Olympus RPG Blog

Things Get Worse

Having been captured by the waiting lowlifes and betrayed by Lur, the crew are divested of their arms and equipment, though the pirate types don’t bother removing their armor if it was just a bodysuit (as most of the crew wear.) Herded into an already erected camp by the armed Vargr, they are then forced to wait until Bren, the woman that Eddy and Haank met earlier, arrives; she is accompanied by a beat-up and emaciated Professor Messandi. Bren speaks to the scarred-face man – the crew learn his name is Taren – before turning to her prisoners so she can gloat. She did warn them, after all; Eddy being Eddy tries to turn on the charm, though it does not get him very far. She is quite pleased that Lorain is here since they’ve exhausted the professor’s capabilities.

While she is threatening them, one of her guys approaches, whispers something to her which causes her to look toward Taren and then nods to Lur. One of the crew, she says, is an Imperium spy. Lur, who is looming behind Ibrahim, draws his pistol and shoots Hal squarely in the head. The Imperium isn’t going to help them here, Bren says, before ordering that the crew be secured in one of the prefab buildings; she takes Lorain with her. Once inside the prefab module, the crew can hear a restraining bar being lowered into place, thus locking them in.

Immediately, most of the crew begin looking for a way out. Kelso is infuriated as two of his employees weren’t actually working for him. Ibrahim simply collapses against one of the walls and stares in the distance; Harmon’s blood is on his hands and Hal’s blood is on his face (since he was sitting next to him when Lur shot the spy.) Most of the crew seek out sharp edges to cut through the cuff-tape binding their hands. Seeing that Ibrahim is checking out, Ella crouches down alongside him and gives him a brief pep talk – they need him functional, not staring off in the distance – while Eddy and Haank interrogate Professor Messandi, learning that there’s nothing actually here. The professor says they also referenced another system that might be their next goal: Corfu.

Having been successfully motivated to participate, Ibrahim seeks out a long, thin piece of metal with an eye toward working it though the door and under the restraining bar; Buck likes this idea and assists him, so the two alternate between trying to worry the metal free. While this is going on, Aris closes his eyes and tries to use his implant to assist the shutdown Jim the Drone successfully reboot; he also utilizes the wireless capabilities of his cybernetics to access some unsecured hand terminals scattered throughout the camp where he gains a bit of intel, including some notes and local coordinates. In addition to the fact that Bren considers Professor Messandi an idiot who is not as smart as he thinks he is, he confirms the Corfu alternate site and learns that the pirates have identified a gap in the planetary sensor net that they’re abusing to fly in and out of the region. He now has coordinates for a landing field, but they’re across the bay on a small island to the north-west. This gap will open in a day and appears to remain open for three.

Night sets in with several members of the crew dozing off while Buck and Ibrahim keep working on getting the piece of metal free. During this, Abe persistently quizzes Professor Messandi about all of the Sky Raider stuff, mostly to compare the professor’s theories against those that Ibrahim has heard from Lorain; in the process, he sort of decides that the professor is not as smart as his daughter, though he does not verbalize this guess. Being a smooth operator, Eddy makes an attempt to engage a passing guard in convo but as he does not understand Vargr, nothing comes of it.

Buck finally works the piece of metal free and hands it to Abe who goes to the western door that opens up into a small space between the prefab and another exactly like it; there he works the metal through a small gap, then discreetly utilizes his half-trained telekinesis to lift the bar free while Eddy crouches next to him and offers lockpicking suggestions. The bar falls free … and in that moment, chaos erupts outside! Sudden explosions shake the ground and are promptly followed by lots of gunfire and shouts.

Opening the door, Abe sees a fallen Vargr just outside and quickly snatches the pirates laser rifle which he hands off to Ella (who then promptly hands it off to Buck.) Across a loudspeaker, an Imperium officer orders everyone to lay down their arms and surrender; Kelso, however, knows that this is just CYA and the Imps have no intent on taking prisoners given their notorious corruption. They’re just going to shoot everyone and keep whatever they find. This alone is enough to convince the crew to gamble everything and make a run for it. At that moment, the door to the other prefab opens, revealing Lur and two armed pirates, all three of whom are momentarily surprised to see them. Kelso bellows a battle cry and charges the nearest of the pirates, tackling him to the ground where he begins pummelling him. Buck promptly takes aim at Lur and the other guy even as Abe once again discreetly using telekinesis, this time triggering the magazine release on the nearer of the two’s weapon. Eddy springs into the fray himself, darting closer to where Kelso is wrestling with a pirate who receives a swift kick to the face. Firing on full auto, Buck hoses his two targets with a burst of laserfire, killing one instantly and mortally wounding Lur. Recognizing that he’s outnumbered, Kelso’s foe surrenders.

As the crew quickly snatch up gear, they realize that Lur is still alive though only just and, to the surprise of everyone familiar with him, Ibrahim coldly tells the dying man that Hal says hello before turning away to retrieve the assault rifle that Lur’s now dead partner was holding. To those who have memories of Abe braving hostile fire to save wounded enemies, this is momentarily shocking, but no one cares enough about the traitor to try and save him, instead leaving him behind to Kelso’ less than tender mercies. The surrendered smuggler-pirate is shoved into the prefab module that the crew just vacated and locked in. Now geared up, the crew rush the smugglers to the north where they presume that their gear is kept. To their horror – especially Aris who can vaguely sense Jim the Drone – something detonates against the pre-fab that is their destination, causing it to explode in a violent flash of pyrotechnics that throws everyone to the ground. All of their gear – all of it – has just been blown up.

They press on, still angling toward an untouched hovercraft. En route, Aris finds Jim the Drone, smoking and damaged but repairable. The crew scrambles into the hovercraft with Buck and Ibrahim taking the exposed outer seats while Ross climbs behind the wheel. With a muted roar, the hovercraft peels out and races away. Almost instantly, they are immediately pursued by two small military scout-skiffs. There is a rapid exchange of fire – Ibrahim concentrates his shots on the vital areas of his target while Buck nails the pilot of the other vehicle with a carefully aimed shot; unfortunately, the return fire from the pursuers’ shooters is particularly efficacious, riddling the crew’s hovercraft with rounds and badly damaging it. As the second scout-hover careens out of control (as it no longer has a driver) and crashes into a tree, Buck shifts fire to Abe’s target and repeats his previous shot, once more killing the driver; unfortunately, the retaliatory fire from the Imperium troopers rips apart great chunks of the crew’s hovercraft which sputters, coughs and then fails entirely.

Now powerless, the craft slams into the dirt and comes to a sudden, abrupt halt. Knowing that the first hovercraft spun out of control but did not crash, the crew seize what gear they can find and sprint into the jungle. Moments later, a dropship roars by overhead and unloads heavy fire into the crew’s now abandoned hovercraft. It explodes violently, which means the crew now have to walk from here.

Moving deeper into the jungle to evade the Imperium, the crew eventually confirm that no one appears to be following them. Ella decides they will set up camp and wait until the morning; it is her intent to head back to the smuggler camp and try to locate some sort of vehicle. As Abe is the only one capable of seeing in the dark thanks to his hyperspectral contact lenses, she does not want to just stumble around in the dark and this will give them an opportunity to rest. They erect the tent snatched from the hovercraft and then set up a nightly guard rotation.

That morning, the crew crawl out of the tent, confused as to why they overslept. Ross evidently failed to wake anyone up and, fearing the worst, they look for him but find him and Professor Messandi missing. When they find the tracks of several natives, everyone knows what happened.

Things have officially gotten worse.

Player Notes:

• The evil GM took all of our stuff. All of it! And then he blew it up!
• Loki joined us briefly and ran Kelso since her regular character, Armin, is still on the Aimless Pilgrim. She had to duck out early, though.
• The chase evidently did not go as expected; per the GM, he was expecting us to get a lot further away than we did, but then, we screwed up the Chase rules anyway because the shooters were allowed to Aim when they shouldn’t have.
• As stated above, we’ve started livestreaming our games. We play on Saturdays at 6:00PM Eastern and the live stream can be found at Ronnke’s Twitch channel. He’s also setup a YouTube Channel. Bear with us, please. This is still in it’s infancy. We have discovered that Twitch keeps the recordings only for two weeks, so it’s a good thing that he published to YouTube. With that in mind, I’ve removed the Twitch link for the “LiveStream” bit at the top.

Captured

The shot rang out and Harmon crumpled. In a moment Buck had sighted down his rifle at a couple of Vargr that had stepped from the jungle.

“Lay down your weapons, and no one else needs to get shot!” called out a figure at the top of steps leading to the ruined city.

