Paal
The travelers jumped to Paal where they were welcomed by high ranking officials and attended functions where they met more high ranking officials. They found time to see the radioactives and luxury consumables, making over 30 MCr.
Pourne
After Paal they jumped to Pourne. Deciding to look for news of Drinax, in case anything had happened, Nitrane found news reports of an Imperial treasure ship that had gone missing, possibly hijacked. Apparently the Imperial Navy had already sent a fleet into the reaches in response. More details were expected to follow in the coming weeks.
Drinax
Refueling and leaving as quickly as possible, the ships jumped to Drinax. Originally the plan had been to just arrive in one Harrier, with the other two out at a distant gas giant, or possibly not having them jump to Drinax at all. At the last minute though the realisation that the powers in Drinax might hear about three Harriers anyway turned the plan on its head and all three arrived and requested landing permission at the king's private landing pad.
When they landed they immediately requested to see the princess, who granted them an audience inside an hour. Having discussed what to say to the princess many times over the past few weeks, then arrived at just bringing her the treaty that they had found in the treasure ship vault. After that they would just play it by ear, but not volunteer any information.
Princess Rao was very pleased to see them, and had then sit and take tea with her. The party presented the treaty and said it was so important that they broke their rule of keeping their distance from Drinax to bring it to her. She looked at it, agreed it was important, but wanted first to hear everything that they had done since they had seen her last.
Exchanging glances with the rest of the party Nitrane began talking.
The travels started with the hunt for the Treasure of Sindal. The journey went from Noricum (where they found someone who declared themselves to be the true descendant of the Sindalian Emperor), to Thebus (where they made diplomatic contact with the Proactive Recycling Company) and then Number One (where they met the Warden, a young girl). At this point they realised they needed a number of particle cannons to solve a complex problem which should give them the whereabouts of the treasure.
They went to Salif, where they hoped they could get the weapons. Unfortunately the government realised who they were and in exchange for access to the weapons they wanted were asked to stage a mock hostage-taking of Tiznee Zazzle so she could go to an Imperial planet for medical procedures. This complete they created some self-contained particle cannons, loaded them in their ships, and continued to Ace.
On Ace they determined the final location of the treasure and after jumping to the secret location they found an old derelict station that had two Harriers, which were repairable only because they had been mothballed and packed away for storage.
Rao clearly knew who the Warden was (she described Rannid as a dear) and Tiznee (pursed lips and a nod). She asked about professor Haut-Belzoni and was told that he was being looked after by a friend. Also she wanted the location of the derelict station as there may yet be some items of interest to be found there, which the party gave her after exchanging glances once again.
Nitrane continued.
Getting the Harriers repaired meant utilising the resources of Theev and they left them there and continued on to Palindrome. When they arrived they made contact with Lady Yemar who needed some help getting a scientist to cure her of a long-standing illness. If the party could get the scientist who could cure Lady Yemar then she seemed open to the idea of aligning herself to Drinax. With details about the scientist they made their way into the Imperium and followed his trail until they eventually found him and sent him to Palindrome.
While Nitrane was telling the princess this she looked concerned, and then at the end remarked that she hoped poor Anastasia would get the cure she needed. It was clear that the princess knew and regarded Lady Yemar highly.
After that Nitrane mentioned that they had established diplomatic relations with Tech-World (in exchange for system defense boats) and Paal (who were very pleased to just be visited). Rao wished the travelers well with getting the system defense boats and thanked them for their diplomatic attempts to far.
Talk then turned to the treasure ship, which Nitrane described as too good an opportunity to miss. She briefly described what happened then broached the subject of the treasure that the party obtained. This included the two unopened strongboxes as well as the goods on Sink and the diplomatic papers, one of this was the important one in front of the princess.
Princess Rao turned more serious and admonished the party that the idea had been to not implicate Drinax in these acts of piracy. Unfortunately the description of the Harriers and the fact that they were accompanying the treasure ship was widely known. This was good for the purposes of stirring up the Imperium but not for the overall plan to have systems turn to Drinax to resolve the piracy menace.
Not all was lost however and that was because of the treaty the party had brought her.
The treaty stated that the Imperium agreed that the Aslan could extend their borders to within 6 hexes of the Imperium instead of the 10 that was currently in place. In exchange the Imperium would get improved trading terms. This deal meant that Drinax, Torpol, Clarke, Tech-World and many others in the Drinax belt would be engulfed by an Aslan horde.
This was clearly bad news for Drinax, unless that is they were already working towards bringing planets under their influence. As yet the treaty was not ratified - the physical copy in front of them was required for that. Until then the Drinax royal family and the travelers could spread the word about the treaty.
Lady Nitrane then mentioned the strongboxes again and Princess Rao asked that they fetch them. In the meantime she would go and get the king, now that the important discussions had taken place.
When the party returned the princess had not arrived so they waited. Not long later they heard her voice in the corridor saying "but you have to go" in an exasperated tone. At that the princess and King Oleb entered,. the latter in a waterpolo uniform.
To be continued...
Saturday 29 September 2018
Wednesday 26 September 2018
To Byrni, and beyond
Tech-World
Finally reunited with the Harriers the travellers spent the rest of the week ensuring that the ships were refueled, that the Harriers had their overdue maintenance, and generally kept a low profile. From time to time they would visit Luddites, the only bar in town with a real person as bartender, and visited the automated shops, but other than that they stayed on their ships and planned what to do next.
Ergo
After the week was up the fleet jumped to Ergo, where a navy fuel dump had been set up. There they quickly and uneventfully refueled before making the jump-2 to Byrni.
Byrni
The ships emerged from jump near the most distant gas giant in the system. The aim was to avoid being detected while opening the vault, extracting what was in there, then refueling and jumping out as quickly as possible. Because arriving at the 100 diameter radius would mean a 17 hour journey just to get to fuel-scooping orbit the party went to the vault to open it.
