicated computer-genius/hacker in the group; Buck can do it, but he’s not all that great at it, exacerbated, in this case, by having to work through a translator on a completely foreign system
• Immediately took to calling the hologram-woman “Cortana,” for obvious reasons
• Second time this campaign somebody’s hurled after entering Free-Fall

Lost and Found

While the rest of the Crew were handling the negotiations after Katelyn was allowed to speak to Gerhard, she was left awake in medbay under Abe’s guard. For a moment, Abe could feel a “presence” in his head; he assumed it was Katelyn, believed to be a psi, and warned her to stay out of his head.

Meanwhile, the Crew briefly deliberated, and continued to negotiate with Gerhard over the commlink for the release of Jones in exchange for the release of Katelyn and the handover of the OSD—by this point, they had all but given up on preventing the arms-smuggler from ending up with the data, whatever it was; they were unwilling to risk the life of their fellow crewmember by making waves. The Crew required the exchange take place at the landing pad, planning to have the ship warmed up and ready to bolt as soon as the exchange took place (and have the ship’s weapons as insurance against a betrayal). Gerhard balked at the idea, saying he could never get Jones, technically a kidnap victim, past security; Ella asked to speak to Jones, and ordered Jones to play along. Gerhard still didn’t trust the Crew to play nice, however, and they all ended up settling on a public place, a popular shopping mall in the startown, during the local lunch hour, a few hours hence.

The Crew prepared for the worst, planning to go armed and armored; Haank and Buck purchased proper holdout holsters for their sidearms. Abe filled in Katelyn on the situation and extracted a promise to behave herself; she seemed to agree there would be no benefit in her making trouble. As the time for the meeting approached, the Crew piled into the air/raft, and headed into town.

At the mall, they made their way to the food court and spotted Gerhard’s representative (from the earlier meeting at the warehouse), along with another man they didn’t recognize but presumed to be Gerhard. Jones, however, was not present; already, things were starting to look bad. Abe was keeping a discreet watch on Katelyn when he happened to notice a flash of recognition cross her face as she spotted someone at a different table; unable to alert the others at the time, he kept an eye to that area for signs of trouble. The Crew approached the table and seated themselves. Ella asked where Jones was, and Gerhard said that he was nearby, to be released on confirmation of the OSD data, which he then demanded to see. Ella balked at handing over the data with nothing to show for it, but Gerhard produced a datapad and slid it across the table to her, telling her to pull up the files archive and show him. She did so, and although Gerhard tried to hide his excitement, Haank and Abe both noticed the subtle change in demeanor. Now satisfied, Gerhard signaled his lieutenant to bring forth the hostage; Jones was led into view, apparently unharmed. Ella passed the datapad and OSD back to Gerhard, and Jones was released. The business concluded, Gerhard dismissed himself, and he and his associates left the food court, and went on their way. All’s well that ends well, right?

But it wasn’t over.

There was some talk of getting a bite to eat, but Ella was in a hurry to get back to the ship—now they had competition for whatever-it-was (and they still had no idea what), and they would have to hurry to get to it first. As the Crew left the food court environs, someone spotted a couple of guys get up (from the corner Abe had been observing) and start following them, one with a backpack over his shoulder. Rather than guess what they might be up to, or try to lose them in the crowd, Abe turned around and walked directly toward them, waving—they pretended to be doing something else, and did not respond. The Crew continued to leave, and the two strangers followed again. This time, as the Crew cleared the front doors to the mall, they tried to duck around the corner to surprise their shadows, but mostly failed to get ’round in time; Buck and Jones did not join the ambush effort, but made a beeline for the parked air/raft, to get it started. Again, the Crew confronted the men, asking what was in the bag. Again, the men pretended to not be tailing them. The Crew made a quick pace toward the air/raft, and climbed aboard (after a quick check for tampering); as they settled into the vehicle, the two men started running to catch them up, the backpack now off the one’s shoulder and in-hand. Air/rafts are rather slow, and Haank was certain the men would catch them up, so he climbed back out to brazenly confront them and forcefully discourage their continued pursuit. One of them immediately pulled a silenced pistol and fired, striking Haank in the torso (not squarely enough to ever penetrate his monocrys-weave), while the other threw the bag into the open-topped vehicle, landing in Abe’s lap—thinking quickly, Abe threw the bag back at the men. Haank’s sidearm was out in a flash, and everyone else in the vehicle lept out, guns ready; the two men exercised the “better part of valor” and fled as fast as they could. The Crew did not pursue or engage; they just got back in the vehicle and made best speed back to the ship (Abe and Buck both had to choke back their curiosity regarding the bag’s contents).