While there were only five visible ambushers, Haank’s laser warning screamed he was the target of at least five other unseen assailants.

“Like hell we will just lay down scum!” shouted Kelso as he started to raise his rifle in response.

Click, and Kelso was staring into the barrel of Lur’s drawn pistol, “Don’t even think about it… boss,” he said with a cruel smirk.

“Again, drop you weapons! You armor may protect you for a moment, but what good is it going to do for the rest of your friends? Lay them down, if I have to warn you again someone will be dead.”

The look in Kelso’s eyes at Lur’s betrayal was like two hot knives, promising a painful demise if he was given half a chance. Lorain, looked upon the situation in shock and fear, willing Captain Stanbridge to order the group’s surrender. Ross could do nothing but try and keep Harmon from bleeding out. Aris stood helpless over the disabled body of his drone. Abe tried to move in an nonthreatening manner toward Harmon.

They were trapped. Like Haank’s, Ella’s laser warning system was calling out multiple hostiles aimed at her and the others.

It was obvious to her crew, she was more than pissed.

“Captain, I can hit ’em from here, but not before they shoot somebody else,” stated Buck, but Ella waved him off.

“Lay them down fellas, surrender your arms,” the words bitter in her mouth.

—-

The Vargr were rough and thorough, the crew was subdued-their weapons and armor stripped from them. Harmon lay dead, Abe’s hand covered in his blood. Kelso could only speak about his plans for Lur’s demise, and how he was going to have a grand old time kicking some puppies, at least until he was struck unconscious by one of the Vargr. It was only once the Vargr gave the all clear, did the man descend the steps to reveal himself.

The scared man moved menacingly through the group and stopped at Lorain, “Well, well, well… looks like we have the good professor’s daughter now boys. Maybe now, we might actually find something.”

He looked at the bound and disarmed group, laughed for a moment then, “Move them to the camp, I am sure Bren will be interested to see them.”

River of Stone

After an uneventful night, the expedition sets out once more. Kelso theorizes that it will take them about three days to reach the so-called “path of gods.” A discussion is held regarding trying to scan the area for Lorain’s father’s DNA, but the realization that any such samples are many weeks old causes them to mostly abandon the effort here.

The first day away from the native settlement of Adlanayra is fairly uneventful although Kelso realizes some hours into the trip that they’ve deviated off the proper route for a bit. After yelling at Hal, the forward scout, for not using his inertial compass (which was eaten by the metal ants earlier), the expedition gets back on track. Fortunately, that night is just as uneventful, though without their fusion generator, the expedition is now definitely roughing it … or at least as “roughing it” as they can with such advanced technology as their pressure tents.

Day two of the swamp expedition is equally boring but that evening is less so. Shortly after camp is set-up, a pair of panther-like creatures referred to as an aiyankra lunge out of the swamp. One of them pounces upon Harmon, one of Kelso’s men, and begins trying to tear out his throat; fortunately, he is wearing armor which protects him from the worst of the savage beast’s red tooth and claw. As most of the group orient toward this sudden threat, Eddy is unluckily off by himself to attend to the call of nature when the second aiyankra springs out of concealment and charges him. The two beasts are quickly gunned down, but not before both Eddy and Harmon are badly injured, prompting Ibrahim to go into medic mode. The injuries are sufficiently bad to warrant surgery, but Ibrahim is unwilling to open them up and potentially open them up to possibly infection, so he instead injects them both with two doses of a particularly potent regenerative drug to hyper-accelerate the speed with which they naturally heal for the next twelve hours; it also has the side effect of knocking them unconscious for that time.

Following the ‘excitement’ of the previous night, the expedition sets off once more in the morning, hoping to avoid further craziness. Both the day and the evening pass without a surprise ninja attack. Throughout the day, Ibrahim continues to monitor his two patients to ensure that their injuries continue to heal properly. By that evening, the expedition are more than ready to stop and rest, so camp goes up quickly, but any hopes for an uneventful night are quickly dashed when Jim the Drone, Aris’ mechanical helper, alerts those on watch (and those asleep as well) via message that multiple bio-signatures are upon approach. As everyone scrambles out of their tents and readies themselves for a potential attack, the bio-signatures are revealed to be natives, likely the ‘hostile tribe’ that the expedition was warned about. Likely because they immediately hurl great spears at Jim the Drone, which infuriates the artificial intelligence driving the device and causes the A.I. to begin spinning up its mingun.

A quick but brutal skirmish ensues, with the natives finding themselves horribly, brutally outgunned. Despite this, they charge the campsite from two directions only to get mowed down by the relatively heavily armed expedition personnel. Haank, thinking quickly, darts toward the parked vehicles where he discovers that a small group of the natives has snuck aboard the cargo hovercraft and are attempting to loot it. He slings his rifle, quick-draws his pistol and fires it in their direction to scare them off. They flee, taking with them a few boxes of rations, and none of the expedition are willing to risk the danger of the swamp to pursue. They are only crappy MREs, after all, and for all they know, the natives could be setting a trap. When Kelso intends on burning the corpses of these aliens, Eddy protests and seeks out a shovel to bury them; both Hal and Ibrahim assist. It takes some time and leaves the three filthy and exhausted, but Eddy is pleased that they did not burn the bodies.

By late morning the following day, the expedition has located the so-called “river of stone” which does in fact appear to be a road of some sort. This road is most definitely not naturally occurring, looking more like an ancient Roman cobblestone path that runs north-west and south-east. After consulting the subject matter expert Lorain, the expedition opts for the north-west route which will carry them directly to the coast. There are no encounters along the way and, upon reaching the coast, the road abruptly vanishes; to everyone’s surprise, Eddy recalls that tectonic shifts could be responsible for this and that the road itself continues on under the water. Additional research seems to indicate that he is correct. Since night is about to fall, it is decided to camp here before crossing the bay before them upon the morning. Haank breaks out the scanners and detects some trace hints of human DNA, which is just enough to indicate that they might be on the correct path but not quite enough to confirm. Attempts to contact Lorain’s father via communication channels are unsuccessful, though there appears to be nothing failing on the expedition’s side.

The next day finds the expedition making the long transit across the bay. Despite it being a pleasant day, the trip is a long and boring that finally ends with them arriving upon the northern coast shortly before nightfall. Even before they park, they can see indications that something was once here as the road reappears. This “river of stone” gradually ascends to a set of broken stairs that are flanked by equally ancient pillars, now toppled and overgrown with lichen and moss. Beyond these stairs can be seen the tops of ruined buildings. Buck gives Lorain a look and asks what this is, to which she responds: “Tlaynsilak.” Everyone piles out of the vehicles and start to climb, though they hesitate when Buck recommends looking for tracks and Haank begins scanning for human DNA.

But then, a pair of shots ring outs. Jim the Drone squeals abruptly and tumbles from the sky, sparks erupting from where an EMP round has shut it down. At the same time, Harmon falls with a cry of pain, with blood gushing from the unexpected bullet hole. It’s a trap!

Player Notes:

• Technically, we stopped a little after this, but the GM did a little prose thing that covers the bit at the end in the following post. No Player likes to be captured, so next week will be … interesting. Following the game, the GM coordinated with the group on our personal message boards and we ended up deciding to go ahead and pick up next week’s session after the expedition has been captured, hence the cut-scene.
• We managed to get through two combats in this session, although to be fair, both were mostly us hosing down some people. Still, knowing how some of our fights go, it’s pretty cool nonetheless.
• As stated above, we’ve started livestreaming our games. We play on Saturdays at 6:00PM Eastern and the live stream can be found at Ronnke’s Twitch channel. He’s also setup a YouTube Channel. Bear with us, please. This is still in it’s infancy. We have discovered that Twitch keeps the recordings only for two weeks, so it’s a good thing that he published to YouTube. With that in mind, I’ve removed the Twitch link for the “LiveStream” bit at the top.

Into the Outback…

Surrounded by armed and ready thugs, Eddy and Haank wisely refrain from going for their own weapons and instead hold up their hands to indicate that they are willing to cooperate. The woman, who will later identify herself as Bren, offers them a warning: drop this entire expedition for the Lost City of Tlaynsilak or things will go ill for them. Eddy makes a half-hearted attempt to bribe her, in the process learning that she works for a Mister Kalamanaru that Eddy has had some vague shady dealings with in the past. Rather than get gunned down by these people, the two – well, Eddy, really – promptly agree to pass this on to Lorain. They are allowed to back out of the alley without being harmed and, while doing so, called back to the crew, requesting some drone coverage from Aris.

