Silver and Rig are pulling in the last of the haul when your comm screen pings Tepha

<i>Naval Cruiser Persephone hailing Tiamat.  You are ordered to power down your drives.  We will be boarding in T minus 2 minutes

Sure enough a naval cruiser is incoming.  It checks out as a real naval ship as well.

What they're asking is standard procedure.  After coming upon wreckage from a dog fight, they are going to board every able ship in the area to get details and such.

Ledo grimaced and ran back to the cockpit from the medbay hoping that Rig would have things under control. On his way back he commed Silver.

"We've got Navy incoming and no guarantees that they will honor our salvage. Grab what you can then get back to the ship."


He ran into position and nodded for Tepha to turn on the comms. Best not to give a bad impression by making them wait. Even as he spoke he began to power down the ship in compliance.

"Naval cruiser Persephone this is Tiamat sending our permits and authorizations over. We have been hunting pirates throughout this region and came across a merchant vessel under pirate attack. We attempted to provide aid but the pirates and merchant vessel destroyed one another. We are currently searching for survivors and likely have several bounties to collect when this is all said and done."

While he speaks he grabs a picture and DNA smaple of Mr. Rifle from medbay to search the bounty boards.

"If you want we can transmit our sensor logs from the fight. So far we have been unable to recover the recorders from any other vessels that were engaged."

He nodded for Tepha to reroute the comms so he could continue talking as he ran to his quarters to make preparations. It would be uncouth for him to just be wearing his naval uniform when they arrived however he could re-arrange his wardrobe so it would be clearly visible the second the navy decided to do an inspection...if they decided to do an inspection...

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 2):

Roger that Tiamat.  Please transmit all available intel

Yeah.  Sounds like they're gonna do an inspection.  It feels like that kind of show here Ledo

You pull the last of what looked of worth Silver and start back across the tow line.  As you're halfway across you can get a visual of the incoming naval cruiser.  They're coming in faster than you would think.

In the med bay, the med manages to stabilize the rich kid.  Mr. Rifle's not doing as well.  The doc-bot's giving him a 50-50 chance at the moment.

Captain Ledo...that navy ship is trying to hack us.  Should I let them?

Fritz sounds a little worried.  It's not necessarily uncommon for cruisers to try to hack a suspected pirate's or illegal salvage operations systems prior to docking Ledo. But it definitely means they'll be treating you as guilty until proven innocent.

Ledo frowned and then shook his head. Not that Fritz could see that...or maybe he could because of all the cameras.


"No...let's share information on our own terms. Let's prepare our paperwork and "official" shipping manifests. It'd be nice to get rid of that...extras...we picked up but it is what it is. Do your best, Fritz and keep the ship locked up. Maybe we can impress them a bit with our professionalism."

Meanwhile he thought back to his uniform and hoped it would have the desired effect. Maybe there was time to get those medals and pips extra gleaming.

"Tepha, transmit the proper paperwork and our logs. Silver, we need an inventory and documentation of salvage before that ship docks. If they decide to play games we need proof they stole what was rightfully our claim. BB...just keep Nero from making things difficult for us."

It was hard for Rig to feel one way or the other for the pirate they had picked up. On the one hand, this rat bastard had almost killed him. On the other hand...

His train of thought paused...shouldn't there be an "other hand?? Some grand ethical reason why he should offer forgiveness to the guy that tried to blow up their ship?

He imagined that a certain nun would have a lot to say about the divine nature of forgiveness but right now all Rig could think of is that maybe the bounty  would be better with this guy alive.

He glanced at the read outs. No matter his feelings it'd still probably be better if the guy was alive...for now.


Don't know if necessary  or not but Rig will keep things going for Mr. Rifle to try and keep him alive

23:52, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 10 using 2d6+3.  med + edu.

In reply to Gary 'Rig' Rigan (msg # 5):

Mr. Rifle begins to stabalize.

Persephone comes into view sooner rather than later.  It's a midrange cruiser.  Not a big gun ship, but still enough to probably turn Tia into salvage like the rest floating out there.

Tiamat.  We are swinging long to your spinward.  Docking tube dispatching...

...psssst....pssst...Captain Ledo... Fritz "whispers" through your comm lines Ledo and Tepha

They hacked into our intercoms.  They're listening in.  I can't stop them without letting them know something's up.

There's a thud as the docking top connects.  Soon, the airlock hatch pops and a crew of eight marines comes through.  A lieutenant with a name patch reading Jezmen leads them.

"Captain Typhin?  I'm Lt. Gloria Jezmen.  We'll be conducting a search.  Those your manifests?"

Just to make sure I'm on the same page:  Silver was writing up a "for real" manifest of what you've salvaged thus far?  Not trying to hide anything?

Ledo nodded and handed over the manifest. Etiquette would say that as the higher ranking officer, even formerly, it wasn't protocol for him to salute the Lt. Now if the Lt. felt obliged Ledo would return it but if the lieutenant isn't up for respecting a retired Captain...well that's on him.

As Ledo handed over the manifest he hoped that Silver hadn't tried anything funny...

