Snowball’s Chance

The Team gathered and processed all the intelligence they had on the situation. There were few choices: raid Astro-Core offices for evidence they had ordered the hit on the Team and/or the massacre of the Aslan colony, a blatantly illegal action that would cast doubt on their story, whether or not it succeeded; talk to the Imperial authorities and convince them to deny Astro-Core’s extradition demands, which held only a marginal chance of success without some sort of proof of the Team’s innocence; submit to “due process” and hope for the best, which they believed to be doomed to fail, as Astro-Core held the majority share in the colony and had all the power to do as it pleased, and so would likely fabricate whatever evidence they liked to keep the truth from ever seeing the light of day. They decided, as a backup plan, to head back out to the Aslan site, where they could dig around for clues, let Kella have a little longer to study, and by making a show of their leaving, potentially draw Astro-Core into another confrontation that could be recorded as evidence against them. All agreed, the Proud Mary was readied for departure, and a flight-plan registered with colony traffic-control—the Director commed, and, while expressing his sympathies with their situation, warned that running away would result in official arrest warrants being issued—then, with a close pass over the colony, they made for the SE range.

On arrival at the crevasse, the Team split up: Sam, Buck, ENS Smith and ENS Jones would remain aboard the ship, Sam watching the sensors and scanning comm frequencies for traffic, and Buck on the ship’s laser, to provide security (the ship would hover inverted, as the laser was in the dorsal turret); Ella, Haank, Abe, and Kella dismounted to descend into the crevasse.

As they set up autograpnels for the climb, Haank noticed some unfamiliar boot-prints in the snow, and alerted everyone to the potential of a trap. At the bottom of the cavern, Haank proceeded in first, scanning ahead with his sensor pack, in biosniffer mode—he picked up a number of other human biosignatures—and continued down the “street” as the others searched the area for other evidence, and looked for a good place to set up Buck’s button-cam to record the inevitable confrontation. Everyone that had the capability was transmitting video back to the ship to be recorded. On the surface, it seemed that nothing had been disturbed, but Ella had a strong sense that they were walking into an ambush. Then, as Haank followed the biosignatures through the colony, he heard a boot on the stone surface, and spotted a shadowy figure in one of the homes carved out of the cliff-face: LT Richards stepped out, slow-clapping, and with his usual sneer, pointed out the Team’s apparent predictability. Haank matter-of-factly asked him if he had come to finish the job from before, to bury the Team here; Richards responded that he had. Haank then revealed, with a finger-tap to his HUD-glasses, that Richards had just recorded his criminal confession, which had been transmitted back to the ship.

This is when things started to unravel.

LT Richards revealed that he had gunmen hidden throughout the site’s buildings, prepared to kill everyone—including those on the ship—and started negotiating for the handover and/or erasure of all recordings relating to the Aslan site and his own confession. Ella was unwilling to acquiesce without some assurances of the Team’s safety. Richards would allow all but one of the Team to return to the ship, providing they were escorted by one of his men, who would oversee the erasure of the incriminating data; Ella ordered the others to go, as she would be remaining behind. Haank and Abe reluctantly complied, though before Kella could follow, Richards demanded she stay as well, despite Ella’s protestation. Richards then demanded Ella surrender her helmet, with its integral communicator, so the rest of the Team would not be able to communicate with her without his knowledge; Ella protested again, and Richards gave her his communicator in exchange. Richards also demanded that ENS Smith be sent down—as Smith had shot Richards in the back during the previous incident here, it was an easy guess what he meant to do with him.

This is when things completely snapped.

Haank and Abe preceded Richards’ man into the ship, which had been righted to allow access to the ventral airlock hatch for entry. Haank seized the opportunity, as the man had his rifle slung to climb the ladder, and dropped onto him, feet-first, knocking them both out the bottom of the ship. Haank, still prone, went for his pistol, while the other got to his feet and went for his rifle, alerting the other security-men to the trap via his comms (which Richards was unable to hear; one of the men had to come out of hiding to let him know). Haank took careful aim at the man’s weapon arm—expecting a standoff—but the other man fired a burst at him instead, a round hitting Haank in the torso; his armor soaked much of the impact. Haank pulled the trigger three times; an ETC APHD round cut through the man’s monocrys body armor and splintered the bone in his arm, crippling it, leaving the man writhing in pain (afterward, Haank would provide first-aid, preventing him from bleeding out, though the man didn’t exactly “appreciate” the help).