Back at the hotel, the crew discuss this turn of events. Eddy reveals his knowledge about Mister Kalamanaru and Lorain grudgingly admits that her father once sought out the wannabe crimelord for assistance; knowing that he’s involved makes matters more complicated. While wealthy, Kalamanaru’s real danger lies in his more unofficial but lucrative role as a purveyor of antiquities that he sells on the black market. None of the crew especially like backing down even in the face of a threat like this, so they instead decide to simply just ramp up their level of paranoia.

Jen Kelso

With just a single day remaining before departure, the crew split up to accomplish various tasks. Acting on an offhand comment by Haank about Bren’s team likely being able to track them, Buck heads to the motor pool where their three rented hover vehicles are stored and, upon looking over one of them, discovers a tracking device of some sort. Although he initially intends to keep this entirely to himself, Kelso’s chief mechanic, Ross Carnam, approaches him and reveals that he also found a bug on another of the vehicles. They decide to hold off completely disabling them for now on the presumption that, if Bren’s crew note that their devices suddenly fail, they’ll seek alternate methods to track. He also has the unfortunate task of informing Kelso about Kalamanaru’s involvement; Kelso does not take this revelation well at all and instead throws something of a tantrum. Evidently, he’s had some less than positive interactions with the wealthy (and corrupt) merchant. Haank returns to the alley and uses his hand-held biosniffer to sweep for DNA traces of Bren’s crew with an eye toward programming sensors to try and detect them later.

Aris spends some time with his drone in an sweep the area where Eddy and Haank were accosted in the hopes of locating Bren’s team, but is unsuccessful. Unbeknownst to the rest of the crew, Ibrahim discreetly forwards a copy of Haank’s data to his contacts with the Agency using dead drop accounts; he does not expect them to actually act against Bren or Kalamanaru, but figures it cannot hurt. Finally, Eddy takes a cropped image of Bren obtained from Haank’s vid-stream and seeks out the Imperial checkpoint exiting the city; there he does that thing he does and effectively bribes a couple of the guards to delay Bren and Company should they pass through here.

The following morning, the crew assemble and head out. There is a brief moment of concern at the exit point when Kelso’s credentials cause an issue with the guards’ computers, but they’re passed out without any further issue. Eddy is given a knowing nod by one of the guards with regards to his earlier bribe and informed that there’s been no sign of his “friends” yet. Everyone heaves a soft sigh of relief once they’re on the go, although alertness levels are still high.

Many, many long and boring hours later, the caravan stops and camp is assembled. By this point, everyone is exhausted – strangely, sitting in a vehicle for a long trip is really, really tiring – and watch schedules are set. After eating, everyone retires to their respective tents except whomever is on guard. The evening seems to be going fine … until midway through Eddy’s guard rotation, when the portable fusion generator that the crew brought along suddenly flickers and dies, pitching the entire site into darkness. Eddy promptly goes to wake Buck, and the two begin to investigate and discover the generator is being swarmed by insects, massive metal-eating termite-like creatures! Lur Kalendrin, one of Kelso’s guides who was on watch with Eddy, exclaims that they must be stopped before they eat everything metal in the camp.

Shouts ring out in the camp, waking anyone who isn’t already up, and everyone rushes out of their tents to investigate. Haank, upon seeing the “ants,” promptly returns for his augment-glasses to bring up his survival tutor program, then seeks out an extinguisher, especially when Eddy’s attempt to stomp some of the metal ants into paste unluckily results in the creatures swarming him instead! Buck, armed with a cutting torch, burns away some of the huge termite-like critters and does his best to break their line leading back into the jungle. Upon being advised about the nature of the threat, Ibrahim takes Lorain with him and they check out the parked vehicles in case the metal ants have discovered them (which would be all bad). Eddy finds himself coated in fire retardant foam thanks to Haank, which does not amuse him at all, especially when Lur yanks Eddy’s jacket free and stomps it into the mud and dirt. Though it takes some time, the expedition is able to successfully drive off the metal ants. Unfortunately, the fusion generator is now slag and, given that it belonged to crew of the Spinward Star, Haank is more than a little upset.

The following morning, as the expedition resumes its trip, Aris puts the three of Bren’s trackers on Jim the Drone and then sends the device far in the opposite direction with instructions to find something strange to drop them into before returning. Thankfully, the next leg of the trip is uneventful and the expedition camps on a beach. The following morning, they continue, flying over the huge lake, which takes long enough that they end up stopping for a scenic lunch (while Kelso’s team check over the hovercraft to ensure nothing broke down.) It is at this moment that two huge water snakes lunge out of the river to snap at Eddy who screams out an alarm … though Ibrahim, who is standing a dozen meters or so away, is already reacting to the danger, even though he was facing away. The entire expedition charge toward the threat, but it is Jim the Drone who does the most damage as it unloads a burst of fire from its small rotary mini-gun that chews up one of the snakes. It takes only moments for the second to also be killed and Kelso loudly (and happily) exclaims that snake is for dinner tonight! Ibrahim, who did not actually fire his weapon, takes a sample or three of the water snake venom just to be safe. In an uncharacteristic breach of his usual composure, Haank reacted to the snakes’ presence by frantically emptying an entire gauss magazine into the creatures during the fight, and afterward, refused to even look in the direction of their remains until they were no longer recognizable as snakes—he had never spoken of his phobia before, but then, no one had ever asked.

Without further ado, the expedition continues on its way, reaching the outskirts of the native settlement, Adlanayra, two days later, where Kelso informs them that they will camp here overnight and then meet with the locals in the morning. Hopefully, this particular settlement, which has a reputation for being the least hostile of the bunch, will be feeling friendly. Kelso is hoping that the natives will be able to confirm whether Lorain’s father passed through here. Buck and Ibrahim both eagerly ask to be part of the team that meets with the locals, displaying their xenophilia.

The contact with the locals takes place the following morning and goes by without any hitch. Ibrahim is utterly fascinated by the creatures, especially when filtered through the lens of medicine, but Buck is less impressed. Kelso appears to speak a pidgin version of the local language and greetings are exchanged, as well as certain gifts including a finely crafted metal knife that Buck offered. Information is exchanged, confirming that Lorain’s father did in fact pass this way, heading west. During this brief cultural exchange, Lorain joins them but basically hides behind Ibrahim, using him as a shield from the bizarre-looking creatures. There is a strange reference Kelso does not quite understand, specifically a ‘stone path’ that several of the expedition theorize means a road or even a landing strip when they see the native’s hand gestures. This ‘stone path’ is deep in the swamp area to the west in the territory of a rival tribe and Kelso translates this as ‘path of gods.’ Having related their information and been paid with a metal knife, the locals withdraw.

Kelso turns to the crew: next stop … the path of gods.

Player Notes:

• Mel was out for this session.
• This is the first session in ~50 that Haank’s snake phobia has actually come up—and it wasn’t entirely deliberate on the GM’s part.
• As stated above, we’ve started livestreaming our games. We play on Saturdays at 6:00PM Eastern and the live stream can be found at Ronnke’s Twitch channel. He’s also setup a YouTube Channel.

Six Months Later

It has been six months. Six months stuck on Porozlo since Monsaanti-Neogene Corporation brought some legally ambiguous charges against Spinward Star LLC. Apparently Monsaanti-Neogene Corporation, now the parent corporation for Rhylanor Capital Protection Services, found “improperly documented records” regarding the transfer of crew’s ship The Spinward Star, once called Proud Mary.

Everyone – the crew, the lawyers unleashed by MNC, even the courts – could see that this was corporate lawfare waged by Monsaanti-Neogene against the crew that had interfered with their interests and the presence of a smug Breyon Sodhii was simple icing on the proverbial crap-cake. Whatever dealings he had with Colby Dowe on Equus has been disrupted, so Sodhii was retaliating. While the case made its ponderously slow way through the courts, the Spinward Star was in impound, unable to even light up their engines, and even worse, the crew could not risk leaving the system, not with the legal sharks unleashed by Sodhii waiting for an opportunity to get a summary judgement that would result in them forfeiting the ship. Lawyer fees alone cost the Crew a million credits and that comfortable profit margin they’d been looking at was vanishing.

In the interim, the crew has scattered across Porozlo, seeking out whatever work they could manage to pay the bills. Ella somehow found herself driving a cab, while Haank acted as an independent freight broker who taught golf on the side. Buck easily found work in the star port as an independent starship repair contractor. Sam managed to land a ferry pilot job, though rumor has it that he’s already collected some serious fines for his showboating and aerial escapades, while Sae vanished almost completely after spending a few works working as a security contractor. Ibrahim seemed to land on his feet by finding work at a dirtside clinic, but he’s been mostly incommunicado since then, popping up every now and again, but always disappearing again. Crewman Jones cashed out of the company and left Porozlo, claiming a need to return home to his wife. Somehow, Eddy managed to show back up but then, bad pennies always do.