Using the key and the drugged captain's DNA the party triggered the opening sequence on the door fairly easily. What they did not expect was a 10 minute light show and fanfare that made up the opening ceremony. Intended to be opened with the huge cargo bay clam-shell doors open, the sight and sound show was overwhelming, which meant they did not immediately hear the call from the bridge.
While the vault was being opened the crew on the bridge had detected an Imperial Navy carrier with escort in orbit around the gas giant. Shortly thereafter the treasure ship had been hailed by the navy ship and welcomed to Byrni. However they were also asked why they had not arrived at the inner planet where the spaceport was and where the people who were expecting them would be.
Lady Nitrane picked up the comms and was quickly advised by First Officer Jagad in what to say. Nitrane said that they had jump difficulties and they and their escorta needed to refuel immediately.
To that the navy ship asked "What escort?" and then "Why not just proceed to the spaceport where you are expected?". Apparently the navy had not detected the Harriers, with their stealth jump and hull coatings preventing them from being picked up.
Nitrane persisted with the line of reasoning that they and the escorts needed refueling, at which point the navy advised that fighters were being sent to provide them with an escort.
Quickly calculating that the fighters would be with them in about six hours the party quickly got to taking everything out of the vault and into the normal cargo bays. They already knew that the ship could not jump with the vault open, so this was vital if they wanted to be able to jump at short notice.
In the vault they found the following:
With the damage on the orbiting Harrier causing a little concern the decision was made to land again, leaving a fresh Harrier in orbit once again. On landing the damage was assessed and found to be repairable. Refueling was competed and the ships prepared to take off.
Suddenly the party had a thought. The treasure ship would be a tremendous liability, but what if they sank it in the swamp? After quickly agreeing to this course of action they hired some storage space at the spaceport and offloaded all the Advanced Electronics, Advanced Machine Parts and Pharmaceuticals put them in the storage area. The remaining plunder was split among the Harriers except the mail drums that were left on board the treasure ship.
Then Sparrow grinned terribly. What if the captain went down with the ship? The rest of the party thought about it and eventually agreed. The captain was drugged into unconsciousness and placed in the captains chair while the treasure ship was put down at a spot agreed with the monks. The party watched it sink below the surface, and the monks cheered.
Quickly boarding the ships they chose Paal as their next destination.
To be continued...
Finally reunited with the Harriers the travellers spent the rest of the week ensuring that the ships were refueled, that the Harriers had their overdue maintenance, and generally kept a low profile. From time to time they would visit Luddites, the only bar in town with a real person as bartender, and visited the automated shops, but other than that they stayed on their ships and planned what to do next.
Ergo
After the week was up the fleet jumped to Ergo, where a navy fuel dump had been set up. There they quickly and uneventfully refueled before making the jump-2 to Byrni.
Byrni
The ships emerged from jump near the most distant gas giant in the system. The aim was to avoid being detected while opening the vault, extracting what was in there, then refueling and jumping out as quickly as possible. Because arriving at the 100 diameter radius would mean a 17 hour journey just to get to fuel-scooping orbit the party went to the vault to open it.
Using the key and the drugged captain's DNA the party triggered the opening sequence on the door fairly easily. What they did not expect was a 10 minute light show and fanfare that made up the opening ceremony. Intended to be opened with the huge cargo bay clam-shell doors open, the sight and sound show was overwhelming, which meant they did not immediately hear the call from the bridge.
While the vault was being opened the crew on the bridge had detected an Imperial Navy carrier with escort in orbit around the gas giant. Shortly thereafter the treasure ship had been hailed by the navy ship and welcomed to Byrni. However they were also asked why they had not arrived at the inner planet where the spaceport was and where the people who were expecting them would be.
Lady Nitrane picked up the comms and was quickly advised by First Officer Jagad in what to say. Nitrane said that they had jump difficulties and they and their escorta needed to refuel immediately.
To that the navy ship asked "What escort?" and then "Why not just proceed to the spaceport where you are expected?". Apparently the navy had not detected the Harriers, with their stealth jump and hull coatings preventing them from being picked up.
Nitrane persisted with the line of reasoning that they and the escorts needed refueling, at which point the navy advised that fighters were being sent to provide them with an escort.
Quickly calculating that the fighters would be with them in about six hours the party quickly got to taking everything out of the vault and into the normal cargo bays. They already knew that the ship could not jump with the vault open, so this was vital if they wanted to be able to jump at short notice.
In the vault they found the following:
- Four 5-ton mail drums of secure electronic communications, presumably from the Imperium to the Aslan Hierate. These were known to be incredibly hard to crack, but the contents could be very valuable.
- Various legal and formal documents laid out on presentation shelves under spotlights. These document represented the actual proof of agreements and deals, with seals embedded with chips proving provenance and authenticity. At a glance they were mostly diplomatic with some mercantile ones as well. The contents of these were not closely checked while emptying the vault.
- 40 tons of Luxury Goods, clearly marked with Imperial seals and signs. Apparently these would be used as gifts, reminding people of the wealth of the Imperium.
- 20 tons of Pharmaceuticals, clearly marked with Imperial seals and signs. This more humanitarian cargo would be to appease or curry favour with local worlds.
- 20 tons of Radioactives in heavy protective crates. With a wide range of uses such as medical, research or weaponry their intended use could only be guessed at.
- Two small strongboxes which were locked and looked to be difficult to get into.
Moving these out in to the normal cargo bays took a good two hours but that left the travellers time enough to complete the task.
The decision was made to have the Harriers, which still had not been detected, leave the treasure ship and head at speed to the gas giant to refuel and purify fuel in secret. In the meantime the treasure ship would jump to Sink, the only world within jump-1 that the ship could reach.
After all astrogation calculations were complete the ship jumped, leaving the Harriers to their fate.
