Olympus RPG Blog

Unconquerable, Part II

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

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

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

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

Notes

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

Unconquerable, Part I

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

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

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

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

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

Notes

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

Lost and Found

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

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

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

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

But it wasn’t over.

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

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

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

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

Notes

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

Shady Characters

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

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

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

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

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

Notes

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