Pirates of Drinax

037-1107 – Arunisiir Starport

On the morning of the seventh day after arriving at Arunisiir, Anastasia, Deanna, Parsifal and Cauldron headed for the Martin II to continue their work.

On her way to the stricken Imperium ship, Deanna was approached by Aparo with a strange offer: he would give the group three million credits if they could acquire 20ml of Captain Torsa’s blood. He refused to give an explanation, saying only that his employer worried that Torsa was endangering his ship. Importantly, this sample had to be provided by the next morning (038-1107) at 9am local time. Deanna was non-committal.

Encouraged by Parsifal, Cauldron checked the work that the civilian contractor had been performing on the hull: it seemed to be quite valid.

Once inside the ship, the party set about enacting their plans in advance of the theft of the Martin II. First, Deanna and Lady Penelope worked on hacking the ship’s jump control software, so that if she was in Acrid, and a jump was initiated, the jump solution used was to be one that Penelope provided for Pandora, instead of whatever was entered by the ship’s crew. The routine would then delete itself.

Next, Cauldron (himself a former terrorist and used to setting bombs) set the device containing debilitating neurotoxins in the ship’s ventilation system, near the disabled sensor that would have enabled filtration by the ship’s life-support systems. This was set to go off if the ship’s sensors reported her being in Pandora.

Parsifal summoned Osha to the medical suite: the Dolbergian astrogator arrived, panicking that Parsifal had bad news about her genetic condition. Anastasia used her psionic abilities to engender trust in Parsifal, after which the doctor attempted to gain more information from Osha about her plans on Tech World, and to have her work for the Travellers, instead. This did not go terribly well, however, and Osha left, confused and suspicious.

Continuing the party’s travails, Commander Jagad then approached Deanna, and quickly manuevred the engineer into saying that the ship should wait for the arrival of the Imperium rescue fleet, with its specialised repair ship, before proceeding. This promised to be disastrous, as they would surely find the software and hardware changes that the party had made to the ship. So when Captain Torsa came to get Deanna’s opinion directly, annoyed at the delay that this promised, Deanna eventually changed her recommendations and said that the ship was fit for the journey, especially with Torsa’s planned use of a Jump-2 route instead of a Jump-3 one.

037-1107 Evening – Tarenii City, Arunisiir

That evening, Caldron and Lars saw various of the Martin II’s crew heading for the city. Desperate to avoid talking to anyone, they initially attempted to send spy drones, but they were repeated unable to control these. They then headed for the nearest bar to the starport, around a mile away in Tarenii City, followed thereafter by Anastasia and Penelope.

Eric did manage to bug the table with ship’s marine Jen Laral, two of her fellow marines, and Second Mechanic Polo. They seemed close to mutiny, complaining that Tora’s plan would make the journey to Tyokh and back take months longer. Polo in p[aryticular launched into a diatribe about how the treasure ship was cursed: “Look at all the things that have gone wrong: the astrogator gets sick and has to be replaced; our assigned marine squad’s shuttle goes down on Fist, and so they have to be replaced at the last minute; the jump drive explodes and you folks say that Felmar was screwing with the jump solution manually. I tell you: it’s cursed. We should just wait for the repair fleet and go home, but Torsa is mad set on killing us all by pushing on. On a ship this unlucky, it’ll be the death of us all.”

Penelope charmed the mildly-lascivious welder “Clamps” Hargrove, who confided that he had found a “screamer” on the hull of the Martin II: a beacon utilised by pirates on their prey and which broadcasted on a specific, tight frequency that would activate when a ship entered a certain system. He had not informed anyone in the Navy crew because he thought it was funny.

Deanna approached Salvesdes, the broody, violent marine who was sitting alone and drinking fast, gripping the handle of his pint like it was the edge of a ledge. She took him a drink, but he rebuffed her: “”You see them over there? If I wanted company I’d be with them. Instead, I’m over here. What does that tell you?”

038-1107 – Arunisiir Starport

The next day, the Gazelle-class Imperium ship Komodo – sister of the Amosho – landed at the starport. As soon as she arrived in system, the Fafnir departed the starport.

The Komodo brought the news that the repair ship Henry T. Ford would arrive in a few days, but Torsa was keen to depart the next day.

Deanna bought food to return to Acrid with, to ensure that the new Drinaxian colony was adequately supplied.