Sink
Arriving in Sink the ship immediately headed for the planet to land. Just as last time they were here, the huge cranes and machinery near the starport reminded the crew that this strange outpost of an obscure religion dropped objects into the swamp. Whether as atonement or to appease one or more gods the party had not yet established.
The Senior Brother in Charge of Star Ports welcomed them, but did not seem to recognise them. They asked for their huge ship to be refueled, to which he went white but nodded and quickly gathered together some novices to commence the task of manually refueling the ship.
The crew looked anxiously towards the sky, not expecting to see the Harriers before the sensor operators did, but it seemed to help.
Eventually, 40 hours after the treasure ship arrived, the Harriers radioed in that they had arrived. A slight altercation with some fighters that got too close was brushed off as inconsequential and that any damage was purely superficial.
Two Harriers landed, leaving one in orbit to provide better sensors cover for those on the ground. These were given refueling priority. As soon as one Harrier on the ground was refueled, it went up and took station while the orbiting Harrier landed for its refueling.
A day or so later, after the Harriers had been refueled and the monks resumed fueling the treasure ship, the orbiting Harrier picked up the arrival jump signature that turned out to be an Imperial Navy escort. Whether this was the same one that they detected around the gas giant they did not know.
The Imperial ship started in towards the planet and the decision was made to immediately launch the treasure ship and Harriers as they would be detected easily once the escort got close.Rather than be fired on from above, the only plan that made sense was to head towards safety.
As the treasure ship lumbered up out of the atmosphere the Imperial ship got closer. Suddenly it veered off directly towards the orbiting Harrier, and fired two particle cannons. The ship was damaged, and the crew took some radiation damage, but they responded, hitting the escort with their single particle cannon. The damage done was less that the two that hit them, but for whatever reason the radiation damage was much higher, and the escort's crew was clearly affected. No further shots were fired from the escort as it spiraled slowly down to the planet.
As the treasure ship lumbered up out of the atmosphere the Imperial ship got closer. Suddenly it veered off directly towards the orbiting Harrier, and fired two particle cannons. The ship was damaged, and the crew took some radiation damage, but they responded, hitting the escort with their single particle cannon. The damage done was less that the two that hit them, but for whatever reason the radiation damage was much higher, and the escort's crew was clearly affected. No further shots were fired from the escort as it spiraled slowly down to the planet.
With the damage on the orbiting Harrier causing a little concern the decision was made to land again, leaving a fresh Harrier in orbit once again. On landing the damage was assessed and found to be repairable. Refueling was competed and the ships prepared to take off.
Suddenly the party had a thought. The treasure ship would be a tremendous liability, but what if they sank it in the swamp? After quickly agreeing to this course of action they hired some storage space at the spaceport and offloaded all the Advanced Electronics, Advanced Machine Parts and Pharmaceuticals put them in the storage area. The remaining plunder was split among the Harriers except the mail drums that were left on board the treasure ship.
Then Sparrow grinned terribly. What if the captain went down with the ship? The rest of the party thought about it and eventually agreed. The captain was drugged into unconsciousness and placed in the captains chair while the treasure ship was put down at a spot agreed with the monks. The party watched it sink below the surface, and the monks cheered.
Quickly boarding the ships they chose Paal as their next destination.
To be continued...
Saturday 22 September 2018
(Navy characters) The fleet draws near
The punitive fleet headed closer to the Trojan Reaches. Next stop was Palindrome, a non-Imperial world.
Palindrome
At Palindrome the fleet remained in orbit as it refueled, but crew were allowed shore leave for 24 hours. The four friends arranged to have the same time off, and met at the launch where they had an amazing view of the planet as they came down to land at the only city on Palindrome.
There they found that many shops and businesses were closed, and there was a feeling that something was not quite right. Asking the barman of one of the only open bars neat the downport, they found out that the ruler of the planet, a Lady Yemar, had not been seen for some time. The populace feared her dead and while her council were still nominally in charge, many people had decided to shut up shop and even prepare to leave the planet.
The relative shortage of places to go meant the friends were forced to travel deep into the city to find a relatively quiet cantina where they could talk and drink and get some food.
Once finished they enquired about accommodation and were directed to a nice establishment nearby where they slept in real beds for a change before returning to the ship the next morning.
Boulder
Admiral Krond had arranged for a fuel dump to be set up in the Boulder system, and as the fleet arrived they noticed a small free trader siphoning off some fuel from the enormous tanks. The friends were on a picket ship, well in advance of the rest of the fleet, and were ordered to destroy the free trader.
The captain of the picket was less than impressed, but ordered that the guns be fired. Unfortunately the shot just missed, by choice or accident could not be told, and the trader fled. The captain sarcastically admonished the gunner.
Exocet
The next planet was Exocet, in which system an Aslan merchant fleet was detected, among which one ship was identified as having attacked an imperial registered free trader a number of years ago. It was destroyed, which caused some consternation on the fleet ships as that was a clear breach of the peace between the Aslan Hierate and Imperium.
As the fleet was jumping out a problem with a pump caused the flagship to be delayed by a few hours.
Arunisiir
As soon as they arrived in Arunisiir the rumour spread that a treasure ship had been here not long ago, and had suffered a disastrous jump drive explosion. Also three imperial ships went missing at the same time, so foul play was assumed.
Luckily for the treasure ship some small military vessels from a nearby system called Drinax had come and were persuaded out of respect for the Imperium to help the treasure ship reach its destination. Rumour had it that a retired admiral of the Imperial Navy was with them which meant that they were at least not going to be entirely useless.
The general feeling on the fleet was that at the very least the Drinax ships could be used as cannon fodder by the treasure ship - useless on the whole and expendable, but at least anything attacking the treasure ship would be distracted by the additional ships. They had left not long ago. It seemed that the final destination of the treasure ship was the same as the fleet - Byrni.
