It's like those scenes in bad suspense flicks, where everyone is huddled waiting, tense music playing in the background.  Any moment now, something's going to happen.

Any moment now.

Any.

Moment.

Now.

Is it just me or is this taking a long time?

The lift begins its descent.  Your company is coming.

Tepha gets the first contact.  She's able to get a sensor bounce off the incoming ship, giving you all a scan of it.

It's a custom job.  Silver and Ledo both recognize it as classic pirate outfitting.  This one likes missles.  There's at least four bays for them, as well as a couple of some nasty turrent placements.

There are two seperate gangplanks, one fore and aft.  Rig realizes his bomb placement should pin the aft hold.  Looks like it will also close off their airlock.  So any disembarking they will want to do will have to come out the fore gangplank.

Tepha picks up a signal.  Whoever this is is trying to signal someone.

"...you copy?  Siri?  Do you copy?  Shit.  This place is jammed up tight."

"Got a ping Sir.  Looks like we're goin' to a hangar.  Maybe two ship?"

"Shit!  Take us off open air you moron!  If anyone's down there, they'll hear us!"

The signal cuts off soon after.

The lift has descended far enough now that there is a visual.  The incoming ship looks like a old pleasure yacht that's been tricked out.  As previously noted, most of the tricking was done for the purpose of hurting.

The ship is named Burn Em All.  Fritz runs a quick search.  Not registered but a known pirate on the navy bands.  Suspected crew twelve members strong. Captain unknown.  Siri's name is listed as a potential crew member.

Burn Em All suddenly turns on its flood lights, burning them at full.  Seems they're trying the old 'shine a flashlight in your face' trick.

I'll let Ledo signal for the bomb blow.  The Burn Em All will be set in place by the end of your next series of posts.  Baring results of the explosion of course.

Ledo cursed. Of course it was a pirate ship. Of course it was a group of bloodthirsty desperados. Of...fucking...course.

Time to see if he can't talk some sense into them.

"Burn Em All, this is Tiamat's Flight. Hold fire. Repeat Hold fire. The hangar is booby trapped. This whole fucking asteroid is booby trapped..."

Taking himself off of general he sent a message directly to Fritz.

"Fritz, I know you took image captures of what you saw. Send them some a few pictures of the massacre in the strip club."

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 2):

Fritz sends over a few choice snapshots.

The lift comes to a full stop.  Burn Em All is quiet.

Then they squawk.

"Well why don't we talk about it?"

The fore gangplank on their ship lowers.  No one comes out.

Obviously they want someone to come in.

<<Internal>>
"Rig, lower the ramp and prepare to pretend to be me. When I say hi just give them a wave."

<<to the Burn Em All>>
"The fact that we're talking here means I wasn't born yesterday, Burn Em. I know your reputation. If you want to have a face to face, you can come down to the ramp and we can have a chat  out in the open."

<<Internal>>
"Rig, do it."

Through his scope Ledo sees the ramp lower and a suited up Rig gives a half hearted wave. Not an oscar performance by any stretch but it was a visual aide.

<<to the Burn Em All>>
"So to bring you up to speed, we've been attacked by security drones, forklifts with starship weaponry jury rigged onto them, and explosives. Good god the explosives. We already lost one crewman, Fritz Jr, and nearly lost two others figuring out what's what, and you know what we found? Nothing. Not a goddam thing. At least so far."

<<Internal>>
"Fritz, keep sending them snapshots. The drone attacks, the forklift thing, footage from Rig's suit showing the dead bodies, empty storage rooms. Don't show them the ceiling trap though or how to get through the first trap safely."

<<to the Burn Em All>>
"So we get to the bottom of this fucking fun house and you know what's there? A bomb. Set to blow up the entire facility. It's a fucking riddle where if you get it wrong it explodes a fault line that destroys this whole thing. Hangar, lounge, everything. All we got was about five hundred credits in change from all these dead bodies.

And now we're trapped here. Can't access the lift to escape and frankly we don't even have enough fuel to make it anywhere thanks to the hangar booby traps.

So here is what I'm proposing. You put together a small group of your best and brightest and we'll do the same. Together we can try and solve this fucking riddle so we both have a chance to get out of here. We can go back to backstabbing and double crossing later but first we've got to disable Cles' psycho freak show. Shooting the shit out of one another now is only going to make us end up like this."

<<Internal>>
"Alright Fritz, hit 'em with images of the burnt out wreck and the dead guy in the space suit Rig found."

<<to Burn Em All>>
"Send out who you want to send out and we'll do the same. Together we can figure just how we're going to get off this hellhole."

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 4):

There's another long silence and then they squawk again.

Alright

A laser, the non-cuts-you-in-half kind, beams out from the Burn Em All and indicates a spot on the hangar floor halfway between both ships.

But we want to talk to the guy who's hiding up in the rafters there.  The one probably acting as a sniper.  We can hack into comm lines too ya know.

A woman in a jumper comes down the ramp they've extended and moves to stand beside the laser indicates.

<<Internal>>

"Well shit. Fritz, did you do the thing?"

OOC Assuming Fritz gives the affirmative...

<<External>>

"Roger that. Coming down."

Ledo packed up his rifle and slowly began to descend. He shouldered his rifle and hopped on over to the laser.

"So here's the deal. This place is rigged up with enough explosives to make everyone's lives miserable because someone raped and killed his favorite stripper. This whole asteroid is a fucking trap. No gold, no loot. Just dead bodies, creepy messages and explosives. Right now you and I and everyone are trapped here. We found a couple survivors from that burnt out wreck. Dead when their suits finally ran out of juice.

And you and I are in a bit of an impasse. Even if we decided to start shooting one another what's the gameplan? We can't shoot you without destroying the lift. You can't shoot us without triggering explosives and setting the hangar on fire. Run a scan, you can see this whole place is covered in fuel where the fucking attack drones ruptured our tank. Hell we don't have enough fuel to make it back anywhere anyway.

So here's what I'm proposing. You and yours can sit back in your ship with popcorn and watch the show while we try and get past this mine and get us all out of here. We'll stream you the video so you can help out from a safe distance. If we get control of the station we can send you back up the lift and you're up and on your way.

Sound good?"

Ledo was crossing his fingers this wouldn't turn stupid. He wasn't lying and they had a couple more aces up their sleeve. Pirates like these probably aren't the type to go back empty handed but he had to solve one problem at a time. If they blew up the Burn Em All on the lift that was going to be a problem. And if the Tia was blown up...well he didn't want to think about that.

<<Internal>>
"Rig, get to making repairs. Get that hole patched up."

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 6):

The woman in the jump suit listens to Ledo and then holds up a hand, indicating a 'wait a minute' moment.

She slowly reaches into a pocket, trying to look non-threatening, and pulls out a pocket comm.  She holds it up.

"So what you're basically sayin'," squawks the person on the other end of the comm, the same voice Ledo's been talking to.  "Is that you guys will do all the work and we can take all the glory?

"Interesting.  But see, once you're out of my line of sight, I can't be sure what hi-jinx you'll get up to.  You look like the 'jinx' type.

"So Greta here will go with you." Greta, at least your assuming that's the woman in the jump suit's name, blinks, obviously surprised as you by this development.

"If she makes it back in one piece, then we're good.  She doesn't come back..."

The turrents on the Burn Em All start to turn towards Tia, but stop before getting there.

"We've got real good shielding you see.  So I'm willing to take the chance if I have to.  If I have to.

"We have an understanding?"

Ledo shakes his head.

"Absolutely not. Like I said, this place is booby trapped to shit. I can't be responsible for Greta, not like this. She steps where she shouldn't, touches something she shouldn't, hell just exists in the wrong place at the wrong time and she is chunky salsa and you're pissed off at me. Just sit tight and I'll get you out of here. I've almost gotten to the end of this house of horrors and only lost one on the way.