Back at the ship, they immediately set about getting the ship ready, and departed Porozlo space at the first opportunity. Gileden, the system containing the mystery coordinates on the OSD, was not specifically mentioned in their filed flight-plan, though it was a known necessary stopping point for any jump-2 craft headed for Kinorb (and/or eventually Regina)—the “omission” wouldn’t fool any pursuer for long. A few hours later, the CV Spinward Star entered jumpspace bound for Gileden, putting that whole mess behind them.

Seven days later, without incident, they emerged from jumpspace at the far reaches of the Gileden system. They identified the closest set of coordinates from the OSD, and started working their way down the list, visiting the coordinates and scanning for whatever might be there. At the first, nothing. At the second, they found three cargo containers tethered together, floating at a Lagrange point; they used the air/raft to tow them aboard, waiting to open them on the way to the next set of coordinates; they turned out to contain military weapons and hardware dating back to the War, one container of which was marked with the symbol of the Zhodani Empire, and contained Zhodani gear. The third coordinates yielded nothing. A total of four days after arrival, they reached the fourth coordinates, and were quite surprised to find a massive Zhodani war vessel of some unknown class, powered down and appearing totally empty—this had to be what the OSD was hiding. It was an awe-inspiring sight. Buck was convinced he could get the power back on, and there was talk of maybe moving the ship to a different location, so anyone else looking for her at the OSD’s coordinates would not find her there.

Sam maneuvered the Spinward Star into the spacious landing bay at the rear of the craft, and the Crew disembarked. After securing their own vessel, manually, as best they could, they forced the closest airlock open and, cautiously as they knew how, proceeded inside…

Notes

• The “scan” incident actually occurred last session, but it fit the narrative better here
• We had really painted ourselves into a corner with the whole “hostage” thing, and in the end, we left Porozlo having achieved nothing at all, but having given away the secret data to who-knows-whom. Our previous Traveller characters would have little issue with double-crossing someone, or doing something illegal, but this group keeps running into problems—proving that Honesty truly is a “disadvantage.” In the end, no harm was done, except that we have a new competitor for the “treasure”
• It had been nine sessions since this party had fired a shot; it took a bit to recall how it all worked 😛
• Although two of the characters have the Disadvantage, Curiosity, I think some of the players have it worse—had a hard time leaving that bag behind without taking a peek

Shady Characters

Now landed, passengers (save Katelyn, the spy, who would remain in her hypersleep pod, to be awakened when they knew what to do with her) and cargo offloaded, the Crew hit the planetary network and set about finding what could be easily found about their intruder’s contacts on Porozlo. They found little mention of Juno Radhlin, but former Imperial Navy officer, Gerhard Kansii, had a residence in the outer section of the startown—and that was pretty much all they could find. Presuming him to be a shadowy sort, due to his association with a known spy-type, the Crew decided to hit the streets and see what they could find lurking in the startown’s underworld. After some hours of consorting with various shady characters, the Crew came out with a name, Fredii, and a meeting scheduled at a seedy bar somewhere in the startown. They figured it was best to have everyone present at the meeting in case a decision needed making; Buck elected to remain behind to watch over the ship, but sent Jones in his stead (he decided better of sending trigger-happy Smith).

The bar was a wretched hive of scum and villainy, as they often are in a typical crowded startown. The Crew entered; the Aslan doorman “advised” Haank to keep his sidearm, which he carried openly, in its holster. The bar was packed full of all manner of sapient creatures. Upon inquiry, they were pointed to Fredii’s usual corner, and spotted him there. As they approached, he looked up from his illicit drugs and female company and acknowledged the Crew’s presence, inviting them to join him. Ella and Abe did most of the talking, asking Fredii what he knew about Gerhard, while trying to keep the true nature of their interest, the OSD, out of the story; for context, they revealed that an associate of Gerhard had attempted to kill them over some unknown issue. During the conversation, the others kept a wary eye for incoming trouble. Reluctant at first, but more amenable after some funds were discreetly exchanged, Fredii admitted he did know Gerhard as an arms smuggler, and offered to set up a meeting. The Crew was not really looking to meet the guy, but decided it would be the best way—perhaps only—to learn what manner of mess they had landed in, and gave Fredii their landing pad number to contact them once the meeting was arranged. Done with business, Sam decided to remain at the bar and carouse with the locals, while Haank took a few minutes to buy an Aslan patron a drink, and practice his Trokh—still rusty.