Palindrome
At Palindrome the fleet remained in orbit as it refueled, but crew were allowed shore leave for 24 hours. The four friends arranged to have the same time off, and met at the launch where they had an amazing view of the planet as they came down to land at the only city on Palindrome.
There they found that many shops and businesses were closed, and there was a feeling that something was not quite right. Asking the barman of one of the only open bars neat the downport, they found out that the ruler of the planet, a Lady Yemar, had not been seen for some time. The populace feared her dead and while her council were still nominally in charge, many people had decided to shut up shop and even prepare to leave the planet.
The relative shortage of places to go meant the friends were forced to travel deep into the city to find a relatively quiet cantina where they could talk and drink and get some food.
Once finished they enquired about accommodation and were directed to a nice establishment nearby where they slept in real beds for a change before returning to the ship the next morning.
Boulder
Admiral Krond had arranged for a fuel dump to be set up in the Boulder system, and as the fleet arrived they noticed a small free trader siphoning off some fuel from the enormous tanks. The friends were on a picket ship, well in advance of the rest of the fleet, and were ordered to destroy the free trader.
The captain of the picket was less than impressed, but ordered that the guns be fired. Unfortunately the shot just missed, by choice or accident could not be told, and the trader fled. The captain sarcastically admonished the gunner.
Exocet
The next planet was Exocet, in which system an Aslan merchant fleet was detected, among which one ship was identified as having attacked an imperial registered free trader a number of years ago. It was destroyed, which caused some consternation on the fleet ships as that was a clear breach of the peace between the Aslan Hierate and Imperium.
As the fleet was jumping out a problem with a pump caused the flagship to be delayed by a few hours.
Arunisiir
As soon as they arrived in Arunisiir the rumour spread that a treasure ship had been here not long ago, and had suffered a disastrous jump drive explosion. Also three imperial ships went missing at the same time, so foul play was assumed.
Luckily for the treasure ship some small military vessels from a nearby system called Drinax had come and were persuaded out of respect for the Imperium to help the treasure ship reach its destination. Rumour had it that a retired admiral of the Imperial Navy was with them which meant that they were at least not going to be entirely useless.
The general feeling on the fleet was that at the very least the Drinax ships could be used as cannon fodder by the treasure ship - useless on the whole and expendable, but at least anything attacking the treasure ship would be distracted by the additional ships. They had left not long ago. It seemed that the final destination of the treasure ship was the same as the fleet - Byrni.
Tech-World acting classes
While the treasure ship made its way towards the Tech-World system, the crew searched the ship to see what they had to use or sell.
Checking through the ships lockers and armoury the following were found 8 stunners, 20 snub pistols, 20 vacc-suits, 20 flak jackets, 4 battle dress, and 5 PGMP-13 heavy weapons.
The ships safe was found to contain 320KCr as well as formal letters to demand access, passage and fuel typical of an Imperial Navy ship. Going through the crew quarters an array of personal possessions and clothing was found, of which about 150KCr was money or easily traded items. In the machine shop and engineering bay was about 34KCr worth of spare parts and tools.
Gathering up uniforms and ID cards the crew decided that they would imitate the navy crew as closely as possible, at least on Tech-World. Slayed would play Captain Torsa, but would hope to be protected from the limelight by First Officer Jagad who would act as liaison. Similarly Unter would be in battle dress with Marine Commander insignia and be playing Commander Harc, and Lady Nitrane would play the part of a generic crewman as assistant medical officer, there not being any female crew left in the officers ranks that she could easily pull off.
In the cargo hold was found 120 tons of Dust Spice, 100 tons of Advanced Electronics, and 100 tons of Advanced Manufactured Goods. The cargo manifest was found which could be used to sell the goods if need be.
The treasure ship emerged from jump in the Tech-World system and scanned for the Harriers. Not detecting them the ship proceeded to the planet and demanded a docking bay. There it was met by spaceport personnel and a delegation of scientists, some of whom were still filing in when the ship came to a halt and shut down engines.
Looking down at the reception committee, the party identified some of the scientists as those they had met before, and so Slayed was reluctant to emerge from the ship. Jagad was insistent however that to not greed the welcoming delegation would be highly suspicious. To allay fears she said she would do all the talking and hopefully they would pass without notice.
Unfortunately for the party plans, as they were introduced, Dr Gerret Hodal went wide eyed almost immediately but kept his mouth shut. His strange reaction got Archon Dreek to look closer and he then raised an eyebrow in recognition. None of the other scientists seemed to have noticed them.
Following the introductions a discrete meeting was set up with the two scientists and at that Jagad made it clear that she knew that they knew that they knew each other, or something, and so any pretense was dropped and the party admitted that they'd come into possession of the ship and were trying to open the vault.
It struck the party that perhaps the experts on Tech-World could open the vault, and some time was spent going over how it opened and what could be done. The scientists determined that it would almost certainly could be opened but they would need to put considerable computer power into it as the astrogation computer would need to be fooled into thinking that it had jumped to the right system, and what's more that the star systems matched exactly to prove its location.
The party decided that while it would be a good fall-back position they didn't have the time to sit here at the moment. The talk turned to what the travellers had promised to the scientists, and as a gesture of goodwill the scientists were gifted 25 tons of Advanced Electronics. They remained hopeful that their agreement would come to fruition as they wished to be free of the GeDeCo who controlled the spaceport.
As Slayed, Nitrane and Unter returned to the ship they were informed that the Harriers had just arrived in system and were hailing them. Glad to be reunited it was arranged for them to be berthed adjacent to the treasure ship.
To be continued...
Checking through the ships lockers and armoury the following were found 8 stunners, 20 snub pistols, 20 vacc-suits, 20 flak jackets, 4 battle dress, and 5 PGMP-13 heavy weapons.