If you absolutely insist on sending someone along then I absolutely insist I am not responsible for their well being and you probably won't be seeing them again. Hell you're probably not seeing me again.

Hey Fritz, did you send them a picture of what Cles did to the madam at the brothel? Hit them with that. Or the VIP room."

He paused letting Fritz send them another collection of carefully curated horror.

"So it's up to you. Your call, but I'm only responsible for me and mine but if you play nice and don't fuck things up maybe we can all get out of this."

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 8):

"I have bigger guns, more shielding, and help outside.  You've given me a bunch of pictures.  A picture might be a thousand words, but that doesn't mean those words aren't lies.

"I'm willin' to play along.  And Greta will keep her com open.  So if she gets it cos she's stupid or in the way, I'll know.  But I'm not just going to believe you cos you say so.  If the situations were reversed, would you believe me cos I sent you a bunch of pictures?

"Greta, don't get in their way and keep your eyes open. Other Guy, please proceed."

It seems negotiations are finished.

Greta licks her lips nervously and shrugs, awkwardly waving 'hi' to Ledo.  "Uhm...nice workin' with you..."

Give me a Mechanic/Edu roll from Rig for assessing the damage to Tia and an ETA on how long it will take him to patch it please.

Also, give me two blind rolls from Tepha and one from Silver.

Thanks
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:17, Sat 30 May 2020.

Rig inspects the damage to his precious ship. It was amazing how much he hated it up until the point it was damaged and then suddenly it was his baby...

OOC:

21:57, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 12 using 2d6+3.  assessing damage.

Tepha continued to poke around the comms and sensors.

OOC:
21:58, Today: Tepha Pezal rolled 8 using 2d6.  blind roll.

Silver was kind of bored with the whole thing.

OOC:

21:58, Today: Silver rolled 4 using 2d6.  blind roll.

Ledo gave a shrug and then motioned for Greta to follow him. He led he swiftly through the corridor towards the first puzzle. He pointed at the door with the 0 and then then 1.

"Think you can figure it out?"

He let her stew for a bit before heading through the correct door and into the next room.

"This next door requires a password. It is really really bad if you get it wrong. Luckily we solved it but Greta, if you would please turn away..."

Once he was sure she wasn't looking over his should he would move to block the display while he entered in the correct password.

"Now before you cross this threshold note that your comms are probably going to cut out after this point because of the jamming field. Better check with your boss first before proceeding."

Greta nods and trails along after Ledo.

She blinks at the first puzzle and says, "Uhmm...well the 1 is the number to the left..."  She then runs to catch up with Ledo.

She looks at the plaques.  "Is it this Lottie person?  The sign outside said what's missing and that was Lot E from the list of warehouse spaces...Why are you looking at me like that?"

She nods at Ledo's warning and clicks her comm.  "You hear that?"

"Yeah.  Just signal when you get back in range.  You know the drill."

She taps something on her comm and holds it up to Ledo.  She's typed out a text message but not sent it.  She's just using it as a pad.

Greta holds up the com so Ledo can see it:  You know he'll stab you in the back as soon as he can, right?

---

Rig rechecks the schematics and the reports Fritz flashes up on screen.  It fits with what he's seeing from a visual inspection.

To get it space worthy, it would normally be four or five hours worth of work.  That would be at a fully working port.  Here...

The hole in the hull is a straight up patch job.  He will need to pull some metal for the patch, probably from the hull of that derelict, but it's a straightforward job.  He will need a second set of hands, mostly to operate the power grips that will hold the hull in place while he welds it on.

The bigger issue is the fuel tank.  The sealant Tepha applied is only a temporary solution.
But again, raiding the derelict should give him the parts he need.  Or something he can fabricate into a stronger patch.  The real question comes in how to go about doing the work.

To patch the hole up, he has to empty out the fuel tank first.  Even a cold patch is risky on hydrogen.  He needs to find someplace to dump the fuel.  And they're short on fuel to start with.  Not even a drop can be lost.

More worrisome is Mainframe's estimates on how far they can travel on what fuel they do have.  If this wasn't an astereoid field, they could do a burn and probably make it back to Granger's Landing.  But you can't just rip through an asteroid field.

Maybe the derelict has some more...

First thing's first which was to continue salvaging the derelict. Rig was trying to look nonchalant as he walked underneath the guns of the pirate ship but what was he going to do? Wait? The ship needed fixing and he had to hope that the pirates wouldn't get board and take pot shots at him.

And if they did...well that would be a new problem to add to his list.

OOC: While things are relatively peaceful he'll have Fritz and Tepha work on pumping the remaining fuel into the inflatable storage tank while he gathers all the parts they'll need.

Salvage first, repair second.

Ledo gives a nod and begins tapping on his own comms. He keeps speaking though just in case the audio is still picking up.

"So as you can see there Cles strung up a remote activated mine right on a faultline. If that thing blows up the whole base will come tumbling down on us..."


I know. If you help us we can protect you. Get you out of system with a clean ID.

In reply to Gary 'Rig' Rigan (msg # 15):

Rig taps a line from Tia into the derelict's systems and gives the junk heap some power.  Fritz follows the line and noses around the derelict's system.  He shoots an inventory and manifest to Rig.

There's a little bit of cargo here.  Some of it might be worth dredging up.

Looking at the ship's specs, there might be a few parts worth taking to.  Even if it's just to keep them on hand, spare parts in storage are money saved.

A fire broke out onboard at some point.  That seems to be what killed the few people who were onboad.  It must have burned quickly.  The bridge is mostly a wash.  Fritz is having to operate off the computer in engineering.  But a couple of state rooms and the hold escaped damage as did engineering.

Blind roll from Rig now please

---

Tepha watches the gauge while keeping an eye on the valve.  The first time she helped Rig with the inflatable tank was easy.  All she had to do was watch.  Now that she has to keep an eye on the whole process, it's a little more complicated.  Not tough.  But it is trickier than one would expect.

Something flashes in the periphary of her vision.  Mainframe is relaying the scanner readouts to a side screen on her workstation.  In the odd moments when she's not watching the flow valve pressure gauge or standing on tip toe to peer over the top of the board to make sure the inflatable tank hasn't hit a snag as it expands outwards, she's been glancing at the scanner results.

Something flashed up on the side screen.  But whatever it was, it's gone now.  Overwritten as new results come in

---

Greta nods vigorously, then taps out a new message.

Deal.  We need to talk.  But I can't shut off this comm.  It's got a recorder as well as broadcasting.  If there's a gap, he'll know.  Ideas on how to talk?

Greta holds that up and looks at the charge.  Yeah.  Hey.  Is that...uh...teddy bear waving at you?

Fritz 4 is out on the hallway of the motel platform, waving it's arms and jumping up and down.

Rig continues his salvage operation...

OOC: 19:14, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 7 using 2d6.  blind roll.

In reply to Gary 'Rig' Rigan (msg # 18):

Man.  Your blind rolls have been biting it haven't they?

The state rooms have some personal effects.  Nothing too racy.  Teph and Silver might like some of the fashion junk.  One of the state rooms looks like it was nothing but a high heel closet.

Now as to that cargo...

Roll twice on the trade good table starting on page 212 of the core book.  Then for each one roll 2d unmodified.  If you roll over an 8, the cargo is still good.  You have a single lot of it.  If not, it's junk

Rig peels off the sections of hull he needs.

Mechanic/Edu tests on Riggy please.  Roll them until you make 2 that are 8+.  I need to know how many rolls it takes for you to make them.  Thanks.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:54, Tue 02 June 2020.

Rig was poking around through the cargo. Mostly it was all burnt out or junk. A pallet of completely molded foodstuffs? Pass. A burnt out piece of wreck? Who knows. Towards the back though he spotted two pieces of cargo unscathed.

He checked the manifest and then quickly double checked it and then popped open a container to be sure.

Gems. Crystals. Diamonds.

