The players: TALOS the hacker android; KENDRICK the dour human engineer; “GABRIEL” the mutant kleptomaniac, fixer and compulsive liar.
Session 1, Part 1
The party were all gathered in one of the ship’s cargo holds, turned into an impromptu briefing room (a few chairs, a holo-projector, that sort of thing). After several minutes of waiting, TORQUILL and EDWIN – the ship’s XO and chief of security (also, previous characters of Gabriel’s and Talos’ players) enter.
They give the brief – the captain’s found one of their competitors, the Aspidistra, has set down for repairs on nearby Lansing colony. It’s a service station and truck stop – nothing special as these places go – the key fact is the ship is vulnerable and the crew (about a dozen of them, including their captain) are likely scattered, enjoying some shore leave. Chief engineer Raleigh’s estimated the repairs will be completed in less than two days – so the team need to get there sharpish and do whatever they need to do to stop the ship flying again.
In addition to the players, there’s a trio of other mercs; one of them, O’Mare, takes on the role of team leader and gets everyone sorted for the trip. Talos attempts to find some more info on the ship, it’s internals for example – no luck. (Light frieghters of this build are very modular – there’s no set internal schematic on file.) Kendrick grabs his few supplies and heads for the hold, to find Gabe already there and catching a few Z’s in a corner.
The group of 6 make it to Lansing without incident. It’s bustling (middle of “day” time) with families, shoppers, tourists and shuttle drivers en-route. No obvious sign of the Aspidistra, nor any of it’s crew. O’Mare takes off almost immediately with his two fellows in tow.
Gabriel immediately proves his compulsive lying by approaching the nearest guard and claiming he is the captain of the Aspidistra (but can’t remember where he’s parked his vessel). Given Gabriel’s frankly shoddy appearance, it’s no surprise he’s quickly sent packing. (Talos watches the whole process, bemused and fascinated by this organic behaivour).
Kendrick tags with O’Mare initially, but quickly breaks off to have a search of the docking bays personally – as an engineer himself, he’s hoping to find a few like-minded techies who can point him in the right direction. Quickly finding one, he strikes up a conversation and makes it known he’s looking for work, and heard the Aspidistra needed crew? His new friend’s not heard anything to that effect, but points Kendrick in the right direction. He heads off quickly, phoning Talos and Gabriel (but not the others – I think “Captain” O’Mare was a bit too abrasive!) to join him.
NEXT: Docking Bay 94, and Talos’ brother!