Iron Stars - karre

"Claire Buchanon" the name repeats once again as the bounty chit is inserted into your compad. It is quiet here on Kamal now that the prison riots have become prison settlements, and both prisoner and guard have come together to try to live in a post shaper universe. Initial days were a bit ugly, old scores were settled, but quickly an amnesty panel was formed. Discussions were had, and now friendships have been formed between two groups of people who would have gladly shanked one another for a hot meal in the past. A stroke of luck, it seems an escape shuttle containing members of the Cooperative nobility crashed on the planet somewhere. They cannot leave, but there is a vast wilderness of desert they're hiding in. Finding them , transmitting the bounty, and salving the wreck would be a massive change in circumstance.

Karre’s brows raise as he reads the name. He pulls up an old document in his compad that had the old noble houses on them, and recognizes the scion of House Buchanan. He also sees a note on the family referencing a news article about Operation Noble Sweep, and a son of the Buchanans being involved in the killing of bystanders. “Figures that even when they try to do right, they still get it wrong,” he says to himself. He’s tucked away in an alcove between old prison buildings, sprawled across some old crates and using his kit bag as an awkward pillow. He had been worried that he’d soon die of boredom or at the hands of belligerent bar patrons. There was still a sore bruise he absently rubbed on his cheek from the other night. Stretching, Karre stands to gather his gear. First things first, he’d need to secure transportation and supplies for the trip to the desert.

Outside you hear a backfire as a small engine outside does not activate correctly. You know a man here named Slick runs a small rental for bikes and other methods of getting across the wasteland quickly.

Bag slung across his shoulder, he makes his way over to Slick’s shop. “Slick!” Karre calls over the faltering engine, “I need a ride! Something to get me out to the deserts and won’t quit on me like those cheap scooters you rent to people you don’t like.” (edited)

"Like you?" you hear him laugh from the back of the shop. In prison, Slick was one of the more trusted inmates, allowed to work with tools and help the guards in their small machine shop. He was a loud and gregarious man, skin darkened to the color of glistening pitch by the desert sun and natural genetics. His eyes are a piercing blue, the kind that hold your attention if you look at them for more than a few minutes. "Nonsense, nonsense. Welcome Karre. How are things? You sounds like a man who's on a job?"

With a laugh and one fingered salute, Karre responds, “Little bit of a job, little bit of revenge. It’s out in the wastes. I’ll need something that has the range and carry enough supplies. Also, any leads you might have on a pilot or a mechanic.”

(Is this looking for a hench person? )

(Yeah looks like. I’ll need someone to fly me around and probably fix up the shuttle. Which’ll be useful long term, too)

(A pilot would have fix too, so we can try to find someone)

10:28 AM

"My brother's back in town , might be able to help you there, h'es a good person behind the sticks"

Karre ponders for a moment, “Think he’d be willing to leave the planet if it came to it? Mind forwarding me his contact info?”

"If you can find a way off. He was on the other side of the desert trying to help those max-security bastards get their own bikes up and running. Apparently most of the problems over there sorted themselves out and we're going to have neighbors instead of raiders. He's in town though, probably at the jail quartermaster right now trading whatever he brought back"

"I'll have to go track him down. He as ugly as you? Because he won't be hard to find if that's the case. You got bikes for us when we leave? How much will it run me?" Karre resists the urge to pull out his compad and count his meager savings.

"You get my brother involved and its free. I'll have one ready in a couple hours. Sand in the filters like this , takes a long time to remove"

“You got it, Slick. See you in a few hours.” Karre adjusts the bag on his shoulder, the well worn straps settling with a familiar pressure. A quick reference of the town’s map on his pad orients himself to the location of the quartermaster’s shop and he begins walking in that direction.

The quartermaster has taken over the prison armory and in addition to the weapons there also has a handful of trade goods on hand. The space is cool and damp which are two qualities that make it very attractive .

Karre stands near the threshold for a few beats before continuing in to the shop. “Hey, hoss, I’m looking for Slick’s brother,” he says to the quartermaster, “got a job for him.”

Theres a bump in the back of the store room and you hear someone shouting. “Back here! Just picking a few things out “

Karre steps past the display racks to the rear of the shop. When he lays eyes on the individual he nods and says, "Karre Mondragon; are you Slick's brother?"

“Hes still using that stupid name is he? Yeah. That’s me. Sludge. Nice to meet you”

One of his eyebrows raise at the comment and name but Karre chooses to not address it. Instead he says, “Likewise. I was told you’re a pilot and know which end of a wrench to hold. If that’s true, you’re the man I’m looking for to help me with a job out in the desert. Crashed shuttle full of people that the NMC would pay handsomely to know that they won’t be a potential problem for the Cooperative any more. Plus, it might be our ticket off this rock if we can fix the shuttle up.”

"A shuttle, and revenge?" You sense you've got his interest. "I was thinking about it before, but I'm on board now. Are those all the details you have?"

“I know there’s a good chance of some gunplay once we find them, and that it’s not exactly dissuading me from going out into the desert. I also know the name of one person on the shuttle. Head of the Buchanan family.” Karre waits to see if that illicits a response from Sludge.

"Not the king, the family, then" he says slowly. You can almost hear the wheels turning.

“Claire Buchanan. I’d like this planet to be where she finds her end. It seems vaguely poetic. Do you want to help me?”

"More than anything. What do you need? I've got a bit of credit here at the quartermaster"

“Glad to hear it. We’ll need enough supplies for a week at least in the desert. Water, food, clothing, and fuel. Additionally, you’ll need a weapon and some armor if you don’t have any. Your brother said he’d hook us up with a ride as long as you came along so we’re set there. Also any maps of the area if you can find them so we keep our way.” (I feel dumb asking now, but does the bounty chit specify alive or dead? Obviously Karre and Sludge want her dead but it’d suck to not get paid if we kill her lol)

10:20 AM

“Plus any spare parts you think we might need for the shuttle. I don’t know why it crashed, so I have no clue as to what we might need to fix. Failing that, some way to camouflage it if we have to return here unexpectedly.”

(Alive, or dead with proof)

10:34 AM

(dealer's choice how they come in)

10:37 AM

"I'm seeing this as two parts. We handle the bounty first, access the shuttle, and then go back with the parts. We're going to need more than just you and me to fly it anyway"

Karre considers, “That works for me. For payment, you and I will each take a third. The other goes towards funds for the shuttle repair and ongoing maintenance. Anything you want to contribute towards the shuttle after that is up to you. Let’s get our stuff together.” Karre begins assisting Sludge with gathering the supplies to take back to his brother so they can load up whatever vehicle they’ll have use of.

(He will loan you 500 in credit if you want to pick up anything for yourself)

(Shopping list: Stun baton x2 100cr Rations x14 70 cr Survival kit x2 120cr Pressure tent x1 100cr Binoculars TL3 x1 20cr 410cr total)

(All available. All set?)

(Hell yeah, let's mad max across the desert)

You['re surprised when Sludge pulls up with a battered but sturdy looking grav car. It's top has been cut away but the front wind screen wraps around and is tall, keeping the oncoming sand from getting into your faces or the cab. Gear is secured on the back seats under a tarp and you can see controls for a weapon system in the passenger seat- though it's not clear what weapon or weapons the vehicle might be packing.

7:46 AM

Canteens and other supplies are lashed to the sides of the car- all preparations made for a journey across the desert and against time

Karre can’t help but laugh, “You know, it’s crazy to me how back home this would be barely serviceable but out here it’s almost the height of sophistication. I owe your brother big for letting us use this. Let’s go kick some noble ass.” He doesn’t don his armor yet, but does make sure his rifle is within reach when he settles into the passenger seat. They head off in the general direction of where the shuttle was known to have come down, fully expecting that the search will become more precise as they get closer to the area.

The drive goes on for about a quarter of a day, stopping every half hour to stretch, calibrate the various scanners, and get some water. Sludge is methodical and seems entirely focused on getting this done as safely as possible. As you come to this most recent stop, there is a brief flicker on the bioscanner, before it goes silent again.

Karre appreciates the adherence to safety, especially since it allows him to doze for awhile. Right up until the alert on the bio scanner chimes. Initially he wants to dismiss it as a false positive but its been too long without some change in the routine. “Did you see that on the scanner? Let’s go give it a look. On foot to make it easier to sneak up on whatever triggered the scanner.”

He hefts his combat rifle and checks the magazine before giving you a nod. (sneak/dex)

Karre takes the time to don his combat armor before leading the way. (10)

You both begin creeping forward over a sand dune to find a wandering figure. He is wearing the remains of an NMC uniform though most of it has been turned into rags and he is clearly deleterious from water loss

8:48 PM

He laughs hysterically at some unknown joke to himself before going silent just as fast

(Does he look armed?)

(no)

“Let’s see if our friend over there remembers where the crash site is. No reason to be aggressive yet,” Karre says to Sludge in a low voice. “Stay here and watch my back. I’ll go talk to him.” Standing, Karre begins doing a hop-shuffle-slide down the sand dune. “Ho, friend! You look like you could use some help!” His rifle is slung and he’s waving towards the man.

He man turns towards you and gives you a wide smile. The entire right side of his face is covered in a massive burn, and he seems to not notice

“Ah,” Karre laughs nervously at the sight of the man’s face, “You ok, hoss? Where ya headed?”

"I think we crashed!" he says, pointing at the sky. His smile is missing many teeth

“Is that so…” Karre says slowly, uncomfortable with the seemingly unstable man, “where are your friends? They may need help.”

He shrugs, giving you his most earnest "I don't know" gesture, before he finally falls over into the sand.

Now it’s an ordeal, he thinks to himself. Karre scans the immediate area once more before walking over to the man to check for a pulse.

He has a pulse, but it is weak. He has been wandering wounded here for a long time, without support

Karre waves Sludge down. “Help me carry him back to the car. We’ll get him out of the heat and cooled off. That’s about the extent of my medical knowledge. Once he’s settled, let’s backtrack his direction of travel as best we can. It doesn’t have to be perfect if we can at least get into the general area.”

"He left prints too, but we might lose them if he's been wandering a while. Wind's picking up. You think we should try to follow?"

“I do. Let’s go now before we lose the tracks. I’d rather not squander our current best bet on finding where he originated from.” Karre, with Sludge’s help, hauls the strange man into the rear of the passenger compartment. He does his best to shade the man and allow wind from the drive to flow over him. He doesn’t have a medkit, and isn’t particularly interested in squandering what supplies they might be able to scrounge up on the stranger with a potential gunfight in their future.

(notice/wis)

(2)

1

The speeder begins moving off but the trail of foot prints is lost quickly after just a few hundred meters. The scanners are likewise quiet

Karre curses at the desert, “Fix on the bearing we were heading when we lost the tracks and we’ll continue that way for the rest of the day. If we don’t hit anything, we’ll reassess.”