Rig had no idea if these were legitimate, forgeries or stolen. But he was impressed. Maybe this would be profitable after all even with the damage to the Tia


22:01, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 14 using 4d6 with rolls of 3,1,4,6.  cargo 1, is it good?

Goods: Gems & Crystals. Still good


He went over to the next pallet that had a series of tall containers, taller than him. He began checking the manifest and then nearly choked. This...this was a game changer. He popped open a container just to be sure.

"Uh...Fritz...are you seeing this?"

Mining drones. A small army of them. Things just got a whole lot more interesting.



22:01, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 20 using 4d6 with rolls of 4,6,6,4.  cargo 2, is it good?

Goods: Robots. Still good. Fuck yeah.


Meanwhile Rig knew a ship like this like the back of his hand. He knew where he needed to go and how he needed to go about going.

2 rolls, 2 successes.

22:06, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 14 using 2d6+3.

22:06, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 12 using 2d6+3.  mechanics + edu.

This message was last edited by the player at 03:07, Tue 02 June 2020.

Tepha paused as she looked at the readout. What could it have been that she missed? She asked Fritz.

"Fritz, was there something odd in the fuel readout just a second ago? Something odd flashed but it disappeared now."

Silver was lounging in the turret keeping her eyes on the ramps from the Burn Em All.

If someone was going to get out of that ship and fuck them over it would have to be through an airlock...except they said there was someone else missing.

She cursed and pulled up monitors to keep an eye on the elevator shaft and the lift shaft as well. Maybe whoever it was that was still out there was folloing Rig through the guts of the base or was making the long climb down the ladder like she had to. Either way with a rack full of missiles almost pointed her way she wasn't about to get bushwacked.

"Wait a minute. If they can hack our feed, can't we hack theirs?"

She said it on the internal comms to Tepha and Fritz. Listening in would probably be a good idea, wouldn't it?

Ledo looked and forced out a laugh. Inside his guts were churning but the comms were still open so he needed to keep the charade going.

"Oh, yeah. It's a remote control toy. Fritz uses them to scout for traps. They're too small to set off pressure sensors."

He motions for her to follow him but on his comm he quickly types out a message.

Don't talk about teddy bear. Tell your boss about the carnage.

He points towards the mine and the strip club.

"Just so you know we're telling the truth why don't you take a quick look around. Poke your head in to verify that we didn't just make up those pictures. The office in there is safe so you can pull up the madam's records to help you figure out what's going on."

He then looks back at Fritz, taps his "ear" (through the helmet) and then points back to the hangar in a (hopefully) universal signal that they are being listened to.

En route to rendezvous with Fritz he taps one more message on the display without sending it.

Can you cut the relay? Can they still hear us?
This message was last edited by the player at 03:16, Tue 02 June 2020.

In reply to Gary 'Rig' Rigan (msg # 20):

Fritz runs a quick check on the cargo Rig has found.

The crystals appear to be the type used in production for communication equipment.  Unprocessed, but an uncommon enough commodity to be worth hauling.  Base price $50K for the lot.

The robots are actually construction droids used at starports.  They cling to the hull and are capable of doing small maintenance like repairing pings in the hull from tiny metorioids or doing very basic electrical work.  Small patch work that covers an area no larger than a quarter of a meter.  There are 20 of them.  They might be worth more as a lot for sale than useful board.  Though, that is just assuming they are left as is...

Moving like he has a mission statement and a pickax, Rig gets to work.  The salvage goes down like butter.  The real kind.  Not the made from fungus kind.

All in the repair work is going to take two and a half hours with an hour for the scrape down of the derelict.  Not bad for an old fart.

---

That wasn't on the fuel readout.  Hold on.  It was on the sensor scans I've been feeding you.

Huh.  There's movement in the shaft.  Maybe.  The jamming device is making it hard to read though.

Tepha plays with the controls, letting the fuel tank go on it's own for a moment.

Like Fritz told her, the jamming device is effecting the scan quality.  But there is no doubt.  There's someone coming down the shaft the same way Ledo and Silver did.  Looks like a single person, though there might be two.  It's hard to tell.

Silver buzzes in at that moment with her idea.

It is possible.  But it will take some doing.  Silver, I'm going to patch the fuel tank gauges up to your console.  If the fill-pressure gauge hits over 120, use the kill switch to stop the transfer.

Tepha, I need you on scans.  Try adjusting the cross frequencies at random.  I'm going to work on an algorithm layout on this jammer to see if there's a way to end run it.

What Fritz is asking Tepha to do is more or less put together a jigsaw puzzle.  She'll work on cross checking different frequencies in the same batch, feeling her way around the static to try to find Burn Em All's feed.

Which is a long way of saying need Teph to give me a Sensors/Int check please

---

Greta looks around the scene, less shaken by it than would have been expected.

She shrugs at Ledo. "When you crew with Siri and Herb, you get used to these kinda scenes."

Fritz answers in a moment.

I can cut relay.  Working on counter measures.

Not sure they can hear us.  Hard to tell without a hack.  And yes, I tried the hack.  They have a pretty stout set of defenses, including lots of data mine fields and counter measures.  I would be putting Mainframe at risk, not that is a bad thing.  But I figured it was one more headache you didn't want at the moment.

Mainframe has lots of tape of prerecorded conversations.  I can broadcast those on different frequencies to act like a smoke screen.  They would have to figure out what channel to monitor by listening to each one.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:36, Fri 05 June 2020.

Rig is still looking at those robots all packaged up neatly.

"Hey Fritz, what can you do with these?"

Tepha meanwhile did her best to follow along with Fritz's commands but it was a bit of a struggle remodulating the scanners repeatedly.


22:47, Today: Tepha Pezal rolled 6 using 2d6+1.  sensor check.

This message was last edited by the player at 03:48, Fri 05 June 2020.

Silver splits her attention between the fuel gauge, the other ship, and the shaft where two more jokers were entering the playing field.

Ledo cursed and then nodded at Fritz to cut the relay. They didn't know how deep Siri was in their comm system, or any of their systems. Seeing Greta unfazed had made his blood run cold.

He delayed as much as possible but it was time to see where the bottom of the rabbit hole.

"Alright Fritz, I think our guests here have had enough of a tour. Greta, why don't you report in, make sure they know you're alright before we move forward."

He paused, hoping to find out if the relay did anything to the other ship's comms or not.

After Greta reported in (or attempted to at least) he tapped out a message privately to Fritz.

Kill the mine. Don't let them intercept that code. Can you rearm the mine behind us?


"Alright, let's head in. Hey Fritz, doesn't this remind you of our time with the Antwhites? Remember how that went down?"

It was a coded message, he couldn't be too careful. A Bugee armed with a pistol had surprised Sylvie Anthwite enough for Ledo and Silver to get the drop on her. He was hoping Fritz would pick up the message and get ready to follow discretly behind them with the PDL pistol just in case 'Greta' turned out to not be as innocent as she acted. Innocent people didn't act that callously in front of a massacre like that. Maybe she really was that broken, or maybe her whole "damsel in distress" act was just that, an act. He was cautious around her, keeping an eye out for any weapons or other devices in her hand. Granted she might be expendable which is why they sent her, or she might be a deadly ninja assassin just like the Antwhites.

Either way Ledo needed a better position before making a move and he was hoping that the control room past the mine might open up a new opportunity.

In reply to Gary 'Rig' Rigan (msg # 25):

As is? Fritz considers Rig's request.  I can download copies of myself into them.  They have a decent capacity.  So I should have a fair bit of movement.  It's odd.  I seem to have a lot of programming specific to this kind of task:  taking over bots and such.

Anyway.  I can run them if that's what you mean.

---

The damn jammer is frustratingly complicated.  Instead of casting out on a set series of frequencies, it modulates through, making it tough to predict.