The ships safe was found to contain 320KCr as well as formal letters to demand access, passage and fuel typical of an Imperial Navy ship. Going through the crew quarters an array of personal possessions and clothing was found, of which about 150KCr was money or easily traded items. In the machine shop and engineering bay was about 34KCr worth of spare parts and tools.
Gathering up uniforms and ID cards the crew decided that they would imitate the navy crew as closely as possible, at least on Tech-World. Slayed would play Captain Torsa, but would hope to be protected from the limelight by First Officer Jagad who would act as liaison. Similarly Unter would be in battle dress with Marine Commander insignia and be playing Commander Harc, and Lady Nitrane would play the part of a generic crewman as assistant medical officer, there not being any female crew left in the officers ranks that she could easily pull off.
In the cargo hold was found 120 tons of Dust Spice, 100 tons of Advanced Electronics, and 100 tons of Advanced Manufactured Goods. The cargo manifest was found which could be used to sell the goods if need be.
The treasure ship emerged from jump in the Tech-World system and scanned for the Harriers. Not detecting them the ship proceeded to the planet and demanded a docking bay. There it was met by spaceport personnel and a delegation of scientists, some of whom were still filing in when the ship came to a halt and shut down engines.
Looking down at the reception committee, the party identified some of the scientists as those they had met before, and so Slayed was reluctant to emerge from the ship. Jagad was insistent however that to not greed the welcoming delegation would be highly suspicious. To allay fears she said she would do all the talking and hopefully they would pass without notice.
Unfortunately for the party plans, as they were introduced, Dr Gerret Hodal went wide eyed almost immediately but kept his mouth shut. His strange reaction got Archon Dreek to look closer and he then raised an eyebrow in recognition. None of the other scientists seemed to have noticed them.
Following the introductions a discrete meeting was set up with the two scientists and at that Jagad made it clear that she knew that they knew that they knew each other, or something, and so any pretense was dropped and the party admitted that they'd come into possession of the ship and were trying to open the vault.
It struck the party that perhaps the experts on Tech-World could open the vault, and some time was spent going over how it opened and what could be done. The scientists determined that it would almost certainly could be opened but they would need to put considerable computer power into it as the astrogation computer would need to be fooled into thinking that it had jumped to the right system, and what's more that the star systems matched exactly to prove its location.
The party decided that while it would be a good fall-back position they didn't have the time to sit here at the moment. The talk turned to what the travellers had promised to the scientists, and as a gesture of goodwill the scientists were gifted 25 tons of Advanced Electronics. They remained hopeful that their agreement would come to fruition as they wished to be free of the GeDeCo who controlled the spaceport.
As Slayed, Nitrane and Unter returned to the ship they were informed that the Harriers had just arrived in system and were hailing them. Glad to be reunited it was arranged for them to be berthed adjacent to the treasure ship.
To be continued...
Thursday 13 September 2018
The girl with the portable plasma gun
The captain was being escorted across the hangar by Lady Nitrane. Slayed, Sparrow and Goff waited next to the two marines at the elevator that led into the belly of the treasure ship. As the captain approached the camera panned down to see Slayed's hands flex next to a holstered laser pistol.
The captain arrived and asked what Slayed had to say. The admiral suggested that they move to the captain's office to discuss in more privacy which the captain agreed with. They moved to enter the ship but as the elevator door opened First Officer Jagad emerged, much to the surprise of those waiting.
Jagad smiled warmly at Nitrane but then turned to Slayed and said that she wanted a word in private. She then addressed the Marines and ordered that Marine Salvesdes should accompany the captain and his guests up to his office while she spoke to Slayed.
Nitrane, Sparrow and Slayed exchanged glances, not entirely sure how to react. Was there a reason why she picked Salvesdes, the one person they wanted to speak to about the sabotage on the ship, to accompany them? And why did she want to speak to Slayed now, and why him and not Nitrane?
With options being limited the others slowly filed into the elevator and the doors closed.
Jagad walked a little way away from the last marine and turned to Slayed and looked him in the eye. She handed him her communicator and said "I know what you are doing. Take me with you." Slayed was shocked. She nodded at the communicator and said "I've been listening to Nitrane and I know what's happening. I can make this easier for you, but I want 10% of the contents of the vault."
Slayed blustered and tried to haggle down to 3% but Jagad was unmoved and Slayed had no good reason not to give her what she asked for - the travellers could do with the help. She admitted she had no idea what was in the vault, so the outcome could be 10% of nothing. She added "I want to join your crew. You need a proper First Officer." As she interpreted acceptance in Slayed's face she turned and started walking back to the treasure ship, saying over her shoulder "we can discuss my salary later."
Jagad approached the elevator and entered, ushering Slayed in. She told him that she needed to make a quick stop and got out on the crew level and headed to the marine barracks. There she opened the armoury and selected a large weapon, then walked past Slayed back to the elevator. Slayed looked around for a weapon but decided to keep what he had. He drew the pistol.
As they ascended to the top desk Jagad said to Slayed "I hope you don't mind admiral but I would like to take the lead." Slayed nodded. They emerged on the bridge deck and just before turning the corner Jagad lent her weapon against the wall, just within reach.
In the captain's office he captain and Nitrane were engaged in conversation about what his plans were for after the trip. Goff and Sparrow were standing awkwardly nearby and Marine Salvesdes was standing to attention near the door.
Jagad acknowledged the captain but immediately turned to the marine and reprimanded him for carrying such a large weapon. She demanded that he hand it to her and he reluctantly agreed. With the weapon in hand she said "Captain, I charge Marine Salvesdes with treason. He was behind the sabotage." Salvesdes immediately growled and moved towards Jagad but she fired. He stumbled back but kept coming. Sparrow reacted and shot the marine with his laser pistol but unlike Jagad's plasma cannon the laser pistol barely scratched the battle dress. Salvesdes moved towards the first officer again so she fired. Salvesdes fell to the floor dead.