Six long and miserable months … and suddenly, things change. While on duty in her cab, Ella picks up a new fare and is surprised to recognize Admiral Henry Gloval, though he’s not in uniform anymore and Risek is a long way from his usual stomping grounds. He reveals that he’s actually been looking for her because he’d heard of her troubles with MNC and he needs a crew he can rely on. Unwilling to go into a great amount of detail in the cab, he instead offers to meet with her (and her crew) about a potential job.

The meeting takes place a day later in a restaurant where Admiral Gloval, now retired, introduces his niece, Lorain Messandi. As to the task itself, in addition to serving as crew for the Aimless Pilgrim, his niece, who is a xenoarchaeologist, needs some backup for what amounts to a treasure hunt on Focaline in the Aramis Sector. Gloval has some contacts in the local government that will assist in the legal proceedings; he even has some high-priced lawyers that owe him some favors who will counter the MNC legal sharks. Why does Lorain need protection? Gloval turns to his niece who gives what amounts to a lecture on Focaline, the local natives there, and a tablet that her father discovered that seems to show a local wearing a vacc suit and possessing an energy weapon of some sort. The tablet predates Imperial contact with Focaline by more than five thousand years and Lorain’s father believes this ties the “Gogs” (as the locals are known) to the Sky Raiders, a semi-legendary organization of stellar pirates who were said to have operated throughout the Aramis Sector of the Spinward Marches. While Buck and Haank immediately focus on the more financial aspects, Ibrahim engages Lorain in discussions about the “Gogs” and all of the relevant scientific stuffs; evidently, she’s extremely pleased that someone is more interested in science than potential financial gains. During Lorain’s pseudo-lecture when she uses “ancient” in reference to technology, both Haank and Ibrahim note that Admiral Gloval grows very wary, but neither man reveals their knowledge. Gloval admits that he’s principally interested in the crew acting as a protective detail for Lorain and, eager to get starside again, the crew agree, especially when Sam offers to remain behind to keep an eye on the Spinward Star and act as the liaison with Gloval’s team of lawyers. Also? He’ll keep an eye on Mia, the ship’s cat.

Several days pass as the crew put their affairs into order and assemble at Admiral Gloval’s ship, the Aimless Pilgrim, a 400-Ton Garretson-Class Recon Scout that all of the crew admire. There, they are introduced to other members of the crew: Enzo Arabejo, the chief engineer; “Lee” Uta’i, the pilot and navigator; her younger brother Marco who serves as a junior engineer; Armin, who acts as the passenger services officer; Aris Jelnan, the sensors operator; Kendal Easting, a senior engineer; “Jewels” Dawes, the master gunner; and the gunners’ mate, “Rad” Sherit. Ibrahim is greatly impressed by the presence of an actual science lab and intends to spend a lot of time there. Everyone settles into their new roles and learns the feel of the ship.

It takes about a month to reach Focaline but the transit is uneventful. Upon landing, the crew find that the 1.22G is rough and the planet itself is extremely humid which is no surprise given the tropical swamp nature of the world. As expected, the atmosphere itself blocks most scanning, but landing at the appropriate location is easy enough. Haank, as is his tradition, hits a golf ball off the ramp into the jungle upon touchdown, while Ibrahim gets a small collection of dirt to go into his collection. Much of the crew immediately scatter, either for liberty or other destinations, although the Spinward Star crew gather their gear to escort Lorain to meet with her father; Aris joins them.

At the Customs entry point, the crew encounter an irritating bureaucrat seemingly intent on screwing them, but Eddy works his smooth-talking magic and manages to get them through the checkpoint without paying through the nose. Weapons are allowed, but must be checked in. Lorain grows increasingly concerned at her father’s lack of response via comms, so they head to the hotel where they discover he has already checked out and headed to the dig site ahead of her! This complicates matters somewhat as the archaeological permits her father was supposed to have obtained are with him … which means the crew now has to obtain those same documents for themselves. Eddy heads out immediately, intent on seeking out some fellow ne’er-do-wells for the appropriate paperwork, while Ella takes Haank with her to try the legal route, thus leaving Aris, Buck and Ibrahim behind at the hotel to keep watch over Lorain. As she leaves, Ella makes some leading, suggestive remarks to Ibrahim about him and the pretty professor-in-training; for a smart guy, it takes entirely too long for Ibrahim to realize what she’s hinting at.

While Ella and Haank encounter roadblocks, Eddy ends up at the cramped, dirty office of one Jen Kelso. The two scoundrels go back-and-forth before agreeing upon the price for a proposal … which Eddy gets an okay from Ella via comm for. Kelso promises the proposal in five days.

In this time, Admiral Gloval takes the Aimless Pilgrim (flown by Lee and engineered by Enzo) to the closest gas giant in the system to refuel. Upon returning and being informed that Ella has everything under control, he then takes on several passengers/tourists with plans to jump to the nearby systems since running a ship costs a lot of money and having a yacht inevitably attracts high-paying customers. He expects to return in one month’s time to check on progress.

Several days later (and ahead of schedule), Kelso provides them his proposal which Haank promptly starts tearing into by identifying massive overcharges and unnecessary expenses. Sliding into the smooth operator mode, Eddy argues down the costs before they reach an agreed upon amount. It is still a considerable amount of money, but is no longer an insultingly high number.

While this is going on, back at the hotel, Buck notices a suspicious-looking dude talking to the hotel concierge with regards to Lorain before ducking out; without hesitation, Buck ends up following him after a brief detour to have a pseudo-threatening convo with the concierge. Ibrahim, who is sitting with Lorain as she argues archaeology with some random stranger, observes Buck’s departure and then suggests that Aris send his drone after the engineer. The presence of the drone ends up causing Buck to abandon his pursuit (as he fears it would be too obvious) and he thus loses his quarry.

It takes several more days to gather the appropriate gear. Late one evening, while Eddy and Haank are returning from coordinating with Kelso, they hear a woman’s voice that most definitely sounds like Lorain crying out in pained surprise! A couple of men appear to hustle a woman around a corner and the two immediately give chase with Haank automatically sending an alert to all members of the crew. Disturbingly, he gets a Do Not Disturb flag on Lorain’s line. They round the corner to find a number of armed thugs waiting for them and a woman who is definitely not Lorain removing her wig and peeling away a voice modulator from her throat. “I didn’t think that would actually work,” she says ominously…

And with that, we FADE TO BLACK…

Player Notes:

• And so, Traveller resumes once more, although CommJunkee has taken the reins as GM for this “season” instead of Ronnke (although that gives the latter an opportunity to play again. And Eddy is always amusing…)
• Not only is this the first time we’ve played Traveller with the new Fantasy Grounds GURPS ruleset (I think), but this will mark the first time we’ve livestreamed an entire story arc so … huzzah.
• Although it is currently a Secret from the other PCs, in this six month period, Ibrahim was “recruited” by an Imperium agency and has been forced to become one of their operatives. His psionic abilities are no longer latent (although, to be fair, they’re not especially impressive at this point). In fact, he was specifically instructed to say “Yes” for this mission (Duty activated.)
• As stated above, we’ve started livestreaming our games. We play on Saturdays at 6:00PM Eastern and the live stream can be found at Ronnke’s Twitch channel. He’s also setup a YouTube Channel. Bear with us, please. This is still in it’s infancy.

Duty Roster:

Ella Stanbridge (Melissa)
Ertrane “Buck” Buckner (Herodian)
Henri Haank Makruus (Gigermann)
Ibrahim “Abe” Nouri-Abbood (Rigil Kent)
Sam Turner (Winston)
Sae Rraetheg (CommJunkee)

Clearing the Heir

Note: This recap was finally posted about a year late (and post-dated) for…reasons. It is highly condensed as a result, and covers roughly four sessions.

• Arrived at Risek; Ella took over as pilot, for practice.
• At downport, contacted IISS regarding the Gloria Exodus; IISS comes over to take possession of the survivors.
• Local press makes a big deal of the “discovery” and mobs the docks for a press-conference, photo-op; Eddy schmoozes, before heading off on his own.
• “Lurker” spotted at the back of the press-conference.