039-1107 – Arunisiir

The Shinkiro departed for Pandora. The So Much For Subtlety, along with the Martin II, the Amosho and the Komodo, departed for Acrid.

047-1107 – Acrid

The Martin II and her escorts docked at Acrid highport – a GeDeCo facility – in Acrid. In the meantime, the So Much For Subtlety docked at Acrid’s lowport, where she was able to inspect the repairs that had been ongoing on the Never Talk To Strangers (formerly the Hellspawn/Jazzhands), as well as ordering some rapid enhancements to the Mercifuge.

Other Places, Other Times

Elsewhere, the Lady Luck and the Slightly Bent arrived and then departed Tech-World on their way to Drinax with Tug Wilson. The Mercifuge, Never Talk To Strangers and the Grey Area (formerly the Janel Torsk) had arrived at Acrid from Tanith on 037-1107. Vi Lon, on Drinax, finished her first month’s recruiting since her various surgeries on 043-1107, while Basemath Mondrane, recruiting an intelligence network on Argona, finished her first month on the task on 033-1107 and started a second month on 036-1107.

035-1107 Arunisiir Surface

Arriving at the Martin II to continue working on its jump drives and ruined engineering section, the Travellers (Anastasia, Cauldron, Deanna and Dr Parsifal) saw the civilian welder already working on repairing the damages hull and armour plates. They also spotted Purser Vaughn overseeing the daily unloading of supplies from a low-tech van: fresh food, cleaning supplies, lubricants etc. The van was from a local ship supply business: Aboukir’s General Products.

Anastasia was keen to speak to the popular marine Jen Laral: finding her near the vaults and (as usual) talking to fellow crewmates (who slip away when she is approached), Anastasia makes fairly open suggestions that, should Laral find herself out of the service, she should come to Drinax.

Vaughn came to Parsifal for a checkup, as invited. Anastasia, lingering outside, used her psionic ability to engender a sense of great trust in Parsifal, who then asked Vaughn to order a set of precursor drugs, off the books, which the party intended to use, later, to drug the ship occupants.

Later, Parsifal and Anastasia then visited Purser Vaughn in his office. Having taken psionic drugs to boost her ability, and rested since the previous engagement, Anastasia was successful in implanting the suggestion in Vaughn that he could trust Parsifal implicitly, and that he could talk to Parsifal about the GeDeCo conspiracy. Parsifal, pretending to be a GeDeCo agent with the codename “Wolf” who had been sent to check that the treaty was still intact, and that Vaughn was behaving as required.

Vaughn, who knew that at least one other GeDeCo agent was on the ship, but who had suspected Osha, was persuaded, and was eager to show that he was still holding up his side of the bargain.

Parsifal then persuaded the purser to show him what he now knew to be a fake treaty, noting his pin number when it was entered into the purser’s safe. Inspecting the treaty, it was a deeply convincing, high technology replica of a genuine Imperium Treaty, on the same (allegedly unforgeable) material and with the genetic-seal of the Emperor himself, as well as the signatures of the leading, trans-Rift, Aslan clans. It purported to yield all systems in the Trojan Reach more than six parsecs from the Imperium border to the Hierate for expansion, declaring them an Aslan sphere of interest.

That evening, the party spend a great deal of time trying to work out their plans, and whether they can achieve all of their goals: steal the contents of the Martin II; steal the contents of its secure vault; steal the ship; purloin the treaty; aid the Imperium ships in defeating the Irontooth and even seize that or another of Irontooth’s flotilla for themselves.

As they talk, Patrick Steward makes a rare intervention: “It is not my place to pass judgement on the profligate expenditure on ships, marines and soldiers which so regularly threatens the liquidity of your concern, despite the worry that I see engraved upon the face of Mistress Penelope at the end of each month. However, since you insist on maintaining such outgoings, it does seem a convenient source of ways to even any given fight, so to speak.”

The party then check and spot that they will, within days, have four ships next door in Acrid: the Mercifuge; the Never Talk To Strangers; the Phlebotomist; and the Grey Area, as well as excess crew, crew droids, marines, marine droids, and almost 150 soldiers.

The So Much For Subtlety spots that the Imperium ship Arshad has left her High Guard station and is burning fast away from the planet. Timaeus contacts Burghof, discovering that Captain Torsa, as senior officer, has ordered him to intercept an 800-ton tender linked to Hroal Irontooth that has jumped into the system. Without expressing his disapproval of this offer directly, Burghof asks the SMFS to replace him in the High Guard position, leading to the situation where the pirates are guarding the ship they wish to steal.

