In reply to Ghent Bel-Andis (msg # 891):

OOC: actually, Ghent, there's a handful of people already aboard Vultan, when we get there.  However, except for Varca's buddy, Aaron, I don't remember exactly who we left aboard.
Ummm...Aaron and Taliesa, of course ... and, uh, Collyn and Donio ... BB might be here, or she may have wandered off into the seedy underbelly of Black Sand City ...

---

     Varca does not respond to Zhouth's summons to the Med Bay.

     When he's comm'd, his response is a clipped "I'm fine!", before the circuit is closed at his end.

     Internal sensors show him in his usual hangout -- the portside Electronic Countermeasures compartment.

Zhouth lets out a long, slow, sigh, glances at Aaron, and then steps to one side for a brief, murmured exchange. Then, with Aaron readying to start work on Theodore, Zhouth speaks over the general comms again.

"On the authority of the ship's doctor, Mission Commander Varca has been deemed medically unfit for duty due to untreated injury, among other things. Commander Theodore is therefore in command, except that he's about to undergo treatment and must therefore pass command to the next one down the chain. Since I'm the closest thing that we have to an executive officer, that means that I'll be in charge."

All of this was delivered in a straightforward and unusually-for-Zhouth businesslike tone, but the next words took on the aspect of a thoroughly mischievous grin. "It has been suggested to me that how much fun I have with this should depend on how quickly the incapacitated Mission Commander reports for and receives treatment. The first thing that I can think of is to redecorate a few places to suit my style as captain, and the Mission Commander's stateroom would be a good place to start, right?"

That missive delivered, he turned around and gave both Aaron and the nearby Theodore a what-can-you-do shrug.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:28, Wed 12 Oct 2022.

Teddy chuckles at Zhouth.

Listening in on the comms after getting more comfortable and thus out of his armor and into his usual flamboyant attire, Rayjay chuckles as well before talking out loud to himself. "Quite t'e dangerous game ya' playin' t'ere Z'out'." He said not expecting anyone to hear him let alone respond, but he did half expect to hear Varca howl in anger as he himself went about cleaning his accelerator rifle after needing to discharge it into the space rats they captured.

In reply to Rayjaynul Brown (msg # 895):

     With an electronic squeal, the comm circuit opens again (Varca must have slammed his fist down on the comm button to get that effect)...

     "Just you go ahead and try!" Varca snarls over the comm, "But remember that I have more weapons than you do!"

     "I told you I'm ... rrrrr ... Fine!  I'm on the way!" the com cuts out with another squeal.

     Exactly 60-seconds later the door into the 'Med Bay' slides open--but it's not Varca who walks in...

     Well ... a quick second look reveals that it is Varca--just him without a Hazard Suit on!

     Varca shuffles into the Med Bay--pausing just outside the door to grimace in pain as he makes the turn into the room.  He's wearing a light-duty, disposable Hazmat Suit, including disposable slippers, (think "Paper Jumpsuit") of a light gray color, and black latex gloves.  Though his head is uncovered, he's wearing a white, disposable filter mask over the lower portion of his face.

     He's walking stiffly, as if it's painful to move his torso, and his skin color--which could normally be described (generously) as 'pale'--is even more pallid looking.

     "I'm here." Varca says, stopping in the door (preventing it from closing) and holding up both arms, "See?  I'm fine!  Can't be in too bad a shape, if you're comfortable making me risk an infectious contamination by walking around without my suit!"

     "Now ... if somebody could just give me a booster shot on the pain killers, I'll get back to fixing Silverhand's comm unit..."

     Noting Viridian and his buddy Ghent nearby, Varca turns to them,

     "Ghent, Viridian--you two look like the handy types!  Grab a toolkit and go fix the locks on Zhouth's cabin door, would'ya?"

     Varca turns back to Zhouth and Aaron, "Well?  Pain killers?"

     Focusing his glare on Zhouth, Varca adds, "What?  My Suit needed repairs, and you keep all the fabricators in your 'office' ... and I was in a hurry..." Varca shrugs--then grimaces in pain.

Zhouth simply stood there with a pleasant smile and tapping away on his comm whilst Varca raged from the doorway, only stopping to look up once Varca spoke about the fabricators, but even so, the smile remained.

