[Firefly] Ruthless Bastards of the 'Verse (Completed 3/6/09)

I run a Cinematic Unisystem game set in the Firefly Verse. Don't expect any heroes here. They're a bunch of bastards. After all, the nicest one is probably the sadistic doctor.

The regular schedule for gaming is trading off with Alwaystoast's exalted game every monday. You should be able to expect an update for one of the games every week, usually going up by sunday night (most of the time, I get firefly updates done on tuesdays).

Cast of Characters

Player Name: Dan
User Name: Welverin
Character Name: Ivan Nigel Take
Role: Pilot
Chain of Command: Captain (First)

Wears brightly colored shirts, shorts, sandals, and glasses.

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Player Name: Gabe
User Name: None known here. Goes by tyranny12 on Randomlings.
Character Name: Daniel Jardin
Role: Smuggler & occasional Mercenary
Chain of Command: XO (Second)

Nicknames: Danny, Bugs
43 year old human male
Light brown peppery hair, swept back, medium length
Brown eyes
193 lbs.
Daniel is a lean, weathered older man who walks with a mild swagger at times. Often dressed in a weather, older brown jacket and nondescript clothing, he is quite good at blending into the background in bars and the assorted towns of the Border. He speaks in a low voice, often, except when he’s trying to get his point across, when an almost irresistible confidence invades his voice. And, of course, when he’s angry, but that doesn’t happen too often…

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Player Name: Paul
User Name: None known here. Goes by Alwaystoast on Randomlings.
Character Name: Mort Cassé
Role: Mechanic
Chain of Command: Third

Description: Mort is pretty average looking. He’s 28 years old, but looks like he carries a lot of mileage. He is about 6ft tall, brown hair, crew cut, shaves his face at irregular intervals. So most of the time, he looks like he needs a shave. He’s in rather good physical shape. Not that he works out, just from moving heavy equipment on a daily basis.

Quirks: Mort generally wears a lot of clothing on the top half of his body. He normally wears, an under shirt, a girdle with a shoulder strap (also good because of all the heavy lifting he does), a kevlar vest is he has one, a dingy grey shirt, a vest, and a Brown Coat (Coat optional if it’s too hot).

Mort smokes cigars. He likes the ones stolen from Alliance officials the best.

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Player Name: Liz
User Name: Evil_Kitty_Grrl
Character Name: Asta Sarv
Role: Doctor
Chain of Command: Fourth

Age: 35
Physical Description: Short black hair, hazel eyes, pale complexion. Average looks and build. Her face could be pretty if she wasn’t always making faces with it. Doesn’t pay too much attention to what she’s wearing, other than it being clean and in good repair.

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Player Name: Ryan
User Name: Guedo79
Character Name: Campan Lar
Role: Mercenary
Chain of Command: Fifth (and outranked by Maxx the cat in Mort's book)



Player Name: Arianne
User Name: None Known
Character Name: Ezmerelda Glass
Role: Passenger Liason
Chain of Command: She only outranks Jenny

Pretty young woman in her early twenties with reddish-brown hair. Looks a bit like Daniel.

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We had another player, who played Jasp, Leonard, and Kenny, but he has since left the game.

History of the Orasca

It all started about four years after the war. Ivan Take was between piloting jobs and looking to make a new start of it. While on Persephone, he managed to run into two old war buddies. The first was Daniel Jardin, the former captain of ship Take piloted. The second was a mechanic named Mortimer, who was now going by the last name Cassé. Over a large amount of alcohol, the three of them reminisced about good times. Take brought up the idea of getting himself a ship and the three of them decided to pool their resources. Take and Mort dumped all of their savings into buying a decent sized ship. Daniel had very little to contribute monetarily, but did bring protection for the ship in the way of an old one-man attack ship. The ship was a bit of a fixer-upper, but that just really endeared it to Mort.

Things were hard going at first. Daniel was able to get them a few jobs here and there, but they were few and far between. They met Campan Lar through an acquaintance of Mort’s. Campan brought in some much-needed funds to fix up the Orasca’s failing engines. While not a genius like the others, he proved to be no slouch in intellect. An excellent thug and good at getting the crew discounts on account of his intimidating manner.