As Haank’s gambit was in progress, Abe was attempting to descend the ladder to provide assistance, when Sam and Buck spotted a telltale smoke-trail of a surface-to-air missile coming from a copse of trees some distance away down the ridge, and Sam performed an evasive maneuver, causing the missile to miss; as the missile returned, Buck snap-shot it down, and promptly turned the ship’s laser on the source of the missile, as Sam pitched the ship forward to allow the turret to bear down on its target. There was nothing left of the area but ash and steam when Buck finally let off the fire-button.

Meanwhile, in the cavern, after some tense words as a result of learning of the attack, Ella pulled her pistol, resigned to a firefight. Backpedalling to cover, she failed to hit Richards, who tackled her to the ground (not wanting to give up his living hostage) and attempted to disarm her. They struggled, Richards slamming her hand against his knee in an attempt to force her to drop the pistol, while she punched at his head with her free hand, eventually stunning him, such that she was able to turn the tables on him. Kella had run for cover, but was shot through the abdomen in the process, as was moaning in pain, bleeding. Richards finally snapped to with Ella’s gun to his head, and agreed to order his men to stand down; they complied.

Afterward, Abe was able to tend to the wounded, and the kill team members were all collected and secured aboard the ship. The ship then returned to the colony, and the Team handed Richards and his men over to the Imperial authorities—all the while knowing that they would be given over to Astro-Core custody (as they were responsible for security at the colony), who would release them. However, Astro-Core made no further attempt on the Team; instead, given the evidence, Mr. Duushii pinned the entire matter on Richards, claiming he had gone rogue. The Team remained behind the extrality zone for the next two weeks, after which a company scout-ship arrived insystem, as predicted.

Notes

• As it turned out, the GM was caught by surprise with the plan to go back out to the site; he was expecting the office raid to go on as originally planned; after talking it over, with several characters bearing the Honesty Disadvantage, we just couldn’t justify the break-in
• Buck used Gizmo to give us the button-camera, expecting to leave the site and catch the security guys tampering afterward; there was some confusion at the Aslan site as to whether or not it was already being used to record, as Richards kept demanding it be handed over—a likely culprit for any apparent logic holes in the ensuing chaos
• Haank’s death-from-above is actually a standard Technique from his Military Zero-G style; been waiting for a chance to use it 😉
• The struggle between Ella and LT Dick over the pistol went on for quite a few rounds, as Ella was strong enough to keep hold of it no matter Dick’s apparent success, which gave her time to actually connect—she was having a really bad dice night
• ENS Smith never got the opportunity to shoot LT Dick (again)
• The GM is now talking about making LT Richards into a recurring villain, since we screwed him over so badly, but left him alive

Rule of Law

The Team landed the Proud Mary back at the colony quickly, hoping to precede the news of the failed assassination. There was some discussion about how to proceed; Buck didn’t trust the Director on principle, and every potential move they could think of left the Team vulnerable in some way or another. In the end, Ella went, escorted by Haank, the only Team member who was authorized to carry weapons inside the colony walls.

The Colony Director received Ella and Haank, and listened intently as they told the story of the Aslan find, the warning from Mr. Duushii, and the attempted murder by Astro-Core security. Even as they explained the matter, they knew that the Director would be in a weak position to do anything about it; he seemed to believe their story, and wished to do the “right thing,” but limited by his Imperial office, he could do little more than file a complaint when the next ship arrived insystem. Haank commed ENS Smith and Jones, still on a “scenic route” back to the colony, and asked them to proceed to the Director’s office on arrival to tell their side of the story. After some discussion of their legal position, it was decided that it would be best to remain aboard the ship under the protection of the Extrality Zone—the limits of which were a bit fuzzy in this situation.

During the conversation with the Director, the two rollers driven by ENS Smith and Jones arrived at the colony gate, but Mr. Duushii was there to greet them, presumably to enquire about the status of the “mission.” ENS Smith commed back to Haank to inform him, and ask for recommendations on how to handle the situation. Haank suggested that if their passengers (the kill-team members who surrendered) were likely to keep quiet, to play along, and if not, pass him up—he would learn of the results soon enough either way. ENS Smith’s impetuous nature won out, and he gunned the roller past Mr. Duushii without a word of explanation, making haste to the Director’s office.