"Painkillers? Oh, I think that Ingrid has some of those ready." He inclined his head toward the waiting bed. "Along with a few other things, like plasma and panacea." The smile suddenly faded to quiet sobriety, his tone doing the same. "Varca, you out-bedsheet a ghost right now, including on the color spectrum. This isn't a good time to play tough-guy Vespexer; you really will end up medically incapacitated if you keep going like you are. Speaking both medically and as a friend, please just like down and let Ingrid get to work on you."
This message was last edited by the player at 23:27, Wed 12 Oct 2022.

In reply to Zhouth (msg # 897):

     Varca scowls, "Ingrid fixed me up fine, I tell ya.  I just hurt like hell.  Just need to rest for a while -- I can do that while sitting and fixing Silverhand's comm unit..."

     Seeing the way the radioactive wind is blowing, Varca again glares at Zhouth--but heads for the exam table.

     "Okay, okay, I'll let Aaron check me over." Varca grumbles -- then he stops right beside the table and points a finger at Zhouth,

     "But!  While I'm here ... you gotta go finish extracting whatever data you can from Silverhand's comm unit!  She has a ship up on The Skull, and I'm hoping there's info in her personal database that might help us get aboard it!  If there's a record of just where Redthane is hiding, it's in the flight records of that ship."

     "And who knows ... maybe we can figger out a way to get our hands on the ship, itself, with what's stored in that comm unit."

     Varca painfully levers himself up onto the table, then looks up at Zhouth,

     "Why are you still here?  I left the comm unit in Portside Countermeasures.  Go!  Go get what info you can from it!"

Zhouth simply smiled again. "Well, okay." Then the smile faded somewhat and one hand went up fingers wiggling in imitation of flames licking the air. "Though I'm not really an electronics expert, so I hope you don't mind if we end up with slag-bits all over the interior of the countermeasures suite when I accidentally get the polarity reversed, or something silly like that." Nevertheless, he headed out... after taking a minute or two to change out of his medical wear into something more customary, the color clash surely adding to the discomfort of Varca's already woozy perception.

In reply to Zhouth (msg # 899):

     "Just get what data you can off the things memory core." Varca says, slapping away Aaron's hand as the medic tries to remove the flimsy contamination suit, and Ingrid starts to poke and prod at his torso,

     "Y'don't -- ah! Dammit, Aaron! -- you don't have to actually fix it.  Just get any data still on it.  And cross your digits that we get either her command codes for that ship, up there, or the location of Redthane.  Both, preferably..."

Ingrid and Aaron are able to keep the two 'guests' from dying outright, but they won't be up to full health for at least a week.

Aaron is able to bring them back to consciousness briefly, long enough for them to answer a few questions.

No, they don't know where Redthane is. Silverhand kept that a closely guarded secret.

No, they don't know why Darokyn is after Redthane.

As far as they know, Redthane only has one ship beyond Silverhand's Mercifuge. They don't know what's happened to Krssh's ship.

Since they aren't dead and Silverhand is, it's part of the pirate life that they are willing to sign on to whoever will accept them. Loyalty is a commodity but you don't jump ship for another ship without the captain's permission. Silverhand, being dead, says it's okay for them to join  your crew.

Their names are Drem and Gwyr.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 901):

OOC: Two -- no, three -- more questions for Drem & Gwyr, if they are up to it...

     One -- how many more Crew are still up with the Mercifuge?

     Two -- if there are more of Silverhand's crew up there, how likely do Drem & Gwyn think it would be that those crewmen would also like to join with us (bringing Mercifuge along with them, of course)?

     Three -- should the crewmen aboard Mercifuge choose not to join with us willingly, know of any way that we might gain control of Mercifuge without a major firefight?  A "trick" way aboard ... an electronic "backdoor" ... hell, a simple sensor glitch!  Anything that we could use to keep the violence and destruction to a minimum?  A big bonus for each of them (when they've recovered) will be offered, if they have any knowledge or thoughts on that.

     I, personally, and Varca, specifically, do not know how much, if any, "healing" occurs while inside a Cryotube...but I do recall that, back at Drinax, Aaron did give us a "shopping list" of drugs, medicines, and treatments he wanted us to acquire for the ship -- and I believe we got most of them.  And so, I'm assuming that Aaron's prognosis of "at least a week" for these two to recover is the best-case scenario -- or whether that includes the use of the cryotubes...

     Or do we still have an option to pump 'em both full of Medical Slow drug and have 'em up and ready to pillage by morning?

OOC: Apologies on not replying to this... well, actually, I did! I know I wrote a reply post to this but I have no idea where it disappeared to!


Drem replies that there are 3 more crew members up on the Mercifuge: Murdo the Murderer, Frad and Lu.