Sure enough, a Fast Armoured Scout ship, the Dancing Spider – also a member of Irontooth’s fleet – appears, burning in fast towards the planet. It sends a tight burst transmission to the starport, but since the So Much For Subtlety is burning from the starport at the time, they are able to intercept both it and the return message, which they hoped to decode soon.

The players then engaged the Dancing Spider, and despite her thick armour and high speed, Erik wrecked her manuevre drives with a single, lucky shot from the particle accelerator as soon as she entered long range [critical hit level three: manuevre drives; accumulated damage critical hit – manuevre drive; uncontrolled plummet to the ground]. The players were cheered that a total bounty of 400KCr could be claimed on the ship and her occupants.

036-1107 Arunisiir Surface

The next day, Parsifal found that the precursor chemicals had arrived for the neurotoxin that would hopefully knock out the crew of the Martin II when the time came. Anastasia had worked out the chemical sensors to disable on the filtration system, and Deanna had located the correct place to set the device. All that remained was for Cauldron to build and set the device, with the correct programming from Deanna on the conditions for it to be set off.

Sharyl, the Aslan marine, later tells the party that he was approached by Shinahei, eldest son of Lord Ekaft, a local Aslan baron amd a member of the Shino’hake clan. His father sees the position of the Aslan on Arunisiir as pathetic, and believes that his clan will send hundreds, or even thousands, of clan members to support him in a war to take full control of Arunisiir as part of the Hierate. The party have their own plans for Arunisiir involving Prince Hteilotorl. Deanna promises to send the message as requested, despite having no intention to do so.

Krrsh, listening to the party’s plotting, makes his own suggestion: “We can play the old rip-and-return scam. We can sell the ship to Oghman raiders or Theev pirates or whatever. Anyway, we sell it to some patsy and watch them get the blame. Then we steal it back. Claim the reward, no doubt.”

The party invited Captain Torsa to the SMFS for dinner, and he gladly attended, proving easily flattered, once more. “Captain Burghof tells me of reports from Exe that the filthy Aslan blackguard Irontooth has been seen lingering there in recent weeks. Damn’ee, sir, how I wish we could have at him. That’s my style, sir. Nothing would give me greater pleasure, sir. But duty calls upon me to deliver the cargo safely, so I must obey. Commander Jagad demands that we support the Arshad, but it won’t do, sir. I have me duty, sir. She wants me ship, I can tell it, sir. But I have friends at court at Tobia and she does not, so she can whistle for it.”

From Torsa also informs the party that Mari Jagad disapproves of wider ship’s access they have been granted and has lodged a formal objection in the ship’s log.

Finally, he shares the news that he intends to protect the damaged jump drive of the Martin II but restricting it to Jump-2 for the journey to Tyokh, travelling via Acrid, Exe and Tech World.

023-1107 Acrid

Having spent the several days that had passed since the arrival of Princess Rao’s message in speculation about the situation of the downed treasure ship in neighbouring Arunisiir, the party made preparations for their departure from the now-peaceful People’s Soviet of Acrid.

The Lady Luck was dispatched on a trading mission back to Drinax, with the corvette Slightly Bent – affianced to Admiral Wrax – accompanying her and Tug Wilson aboard. The Mercifuge was sent to Tanith to retrieve the newly rechristened Hellspawn: now known as the Never Talk to Strangers. Since the vengeful Black Arrow gang were rumoured to be searching the Wildeman Cluster for the Drinaxians, the Mercifuge was accompanied by the Grey Area, formerly the Janel Torsk – Ferrik Redthane’s old flagship.

The Phlebotomist and the party’s 1st Company of troops were left at Acrid in the meantime: si vis pacem, praeparet bellum.

031-1107 Arunisiir

Arriving in orbit at Arunisiir, the party sees the Arshad – a four hundred ton, Gazelle Class Imperium escort corvette – in high guard orbit above Arunisiir. During their descent, the party were impressed by the verdant – albeit very wet-looking – planet’s surface, and they declared that they could see why Hteilotorl had fallen for its charms.

