Olympus RPG Blog

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.”

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 (CommJunkee)

Rush Job, Part II

Maaq Mountain

Continued… The hour approached midnight as Sae continued to observe the very-large bounty hunter’s progress canvassing berth-to-berth in the direction of the Spinward Star, and tensed up as he finally reached the next berth over. The tension was shattered by an unexpected comm-call, a wrong number Sae recognized as a code—the Agency was calling him in; the call-back address was a meet-up. The bounty hunter was pointed into the starport by the next-berth neighbor, and he strode away, resolute. After updating the Crew by comm, Sae woke up Sam and had him cover his guard shift so he could “go OTG and get some real food.”

Meanwhile, Ella and Abe were wrapping up their banking business, and were on their way out of the robo-teller booth when the guy that Ella had spotted earlier approached her for some help with his new comm OS, as he had seen her using the same a moment before when she took a call (from Sae, regarding the bounty hunter). He was very polite, clearly intelligent, and perhaps, even genuine—maybe too good to be true. As compensation for her “tech-support services,” he offered to take Ella for a cup of coffee at a corner shop after he got done with his banking, and she accepted, in spite of her maybe-paranoid suspicions, and waited outside the bank for him, while Abe parted ways and returned to the ship to get some sleep, still a bit paranoid himself after the earlier “psychic incident.”

Around that same time, Buck and Eddy had arrived at an office complex in the startown to meet with the shadow broker. Eddy flirted with the secretary a bit before she announced them and pointed them to the broker’s office. The broker was cold and methodical, only glancing up to study the two briefly before looking back down at his computer displays, and rattled off the terms of shipment as if it were a pre-written script, covering every potential question before it need be asked: two 8-ton containers under seal, obtained on the black market, to be shipped to Fulacin Orbital unmolested, seals unbroken, for the standard rate plus fifty percent, half now, half by the buyer on delivery. He declared that taking the stack of cash he then slid across the desk toward them would be considered an agreement to the terms. Buck asked to make a call, and cleared the shipment with Ella, admitting it was less-than-legal (she was too distracted to make a fuss at the moment), and with permission so granted, Eddy took the cash. With a curt, “Good day,” the business was concluded, and the two left the office complex to return to the ship, but not before Eddy had secured a date with the secretary after she got off work in a few hours. Eddy noticed some nearby casinos on the way back, and Buck had to talk him out of an attempt to increase their profit-margin. Frequently checking the TrampNet for bidding activity, Eddy noticed they were being under-bid at every turn by another ship—the Jesse Belle—and he and Buck briefly discussed some sort of reprisal, but for fear of escalation, decided to let it go until later.

Gerhard Kansii

Katelyn

Sae waited in the indicated alley and stood, checking his comm twice in a certain way, to indicate his readiness to talk. Out of the shadows, two humans emerged: a man in a suit, and a red-haired woman, neither of which he recognized. The suited-man asked for a SITREP on Operation Red Wombat, Sae’s “favor” to the Agency, to gather information about the Crew’s possible contact with a lost Zhodani vessel; Sae held nothing back, telling them what he knew of the story—the suited-man tensed up when informed what had happened to the other crew that attempted to claim the prize. He looked to the woman, and she nodded affirmatively. Satisfied with the mission update, the man informed Sae of a new side mission he had for him, to discreetly obtain a blood sample from his fellow crewman, Ibrahim, using a small extraction device (which he then handed over), to be dead-dropped in a specific drainage grate near their berth. Sae agreed, though he intended to tell Abe the truth; the woman shook her head at the suited-man, and he again admonished Sae to keep the attempt covert. Sae agreed again, and this time, the woman nodded affirmatively to the suited-man. The suited-man told Sae, “The Agency, and the Emperor, thanks you for your service,” before the two disappeared back into the shadows. After making certain he wasn’t being followed, Sae stopped for a quick bite to eat and returned to the ship.

Some hours passed, and the first of Porozlo’s twin suns began to rise for the first of two times for the day.