The only thing hidden is the smuggling cargo buried in their fuel reserves. Everything else is on the up-and-up.

Better to try and get on the Navy's good side than play stupid games and get caught dicking around...

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 7):

The lieutenant starts to study your manifest.  Without glancing back, she signals, and soldiers begin to pour onto Tia.

This seems less an inspection.  It almost feels like an arrest.  They haven't remanded you or anyone though.  They just seem to be being very careful.

The soldiers begin going into every room.  Every.  Room.

I'll let you decide who reacts to this how.  But they are going to look into every room

The lieutenant seems to get a comm line.  She glances downwards, as if listening to something, and then looks up at you Ledo.  "You have two persons in your medical bay that aren't on your filed crew roster.  Care to explain?"

Ledo waited for the navy to complete their  inspection at the main hallway where he could watch them enter the rooms. His and Tepha's room took them a little bit of time, likely as they shifted through all of her clothes and left them dumped on the ground. He watched them enter Silver and Rig's room and then not come out for a long time. Hopefully whatever contraband they found in there would be easily dismissed or hit with a fine. Everything was going fine...not great but...well...fine until they decided to go into Nero's room. Nero...who was in the middle of filming and that was always a problem.

"What's up my Nero-Knights? I'm back. Those pirates can't hold us down. So check it, when we  blew up those pirates they abandoned ship and tried to AMBUSH us when we went EV to look for survivors. Well lookie lookie we got the cookie. One of the pirates started shooting at us with a rifle, nearly killing our engineer. Luckily our absolute badass of a soldier drop kicked that pirate into next week...IN SPACE. Knocked him out and got the gun. Now he's about to become another payday for us and you  know what that means. BRING IN THE PIRATE SCUMBAG KILL COUNTERRRRRRRR. Alright then let's add three more notches to the 'Dead' side and one notch to 'Alive'."

He paused as his fingers rapidly motioned out the commands to trigger the graphics. He could see through his AR goggles that around him were the floating counters that were wiggling and pulsing with every new tally. The "Dead" was up to 27. The "Alive" was up to 6. Both of those numbers were highly suspect as nobody actually told Nero anything...like how there was an inspection happening.

The marines opened the door to find Nero facing his camera pulling an invisible (if you couldn't see the AR interlay) slot machine handle and pelvic thrusting after every pull.

"That's a one...that's a two...that's a...OH SHIT! What the...who the hell are you guys? Yo everyone these jokers are ruining my flow! What the hell!?"

It was hard to tell who that last comment was directed at. He kept flipping his attention chaotically between the navy and his camera setup.

In reply to Nerotes Madigan (msg # 10):

One of the navals steps forward and grabs you by the collar Nero, pushing you to the wall.  Another walks over and takes your camera.

Ledo, the Lieutenant watches this go down and then glances at you.

"Did he capture the entire event on camera?"

At first Nero rises up for the camera.

"Hey hey hey! Get your hands..." but then once the camera is taken and he is against the wall his bluster deflates like a wet fart. His protests die in his throat as the sudden realization that he doesn't actually have any goddam clue what is going on smacks him right in the face. Was he being arrested? Did they get boarded? Was this another  "Pansy Paws" situation where he thought he was working for the good guys but was actually riding on top of a cargo hold full of kidnapped orphans!?

Nero's pulse quickened and he started sweat as his mind backpedaled to replay the last couple of weeks to figure out what the heck was going on.

In reply to Nerotes Madigan (msg # 12):

They review the footage on the camera...

I will leave it to you.  Did Nero actually capture any of the situation on film?

The camera shows Nero's face reacting to the sounds of battle...badly. He isn't patched into the comms, he is locked in his room so only has a small viewport to look out and all it captures is wildly spinning stars streaking by as the ship performs high-g manuevers and the occasional laser beam or explosion.

OOC:  Rolling a quick RNG to see if he catches the ramming attack...7...

Nero's camera does catch the  outskirts of the final explosion when the merchant ship rammed the pirates but it doesn't capture any of the lead up or the actual impact. It is just a bright flash  seen around the glow of the engines.

Useless...absolutely useless. Unless the marines were concerned this noble kid was somehow part of a pirate band. Given how utterly incoherent his commentary was, it was clear he was just a dumb-as-rocks passenger trying to create hype through the oldest trick known to mankind: lying.

In reply to Nerotes Madigan (msg # 14):

The Lieutenant watches the footage with an impassive face, then links her own comm to the camera.  She downloads the footage, wipes the camera's memory, disconnects, and places the camera back on the table.

She nods at the men "detaining" you Nero.  They dump him on the floor and she nods at you Ledo, seeming to ask you to join her in the hallway.

She waits until the door shuts, blocking any sound out from the probably furious and cursing Nero before turning to you Ledo

"I understand you have two in your medbay who were not on your roster.  One of them should be a pirate.  You won't have any issue turning him over to us, right?"

She waits a moment.

"Who's the other guy?"

Fritz tags you on your earpiece Ledo

They're trying to run an ID scan on the heir kid.  I've been blocking it.  Should I stop doing that?