Jagad dropped the gun and turned to the captain who was gawping at the dead marine and seemed unable to move. He made odd noises. Jagad said "Captain I charge you with incompetence. You have taken this ship into unnecessary danger." She reached behind her and produced some restraints. "Admiral, would you please restrain the captain."
The captain did not put up any fight, shocked as he was. Jagad pushed him towards the toilet in his office and pushed him in, after checking him for communicators, weapons or any other item that might prove useful to escape.
Jagad then turned to Slayed and said "Captain the ship is yours" and saluted. Slayed saluted back.
Over the next few minutes she showed the travellers the codes to activate the consoles and the ship, and ensured they were all entered as senior officers. Nitrane went and got some tranquillisers and put the captain to sleep, just to be sure. Slayed informed the Harriers that he had control of the ship and that they should likewise prepare to leave - something they were ready to do.
All crew on board were those that Slayed had hired - Jagad had seen to that - and they were told to make the ship ready to depart immediately. O'Leary and Ilin were contacted and found to be very inebriated, especially Ilin. Talis in the engineering bay was alert and helped Goff start the engines. The other gunner took up station to control the weapons in case they were needed.
Sparrow communicated with his contact and the doors opened and the atmospheric controls made a calm passage for the ships to fly out of the atmosphere. Reaching orbit the Harriers and treasure ship rendezvoused to move more crew over to the larger vessel. Engineers, marines and gunners moved across while Sparrow and Unter swapped places - Sparrow would captain the Harriers for the next leg of the trip while Unter would join Nitrane and Slayed on the treasure ship.
It was agreed that the Harriers would jump to Inurin where they would refuel before heading to Tech-World. The treasure ship, which had jump-3 worth of fuel would jump-2 to empty space before making the single jump to Tech-World, meeting up with the Harriers.
While the ships flew to the 100 diameter limit, Nitrane decided to go with Unter to check that the rest of the ship was clear. While checking out the upper cargo deck some noises got their attention as there should be no other crew on this deck. Deciding to split up to better find the source of the noise, Unter turned a corner and saw someone else in battle dress, who fired a heavy energy weapon at Unter, wounding him. Unter fired back, hitting the assailant, then doubled back and jumped down a hatch to the lower deck.
Meanwhile Nitrane was passing the galley when she heard the shooting cease and herd heavy battle dress steps as someone ran towards her. Rather than wait for the unknown assailant to see her she jumped sideways into the galley and hid under a table.
By this time Slayed on the bridge was made aware of the shooting on the cargo decks and assigned four of his marines to double-time it to that location.
As Unter stood up he saw the other figure jump down the corresponding hatch across the other side of the ship. It was a clear shot along a corridor. If Unter didn't stop this person now even Unter's battle dress wouldn't save him. Unter fired off a desperate shot and luckily did enough damage to kill his attacker.
Cautiously approaching the body it was seen to be Commander Harc. The paranoid marine had decided to stay on the ship rather than visit the party.
With the ship now secure the jump was made to empty space while the Harriers, unaware of the excitement on the treasure ship made their jump to Inurin.
To be continued.
The captain arrived and asked what Slayed had to say. The admiral suggested that they move to the captain's office to discuss in more privacy which the captain agreed with. They moved to enter the ship but as the elevator door opened First Officer Jagad emerged, much to the surprise of those waiting.
Jagad smiled warmly at Nitrane but then turned to Slayed and said that she wanted a word in private. She then addressed the Marines and ordered that Marine Salvesdes should accompany the captain and his guests up to his office while she spoke to Slayed.
Nitrane, Sparrow and Slayed exchanged glances, not entirely sure how to react. Was there a reason why she picked Salvesdes, the one person they wanted to speak to about the sabotage on the ship, to accompany them? And why did she want to speak to Slayed now, and why him and not Nitrane?
With options being limited the others slowly filed into the elevator and the doors closed.
Jagad walked a little way away from the last marine and turned to Slayed and looked him in the eye. She handed him her communicator and said "I know what you are doing. Take me with you." Slayed was shocked. She nodded at the communicator and said "I've been listening to Nitrane and I know what's happening. I can make this easier for you, but I want 10% of the contents of the vault."
Slayed blustered and tried to haggle down to 3% but Jagad was unmoved and Slayed had no good reason not to give her what she asked for - the travellers could do with the help. She admitted she had no idea what was in the vault, so the outcome could be 10% of nothing. She added "I want to join your crew. You need a proper First Officer." As she interpreted acceptance in Slayed's face she turned and started walking back to the treasure ship, saying over her shoulder "we can discuss my salary later."
Jagad approached the elevator and entered, ushering Slayed in. She told him that she needed to make a quick stop and got out on the crew level and headed to the marine barracks. There she opened the armoury and selected a large weapon, then walked past Slayed back to the elevator. Slayed looked around for a weapon but decided to keep what he had. He drew the pistol.
As they ascended to the top desk Jagad said to Slayed "I hope you don't mind admiral but I would like to take the lead." Slayed nodded. They emerged on the bridge deck and just before turning the corner Jagad lent her weapon against the wall, just within reach.
In the captain's office he captain and Nitrane were engaged in conversation about what his plans were for after the trip. Goff and Sparrow were standing awkwardly nearby and Marine Salvesdes was standing to attention near the door.
Jagad acknowledged the captain but immediately turned to the marine and reprimanded him for carrying such a large weapon. She demanded that he hand it to her and he reluctantly agreed. With the weapon in hand she said "Captain, I charge Marine Salvesdes with treason. He was behind the sabotage." Salvesdes immediately growled and moved towards Jagad but she fired. He stumbled back but kept coming. Sparrow reacted and shot the marine with his laser pistol but unlike Jagad's plasma cannon the laser pistol barely scratched the battle dress. Salvesdes moved towards the first officer again so she fired. Salvesdes fell to the floor dead.