She gets a fuzzy image of one suit heading down the tunnel. It looks like what she thought might be a second suit might actually be some kind of bot.  But she can't tell.

Uploading algorithm to your scanner base.  Try it again Tepha

You heard the AI.  Sensor/Int check please

---

Understood Captain. And then, sotto voce as it were, Fritz 4 adds Understood.  Since we don't know if you'll be able to reach us once you're in there, do you want me to drop the mine again after a set period of time?

Greta nods at Ledo after she's done.  Fritz 4 gives him the go ahead.

Ledo steps around the torn apart guy in front of the entry, Greta following his lead.  Past Mr. Torn Apart is a short hall ending in a staircase going up.  It's dark at the top of the stairs.

Shining a flash light shows that up top is a large, round open room that screams command center.  Along the walls are set work stations, all powered down and completely quiet.

Perhaps surprisingly, there are no dead here. No dried blood stains.  No signs of any violence at all.  It looks like someone just turned the lights out on their way out the door.  Maybe Cles ran out of people to kill.

There's a couple of ladders set in the walls, each across from each other at the one hundred eighty degree mark on the circle.  The ladders lead up to a semi circular balcony that runs along the northern side of the room.  There are two doors set on this balcony.  Ledo imagines one is the Captain's quarters and one...a business office maybe.

One of those two rooms.  Cles is waiting in there for Arden, if his message is to be believed.

Rig rubbed his chin and nodded.

”Do it. I have an idea.”

When Fritz was loaded up in the drones Rig packed up the gems and robots and made them ready for transport. He would transfer the gems to the Tia’s cargo hold and the drones he would leave out on the tarmac between the two ships. When its’ done he’ll comm the <i>Burn Em All</i.

”We found some valuables in that derelict. Figure it’s only fair to split the goods. Got a crate of industrial robots I’ll set here for you. Captain’s orders are nobody leave your ship though so assuming he gives the go ahead you can come load it up. Until then I’ll just leave it here for you.”

OOC: The new plan is if things go south for Fritz drones to pour out of there and start tearing up the other ship. Even a couple of them getting onto the pirate’s ship hull could do a lot of damage and would be difficult to remove when they’re not in zero gravity. Even better if the pirates end up getting the robots on board before Fritz activates...

Tepha tried to get the scanners working properly but the jamming field was too strong. Even still she reported it in.

”Silver, can’t tell if its one or two coming down the shaft.”

”Doesn’t really matter. When they open up that aft hatch we should blow the charges and open fire. They aren’t letting us get out of here alive so it’s best to have the element of surprise on our side.”

Ledo gives Fritz the nod.

”As soon as we’re through reactivate it. Leverage and all that.”

Once Greta rejoined he motioned for her to follow and led them to the circular room.

”Keep your eye out for traps. This place is full of them. “

He flashed his suit lights over the ladders, trying to peer up as much as possible.

”You take that ladder,I’ll take this one. If something up there tries to shoot us then the other person might get a better look.”

Once Greta was at her ladder he signaled again and they both began to slowly creep up to look at the balcony. As he took the rungs one at a time he opened put he coms again to Greta.

”So, anyone else decent onboard that ship? I’ve never heard of it but sounds like a rough ship from what you described. Hard way to a make a few credits.”
This message was last edited by the player at 20:45, Sat 06 June 2020.

In reply to Gary 'Rig' Rigan (msg # 30):

"Aw shucks.  Ain't you the generous soul.  Thanks.  We'll fetch it when we can."

The voice on the com from Rig is dripping with sarcasm.

Still.  After a few minutes, a guy comes out of the ship and walks over to the crate, lifting the lid and peeking inside.  He lifts one of the droids, hefts it, and takes just that droid back to the Burn Em All

---

Silver kills the fuel lead.  The job is done.  Rig should be able to start patching up the tank leak now.

Tepha gives the sensors one last go.  Still nothing but jamming with occasional slices of innuendo.  But she does get one thing from it.  She gets a sense of their movement rate.

She can tell from the last two 'clear' shots that whoever it is is descending fairly quickly.  In fact, they should be within visual range in the next minute or so.

---

Greta chuckles as she climbs her ladder.  "You don't end up crewing for Herb unless you got a lotta desperate goin' on.  Some of the crew have bounties on their heads that are too damn tempting.  Some of us are just trying to hide.  The one thing you can say about Herb and Seri: they don't like anyone else killing their crew.  That's their job."

She reaches the top of her ladder a moment after Ledo reaches his.  Nothing.  No pressure mines.  No lasers.  No killer drones.  It is almost anti-climactic.

"So when you crew for Herb an' Seri, you're safe.  You know.  From everyone besides them."  Greta continues as she slinks down the side of the balcony, heading for the door closest to her at a slow, methodical pace that seems to indicate she's been to this picture show before.

"You don't crew for them if you're expecting to live a long time.  You're just trying to buy as much time to breathe as you can. This one reads Pleasure" she says, standing in front of the door on her side and pointing at a word scratched into the metal of the iris hatch.

Ledo's door reads Business

Ledo points Greta towards Pleasure while he takes Business.

"Don't go in just yet, we're just opening the door, scouting it out and regrouping. Got it?"

Rig walked out of the and began putting together the pieces to begin patching the ship. Well pretending too at least. When he had gone inside for parts Silver had explained the plan to him. It was foolish and reckless but given what Silver had told them about who exactly was onboard Rig didn't see too much other choice. He had to admit that when they opened the hatch to retrieve their fellows would be the best time to detonate the charge and fire the lasers.


"Hey Fritz, what can they do with that droid? How well hidden is your program and how fast can they take back control and root you out of there?"

Tepha gave up trying to identify the people coming down and instead focused on hacking the enemy comms. With the other crew splitting their focus between Ledo, the droids, and presumably their descending buddies she was hoping she could slip something in and make a subtle attempt at getting access to the enemy communications.

Maybe...

23:30, Today: Tepha Pezal rolled 11 using 2d6+1.  hack into enemy comms?

In reply to Gary 'Rig' Rigan (msg # 35):

Were you able to dig me out? Fritz responds to Rig.  I would guess the mini-Fritz would have enough sense to lay dormant in this circumstance.  It would depend on how sophisticated their sensors are or how savvy their programmer is.  And that droid is going to have less of a system to hid in than Tia did.  But I feel pretty confident.

---

Tepha stares at the band frequencies displayed before her.  An odd idea occurs to her.  What if they were using old style broadband settings?  Those would be strong enough to stand up to the jamming signals.  And are really easy to work with.

Those would be super easy to hack though.  Which was why no one used them any longer, despite how easy they were to work with.

But what the hell.  She twisted the dial.

...TA about two minutes.

You got Killbot with ya?

You know it.  You got a body count?

Two we know of.  Maybe four.  We can't ping their ship too well with all this damn static.

What about Herb?  What's she up to?

Oh their captain came up with some sob story about lots of dead people.  So she decided to run the Poor Lil' Orphan gambit.  She and him went off to see these dead people.

Ha!  That's why I love that bitch!  We're gonna move pretty quick after I TD.  You ready?

Got the blowtorches ready

We haven't had barbecue for supper in so long...Mmmm. Make sure we got enough sauce.

---

Greta frowns than shrugs.  She nods and opens her door as Ledo opens his.

Ledo needs to roll me 2D + Int mod. If he makes the roll, he remembers the phrase Business before Pleasure.  If he doesn't, well things get interesting.  Either way, don't post as Ledo next time.  Let's see what happens to him first.

Ledo is out of radio range.  The fastest way to get to him is going to be notifying Fritz 4 and have him run a message to Ledo directly.

OOC: Poor Herb & Ledo
2:39, Today: Ledo Typhin rolled 5 using 2d6+1.  int check.

Tepha swore.

”FRITZ! WARN LEDO NOW!”

Rig cursed and ran towards the other gunner controls. This was about to get messy...

