Pirates of Drinax

213-1105: Theev Surface

On returning to the ROU So Much for Subtlety, disguised as the Capital Gains Tax, the party found a fairly-unphased Krrsh sporting a black eye with a cut above it, visible through the thinner fur around his eye. On talking to Sharyl it transpires that Krrsh tried to assert dominance over him in the pack, thinking he was an outsider. Sharyl was the spirit of equanimity. “He wished to assert dominance over me. Why would I be annoyed? I am three full spans taller than him! Inside his infuriating and unbearable exterior beats the heart of a warrior!”

Because Krrsh had openly challenged Sharyl, he had not committed any form of discourtesy or insult. The quarrel ended with the outcome of the fight.

Deanna and Timaeus did some more work to narrow down whether Miria had company in her hide-out, an abandoned Far Trader in the heart of the Scrapyard. It took over an hour, but they eventually identified four more members of the crew of the Mercifuge who appeared going in and out of the hulk in previous days.

At this point, Lady Penelope, Deanna, Eric and Tim took Sharyl, Boogie-Woogie the combat droid and the three Vespexers (Ilya, Phoebe and Volodymyr) into the Lower City, armoured and heavily armed with everything from laser carbines to an arc-field sword. They hired a grav-cart with space for a pair of cargo crates and brought that with them. While they looked fairly conspicuous walking down into the canyons, they did not attract a huge amount of interest. A heavily-armed and armoured snatch squad accompanied by a droid and a nine-foot-tall Aslan accompanied by the blatantly obvious means to transport dead bodies was not, it seems, a huge cause for alarm. At least not for anyone after they were past without incident.

The party stealthily infiltrated the abandoned Far Trader, climbing to the upper deck to avoid a vast pool of toxic chemicals. Spotting a trip-wire, they avoided that and then were almost surprised by one of the Mercifuge’s crew as he went to relieve himself into the toxic pool below. Timaeus swiftly and silently eviscerated him with his arc-sword.

All had gone well thus far, albeit with improvisation required. However, as the company closed in on the hatch from which the sound of voices came, Sharyl stood on a metal plate which clanged against the hull. The fight was on.

Sharyl rushed in, followed by Timaeus and then Volodymyr, with Phoebe staying in cover at the door but preventing anyone else gaining entry. Some practice in clearing rooms as a team would clearly be necessary before boarding a ship under fire.

The fight was brief but deadly, with Timaeus hit hard and Phoebe also taking damage when Miria opened up with the deafening sound and flashes of an LMG at close quarters. Nonetheless, the fight swiftly went the way of the better-armed and more-numerous attackers. When Miria saw this, she apologised to the absent Ferrik and set off an explosive charge stored in her cyber-arm, nearly killing Timaeus, who was last out of the room, having given up trying to persuade Deanna to try and hack into the arm.

Pouring the remains of Miria and her two dead crew-mates into one cargo pod, the party stuffed the two badly-injured survivors into the other and retreated to the So Much for Subtlety.

214-1105: Theev Surface

Offended that the crew had gone to kill people without inviting him, Louis Surov announced that he was leaving the ship. He expressed his frustration with the overall lack of violence, at least compared to the generally acceptable minimum standards for piracy and corsairing, and saw his exclusion from an activity that everyone knew that he would love as a deliberate insult. He is planning on investing his rewards from piracy into starting an amusement park business with his old Marine colleague who has a tunnelling machine. His friend will dig cave systems then Louis will populate them with droids made to appear like orcs and trolls that people can fight. [Louis’ player likes fights, dislikes reading, and headed off to DM a D&D campaign]

Having deposited the prisoners into two of the Harrier’s six cold berths, and the various body parts of the others into another, the party cleaned up and slept, while Timaeus got into the Autodoc to begin recovering from his wounds.

The next morning, most of the crew except Vi Lon, Krrsh, the droids and the recovering Timaeus went to debrief at Phoebe’s recommendation: a vegetarian bar and cafe in the Lower City run by Tuk, a K’Kree. The food was life-changingly good and they took more to go for lunch. The fact that Tuk – solitary and surrounded by carnivores – was clearly insane as K’kree go was not an issue.

That night, as Phoebe claimed the space in the Autodoc, Deanna, Penelope, Eric and Timaeus went to the Rose Pavilion to meet Admiral Darokyn. He expressed interest in the Harrier, suggesting in a round-about way that he knew that it was from Drinax, and wondering what Oleb – who had been uncharacteristically restrained of late – was up to.

After more discussion, Darokyn made the party an offer: he knew that they were inquiring after Ferrik and Miria. If they killed Ferrik then he would match Torpol’s 2MCr bounty. If all of Ferrik’s crew were to mysteriously die escaping arrest or tragically fail to recover from storage in a cold berth then he would match Clarke’s bounty as a bonus, for a total of 2.5MCr.

Deanna had brought Miria’s robotic pinky to dinner, and offered it to Darokyn as a goodwill gesture. He expressed how touched he was by such a thoughtful gift. He left the party to enjoy puddings having recommended the cheese and a particularly fine, 31-year old, Denebian port.