• Ella, Haank and Sae leave the ship for the bank to take care of ship’s business; followed by the “lurker.” Sae circles back and observes the lurker while the others enter the bank, and ends up calling the cops on him.
• Lurker “bumps” Ella on her way to the postal service, drops a note in her pocket, which she reads later: “Vincent” needs discreet charter off world, leaves contact info, a time and phone number at a local bar.
• Sae loses Victor when he leaves in a taxi.
• Sam goes ahead to the bar, chats up the locals, and observes. Ella calls the bar for Vincent, discusses charter: he needs to get one passenger and himself off-world without entanglements, offers 10k/passenger, counters w/ 100k for no-holds-barred. “Sad Keanu” also spotted at the bar.
• Local news: heir to Chandler Enterprises (private-owned local mega-corp) is missing after parents killed in accident; Crew figures that’s the guy.
• Later, at the ship, Crew discusses possible plans, including a fake radioactives delivery to smuggle someone through customs.
• Observe starport security processes, and determine vulnerability: sympathetic locals might look away or assist. Ella chats with laundry service lady.

• Day 2
• Vincent contacted again at specified bar at specified time. Sam already there, observing. Arrange in-person meeting at starport Brubek’s. Sam watches someone follow Vincent out of the bar, tails him. Sae picks up the tail at the starport, while Same stays with Victor.
• Haank talks discreetly with Victor at the bar. Meanwhile, Sam enters, followed by Vic’s tail, followed by Sae. Haank discreetly switches out with Sam to continue conversation. The tail is observed checking for dead-drops. Sam leaves, and Haank goes to pay his tab, leaving Vic a scrambler code for mission updates.
• Victor leaves, still followed by tail, still followed by Sae, who breaks off after a bit.
• Day 3
• Ella convinces the laundry lady to help their smuggling op.
• Buck, with Abe’s help, A-Teams a “perfect” Wang-Chung laundry delivery van in the startown.
• Sae pickpockets a Wang-Chung laundry driver’s SPA badge.
• Day 4
• Buck repurposes SPA badge for Haank. who will drive the truck. Taxi acquired.
• Victor is informed of the plan: Bruss to be picked up and delivered through the laundry service to the ship, while Victor is picked up in a taxi, tail is shaken off, and walked through SPA security.

• Sae Fast Talks Jones into his role in the heist.
• Sam has to “fix” tag scanner for laundry guy when delivering spacesuits to the laundry.
• • Haank drives the truck to the safe-house, with Abe.
  • Bruss picked up, plus suitcase.
  • Abe and Bruss hide in laundry carts.
  • Haank delivers laundry to the starport and leaves with the suitcase (having removed and discarded the gun) before returning to the ship.
  • Abe almost gets dumped, has to tranq a laundry worker.
  • Bruss gets into visored spacesuit, and Abe escorts from staff entry to the ship.
• • Ella is at the ship on comms, directs traffic
  • Sae drives the cab, and arrives to pick up Victor, Jones in trunk; Vic’s tail slaps tracker on trunk
  • Under way, Jones and Victor swap clothes and positions.
  • Jones dropped off at bar (Dick & Pickle); new fare gets in, a couple, bound for Arcology B; tail follows Jones.
  • Jones heads for the bathroom, caught by tail; they struggle; Jones finds out about the tracker before escaping, informs the others.
  • Sae’s cab is followed by another vehicle; scares passengers with his driving as he speeds away. Loses tail with a lucky vertical track-change, tracker knocked off. Stops in Arcology B, let fares off, and takes a new cab back to the ship.
  • Jones loses (original) tail at crowded mall, and returns to the ship.
• All flights delayed, security flagged; Victor is still outside starport and can’t re-enter.
• Buck starts hacking, cancels customs flag on Vic and Bruss.
• Crew departs without further incident.

Duty Roster:

Edrasii “Eddy” Bkar’hen (Ronnke)
Ella Stanbridge (Melissa)
Ertrane “Buck” Buckner (Herodian)
Henri Haank Makruus (Gigermann)
Ibrahim “Abe” Nouri-Abbood
Sam Turner (Winston)
Sae Rraetheg

Rogue Planet

With all pirates dead, unconscious, or otherwise out of the fight, the Crew began sorting out the situation that remained. The “slaves” were held in jury-rigged cages in the hold of the hangar’s lone occupant, the far-trader, Jacob’s Apprentice, whose owner/captain, Jacob Bishop, was among those released. The pirates that still lived replaced the released hostages in the cells, and were questioned. What remained of Captain Bishop’s cargo, mixed in with other loot, was warehoused nearby; though they did not demand payment for the rescue, the Crew did agree to split the cargo with Bishop. Buck evaluated the condition of the ship and found it spaceworthy, though the jump-drive was a bit dodgy—might make a jump or two before it failed. It was decided that the Spinward Star would escort the Jacob’s Apprentice and Learned Lady back to Titleman Station (Fulacin Prime’s highport).

The nine-day trip went without incident. After disembarking, Professor Well gave them his sincere thanks for the rescue of his colleagues, and an official note from the University’s insurance company promising a 200k credit, standard “rescue fee,” which they could redeem at the nearest Rhylanor Imperial (Bank) branch on their way back to Regina; they decided Risek was their best option, only a little out of the way. With that, the Crew bid farewell to those they had rescued, and departed outsystem for Risek.

The Spinward Star entered jumpspace, and the Crew settled into their usual routines. Four days into the jump, while Haank was on watch in the middle of the “night,” the ship was suddenly pulled out of jumpspace. Haank immediately sounded the alarm and jumped into the pilot’s seat just in time to steer the ship out of the way of some debris. Before them was a massive, dark gas-giant, with several moons and lots of asteroids and planetary debris in its orbit, but no sun at all—a rogue planet. Sam was able to determine their position at around halfway between Fulacin and Risek. The ship’s comms began to pick up an automated distress call, which they triangulated, appearing to originate from a nearby moon. They approached the moon and began to scan the surface from orbit for the source of the signal, and found the wreck, a massive generation ship of a possibly Terran or very old Imperial make.

The Crew cautiously entered the moon’s atmosphere and landed the ship on what solid ground they could find in the loose sand near the crash site, and disembarked in a wheeled rover (which was among their share of the Apprentice’s cargo); the air was full of radioactive dust, so they dosed themselves with anti-radiation meds before leaving, and remained in their vacc-suits for the duration. The drove the rover as close as the dunes would allow, within 10m or so, and continued on foot over the treacherous sand (Eddy was nearly swept under the ship), to find a place to enter the crash. Buck decided to force one of the cargo ramps; he used the rover to power the electronic locks, and rigged a bypass, but the door itself was stuck fast, so he ended up using the rover’s winch to pull the ramp down.

Inside the cargo bay, they found the wreck silent as the grave. They found a pile of discarded animal bones—cattle, from the look of it—years, maybe decades old. They also found electrical lines running fore and aft, powering a jury-rigged communications suite, apparently wired up to the ship’s antenna array. The Crew split up to follow the electrical lines and some weak hits on hand-held bioscanners that some had brought along. They discovered, in one cargo bay, a number of jury-rigged low-berth pods containing around thirty survivors in stasis; and in another bay, an old encampment, the condition of which suggested a multi-year occupation; and in another bay, what was left of the startup colony’s supplies, including some old ground vehicles; and in another bay, hundreds of the ship’s original low-berth pods in various states of repair, some still holding the dead, having been stripped of usable parts to serve the remaining survivors. It was decided to attempt to move the jury-rigged pods to the Spinward Star to be taken to Risek and awakened there, though it would take a bit of engineering to move them without endangering the occupants—some took the rover back to the ship to fetch the portable fusion reactor to keep the units powered during the move. Meanwhile, Eddy continued to explore, and found a portable computer terminal belonging to the captain, Elliot Vance; after managing to power it up, among other data, he found copies of the ship’s logs. He relayed to the rest of the Crew the fate of the generation ship, the “Gloria Exodus”: centuries back, it had crashed on a moon of this uncharted rogue-planet, and the survivors managed to survive for around three years sheltered within the ship from the harsh environment outside; after further deaths from sickness or accidents, the chief engineer, Alexander McGarren—a mechanical genius, by all accounts—managed to hobble together enough functional stasis pods to keep the survivors alive almost indefinitely, in the hopes that someone might eventually stumble across their signal.

The Crew took time and care, and using the colony vehicles in addition to their own, managed to move the pods to the Spinward Star without incident. They then departed the moon, skimmed the gas-giant for fuel, and jumped out for Risek as originally planned.