OOC: He will try and fire the ion cannon barb after silver detonates the explosives. What should I roll to hit a stationary target?

“Called it! Well assholes we’ve got some surprises too.”

If she can catch the two dropping down in the explosion she will wait for touchdown. Otherwise if charges are too far away she will detonate and fire the pulse laser. It’d be nice if she can pop off those missile turrets...
This message was last edited by the player at 22:02, Sun 07 June 2020.

As the hatch marked Business slides open, Ledo has a quick glimpse of an office with a guy seated behind a desk.

Than everything goes orange.

Yeah.  This one is probably gonna sting.  A blast comes out of Herb's door, and fills up the platform.  Herb/Gretta is buttery pastry at the moment. Now let's see about your boy Ledo.

21 pts of damage.  Subtract any armor he's got on.  If he's still in his vacc suit that counts of course.

---

Fritz 4 says there's been an explosion

Fritz Sr.'s words come just a moment after whoever that is in the shaft suddenly drops down.  Silver has a chance to see a guy in a suit and a battle droid before she flips the switch, Rig following close behind...

No need to roll to hit.  You're going to automatically.

But I'll ask you to roll damage.

For Silver and the Bomb, roll me 4d6.  I'll add the appropriate multipliers.

For Rig, roll the Ion thingie's damage as per the rulebook.

Thanks.

Ledo's armor catches a good chunk of the blast but Ledo is still thrown slamming into the wall. He felt like he had just been teed up and someone had someone had hit a home run with him.

OOC: 21 damage -10 from armor = 11. 9 END + 2 DEX. END is now 0, DEX is now 6 but he survives.

"Fuck you Siri. Fuck...you."

As soon as the robot and woman touched down Silver detonated the thermite charge and opened fire with her beam laser.


18:12, Today: Silver rolled 11 using 4d6.  kablooy.
18:18, Today: Silver rolled 6 using 1d6+1.  dbl beam laser.

As explosions started sounding and lasers started firing Rig triggered the ion cannon. He was really hoping they could take the enemy ship out of the fight completely before it even started.

OOC:
Ion damage: 50
18:16, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 5 using 2d6.  ion cannon: 2d6x10.

In reply to Gary 'Rig' Rigan (msg # 45):

Tia is rocked on it's landing struts.  Tepha is tossed to one side but manages to stay upright as the ship lurches from the initial blast.

The sounds of the explosion barely covers the noise of the weapons firing and metal tearing.

Internal damage.  Strut 2 suffering from hydraulic line bursting.  Hull damage 8% section 24 to 32, 41 to 43, and 57

The hull damage is minimal. Probably shrapnel blasting against the armor plating.  The strut is a little worrisome to Rig. But he has other things on his mind.

While Mainframe focuses on what's going on with Tia, Fritz is focusing on the enemy.

Estimated direct hits on their airlock, comm array, and portward gunnery positions.  The bomb damaged their landing structs on that side.  They're listing.  Sending estimated positions of their remaining gunnery positions to you Silver.

Their firewalls are still operable.  Can't attempt a hack.

The visual is nothing but smoke and dust.

Then there's the whine of an answering salvo.  Tia shudders.

Strikes on hull positions 24 and 46.  15 and 42% respectively.  Navigation system offline.

Only two shots connected.  The rest overshot.  Their targeting system must be offline.  Their gunners don't know they're listing.

---

Ledo hits the wall and slides down it, realizing he was blown back down the platform almost to the point of the ladder he ascended.  His suit is flashing reds.  There's a breach along his sleeve and across the chest.

The smoke is starting to clear.  It was a concussive blast mainly focused on the door Gretta opened.  It spread in a half circle from the point of detonation, at least that's what Ledo thinks happened.  His head feels like riot police clashing with armed reactionaries in a mine field.

He is vaguely aware of what is left of Greta.  She got thrown off the platform and is now spread across the control room floor below.  Well.  Most of her.

His ears are ringing.  He's coughing up blood but it doesn't feel like anything is going to come out of him that shouldn't.

Stumbling down the platform, he can see what is inside each room now.

Just inside Pleasure is what's left of a stand that must have held the charge.  There are shield walls on each side which directed the blast outwards and spared the room most of the force.  Past the stand is an old, dusty bed.  Four poster and probably pretty nice back in the day.  Laying on it, wrapped in red silk sheets, are the remains of what must have been a woman.  Beside the bed is a night stand and a cabinet. Holo projected photos of a couple dot the walls.

The Business door opens to a small office.  Behind a desk are the remains of a man in a jump suit.  He is slumped in his chair, a pistol in one hand.  From the hole in skull, it looks like he blew open his head.  There is a computer terminal on top of the desk and his other hand is clutching a round orb.

Silver and Rig can get off another round.  The pirate ship is pretty tough, but you've taken out a chunk.

Let me know.  Thanks.

"Fritz! Turn on the repair droids and if you can focus on their power system. Or weapons. Just...do something!"

Rig hit them again with another ion blast hoping to see the enemy systems start shutting down.

OOC:
07:57, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 8 using 2d6.  ion blast 2d6x10.

Ledo pauses at the threshold and looks at the orb. Does it look grenade like? Does it look like it has a string or some other attachment?

"<Cough>Fritz...I need you...to check it out. I can't take...another hit...like that...<cough cough>"

He stumbled to his knees, pushing himself upright only to fall again. Ledo gritted his teeth against the pain, shut his eyes to block out the spinning room and braced himself against a room to start standing again.

Silver kept hammering at the other ship, using her sensors to focus on their weapon systems to pop them  off one by one.

"FUCK YOU SIRI! FUCK YOU! WHOOOOO!"

She didn't broadcast her taunts but she really really wanted to.


08:00, Today: Silver rolled 7 using 1d6+1.  fuuuuucck youuuuu.

Tepha pulled herself back to her feet, jumping towards the nearest console and fingers flying on instinct as much as conscious thought. She focused the Tia's sensors on the pirate ship to try to get a read of the situation. What had happened to that Killbot thing? Were pirates trying to cross the gap and cut into their ship? Was the enemy ship about to explode from a breached fusion reactor?

She had never been in a spaceship fight before so she was pulling everything she could think of.


08:02, Today: Tepha Pezal rolled 11 using 2d6+1.  sensors.

In reply to Gary 'Rig' Rigan (msg # 47):

I'm afraid I can't do that Engineer Rig.  The jammer is keeping me from remotely activating it.  But I'm sure the me in there will do his best.  Unless he got fragged in the first volley.  In which case he can't.  But let's not blame him for being dead.

Tepha has got us visuals by the by.  I estimate that their gunnery mounts are 94% damaged.  They haven't fired a shot back since that first salvo.

Of more concern is that person who's trying to board Tia.  Looks like the human from the shaft made it down.  They're on the airlock, planting what I think is an explosive device.

There's a sudden BOOOOM noise and Tia shakes.

Yep.  That was an explosive device.  Silver, you may want to head towards the airlock.  I will feed visual to your comm.  Tepha, you may want to go hide.  He's close to your position.

---

Fritz 4 takes forever to climb the ladder.  But it finally manages to get up there.  It hops over Ledo and heads inside the office.

It's a holo crystal. I'll have to activate it to see what's on it.  Hold on.  Gotta climb up on to the desk.

That seems to take almost as long as the ladder did.

Fritz 4 taps the crystal.  A small projection of a pretty woman pops up.  She starts dancing on top of the desk.

The computer system is on.  There's a message on it.

Arden, if you are reading this, you either finally learned to put business before pleasure or you had one of your guys open the other door.  I hope they screamed when they died.

I can't wait for you.  So I'm going to check out now.  But don't think you've gotten away.  See, the moment your ship came down the lift, it set off a bomb I planted at the ICUC's transmitter.  The blast will have knocked it out, and the transmission ceasing will attract the attention of the Navy.  How long have you been down here now Arden?  Long enough for a passing Naval frigate to notice something wrong and head this way?  I hope so.