Before leaving the Rose Pavilion, the party were approached by Prince Gerhai, who introduced himself as heir to the Sindalian Empire and who enquired after the health of Oleb, his “Brother in Sindal”. Charming and suave, he talked a little about the importance of “hardening the Aslan frontier”. He then offered the party a third of a billion credits for the Harrier, expressing how fitting it would be for an heir to Sindal to travel in a Sindalian-designed ship. The party declined and he asked them to keep him in mind should they have a change of heart.

215-1105: Theev Surface

The next morning, Timaeus, Eric, Deanna and Lady Penelope, Vas and Goorp took the shuttle to the Highport to recce the Mercifuge. They saw it open and with technicians going in and out, running maintenance on it. They then returned, and the four party members went to Buchan’s Ordinance to buy (yet more) weaponry and grenades, then booked into Phenotype-A Clinic – a prestigious augmentation clinic in the Upper City, for procedures on 217-1105. Sharyl has also booked himself in for some augmentation work.

216-1105: Theev Highport (“The Skull”)

The next day – ahead of their various bookings for surgery at Phenotype-A – Eric, Timaeus, Lady Penelope and Deanna again took the short trip to the highport, this time checking in stunners, grenades, swords and bloody intent at the departure lounge: not even Theev allows potential hijackers to bring a light-sabre in carry-on luggage. As they arrived at the highport shuttle bay, they say Leff Roister – a member of Miria’s crew – waiting to board the shuttle down to the surface. And there we left for the night.

The logs I make of each session are, as readers of this blog may have spotted, wildly wearying walls of text which I need for myself – it avoids me calling NPCs by varying names every week! – but I suspect make hard going for the players. So I started writing NPCs’ versions of events. This lets me add a bit of comedy, condense the delivery a bit (usually, and not always by much!), and give an insight into the mindset of these alien NPCs. They also serve as sneaky revision.

This was the first version – Krrsh’s journal – and was still a bit rough (geddit?)

Krrsh’s Official, Unofficial, Emotionally True Log of Amazing Things That Happened

I didn’t want to go to Theev because people there don’t like me and also I owe some of them money. BUT—we landed anyway. It’s the kind of place where everyone looks like they’re halfway through stabbing someone, which I respect.

Then people tried to steal our ship. Which is MY ship. Well, our ship. But mostly mine, at least soon.

Anyway, we did shoot them with stunners, which are less fun than real guns but don’t annoy the Widows as much, which was smart because they came in, made us all stand in a line, and shot the guys with real guns in the head. Very tidy. Very Theev.

While everyone else was out being grumpy and stabbing things, I found out TIZNEE ZAZZLE released her new single: “Look at You Now.”

I played it for maybe an hour or a bit more. SHARYL DIDN’T LIKE IT. I suspect he cried a bit. Not because it’s bad, obviously—it’s just that he knows he isn’t ready yet to understand.

I explained this to him using my interpretation of the third chorus and my emotional dance.

I think he gets it now.

Then Admiral Darokyn wants to have dinner with us. He probably heard about my musical career (I don’t have one yet, but I’ve workshopped some lyrics).

Anyway, Tim became captain because he knows how boats work in theory. I think this was an injustice, but I was busy putting sequins on my old jacket to wear to dinner so missed the discussion.

Patrick Steward, our robot butler, was horrified. He said I looked like a “magnet that fell into a bin of bottle caps.” Rude. I’ve also not been told exactly where or at what time we’re having dinner with the Admiral, yet. He must be keeping it a secret for security reasons.

My outfit meant that the rest went to a tailor and bought clothes that made them look like rich people in a drama about Vilani court trials. Tim looked like a war criminal at a wedding. I loved it.

So then we, sort of including me although I was at the ship, met this guy Petyr Vallis, who I met before and looks like someone who only eats grey food and yells at clouds. But he was also kind of smart and said we could join his pirate club.

His pirate club ONLY attacks Aslan ships. Which is neat, because I also don’t like Aslan. They call me “ragskin” and one time made me wear a collar. (Long story. Don’t ask.) They lack my delicate musical sensitivies.

We didn’t join the pirate club so far. But no loss because last time I ate one of his meat rolls. It was stringy. Two stars.

So while I was explaining music to Sharyl my friends were in a bar and met these two uplifts – Vas (big gorilla man, looks like a fridge with a bad attitude) and Goorp (chimpanzee engineer who seems like she runs on chaos batteries).

They joined the crew after Deanna promised them we’d all be rich and powerful and own ships and possibly a moon. That was awesome. I would very much like a moon.

Eric saved this poor lady named Vi Lon, who was being harassed by some nasty pimp-types with knives and monofilament implants. We all helped out, in our ways. Tim chopped a lady’s hand. Goorp jumped on someone like a caffeinated cannonball. It was art.

The others couldn’t find me to bring me along but they stayed at the Royal Hotel. It had windows. Real ones you actually see out of. Not virtual ones with fungus smell.

At breakfast, two Widows came in, made a hole in the wall, sniped a guy in the street, and patched the hole like it was just a spill in aisle four. The hotel gave us a 20% discount for “inconvenience.” I say “us” but the party were so busy that they sent my invitation to the wrong place and I didn’t get it.

After Vi Lon helped out in some boring paperworky way, Deanna found Miria Silverhand on camera. (Not in real life though. She’s very good at being absent.)