Close to two hours later the scanner pings. It’s a metallic contact and very large

“Eureka!” Karre exclaims when the scanner alerts. “Let’s get within a couple Klicks and move in on foot.”

At 2km you can see the black smoke before you see the wreck, hidden on the other side of some dunes. The smoke is thin now, no longer from a raging fire, but it it signals to anyone around that something has crashed here. You're unsure who else might be in the area, having seen it.

“Let’s dismount and continue scouting on foot. Make sure you disable the controls and we’ll restrain our friend back there so he doesn’t suddenly wake up and decide to make a getaway. If we find anybody entrenched, we’ll fall back here and use the skimmer to take ‘em on. Any questions?”

"none from me" Sludge says, whapping your captive across the head with a pistol butt and knocking him out. "This one won't go anywhere"

Karre snorts, “I’d say I hope you didn’t just kill him, but…fuck it. Let’s go.” He grabs his kit and sets off, aiming for a circuitous route upwind from the crash site until they’re approaching from roughly perpendicular to their original direction of travel.

10:26 PM

(If we were driving from the west, I’d like to approach from the north basically)

Looking down into the bowl of desert after quite a bit of walking you see the site 500m away from your perch on the sand dunes. It looks like the survivors have not been idle. The wreck is being stripped of supplies and it looks like a battered floater ruck is being filled and fitted with a shade for their eventual journey across the sand to whatever shelter they think they can find. Three guards, a pilot and a noble who has done nothing but shout this entire time are down in the bowl, all arguing about the course of action ahead

(What kind of weapon does Sludge have?)

(combat rifle)

Karre checks to make sure the dying light is behind or to the side of them as he doesn’t want to give their position away by reflecting with his binoculars. He’ll then use them to try and see the Noble’s face more clearly in an attempt to positively identify their bounty before they make a move.

You do notice the target is Claire. She is angrily berating her men who look like they are on the verge of doing the job themselves.

Karre spends a moment contemplating. He eventually says, “Let’s shoot her first from here and wait to see how those guards react. They may not engage us if we kill her and leave them alive. I’m not really interested in getting into a shootout if we can avoid it.”

12:23 PM

(I know you’re not a huge fan of the execution shots but I think we’re in a good place to attempt one. Fully expect to have the guards begin to triangulate our location if they decide us killing her is worth getting revenge over.)

(oh no this is fine, it makes sense, they're 500m away so depoendig on our short/long range we might have penalties)

(I’m picturing this as a sort of bowl, with us on the lip 500m away. So if we were to get closer it’d be sort of downhill with nothing between us and them. Is that accurate?)

(yes correct)

(So combat rifles are 100/300, which means we’ll have to try and sneak up 200m to get to max range. If that’s the case, I’d like to wait until nightfall to hide our movements better)

(works for me, they're likewise disadvantaged)

“We wait for nightfall. If we’re lucky, she’ll still be outside where we can get close enough to shoot her. Otherwise, we get as close as we can before we go to work.” Karre settles more comfortably into the sand as he speaks, and pulls a cloth wrapped around his neck over his head to shield him from the setting sun.

(sneak/dex)

(7)

As darkness falls you begin the slow process of creeping closer to their camp. A fire has been lit and their picking through the shuttle has continued.

8:40 PM

None of the figures here seem to have noticed you

(Is it easy to make out who’s who? Is Claire leaving the camp for any reason, like to use the restroom or to get space from the others? That would be useful to grab her)

(We can wait to see if she does or we can try to make a reason for her to go. She’s not armored like the rest of them so even by shadow she would look different

“Draw a bead on someone armed,” Karre whispers, “I’ll do the same. We drop our targets and get to work on the rest. If it goes to shit, pull back and get to the car. I’ll circle around the opposite direction and meet you there.” (Execution shots on two of the guards.)

(just need the shoot/dex results for the both of you)\

(Is it a +2 for Sludge?)

(yeah, 1 from shoot and 1 from dex)

(Sludge: 6 Karre: 12)

(Sludge misses, were both shots at Clara?)

(Both at separate guards. Hoping Clara will run when the shooting starts and we’ll disengage to follow her.)

The guard selected by Karre falls, the better part of his brain and face splattering the inside of his helmet. There is no scream of alarm- Clara herself no stranger to combat. The other two guards and Clara adopt ambush positions, moving into cover and trying to fire back into the night- the fire playing havoc with their night vision. Their return fire into the darkness is disciplined but fired by the blind, and does not impact near you

Shit, guess she’s not like the other cowardly nobles I’ve seen in the past. He extends the distance between him and Sludge. He stops, calls out, “Throw down your weapons! We only want the noble!” And continues moving so that it doesn’t sound as if his voice was traveling. He hopes Sludge knows to push out the other direction. (10m movement clockwise from our position, stop to speak, finishes 10m clockwise movement. Want initiative rolls?) (edited)

(Yeah let’s get them)

7:46 PM

(Thanks for pausing )

(❤️)

7:48 PM

(Karre: 2 Sludge: 7? If he gets +1. It’s 6 if he doesn’t)

(Sludge, the guards, you, he doesnt get it but hes still first)

(Do you want me to control Sludge?)

(yeah that is fine by me, we have been this mission so far, may as well keep it going)

Sludge stays low as he hurriedly moves away from Karre. He hopes to split the fire from the group. He holds his fire, prepared to continue the fight if the enemy decides to try their chances against their assailants. (20m counterclockwise movement. Hold action, specifically for the guards or Clara to return fire. Whoever fires back, he’ll use his action to shoot at them.)

(if hes moving 20m thats his main and move so he can't hold any actions, as he's used his)

(Whoops my b. 10m movement then)

Pushing over, the guards begin firing trying to pinpoint the both of you , but firing into the darkness they're unable to draw a bead on you.

9:08 PM

(all misses)

Sludge fires his readied action as the guards engage the pair. (7/12)

10:48 PM

Karre mutters, “Couldn’t’ve been easy could it?” He raises his rifle and returns fire at the guards.

10:48 PM

(14/9)

One of them falls leaving just Clara and her remaining guard. Shots go out into the darkness of night. Nothing comes close. (1 and a 3 hahaha)

3

(Hot damn!)

5:44 PM

Sludge stops his movement to avoid ending up directly across from Karre. He fires another burst at the remaining guard.

5:45 PM

(12/8)

Sludge almost hits his target but not quite. A puff of sand ejects skyward at the impact of the bullet

(Guards up?)

(I thought you were )

(Sludge, guards, Karre was the order you posted. I’m happy to go if I’m up! I know I messed up the rhythm by holding Sludge’s first action)

More shots punch into the night, as Clara and her last surviving bodyguard try to fend off the assault (miss and miss, did not break a 10)

Karre settles his sights on where he can see the guard silhouetted against the fire. He looses another burst at them.

6:44 PM

(10/14)

6:45 PM

(If that misses I’ll force the hit using the Warrior ability)

(it does miss, so we will mark the warrior ability as used)

7:59 PM

The last of the guards falls, leaving just clara alone against an unknown number of attackers. To her credit she grimly resolves to keep fighting

Sludge gives a mental shrug and moves up 10m before firing another burst at the noble. They’re there to kill her after all.

9:00 PM

(Damn these dice. It’s like the dragon fight all over again 7/11)

1

(7 for me too) A laser bolt glasses a patch of sand in front of Karre, as Clara continues shouting obscenities' into the darkness.

Karre moves towards Clara 10m. “Just stand up and let us kill you!” The yell tears at Karre’s throat, and he’s surprised at his own emotion. He fires another burst to punctuate the statement.

9:42 AM

(19/6)

Your wish is granted by the universe. The laser fire stops, and you see her hand stretch out from behind the wreckage pile where she had been covering. It is blood speckled, and not moving.

Karre says to Sludge, “I’ll move in and sweep the wreckage site. I think we’re still missing the pilot here.” He begins moving up, gun sweeping across the campsite looking for movement. He moves through the wreckage cautiously. He’ll confirm the guards are down and move their weapons out of reach. (edited)

The pilot is found about ten minutes later, cowering inside the cockpit. It looks like one of his legs has been broken and aside from some on scene field medicine, he is not in good shape. You can already see the limb is probably going to have to come off.

Karre keeps his weapon at the ready, purposefully not pointing it at the pilot. He asks, “Were you coerced into helping her or did you think you’d reap part of whatever benefits she’d find out here?”

“I was ordered to fly. I flew. The only thing they did was try to fix my leg, when they weren’t threatening me”

“We found another one of you in the desert. Was he a guard or a copilot?” Karre pulls out his comped while speaking with the pilot. He sends a quick text to Sludge directing him to go back and get the gravcar.

“My navigation officer was ejected before we hit the ground. Sucked out of the Hull breach. We thought no one could have lived hitting the ground that hard , so we didn’t go look for him “

1

“He was still alive before we started our attack here. If you’re willing, we’ll bring you back to the nearby settlement. They’ll have medical care for both of you, though I don’t know if we can save your leg.” He says the last part while awkwardly gesturing at the ruined limb. Karre takes time to look over the wreck, trying to get an idea if it’s at all salvageable, but suspecting he’ll have to wait for Sludge to put eyes on it.

1

Sludge is going to have to make an assessment but for his part the pilot quickly consents to getting medical care from you. He is close to the end of what he was going to be able to endure on his own,

“Sludge,” Karre says over the comlink, “you’ll need to make a quick assessment. We need to get these two back to town. We can come back once we drop them off. I’ll note the coordinates and get the photo and whatever else we need from the bounty for submission to the Guild.” Karre leaves the pilot in his growing agony to go find Clara’s body. He photographs her face for the bounty. (Do we need additional info from her? Like DNA or anything to prove we got her? I’m not really worried about someone finding her here since it looks like they’ve been here for awhile without anyone disturbing them.)

(Yeah we'd need proof of death, interpret that how you will)

Karre wraps Clara’s body in a blanket, intending to bring it back to the settlement with them. (Will there be a bounty hunter guild rep on planet? This is all new to me so I don’t know how we’d go about submitting it but I imagine Karre would know IC)

(Not a rep but a way to communicate the information to them back at the settlement, sicne they'll have a comm server)

Karre will pack up the body then. He may be at odds with her and what she stood for; but he’s not in the business of mutilating corpses.

(3xp, 5000 credits)

2

**Level Up**

Level: 2

Focus: Weapon Unity Lvl 2 (Gaining Fight as a new skill)

Old HP: 8

HP Roll: 13

New HP: 13

New Skills: Fight-0 (replaces Shoot-0, Punch- -1, Stab- -1; no skill points needed), Fight-1, Sneak-0

Current AB: +2

(edited)

Returning to the settlement you're able to get the bounty paid out. The guild appreciates your help in this delicate matter and will inform the Cooperative the problem has been handled. Your cooperation is also noted. Sludge thinks the shuttle can be repaired with some materials abundant here on the planet, but wants to keep the project somewhat quiet as not to invite some kind of riot or attempt on your lives so your spots on the craft go to someone else.