While the other Crew aboard the ship slept, Sae searched the med bay for blood samples that might have been taken previously, but found none, and resigned himself to the dirty task of getting Abe’s sample the hard way. He grabbed a marker-pen, and crept into the four-bunk cabin where Abe and Sam were currently asleep; with one hand, he positioned the sampling device at Abe’s arm and triggered it, while with the other hand, he poised himself as if to write something nefarious across Abe’s forehead. The fine needle woke Abe, but only just, and in the sleep-addled haze, Sae’s apology and explanation that he was getting revenge for Abe’s constant “dog references” toward him seemed legitimate; he dismissed the interruption and went back to sleep, none the wiser. Sae retreated back to his guard duty, mission complete.

Meanwhile, Buck was outside the ship to meet the incoming delivery of the shadow-broker’s containers at the wharf, and found them as described, under a legitimate-looking monowire customs seal, with a manifest that indicated nothing special within. Just in case, falling back on old smuggling tricks (the origins of which were still unknown to the others), Buck scuffed the RFID tags, and altered the “8” digit to bear more resemblance to a “3.”

Truman Park

Ella’s coffee-date with the spacer from the bank failed to reveal the “catch”—Truman Park was a recently-promoted 1st Mate for the Oberlindes freight lines, currently serving aboard the 20,000 ton container-ship, Boston, and was a genuinely decent guy, a perfect gentleman, as far as she could tell. They talked for hours about life on the space-lanes, eventually relocating to overlook the docks as the suns rose. Truman offered Ella a tour of the Boston, and eventually, Ella asked to see his cabin…

Eddy woke from his power-nap to the alarm he’d set to remind him of his date with the shadow-broker’s secretary, made himself presentable, and left the starport for the agreed-upon startown diner. On the way, Eddy got a call from one of the legitimate brokers whose cargo he had placed bids on; the broker wanted a face-to-face meeting with the captain and the ship’s agent, and they agreed to do so at 09:00 local time. At the diner, the date seemed to be going well until, out of the side window, Eddy locked eyes with Maaq Mountain himself. After a few tense seconds of staring that seemed an eternity, with a quick “Sorry” to his date, Eddy bolted back into the diner’s kitchen, followed closely by the bounty hunter. The two crashed through the kitchen to the back door, vaulted clumsily over a fence at the end of the back alley, and hastily weaved at full speed through the foot traffic on the boardwalk leading up to the monorail station, where the train was just leaving. Eddy jumped headlong for the narrow landing between the monorail cars, but missed his mark, and ended up caught by the foot and dragged along beside the train; he was barely able to duck out of the way of the partition as the monorail left the station, leaving him hanging precariously over the traffic below. The bounty hunter, however, had managed to get aboard, and finding Eddy hanging outside, pulled him inside the train, and handcuffed him. When asked, the famed bounty-hunter revealed what Eddy already suspected, that he had been hired by “Crazy Ivan” to bring Eddy in over some delinquent debt payments. A short, awkward ride later, the two exited the monorail and began to walk back toward the starport, when Eddy demanded to be allowed to comm someone; the bounty-hunter sarcastically agreed, and called the Spinward Star on his own comm on Eddy’s behalf, and asked for the captain.

Buck was making coffee in the crew lounge when he spotted a flashing light on the cockpit console indicating an incoming call, and answered. Ella’s location was unknown to the others, so Buck fetched Sam out of bed—the second-in-command. While suppressing Eddy’s attempts to inform his crewmates of the upcoming face-to-face meeting with the broker by smashing him into the wall, Maaq Mountain informed Sam, as acting captain, that Eddy would not be making their departure.

To be continued…

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
• The break between sessions allowed me to get caught up on the date-time, and it turned out they had gotten in late in the day, and ended almost at midnight; fortunately, space-travelers come and go at all hours, 24/7, so business around the starport doesn’t normally close up for the night
• Sae’s meeting with the Agents actually played out first, as some of the players were going to be late; Sae’s dilemma—to “betray” his fellow crewman or not—was well reflected by the player’s; he really struggled with it
• The man-in-a-suit was Gerhard Kansii, and the red-haired woman, Katelyn, both from the Crew’s previous outing to Porozlo; Katelyn was psi-scanning Sae to keep him honest
• When Sae woke Abe during his attempt to get the blood sample, he nearly failed to disguise it, but for a +2 for his Sense of Duty to the Crew—Abe believed it, because why would Sae be up to something nefarious?