We tracked her movements and found her ship—a broken-down A2 Free Trader in a junkyard.

I hope she’s dead. Or turned into a cyborg. Or both. That would be cool.

Crew Ranking by Krrsh (Totally Accurate)

Name	Title	Notes
Krrsh	Captain of Emotions	Most helpful. Most musically gifted. Most loyal.
Tim	Technical Captain	Pretty good. May be a robot.
Deanna	Deal Captain	Scary. Smart. Beautiful. Terrifying. I trust her.
Eric	Captain of Feelings	Total soft centre. Punches bad people.
Vas	Pilot Gorilla	Deep voice. Could snap me like celery. Good vibes.
Goorp	Engineer Gremlin	Loud. Fast. Excellent. Might explode someday.
Vi Lon	Sad Admin Girl	Tougher than she looks. Needs more porridge imho.
Patrick Steward	Fancy Toaster	Mean but makes good baths. Hates sequins.

Date: 213-1105
Location: Theev

The session opened with two members of the Vallis gang that had been attempting to break into the Harrier dragging away their stunned hacker. The party were reluctant to let them get away with this and drew down on them. They opened fire on the would-be shipjackers with stunners, dropping one, while Tim drew his sword (which was not his newly-acquired, absolutely clearly not a light sabre for reasons of copyright) and threatened the remaining gang member. Unfortunately for all concerned on both sides, the gang had a fourth member on overwatch and he moved from cover behind some cargo crates, firing an automatic rifle from the party’s flank as he did so.

The realisation of just what this meant panicked the remaining, conscious member of the Vallis gang who made a break for it, but First one, then rapidly two more Widows entered the hangar, disarming both party and gang and ordering everyone to remain for “discovery and arbitration” while they reviewed security footage from the scene.

When it was clear that the party had used non-lethal weaponry to defend their ship and that the gang had used lethal weaponry to respond, the Widows lined up the gang members, forced the conscious pair to kneel, and rapidly executed each of them.

On turning back to the ship, they saw a gleeful Krrsh and a shell-shocked Sharyl preparing to emerge as the cargo bay doors opened. It turned out that Krrsh had discovered a new release from interstellar mega-star Tiznee Zazzle was available – “Look at You Now” – and he had played it non-stop on the ship sound system for the seven hours of the party’s absence, despite the threats and pleading of Sharyl. Krrsh confessed to being a huge Zazzlie, and said he had just hoped to explain the brilliance of the lyrics to Sharyl, who he was sure would love it.

The party then received a message from Admiral Darokyn, via his fleet member Ensign Fitzgerald, for the captain of the spaceship Capital Gains Tax – the nom de piracy of the So Much For Subtlety. After much pointing at each other, Tim was elected captain as the possessor of the highest Tactics(Naval), and took the call with the confidence of his new office. The message was an invitation to dine with the Admiral at 8pm the next day, at the Rose Pavilion restaurant.

Patrick Steward was on his home ground, here, and had firm opinions:

“Is one to understand that you intend to visit the Rose Pavilion dressed thusly, sir? I see.”
“The restaurant is rated in the top five in the Trojan Reach on PortAdvisor, and reviews do frequently mention the strict dress code.”
“Might one make so bold as to suggest a trip to Hapley & Son in the northern Upper City, perhaps?”

The party then made their way to Hapley and Son, a bespoke tailoring family firm in the Upper City where they were measured, advised and fitted for suits/dresses (2000Cr for the two men, and 3000Cr for the lady present including accessories). Tim and Deanna went for fairly conservative tailoring and fabrics, while Eric went for a well-cut but flamboyant Chris Rock in the Fifth Element look. The clothes would be delivered to the SS SMFS later.

The party then went to the Lower City and were approached by a heavily-augmented Vargr, who told them that Petyr Vallis would like to apologise for the actions of his subordinates and wanted to talk to them at his base a few streets away, in a red flag zone of the lower city.

Vallis turned out to be a charismatic and intelligent pirate motivated less by commercial gain – handy as that was – and more by a deep loathing for the Aslan, who were to blame for the death of his family and his own maiming as they tried to escape from slavery at the hands of The Glorious Empire, an Aslan off-shoot of the Hierate. Initially shocking the party with his openly species-ist views, as he discussed the reality of the future of the Trojan Reach if the expansionist Aslan went unchecked it all seemed to make a certain sense. Vallis offered them the opportunity to join his gang, in return for a 20% cut of their takings. They would then be flying in a larger fleet and concentrating mainly on hitting Aslan targets.

The party then returned to a bar next to where they had been investigating Miria’s location, and split up to work the crowd.

Tim approached a man talking to, or at, his two droids. The man explained at uninterruptable length what a good listener he was, and interminably recounted his entire journey from the Outrim Void to Theev, and the many rude people who simply wouldn’t let him get a word in edgeways throughout his journey. Two interesting pieces of information about the Borderland region did come up:

• “I’d keep away from Inurin. Bunch of Vargr running things now, based out of Gibraltar Station. They don’t like questions. I hate them dogs.”
• “Word is something big went down at Arunisiir. An ex-shipmate of mine saw a whole merc crew offload there… The weird thing is, they were the sort that specialise in dealing with Aslan raids and invasions, but Arunisiir is an Aslan-ruled world. Well, sort of.”