Karre stands outside of the settlement’s med center. He‘s focused on his compad and scrolls through the message from the Guild. One step closer to getting off this Screaming planet. The pilot and navigator were dropped off at the med center and he had been checking on their status to determine what personnel he might have available once the shuttle is repaired. He looks up from the ‘pad. Then sends a message to Sludge, ++Let’s meet at your brother’s garage and we can talk about our plans to get the parts needed. I’ll be there in ten.++

Sludge is waiting there when you finally show up, having kept a low profile since coming into town. He won't talk to anyone but you regarding what happened out in the wastes.

(Is there a monetary award for the bounty or is that just assumed to be part of the mission complete award? Trying to figure out how I pay Sludge) Karre waves at Sludge, gesturing him over to a vacant section of the garage. He glances around for any eavesdroppers before saying, “Alright, let’s breakdown what we need to get and who we need to get it from.”

(the mission compete reward is basically the bounty)

9:06 AM

(this wasnt one on the actual board, but the mission counts for rep too)

9:07 AM

"We need some instapanels, or metals I can make into materials there. We also need to get that pilot and navigator out of the sick bay before they babble to someone. The leg on the one of them is a problem"

Karre transfers 1667 cr to Sludge’s compad while they’re talking. “Do you think you’d be able to fly the shuttle without their help? Put it through Spike? I planned on convincing that pilot and navigator to help us at least get off the planet and then letting them kick rocks once we found a location for them that wasn’t so isolated. I’ll go by the sick bay again once we’re done here. See what I can do to convince the medics to expedite treatment.” He moves on to the other subject, “Instapanels are pretty simple to find elsewhere. I imagine we’ll clean out the quartermasters stores if we try to buy enough here. Do you know of any places that stores raw material?”

"We might need to find some ruins or one of the prisons that wasn't as lucky as we were. I think we're going to need at least the pilot so I've got someone to trade off with- someone has to be at the controls during a spike jump the entire time we're moving. "

“That’s what I was worried about. Let’s hit one of the prisons first. We have time before the pilot is ready, especially if they end up amputating and replacing with a prosthetic. You go buy some better armor at the quartermaster, and replace whatever supplies we used on the last trip. I’ll go bribe the medics.” Karre forwards some more money to Sludge to cover the additional expenses. Make money, spend money, he thinks. He’s worried that they’re likely hood of coming across agents of ill repute will increase if they go to one of the prisons and will feel safer in CFUs if the quartermaster has them. Otherwise the woven armor will have to do.

(The quartermaster does have a CFU)

(Fantastic, let’s buy it. We’ll keep Sludge in the woven armor for now until we can upgrade his, too.)

6:25 PM

(Is the closest prison marked on the map?)

(I dont remember, let me check the map if i even drew one and ill get back to you)

9:27 AM

(We dealt with Kamal briefly when Hagans first character was getting going, then he left and we never looked at the place again until right now)

9:27 AM

(okay this map is dogshit, im going to redo it)

9:34 AM

9:34 AM

(there we do, its the little village on the notrth side of the continent from where the garrison is, so its iconed but not labeled)

Karre assesses the map, “Do you need any time, or you ready to roll?”

"I think I'm alright to get going. This needs to happen as soon as possible. The more people who know about the crash the more claim jumpers we're going to need to fight off"

He takes a swig from his canteen, “I had considered hiring some guards for the crash site, but that seems more risky than just relying on the desert to hide it. If we hadn’t found the navigator, I doubt we would’ve found the site with any ease. Hopefully with Clara off the Bounty Boards, people will be less likely to go searching for her. Anyways,” Karre continues, “Let’s get loaded up and get to that prison. We can take turns dozing on the way if you need to rest up.”

“600k journey between here and there. I’ll drive first. Keep an eye on the scanners and we will see how things go”. With a feeble buzz , the vehicle begins to activate.

It takes him a few moments to find the perfect groove to sink into in the old craft’s worn seats; but he manages. Before long, Karre falls into a semi-meditative state watching the scanners update during their trip.

(If we'd just blow past whatever terrain features we generate in order to get to our destination I can abbreviate the trip and we can generate these some other time, does that fit better with what you want to do?)

(I think so. Neither Sludge nor Karre are particularly interested in sightseeing. Especially with an unknown time limit on how long until the wreck is discovered)

(works for me, kick me one D10 to see if we have an encounter but otherwise we're off!)

(3)

The desert is empty, inhospitable, and quiet. You hardly even see any animals as you push north towards the unnamed but marked settlement and the drive is sped up considerably by the vehicle. A green belt of sorts is ahead as the locals, whoever they are, have mastered using the nearby sea to make their stretch of desert into a place where life can sustain itself

Karre watches the green belt as they approach, “I wonder how they’re using the seawater for this? Is it fresh water or did they set up a desalination system?” After a minute he continues, “Do we go around or is this the settlement we’re looking for?”

"This is the place. Better we come open rather than get found sneaking around. Talking our way out of that hole might see us thrown in a real one. What do you think?"

“You’re probably right. Seems like honesty continues to be the best policy here. Let’s head on in towards the settlement to introduce ourselves and let them know we’ll be poking around the old prison.” Karre shifts in his seat to sit more upright so he’s more easily visible by bystanders. He keeps his rifle low and out of sight, though.

You get some stares as you enter the settlement but not many. People seem to largely be going about their business here but a car passing through town is a rare sight. The village has grown around the shell of what was once the prison, and its breached wall shows where the locals- once inmates - made their escape and decided to settle anew

Karre points at the wall, “Guess that’ll be our way in. ‘Spose we should stop at the town square and say hi before we go rooting around their property.”

He nods, and begins to power down the vehicle so you can do that, amid a small gathering crowd.

Karre clambers out of the vehicle, and stands up to his full height to wave at the gathered crowd. “Hello! My name is Karre and this is my friend Sludge. We’re here to do some exploring, and maybe take some souvenirs back to our home. Hope that won’t be an issue?” He’s left the rifle in the footwell, only armored in the CFU and his knife strapped to it. He hopes his smile is disarming enough.

They don’t seem to have a problem with you being here and want to know if you have anything for trade since you’re the first visitors they’ve had in a while

His smile falters as he speaks aside to Sludge, “Do w- do we have stuff to trade? I didn’t bring anything.”

He nods no but you get the sense disappointing the locals won’t turn into a pogrom

“Sorry, folks. We didn’t think to bring anything to trade. But, we’ll bring word back to our settlement that y’all’re out here and wanting to trade. Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to not establish some relations with other settlements now that we’re all free again does it?” Karre laughs at his own poorly worded joke. “That being said,” he continues, “we’re going to go take a look at the old prison over there. We do have weapons, but they’re for our own protection and not meant to scare honest people such as yourselves.” Karre reaches back into the vehicle to sling his rifle on. “We shouldn’t be in there for more than a few hours so if you need us, that’s where we’ll be.” He gestures for Sludge to grab his kit and follow him to the prison.

2:03 PM

The prison is a crumbling stone structure where the front gates have been blown off its hinges. The rest of the building looks more intact but burns and shot show where the breakout was once violent

11:11 PM

Karre leads the way into the structure through the blown open entrance. He'll make sure the entry room is clear before moving left and searching rooms 2 and 3. (edited)

(notice/wis)

(9)

You hear some sort of dripping from further inside the building and a static like buzz, repeating every ten seconds. The source of either sound is not within 1, but you push forward into the guard block (2 and 3) and find where many of them were beaten to death in quarters. The bodies are gone and time has softened the blood streaks, but you can tell what happened here all the same.

Karre’s expression hardens at the evidence of violence. It’s hard for him to shake the feeling of malice permeating the space but he sets his teeth and continues through. He hardly blames the prisoners for breaking free. This doesn’t minimize his sympathy for the guards’ obviously violent ends. If he finds nothing in the block, specifically key cards or the like that may help him move deeper into the prison, he’ll return the 1 and push north to check the next two rooms before the large common area.

Nekosmash pinned a message to this channel. 11/1/2021 6:14 PM

it looks as though anything of value in these rooms has been carried off by the looters when the prison break first happened. The two rooms before Gen-pop were security stations where the guards would have watched over those inside. A small double security airlock kept their quarters separate from the prison, and on the left side a guard post and armory was located. You can see too from outside that the guns have been carried off.

Karre would’ve been more surprised to find weapons in the open after all this time. He passes through the entrance into the common area. His movements are more furtive as time goes on. The evidence of prior looting leads him to believe that there may not be much raw material to utilize.

The double doors leading to the cells themselves can be opened from this side. You’re not sure what might be on the other side

Karre shoulders his rifle. With his hand on the door, he checks to make sure Sludge is with him before he pulls it open and moves into the room.

You can hear some kind of cracking in the ceiling as soon as you open the door , revealing the damaged cafeteria and gen pop cells lining the room. Their doors are all open but a few have been crumpled or pried apart

He eyes the ceiling warily. (Are there any openings in the ceiling that he can see?)

There is a gap in the ceiling where some duct work has fallen down, knocked loose from the violence here.

(Would I be able to boost myself into the ceiling using the collapsed ductwork?

(Yes you would be able to do that, good thought!)

Karre clambers onto the debris. Tentatively, he pokes his head through the damaged ceiling to look into the empty space in an attempt to discern what’s making the cracking noise.

(Got anything to see in the dark?$

(Would a combat rifle have any light attachments on it? Or like a shitty little light on the compad?) (edited)

10:31 AM

(Otherwise no)

(the compad would i guess, i say guns generally don't since glowbugs and that brand new drone from Distant Lights helps handle that problem)

(I need to read DL at some point lol)

Looking into the crawlspace you see you can get above the cell block into the back of the facility from here

“Oh sure, crawl through the sub-ceiling. Always ends well,” Karre mutters to himself. Loudly he calls to Sludge, “I found a crawlspace to the back of the facility. I’m going to take it in order to get past all these ruined cells. I’ll holler if I find anything!”

4:40 PM

He hauls himself up into the space and begins shimmying across, careful to only put his hands and legs on support structures so he doesn’t bust through the ceiling.

Moving through the ceiling Youre careful to avoid falling through. You can see a light ahead coming from a grate set into the vent ,40m from your current location

Karre approaches the grate. He peeks over the edge to surveil the area underneath.