Jagad dropped the gun and turned to the captain who was gawping at the dead marine and seemed unable to move. He made odd noises. Jagad said "Captain I charge you with incompetence. You have taken this ship into unnecessary danger." She reached behind her and produced some restraints. "Admiral, would you please restrain the captain."
The captain did not put up any fight, shocked as he was. Jagad pushed him towards the toilet in his office and pushed him in, after checking him for communicators, weapons or any other item that might prove useful to escape.
Jagad then turned to Slayed and said "Captain the ship is yours" and saluted. Slayed saluted back.
Over the next few minutes she showed the travellers the codes to activate the consoles and the ship, and ensured they were all entered as senior officers. Nitrane went and got some tranquillisers and put the captain to sleep, just to be sure. Slayed informed the Harriers that he had control of the ship and that they should likewise prepare to leave - something they were ready to do.
All crew on board were those that Slayed had hired - Jagad had seen to that - and they were told to make the ship ready to depart immediately. O'Leary and Ilin were contacted and found to be very inebriated, especially Ilin. Talis in the engineering bay was alert and helped Goff start the engines. The other gunner took up station to control the weapons in case they were needed.
Sparrow communicated with his contact and the doors opened and the atmospheric controls made a calm passage for the ships to fly out of the atmosphere. Reaching orbit the Harriers and treasure ship rendezvoused to move more crew over to the larger vessel. Engineers, marines and gunners moved across while Sparrow and Unter swapped places - Sparrow would captain the Harriers for the next leg of the trip while Unter would join Nitrane and Slayed on the treasure ship.
It was agreed that the Harriers would jump to Inurin where they would refuel before heading to Tech-World. The treasure ship, which had jump-3 worth of fuel would jump-2 to empty space before making the single jump to Tech-World, meeting up with the Harriers.
While the ships flew to the 100 diameter limit, Nitrane decided to go with Unter to check that the rest of the ship was clear. While checking out the upper cargo deck some noises got their attention as there should be no other crew on this deck. Deciding to split up to better find the source of the noise, Unter turned a corner and saw someone else in battle dress, who fired a heavy energy weapon at Unter, wounding him. Unter fired back, hitting the assailant, then doubled back and jumped down a hatch to the lower deck.
Meanwhile Nitrane was passing the galley when she heard the shooting cease and herd heavy battle dress steps as someone ran towards her. Rather than wait for the unknown assailant to see her she jumped sideways into the galley and hid under a table.
By this time Slayed on the bridge was made aware of the shooting on the cargo decks and assigned four of his marines to double-time it to that location.
As Unter stood up he saw the other figure jump down the corresponding hatch across the other side of the ship. It was a clear shot along a corridor. If Unter didn't stop this person now even Unter's battle dress wouldn't save him. Unter fired off a desperate shot and luckily did enough damage to kill his attacker.
Cautiously approaching the body it was seen to be Commander Harc. The paranoid marine had decided to stay on the ship rather than visit the party.
With the ship now secure the jump was made to empty space while the Harriers, unaware of the excitement on the treasure ship made their jump to Inurin.
To be continued.
Sunday 2 September 2018
Child Support
Nitrane motioned for Henshaw to enter. The other woman looked quizzically back at Nitrane who motioned inwards as they entered a small room, then proceeded through the door ahead into a larger area.
Slayed stepped forward, addressing Henshaw by rank and asking her to follow him in to a conference room where they would have a little chat. She did so and as Slayed took up a position at the head of the table, he motioned for Henshaw to sit next to him. Nitrane sat next to Henshaw, as if to give suppose, while Unter and Sparrow stood either side of the door.
As Slayed started talking about the explosion on the ship, his conversation with Mechanic Talis about her boyfriend Falmer and his 'new beginnings' Henshaw buried her head in her hands and put her head on the table, shoulders heaving. Through the sobs they could head faintly "you have to help me".
Helshaw looked up, tears streaming down her face. She told the travellers that her daughter was in danger, and that she would tell them everything if they promised to keep her daughter safe. When the party agreed that they knew people who can help her, she looked relieved, and told her tale.
Some months ago people representing Hrol Irontooth, the Aslan pirate, found Henshaw's daughter at her boarding school on Cyan and threatened to kill the daughter if Henshaw did not perform a task for the pirate. She agreed very reluctantly, and only because her daughter was the only important thing in her life. The task was to help the treasure ship jump into Hrol Irontooth's ambush.
The ship left Pax Rulin and on board were two others that worked for the pirate: Felmar and Salvesdes. The former a member of the pirate's crew, and the latter somehow involved, although Henshaw did not know how.
The plan was for the three onboard to lay low until Arunisiir. At that point the convoy that the treasure ship was part of was going to jump to Tech-World next. Unknown to the captain, Henshaw would calculate jump coordinates for Exe and Felmar would enter them directly into the jump drives just before the jump. If it worked the treasure ship would jump on its own to exactly where Irontooth was waiting and could pick over it at his leisure.
Things did not go to plan. Felmar was discovered trying to input the coordinates directly into the drive and instead tried to make the ship misjump by tampering with the fuel injection. This caused the explosion that damaged the drives and the treasure ship had to do an emergency landing back on Arunisiir. The convoy went on its way but one escort stayed behind to protect the treasure ship while a repair ship was sent for.
Henshaw could not admit to any involvement, as any failure would mean the death of her daughter as well as a court-martial. Salvesdes, who had only been involved as some kind of protection now took charge and changed the plan to have him install the jump coordinates into the astrogation computer on the bridge as the ship was preparing to jump.
The travellers listed to the story and exchanged glances. They had discovered the cause of the explosion, but they would need to act - or prevent others from acting - if they wanted the ship for themselves.