Deanna approached an uplifted gorilla and uplifted chimpanzee who were drinking together at another table. They turned out to be Vas Silverfur and Goorp, respectively.

They were arguing about what to do next: Vas (leader, pilot and captain) wanted something less deadly than what turned out to have been pirating, while Goorp (a ship’s engineer) was bored and wanted excitement.

Knowing promising crew when she saw them, Deanna suggested they sign up with the party, and that they were prepared to pay them to come along as “we’ll get another ship soon.” The confidence with which she asserted that they’d amass multiple hundred-million-credit assets was enough to convince Goorp, who in turn persuaded Vas.

Eric was approached by Vi Lon, a 20-something PA who had been a high-flying member of a Union delegation from Acrid who had been on Theev seeking mercenaries for hire. Within days of arrival, the rest of her team had been assassinated: she had only escaped by the pure luck of having been returning from the bathroom just in time to see the hit go down. She had survived for several weeks on Theev but was now out of money, out of luck, covered in dirt and with torn, stinking clothes so had no chance of getting any work that she wanted.

The three members of a prostitution racket who were pressuring Vi to work for them then approached Eric and demanded that he leave “their property.” The leader told Eric to get lost, and made her point by extending a set of monofilament blade implants from the back of each hand. Another pulled a knife and lunged for Eric. Both Eric and Deanna used stunners to take down one of the attackers and virtually knock out another, while Tim sliced off three of the leader’s bladed implants with his arc-field sword. Goorp (the uplifted chimp) barreled in at high speed, seeing this fight as an exciting opportunity for dopamine rewards, taking the almost-stunned attacker off his feet. At this, the pimp gang retreated, swearing vengeance for the party stealing their property.

Next, the group headed back to the SMFS, leaving Vi Lon in the capable manipulator attachments of a clucking Patrick Steward, who just loves a project. Vas and Goorp went to get their belongings to load them onto the ship. The rest of the party then decided that they had earned some luxury, and, taking their valet robot Patrick with them, took a three-person suite at the finest hotel in Blacksand City: the Royal Hotel. There, they made use of the two-storey windows looking out over the fashionable side of the city, and into the wastelands beyond; diverted themselves with the high-end holosuite, and had Patrick draw them baths before sleeping in the undeniably most comfortable beds they had ever experienced, with complimetary room service. Well worth 5000Cr.

Date: 213-1105
Location: Theev

At breakfast, the travellers were diverted by a singular scene: two Widows entered the dining area, cut a hole in the exterior environmental shielding (causing a rush of atmosphere out into the thin air of the planet), stepped out, assembled a sniper rifle, shot someone out of site on the street below, returned and sealed the breach, before leaving.

Staff approached the party before almost anyone else in the room, reflecting their prestigious suite. They apologised for the disruption and informed them that a 20% discount would be applied to their room costs, naturally. This reduced the costs to a very reasonable 4000Cr for the night.

Checking new sources later, Deanna spotted an account of reputed Vallis gang members executed the night before, then a story about a member of a Florian League delegation executed after implication in two murders in the Upper City.

Using the new hardware and the administrative skills of Vi Lon, the party then tried once more to locate Miria Silverhand. The intrusion software and the improved series of tasks worked superbly, and Deanna was able to locate an image of Miria (confirmed by Krrsh), which she then used to match footage from other security cameras to zero in on Miria’s travels around the lower city, tracing her to an abandoned A2-class Free Trader in the scrapyard at the east of the city.

185/6-1105 – Torpol

The session opened with the party pointed (by their fence, Robert Fennick) in the direction of Daniel Vlaw, owner and master of the spaceship Sarcomond. His ship was involved in what was being called, around Euphoria City, the Sarcomond Incident, which involved an unsuccessful attack by a Type-S Scout which had then jumped out of the system.

Vlaw, Fennick warned them, was an Asiman who had fled his world twenty years ago when Oleb invaded, and as a result he was fiercely resentful of Drinaxians in general and their nobility in particular. As a result, Lady Penelope and Louis stayed out of the way for this encounter.

Vlaw was an introverted, grizzled man, who was not immediately open to conversation, even with the delivery of drinks from a distance. The universe, and everyone in it, was trying to get him and the offer of free drinks was just a bitter twist on top. However, when questioned more closely he seemed proud of his repulse of the Scout ship, and opened up when allowed to boast a little.

“My ship,” he said. “She has surprises, yes? She looks all innocent but she has two pop-up turrets. Bad news for pirates. So when they come in close I burn them amidships, here and here!” He emphasises this by prodding Eric in the shoulder and belly. “And she is scared. I have more guns, I’m bigger than her. Over my sensors I intercept them calling for the jump. Their captain is Vargr and he is yelling for a jump to Borite.”

193-1105 – Borite

Jumping (with a very well-plotted jump) to Borite’s mainworld jump-in point, the party changed decided to burn to the gas giant instead, a 22 hour burn which saw them pass up on a juicy target – a 600 ton backwater merchant freighter – the Viacom – bound for Borite in-system. Borite itself is named for the yellowish mineral in which the mainworld is phenomenally rich, and whose extraction forms the backbone of Borite’s economy. The party, however, knew that they were on the clock, and exchanged friendly greetings and enquiries rather than gunfire with the audibly nervous trader eyeing up the approaching, Sindalian, Harrier-class Commerce Raider.