There is some kind of other room for the former guards behind the cells that the prisoners were not able to get it. It looks like it adjoins to some kind of underground or secret entryway that the prisoners did not know about, and is some sort of panic room. No one is in here now but you can see some of the weapons and supplies have been taken- likely by any guards who survived the assault

12:59 PM

There are also tools and spare parts left here, for simple repairs to the building to maintain security in the event it was re-taken

“Sludge,” Karre sends over the compad, “found what looks like a panic room. I’m going to investigate. Not sure if I’ll be able to get back up into the sub ceiling but I’ll let you know. Looks like some parts and tools at the least.” Karre draws his knife and attempts to leverage the grate out of its seat in order to drop down into the room.

Sludge is very excited at the find. He isn’t sure how to get here from the inside and he knows if the locals see what’s in here they are going to try to grab this from under you. “Alright. Here’s what we do. You get down inside and pack up everything you can. I bring the car around. We knock down the wall and throw everything in, we leave

“That should work. Hopefully won’t piss the locals off too much. Gimme a chance to explore the underground part before we start remodeling though. We may not get a second chance to come through here again.”

8:09 PM

Karre bundles up the equipment and material as best he can. He’s not picky, preferring to sort through everything once they’re free and clear. When he’s finished, he’ll step into the underground area to give it a quick look to make sure they’re not missing anything else.

It looks like you've got the lay of the land here and what you've found should be able to jury rig a ship together for a jump or two

Perfect. Karre consults his compass and radios to Sludge, “Alright whenever you’re ready lets tear down this wall and get the hell out of here.”

There is a large boom as the vehicle all but collapses the wall on itself. The front is crumpled a bit, but you can work out repairs once you're clear of the settlement as the whine from its straining belts fills the air. "Lets go! Lets go!" Sludge yells, as the first of the locals are wising up to something out of the ordinary happening up here at the old prison.

Karre hurriedly begins hauling the material and equipment into the vehicle. His muscles strain with the work but the potential of some hostile visitors soon is pretty good incentive. (I’m not really sure how much I’m trying to move here lol. Seems like potentially a large amount?)

(Exert/con, we can just cover it with thaT)

(5. Accidentally rolled with STR so just subtracted the bonus)

You are able to get three quarters of the load in before the first of the thrown rocks hits the back of the car. Sludge fires a warning shot into the air but it doesn’t seem to disperse them

“Screw it!” Karre hollers over the noise, “we’ll leave the last bit for them! It’s there’s by right anyways. Just get us out of here!”

10:29 PM

He jumps into the passenger seat; uninterested in shooting a bunch of locals he more or less just stole from. (edited)

What you have looks like enough and the car rockets out of the settlement under a hail of rocks and pavement pieces. They all miss and you’re out in the open desert burning away from the settlement as fast as the damaged speeder will let you go

“Well,” Karre huffs, “that went as well as I think either of us expected. Pull over in a bit so we can check the speeder to make sure it’ll make it home.” After some time thinking he adds, “Maybe we should cut directly back to the shuttle? Start fixing it now?”

"I think we need to get to the shuttle as soon as possible, wE've got the parts, we've got the tools, the longer we wait the sooner someone else might find the wreck

Karre pulls up the map, and sets a course for the shuttle. “Let’s get going then. Bring it left here.”

The vehicle cruises for a night and part of a day with both of you trading off , before you finally make it to the wreck. Things look much the same but the desert creatures have made a meal of the guards bodies

Karre stretches when he gets out of the vehicle. “By the crown, I need to get these knots out of my back. And I think my ass is asleep,” he says around a yawn. “Give me a few and we’ll get to work.” When they’re recovered from the drive, Karre begins assisting Sludge with cleaning out the detritus and debris before they start repairs.

)fix/int)

(2

)

1

It looks like it’s going to take about a week to complete the job. Others will surely notice in this time and the other members of your crew are still in medical back home

"Hell, " Karre hisses. “This is going to get more complicated. I don’t want to leave you alone out here, and I definitely don’t want to leave the shuttle alone with both of us gone. I think we need to anticipate inquiring minds coming out here to find the wreckage.” Karre begins pacing, “I’ll do what I can to cover the wreckage and break its silhouette up. Then set up an observation post a ways a way we can camp at when we’re not here working. I think we can expect another night time attack if people mean us harm. The crew in the med bay will more than likely give away that there’s a shuttle out here, but I doubt they’ll be able to point people in the right direction.” He grabs some tarps from their survival kits to cover up the main portions of the wreckage. He’s not sure if there are any flyers left on the planet but he doesn’t want to take any chances. Karre will then wait to for the sun to begin its descent before he looks for a place to begin setting up camp away from the crash site. He intends to camouflage the camp into the surrounding dunes.

1

(survive/wis)

(5)

You do your best to try to camo the wreck. You’re not sure how well it’s done but it’s what you’re able to do with the materials on hand

“My dads always told me to give it my best,” Karre mutters to himself, “but I’m not sure if they ever anticipated my best not being enough and potentially getting me killed. Oh well, I’m proud of it.” He takes a break before setting off to set up their night camp while Sludge continues work on the shuttle. Karre has no intention being caught and surrounded like the previous owners were.

(How would this work as far as watches go? Basically between the two of you we have three jobs between sleeping , keeping watch and fixing the shuttle

(I think Karre will take on most of the watches as Sludge is doing most of the work. During the day it’s less of an issue, and at night they’ll probably need to split watches a bit. There’s no good way that I can see unfortunately. Banking on bad people trying to show up at night to avoid the heat in the desert.)

On night three of the project you see a glint in the desert as the moon picks up a reflection on glass, about 500m from your position. It's gone almost as quickly as you see it.

The reflected lights is enough to perk Sludge up from his sleep. “Did you see that?”

Karre squints into the distance, “Yeah I did. I doubt it means much other than someone’s trying to get the lay of the crash site. Get up and get your gear. We need to get ready.”

12:09 PM

When they’re ready, Karre and Sludge will move away from their encampment to get a better view of the approach to the crash site from the direction of the reflection they saw. Hopefully they’ll be able to catch the interlopers in the open.

There are two people there, you can see they dont look to have weapons on them, at least nothing they can't conceal under a cloak (so no long guns, but maybe sidearms or some other 1 enc surprise)

2:18 PM

They're content to just skirt the crash site, unconsciously moving opposite your approach

Quietly, Karre says, “I’m not thrilled with the idea of shooting a pair of unarmed people. Let’s continue to follow them and see what direction they head off in. With any luck it’ll give us an idea of what settlement they may have come from and to prepare to block anyone who means us harm.”

(Sneak /dex)

(4)

You’re made trying to sneak up on the group. They begin moving evasively through the desert, splitting off from one another and moving in different directions

"Gonna go out on a limb here and guess that they know we're tailing them." Karre curses under his breath. (How far away are they from us and from each other at this point?)

(300 from you, and just about 10 from each other right now, basically you saw them split and we're figuring out what/if we do anything)

"I don't want to chase them down and potentially start a fight here. Let's head back and prepare for them inevitably coming back." Karre stays low and leads a circuitous route back to the camp, away from the crash site. On the way he adds, "We keep working to fix the shuttle, if they're smart, they may just let us get close to finishing it before attacking again. Can't be too many people on planet who can fix this up."

1

Sludge agrees and the labor continues at a fever pace for the next two days, the shuttle nears completion. "We need to get the others if we need to get out of here. We're going to need them, and I want to have them here so we can get out as soon as this reactor turns over. We also need water so we can fuel it. "

"Can we get enough water at the settlement to fuel it far enough to a river or something?"

“We can get enough there to get us to space. From there we can drift until we get close to the star or gas giant and we can scoop our own fuel from there”

Karre grunts something unintelligible but mostly in agreement. After being confined to one planet for so long, it gave him a vague sense of vertigo to think about leaving again. "Where do you want to go? I have my own thoughts, namely finding the nearest Warden station, but if you have somewhere to go I'm not against helping you get there. Especially after all this." The last part is emphasized with a gesture towards the patched together shuttlecraft.

"The wardens sound good. We're good at this bounty hunting thing, I think we get to the warden station, see what they want in exchange for fuel and repairs, and we take things from there"

"I think more than anything, we need to get off this rock. We can talk about our plans as long and as much as we want when we get into space away from these people"

Karre laughs, "That's a good point. Let's load up and go get what we need."

(did you have thoughts for how you want to proceed through the colony to get those folks out of there? I don't want to just throw you into something)

(or we can get somewhat kinetic and just get them out)

(Whoops. Honestly I was just going to roll up and pick them up. Don’t really want to waste time especially since the secret’s out at this point. Grab them, find a spot to get some water, and haul ass back to the crash site.)

(yeah, secret is out, which is why people might try to stop you, or try to coerce you into getting them to come along, was mostly trying to figure out if you specifically wanted to rule out lethal methods before we get in there. I don't want Sludge for example to cap someone, and now this blood bath or murder you've left behind dogs you when you weren't the one to do it)

(Karre will try to avoid killing people indiscriminately but he’ll do what he needs to get him and Sludge off planet. No real illusions about how Talk/Cha checks will go for me since I think they’re net -1 haha. I’ll write up a plan here.) Karre sits beside Sludge in the grav car, studying a crudely drawn map of the settlement they made together. “Alright. First and foremost we need the pilots. We’ll roll up at night, preferably late when everyone should be either at their most tired or asleep. Get into the medcenter and grab our guys. Everything goes well, we’re in and out in a few minutes without giving away that we’re there. Worst case, there’s some gunplay. Our main goal is to get out with both pilots. We leave ‘em there if it means we won’t get out, though. Our lives before theirs. After we get out, we’ll find somewhere to collect the water we need and haul ass back to the crash site.”

“We could raid the aquifer. Split up. All we need is a couple Jerry cans. Someone handles that. Someone gets the pilots. We meet back at the car and hopefully we need to slit a minimum number of throats “

“Ok that’ll work. I’ll get the pilots, you handle the water.”

"We keep an open channel. This only works if we get out together. Now we each have something the other person needs"

Karre gives a sardonic smile, “What? You think I’d leave you hear?” After a second he adds, “Don’t answer that. Let’s get going.”

Driving into the settlemetn in the middle of the night you see few people in the street. You park close to the southern entry of town, and see few people on the streets.