Afterward, everyone went back to the ship for the night. In addition to the potential of betrayal, there was a fear that, as a smuggler, Gerhard might require some sort of illegal shipment as payment for any information, which much of the Crew were strongly against. The next day, the Crew went about their usual at-liberty routines; Haank took advantage of the “normal” atmosphere and generally civilized state to go play a round of golf, in the actual outdoors, for a change. The call from Fredii came later in the day; the meeting with Gerhard was set for the evening, in the startown’s industrial district, at a nondescript warehouse. They did what research they could on the area, to get an eye for the terrain, and set out in the air/raft, prepared for potential combat (armored, and packing sidearms). Again, Buck held down the fort with Smith, and sent Jones in his place.

The Crew arrived early, and surveilled the warehouse area. Not long after, on time, the other party to the meeting arrived, setting down their speeder in a nearby enclosure, and unlocking the padlocked gate. The Crew approached the gate on foot, and were allowed to enter; they were stopped, and checked for transmissions—none were found. The other party’s leader spoke up, and asked what this was about. Ella spoke for the group, and explained the situation again—bearing in mind the earlier story given to Fredii, about the attempted murder of one of the crew (not, strictly, true)—but she was unwilling to come out and say, directly, why the spy might want anyone of them dead. The leader was understandably confused about how to answer without any details. He asked for a name, and Ella gave him the name, Katelyn; that name triggered a reaction from the man, and he demanded to know her whereabouts and condition. Haank noticed a shift in the man’s body-language that suggested he knew very well what was going on, now, though his line of questioning was meant to lead them to believe otherwise. Very reluctantly, Ella revealed that Katelyn was being held at the ship, safe and unharmed, in hypersleep. The man insisted on speaking to her as soon as possible. Still reluctant, but without any obvious alternatives, Ella agreed to allow him to speak to her. As she and the rest of the Crew turned to go see to it, the man politely insisted that one of them remain behind, in his custody, as insurance; Jones volunteered.

The Crew, minus Jones, returned to the ship, and Abe set about waking up their captive. Still in her sleep-pod, she was handed a commlink—the voice on the other end claimed to be Gerhard, and asked her many knowing questions about the situation, which she answered openly: she informed him the Crew had the Proud Mary, and probably had “the data” in their possession, though she had not located it, and that “they already know too much.” When they finished, Haank took the commlink to speak to Gerhard on behalf of the Crew: he suggested, after some coaxing, that they “might” have the OSD, and might be willing to give it up, if conditions were found to be favorable; Haank revealed that steps had been taken to see the data given to “all interested parties” should something unsavory happen to the Crew, though Gerhard was suspicious (to a small degree, justifiably, as the only steps that had, thus far, been taken were to make copies); both sides were willing to do a good-faith hostage exchange, but Gerhard insisted the OSD be handed over at the same time, rather than Haank’s suggestion of separate exchanges. Then they began negotiating the time and place of the exchange…

Notes

• Fredii is a character borrowed from another of our campaigns, specifically Shadowrun
• In both situations, Fredii and Gerhard’s crew, the players were struggling with the need for more information about what the mystery coordinates contained on the OSD might mean, and the desire to keep their possession of the OSD close-to-the-vest—deliberation on what to say/not say took up a lot of game-time

Scooby Trap

The Crew were at the crew-lounge table discussing their next moves when the bug they found in the hold activated, then went dark again. They knew, then, that the spy knew they had found it, so after some deliberation, one of them smashed it. Studying the pieces, Buck decided there was something strange about it, at which point Haank examined it as well, and pointed out that it did not appear to have any sort of radio receiver—it was likely psionically controlled. This suggested Zhodani involvement—sensible, as they were the other party in the War—or potentially some covert psi agency; either way, it meant they had a psi-agent aboard, and would have to assume that their thoughts had been, or would be read—no secrets. However, there was really nothing more to be done except to wait for the spy to make its next move. Sam continued to study the data on the OSD, and found a number of interesting coordinates in the near-empty Gileden system, that did not correspond to any astronomical feature he could determine; as far as Haank could recall, Gileden had no real significance in the War—on record, at least. Copies were made, as insurance.