194-1105 – Borite

Louis on the sensors station picked up a weak signal, apparently from a standard vacc suit radio hooked up to a larger repeater, which turned out to be from an ancient, Sindalian space station in a gradually-decaying orbit around the gas giant.

Investigating, the party found rivets and some plating floating near the station, as if a ship had very recently jury-rigged repairs. The station had partial atmosphere and power in places, and there was one life-form, apparently in a poor state, in one arm of the structure.

The marine contingent were dispatched to investigate. Not long after boarding the station, they were warned by Louis that sensors had picked up two other life forms apparently coming to life nearby.

During the firefight, a Vargr in a vacc-suit appeared behind the party, carefully holding his weapon visible and pointed at the ceiling. He was taken to the So Much for Subtlety at gunpoint, where Louis checked his condition, finding him dehydrated, starving and sleep-deprived. He’d also been the subject of a beating. All perfect conditions for questioning!

The Vespexers used their expert scavenging skills to scour the station. Almost everything had been cleaned out over the centuries, but there was an intact substantial painting of an Emperor of Sindal which someone had propped up against a wall, as well as a rather more mundane autochef.

• He was part of Ferrik Redthane’s gang
• After he attacked the Sarcomond – which he felt was a legitimate roll of the dice – his crew turned on him as one of the crew was killed by a critical hit to the cargo hold
• He was part of the group that hit Clarke and Torpol
• Ferrik was formerly part of Admiral Darokyn’s pirate gang: Darokyn is one of the Lords of Theev. Krrsh doesn’t know why they quarrelled but he knows that Ferrik now has a 250KCr bounty on his head from Darokyn
• Ferrik needs the protection of one of the other, major pirate gangs if he is ever to return to Theev.
• Ferrik dare not set foot on Theev or its highport, so he probably sent his lieutenant and girlfriend, Miria Silverhand, to negotiate. Krrsh and Miria hate each other and Krrsh doesn’t know what gangs she might approach.
• Phoebe Cross suggested that Hroal Irontooth or Petyr Vallis would probably be strong enough to protect Ferrik from Darokyn
• Krrsh knows the secret codes that allow landing at Theev: without them ships attempting to land at the lowport instead of the Highport will be destroyed by the system defences
• Krrsh also knows the location of a secret fuel dump used by Theev pirates (located between Noricum and Theev in hex 2118)

The party scooped fuel at Borite’s Gas Giant and then jumped to the fuel dump.

203-1105 – Deep Space

The deep space jump, combined with the Subtlety’s suffering jump drive, made for a nauseating and lengthy eight day jump. However, the beacon for the dump was located and the Subtlety refuelled. After burning away from the dump for four hours, processing the fuel carefully on Krrsh’s instructions, the crew of the SMFS spotted two other ships jumping in to refuel: a 400 ton Arospi-class Hiver ship and her scout escort. The party burned back but declined to attack, while noting that anyone at the dump was probably fair game. Fuel filtered and processed, they then jumped on to Theev.

211-1105 – Theev

Krrsh’s codes worked, and the party landed at Theev without difficulty. Met by a young woman (one of three identical such women in the loading bay) they were warned of the Law of the Lords (no murder, no weapons fire, no carrying anything that could break the dome, no breaching the peace of the upper city, no killing anywhere else that is marked by the official red flags of the Lords – penalty for each being death) and the Law of the Streets that holds sway anywhere else (no killing under red flags, otherwise Do What Thou Wilt).

Deanna hacked the starport IT system via a poorly-secured helperbot and found that none of Ferrik’s ships were in the lowport. If Miria is in-system then her ship – the 400 ton Vulture-class salvage hauler Mercifuge – must be docked at the Highport.

They then wandered Theev, visiting Hroal Irontooth’s lair (where they bribed their way into the presence of Hroal himself – an Aslan pirate lord with a crystaliron jaw – and were offered the location of Miria for 100,000 credits, which they declined).

They went weapons shopping, then with some use of administrative prowess and computer hacking they located video footage of Miria frequently passing one street corner in Theev, two days ago. Sadly, further investigations saw the trail go cold.

At this point, the party visited Buchan’s Ordnance, in the upper city: a boutique provider of weaponry to special ops and small-force mercenaries.

Emerging onto the street, the Travellers receive a call from Patrick Steward, who remained on the ship with Krrsh and Boogie-Woogie. He explained that two humans and a Vargr were trying to break onto the So Much for Subtlety by hacking the airlock systems.

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⚠ HIGH-VALUE BOUNTY NOTIFICATION ⚠
Saag-Eriksson Interstellar Bounty Clearinghouse (SEBC)
Sector-Wide Notice ID: IBC-1105-137-CTX12

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SUBJECT: Unknown Group Operating One or More Vessels (≥100 dtons)
Bounty Type: Informational / Lethal (Arrest or Confirmed Termination)
Reward Offered: Cr2,500,000

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SUMMARY:
A high-priority bounty has been issued concerning an unidentified party or parties operating one or more starships, each estimated at 100 displacement tons or greater. These actors are believed responsible for two coordinated violent assaults on sovereign assets across the Clarke and Torpol systems.