Karre steps from the car, rifle hung across his chest and armor on. He’s hoping that walking through town in full kit isn’t such an unusual sight as to draw immediate suspicion. “Good luck,” he says to Sludge, “if you hear shooting and you beat me back, keep the engine running. I’ll do the same for you.” He begins walking towards the settlement, more or less directly for the medbay. Along the way he keeps an eye out for any body watching his approach or watching the medical area in particular. (I assume I’d at least have some idea of people who might be willing to get into a tussle here? Since I seemed to be living in the settlement for some length of time. Like an idea of possible troublemakers, guns for hire, etc)

(I don\t think there would be many people of reputation as bad dudes, since those are rogue elements and the community would have run them out, but I think if people here connect the dots, they're going to either want to come with, or want to take it for themselves)

(That’s a good point. Can probably assume anyone who tries to stop us is simply desperate since it seems like the planet has been kind of abandoned. Makes me think of some possible goals to add) (Let’s keep rolling down the street, trying not to attract too much attention.) (edited)

(sneak/dex)

(9)

1

Prowling forward through the streets of the settlement you can see almost everyone has come in for the night. There are a few lights on, whatever structures have managed to procure candles or oil burning lamps for themselves. Power is still a very limited quantity here, and no one has complained about it being prioritized for water collection or keeping the medical facilities running. There is a small night watch presence on the streets, usually beats of two officers patrolling a few block radius. You can see their flashlights coming down the street ahead of you, bobbing as they come close to rounding the corner.

Karre ducks into the shadows of two buildings. He hopes to find a way parallel to their movement. (Like if they’re coming across the north side of a building, he’d cut behind the south side and keep the building between them)

Doubling back quickly you get behind their patrol route and keep pushing forward. The hospital is two blocks away and there will be a guard at the door as part of their normal posting around the settlement.

Karre focuses on his breathing as he picks up the pace towards the medical facility. Knowing the patrolling pair is between him and the car now strangely helps settle his nerves. At least now he knew some of his potential roadblocks on the way back out.

The guard out front is whistling to himself. His hands are on his compad and he is trynig to get the patchy signal here to work. He is armed with a baton and a mag pistol from what you can tell, and occasionally stops fiddling with the device in order to take a look around

Karre curses. He doesn’t want to shoot the man, especially since that’d be bound to escalate things. Instead, he opts to walk towards the med facility, waving if the guard looks up towards him.

As you get close the guard notices your approach and the compad is put away, though you can hear the video still playing in spurts. You're not sure what it is and the music is strange.

“Is that that new Chris Fury single?” Karre asks as he walks up. He feigns holding his stomach and grimacing, “just coming to see the doc. I think I ate some moldy bread during my last trip. Hope they have something to keep me from shitting my spine out.”

“Yeah the new one. Not playing right. You armed ? Gotta pat you down. “

Karre gives a shrug and moves his rifle to the side and puts his arms out, “Sure thing.” He’s not hiding any of the equipment on him. Karre hopes that he’ll give off the impression as someone fresh back from the frontier and not up to anything nefarious.

“Alright. Keep your weapon holstered. You can go in. Good luck. Hope you’re okay friend “ he says, going back to his compad

“Thanks, man!” Karre gives a forced smile and groans his way into the med clinic. He drops the act shortly after the door closes and immediately begins to look at how to get to where the two pilots are.

You remember the hallway ahead and turning right. From@there you’re in a large ward with medical staff and other patients. Getting them out of it will be public

Karre looks around the ward for any bathrooms or isolated exam rooms that might have a window. He tries to do this inconspicuously while walking over to the pilots’ beds.

There is a bathroom , or what serves as what in a frontier encampment like this. A cutaway window is inside that leads to an alley next to the building.

Plan…A? I guess? Karre thinks as he reaches the pilots. Step above shooting our way out at least. “Hey guys,” he says to the pilots, keeping his voice low to not disturb the other patients, “how you holding up?”

They are still wounded but you can see they're looking at least a bit better than they did before, thanks to your intervention.

"Great!" he then leans in for some additional privacy, "How limber are you feeling? I assume you want to get off this forsaken rock before the locals figure out you were working for the nobility."

"I've been worried about it since I got here. They'll tear me to pieces with their hands if they found out -they used medicine on me and they're not going to like the fact they wasted it"

“Well, I have two tickets on the next outbound flight. They’re yours, you’ll just need to get through the window in the bathroom. I’ll meet you outside in the alleyway away from the security guard. Not sure how the staff here will take to you leaving, and I’m not about to find out by asking.”

“Climbing is going to be tough with a broken pelvis. Remember you hauled that wreckage off me?”

6:05 PM

“You’ll have to boost me out. I don’t need my legs to fly “

He grimaces, “Yeah alright. What about you?” He asks the other, “Think you can manage on your own? It’ll be easier if you go first then we follow.”

“Yeah. Not as bad off. It’s time to go before they put everything together and we end up disposed of for our choice of employer “

“Go then, I’ll help our decrepit friend here in three minutes. You have that long to get out and wait for us.”

“Can you do anything about the guard outside ?”

(Was hoping to circle around away from him. I don’t think Karre can do anything except lethal damage to subdue him meaningfully and I’d rather take a chance on being stealthy before wantonly killing here)

"Alright, we'll circle, meet us out there in a few minutes, we're going to need your help carrying. "

11:17 AM

Sludge signals a moment later that he had to take out a patrolman near the fountain who was asking too many questions about the amount of water being taken.

Karre pushes the thought of the patrolman into the calculating part of his mind. Best not to think about how he’d probably run into the man since Karre started living here. When the three minutes are up, he helps the copilot into a wheelchair to bring him to the bathroom. He awkwardly mutters something about helping the man use the toilet if they’re questioned; hoping to come across as simply trying to help an invalid with an awkward but necessary part of life.

2

The staff are only too pleased they don't have to deal with that task at least once, and only offer thanks or nothing at all as you begin wheeling him inside.

Karre closes the bathroom door and immediately moves over to the window to make sure it’s still open. After sticking his head out to check the alleyway, he says to the copilot, “This’ll probably hurt. Try not to scream too much. Or if you do, try and make it sound like you’re constipated or something.” He adds the last part with a shrug before wheeling the pilot to the window to hoist him out.

There is a hoist, and a dump, and a shivering as the man does everything he can to hold his breath. It is the type of pain that leaves in a silent scream and you can see he is going to be in rough shape until you can get to the Void Warden station.

5:26 AM

No one inside seems to be the wiser

Karre hurriedly follows through, doing his best to close the window behind him. After ensuring the copilot isn't going to pass out, he hoists him onto his shoulders in a fireman's carry. "That was the first part. We're probably going to have to run at some point so," Karre grimaces under the weight, "Sorry in advance." He ensures his rifle is easily within reach and begins heading down the alley with the pilot. (Pretty much assuming my enc is going to be maxed at this point lmao. I can send you a photo of what I'm talking about with carrying the dude if you need it)

(oh no, i got it! You're not slowed, but I'd say you could have a penalty if we need to fight)

2:27 PM

Sludge has been sending you several messages, asking where you are. He's got the water, and the car, and is ready to go

Karre thumbs his comm, "Sludge, Karre. We're out of the medbay and moving back to the rendezvous. Friends in tow. No one the wiser, yet. You'll be first to know if that changes." He feels the copilot shifting uncomfortably with the movement and struggling to stay quiet, "Might need to improvise a bit here as I don't think we'll make it all the way to you. Just be ready for a pick-up."

2:33 PM

Karre gestures with his head to the pilot to get a move on and steps their pace up. Opting for speed over stealth.

2:34 PM

(I'd like to avoid the front of the med clinic but otherwise to take a mostly straight route back. Would make it shorter for us, and easier for Sludge to find us if necessary. I know that two man patrol is generally between us and Sludge.)

(sneak/dex)

(7)

There is a squeal of abused grav plates as Sludge swings around the corner. "Get in! Get in!" he shouts, as you see flashlight beams beginning to make their way around the block from the direction he just sped.

Karre stifles a curse, and more or less falls into the rear seats with the copilot. A sympathetic grimace is all he pays to the copilot’s increased level of distress. He allows the pilot to get into the front. Karre then frees his rifle and maneuvers it to give himself some unobstructed movement in the back; he uses a knee to keep the copilot down on the seats so he doesn’t spoil Karre’s aim.

12:36 PM

“GO!” He shouts at Sludge.

(6xp, 10,000 credits)

2:45 PM

Speeding back to the wreck you pull out of the city just as lights come on, voices are shouting, and dogs barking. You beeline for the shuttle, and begin climbing aboard as Sludge clambers to the roof to begin filling the reactor with the water needed to get off the ground..

“Start spooling us up,” Karre directs the pilot. He finds a place for the copilot before moving to the airlock in order to shout out at Sludge, “You alright? Speed seems mighty necessary about now.” He squints out into the darkness to look for approaching figures.

You can see many pinoricks of light on the horizon but it doesn’t matter. “Hold on to something! “ the pilot yells as the engines build power. The noise inside the shuttle rises and after another ten long seconds it begins to move - gaining altitude after coasting forward on its landing skiis for several seconds

**Level Up**

Level: 3

Focus: N/A

Old HP: 13

HP Roll: 16

New HP: 16

New Skills: Fight-1, Sneak-0

Current AB: +3

8:44 PM

Karre grabs Sludge by the arm as they scramble into the shuttle. He then shuts the exterior door and makes his way to the cockpit as the deck pitches upwards. "Holy shit, I can't believe it!" the sudden burst of joy at leaving the planet's surface surprises Karre, but he chooses to embrace it. "Get us to orbit, then we'll check our seals before going to the Spike point. Next stop is the Wardens!"

Upon reaching space scanners confirm you're alone. Everything seems to be holding absent a couple small flawed welds, which are easily fixed now that you don't have armed men observing your camp or trying to chase you down.

A deep weariness hits Karre as his post adrenaline shakes wear off. He’s finally off that cursed prison world and back in the Black. “Are we Spike capable?” A stellar map is displayed on one of the cockpit MDCs. Karre points at the empty point in space the Wardens had established a station, “I think this is our best bet for relief, medicine, and employment. We can’t go back to the NMC and the UNW is a fair jog away in our little shuttle. Especially with the ad hoc repairs.” (The one in 2217 if you need a specific hex.)

(yeah they've got a few outposts. Thank you) "Alright, I see the nav computer registers that as a gravity well. Spike drive looks okay somehow. We did some good work Mondragon"

He reclines the chair he’d settled into as far as it would go. With his arms stretching up and away from him, Karre replies, “Good work is the only kind of work I do. And you’re all welcome to stick around so we can do more good works in the verse. There’s plenty of bad karma to make right out there, and I’d appreciate whatever help I can get.”

They’ll think about it over the coming days. Your pilot still has a broken pelvis and two broken legs whine the co pilot pilot isn’t the most lucid himself. Sludge is able to fill in for one of them if needed , but it’s going to be a long trip to void wardens headquarters

“Well,” Karre says as his eyes begin to close, “wake me if you need me. I can pull a shift watching the screens but I can’t fly for shit.”

(I'll total up down time on the way to the station )

7:50 AM

(2 days !)

(Pilot 2/90)

1

The Void Warden station is a monumental construct in space, so large it has a gravity pull enough to get a spike drive to recognize it as enough of a mass to pull a ship out of drive to come into the gravity well. The fleet is not here right now aside from a few system picket vessels, but the station is massive and seems more than capable of defending itself. Interrogation signals reach out into space to see who you are.