A while later they managed to get themselves a doctor by the name of Asta Sarv. She didn’t have anything in the way of funds, but she did bring enough equipment and medicine to fully stock the Orasca’s medical bay.

The last person to join the crew was Jasp Wee; a rather forgetful man and most definitely a complete nutter, but extremely good with a gun. The Orasca was in serious need of some repairs and upgrades after a job had gone bad. Mort was happy to cover the walls of Jasp’s room with tinfoil and install a shinny red “Self Destruct Button” to get Jasp’s money away from him and into the ship; where it belonged. The crew agreed that people who are nuttier then a peanut plantation shouldn’t be allowed to have large amounts of cash on hand.

Synopsis of 6/20/05 session

“Episode 1 - Dead or Alive” - First Session

Synopsis of 6/20/05 session

While on New Melbourne, the crew of the Orasca sat in a mildly seedy bar waiting for information on a drop point to pick up some illicit cargo for transport to Verbena. Daniel also acquired a legitimate job of transferring some immigrant workers to Verbena to work at the new Alliance plant. The transport was Alliance work, so it wouldn't pay too much, but that wasn't the point. It was just a cover job to get them on Verebena, since they were increasing security for incoming vessels for the plant opening.

Daniel was able to keep the transfer of the drop point location unnoticed by the other patrons of the bar. The crew did a good job of almost avoiding a bar fight. Asta managed to sedate the initial agressor before fighting broke out. Unfortunately, drunken yokels can be persistant. Besides, people don’t generally like to see their buddy punched in the joy department, by Mort or anyone else. Decent sized bar fight ensued. Jasp flung himself across the room to crash into a couple of the yokels with a beer mug. Campan continued drinking for a while. Take ran for the door. Asta watched out for seriously injured. Daniel brawled. Mort pinched wallets from the fallen.

Despite being outnumbered, the crew managed to wipe the floor with the yokels. Several chairs were destroyed, a couple of beer mugs and bottles, and a good amount of liquor behind the bar. After being asked nicely to leave by the bartender with the shotgun, Mort took some of the money from the pinched wallets and paid the bartender for the broken chairs. Then the crew headed back to the ship.

That evening, Daniel and Campan headed to the drop point on Daniel's shuttle, the Korv. They arrived at a small, slightly forested island with an empty dock and a small shack. Campan stayed on the Korv to keep a hand on the weapons while Daniel went out to meet the contact; a man named Jacob that Dan was acquainted with. After making sure it was safe, they radioed the Orasca in to land and pick up the cargo. Before the Orasca arrived, Jacob left a message with Daniel for Campan from a guy named Logan (small time loanshark, from Daniel’s recollection). “Tell him he’s late. And Logan HATES it when someone is late.” Daniel relayed the message to Campan after they left and asked him if this would come back to bite them in the ass. Campan said it wouldn’t.

The pickup of the twenty immigrant workers went smoothly, as did the trip to Verbena. The crew all healed up any wounds received in the bar fight.

Take received landing clearance for the Orasca and touched down at night about half a mile from town. They were greeted by a motley and slightly skeevy bulbous man (Cashier). He counted out the workers as they left the ship and handed Take a wad of bills. He coughed up the money he had pocketed when Take called him on it, slightly sad about getting caught.

Take, Mort, Daniel, and Campan then headed off towards town. There was a veritable wonderland of lights, tents, games splayed out in a field in front of a large factory. The group moved through the carnival towards the Tattoo’d Man’s tent, where they were to meet the buyer.
They passed one particularly prominent feature; a stage with a large banner above it which reads, ALLIANCE REWARDS THOSE WHO REWARD THEMSELVES.
An Alliance high muckity muck was up on stage giving a speech, dedicating the new factory.

Commander Tanaka: Thanks to the good Alliance people of Verbena, our gear shift factory is opening ten days ahead of schedule.