As you can probably guess from his name, Murdo is not a nice guy. He was deathly afraid of Silverhand for some reason, but as soon as he realizes she's dead, he'll claim the ship for himself. He's not likely to want to join you.

Frad is probably a typical pirate. He's not bad, he's not good. He tends to go with the flow.

Lu's real name is Beboppalulu but don't ever call him that--he hates it. His parents were Dis ('new age' hippies). He goes with the flow, too.


He doesn't know of any secret codes that'll get you on to the ship. His best suggestion is to simply say you've got a message from Silverhand.


There's a distinction between a Cryochamber and a cold berth.

The Cryochamber is a medical device. As long as you have a medical professional tending it, medical healing drugs can be applied while the patient is in the chamber. The patient is not normally conscious while in the chamber.

The cold berth is just the bare necessity--it puts someone in coldsleep for the duration. Other than a low berth or the Cold Watch, it allows you to put an injured person into coldsleep to preserve his life until you get him somewhere he can get proper medical treatment.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:41, Fri 28 Oct 2022.

[Aboard Vultan; Blacksand City, Planet Theev]

     Not long after the two new recruits are put down by Aaron -- I mean, he put them into a recuperative medical coma!  Sorry, sorry...

     In the Wardroom/Dining Room/Crew Lounge, Varca calls a strategy session...

     "Right, let's go over the intel we got from Drem, one of our new crewmates." Varca says, standing at the table -- dressed in his repaired Hazard Suit (and, as is his custom, not wearing the helmet aboard ship),

     "Drem says there's three other members of Silverhands crew aboard the Mecifuge -- Murdo, Frad and Lu.  Murdo has the nickname 'The Murderer', and that he's a really bad, bad man.  Drem also says 'Murdo the Murderer' only obeys Silverhand because he is afraid of her!"

     Varca shakes his head with a grin, "I'm starting to think recruiting her over to our side wouldn't have been such a good thing..."

     "Anyway, Drem says that Murdo is the biggest issue to our getting access to the Mercifuge.  The moment that Murdo is sure that Silverhand is dead, Drem believes Murdo will try a takeover -- and Murdo running that ship doesn't fit with the plan.  So, we have to quickly come up with a plan that gets us a shot at Murdo."

     "We take out Murdo, and Drem is pretty sure that Frad and Lu will surrender and join us, with no problem.  So -- ideas on how we can get access to Murdo in order to take him out?  Preferably without doing significant damage to the ship?"

     "Oh! heh-heh And no damage to us, either!  If possible..."

"Why do t'at kind of people insist on 'avin' ridiculous names like t'at?" Rayjay asks out of hand before getting to the meat of the matter. "T'at aside, why not use Silver 'and's name as an excuse to board? After all if Murdo is t'e problem and 'e is afraid of 'er, t'en if we use 'er name to get on, 'e will likely be too afraid of disobeyin' 'er to t'ink t'ings t'rough before it's too late, 'opefully. Also 'aving one of t'e old crew along might 'elp assuage any ot'er doubts as to our supposed loyalties, also put t'e ot'er two at ease t'at we aren't t'ere to kill t'em too?" Rayjay said pointing out what seemed obvious to him at least.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:35, Tue 01 Nov 2022.

"Uhh, point of order, or whatever you call it? I have some information too," Zhouth piped up, having (presumably) by now returned from the sensor suite. "So, I got a passcode that looks like it's for a ship, or if it isn't, then to something on a ship. There are also jump coordinates for a bunch of systems in the region, all of which look like pretty standard arrival points. Also, records of various personal purchases by Silverhand, although they're also pretty standard stuff."

He clapped his hands together excitedly. "But there's something a little more interesting!" And then just as suddenly paused, waved his hands side-to-side, and clarified more calmly, "Besides the ship code, I mean. Comm codes for various people that are only listed as letter-and-number codes, but I'm pretty clear on one set being for her ship's crew - those are the Ms - and the others are P, H, and J. J looks to be whoever she was taking orders from, and their lead ship was Janal Tusk, or something like that, which would make M be for Mercifuge; P and H, judging by the two-message exchange, refer to Peter Vallys and Hroal Irontooth, or at least some representative of theirs, although I can't be completely certain about that without calling them, which seems like a bad idea. And!" He pointed off in the direction of the scrapheap, "It looks like Hroal was after land or money, and she was going to meet with Peter's person sometime today, and probably cut the deal there." The holodisplay in front of him suddenly lit up with the text of the two messages.