“Ah, crap. Are we still squawking a New Moon IFF?” Karre asks aloud as he keys up the frequency for the station approach. “Warden station, we’re a shuttle flight out of Kamal. We have wounded, a damaged vessel, and low fuel. Requesting docking clearance.”

“No, I don’t think we are broadcasting anything “ the comms officer says

7:40 PM

The warden station begins to open a bay and vector lights come on just before the radio station melts down with burning plastic smells in the air

Karre snorts, then coughs as the smell hits his nose. “Get us in there before something more substantial decides to quit on us.” Karre leaves the cockpit, thankful to have a reason to go to the airlock and prepare to disembark. He makes sure to leave his weapons and armor aboard the shuttle.

A damage control team and a squad of void warden station guards are on scene when the ship comes in to dock. Mechanics also wait close by to see if things are safe

Karre steps out and to the side, allowing the guards to search him and the shuttle. “Thank you for letting us aboard. Is there anyone I can talk to about what we’ve been through? And getting help moving forward?”

“That would be Me” the guard captain says. “I’ll take some statements and run it up the chain. Formalities. You understand. Mind telling me who you are and where you’re coming from? Your ship looks like it’s taken a beating “

“Kamal, formerly in the New Moon’s territory.” Karre considers for a moment but decides to err on the side of truth in order to not get tangled in multiple lies, “The shuttle is from the interior of the Cooperative. It crashed onto the planet and I took it off the hands of the previous owner. They were a valid Bounty target if you catch my drift.” Karre waits to see how the guard reacts to this.

"Name of the bounty? I;m sure its above board but you understand, I've got to check. I doubt you'd be bold enough to come here if the ship was stolen"

“Claire Buchanon,” Karre replies. He shows the captain the Bounty Hunter Guild posting as well as his submitted confirmation of completion. “The pilots I have are NMC citizens, and they may possibly want to go back there. It seemed as if Buchanon had coopted their assistance in fleeing the nobility purges. We repaired the shuttle and flew it here, the closest neutral power we could think of. Myself and the other man, Sludge, are former citizens of the NMC. If only because we were on Kamal when the Wardens established its independence from the Cooperative as a whole.”

"We've had others come in from there. Kamal is a hard world. Bounty checks out. You're free now, all of you. We'll repair the shuttle, and we'll speak with you each and you can decide on a road ahead for yourselves. Be at conference room 4 tomorrow, I'll be there with myself and a few of our resource coordinators. If you've got anything on the shuttle you want or need, take it now. We're going to have to tow this thing to drydock"

“We have weapons and armor aboard that we’d like to take off the shuttle, I hope that won’t be an issue. We can secure them in your armory if need be. Otherwise I’ll see you tomorrow at 4.” Karre will follow the captain’s directions regarding the weapons. He’s not particularly interested in walking around armed and armored aboard the station. His only goal until the meeting tomorrow is to be an excellent guest and to not make any trouble.

(They'd just want everything in their amory but when its time to go there won't be trouble getting it back)

1:02 PM

(if you want to explore the place we can, i can make some PoI, if you're eager to get into something specific I dont mind skipping the parts you're not interested in doing and we can get right to the meeting )

(I kind of assumed that it’d be like a military station. Have the warden stations been fleshed out?)

(not really, not ever, actually)

8:56 AM

(its a little bit of everything up here)

Once Karre finds his assigned bunk, he checks the station directory for a nearby noodle shop and/or bar. He wants to talk to some of the locals about local happenings and if there’s anything he might be able to get mixed up in.

It looks like there are several cafeteria like places here meant to cater to weary star travelers. the first is a simple noodle stand close by run by two void wardens from the stations kitchen staff as a side project

“Perfect,” he says. Before leaving, Karre takes advantage of the hot, running water to shower with. He’s not even sure the last time he had one. The Karre who leaves the room is still wearing the dingy clothes from Kamal, though they’ve been washed as best he could in the small sink; but he feels like a new man. His stomach rumble urges him in the direction of the noodle stand.

(d10, lets generate some gossip!)

(5)

Sitting down at the stand you hear a conversation about how the Phemno system is tearing itself apart over some kind of workers revolt.

While he eats a noodle bowl, Karre pulls out his data pad and scans through GalNet about recent Phemno developments. The apparent failed attack of the CSF, PMG’s attempt to hold the Federation at ransom, and other headlines. There’s been little in the recent months about Phemno itself, however. Eventually he looks up at the people talking about the system, “Are all of you Wardens? Do you know if there’s any talks to police the system?”

“Can’t afford to right now. Still recovering and we swore to protect the people here from the dangers of space “

“Makes sense. Can’t overstretch yourselves if you’re already in a precarious position.” Karre slurps more noodles before continuing, “I have to meet with the guard captain I met earlier in one of the docks. Any advice? I’d hate to step on any toes or come across as a bad guest.”

"He's got a bullshit detector like a bloodhound. Be careful to only tell him the truth, even if you think he might not want to hear it"

Karre nods. Bit if a breath of fresh air after dealing with the old officer corps in the Cooperative. “Thank you,” he says out loud. He finishes his noodles and returns to his quarters. (That answered some questions for me. I’m good to jump to the meeting now.)

The meeting is quick in approaching the following day. You’ve been given a conference room and some directions and as promised the captain and a couple of void wardens functionaries are present

7:25 PM

“Come in. Have a seat and relax. Let’s talk0

Karre breathes deeply to settle his nerves. He settles into the chair, “Talking sounds good. What would you like to know?”

"First some bad news. The shuttle cannot be repaired. The spike drive was critically damaged and you're lucky you got here in one piece. I won't tell you how close it was to failing. That said, surely you and your crew must have some opinions on if you wanted to stay together, or go your own way

“Well,” Karre says, “I gave them the choice to continue with me or like you said, to find their own way. I intended to put my services up for offer to the Void Wardens. I’m not a terrible shot and have some experience from the New Moon’s military before they tossed me on to Kamal. Sludge is more than handy with a wrench, he’s the one who patched that wreck back together. I’m sure wherever he ends up he’ll be a blessing. The two pilots have been coerced into flying for people twice now and I’d hate to make it a third time. Whatever they decide going forward should be their own choice.”

"If we could keep you together, and you should talk to them about it, the Wardens have several missions we could assign you to. We have all manner of shuttles and ships, and we will pay you out the fair value of the wreck you brought in"

“I think both of those are more than reasonable. What missions do you have? So I have something to bring up with them.” Karre’s relieved, and he doesn’t try to hide it.

(I’ve got stuff. If you’ve got ideas ooc I’m good to pass those on as his suggestions )

(I’m open to options. I don’t really have any ideas on where a mission might help the most)

(how about investigating the former shaper cluster? )

(Sure that’d be fun/spooky)

"We would like to get some eyes on the former shaper cluster for ourselves. Nothing risky, well, nothing too risky. Observations, reporting, and so on. We want to ensure the threat is actually gone before we discuss pivoting forces to the southern front to assist against the Ascendency"

“I think I could manage that. What resources would I be able to request?” (Also when you say cluster is it a group of systems or like a physical cluster in one system?)

(It’s a group of systems )

10:35 PM

“We have a skyhooper shuttle you are welcome to use. They should be more than enough for the type of mission we require.

“Excellent! Can I also purchase new arms and armor while I’m on station?”

“Yes. As an official warden recruit you’ll be able to purchase military grade equipment here. Take all the time you need” (edited)

“Thank you, we should be ready to leave within the day. I may need a couple of pilots to supplement the roster so we don’t spin off into the unknown of Spike space.” Karre grins sardonically. (I’ll put together a shopping list. How much are we getting for the scrapped shuttle? Figure whatever they get, Karre would be sure to split it four ways with the other three)

(we are getting 50,000 for that. Your share of it at any rate)

3:13 PM

(so 200 ktotal which i should have just said)

(Math, schmath. I’ll add up totals once you let me know what I can and can’t purchase. List: Medium Advanced Weapon Spike Thrower Storm Suit? Other wise BCH? Type B x2)

(Don’t have enough face for storm armor, BCH is available, as is everything else. Not sure if you need ammo for the thrower and have to nix the cells with the power armor not available )

(BCH 3000 MAW 60 Spike thrower 600 60 rounds 30 Total: 3690) (edited)

(want to work with grim;'s new LLF character for some extra support on this? )

10:04 AM

(probably a big undertaking)

(Sure!)

“We are going to be working with the lamplighters on this. You’ll be meeting them in the cluster and can decide what to do from there. We want to ensure those creatures are dead and learn what we can about them”

“If we find any living remains, can we burn them out or do I need to report back first?” (edited)

"Catalogue what you see, bring nothing aboard. Destroy anything that might still be there. We can't risk another infection"

Karre nods, “I’ll take appropriate precautions. Let me gather my pilots and we’ll be off ASAP.”

"I'll send you information related to the Lamplighter contingent once you are en route. Good luck. Talk to your men, and the merchant ship in bay 2 is yours. "

“Appreciate it,” Karre stands to leave. He accesses the station’s network to guide him to Sludge’s quarters.

He is housed close to the shuttle bay you came in at, as are the two pilots that brought you here. Each has been given bioscopic attention to mend their broken bones. Aside from some general soreness, they've bypassed weeks of bed rest.

Karre steps into the room when beckoned by the occupants. He crosses his arms and leans against the wall to look over the trio of pilots. "I have another job," he says to start, "and you three are the best pilots I know. You're also the only pilots I know but that's besides the point. You all should have received deposits for the salvage value of the shuttle, it was split four ways equally. I'd like to continue our work together, but I understand if you have other plans. Sludge, you're finally off Kamal and I know you'll find a place to carve out an existence anywhere in the sectors. You two," he says to the NMC pilots, "can return home. No burned bridges, no qualifiers." He waits a beat before continuing, "But, I'm going into Shaper space. You know what they did to the Cooperative and people we know. The Wardens want to make sure there eradicated and the best way to do that is put eyes on. I wouldn't want anyone else but you three at my side flying through those graveyards. You put your lot in with me, I can't promise you you'll be safe. I can't say we won't face deadly perils and promise we'll all make it back in one piece; if at all. But, you come with me, and I know we can make a difference. For as long as we're able. So," he says, a little surprised by his own words, "what do you say?"

"You got us off Kamal. I'll follow you anywhere. I k now I can trust you" Sludge says. THe two cooperative pilots have seen the news. Upheaval, political struggles, and a notable person suddenly leaving the ranks, they've given messages to what remains of their loved ones and they realize they don't have much to go home to right now, and likewise plan to keep going with you.