DETAILS OF INCIDENTS:

• First Recorded Attack: Clarke system, Imperial Date 1105-128
• Second Recorded Attack: Torpol system, Imperial Date 1105-137
• Ship Description: Unconfirmed vessel count; minimum single ship ≥100 dtons; no valid transponder signals logged; may include false beacon signatures
• Nature of Offense: Armed aggression, destruction of protected property, endangerment of civilian traffic, possible fatalities (details under seal)

KNOWN AFFILIATIONS:
None verified. Pattern analysis suggests military or paramilitary experience.

THREAT LEVEL: Extreme. All systems advised to report suspected contact immediately and refrain from direct engagement without naval or Saag-Eriksson-licensed bounty hunter support.

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REWARD CONDITIONS:
A bounty of Cr2,500,000 will be paid for the arrest or verified termination of the individuals or group responsible. Partial rewards may be issued for actionable intelligence resulting in interdiction, loss of ship capability, or crew identification.

Notice Issued On Behalf Of:
Joint compact of interested parties, including but not limited to planetary and state governments of Clarke and Torpol, private stakeholders, and licensed trade associations.

This is a Priority-Level Bounty Notice.
Interference with bounty pursuit or failure to report related information is subject to prosecution under Imperial Law (Code VI.7b) or applicable local laws.

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<<< This notice has been automatically distributed via the BountyNet terminal aboard your vessel >>>
All bounty submissions must be routed via SEBC SecureNet or licensed sector bounty offices.

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Date 1105-168 – Drinax

He was overjoyed at the return of the So Much For Subtlety, stressed about the (mostly superficial) damage from the fight, and begs them to be careful with her. The Harrier’s monthly maintenance is due, which the limited, single dockyard of Drinax will carry out free, of course, and Baumgartner is instructed that the party wish to use most of the spare spaceship parts that they scavenged to repair the erratic manuevre drive problems that occasionally afflict the SMFS.

The bounty software that the party invested in, amongst the usual flow of bounty notices for nearby systems, flags up a small bounty for information leading to the identification, capture or arrest of the party themselves and their ship, described as an “unidentified, Sindalian-style ship”. So far, there is very little identifiable information since the target ship did not have hallway cameras and the external monitor systems of the Vulture class hauler did not yield identifiable images.

The party received a message from Margaret Blaine, who gave them a recommendation for a reliable and effective fence in the Arunisiir system that they could use if ever there: Lenard Stoyer.

If another goes, they will have to decide between hydroponics, grav lift, propulsion and the supplies such as hostile environment suits that they send to the Vespexers to keep them alive. She also mentioned that Kteiroa, right on the Aslan border, had started seeing annual gatherings of Aslan Ihatei – landless adventurers looking for a target world to invade – with their numbers increasing each year. If they attack Drinax or Asim now, then they will be defenceless and Drinax will be destroyed. The party represent a last, wild gamble by the royal line of Drinax: a belief that these carefully assessed and selected individuals will be able to win over worlds to the Drinaxian cause in time to build a military establishment able to avert the destruction of 200,000 people.

Prince Harrick, however, spoke to Erik, explaining his view that Drinax is already beyond saving, and that abandoning the world, evacuating the city and the Vespexers to Asim, and starting anew offered the only sustainable hope of survival, and that his father and sister were endangering that with grandiose plans.

When the Harrier was refitted, and with a cargohold full of Vespexer-scavenged high-tech robotics and vehicles, the newly enlarged crew

of eight humans, one Aslan and two robots left for Clarke, to investigate the recent pirate attacks for which a substantial bounty was on offer.

Date 1105-176 – Clarke

On Clarke, having flown in over millions of black carbon sarcophagi and having landed in front of the pyramidical Necrotemple built of vast numbers of carbon-encased bodies, the party enquired about the attacks and were pointed in the direction of the station administrator, Keeper Malos.

Accompanied by his eery and silent ritual Preserver, he turned out to be the jolliest man on this death-obsessed planet, regularly making gentle jibes about the party’s fleeting existence and their ephemeral nature. He told them a quarry some distance from the city had been attacked, where scavengers had been retreiving computer parts and TL 15 office machinery (Space Photocopiers) from the area near the old, heavily-bombed capital city.

Having gone drinking in a spartan and depressing spaceport bar, Armstrong and Roth spoke to some other off-duty crews who informed them that pirates in this are of the Reach are often based out of Theev, but that getting there without codes is tricky: it is a jump three route and if you don’t have the correct clearance codes to land at the downport then you’ll be shot down for even trying.

It was, they said, unusual for surface raiding with such a small force. Either the pirates were looking for something specific, or were trying to cut a dash and make a name for themselves.