Ella and Haank knew they didn’t have much time before Mr. Duushii would make a move, so they thanked the Director for his time and hurried out to meet the incoming rollers. They released their captives, and as they were about to pile into one of the rollers, they heard Mr. Duushii in the distance, yelling at his men to arrest them; Ella growled, “Don’t even think about it,” while Haank shook his head sternly, and their former-captives decided to let someone else handle it. Haank slipped behind the wheel of the roller and spurred the vehicle toward the gate, where Mr. Duushii and a handful of armed security personnel had spread out across the path, blocking their exit. Haank opted for a game of “chicken,” counting on their opponents’ sense of self-preservation to win out. Mr. Duushii didn’t blink, but held his ground, and the security personnel raised their gauss rifles. Ella was convinced their opponents would not budge, and rather than be party to vehicular-homicide, shouted for Haank to stop, but as Haank aimed the vehicle for the right-hand guard, he read “jump” in the man’s body-language, and proceeded through despite Ella’s orders, scraping the buildings that bounded the path; the guard dodged the speeding vehicle as predicted. Ella was less than pleased, but held her tongue for the moment. Seconds after, as they continued speeding toward the gate, Mr. Duushii and his men in pursuit on foot, they spotted the gate closing; Haank mentally timed the closure and sped through with nary a scrape. The rest of the Team had been prepping the ship for departure—just in case—and Buck opened the ramp to receive the speeding roller, and closed it after them.

The Team was settling in for a long bout of waiting when Sam received an incoming comm: Mr. Duushii, demanding they return their “kidnap victims” and turn themselves in to face murder charges, and Sam hung up on him; he continued to call, but Sam refused to answer further. Abe had done what he could with the wounded Astro-Core men, and as LT Richards was healthy enough to drive, they were put in the roller and released—there was little more to be done with them, though the Team agreed that they would likely run afoul of these men again. LT Richards sneered and quipped as he drove off, not knowing that Buck had removed a necessary part of the roller; the Team watched as he reached the colony gate, only to break down, forced to walk the rest of the way.

Some time later, the Colony Director commed—Astro-Core had demanded extradition, and the Imperial authority needed to take statements from those involved to determine whether or not to grant it; he also informed the Team that they may need to be legally detained. Of course, there was much discussion of the relevant law, and what could and could not be expected. Buck was adamant that the Director had been bought off, and that this was merely an attempt to put them in a position to be “silenced.” Running away would be seen as guilt, and crossing Astro-Core would mean they might face blacklisting in this sector, at the least. They had no indication as to how high up the Astro-Core chain-of-command the cover-up went. ENS Smith brought up the involvement of the Death’s Head Hussars mercenary unit in the early days of the colony; this might be important later, but didn’t serve their situation at the moment. Ella eventually agreed to allow Imperial reps to take statements, at least; they also offered up copies of their video evidence of the Aslan site and whatever else might be helpful. Some time after the statements were taken, and reviewed, the Director commed again to inform the Team that those who had discharged their weapons in the incident—Buck, ENS Smith, and ENS Jones—would need to be detained, at what Imperial facility was available, or on the ship, providing it was landlocked; he gave until the morning before he would send men to arrest them or landlock the ship. The Team was still concerned about safety, knowing that Astro-Core had all the power here—they could easily be framed as guilty of murder and/or accessory, and little could be done about it. In the end, the only plan they could come up with was to raid the Astro-Core offices for evidence that would exhonorate them, before the detainment deadline.