Karre doesn’t attempt to hide his grin, “Excellent. Pack your shit, we leave as soon as you’re all on board. Requisition whatever you may need for a patrol from the station and have them send it to the ship in bay 2. We’ll be meeting an LLF team once we’re underway. I’ll see you on board.” He leaves the room, obviously pleased that the trio opted to follow him. On his way to the ship, he passes by his assigned quarters to grab his small amount of luggage before checking his weapons out at the armory. Then he’ll continue on to the ship and supervise launch procedures until they’re underway to meet the LLF group. (Is it just going to be Karre +3? Totally fine with that. Also I don’t have anything else I need to do on board the station)

(Karre +3 and meeting up with Bask once we're there )

1

(Fantastic. Ready to rock on to our rendezvous)

(Neko you can ignore this alert. Making note I need to do level 4 level up.)

(Sounds good)

**Level Up**

Level: 4

Focus: N/A

Old HP: 16

HP Roll: 27

New HP: 27

New Skills: Exert-0, Notice-0, Talk-0

Current AB: +4

Still have 3 skills banked from earlier level up with the error I found while porting over to the Google Sheet that we talked about in PM

(edited)

1

(More things I forgot to do at the station before we moved the thread along. Just general shopping. Ammo 20 x2 Type B x2 Assault Suit x1) (edited)

(Note for me. Need to complete level 5 updates once I’m don’t with this Shaper Cluster mission)

1

(I know Bask is tied up, and we've done about all we can with the Shaper clearing. Did you have ideas on any new missions or do you want a pitch? )

(Sorry for the delayed response. Been experiencing acute hypocochlearemia (low spoon levels))

(No worries buddy.

(do you wanna play a little scene with Eish as he visits the VW station?)

(Alright I think I have a bit more mental bandwidth. Can we do a bounty hunt or something? I don’t have a private space craft yet, will that be an issue since I’m in VW space?)

(can always take one of the VW cutters out)

(Yeah that works for me! Take Lloyd and Sludge, too)

(Awesome! Who do we want to go after? I'll also say the doc claws bounty is open again Mona has been on it for a couple months now with h ardly any play so its not fair that storyline gets camped)

(Is the Doc Claws backstory on World Anvil? I’m not familiar with what put them on the bounty board)

(It’s not. The bio is gone since roll20 is gone but since the events of gradient descent 1, it’s believed he’s peddling the maltech the group took from the facility

(Hmmm that’s no bueno. Do we have any idea what system he was in last?)

(He was just on Helga) https://www.worldanvil.com/w/iron-stars-nekosmash/a/helga-location?preview=true

Helga

8:33 AM

(but it looks like he's recently departed from there)

(Barring any other leads, we’ll head there and see if the settlement has any info on where he might’ve went next. Also make sure he didn’t leave any maltech there)

(if you want, we can total up downtime and pick up where Mona left off, and just take the bounty. They've had a couple IRL months and nothnig has happened,s o the storyline is yours )

(Yeah perfect let’s do that)

Landing in the desert bowl the signal was coming from it looks as though there was a ship here once. Scorched patterns on the red rock of the world show where thrusters once helped boost a ship into orbit, and beyond judging by the fact there is no vessel in the system other than yours now. Some surveying equipment has been left behind, and looks to have been abandoned in a hurry given it is still set up. A survey scanner, compad, and some notes have been left behind here, the notes are written in Mosk.

Karre stands amongst the remains of the survey camp. His helmet is retracted into his armor and he’s slowly panning his view across the distance as if he might see Claws’ ship out there. He’s interrupted by Lloyd when the medic walks up beside him, “So, Skip, we found some leftovers here that might be from the mark? At least the writing looks,” they pause to find the right word, “crabby? Is that racist?” Karre snorts despite his attempt to look solemn and distant, “Great! Can you read Mosk?” The silence is answer enough. Karre calls over to Sludge, who’s inspecting the scorch marks in the sand, “Any idea what size of ship he might’ve had here?” (Karre doesn’t know Mosk, and I assume his henchmen don’t either. Is there a way we could feed it into the ship’s computer or do I need to find a translator? Can Sludge tell what size ship was here based on the scorch marks/other environmental clues? Would give us a rough estimate to the size of the group Claws is running with)

(we'd need to find a translator)

8:39 AM

(it would look to be a corvette sized boat, which could include free merchants since that is the hull size)

(Excellent, thank you) Karre sweeps his hand in the direction of all the cast off supplies, “Gather it all up. Then we’ll head to the town. See if anyone saw Claws or one of his crew members while they were here. Can’t imagine they wouldn’t try to restock their supplies. If we’re lucky, someone there’ll know Mosk.”

(the only other site on the planet is the archeology camp, and just so you don't need to repeat Mona's work, they said they haven't seen him, but nothing was done to try to do anything to ascertain their truthfulness aside from taking them at their word)

(Did they seem like they had any reason to lie? Did they have equipment around the camp that seemed newer or out of place for an archaeology camp?) (edited)

(they didn't have a reason to lie, they're working on a slyth site and are well funded by the ISF, and nothing out of the ordinary for a dig)

(Is there a nearby system where Mosk have found refuge? Otherwise I'll need to look for a larger city/station to find a translator probably)

(not nearby no, we're firmly on the frontier this far north)

(Do we know what general direction he was heading from or towards? We’re here between three polities; two of which I could make decent arguments for having parties internally want potential maltech lol)

(He abandoned some equipment here, so we can try to analyze it, or find an expert who can somewhere, to get a direction)

(We could also bring it back to the warden station we left from and ask Zu, he might be able to either translate, or precognate something)

(Sorry sorry sorry) Karre stands in the ship’s hold as Sludge, Lloyd, and anyone that wasn’t on duty and felt up to the task of arranging the recovered detritus of Doc Claws’ camp into piles of relevance. He’s frustrated, but not at the crew. “So,” he says out loud to nobody in particular, “you’re a Mosk on the run. Smart enough to get ahold of some maltech but maybe without sufficient contacts to offload it safely. You know there’s a bounty on you but not if there’s anyone on your tail.” Lloyd, not catching the rhetorical nature of the topic chimes in unhelpfully, “Basically yeah.” Karre continues, “And our only possible clue is a note written in a language none of us speaks or can translate. We’ll see if Xu can help us. Failing that we’ll go looking for a Mosk enclave to help translate.”

After looking at the map, it looks like the warden station is your best clue in getting this translated. Xu is a miracle worker when it comes to language, and you know if there is anything here, he will be able to make short work of it.

Karre remains on the bridge while their ship breaks orbit and begins moving out-system. He’s asleep in his bunk by the time they enter Spike space. (Nothing left here. I don’t see the need to hound the dig site people any more than they’ve been. Off to visit Xu!) (edited)

(It was five days of downtime back)

(Pilot 13/90)

Upon returning, Xu is pleased you are back safe and looks at the paperwork you have together. "It looks like he completed a sale. A large one at that. Or at least there is one in process."

Karre presses his fingers into his eyes as he lets out a frustrated groan. “So that means we need to track down the buyer or buyers, too. Anyone willing to handle whatever he’s selling will have to be dealt with. Does the note mention where the sale might take place? Or took place?”

"It looks like the buyer is coming from the NFSS. We're not sure if that is official government support or not. We'll need to look. I do see here that Doc Claws is under the impression the deal is going to happen on Menosa"

1:27 PM

https://www.worldanvil.com/w/iron-stars-nekosmash/a/menosa-location

Menosa

(Ah hell yeah Sharknado world. Is there a date for the deal and if there is will we get there in time?) “Then we have our destination. If it’s alright, I’d like to requisition some butterfly combat harnesses for my team. Might end up in a situation where power armor will be too conspicuous. If it turns out they’ve offloaded the maltech, I’ll update you in case this needs to involve the Wardens as a whole or other specialty groups. I doubt the polities will be happy knowing there’s maltech in the wind.”

The deal is scheduled to take place by the end of this month. Provisioning your ship now, and making efficient time there, you should be able to get there just ahead of both parties.

Karre makes sure to requisition foul weather gear in addition to the armor. Plus whatever flop rifles he can get his hands on. He’s less concerned with killing whatever NFSS buyers might be present but he certainly doesn’t want to kill Doc Claws if he can help it. He leaves Sludge to supervise provisioning the ship otherwise and is ready to go as soon as they’re able. (Going to try and blend in as much as we can once we get there by wearing the weather gear over our armor. Hoping that the extra layers will help conceal our guns and such from the local population since the weather’s so crappy there. We won’t hide it from authorities if they look unless we have a good reason to break their laws haha)

(I will total up downtime for you. did you plan to stop at places on the way or did we want tomake a burn right for it? )

(Probably just get there ASAP so we have time to get in place and settle into things so we don’t look quite as out of place)

(sounds good, I'll total up downtime)

(8 days of downtime, the trip itself is going to take 20 days since we have to scoop at three systems without ship service depots)

(Cutting it close! 21/90 Pilot)

(We should get a program/int too for hiding on entering the system)

(Can I have an NPC bridge crew roll it? Would be a +2?)

(yes and yes)

(8)

Nekosmash

used /roll

Nekosmash Request: [2d6+3] Roll: [6, 6] Result: 15

You wait for several days in the target system, doing your best to maintain low power use and position yourself so other stellar phenomena keep you less detectable. Upon entering the system a short distance away, the ship of Doc Claws, the named "Crab Bucket" detects you. Though its drive needs several hours to charge up, it begins trying to burn its engines and flee deeper into the system. Your crew is in range to initiate communication, and combat.

Karre swears under his breath. He’s on the command deck of the ship, summoned once the Crab Bucket was picked up. “Plot an intercept,” he orders to the helmsman before ordering the communications watchstander to open a channel.

(lets get initiative as we dive into ship combat)

(This is just standard initiative for ship combat right?)

(Yep!)

(Bad internet at the moment so I can’t check. I think it’ll just be a +1 for my dex modifier)

4:05 PM

(2)

Nekosmash

used /roll

Nekosmash Request: [1d8-1] Roll: [5] Result: 4

(Doc claws is first)

7:44 AM

The Crab Bucket begins firing its burners, trying to escape combat.

Nekosmash

used /roll

Nekosmash Request: [2d6+2] Roll: [5, 3] Result: 10

(opposed pilot/int or dex, also adding ship speed)

Karre Mondragon(Timothy)

used /roll

Error: + is not between two numbers!

Karre Mondragon(Timothy)

used /roll

Karre Mondragon(Timothy) Request: [2d6+2] Roll: [3, 2] Result: 7

(Whoops should be 9)

(Doc claws has 1 out of 3 points needed to escape combat. That’s all of his command points as well so you’re up!)