But it doesn't matter.  Because you are sure to have lost some men getting this far.  And the men you got left are going to take note of how willing you are to use your crew as shields.  Sooner or later, one of them is going to kill you in your sleep.  I wish I could have hunted you down like the pig you are.

Fuck you Arden.  I'll hate you longer than the Universe will exist.  Some day, in some reality, I'll get to see you die.

He's kind of cheery fellow, isn't he?  There's a lock box here.  But I bet it's trapped.  You want me to try to open it Captain Ledo?

Ledo considered it and shook his head, pointing at the control panel.

"Not right now. First we need to figure out how to get control of this station. I hate to say it but Arden there did us a favor. Assuming they don't kill us for what happened to Greta having the navy show up would be great.

I was planning on sending out an SOS anyway once we got that pirate ship launched again. Now let's see if we can't get some controls going..."

Ledo has Fritz help him poke around the consoles looking for an administration panel that he could access to control the ship lift.

Rig was shouting in a panic as the ship is breached.

"Fritz, do you have any robots still out in the open? Did any of them survive the blast? Activate what you can and bring in reinforcements!"

Rig grabbed his own gun and headed towards the explosion.

Silver's joy in seeing Siri's ship go up was short lived when she realized they had been bushwacked. Still there were better chances of surviving a boarding action then a missile volley.

She unslung her combat rifle and swapped out her magazine for one of her red tipped specials, the APDS rounds. These things would punch through a space suit like it wasn't even there and she had been just itching for an opportunity that would justify their use.

Just in case she also slotted a stun grenade into her launcher. Maybe she if left one of them alive the Captain wouldn't get up her ass at all and give her a fat bonus.

Locked and loaded she headed back to the breach with her selector set to full-auto. No reason to be precise on this one...

In reply to Silver (msg # 54):

Shoot.  Got myself turned around.  Airlock is on the upper deck.  Tepha is on lower deck.  Rig and Silver are headed across the hall from gunnery to the crew's common.  The airlock is on the other side of that.

Silver and Rig hit the hallway at the same time, coming up to the door leading into common area.  Fritz patches through the camera feed to their comms.

The raider is already inside.  Silver isn't quite sure what kind of battle armor that is, but it is bad ass.  The guy is moving like a cat, no lag due to the bulk of the mech at all.

As they get to the door, smoke starts to pour out of a vent near the back of the raider's armor.  He's blowing a smoke screen.

He's also giving out jamming waves.  It's going to mess with any targeting software or radar.  Shit.  He's unleashed an attack virus.  Damn, it's nasty.  Gonna be busy folks.  Keeping the cameras patched to your comms.

Silver and Rig are outside the door to the common area.  The raider's on the other side, in a room rapidly filling with smoke.

---

Fritz 4 hops up on the console.  Ledo managed to get them both back down the ladder.  Fritz 4 walks his stubby legs over the various panels and comms in the main room before stopping at one.  He points at a board.  Press this and flip that.

There's a pause and then the various workstations in the room light up.  Fritz 4 falls over and after a moment, an audio speaker near Ledo begins to hum.

Ah. That is so much better.  I finally got room to move.  Gimme a sec.

Hmm.  Looks like Cles fragged most of the mainframe.  I can turn off the jamming mechanism, but the lift controls are kaput.  There's a back up system though.  I can't access it from here.  It must be that room Rig was describing when he went down that shaft.

Did you know Tia and that pirate ship are in a fire fight right now?  Looks like we're winning.  I'll have you patched through in just a sec.

Huh.  I can access the stations top side sensors.  There's a second ship keeping an orbit around this rock.  The...Nice N Bloody.  Charming name, huh?  I don't think it's a naval vessel.  They are trying to signal the Burn Em All.  Looks like they haven't been able to yet.

If I turn off the jammer, they'll be able to patch through.  You want me to turn the jammer off?  The connection with Tia's gonna be poor if I don't.

Silver fishes out another APDS magazine and hands it to Rig.

"Lock and load and lets full auto this fucker down."

Silver turns off her personal HUD and laser sight and switches to IR to cut through the smoke. Time to light 'em up. She hits the door control and opens fire, full auto as she burns through her magazine sending armor piercing rounds streaking towards the mech rig.

OOC: Hooo boy

Shot #1 hits 9 for 13 damage, AP 9
16:10, Today: Silver rolled 8 using 2d6+2.  +1 DEX,  +1 Guns, IR bypasses smoke.
16:13, Today: Silver rolled 13 using 3d6.  damage #1, AP 9.

Shot #2 hits 12 for 10 damage, AP 9
16:12, Today: Silver rolled 12 using 2d6+3.  +1 DEX,  +1 Guns, +1 short range,  IR bypasses smoke.
16:13, Today: Silver rolled 10 using 3d6.  Damage #2, AP 9.

Shot #3 hits 10 for 9 damage, AP 9
16:12, Today: Silver rolled 10 using 2d6+3.  +1 DEX,  +1 Guns, +1 short range,  IR bypasses smoke.
16:13, Today: Silver rolled 9 using 3d6.  Damage #3, AP 9.

Rig fumbled with the magazine Silver handed to him and he barely had it locked in before she flung the door open.

He didn't have nearly the fire discipline that she did and so when he held down the trigger the gun jumped and sprang all over the place.

OOC: Lol

Shot #1 hits 8 for 7 damage
Shot #2 hits 7 for 17 damage
Shot #3 hits 6 for 6 damage


16:18, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 6 using 3d6.  damage 3.
16:18, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 17 using 3d6.  damage 2.
16:18, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 7 using 3d6.  damage 1.
16:18, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 6 using 2d6.  -1 DEX, +1 SR Shot #3.
16:18, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 7 using 2d6.  -1 DEX, +1 SR Shot #2.
16:18, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 8 using 2d6.  -1 DEX, +1 SR Shot #1.

Ledo cursed loud and clear.

"FUCK! Why the fuck are we fighting the only pirates in the world that are sociable enough to have a buddy. Shit...shit shit shit...okay. You check to see if there are any other security measures that we didn't already destroy on our way in here. Anything we can use to get the pirate ship from destroying the Tia. I need to find out if Cles here was telling the truth and we are going to be picked up by a navy ship. If not we need to start broadcasting loud and clear. We're not the criminals here and I'd much rather face a Navy Captain than another pirate cruiser."

While Fritz was tapping he was tapping too. There was too much at stake and too little time to do things in an orderly fashion.

The moment Silver throws open the door, Buddy Boy opens fire.  The two sides exchange shots in a flurry of Zip Zip Pwee Pwee WHAMS

Rig feels two solid hits crash into his suit and Silver gets a good one against her torso.

The smoke starts to spill out into the hallway.  As does enemy fire...

Rig took two hits: 6 and 13.  Take each one sepereately against his suit's armor and then he takes the rest.

Same with Silver.  But she only took 15.  Ha!

---

Uhm Teph?  Sorry.  But we got a situation.  Can you hear me?

The sound of the fire fight in the airlock can be heard all the way down here in the hold.

Burn Em All is leaking fuel.  It's kind of a problem for us if it makes it's way over here as there is a lot of burning bits and pieces laying around the hold. Ledo and I are hailing us.  They've taken the comm center, but a lot of the controls are fragged.

But the me there sent me a layout of the Hold.  There's a fire suppressant system but we'll have to manually activate it.  Take your comm.  You need to hurry.  Northwest corner of the hold.  It's in the other direction from the Burn Em All.  You're looking for a large wheel and lever under a red sign with a picture of a fire on it.

Take a flashlight and hurry.  I'll go with you on your comm.

---

Actually Captain Ledo, pirates will often work in squads or teams...You don't really want to hear this right now, do you?