Flying out and investigating, the party found out a number of clues:

• Two pirate ships had landed, identified from their landing gear marks as a Type-S Scout and a Far Trader, two of the most common ship types in the Reach.
• They raided a warehouse, blowing the doors off with laser fire and killing several. They stole TL14 computer parts, which are particularly in dmand in the Florian Empire.
• Armstrong spotted a carbon-encased victim who he was sure could in fact be saved. They took the sarcophagus to the SMFS and used the higher-tech medical equipment there to revive her. She told them that the pirates were lead by a young man in an Imperial naval uniform and that the scout ship left first, several hours ahead of the Free Trader. From her comms device they downloaded (and decrypted, with Electronics (Computers) skill) comms from between the two ships, revealing that the pirate leader was called Ferrik, that the captain of the Scout ship was called Krrsh and that another ship remained in orbit, flown by a woman called Miria
• A task chain of Deanna’s Electronics (Computers) and Penelope’s admin lead to the uncovering of the location of other attacks by “Ferrik Redthane”, who seemed to be their candidate

Date 1105-185 – Torpol

The video of the attack on an orbital refinery was blurry, but was easily upscaled using Electronics (Computers) skills again by Deanna. This revealed that the attack was carried out by the Far Trader, armed with two double pulse laser turrets, and a Vulture class hauler like the one they fought before, but this time armed with four turrets (two single and two double, for a total of two pulse lasers, two sandcasters and two missile launchers). The hauler had been repainted, but imperial naval markings were still slightly visible.

Yet more computer use revealed that she was the Mercifuge, which fled imperial space as part of a flotilla under renegade Admiral Darokyn and is listed as stolen. Darokyn is rumoured to be based at Theev, and just happens to have been used as part of a false identity by the crew of the SMFS during their recent pirating.

The two ships, before the attack, had docked at the orbital refuelling facility under the names Argo 1 and Argo 2.

Finally, speaking to their fence contact in Torpol gave them the information that a type S Scout had docked at the Euphoria City downport, made some transactions, and had then been involved in an incident with the Sarcomond, currently docked two bays from the Travellers for repairs while its captain drinks to forget. He points out that said captain, Daniel Vlaw, is a native Asiman who fled his planet after the Drinaxian invasion 20 years ago and hates Drinaxians with a passion.

The crew of the SS So Much for Subtlety, their hearts inflamed by the joy of looting and encouraged by the mild approval of Margaret Blaine, decided that it was not yet time to leave the Tech World system, but that more pirating would be fun.

After another day in the system, they intercepted a Vulture class salvage vessel burning in-system from the asteroid belt to the main world. The crew of the Subtlety fired a warning shot from distance at the ship – the SS Steelgrinder – and were alarmed when it responded by rotating to unmask its pair of triple pulse laser turrets and opening fire on the Subtlety at a longer distance than pulse lasers can normally reach: she had higher-tech, customised guns that could reach out to the same range as a particle beam.

Facing hostile fire for the first time, the Subtlety initially stretched her legs and bravely scarpered back towards the edge of laser range after taking damage with the first hits and failing to make contact with her own attacks. Then the ship’s engineer Deanna swapped into the gunner’s booth – Sharyl grumbling that he was trained to hit planets, not annoyingly evasive spaceships – and the armour and advanced weaponry of the Subtlety began to tell against the sturdy but civilian salvager, which eventually surrendered after taking repeated devastating hits to her hull which left her venting atmosphere.

The crew of the Steelgrinder were told to retreat to a cabin while the ship was boarded, with the new and reassuringly competent ship’s marine Sharyl going first. Examination of the cavernous cargo hold – almost as voluminous as the entire hull of the Subtlety – yielded up recently-salvaged spaceship parts, some of them extremely high tech and useful to repair the travellers’ Harrier-class ship. Much of the rest of the hold was filled with valuable rare earth metals, mined from out-system asteroids. The crew of the Subtlety were restrained enough to take only a share of the insured cargo, and did not harm the crew of their target beyond a little mild irradiation.

Their hold full, the Subtlety jumped out for Hilfer, where they dropped off Margaret Blaine. They sold some of their loot at the starport, albeit with some difficulty. Looking at Hilfer in the ship’s library, the crew noted that the desert world had been more active and populous before war had shattered its sophisticated water reclamation technology. Perhaps, they thought, with some investment and some diversion of water-rich bodies from the asteroid belt, the planet might see the advantages of aligning with Drinax.

The party then jumped to Drinax itself, where they sold the rest of their ill-gotten gains at Rachando’s bazaar.

They reported to a pleased King Oleb, who nonetheless seemed as excited by the robotics of Tech-World – on which he was geekishly knowledgeable and thoroughly agitated – as by the actual piracy. He was a particular fan of the eye-wateringly expensive Hive Queen design.

Princess Yao then spoke to the party about some news that she had had regarding pirate attacks at Clarke and then Torpol, urging the party to investigate them in the hope of Drinax being seen as capable of protecting its neighbours. As a bonus, Clarke was offering 0.5MCr for the capture or killing of the culprits, while Torpol, the richer of the two, offered 2MCr: a rich prize indeed. The Travellers decided to fly to Clarke after they finished repairing and upgrading the Sublety.

A discussion with Scholar Voha – the sector’s foremost academic in the field of Sindalian history – yielded an interesting clue about a hidden Sindalian base that a certain Captain Envai – long dead – claimed to have found. By combing the library in the Scholar’s Tower while awaiting ship repairs, and by asking around in the spaceport bars, the party managed to narrow the location down to the Borderlands cluster, and then further due to the presence of a gas giant with a specific number of moons, one of which held the base itself. Eventually, they managed to deduce that it must be in either the Arunisiir or Exe systems.