The crowd around the stage cheered.

Commander Tanaka: Verbena was scarcely surviving, barely more than a piece of barren rock, but now with the Alliance factory opening you and your families will be able to lead full and satisfying lives.

Mort gritted his teeth and looked like he REALLY wanted to start something, but pushed on.

They also passed by a woman around Daniel’s age in an Alliance uniform with Lieutenant stripes keeping an eye on the crowd before making it to the Tattoo’d Man tent. A barker was out front trying to get people to come see the man with living pictures etched upon his body. Mort quietly moved around to the back of the tent as Daniel & company moved towards the front.

BOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!

The factory spectacularly blew up. A huge fireball went into the sky and shards of metal and wreckage were strewn into the crowd. The force of the explosion knocked people to the ground, including the crew.

Asta and Jasp easily saw and heard the explosion from the Orasca. Snagging some medical supplies, Asta told Jasp aliens attacked the factory and the two sprinted out towards the carnival.

Pushing wood and metal off of himself, Mort got up. Feeling like he could get blamed for this, Mort took off his brown coat.

Fade to Black

Synopsis of 7/04/05 Session

“Episode 1 - Dead or Alive” - Second Session

Synopsis of 7/04/05 Session

We returned from commercial break with the crew stumbling about amid the chaos of the recent explosion. There was carnage everywhere. People were crying, screaming, and bleeding. Mort ignored it all and ducked into the Tattooed Man’s tent. A large beam had fallen upon the tent, collapsing the front half of it. Inside, the Tattooed Man was laying on the ground unconscious. The beam was lying across his legs, trapping him. Mort quickly rifled the man’s pockets and belongings, pilfering a few platinum and a ham sandwich. Out front, Take, Daniel, and Campan were taking stock of the situation. Parents were desperately hunting for their children among the smoke and wreckage. Some people were working to free trapped loved ones from underneath the rubble. Take stood over the barker, who now sported some facial burns and head trauma, pretty much ignoring him. Mort called Take into the tent.

Take entered to find Mort munching upon a sandwich. Take looked over the Tattooed man and noticed his legs had been crushed. He’d need some serious medical attention in order to retain his legs; much more than this little world could provide. Daniel called over the walkie-talkie to Asta to find out their ETA while Campan kept an eye out. Looking out at the crowd, Daniel begrudgingly removed his coat as well, not wanting to look like he was a target for the crowd’s aggression.

Asta and Jasp wove their way through the wreckage and people. They passed an older farmer clutching the body of a woman as they saw a few people had enough coherence to start dragging wounded towards one of the large tents to act as a triage center. Asta was ushered around back into the Tattooed Man’s tent when she arrived. After applying tourniquets to the man’s legs, the others lifted the beam off of him. With a mild stimulant, The Tattooed Man was brought back to consciousness. Daniel was quickly able to get out of him that the Barker, Bob, was the one who had the money and the hiding place for the goods.

Rushing outside, Mort and Take found the Barker still had a pulse. Asta followed and found the man had some facial burns, cranial swelling, and a mild concussion. She was able to fix him up good. Mort made up a couple stretchers. The crew dropped the Tattooed Man off at the triage center with Asta and Jasp and the others brought Bob back to the Orasca.

Asta found the triage tent in a poorly managed state. She quickly took over and set it up moving smoothly. A couple of hours later, Bob woke up and had a conversation with Mort and Daniel. He basically said that it was a bit too hot right now to move the cargo and they should wait for things to die down to make the transfer. The crew acted like they wanted to bolt, but Bob pointed out that their ship was very likely already landlocked (it was). They then wanted to move the cargo off the ship, which Bob pointed out that the area was crawling with Feds. If the cargo was found in the hold of the ship, then, well… the crew is transient. If it was found on the way to his hiding space, he lives here and therefore would be screwed. Bob made it clear that he was not wanted by the Alliance for anything and was looking to keep it that way.

