(no subject)
I know James N doesn't read G+, so I am posting this summary on LJ first. Here is a recap of what happened in session 1 of our Stars Without Number game.
The crew of the good ship Fancy Fancy Ferret docked at Persepolis Station after completing a routine mission. They were down on their luck and looking for work. The crew was:
- Samir Sarif. Born on Laxdael, he had left his war-torn homeworld for a life among the spaceways. He was grumpy and cynical, but capable, intelligent and the only trained pilot in the crew.
- Piotr Kaydik. A monk from the monastery outpost of Yuste, he was roaming the galazy looking for lost historical and scientific knowledge. He possessed telepathic abilities.
- Jin Navarro. A sneak-thief from the domed cities of Arneson's World, she had left her childhood home behind, but not her hunger for new experiences. And loot.
- Eduardo Enrique Mayen. A dapper gambling gunslinger who had made his name in the rough-and-tumble mining boomtowns of Tecmessa, he talked a good game and carried a deadly mag pistol, but his pockets were empty.
Perusing the want ads in the Persepolis Station Bulletin, the crew approached several potential clients. After debating the merits of various jobs, they agreed to a two-jump journey, first transporting some homesteaders to Skiotis IV and then carrying a scientific expedition to Izadi. The colonists had been left in the lurch by the ship they had previously hired to carry them. The crew accepted a down payment of 3,500 credits from the two groups and spent it on fuel, supplies for the trip and some new equipment. Not everyone was pleased with how readily Eduardo had sealed the deal with the homesteaders.
The jump to Skiotis was uneventful. On the way, Piotr chatted with the scientists about what they hoped to find on Izadi. They believed that there was a station of the Bayt Ul-Hikma, a religious society dedicated to spreading scientific and psitech knowledge, on Izadi, and they were hoping to salvage useable data such as sterllar jump maps. He also spoke to the homesteaders, who were members of a religious minority on one of the system's more crowded worlds. Upon entering the system they received a distress signal. It was coming from a medium freighter, the Vengeful Sandstorm, in orbit around Skiotis IV. They confirmed that this was the ship that had been contracted to carry the homesteaders, and had last been seen carrying another homesteading party from the same group.
Upon closer examination, it appeared that there were two vessels -- the Sandstorm itself and another which had grappled to it. The second ship was severely damaged; some kind of explosion had destroyed its entire rear half. They scanned both vessels, but did not detect any life signs and decided not to investigate further while they still had passengers aboard.
As they entered atmosphere, they received further distress signals coming from escape pods on the surface. They landed first and disembarked the colonists, who were very happy to have arrived, but worried about their fellow settlers. The planet seemed maybe not as nice in reality as it seemed in the brochure. Nonetheless, the elders were satisfied and paid the crew the 2,500 cr they owed them.
The next morning, they made a quick atmospheric hop to a location a little closer to the distress beacon coming from the escape pods. They disembarked, leaving Professor Murphy and his daughter to look after the ship. Scanning the area with his binoculars, Samir saw five or six men in clothing similar to the homesteaders. One of them appeared to be wounded. They were camped near the rescue pods and were waving to attract his attention.
They approached the men and spoke to them. Eduardo, sensing a ruse, asked them if they knew members of the other colonist party, but gave false names. When they enthusiastically replied that these people were their friends and relatives, Eduardo drew his gun.
The men reacted aggressively, but Jin pulled a grenade from her pocket and caused them to scatter. A brief, one-sided fight began. Eduardo's mag pistol was lethal, causing terrible wounds and killing with every shot. He ruthlessly gunned down several of their enemies, while Jin and Samir took care of the rest. Piotr recorded the scene with his Argus web, which turned out to be important when they discovered that the dead men were members of a well-known pirate crew, the Axe Gang.
Jin and Piotr scavenged up some spare weapons from the dead pirates, but there seemed to be no more enemies lurking about. Jin also took the survival packs from the escape pods, reasoning that they might come in handy later on. They returned to the ship and headed up for orbit. Although they remained puzzled by the enigma of the destroyed pirate ship, they didn't go in, worried about the debris around the wrecks and the possibility of an attack by whatever destroyed it in the first place. Instead, Samir set course for Izadi.
The jump to the system was successful, and the Fancy Fancy Ferret began to power in from the system's rim, a process that would take several days. Their fuel bunkers were now empty, and they would need to refuel at Izadi before returning to the Al-Batini system and Persepolis Station.
In orbit around Izadi, they saw a destroyer from the navy of the Massimeris Commonwealth. Samir did not seem pleased to see it.