Descending directly to the lowport on Arunisiir itself, the So Much For Subtlety and the Shinkiro arrive together and see the massive bulk of the upgraded Swiftsure-class freighter which is the Imperium treasure ship Martin II. She dominates one of the landing pads, her damaed engineering section supported by grav lifters.

Lady Penelope, pilot of the SMFS, hailed the Martin II and asked to speak to her Captain. This went poorly: Captain Torsa expected more respect, and was highly dubious regarding the relevance – or even existence – of a “Drinaxian Navy”. When Penelope asked him to “put her through” to the engineering section, Torsa exploded with rage at being asked to behave as a receptionist and ended the call.

After securing their ships – with the Shinkiro’s adaptive hull and transponder disguising her – Timaeus (in disguise), Penelope and Deanna (as themselves) made for town, trudging down the muddy dirt track to the nearby town of Tarenii in a sudden downpour and making for the first bar – The Drowned Rat – that they found, which was, due to its proximity, also the bar used by most crew at the starport.

In there, Penelope talked to O’Leary and Ilin, two hard-partying crewmen from the Martin II who explained how Commander Jagad had saved the Martin II by venting the engineering section after an explosion above Arunisiir, but expressed their hatred for her nonetheless, due to the deaths of almost every engineer as a result. They also mentioned how they detested the captain and his intention to continue to Tyokh with the crippled ship: Torsa despised them, too, and they knew he would abandon them in a port en route as soon as he could.

Timaeus spoke to Jen Laral, a clearly-popular young marine drinking with several other crewmates. She, too, thought that proceeding to Tyokh was foolish of Torsa and that he was doing it through pride and stupidity because he wanted a better command. She had considered leading a deputation to demand a return to the Imperium but knew the likely results.

Deanna spoke to a well-armed couple in their sixties – Hral and Gila Zafnen – who turned out to be the joint owners of the far trader Fafnir. Gila had heard of the Drinaxians already and was under no illusions what brought them to Arunisiir. She confided that the vault on the treasure ship was impervious to anything short of a starship weapon, and that not much would survive inside it if that was used to peel it open. Later, Deanna researched the pair on the ship’s bounty software and found that they had four expired notices in twenty-five years for suspicion of piracy but no actual bounties.

Before leaving, all three of the Travellers spoke to Yan (a human scout) and Bucket (his long-suffering robot sidekick). Yan was very drunk, having been playing up his self-proclaimed role of “saviour of the Martin II”. He had taken the news partway to the Imperium, meeting a patrol cruiser in Umemii (an odd location for a jump-2 ship going from Arunisiir to Fist, in the silently-but-clearly-expressed opinion of Bucket.

On their way back to the ship, the party encountered Hahehake: one of the planet’s Aslan oligarchs, being drawn by human servants on a gold-plated panquin (but essentially a wooden cart). His human seneschal spoke for him: “His Lordship Hahehake, Lord of the Pride Asiaf of the Clan Tykhisto and the Conqueror of the Wet Wilds, demands to know why you are not bowing. Also, he wishes to possess your gun. It looks… amusingly primitive.” Perhaps still influenced by the dignity and glory of the Iuwoi clan on Tyokh, the party bowed and Deanna duly handed over her cheap stunner as a gift.

032-1107 Arunisiir

The next morning, Deanna approached Second Engineer Polo of the Martin II, who was working outside the ship and looked out of his depth. It turned out that O’Leary and Ilin’s tip, the previous night, was correct: Polo was desperately looking for anyone who had experience of engineering or starship mechanics, and he also revealed that the ship’s medic had been killed after she entered the engineering compartment before it was vented. When Deanna, Parsifal, Cauldron and Anastasia presented their bona fides (and for all but Anastasia, their proof of Imperium service), they were quickly hired.

As the new ship’s medic, Parsifal had to treat several people, some nursing injuries from the explosion. As an ex-Imperium interrogator – Inquisitor-Adjunct for Biological and Cognitive Methodology – Parsifal is gifted in persuading people to talk. One of his patients, Mechanic Talis, was so won over that she broke down and confessed that she had been having an affair with Felmar, the engineer whose actions had triggered the explosion in which he died. He had been talking about a new start for them, she said, outside the navy, with new lives and with wealth. She also claimed that he had been speaking to Marine Salvesdes and to Launch Pilot Henshaw a lot before his death, but wouldn’t discuss what they talked about.