On the last night before exiting jump-space, on Buck’s watch, he felt a strange, disorienting sensation wash over him. He concluded the psi-spy was making his move, and turned to leave the cockpit to rouse the others, but was met at the open hatch by a baklava-wearing, black-clad intruder. The assailant tried to grab for Buck’s sidearm and put him in a hold, showing some martial skill, but dinged his—no, her—arm on the door-frame, such that it fell useless. Yelling an alarm for the others, Buck continued to backpedal into the lounge as the intruder tried to grapple (one-handed), and sweep at his feet, to no avail, as Buck had some martial arts training as well. A heartbeat later the entire Crew was in the lounge with pistols leveled at the spy; she surrendered, and was bound with duct-tape. Removing her mask, they discovered her to be, not Eleanor, but the courier, Katelyn.

Ella deferred to Haank for the questioning of their captive. Haank attempted to convince her to give up her handlers; he asked her name in the Zhodani language, which, although she didn’t answer as such, did elicit a reaction that indicated she understood it; he also played at not knowing what it was she was looking for, but she didn’t fall for it. She refused to name the organization she worked for, but would only say that the information the Crew now had in their possession put them in danger, and that their safest action would be to let her walk off the ship with the OSD, and forget about it. She informed them that handing over the data to either the Imperial Navy or the Zhodani would be a grave mistake, as would be handing her over to either. Resigned to not getting anything more from her, they decided to put her in a low-berth stasis for the remainder of the trip—one of the low-berth passengers would get an upgraded ticket, taking over her cabin. As Buck looked on, Abe settled her into her sleep-pod; at Buck’s last-second encouragement, she offered to give up some helpful details in exchange for a safe exit, but she wasn’t buying Buck’s disingenuous “agreement” to her condition, and so said nothing more before entering hypersleep.

The Crew was left with little more than speculation: she appeared to be working for some unknown third-party to the War, and had not indicated what was so important about the data in any way. They brought her things down from her cabin to rummage through for clues; she had a datapad that contained a contact list, including some Navy and Zhodani contacts. A few of those contacts were on Porozlo, so they decided to keep her on ice after arrival, until they could look into those contacts and determine what the danger of letting her and/or the information go might be.

The Spinward Star emerged from jump-space near Porozlo II, and some hours later, landed at their assigned pad at the spaceport, where the cargo and passengers—minus the courier/spy—were offloaded.

Notes

• In the end, all the Players are suspecting the Psionic Institute is involved, but it’s not commonly known to exist, so the Characters don’t share that suspicion (yet)
• After a roll, the GM gave Haank a recollection about Zhodani Jump-Commandos; during the session, we never tried to figure out how the spy got out without us knowing it, but that recollection suggests she might’ve teleported—will probably try to confirm that later
• Herodian encountered, to his benefit this time, the “Crit Success on defense causes Crit Fail on the attacker” issue, resulting in his attacker’s temporarily crippled arm—he still doesn’t like that rule
• Rigil was unavailable this week, due to work, so Abe mostly acted in the background; had he been present, he would have undoubtedly been involved in the questioning process—might’ve gone better

Bug Hunt

Around a day in jump-space, the members of the Crew had separately taken some time to socialize with the passengers, in an effort to present a friendly and available persona. During that process, the secretive female passenger, Eleanor, approached Sam, asking to be escorted to her luggage, stowed in the ship’s hold. After recovering from the fact that a woman was speaking to him, he referred Eleanor to Haank, the de facto “security chief” aboard. Haank agreed, and led her to her luggage, musing to himself that some ground-rules regarding fetching of luggage while in-flight might need to be discussed. As Haank looked on, Eleanor found her case, took care to keep her pass-code hidden as she entered it—not unusual—and retrieved a box from it. On request, she agreed to allow Haank to scan the contents for security risks; using his multipurpose hand-scanner, Haank detected nothing of any interest within. He then escorted the woman back to the passenger deck.