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 (CommJunkee)

Rush Job, Part I

During the eleven days before the Adric Mason’s arraignment hearing the Crew had to spend sequestered on the sector-capitol mainworld of Rhylanor, Haank took the opportunity to complete his final testing for his Basic Hazardous Materials Handler Endorsement. He passed without incident; and while at the testing facility, he ran into an old acquaintance from his brokering days, who offered a rush job: 10dT of reactor fuel rods to be delivered to Fulacin in 20 days—a tight schedule for two jumps—for near-Express rates if delivered on time. Haank accepted the offer on behalf of the Crew, and afterward easily filled the rest of the hold with freight, and secured a full manifest of passengers bound for Porozlo, the best intermediate port-of-call on the run to Fulacin. With the courts’ permission, Valerie Vaskor would go with them as a pro bono passenger to her family home on Regina to wait for the trial. It was decided to remain on Rhylanor after the hearing for a couple more days, leaving the day after Holiday.

“Eddy”

The day after the hearing, the Crew was approached by an old friend of theirs from their days working for Neverfail Freight out of Bevey, Edrasii “Eddy” Bkar’hen; he had spotted them on video coverage of the hearing. He solicited an invitation to dinner, and after some catching up, he revealed what they suspected all along, that he needed passage off Rhylanor ASAP and had no cash to pay for it. Ella knew he was a hard worker, at least, and offered working passage; Eddy accepted, having brought what little he possessed with him to the restaurant, clearly expecting (hoping for?) an affirmative response. The day after Holiday, with Eddy as their new, temporary crewman, the Spinward Star left Rhylanor Downs again for Porozlo, wary of every wasted minute in their effort to beat their deadline.

Once under way, the trip outsystem was fairly uneventful, save for a brief outage of the ship’s artificial gravity, due to a bad relay, that resulted in one of the passengers vomiting profusely, unprepared for the sudden freefall conditions. Due to the proximity of the system’s main star, it would take around twenty-four hours to reach the jump point. A few hours in, Haank got a comm from the mainworld, and afterward called everyone to a company meeting to give them the news that he had been invited to attend a celebrity golf outing on Porozlo, a once-in-a-lifetime experience that he would not pass up, and would take the better part of the twenty-four-hour layover they had planned for—so he would be unavailable to see to the usual ship’s business while ashore. The Crew were confident they could make up for his temporary loss; Sae would take over as loadmaster, and Eddy would find freight contracts as the de facto ship’s agent, while Abe would see to the acquisition of new passengers. About an hour out from the jump point, Sam received a routine traffic notice, and recognized the identity of the approaching ship as the CV Hellhound, which belonged to well-known local bounty hunter, Maaq Mountain (he had seen a segment on the Big Shot Bounty Hunter Show at a local bar). Eddy was eventually confronted with the news and reluctantly admitted to being the target, having indebted himself enough to justify a multi-system pursuit, though he swore he had done nothing “technically” wrong. Those that knew Eddy weren’t exactly surprised; they promised to not give him up at the first opportunity. The ship jumped out for Porozlo without further incident, and seven days later, broke out of jumpspace. The jump point was masked here as well, a 44 hour delay. Halfway there, the Crew detected the Hellhound breaking out of jumpspace and accelerating quickly along a similar vector; Sam calculated its arrival to be only a few hours after their own. In Porozlo’s orbital traffic, the Spinward Star was given new vectors by OTC to avoid collision debris over the downport control zone; Buck stepped in and talked the operator into letting them continue without the resulting delay at their own acknowledged risk.