Back in town, Jasp was standing guard over the triage tent. He watched as a crowd milled about in the open area. Some were trying to clean up and some were still moving wreckage. Most, however, were just angry and frustrated. Jasp was able to overhear a man with corporal stripes (Grayson) talking with the butch woman with Lieutenant stripes (Quillan) from earlier. He was talking about having run the factory manifest through the cortex and one of the workers got flagged for a suspicious background. Jasp wasn’t the only one that overheard this conversation, though. People started talking about a browncoat who worked with them, but never drank with them. It wasn’t long till the crowd starts yelling, “We’ve got ‘em!” Jasp found it very hard to see into the crowd. As he climbed on top of an outhouse, he heard cries of, “Murderous Independent!” Jasp could now see that it was a roughed up man in a brown coat like many of the crew wear.

A shot rang out into the air and the crowd backed up a few feet from the man. Lt. Quillan lowered her gun and stepped up to the man. Looking him over, she called out to the crowd.

Lieutenant Quillan: It’s not him. We know who the culprit is and he's no longer in town. He's taken a land shuttle. There's a bounty for whoever captures this guy. 400 credits will go to the one who captures him, but he has to be brought in alive. If anyone harms the target they'll face Alliance justice. Every available ship in port is now under my control. Alliance personnel and volunteers will be assigned to each in order to go after and apprehend the target. Captains please report to Corporal Grayson.

When Jasp relayed this info, Campan and Take headed off towards town. Campan tried to pretend he was the captain of the Orasca, but they’ve got Take on file as the captain from when the ship landed. Take quickly dismissed Campan as a little off and low on the totem poll. Take was approached by Quillan and told she would be accompanying him on the ship, along with three others. She handed Take a paper and told him that was the target and to be ready to go by oh-one-hundred.

Take recognized the target as Private Declan Everton, a kid who served on the Grieving Lark (Daniel's ship back during the war). When this info was brought back to the Daniel, he remembered Everton better. He was a man so by the book he’d get upset if someone pissed without getting an officer’s approval to leave. He even wanted to write Mort up for smoking and because he wouldn’t shave. Daniel, Mort, and Take seemed torn on what to do. They weren’t sure if they wanted to bollocks up their mission with the Lieutenant on board or actively find him so they could escape or what. Mort began ‘sabotaging’ the ship by disconnecting several parts and making a few areas where ‘accidents’ could happen to Alliance personnel can happen onboard.

Meanwhile, the crew was checking in with Asta on if she’d be able to accompany them on the search. She heard a commotion outside with people yelling about having gotten him free and calling for a doctor. Asta met them when they enter the tent. Two Alliance soldiers burst in carrying a stretcher with a man on it. Grayson hovered next to them, switching back and forth between looking for a doctor and attending to the man on the stretcher. Commander Tanaka appeared to be in a great deal of pain. He had his arm wrapped around his stomach, but was still issuing orders. Grayson told Asta that he had been trapped under the wreckage and he needed help. He then scurried off after Tanaka ordered him to bring him a status report. Asta quickly assessed that he likely had a lot of internal injuries and was going to require more equipment than was here in the tent. She sent Jasp off with a list for Mort to collect from the medbay and bring back. She then started to work on stabilizing him. Mort packaged up the equipment in a box and sent Jasp back, making sure he locked Jasp in his room while collecting the items and making a box.

While trying to stabilize him, Asta convinced Grayson and Quillan to hold off the departure of the Orasca for an hour so she can accompany them. Quillan really didn’t like this, but agreed.

Tanaka had a nasty habit of drifting in and out of consciousness. When he was awake, he demanded reports from Grayson. One particular report that was brought to him was the fact that the man they were chasing was a private in the war on the side of the Independents.

Tanaka (difficulty breathing): Damn brown coats. Should've wiped out when had chance.

He then drifted off back into unconsciousness from the pain.

Quillan arrived at the Orasca with three other shortly before one in the morning. Two of them were skeevy looking bounty hunter types; one with a sleek and shiny rifle (Jonah) and the other with an electric crossbow (Mather). The third was a farmer type in his late fifties with a shotgun strapped to his back. Jonah and Mather looked over the outside of the Orasca while Take greets Quillan.