(-Support Department (Gunnery) -Boost Engines (2 CP) -Pursue Target (3CP) -Fire One Weapon: CPC (0CP)) (edited)

Karre Mondragon(Timothy)

used /roll

Karre Mondragon(Timothy) Request: [2d6+2] Roll: [3, 2] Result: 7

Karre Mondragon(Timothy)

used /roll

Karre Mondragon(Timothy) Request: [2d6+4] Roll: [6, 1] Result: 11

Nekosmash

used /roll

Nekosmash Request: [2d6] Roll: [3, 2] Result: 5

Nekosmash

used /roll

Nekosmash Request: [2d6] Roll: [4, 2] Result: 6

(boosted engines, and we shaved off the escape point)

Karre Mondragon(Timothy)

used /roll

Karre Mondragon(Timothy) Request: [1d20+2] Roll: [13] Result: 15

Karre Mondragon(Timothy)

used /roll

Karre Mondragon(Timothy) Request: [3d6+1] Roll: [5, 4, 2] Result: 12

(7v8, failure on Boost engines 11 on opposed Pilot/Dex roll for pursue target 15/12 on Charged Particle Caster)

The enemy ship is hit, The Crab Bucket trails debris, and realizing that he likely cannot get away, the ship begins to come about, twin multifocal lasers charging.

1:35 PM

(fire all weapons x1 )

Nekosmash

used /roll

Nekosmash Request: [1d20+3] Rolls: [14] Result: 17 [16] Result: 19

Nekosmash

used /roll

Nekosmash Request: [2d4] Roll: [4, 1] Result: 5

(17/4 and 19/1 , MFL is AP20 , so we shouldn't have any armor soak)

(Cutter is Speed 2 for math. I don't think it'll make a difference with those rolls. 25/30 HP remaining)

(We're even speed actually, so the shooting mods are actually normal npcs mods for a change)

The cutter rocks as the first hits land. Yellow warnings flash across the screens as the command deck as the lasers penetrate through the armor. Nothing critical has been struck yet. Karre hisses through clenched teeth, before issuing further orders. (Support Department- Gunnery Fire One Weapon (0CP) Fire One Weapon (2CP) Fire One Weapon (2CP))

Karre Mondragon(Timothy)

used /roll

Karre Mondragon(Timothy) Request: [1d20+3] Roll: [10] Result: 13

Karre Mondragon(Timothy)

used /roll

Karre Mondragon(Timothy) Request: [1d20+3] Roll: [3] Result: 6

Karre Mondragon(Timothy)

used /roll

Karre Mondragon(Timothy) Request: [3d6+1] Roll: [5, 3, 1] Result: 10

Karre Mondragon(Timothy)

used /roll

Karre Mondragon(Timothy) Request: [2d6+1] Roll: [4, 3] Result: 8

Karre Mondragon(Timothy)

used /roll

Karre Mondragon(Timothy) Request: [1d20+2] Roll: [7] Result: 9

Karre Mondragon(Timothy)

used /roll

Karre Mondragon(Timothy) Request: [2d6+1] Roll: [5, 5] Result: 11

Karre Mondragon(Timothy)

used /roll

Karre Mondragon(Timothy) Request: [2d6] Roll: [5, 1] Result: 6

(12/10, 6/13, 7/12) (absolutely messed up almost every one of those rolls lmao. Supposed to be 1d20+2, not 1d20+3. And last two damage rolls needed one more d6. I adjusted the correct totals in the final values given.) (will use Warrior talent to force a hit on the 12 damage one) (edited)

(the warrior one is the only one that hits)

11:26 AM

the Crab Bucket bleeds fuel and power, before its lights turn back on. One more salvo should disable it. It returns fire, coming about in a corkscrew maneuver and firing both of its multifocals in your direction

Nekosmash

used /roll

Nekosmash Request: [1d20+3] Rolls: [13] Result: 16 [9] Result: 12

Nekosmash

used /roll

Nekosmash Request: [1d4] Roll: [1] Result: 1

(16/1 , the 12 is not going to hit)

Karre’s lips pull back in a grin as he leans forward. “Fire again,” he orders the weapons officer before sending a message for Sludge and Lloyd to don their battle armor.

2:18 PM

(Support Gunnery Fire One Weapon 2CP Fire One Weapon 2CP Fire One Weapon 0CP)

Karre Mondragon(Timothy)

used /roll

Karre Mondragon(Timothy) Request: [3d20] Roll: [16, 10, 3] Result: 29

Karre Mondragon(Timothy)

used /roll

Karre Mondragon(Timothy) Request: [3d6+1] Roll: [6, 6, 4] Result: 17

Karre Mondragon(Timothy)

used /roll

Karre Mondragon(Timothy) Request: [3d6+1] Roll: [3, 2, 1] Result: 7

(18/17, 12/7, and I assume 5 will miss)

(the five misses haha)

9:03 AM

The Crab Bucket flounders in the void. Sparks and debris shed from the side of the vessel as its interior lights go off once again. The ship is disabled.

“Comm, broadcast on a full spectrum and in the clear. If they have any personal or nonshipboard radios still working, I want them to hear me.” When given a thumbs up from the tech, Karre begins, “Crab Bucket personnel, this is Karre Mondragon of the Void Wardens. Your ship is disabled. We intend to board, as you’re well aware. My target is the individual known as Doc Claws. Have him ready for me and you’ll suffer minimal consequences. Fight, and we will meet with deadly force. Message repeats.” Karre directs the comm tech to play it on repeat on any open channel they can find in the hopes to get the message across and to potentially make communication more difficult for the crew to organize a defense. He hurries to the the boarding tubes, leaving orders for the command deck to disable any escape pods that may launch for collection later. At the tubes, he dons his armor in preparation and waits for the green light to force entry with Sludge and Lloyd in tow. (I’m not sure if we’d have a fireteam/squad of VW marines or anything on a cutter. If we do, they can pull security and avoid letting any counter boarding happen. And act as a QRF if we run into problems)

(I think keeping them in a counter boarding role is probably the most fair since we didn't explicitly set a number, with you and your immediate henches being the assault force)

THe boarding tubes fire, punching into the middle of the ship where there is the most mass meant to keep them anchored together. The lights turn green and the mag clamps lock. The atmosphere is stabilized, and the READY TO BREACH indicator lights begin flashing. On the other end of the tube you hear the sound of something clattering, no doubt the other crew is in chaos.

Karre checks the charge on his flop rifle. He feels his stomach drop out as his body floods with adrenaline. “Punch it.” Lloyd triggers the breaching charges.

There is a bang, and a loud alarm from within the enemy ship. No return fire peppers you, yet.

Karre charges forward into the chaos of the breached compartment. His axe is in hand and at the ready for anyone attempting to raise their weapons at them.

(notice/wis)

Karre Mondragon(Timothy)

used /roll

Karre Mondragon(Timothy) Request: [2d6+1] Roll: [3, 1] Result: 5

You do not notice anyone within the corridor that your breaching tube has drilled into. The inside of this ship is dark due to the disabling fire you hit it with, and even through your air scrubbers you can smell the faint whiff of smoke in the air from electronics melting off in distant sections of the ship. The bridge is behind you,and engineering looks to be in front.

(Would our armor have suit lights to ease the darkness? With the ship disabled, I’d like to secure engineering first since I imagine that’d be where the bulk of the repair actions would be taking place)

(They come with low light goggles, so you'd be able to see as though you had night vision as opposed to lights)

(Even better) Karre steps off on point, Lloyd in the middle, and Sludge sweeping their six as the group pushes towards engineering.

Ther door to engineering is closed but as you approach you can hear two people coughing on the other side. Your suit is filtering out the smoke in the air but onboard sensors let you know it is present and the concentration of smoke particles is rising.

Karre opens his radio to the waiting reaction teams, “If they’re not already, have the med team prepared for environmental casualties. Whole lotta shit in the air in here.” Sludge takes position on one side of the door and gives the handle a test pull to determine if it’s locked or not. Karre takes position to sweep the door and Lloyd generally gets out of the way.

SLudge gives a single nod. It is not locked and he has positive pressure on the door. At your command he will fling it open and get the hell out of your way, joining the sweep at the tail end as everyone storms through.

Karre cranks his external suit speakers up to max volume and gives Sludge an “okay” sign to initiate the breach. As Sludge yanks the door, Karre booms his voice into the compartment, “Void Wardens! Weapons down, faces on the deck!” He steps quickly through the threshold. (edited)

With the ship in disarray and the team caught dead to rights your beam passes over the form of Doc Claws, the pilot, the injured co pilot, and the sensor officer. They all look to be severely injured from the space battle, and have collapsed back to this room to try to protect contraband cargo.

“Nice to finally see you, Doc.” If they’re not immediate threats, Karre will move over to Claws while Sludge and Lloyd begin administering aid to the injured crew members, “Seems like you’ve made a lot of people very mad.”

Doc Claws says nothing in response. He looks sullenly at the vessel around him that is barely holding together and of the technologies he had hoped to trade that are now going to fall into the wrong hands. There is a low gurgle that sounds like gel being pressed through sand and compression, but he is otherwise silent.

Karre grimaces at Doc Claws before calling to Lloyd, "Can they move? We'll secure them back aboard in the brig then come back and secure the cargo."

“Yeah they can. One at a time. Throw em in the cells after a search. Then we come to take the tech. Start with the crab maybe?” Lloyd asks

“Read my mind, buddy.” Karre begins to pat down Doc Claws before they lead him back to the ship. Lloyd and Sludge search the others.

(did we have cold sleep or anything on here? I forget how we'd be restraining them)

(Yikes I don’t know. I don’t think I anticipated taking a large amount of prisoners. Might need to jury rig something in a large compartment or something. Or keep flopping them but that seems like a bad idea lol)

(We have a medbay, we could sedate them)

1:46 PM

(ships have a basic medbay by default, its just the advanced one that can do the real important stuff)

(Yeah that’ll likely be the best course here if we have the resources for it. Or threatening them with sedation if they don’t behave.)

"Boss, Ithink we should tranq em no matter what. Let's be safe about this " Lloyd says, nervously. Doc claws is being helped to his feet, and is being frog marched from the hold first, while the others look on.

2

2

“If you think the medbay can handle the influx of patients, then by all means. Short of cryopods, that seems like the best way to keep their minds fresh for interrogation. Help the ship’s med crew get it started. I’ll take Sludge to inspect the hold.”

5:12 PM

(Errr I guess I should finish a sweep through the ship, too)

(3xp, 5000 credits, and they have both examples of maltech technology from our book, a suit of completed armor to sell to the NFSS, and the other piece of tech both ready to go. At this time their contact has not shown up, but probably will soon and will be wondering where their shipment is)

(Do we have enough crew to man both ships? At least temporarily? If not, I’d like to unload Claws’ ship of maltech and leave it here to see who comes to try and make contact with it.)

(I can look. What ship did we take for this? been a while. If it was one of the destroyers or basically not a free merchant, we'd have three people we can transfer over to limp it home) (edited)

(we can crew both ships)