Hmmm.  There's a weapons locker.  It's apparently back the way Rig came.  There may be something there.  Can't access an inventory.

On the plus side, Cles seems to be telling the truth.  Ledo finds plans for the beacon and simulations Cles ran for bomb placement.  Without turning off the jammer, there's no way to verify for certain the bomb went off.  But looking at the equipment list Cles included, the bomb should have gone off even after all this time.  It would all depend on if the signal from the lift went off.  Given Cles' methodicalness in preparing his fun-time-happy-land-amusement-park, it seems safe to assume the bomb went off.

Oh.  Heard back from the me on the Tia.  Silver and Rig are in a firefight with a boarder.  And the Burn Em All seems to leaking fuel and there are a lot of fires burning.  The dock's fire suppressant system seems to be offline.  He's sending Tepha to go activate it. But you may want to head back.  We're not sure all the Burn Em All crew are dead.

I'm sure everything will go swimmingly

Ledo ran back to the ladder and slid down lower.

"Wait here. Disarm the mine but wait here. If you see pirates and not us re-arm it to give us leverage again...I just hope the others can hold it together until I get there..."

Tepha gripped her PD pistol in one hand and the comm in the other.

"Okay...I can do this...I can do this. Time to be a hero..."

Right as she was exiting the cockpit there was an exchange of gunfire and she screamed.

"I can't do it! I can't do it Fritz!"

Her knees buckled and she collapsed onto the deck sobbing.

OOC: I think it'll be up to Ledo to activate the suppressant system.

"Fuck you motherfucker!"

breeeeeeeeee

Silver had her finger held down firing round after round into mech boy. Fuck him, fuck the pirates, fuck everyone!

OOC: Armor takes 13 so 2 to END.
Her next series is hitting 13 for 7 damage and 10 for 11 damage. Both of those are AP 9
17:06, Today: Silver rolled 11 using 3d6.  damage #3 ap 9.
17:06, Today: Silver rolled 7 using 3d6.  damage #2 AP 9.
17:06, Today: Silver rolled 10 using 2d6+3.  Full auto again shot 3.
17:06, Today: Silver rolled 13 using 2d6+3.  Full auto again shot 2.
17:06, Today: Silver rolled 7 using 2d6+3.  Full auto again shot 1.

Silver might be able to fire on full-auto nonstop but after watching his shots bounce around Rig flipped his gun over to semi-auto and sent a burst right on target at mech boy.

OOC: Fuck yeah Rig! Rig hits at a 9 for 19! damage, AP 9 to boot.

17:09, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 19 using 3d6+3.  damage, ap 9.
17:09, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 9 using 2d6+1.  aiming, semi-auto.

BWAH HA HA HA HA HA HA

Did Rig take any damage?

BWAH HA HA HA HA

Smoke is now making everything difficult to see, but both Silver and Rig can hear some satisfying Skkkkkkkrrrr sounds of metal tearing.

A few more volleys fly out their way Rig takes 8 damage.  Silver takes 14

And then...silence.  There's no Thunk, like armor falling over.  But there's no sound of powered armor moving.

The smoke is thick now.  It's going to make shooting tough.  If they don't put their helmets on, it might start to get hard to breathe.

---

Okay Teph.  Okay.  Let's try breathing into that plasticine sack over there.

---

Ledo rushes off to find the emergency valve...

Let's have ol' Ledo make some rolls please.  Vacc Suit/Str.  Keep making them until you make two 8+ checks.  Need to see how long it takes him to get to the Hold.

If he makes two checks in five or less rolls, and I would imagine he will, then you can narrate him finding the valve and turning it.  Ledo has an idea of where it is from Fritz's description.  And it will come on fairly quickly.  So there won't be any danger.

If he doesn't make two 8+ checks in five or less rolls, well....Just post the roll results.  I'll take it from there.

They were already suited up so helmets were on so they could see through the fog with IR

Rig has +10 protection so 0 and 3 from first shots and 0 again from this volley


Rig went over to a side panel and cranked on the emergency ventilation system. Normally used to vent toxic gases but in this case the smoke needed to be vented ASAP.

OOC: Silver down to 1 END...

Silver stayed at the ready with her finger on the trigger waiting for anything else to move or shoot at her.

OOC: Was the thing's jammer system still working?

Ledo was running with a lopsided gait. His left side had been slammed and shredded by sharpnel and he could feel blood leaking down to his boots. Still he gritted his teeth and pressed forward, half-running, half-hopping down through the plaza, up to the blastdoors and down the storage halls.

Flames were starting to creep closer and closer to the fuel, licking just a half foot away when he reached the valve. Luckily the groan of metal on metal masked the sound of him screaming in pain as he put his everything into turning that valve to release the suppressant.

OOC: Got it in 4, phew

In reply to Gary 'Rig' Rigan (msg # 65):

Smoke has now entered 19% of the living areas.  Starting fire suppression procedues.

Silver?  Engineer Rig?  You guys want me to kill the sprinklers?

Mainframe has turned on the sprinklers.  At the same time, exhaust fans are turning on full blown.

It takes a few minutes to clear enough smoke to see.  But the suit of armor is standing there.

Doing nothing.  There are several holes in it.  But the suit is upright.  And still jamming.

It's not moving.  He must be dead.  Quick.  Lower your weapons and turn around.

---

There's a horribly thick moment as the valve turns all the way and nothing whatsoever happens.

Then a soft rain starts to fall.  The fire retardant chemicals start their work almost immediately.  Foam begins to form as the chemicals mix with the spilled hydrogen, suppressing it's flammability.  At the same time, the foam starts to sizzle as it falls into the patches of fire, hardening into a thick paste that snuffs out the flames.

Good work Captain Ledo.  I think Engineer Rig and Silver have contained the boarder.

The airlock door on the Burn Em All pops open.

I'm sure they've learned their lesson.

Silver just rolled her eyes and emptied the rest of her clip into it. She kept firing until it was either cut in half or the jamming signal stopped.

"Uhh...what? Yeah? Cut the sprinklers. Full exhaust."

Rig kept his gun at the ready and stepped back and away as Silver was going full Rambo on the mech.

"Any word from your buddy on the other ship? Any of your friends still out in the crate?"

Ledo opens up a general comms as he runs for cover and unslings his laser rifle>

"Crew of the Burn Em All, assuming any of you are still alive. Surrender and throw down your weapons now. Your ship is slagged. Your boarding mech is contained. Herb is chunky red salsa and we have the stationed locked down.

One of the last traps set was an SOS signal sent to the local Navy station. Your buddy up in orbit is going to be tangling with a Navy cruiser real quick and then their marines are heading here.

You can either sit here and die horribly or you can throw down your weapons and we can throw you into some low berths and smuggle you out of here...for the right payment of course. Can't spend those credits if you're dead, right?"

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 71):

Let's move this hoe down towards the close, shall we?

The powered suit finally stops broadcasting jamming signals.  As does the station.

So Fritz 4 has the jammer offline.  I can no longer reach the Fritz on the Burn Em All.  Alas poor Fritz 5.  We hardly knew ye.

I have reintegrated all Fritzes.  Station is now under our control.  Not that there's much left to control.

Accessing station's sensors.

Confirming beacon is offline.  Also confirming that emergency beacons have activated.

The Nice N Bloody is trying to make contact with the Burn Em All.  I'm jamming Burn's transmission.  Sending the Bloody a systems-down message.  We'll see if they think the Burn's been destroyed...

And yep.  They took the bait.  Nice N Bloody is leaving orbit.

"SHIT!"  The shout is so loud that it can be heard through the Burn Em All's open airlock.  "Siri!  You fuckin' bastard!"

There's a long pause.

"So how much are those low berths?"

Salvaging and jury rigging all day long. They didn't call him 'Rig' for nothing. That being said he found the Fritz-bots quite helpful, especially as they weren't in a proper drydock.