Notes

• Commjunkee took over as GM for a one-shot run, of which this session was the second part; Eddy, the regular GM’s PC, continued with the Crew; Abe’s player was out this week as well for reasons.
• Due to…circumstances, I took far too long to get around to writing up this report; as a result, my memory of the events is less than complete, and I had to abbreviate things a little more than the session probably deserved
• In the 2.5 weeks out and back to Fulacin II, Salla had finally gotten his repairs done and left the station, I think
• I don’t recall if the fate of the captured pirates was ever specified, but I assume they were turned over to local authorities—I think the one that cooperated was discreetly allowed to slip away
• The captain of the Gloria Exodus is is named for two of the guest-GM’s children (Elliot, and Vance)
• The chief engineer, Alexander McGarren, is an homage to MacGyver
• I don’t think the rogue planet was ever referred to by name by the GM, but I have referred to it on our wiki as EV-001 (standard scientific naming convention is to name it for the discoverer—Elliot Vance—and in this case, it was his first such discovery), but it’s just as likely they called it “Bob” or something like that

Duty Roster:

Edrasii “Eddy” Bkar’hen (Ronnke)
Ella Stanbridge (Melissa)
Ertrane “Buck” Buckner (Herodian)
Henri Haank Makruus (Gigermann)
Ibrahim “Abe” Nouri-Abbood (Rigil Kent)
Sam Turner (Winston)
Sae Rraetheg (Winston)

Pirate Activity

While Abe rendered medical aid to the three wounded pirates, the one that had surrendered was taken to the hold, and Eddy continued questioning him regarding his former company. The ex-pirate continued to be forthcoming, and Eddy offered him food and drink as he told his tale. He revealed the pirate company was 10-15 strong at the moment, based out of a partly-hidden hangar; their other ship/crew left a little over a week ago to do some trading in a neighboring system, and would not be expected to return for another few days at the very earliest; there were regular patrols of the surface near the base, with a few men at most, currently traveling back and forth to the scientists dig site to loot their supplies; captives were being held in a captured ship in the hangar, and were being readied for sale as slaves within the week; the base had a sensor suite that would be able to spot approaching craft. Meanwhile, Sam tried to narrow down the source of the ground-based comm signal he had picked up during the fighting, and to get a better view of the topography around the area, the details of which were corroborated by the surrendered ex-pirate, who also supplied a rough map of the hangar indicating likely encounters with its occupants. The planet was airless, .66 G, but inside the base would be normalized.

The Crew then gathered in the lounge to make their rescue plans. They studied the intel, and determined base’s sensors would be masked by the ridge the base was hidden under. They decided to go in fast, in a nap-of-the-earth approach in the sensors’ blind spot; the idea of using the launch or the safari ship as a distraction was discussed, but they decided against putting their crew in any further peril—speed and stealth should be enough. They geared up for a hard fight; for non-lethal options, they took along some tangler grenades they had purchased from Salla at Fulacin.

The approach went smoothly; no sign of detection. As they descended below the cloud of volcanic ash, they were able to pick up clearly the pirates’ comm signal; there was a bit of casual chatter between the base and a patrol at the research camp, and some wondering regarding the ambush team’s status. The Spinward Star swept up to the side of the ridge opposite the base, and barely touched down to let the assault team disembark, before backing off a safe distance to provide overwatch. The assault team scaled down the ridge-face to the half-buried hangar, and split into two teams, each stacking up on a different airlock. Access to the base was unlocked, but would make some noise as the locks cycled—their entrance would not go unnoticed—so they would be going in loud, vigilant for potential civilian bystanders.

• The “A” team of Ella, Sae and Abe entered through the forward airlock, and as it cycled, they spotted a couple of pirates within the control room on the other side of the inner viewport, who reacted to their appearance by attempting to sound an alarm. Sae pressed in first and shot the operators down, killing one instantly. Abe followed behind and did what he could to keep the other alive, while Ella and Sae turned their attention to the airlock’s side exit, and a couple of pirates they had spotted taking up cover positions on the other side of the hangar, near the back of the Empress Marava-class far-trader therein. They took cover beside the opening airlock door and began to exchange long-range fire with the pirates. The pirate taking cover at the aft corner of the ship retreated out of sight, presumably to circle around, while his comrade remained behind cover and kept up pressure on the airlock.
• The “B” team of Haank, Buck and Eddy entered through the side-tunnel airlock, and as it cycled, they spotted a couple of pirates in a barracks-room on the other side of the inner viewport, playing cards on one of the bunks. The team rushed in immediately as the door opened and surprised the guards, who couldn’t arm themselves quickly enough to put up a proper fight, and indicated their surrender. As Eddy approached to secure one of them, he caught his vacc-suit on a nearby wall-locker and pulled it down on top of himself, at which point one of the pirates attempted to seize the opportunity to attack Haank from behind, but was shot down. Eddy remained behind to secure the prisoners while Haank and Buck emerged through the secondary airlock exit into the hangar.
• The pirate that had been exchanging fire with Ella and Sae walled them inside the airlock with a barrage of tangler grenades from an under-barrel launcher. Sae fell back into the control room, where Abe was still performing first aid, and began attempting to shoot through the thick glass with his magnum pistol, but failed to connect with his target beyond. The pirate changed to a fresh magazine of high-explosive grenades and fired on the airlock, which did little more than clear out the webbing, and decided instead to fall back behind the ship, pursued soon after by Ella, then Sae.
• Haank and Buck rounded the corner to head for the ship’s lowered port cargo ramp when Haank was jumped by a cutlass-wielding pirate; Haank ducked out of the way, leaving his attacker open for a long burst from Buck’s gauss rifle. As Haank approached the ramp, someone inside tossed a grenade out, and Haank quickly kicked it back inside before it detonated, and then ducked under the ramp to crawl across to the other side, while Buck took cover at the airlock corner and exchanged fire with the pirates inside the ship. Haank reached the other side of the ramp and sneaked his gauss rifle low around the corner, viewing through the scope video link, sighted in on the heavily-armored pirate leader, and with a lucky “perfect” shot, fired a single APHD that blew a hole straight through his heart and out the other side of his armor. It so shocked the remaining couple of pirates nearby (the ones Ella and Sae were after, having just entered through the open starboard ramp) that they threw down their arms and surrendered, lest they suffer a similar fate.

Meanwhile, outside the base, the Spinward Star had been loitering, and had eventually picked up a heat-signature inbound from the research dig-site—the patrol, in a wheeled-vehicle. Sam maneuvered the ship to intercept, with Jones manning the laser-turret, and secured their surrender as well.

Notes

• Commjunkee took over as GM for a one-shot run, of which this session was the second part; Eddy, the regular GM’s PC, continued with the Crew, while Sae was taken over by Sam’s player for the combat portion
• This session was taken up almost entirely by a combination of mission-planning and executing a moderately-sized combat, the total of which took us far overtime for the night
• With the barrage of tangler grenades fired at Team A’s airlock, we found ourselves needing to know what the DR of a “wall of goop” was, and what visibility, and the possibility of firing through open spots in said wall would be. We just improvised at the time; I’m not sure that information had been specified anywhere in the rules—we didn’t find it, at any rate
• I don’t quite remember the specifics, but Haank was “forced” to resort to using his under-barrel gauss shotgun—I think it was just late, and we needed to end the fight quickly—which he had loaded (per SOP) with APHD rounds, which we discovered some time back can blow holes in ships (literally), 6d×3 (5) imp; the damage total rolled was 66. The leader of the pirates currently present was wearing space armor (DR100). I rolled a “1” on a d6 for the extra hit-location (MA137, “Torso”)—Vitals. Needless to say, it was insta-death. As Buck’s player said afterward: “You can’t just read a newspaper through that hole. You can deliver one”
• Due to…circumstances, I took far too long to get around to writing up this report; as a result, my memory of the events is less than complete, and I had to abbreviate things a little more than I normally would have liked

Duty Roster:

Edrasii “Eddy” Bkar’hen (Ronnke)
Ella Stanbridge (Melissa)
Ertrane “Buck” Buckner (Herodian)
Henri Haank Makruus (Gigermann)
Ibrahim “Abe” Nouri-Abbood (Rigil Kent)
Sam Turner (Winston)
Sae Rraetheg

Trojan Horse

Prof. Well

As the two containers were being hauled away, the Crew of the Spinward Star observed a neighboring ship, a Type R2 Class Subsidized Merchant, the lcarus in Decline, with her jump drive pulled out for service. As they began searching for outbound delivery opportunities, they found a number of freight lots and passengers held up on account of her situation. Almost immediately, the Crew was approached by a tall, thin man, a university professor by the name of Zinfield Well, who required insystem transport to Fulacin IV as soon as possible, to meet another charter in orbit there; he referred back to a gaggle of bored and frustrated young college students, wearing vacc suits, seated on their luggage and science gear on the wharf, saying he and a few of his astrogeology students were on a university-sponsored research trip. Eddy took the professor aside and presented the company’s “best offer” (without consulting the company)—double the going rate—and convinced him that he had no viable alternative. The exorbitant charge was reluctantly agreed to, though the professor could only pay a fraction up-front; the remainder would be covered by a bank-note on the university’s behalf. Abe decided to hang out with the science students and talk shop, to learn what they might know about botany, and be generally sociable; he brought Valerie along, who eventually seemed more at ease around others of similar age and background.