J-0: PV won't agree if HI is in. HI could care less about PV. HI wants land. Or money.
M-0: Meeting PV in 10.

"That exchange was ten days ago, which doesn't have to be the ten that she was referring to, admittedly." He paused for a customary long, slow shrug. "Anyhow, this doesn't give us a where for Redthane, but it's pretty clear who he thought his prospects were, and if we get the ship itself then the logs should tell us where her ship and Redthane's split up or where it went, right?"

"As for the J-codes, I have a J-0 and a J-1. Also probably a bad idea to call since it would give away the game unless someone can do a really good impression of Silverhand's voice, but if we keep it to text, well, we might be able to fool someone with that." He performed a running-fingers sweep with the other hand. "Except that if it doesn't work, we'll scare them off completely. Also, if J-0 is Redthane, and they were in-system then, well, it may mean that he's very close by, but also probably very paranoid."
This message was last edited by the player at 07:20, Sat 29 Oct 2022.

In reply to Zhouth (msg # 906):
[Aboard Vultan; Blacksand City, planet Theev]

     Varca pumps his right fist and shouts "Yes!  Outstanding, Zhouth!  That's the kind of intel I was hoping for!"

     "Alright, lets analyze this.  That access code you think might be for a ship, probably is.  The kind of person that I think Captain Miria Silver was -- I'm betting she had a master override code for all her ship's systems.  Pirates being such trustworthy people -- hey, no offense, you guys! -- I'd almost guarantee she'd have it in case of a mutiny."

     Varca pauses to give the group a wink and a grin,

     "That's what I'd do on Vultan, if I could figure out its advanced system language.  The Old Drinaxi coding is still a bit beyond my skill.  But I'm working on it..." this time, Varca's grin seems a little more sinister ... or just teasing.

     "Okay, keep analyzing that access code -- if it is a ship's over-ride code, then we can just sneak up to Mercifuge's airlock, override the lock, and bum-rush the ship, stunning everyone and figuring out who's-who afterwards."

     "Next item.  Did you say there's info that Silverhand was answering to someone else, other than Ferrick Redthane?  You said something about her reporting to someone aboard a ship called Janal Tusk?  Or could it be possible that it's Redthane on the Janal Tusk?  I thought Redthane's ship was called Argo?"

     Varca pauses a moment, bringing his gloved right hand up to stroke his chin, then looks around, meeting everyone's eye,

     "For those of you just tuning in -- our ultimate goal, here, is a rather sizable Bounty placed on the head of Ferrick Redthane, who is a would-be Pirate Prince.  Redthane, Silverhand, and our good friend, here -- the late Captain Krrsh..." with a chuckle, Varca gestures at Krrsh, "...Successfully raided planet Torpol and planet Clarke."

     "Now, Redthane and company had been part of the pirate organization run by ex-Imperial Admiral Darokyn -- Redthane executed these two raids as an opening bid to break away from The Admiral.  Incidentally taking a couple of The Admiral's ships and a bunch of his pirates with them -- without The Admiral's permission, of course."

     "With some things we've learned from Krrsh, as well as some intel we've gathered here on Theev, we believe that Redthane is hiding somewhere outside this star system, but still close -- while Silverhand is here on Theev trying to make an alliance, of sorts, with a powerful Pirate Leader, or maybe two, which would let him come back to Theev and, with those two successful pirate raids to his credit, start setting himself up as the newest Pirate Leader out of Theev."

     "With Silverhand dead, the chances for any alliances are way down.  It's still possible he'll keep trying -- but right now, he's in the dark.  With time we might puzzle out Redthane's location from all that data on the commlink -- or we could go get the location from the astrogation logs of the ship up on The Skull."

     "And since I want to add the Mercifuge to our happy little band of outlaws..."

     Varca claps his gloved hands, loudly,

     “Fasten all seatbelts, seal all entrances and exits, close all shops in the mall, cancel the three-ring circus, and secure all animals in the zoo!  We are going to go steal ourselves another Pirate ship!"

Ingrid giggles gently when Varca declares his intention to acquire another pirate ship. "Will I be fixing both of these vessels? That will be an interesting opportunity."

"Argo was the cover name they were using before the raid. And cover transponder signal, I suppose, but any which way we want to name it, it and Silverhand's ship would both have their own engineers, right? So we just need to not end up accidentally killing the one that she had." Zhouth pinwheeled one hand around before tossing it up and sideways as if grandiosely throwing something away. Then he shrugged - a quick one rather than the long one for which he was more famous. "That's more up to all of you who do the shooting and stabbing stuff than it is to me, though. We know there's at least one who won't cooperate, and I can't do much to talk someone into a deal if they're as amenable to talking as Miria was, you know?"
This message was last edited by the player at 09:56, Mon 31 Oct 2022.