It was evening when the Spinward Star set down at the downport, and once the customs official finally showed up to do his inspection, they were released to offload their passengers and freight. Haank immediately left and grabbed a taxi, bound for the hotel in Geeka where he would be staying for the tournament, taking Valerie with him so she could stretch her legs and get a bit of fresh air. During the unloading process, the Crew spotted a familiar ship some berths down from theirs, the CV Jesse Belle, which they knew to be captained by Ulysses Pitt, a former coworker at Neverfail Freight that Buck managed to get fired long ago, resulting in Pitt’s tireless, neverending mission to make Buck’s life miserable. Afterward:

• Sam headed to the local Brubek’s for a pint and some food
• Abe started checking TrampNet for passengers to Fulacin
• Eddy started checking for freight lots bound for the same, knowing they would have about half the usual time to find any
• Buck, knowing there wouldn’t be much commerce here bound for Fulacin, made some discreet inquiries regarding possible less-than-legal deliveries
• Sae and Jones took turns watching the docks for threats

A bit later, it was decided to get permission to fly the ship out to deliver the last freight consignment to its designated locale in a nearby town, and Ella decided to fly it herself, rather than trouble Sam to come back. The trip went without incident, and upon their return, they saw the Hellhound landing on the other side of the starport from their berth. Meanwhile, Sam had returned to the berth from his drinking, still a bit tipsy, to find the ship gone, briefly causing him to panic before it returned. Later:

Ulysses Pitt

• Buck grabbed Eddy and headed out to meet with a shadow broker out in the star-town. On their way to the outbound checkpoint, Buck heard a familiar, almost-mocking voice exclaim, “BUUUUCKYYYY! My man!…,” and winced before turning to meet Captain Pitt’s feigned amity. Buck’s half-hearted attempt to smooth things over by offering to let his rival share in his criminal enterprise was rewarded only with Pitt’s assurance that Buck’s “debt” would be collected in due time, and went on his way, with a clap on the shoulder and a knowing wink.
• Ella took Abe with her to the starport’s Imperial Astro-Commerce Bank branch to cash in their now-completed freight contracts. It was busy, crowded, the wait long but not-quite excessive. As they waited, Abe felt a familiar presence in his mind—had to be Katelyn—and snapped about to find its source, though he could not; he began to recite nursery-rhymes in his head, and then sensed “amusement” as the presence disappeared; he did not share this experience with Ella. Meanwhile, Ella spotted an attractive spacer in the queue behind, and tried to dismiss her compulsion to approach him, before their turn at the robo-teller was announced.
• Sae was on guard at the ship, scanning the docks, when he noticed probably the largest human he had encountered—Maaq Mountain, the bounty-hunter—several berths down the way, asking questions of other ships’ crew and showing pictures, no doubt canvassing for Eddy’s whereabouts; Sae commed the rest of the Crew a warning.

To be continued…

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
• The bounty-hunter, Maaq Mountain, was to be a mix of Dwayne Johnson’s character in The Rundown and Fast and Furious; as I wrote him, he was pretty well-known in the Rhylanor sector, and had gotten special dispensation from the Imperial authorities to use a non-standard transponder identity code, 666D0G, for his ship, the Hellhound, a Florian-class 100dT scout vessel
• During the two-week run-up to the start of the game, Abe made an attempt or two to get Valerie to help with his research, to help her move forward—she didn’t really respond, still shell-shocked after her ordeal (that is, the Reaction roll didn’t favor the crew with her trust)
• There was a bit of confusion about the timetable, how long Haank was to be staying at the tournament and whether or not he should be dropped off and the ship continue on to Fulacin—that confusion carried over a bit into the next session
• We envisioned the scene as Sam returned from the bar, drunk(ish), to find the ship gone, as him falling to his knees on the empty tarmac with hands thrown wide, screaming “Whyyyyyy!,” and collapsing, just before the ship’s landing lights appeared over the starport; everyone dismounted and found him there in a heap and collected him 😛
• This is the first appearance of Buck’s rival—I think he just slipped the regular GM’s notice until now; he will probably be seen again