Salla Altunizian

Meanwhile, Ella was approached at the ramp by a well-dressed man, who introduced himself as Salla Altunizian, captain of the lcarus in Decline. He revealed that Sae (who wasn’t in the area at the time) had been a trusted crewman aboard his vessel in the past. He then explained that his ship was stranded waiting for jump drive parts to be delivered, and he had a rush-shipment in his hold that he was unable to deliver on time as a result; he would be willing to sell off some or all of it at a much-reduced price—small arms and military equipment, obtained legally—to recover some of his loss. Ella discussed the offer with the other partners; together they decided it was a good opportunity—they had the funds, and could probably sell off whatever they purchased at Yori or Treece, on the way to Regina, for a decent profit.

Ella contacted Salla and informed him that she would be sending someone to inspect the cargo. Haank took Buck and Sae with him to the lcarus’ berth, scanners in hand, and were welcomed by Sae’s old crew-mates, who showed them the cargo and associated manifests. Sections of the ship were kept strictly off-limits to prying eyes—Buck tried to get a look, saying he was wondering how he might help with their jump-drive issue. They took their time and went over everything thoroughly, and no shenanigans were discovered. Haank cleared it with Ella, and purchased 5 tons, which were loaded aboard the Spinward Star within the hour. They would be keeping a case or two of tangler munitions, as they’d been discussing the need for some non-lethal combat options. Afterward, Salla contacted Ella and invited the Crew to dinner; she accepted. The whole Crew attended, as did Salla’s; the dress was casual, and the food and drink excellent, and they wrapped up their business with a toast to good fortune. They might have stayed longer into the evening, but they didn’t want to keep their passengers waiting much longer, so they made their farewells and returned to their berth to ready the ship for departure and get all aboard.

It was a 9 day, 8 hour trip to Fulacin IV, in which nothing much occurred. Abe spent most of his time keeping company with the science students; their discussions eventually drifted into his research into the anti-freeze plant samples—he showed them his research, and held nothing back, not thinking about patents, or any sort of “business” concerns. After a week-plus in the black, on schedule, they made contact with the 200-ton Safari ship, Learned Lady, in orbit around the rockball planet, and Sam docked the Spinward Star belly-up at her ventral airlock. Her launch was gone; as the passengers disembarked and the Crew was allowed to look around and talk to their counterparts aboard the Lady, they were told that the launch was at the research site, dirtside, and was expected to return shortly. Some time later, the launch was picked up on sensors on a routing intercept vector, though it would not respond to comms; the crew of the Learned Lady thought little of it, but the Crew of the Spinward Star were immediately suspicious. The launch continued its approach, and docked, as if nothing were amiss. The captain went to the airlock to meet the returning team, and as the port opened, he was immediately shot dead.

• Haank, Sam, Sae and Jones were still aboard the Spinward Star, and at the sound of gauss fire, they scrambled to repel boarders. While fetching his rifle from the ship’s weapons locker, Haank directed Sam to cut the gravity and lock down the cockpit, while Sae and Jones bolted for the turrets. Then Haank floated gracefully through the hatches “down” to the other ship, followed shortly by Sam, after he had attempted to find the pirates’ comm frequency and failed, due to some kind of interference caused by volcanic activity on the ground.
• Ella and Buck were in the common area adjacent to the launch airlock, and took cover behind some local furniture and exchanged fire with the pirates as they pressed in from the launch. A couple of pirates quickly entered, while another, guessed to be their team-leader, remained behind cover in the airlock—one of the pirates who entered was killed; the other returned ineffectual fire from cover behind other nearby furniture.
• Eddy helped clear the civilians out of the line of fire to starboard and up to the level “above.” He heard some movement on the other side of a nearby iris, and being unarmed, grabbed a nearby trophy and readied it to strike.
• As Haank and Sam passed through the Learned Lady’s cockpit area, Sam remained behind to help them get the gravity shut off and try to lock down the launch so it couldn’t leave, while Haank made for the nearby hatch to the upper deck to join the others.
• Abe was in a lab room across from the airlock where he had been socializing with the research students. As the shooting started, he closed the door, and set the students about gathering some materials to improvise a smoke-bomb. When completed, and the students had taken cover within the lab, he opened the door and threw the device to the launch’s airlock, though it deflected when the gravity unexpectedly cut out. The area around the launch airlock was quickly filled with obscuring smoke.
• Another pair of boarders entered through Eddy’s door, but his “weapon” broke up mid-swing, and he was forced to use bare hands. He fled “down” through the hatch and brawled with the pirates as they attempted to follow and get a clear shot at him. He managed to knock one’s weapon away before kicking him unconscious, and pursued the other as he attempted to flee back to the launch.
• The living pirate still inside the ship surrendered, flanked by Abe, who had managed to grab the other’s lost weapon as it floated by, around the same time Haank floated down from the level above. The pirate-leader closed the airlock and retreated back into the launch; it sounded like he was trying to spin up and break it free, to escape. Ella and Buck rushed the airlock door, and tried to force the lock, but the ship’s safeties prevented it from opening.
• Eddy swung from the ceiling hatch and booted the remaining boarder through the door into a far wall, and beat him unconscious, just as Haank caught up to him. The two followed around to the launch’s starboard cargo portal, and managed to force it open just before it was locked down. They entered cautiously through the airlock leading into the passenger/cockpit compartment—knowing the pirate will have heard it cycle and would be prepared—and Haank put his rifle around the low-corner of the now-open iris, and fired a quick burst at the enemy, dropping him before he could react.

The (literal) smoke cleared. The launch was shut down, the dead placed in low-berth, and the prisoners secured. The surrendered pirate was questioned; he had been forced by circumstance into the pirates’ service, and told all he knew of their operation—the science team below had been captured and would be sold into slavery. Though Sam had been unable to pinpoint the source of the comm signal below, they had a pretty good idea where the pirate base would be, and would have to move quickly before the rest of the pirates began to suspect their ambush had gone awry. To be continued…

Notes

• Commjunkee took over as GM for a one-shot run; Sae was therefore demoted to NPC status and generally kept clear of the action, while Eddy, the regular GM’s PC, continued with the Crew
• The guest-GM took advantage of the opportunity to introduce Salla, Sae’s “arms-dealer” Contact, an old shipmate and captain of his, who had not made an appearance in the campaign as yet
• Abe’s as yet unnamed “anti-freeze plant” goes back to the Crew’s shore-leave on La’Belle in Session 2.5, and has become a sort of side-goal for that character to turn it into something marketable, though the character, himself, is not so business-savvy to capitalize on the discovery. As a budding scientist, he was very proud of himself for having “scienced the shit out of” the pirate action, as were the students for their participation in repelling boarders
• With the pirate’s attempt to flee with the launch, we found ourselves having to answer the question of how such a thing is secured to the mother-ship when so docked; we didn’t find any sort of reference at the time, though we presumed there should be some sort of safety measure to prevent the inner doors from being open when the launch was away, and that having the ability to programmatically prevent its leaving (by the ship’s computer) would be problematic in an emergency situation, and so disallowed

Duty Roster:

Edrasii “Eddy” Bkar’hen (Ronnke)
Ella Stanbridge (Melissa)
Ertrane “Buck” Buckner (Herodian)
Henri Haank Makruus
Ibrahim “Abe” Nouri-Abbood (Rigil Kent)
Sam Turner (Winston)
Sae Rraetheg (Ronnke)

Rush Job, Part III

Continued… It was around 08:00 IST and everyone was now awake in the crew’s lounge, sorting out what to do about Eddy’s capture. Buck pulled a radio-source detector out of his tool-pocket and synced it to his comm, and placed a call to Eddy; he could only narrow down his location to a residential quarter of the startown, moving generally toward the starport. Then Ella arrived, rather irritated at having to tear away from her “private business” so suddenly, having been alerted by a missed-call notice on her comm that contained a recording of the conversation with the bounty-hunter. Though his attempt to communicate had been cut off, Eddy had managed to pass on the words “broker” and “meeting”; Jones had been keeping tabs on the TrampNet feed for incoming deliveries (another now arriving) and found that there was a face-to-face meeting scheduled for an hour hence. Resigned to having to rush to this meeting she previously knew nothing about, Ella took a few minutes to put herself together and got under way, taking Abe along in Eddy’s place; there would be just enough time to get through security, navigate the startown, and make the schedule. Buck, Sam and Sae were left to plan Eddy’s rescue, also on an unknown, but believed short, timetable.