"Yeah, that's the way it was," Krrsh confirms. "Redthane's ship is the Janal Torsk. Don't know what it means, though. Always thought it was just the name of an old flame of his. Or maybe it was his mother's name."

"Silverhand's ship is the Mercifuge. My ship was the Misery's Company. I didn't name it that--that was the name when I got it. Never got around to renaming it 'cause of all the hassle involved. And registering it out of Theev would have practically screamed 'pirate' to everyone."

"I kind of like the idea of being captain of the bitch's ship! Heh-heh."

"But don't expect me to be the one to deliver Silverhand's message to her crew on the ship! They'd never believe it!"

"On the other hand, if the message was that your ship was joining Redthane's fleet... that'd probably be the best opening you could get since they'll know that was why she was here."

"Maybe that way you could get a trojan virus on board and take control of life support! Take out all three of them that way all at once! Hypoxia. Used that ploy when we assaulted the Aldebaran out of Vume! Of course, then we sabotaged life support while it was docked and triggered it just before jump. If you do it up on the Skull, it won't matter cause the authorities don't give a skrag's arse. Just don't start no shooting out on the base."

"Oh, and Drem's their engineer. I think they all got a little bit of engineering skill, though. Kind of a space pirate thing, ya know?"

In reply to Krrsh (msg # 910):

     When Ingrid giggles at Varca's declaration of intent to capture the Mercifuge, Varca turns to flash her a quick grin -- and gives a casual shake of his head at her question.

     But then he does a double-take and gives Ingrid a more ... appraising ... look over.

     While Zhouth and Krrsh are speaking, Varca occasionally gives vague nods of agreement with what they are saying -- but his red eyes never stop looking at Ingrid.

     Eventually, just as Ingrid might be feeling uncomfortable under his stare, Varca turns away, spots Viridian, and gestures for him to come closer.

     "Viridian -- come here!" Varca gestures Viridian closer, "You would know more about this than me -- look at Ingrid, there..." Varca again looks to Ingrid, but this time also points at her,

     "I think she's about the right size -- but we can hide a lot with one of those big jackets -- tie her hair back into a severe bun -- dye it, of course -- what do you think, Viridian...?"

     Varca now gestures towards Ingrid with both hands, as if he's introducing her at a party,

     "Could we pass off Ingrid as one of those Widow security officers, d'ya think?"

"Kind of depends on who you are trying to fool," Viridian answers. "Sure, we can make her look the part but whether she can act the part is something else."

"If you are thinking of her fooling the Mercifuge's crew up on the Skull, won't work. There aren't any Widows up there."

"Down here, another Widow will know she's not one of them. Don't know what they'll do in that case. Never heard of it happening before."

"That," Zhouth began slowly, "Also seems like the kind of thing that will get the wrong kind of attention, whether or not we pull it off." There was a split-second of silence before he held one hand up. "Actually, it's the kind of thing that will get more of the wrong kind of attention if we do pull it off, so how about we just stick to the idea of having the two that we have in medical give us access?" He swirled his hand around and returned it to the comm with a smile before suddenly pulling it away to make a short stabbing motion. "Or have one of them give us access while the other one stays here as insurance? That does send the wrong message if we're thinking of employing them afterward, though, and we have the Silverhand code, which might just be the general ship one rather than something super-secret. It could also be a doorbell code to another ship, like Redthane's, but let's worry about that later." A side-to-side wave emphasized his (re)conclusion, "I just don't think that it's a good idea to make ourselves into targets while we're here, and impersonating the legal authorities, or what passes for the legal authorities in any given context, is pretty much always a fantastic way to accomplish that."

Ghent was listening to the various banter between crewmates. Being new to the group, he didn’t know what their overarching mission was, but they were forgetting their meeting with the Admiral. “We did book a dinner table at the Blue Diamond,” Ghent said after a while. “We know when the admiral will be dining there, and when. We could plan on taking advantage of his intel now that we’ve eliminated Silverhand from the equation.”
This message was last edited by the player at 00:54, Tue 01 Nov 2022.

"No Varca, too dangerous for Ingrid, the Widows would kill her, and that ain't happening!"

Ingrid shifted under Varca's gaze. "I can act that way" she insisted but nodded in agreement with Theodore when he said it was too dangerous. "I understand."