Marine Commander Harc visited to get his cranial jack realigned: for years, this had needed done after every jump and it caused him blinding headaches that last until the ship’s medic performed the procedure each time. Doctor Parsifal von Edelsburg,luckily for Harc, is not just a surgeon but also a cyberneticist, and he quickly diagnosed the issue. An offer to fix it once and for all was accepted and Parsifal deftly resolved the issue, leading to a pathetically grateful officer of marines.

Meanwhile, Deanna (a former Imperium Navy engineering officer who retired with the rank of captain) set about diagnosing another patient: the ship’s jump drives. She was able to see that somebody had disabled the safety interlocks that prevent the jump solution being changed. This had not been done with a pre-installed override value: someone – presumably Felmar – had tried desperately to reprogram the drive on the fly. In her opinion, the ship was very lucky not to have been destroyed in a jump transition failure. She reported this to Commander Jagad, the ship’s imposing Executive Officer, who still bore scars on her face from the explosion. Asked to provide an estimate for how long it would take to get the drive jury-rigged to functionality again, Deanna padded her estimate substantially, giving a figure of 8-10 days.

Later, the party checked the jump coordinates that Felmar had attempted to set: they were for a remote location in Exe, a day’s flight from the gas giant and tens of millions of kilometres away from the refuelling station.

Anastasia, who was just about capable of holding a wrench convincingly, spoke to Marine Salvesdes as he passed through engineering. Questioning him on what had happened, she used her psionic ability to read surface thoughts. This yielded a tumultuous wave of feedback: Salvesdes was borderline schizophrenic, and seemed to already be the subject of psionic manipulation. He was also thinking, very clearly, “if it wasn’t for Irontooth I could just kill her, kill everyone else in here, then kill myself and be done.”

At lunch, Parsifal spoke to Launch Pilot Henshaw, one of those named by Talis as speaking furtively with Felmar. Henshaw was extremely upset about something, even beyond the fact that she had watched Felmar die from her launch station. She wasn’t willing to talk in the galley, but Parsifal suggested she come for counselling. Only on being assured that he was duty-bound not to discuss what she said with anyone did she consider it.

The party also spoke to Assistant Steward Lyra Vane, who confessed that she was terrified that the Martin II was on a secret Imperium mission to start a war: she had glimpsed a treaty in Vaughn’s quarters when cleaning: it seemed to suggest giving up entire systems on the Hierate border!

That evening, the party returned to the Drowned Rat in Tarenii,this time taking the canal ferry like others did. Suddenly, a blinding spotlight hit them. A sleek, heavily armed patrol boat, The Justice of Kinddur, roared out from the treeline, sirens wailing. A voice boomed over a loudspeaker: “Heave to! Hands where we can see them! Prepare to be boarded!”

As soon as the Travellers variously reached for their weapons or assessed the situation, the siren cut out abruptly. A human director in a headset leant over the railing of the patrol boat and yells, “Cut! Cut! No, no, no! The lighting is all wrong. And you,” he pointed at Timaeus. “You look bored. We need ‘desperate smugglers caught in the act,’ not ‘tourists looking for a bathroom.’ Let’s reset to mark one.”

The “Patrol” was actually a film crew for the hit show CanPals – specifically for the spin-off show “Offworld Rookies”. The “Officers” were barely trained actors or off-world neophytes who were more concerned with their hair than the law.

The party decided that their situation as pirates and would-be treasure thieves would not be improved by appearing on a vid-show, and left.

In the Drowned Rat, Deanna spoke to Osha, the astrogator for the Martin II who was very inquisitive as to whether the ship would be able to reach Tech World, which was en route to Tyokh. She was delighted to hear that it probably would.

Timaeus spoke to Jace, a fortune-teller sitting in a quiet corner of the bar who declined a drink then gave a fairly accurate cold-read of the ex-noble’s motivations.

Finally, Parsifal was approached by Aparo, who explained that he was a starship parts salesman out of Tech World who had arrived on the Fafnir. He was reading a datapad before approaching Parsifal and enquiring if the Martin II needed any spare parts, and whether she could still make her originally-planned trip via Tech World to Tyokh? He seemed very persistent on whether the ship would make it to Tech World in particular.

As he left, Deanna got Parsifal to swiftly slip a bug onto Aparo, in the collar of his coat. Listening to this, they heard Aparo make a quick call after leaving: “Vaughn? [It’s] Aparo. Looks like we are on for Tech World. You know what you have to do.”