Note: I get better at writing updates: more dates, more continuity and more images, after this or the next update.

King Oleb summoned his new privateers to the throne room to introduce them to Margaret Blaine, the Terror of the Spaceways, who turned out to be a very nice lady who looked about fifty or so but must in fact have been at least a hundred years old. She had, for decades, been the leader of the most feared pirate fleet in the Trojan Reach.

Now, Blaine explained, the only ship she had ever lost was plying the trade lanes of the Reach and had taken to smuggling to make ends meet. More than that: its crew had become predictable and some contacts had let her know where it would be in a few weeks’ time. She wanted the Travellers to help her retrieve some items of personal value from it.

The party jumped to Hilfer first, carrying a valuable, high-tech cargo which they sold at a considerable profit at the desert planet of Hilfer, which could not make anything nearly so sophisticated. From there they jumped to the system of Tech-World, a place with a strange and even sinister reputation for its highly advanced and wholly unregulated robotics, cybernetics and bionics research.

During the two weeks in jump space with Margaret, the Travellers asked her questions and heard her advice:

Margaret’s secret was to essentially be invisible. Her attacks were low-key and involved as little violence as possible. Indeed, sometimes passengers were unaware their ship had been robbed and upon occasion she tricked high-end liner captains into letting her marines board their vessel to conduct a search for contraband or fugitives. There was always some noisier or more violent pirate captain making the news and she ensured that attention was diverted in other ways too. A little bribery, some polite intimidation and a network of informers ensured that responses to her raids hit empty vacuum. And most importantly, she got out. She created a new identity, which changes every few years, and became the most unmemorable person in the Reach

The party lurked in orbit around an outer ice planet where they had been told the Cicendai would appear and sure enough, slightly ahead of schedule, it did so. A couple of warning shots across her bow from the SS So Much for Subtlety’s long-ranged particle accelerator – which reached further than anything but their quickly-destroyed missiles, and the demonstration of the Subtlety’s superior agility, and the Cicendai surrendered. The Travellers were polite but efficient, taking the Cicendai’s cargo of illegal cybernetics in the knowledge that they would never even be reported missing.

As a bonus, The Cicendai’s nine-foot-tall Aslan gunner/security/cargo loader Sharyl K’zinti, sickened by his Captain’s rapid surrender, asked to join the Subtlety’s crew as a marine and was accepted onto the team:

By now the crew of the So Much For Subtlety had begun to collect (steal) whatever robots they could. This is their renovated, idiosyncratic but highly upgraded steward droidm Patrick Steward:

And this is their extremely stupid security droid, “Boogie Woogie”:

105-1105 – Marduk

The Lady Luck started at Marduk, with the goal of reaching Drinax. This was partly because Penelope and Louis had been summoned by King Oleb of Drinax, and partly because they had a mission to deliver drugs to Rachando on Drinax. They also carried two tons of contraband drugs – what turned out to be highly pure “Red Breeze” stimulant uppers – that they had stolen.

The party sold the shuttle that they had seized from the drug smugglers, before they left Marduk. They could only get a heavily discounted price – the smugglers didn’t exactly have licenses and a full service history – but still made good money. There were no trading goods available at that low population, low tech world that were worth trading for, so the crew picked up some cargo that awaited delivery.

In jump, they passed the week by learning and practising – Louis spend time in a virtual range increasing his ability with slug-throwers to 2 – and by working on the broken crew droid that they’d siezed at the illicit factory. This was done successfully, and, after recharging, the robot (which you still have to name) was rebooted successfully, immediately commenting on the dishevelled state of its new owners. Apparently an extremely capable steward droid, it set about cleaning, dusting, cooking and sewing with the obvious goal of turning the Lady Luck staterooms into those of a luxury liner.

112-1105 – Torpol

The Lady Luck jumped to the waterworld and pleasure planet of Torpol first. Luckily, they were not intercepted by a system defence boat nor searched by customs. They deliver the cargo for a small profit, and Penelope contacted Robert Fennick, a fence with obvious facial work done to his cheekbones, at the high port, to whom they offloaded their two tons of highly pure Red Breeze for a (very) good price: 170kCr per ton. Fennick made it clear that he was willing to help them shift more such cargo if needed. The party haggled to bought a few tons of Robotics at a discount, and filled up the rest of the hangar with cargo as well as some mail bound for Torpol. Then it was departure from Torpol without ever having left the highport, and burned slowly out to the hundred-diameter jump point before dimming the lights and entering the week-long jump bubble to Drinax.

During the flight, they worked on repairing and upgrading the lower-tech sentry bot that they had taken from the drug smugglers, replacing the fixed machine gun mount with an interchangeable one that also fitted a stunner. They were extremely successful in this task, too. Robotic science seems to be a strength on the Lady Luck.

120-1105 – Drinax

On arriving in Drinax after a fast jump, the crew sold the cargo at the highport at a substantial profit before transitioning down to the floating city of King Oleb and delivering the drug sample to Rachando.