OOC:
07:06, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 12 using 3d6+01, keeping the 2 highest rolls with rolls of 5,5,6.  Mechanics .

Silver was used to these kinds of salvage operations. Breaking into an abandoned station and stripping it of anything of value brought back fond memories for her. The booby traps and piles of corpses...not so much.


07:08, Today: Silver rolled 9 using 2d6 with rolls of 5,4.  Investigate.

Ledo was used to have other people poke around on his orders.


07:10, Today: Ledo Typhin rolled 4 using 2d6-2 with rolls of 1,5.  +1 INT  -2 unskilled.

In reply to Gary 'Rig' Rigan (msg # 73):

It's quite a haul for Rig.

He finds more than enough parts to fix Tia.  He also finds enough spare parts worth stocking up on.  Filters, which are always in short supply.  Spare belts and circuit boards.  Even a clean coolant gauge, and for such a small part, it's a pretty pricey item.

Take a boon on the next three rolls for repairing Tia.  You can also assume the hull and fuel tank are patched to minimum standards.

He comes up with a decent haul of marketable parts.

Roll 1d.  You get that x 1000 creds worth of cargo:  ship parts

---

The passengers are frozen down.  Ledo and Silver head out.

The cargo holds they passed before are full of mostly junk.  Oddly, there's a spool of industrial grade silver filament parked in one corner.  Treat as a 5-4 result on the cargo trade table.  2 tons of uncommon raw material cargo

Silver knows from experience:  you always grab clean towels.  There's usually a shortage of linens and other common sundries on a space ship.  She's able to stock Tia with various sheets, towels, knick knacks, and table ware of suprisingly decent quality.  It's good for morale and should help with any high passengers that come aboard.

You can take a boon on any steward rolls related to serving high passengers until the kitchen takes damage, like from a ship battle or bomb or Silver shooting it up again.  In other words, don't get used to it

After they strip the bar and motel, they move back to the comm center.

Cles decked Lottie out in quite a bit of finery.  He trapped it of course.  Silver and Ledo...Silver mostly...has to untangle a number of trip wires.  But Lottie's corpse can be looted for about 3K in jewelry.

That just leaves the strong box...the one with the bomb on it.

Opening that will take an explosives/edu roll.  Rig can try a mechanic/int roll.  But you'll want to nail it.

The armory turns out to be both a hit and miss.  There are a lot of guns and rifles, but most are missing essential parts.  Firing pins.  Targeting guides.  Leads for the power pack.  But they find amo.  Boxes and boxes of beautiful amo.

You can assume you are ammo'd up for your weapons of choice for the next six storylines.

There's also a rather sweet looking RAM Grenade Launcher, still in it's box.

The real treasure is parked in a store room close by where Rig entered the complex.  A G/Bike is leaning against the wall.  It needs a new power coil.  But it should run just fine after that.

Yes. You have a power coil.

Once Silver and Ledo had returned back from their looting expedition they signaled Rig to take a break and the three of them regrouped in the mess hall.

"Alright with repairs finishing on the Tia we need to figure out a way out of here. Rig, take a look at the lift and see if it's fixable. Also look at siphoning fuel from the pirate ship. Maybe we can chop it up with the beam lasers and move it off the lift?

I'll go look for another way out. Rat holes like this might have another exit point so they wouldn't get bottled up by incoming ships. Maybe we can find a way to hook it up to those big hangar doors that turned out to just be a decoy?"

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 77):

Have Rig make a Mechanic/Edu test for the lift.  Your plan on 'moving' the Burn Em All by blaster is pretty sound.  I won't require any rolls for it.

You are fueled up as well.

Rig looks at the lift and scratches his head. It definitely wasn't up to code, that's for sure.

OOC:

19:39, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 6 using 2d6+3.  fixing the lift.

In reply to Gary 'Rig' Rigan (msg # 79):

You can make 'em until you get it.  I just need to know how long it takes him is all.

OOC:


19:56, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 13 using 2d6+3.  take 3.

19:56, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 7 using 2d6+3.  take 2.

After much fiddling and review, Rig patches the power lines that got shot up in the fight.  He also replaces several valves that had more or less been melted.

It has now been two and a half standard days since the fight with Burn Em All ended.

Fritz squawks.  So the Nice N Bloody has definitely gone.  And there's an inbound naval cruiser.  It's still out of range, but it's pinging the beacon computer, trying to make contact.

They're not close enough to ID us.  But they will be close enough to know a ship took off.

You want to hail them?  Or get?

Ledo considered things and then shook his head.

"Let's get going. If they pursue we can stop and deliver a full report but this is going to be a nightmare for them to process and I'd rather know who I'm dealing with first. Chances are the captain would let us pass but if we get a hard liner or one looking to line their pockets they could try and stick us with everything. The smuggling, the murders, the massacres.


Fritz, scrub that report we prepared of any identifying information. Detail how to bypass the traps and include the mine code as well. Let's set up a little welcome call so when they get into orbit and try to land they won't accidentally blow themselves up in the process.

Nothing that will trace back to us but also with the information provided they shouldn't want to trace back to us. I want to be able to turn some of these guys in for their bounties and sell this cargo. I don't want some naval officer commandeering our hard won loot.

That just leaves the matter of the lockbox."

Ledo considers what information they can glean from their low berthers and wakes up a likely candidate (under gunpoint from the entire crew) and makes them a proposal.

"If you can unlock the safe we'll cut you in on the contents. An equal share. You can tuck it right into your pocket when we put you in cryo but there is a naval ship en route right now so we have to do this fast."

Ledo and Silver will march their newly dubbed explosive expert (or the person the one woken up thinks will be the best choice) to the lockbox and while Silver and Ledo keep an eye on things from behind the blast shield used in the Pleasure room Rig and Fritz can try to assist over the comms.

Meanwhile Rig will start the liftoff process. If the control station gets blown apart from an explosion Silver and Ledo can get to the surface via Rig's route while the Tia is already up top ready to blast off.

OOC: The big issue is nobody is trained in explosives so Rig's +2 EDU bonus gets crushed by the -3 Unskilled. Even if one of them has Explosives 0 they can get that +2 from Rig and hopefully not turn into chunky salsa. And if they do, thems the breaks, right? It was never meant to be and nobody on the crew gets a hole punched into them.

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 83):

The berther who's trained in blowing things up slides through the booby trap like a hot laser through an ice crystal. He sits back and nods.

The lid comes up.

Inside are a number of hard copy logs.  In looking at them they seem to be routes and claim maps of the Hanna Why.

Hmmm, Fritz hmmms after studying them.  These would be worth a lot of creds to anyone interested in claim jumping.  They're like a who's who of who-to-claim-jump.  That's seventy five years old.  Most of this information isn't even valid any longer.

The maps of the Hanna Why are interesting.  You might be able to get some creds for them.

There is a bonus prize.  A ship's data core is tucked at the bottom.  It's the data core of a ship called You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet.  Records show that ship was impounded by the Navy ninety seven years ago.  It's still a viable core though.  If you take it to a ship yard, you might be able to hoc it.

Rig could also use it. He'd have to work on it and procure a few more parts.  But it might be possible to use it to upgrade Tia...

Need to know if you'd rather dump the core for $$$ or try to use it to upgrade the ship.

The core will net you around 9-15K if you try to sell it

Ledo shoves the claim jumps into the pirate's pocket.

"Thank you for your service. Maybe your next pirate crew can use these."

And with that he gets stuck back into the freezer. It was time for them to get up and go.

Ledo considered the core and thought long and hard about having Rig look at using it to upgrade the ship. This was going to be their home for (hopefully) a long time so the better it was, the better for all of them. They weren't hurting for cash at the moment and while this expedition hadn't been the most fruitful they had gained a few things and, importantly, had wiped one scumbag pirate serial killer from the face of the universe.

Silver linings. Now maybe Silver wouldn't have to look over her should as much.