Notes

• It was fortunate that I had spent a point in Driving (Tracked) from Kella’s Rescue, as Haank would need to make emergency use of it several times. His knowledge of Law (Imperial Astronautical) was also leaned upon quite a bit
• This session tested the limits of those characters that had the Honesty Disadvantage—it would have been far easier otherwise—and it will be tested more next time, as the chosen course of action is definitely not “legal” (though certainly “justified”); this would not have been a hard call for the crew of the Emerald Monarch, I think 😉
• We were a little surprised ENS Smith didn’t just shoot Mr. Duushii—“Day ain’t over yet”

Cold Betrayals

The morning after Kella’s rescue, after the blizzard had cleared, a courier delivered a message from Mr. Duushii, Haank’s Astro-Core security boss, requesting his presence to brief him on what had occurred the previous night. Haank did as he was bidden, and told Mr. Duushii the whole of what happened, including the discovery of the Aslan ruin, as he had no cause to be suspicious, and informed him that they had promised to take Kella out to the site when the weather cleared. Mr. Duushii warned him against returning to the site, as the geology crew had declared the area “dangerously unstable.” Haank asked to speak to someone in Geology about the area, hoping to gain some insight into what sort of dangers a survey team might expect from the area; Mr. Duushii made the call. A couple of geologists arrived, and they all went over the maps—paper maps; these guys are Old-School—and data together. Haank had some trouble following their geological jargon, but their story matched that of the security boss; stay clear of the area. Haank acknowledged the warnings, and responded that they were going to take all necessary precautions to get a “quick scan” of the site, for the sake of their promise to Kella, and return. On the way out of the office, Mr. Duushii cornered Haank and, in a subtly-threatening manner, again warned Haank to stay away from the area.

Now, with plenty of cause to suspect Mr. Duushii’s intentions, Haank brought the matter to the rest of the Team. It was decided to go ahead with the mission: the Team would take Kella to the site in the Proud Mary’s air/raft, while Ella and Haank would remain behind to observe and report whatever actions the security department might take in response.

Not long after the air/raft departed for the SE range, Haank, while practicing his golf-swing on the roof of the ship and keeping a subtly-watchful eye, spotted a pair of rollers leaving the colony in the direction of the Eastern mining facilities; he zoomed in with his HUD-glasses, and identified the occupants as eight members of the security department. He radioed ahead to the rest of the Team that company was on its way.

Meanwhile, the air/raft arrived at the crevasse they had discovered the night before, now re-buried in snow. Although the plan, as discussed, was to scan the ruins from the safety of the air/raft, on arrival, Kella excitedly jumped out and set about digging it clear, so Abe and Sam followed; Buck remained aboard to keep watch, bringing out his hand-held sensor pack to scan for incoming vehicles. Once the crevasse was cleared, Kella wasted no time, but immediately secured a line and climbed down; Abe and Sam followed after. The conclusion from the night before was easily confirmed; it was an Aslan colony, dug into the rock-face. Skeletal remains of Aslan colonists were found; Abe scanned them, and determined that they were likely between 5-10 years dead, and riddled with bullets—given the behavior of the colony security team, everyone presumed that the attempts to warn them away from this place was an attempt to cover up a massacre. Everything witnessed was recorded for later study. Knowing they had little time left before the security team would arrive, Abe and Sam convinced Kella to leave—perhaps to return later.

Before they could climb out of the crevasse, Buck’s sensor picked up incoming vehicles; the security team had arrived. Buck alerted the team via radio, and still seated atop the air/raft, placed his laser rifle across his lap, expecting a fight. The colony rollers pulled up to their position and the team dismounted; ENS Smith and ENS Jones were among them. The team-leader, LT Richards, with a haughty sneer that belied his ill-intent, declared that they were trespassing, and should surrender; seeing only Buck at the moment, he demanded the location of the remainder of the Team. Buck was undaunted; he patted his laser rifle, and in so many words, inquired which of them wished to die first. As a result, some of the security team began to think less of their leader’s murderous plan; an argument was sparked, and in typical ENS Smith fashion, ENS Smith shot LT Richards on the spot. A brief firefight ensued among the security team; some fled for cover, some stood their ground trying to follow their orders by firing on Buck and the “traitors,” while the others (ENS Smith and Jones) tried to prevent them. Sam was the first out of the crevasse, and joined in the fray from a distance. The fight ended with one dead, two seriously wounded (including LT Richards), and the others surrendered; ENS Smith was wounded as well, though not severely. Abe climbed out of the crevasse in time to see to the wounded, and Kella followed without incident.