It was agreed that Henshaw would not return to the ship - she was fearful that Salvesdes would find out that she'd told someone, and so a crew member was assigned to shadow her as she stayed in the hotel. Henshaw would then board one of the Harriers closer to departure time.
In the meantime the party considered what to do in order to be able to hijack the treasure ship and take it for themselves. Slayed considered the crew he'd spoken to and thought some might be amenable to signing up with the Drinaxians, either because they'd expressed some disquiet about the navy, or had shown some interest in working for him in the future. These included O'Leary and Ilin, as well as Mechanic Talis.
Lady Nitrane devised a plan to have most of the crew on shore by arranging another huge party, this time with essentially unlimited tab (25,000 Cr). It would be held the following night. Sparrow kept up his relationship with the technician who could open the doors and trigger the atmosphere protections to get the ships off planet. And Unter would devise plans for taking out the marines on duty and taking over the ship if it turned out that there were hostiles on board.
The following day was the day that the heist would take place. Henshaw was brought to the Harriers, The party was arranged and advertised to all the crew. The individuals that Slayed had spoken to would be arriving shortly after the start of the party to see if they were interested in joining the travellers immediately, and Captain Torsa was invited to a meeting on his ship to discuss findings about the investigation. Tranquillisers were mentioned but also shooting.
To crew the ship, Slayed would take Sparrow and Goff on board, supposedly to help explain the investigation outcomes. The rest of the crew would consist of the navy crew that had decided to join with Slayed.
SITUATION:
To be continued.
Slayed stepped forward, addressing Henshaw by rank and asking her to follow him in to a conference room where they would have a little chat. She did so and as Slayed took up a position at the head of the table, he motioned for Henshaw to sit next to him. Nitrane sat next to Henshaw, as if to give suppose, while Unter and Sparrow stood either side of the door.
As Slayed started talking about the explosion on the ship, his conversation with Mechanic Talis about her boyfriend Falmer and his 'new beginnings' Henshaw buried her head in her hands and put her head on the table, shoulders heaving. Through the sobs they could head faintly "you have to help me".
Helshaw looked up, tears streaming down her face. She told the travellers that her daughter was in danger, and that she would tell them everything if they promised to keep her daughter safe. When the party agreed that they knew people who can help her, she looked relieved, and told her tale.
Some months ago people representing Hrol Irontooth, the Aslan pirate, found Henshaw's daughter at her boarding school on Cyan and threatened to kill the daughter if Henshaw did not perform a task for the pirate. She agreed very reluctantly, and only because her daughter was the only important thing in her life. The task was to help the treasure ship jump into Hrol Irontooth's ambush.
The ship left Pax Rulin and on board were two others that worked for the pirate: Felmar and Salvesdes. The former a member of the pirate's crew, and the latter somehow involved, although Henshaw did not know how.
The plan was for the three onboard to lay low until Arunisiir. At that point the convoy that the treasure ship was part of was going to jump to Tech-World next. Unknown to the captain, Henshaw would calculate jump coordinates for Exe and Felmar would enter them directly into the jump drives just before the jump. If it worked the treasure ship would jump on its own to exactly where Irontooth was waiting and could pick over it at his leisure.
Things did not go to plan. Felmar was discovered trying to input the coordinates directly into the drive and instead tried to make the ship misjump by tampering with the fuel injection. This caused the explosion that damaged the drives and the treasure ship had to do an emergency landing back on Arunisiir. The convoy went on its way but one escort stayed behind to protect the treasure ship while a repair ship was sent for.
Henshaw could not admit to any involvement, as any failure would mean the death of her daughter as well as a court-martial. Salvesdes, who had only been involved as some kind of protection now took charge and changed the plan to have him install the jump coordinates into the astrogation computer on the bridge as the ship was preparing to jump.
The travellers listed to the story and exchanged glances. They had discovered the cause of the explosion, but they would need to act - or prevent others from acting - if they wanted the ship for themselves.
It was agreed that Henshaw would not return to the ship - she was fearful that Salvesdes would find out that she'd told someone, and so a crew member was assigned to shadow her as she stayed in the hotel. Henshaw would then board one of the Harriers closer to departure time.
In the meantime the party considered what to do in order to be able to hijack the treasure ship and take it for themselves. Slayed considered the crew he'd spoken to and thought some might be amenable to signing up with the Drinaxians, either because they'd expressed some disquiet about the navy, or had shown some interest in working for him in the future. These included O'Leary and Ilin, as well as Mechanic Talis.
Lady Nitrane devised a plan to have most of the crew on shore by arranging another huge party, this time with essentially unlimited tab (25,000 Cr). It would be held the following night. Sparrow kept up his relationship with the technician who could open the doors and trigger the atmosphere protections to get the ships off planet. And Unter would devise plans for taking out the marines on duty and taking over the ship if it turned out that there were hostiles on board.
The following day was the day that the heist would take place. Henshaw was brought to the Harriers, The party was arranged and advertised to all the crew. The individuals that Slayed had spoken to would be arriving shortly after the start of the party to see if they were interested in joining the travellers immediately, and Captain Torsa was invited to a meeting on his ship to discuss findings about the investigation. Tranquillisers were mentioned but also shooting.
To crew the ship, Slayed would take Sparrow and Goff on board, supposedly to help explain the investigation outcomes. The rest of the crew would consist of the navy crew that had decided to join with Slayed.
SITUATION:
- The captain is arriving now. Slayed, Goff and Sparrow are waiting at the bottom of the ramp to the ship. Lady Nitrane is at the top of the ramp.
- All 'newly hired' crew are on board the treasure ship and are preparing for what is about to happen.
- The Harriers are prepped and ready to leave, just needing to start up.
- Unter is ready in the cargo bay of one Harrier with half a dozen marines. It is hoped they are not needed.
- The party is in full swing, and it is expected that nearly all crew are there, however it is unknown how many are on the treasure ship at this time in addition to those arranged.
To be continued.
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