Sae took charge of the rescue mission planning. They had the advantage of knowing the bounty-hunter was taking Eddy to the Hellhound, his ship berthed on the other side of the starport; Buck’s comm signal trace gave a rough starting location, giving them a fair idea how long it would probably take for him to reach the ship—depending on how much grief the security personnel would give him at the entry checkpoint. Getting the bounty hunter in legal trouble would be difficult if his paperwork were in order, and they presumed it was. An open assault would give the Crew their own legal problems, aside from the potential difficulties inherent in the combat itself. In the end, they decided to have Buck booby-trap the ship’s access hatch with a simple electrical discharge that would, hopefully, stun the very large man. As backup, Sam and Sae would be at the Crew’s air/raft across the wharf, pretending to work on a smoking engine, with Buck in the open back seat hidden under a tarp, aiming Sae’s gauss shotgun loaded with stinger rounds. Once the bounty-hunter was stunned or unconscious, they could sweep in to “help” and spirit Eddy away in the confusion. They left immediately to see it done; the air/raft was positioned, smoke generated, and tarp readied. (Before leaving, Sae made a quick stop to “check the cargo” at the wharf, and dropped off Abe’s blood sample in the specified drainage grate.) Buck made his way separately along the busy docks to the Hellhound bearing a toolbox and clipboard; he was stopped on the way by a neighboring ship’s crewman, complaining that the repairs he was waiting for were long overdue—Buck promised he’d look into it ASAP. At the target, he made sure nobody was looking, rigged the booby-trap and disabled the remote-opening receiver, and returned to the air/raft the long way around, to take up his sniper’s position. Then, they waited…

Meanwhile, Ella and Abe had to call ahead to the broker to let him know they would be a bit late, as there was a lot of foot traffic at the security checkpoint—he didn’t make a fuss. They arrived around at the small, somewhat disorganized office around 09:30, and were greeted by a middle-aged fellow, the broker, who seemed like he was trying just a little too hard to be “hip,” coming across a little awkward, but otherwise harmless. He said it was customary for him, and company policy, to meet with new clients and shippers directly, to look them in the eye and see what sort of cloth they’re cut from. He offered them both a drink, and made some small talk about their company and its dealings, and cleared up a couple of minor paperwork and licensing questions. Afterward, they all shook hands and parted, satisfied that both sides were trustworthy.

As Ella and Abe were most of the way back through the still-crowded security checkpoint, Ella happened to look back and saw Maaq Mountain in the back of the queue, along with apparently-handcuffed Eddy. They decided to avoid drawing any attention right away, but find a waiting-room seat on the other side of the checkpoint, to observe the bounty-hunter as he passed through—they commed the rescue team to inform them. Eddy was taking every opportunity to cause the bounty-hunter trouble; security personnel were observed ushering them both to a side office to be interviewed. After a long wait, they finally re-emerged, with a more-compliant Eddy, and were ushered through the rest of the checkpoint. On the other side, Eddy spotted Ella and Abe at the waiting room; when Maaq wasn’t looking, he mouthed, “Help me,” as they passed, before the bounty-hunter flagged down a starport tram headed in the direction of his ship.

Maaq Mountain

The rescue team got a second comm from Ella informing them that the bounty-hunter was on his way to the ship, and some fifteen minutes later, they emerged from the terminal and walked over toward the ship. Eddy stopped momentarily to ask the bounty-hunter to check his comm, which was beeping an alert (the bidding on the last freight lot had closed; the Spinward Star had the low bid); Maaq reluctantly obliged, expecting Eddy’s shenanigans to resume at any moment. They then continued to the ship and Maaq triggered the remote, cursing when it failed to respond. Then the rescue team held their collective breath as the bounty-hunter reached for the door handle.

There was a loud electric crack, and the large man collapsed to the ground on top of Eddy.

Sae rushed over to “help” as a crowd began to gather. He checked the fallen giant’s vital signs and declared him to be “just fine” (Sae’s medical training didn’t include Humaniti, exactly). Buck then came over as well, and could find no pulse or respiration at all. Being untrained in medical matters, they called out to the gathering onlookers for skilled assistance; one of the crowd happened to be a medical student, who determined the bounty-hunter had suffered a full cardiac arrest, and started trying to revive him, while waiting for the starport paramedics to arrive. As the crowd was focused on the lifesaving efforts, Buck discreetly removed his booby-trap from the door and made a quick exit from the scene, while Sae collected up Eddy and did the same. Sam piloted the air/raft away with all aboard, leaving the bounty-hunter to his fate, in more-or-less capable hands.

An hour or so later, as the Porozlo suns had set for the first of two times for the day, to be replaced by the gathering clouds, the last of the freight arrived at the wharf, and Customs was called to perform their outbound inspection. The customs official arrived on time, and complained of a bad hangover from a night of partying; he curtly refused Eddy’s “sympathetic” offer of a drink—he really didn’t want any extra paperwork over the scuffed RFID tags on the containers, so he admonished Eddy to keep them sealed, and cleared everything for departure. Haank and Valerie returned around that time as well; Haank had a good day on the course, got some good tips from some famous golfers, and admitted he “may have used Valerie as a distraction”; Valerie seemed to be feeling a bit better as well for it.

Now with nothing remaining to be done, the Crew set about clearing up their business and readying to leave: Sam submitted the flight plan (he didn’t bother Ella, who usually handles this; she had gone immediately to sleep after returning) and he and Buck worked through the pre-flight checks; Haank and Sae got the cargo loaded and secured; Eddy paid the starport “tab,” and at the starport authority office, attempted to delay the departure of the Jesse Belle as payback for their under-bidding on freight—which ended up costing him a large chunk of what little cash he possessed to bribe the officer. Then, as the rain began to fall across the docks, roughly 21 hours after arrival, the Spinward Star lifted off once more, with all souls aboard. As the ship was vectored around the edge of the incoming weather, a bit of turbulence woke Ella, and she immediately commed Truman to apologize for not returning to him before the ship departed as she had promised, but promised instead to find him again sometime.

Forty-four hours later, the Spinward Star reached the outbound jump point and entered jumpspace for Fulacin. Eight days later, she broke out of jumpspace in the Fulacin system, around six hours out from the mainworld. Orbital traffic was light, no significant delays, and she berthed at the highport, a day and a bit before the rush-deadline—the Crew had succeeded. The cargo was unloaded at the wharf, and their respective buyers signed off; the sealed containers (which Haank had no reason to suspect were illegally-obtained) were paid for in cash in full at the wharf. Then the Crew began the cycle anew, bound for their next stop on the way to Regina.

Notes

• I took over as GM for this one-shot run; as a result, Haank was demoted to NPC status and “written out” of the event, while Eddy was “written in” for the regular GM, Ronnke. See my GM’s behind-the-scenes insights on my blog
• Sae’s player couldn’t make this session; Eddy’s player took over Sae for the duration, as Eddy was expected to be “tied up” ( 😉 ) for most of it
• Buck’s tracking device (his use of Gizmo) actually occurred on the previous session, but fit the narrative a little better here
• Eddy’s player specified that Eddy would be making a scene at every opportunity, delaying the bounty-hunter’s progress as much as possible. Once they ended up in the security waiting room, he mostly figured it was over without outside intervention and offered to behave himself from there on in exchange for a bit more understanding—Maaq agreed, “Don’t start none, won’t be none.” Of course, Eddy still intended to contact the rest of the Crew if he could.
• Sae critically failed his First-Aid diagnosis check to decide what was wrong with the bounty-hunter after the booby-trap went off; this usually means “misinformation,” the most logical interpretation and worst potential outcome in this case would be to say, “there’s nothing wrong”
• After the success of the mission, I had Haank take the broker/acquaintance at Rhylanor as a proper Contact, as part of my recent improvement strategy of developing his local networking capabilities. Ella also would end up taking Truman as a Contact, and Eddy a two-sided Reputation as “the one who took down the Mountain.”