Ledo glances up at one of the internal cameras that Fritz uses as his eyes in the ship and gives a subtle nod. Just a quick slight tilt up and down as he stares at the camera and then he continues the nodding as he faces to address the Lieutenant.

"I have no problem turning him over so long as I can get the bounty for him. We haven't been able to check but I suspect there's some kind of system reward for bringing these pirates in and given the amount of repairs I'm facing, every credit helps.

As for the other guy...don't know. Found a cryopod drifting in the debris. Seems like he was in cryo for a long time and has some serious freezer burn. The plan is to let him recover and go from there. If he has family, bring him back. If he's on his own, offer him a place on the ship until he figures out what he wants to do."

He pauses and leans in close.

"You've heard the stories of people who spent too long in cryo, right? They get picked up, the records are so out of date they just come back "unknown" on the bio scans and they've got no memory of who they are or where they're from. It's a really awful thing, you know? Well I found him, I feel responsible for him to get him back on his feet. Probably better earning an honest wage than clogging up the welfare system, right?"

He tried to keep the movement casual but once or twice his eyes flicked up towards the camera hoping that if Fritz somehow missed his nod that he would be able to follow along and act accordingly."</blue></b>

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 16):

Sorry.  Just to make sure:  you are signaling Fritz to stop blocking the ID scan, right?

The Leiutenant nods.  "Of course.  You capture a pirate. You get the bounty.  Assuming there is one.  But I'm pretty sure you'll get something.

"Now since we don't have proof positive that you guys took out the pirate ship..."

She shrugs.

"The bounty on that's a little more...up for grabs."

She gives you a look that says if you catch my drift

Let me know if you don't catch her drift

OOC: Correct, block the scan. He should come up as an unknown.

A faint smile crossed Ledo's face. He knew what the lieutenant was talking about.

"I understand. With the chaos of a fight it can take a little while to really figure out happened. Sometimes the after actions can take weeks to straighten out. However...what was your name again, Lietuenant Jezman, correct? I'm sure a fine officer such as yourself runs a very tight ship and can give credit where credit is do much faster than that. In fact, such a demonstration would be something to talk about. The admiralty and I still have a few chats here and there, you know how they are, always wanting to keep tabs on everyone. I mean after this I'm going to talk to Baron Von Arger about the increasing pirate activity in this part of space. I'm sure he would be interested to hear about what helpful and efficient officers are in system provided me backup in a grueling pirate attack. Of course... if there are any problems or delayed I'm sure he would be interested in knowing that too. If the pirates are making a move we need to ensure we have the best and the brightest of the Imperium on the front lines."

Ledo's smile never shifts and he maintains his easy and casual tone as he counters her implications with implications of his own. I'm connected, don't mess with me. should be going through loud and clear.

Deception + Soc: 11:59, Today: Ledo Typhin rolled 11 using 2d6+2.  name dropping.

Deception because he isn't nearly as connected as he is implying and has little desire to actually pass her name along to the Baron.

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 18):

She stares back at you for a moment.  Two moments.  You aren't sure she took the bait Ledo.

"A good word is always appreciated.  And you're right.  A bounty can take weeks and weeks of processing.  I'd hate to see your ship docked down because you're waiting on a reward.

"Since you're such a friend of the Baron...how about we settle up now?  I have discretionary funds in my ship's budget.  You just need to sign a waiver so, when the official bounty pays out, I can cover the amount from my budget.

"Fair enough?"

Ledo gave an appreciative nod.

"Yeah, that sounds like the best of both worlds. You get your man and can see if he'll spill on where the rest of them are, and I can go back to my business."

He extends his hand out to the lieutenant and gave a smile.

"I think when I meet up with my friends I'll have quite a lot to say about this sector."

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 20):

You use BRIBE!

It's Super Effective!

She smiles and takes your hand.

"Commerce is the lifeblood of the Imperium.

"So that other guy?  Nothing I need to worry about there?"

Fritz signals you.

All blocked up Captain Ledo.  They ain't finding out nothing on him.

Ledo shakes his head confidently.

"No, we'll get him sorted out. With any luck we can stumble into a missing person's but given the time on ice I'm guessing anyone he had has long since left him behind. Thank you for your service, Lieutenant."

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 22):

Ya know what...go ahead and have Ledo make me either a Diplomacy/Soc or Deception/Soc for me.  Just for fun's sake

Sure thing:
23:19, Today: Ledo Typhin rolled 8 using 2d6+2.  deception/soc.

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 24):

It takes another couple of hours for the "inspection" to complete.  Before she disembarks, Fritz notifies you Ledo.  A voucher for 12K has been downloaded to the ship's account.  Payable at any Naval station.  Other than the local one.

Hint hint.

She smiles at you.  "Pleasure doing business with you.  Oh.  You don't need to worry about filling out any paperwork.  I'll handle it.  So you can move along if you like.  I wouldn't want to delay you any further than this situation already has."

Unless you have something else for Lt. Crooked Mile here, I'm going to pause us as I need to get my bearings on this game.  I'll start a new thread this weekend.

Thanks