Once the call went out that the rollers had arrived, Haank and Ella fired up the ship to come to the Team’s aid; it arrived as the fight was ended. The wounded—including LT Richards—were taken aboard, while ENS Smith and Jones drove the rest in the colony rollers on a “scenic route” back to the colony (to give the Team time to interrogate LT Richards before, themselves, returning). Abe patched up the wounded, and forced LT Richards to consciousness. Ella began to question LT Richards, still on the medical table, as to the nature and source of the orders he was attempting to execute; when he refused to cooperate, she responded by poking at his wounds with a finger until he changed his tune (to Abe’s irritation). LT Richards confessed that his orders came from Mr. Duushii, but knew nothing of why they were given; they had initially headed for the Eastern facilities for the purpose of “plausible deniability,” leading the Team to believe that the non-corporate colony administration was unlikely to be involved in the plot.

After a brief discussion of their findings, the Team decided the best course of action would be to report the incident to the Colony Director, and go from there…

Kella’s Rescue

On the third afternoon of the Team’s “extended stay” on Kegena-Prime, deep into a massive, howling blizzard, they picked up a distress call on the Proud Mary’s radio: a woman was caught in an avalanche somewhere on the SE range. Haank recognized the area from colony maps from his work with the security team; it was around 10 miles out. There was some discussion about how to get to her, and it was decided that anything “flying” was doomed to fail in this weather, so ground transport would be needed.

The Team forced its way through the wind and snow, from the ship to the Colony Director’s building. Ella informed him of the distress call and the Team’s intention to answer it; the Director responded with a “you’re crazy” and offered the use of a colony roller, admonishing them to maintain radio contact. Sam and Abe remained behind at the ship, while Ella, Haank and Buck piled up some survival gear into the roller and headed out to the SE range.

Buck used the woman’s radio signal to guide them in, keeping her providing as much information as she could about her location; her name was Kella, an independent archaeologist studying the various old-world ruins on the planet, who fell afoul of the sudden storm while surveying the mountain area. They arrived without incident at the foot of the mountains, taking the vehicle as far up as they dared, and then set out on foot. The Team secured a lifeline to each other for safety, which turned out to be quite necessary, as the climb proved to be rather difficult for all but Ella, who was the most experienced in such matters; they arrived at the avalanche site mostly-exhausted. Buck used his biosniffer, and Haank, his handheld sensor pack, to attempt to narrow down the woman’s position, with little success through the interference of wind and snow, so Buck resorted to “yelling,” which, miraculously, yielded better results. With some improvisation, they dug out the snow and uncovered the crevasse where the woman had fallen. She was effectively uninjured, though she had lost her backpack in the fall. Ella climbed down into the crevasse with the aid of Haank’s autograpnel (from one of the Titanic VII’s lifeboat survival kits), which he used to winch them both back out, individually. (The backpack was not found.) After a few moments of rest, they began to descend back to the roller—which proved an equal challenge to their ascent, and might have ended in disaster if not for Ella as the group’s anchor. Further down, Buck, in the lead just ahead of Kella, slipped and broke through into another crevasse that opened up into a larger cavern, taking Kella with him. The two dangled at the lip of the crevasse while Haank secured the autograpnel and winched them back up; during that time, the two could make out what would later be identified as an oddly-recent Aslan colony ruin dug into an old cliff-face. After being pulled up, Kella begged to be allowed a closer look, but the Team convinced her to return later, Buck having marked the location on his inertial compass.

They all arrived at the roller thoroughly exhausted and freezing, but otherwise unharmed, and after a few moments of rest, returned to the Proud Mary, now late-evening. In the crew’s lounge, they discussed the day’s activities, and promised Kella to take her out to the Aslan site at her convenience, once the storm let up.

Notes

• Rigil Kent was on vacation, and unavailable; Winston failed to report in for reasons unknown (presumably related to the Memorial Day holiday)
• The colony rollers were tracked vehicles; nobody had the skill, but Haank had the best Driving to default from; combined with the Routine Usage, it went without incident—unlike the climb 😛
• There were a lot of Critical Failures rolled during the climb and descent, on top of Ella being the only character with points spent in Climbing, resulting in a “Comedy of Errors”
• There was some mild argument about the capabilities of radar, imaging radar, and terahertz radar, and their listed game effects, and whether or not it can “see” through snow, that was tabled for later; after much research and discussion after-the-fact, the answer is: sometimes