A good portion of the first day of jump had been taken up with installation and testing of the ship’s new security system, purchased before they left Rhylanor. In the wee hours of the next morning, during Sam’s watch, the security system indicated a hatch opening—the passenger deck iris leading down to mid deck. He could see nothing on the camera system except the hatch being opened, as if by some invisible intruder. He woke Ella, and the two looked around the access area on mid deck for whatever-it-was, but found nothing, though Ella swore she had heard something scraping around under the lounge table. As they searched around the lounge, they heard the iris-hatch to the lower deck open. They rushed over and cautiously peered into the hold, eventually descending and triggering the lights, but again, saw nothing.

The rest of the Crew was roused, and together, they all started poring over the available security camera footage, but saw nothing but the hatches opening of their own apparent accord. Tabling the discussion about security procedures for later, Haank checked all the passenger cabins for occupants, and found them all where they were expected (although the corporate manager was a little put out at having been awakened so early). As they tried to come up with other ways of detecting the intruder, Sam spent the entire morning reviewing the recordings; in a lucky break, he managed to briefly spot a tiny, unidentifiable object moving around the area of the hatch at the time it opened. After showing his find to the others, they all agreed it was probably some sort of robo-bug, remotely-operated by one of the passengers, the most-likely suspect being Eleanor, with the most-likely purpose of locating whatever-it-was that the commandos were looking for previously. Since damage to the ship or Crew was unlikely, as counter-productive and unnecessary, they decided to keep the details from the passengers and allow the culprit to think he/she remained unsuspected. Abe was dispatched to give the passengers the story that there was a glitch in the new security system that had been addressed and corrected; he also set his robotic pet dog, K-9, to sniffing around the lower hold. Haank pored over the ladar data in a fruitless attempt to detect the bug, while calibrating the system for better detection of the tiny object. Buck produced an EM-detection wand, normally used to find radiation leaks, and calibrated it to home in on the bug’s and/or its controller’s transmissions. Sam also spent some more time rummaging about the lower hold, between the containers and packages, in a continued attempt to figure out where someone might smuggle something, to find whatever-it-was.

The following morning, during Haank’s last watch, using Buck’s EM detector, he picked up transmissions coming from above (passenger deck) and below (lower hold). While waking the others, he moved around the mid deck to triangulate the origin of what he assumed to be the “controller” transmission, narrowing it down to cabin three or five—five being Eleanor’s. Once awake, Abe and Sam went below with the EM-detector to find the bug. As they closed in, the transmission went dead—their search had been detected. After quite some time, about to give up, Sam finally pulled the right panel (that he hadn’t previously) and found an old, dusty OSD cleverly tucked away, about the same time that Abe spotted the robo-bug, which he cautiously collected with some vacc-tape, and handed over to Buck for analysis. They opted to plug the OSD into a personal computer disconnected from any network, for safety reasons, and found a vast wealth of 10-year-old, military navigational data centered around the Rhylanor Sector; they surmised that it was far too specific and complete to have been compiled by either side of the Fifth Frontier War, though they were unable, at the time, to determine the source of its apparent value.

With both the bug and its presumed objective in hand, the Crew had a decision to make—what to do with it all? Getting the spy to fess up who it’s handlers were would not be easy, and wouldn’t really change anything, in the end. They could let the spy off the ship without being the wiser, going so far as to put the bug back where they found it, as if nothing had happened—it would, of course, never find what it was looking for (that having been already recovered), and may convince the spy’s handlers that it was never on the ship in the first place. They could hand over the OSD to the spy, having had the data removed and replaced with something else (the images of the commandos from the Rhylanor docks incident came to mind). They could keep the data and sell it to whomever wanted to pay for it—though the Crew would need to determine what sort of threat its possession might impose on the Sector before giving it to anyone. They could turn it over to the Imperial Navy, as-is.

And, they had four more days in jump-space to figure it out.

Notes

• We had no idea, when we decided to purchase the Basic Security system (SS69), that it would be featured centrally in the next session; lucky it was there
• The idea of the “bug” inevitably spawned the mental image of this scene
• The EM detector was Buck’s use of Gizmo for the session; we all said it looked/sounded like a sonic screwdriver
• Sam kept attempting skills at default, to have an excuse to spend points in them; his player has been trying to figure out what to do with him to make him more useful when he isn’t flying the ship
• Sam was using his Smuggling skill, Perception-based, when searching the hold; this had been done repeatedly over the last few sessions, trying to find what the commandos were looking for, but finally paid off
• We’re treating the OSD as a “treasure map” until we learn otherwise