Jonah: Well, shoot, doubt this piece of rustin' dust would be able to find a stick of dynamite up a donkey's ass.

Take took great offense at this and insulted him back, then Daniel told Quillan they didn’t need him onboard. Jonah backed down and apologized. (Admittedly, Mort had been taking the past couple hours to junk up the ship). Jonah, Mather, and the farmer were led onboard and stuck in the cargobay. Quillan then informed Take that they’ll be leaving an hour later because of their doctor and will that they would be patrolling the north sector.

A rumbling was heard from the tent as ships start taking off. A shiny Alliance shuttle rose, followed by three spaceships of various shapes and sizes, none of them particularly elegant or new. All the ships went off in different directions.

Almost an hour later, Asta realizes she wasn’t going to finish Tanaka anytime soon. Since he did have a lot of internal bleeding and she didn’t have an x-ray on hand, she was forced to operate. She managed to cauterize one laceration and was trying to reroute a crushed artery when she decided she wanted him back in her medbay. She knew moving him was risky, but she had decided, damn it! She got some people to clear a place for the Orasca to land and radioed for them to move to pick them up. She had to convince some officers that it was imperative for his survival that he was back on the ship. Jasp packed up the equipment and they transferred Tanaka to the Orasca. Quillan was just happy to get underway. One of Tanaka’s attendants tried to accompany them onto the ship, but Daniel tricked him off and Mort shut the door.

Bob was still in the medbay, sitting around and relaxing as he healed. They never actually gave him a chance to get off ship, just made sure Daniel had a cover story for why he was on the ship (old childhood friends). Bob played along.

Daniel also tried to get info out of Quillan about why they were chasing this person. It boiled down to the fact that he ran, had a suspicious background, and ‘it just felt right.’ Quillan commented that her instincts were usually pretty dead on. She also commented that her instincts told her Daniel wasn’t telling her everything.

The Orasca took off at a seriously diminished speed, due to ‘engine trouble.’ By now the other ships had located Declan’s land shuttle and were in pursuit, though about an hour behind it. A while out, Take noticed that, for the past twenty minutes, the shuttle’s flight pattern had been continuously repeating. Every zig, every zag. It was a bit too precise for a human to be at the wheel. Mort ‘fixed’ the engine problems and the Orasca sped up.

Asta had done a spinal block on Tanaka to keep the pain gone and him more at peace. She was still trying to get his bleeding under control when he awoke again.

Tanaka (a little loopy): Pain gone.

Asta just nodded.

Tanaka (still loopy): What give me?

She told him she had done a spinal block so he wouldn’t feel the pain.

Tanaka (loopy): Fancy technique for border doctor.

Asta shrugged.

Tanaka (looks around): Not to mention tools. Who are you?

Asta ignored the question and continued to work. Tanaka kept asking her. With no one to stop her, she blindfolded and gagged him. His face turned red in anger over this. Getting all riled over this was not good for his condition.

Once the Orasca got to the point where they believed Declan had jumped ship, Mort faked some engine problems and they were forced to land. Saying it’d take him a few weeks to get things fixed, Campan and Daniel decided to take a walk. Quillan and company followed. Mort, Take, and Jasp went outside as well (Mort to tweak the engines and Take to look around).

Somewhere in between taking off and landing, Campan explained to Jasp that these people weren’t aliens, but they could work or were working for the aliens.

Mather noticed a trail about the same time Take noticed some bent branches. Mort and Take stayed behind while the others went off following the trail. At one point, Mather noticed the tracks go off one way while Campan noticed them go off another. After some discussion, the group split into Campan, Daniel, Quillan, and Jonah following Campan’s tracks while Jasp, Mather, and the farmer following Mather’s tracks.

Campan’s tracks led them to a briar patch while Mather’s tracks stopped at a tree. Mather was slightly confused by this and, since he wasn’t good at climbing trees, asked Jasp to do it. Jasp wasn’t good at it either and said the farmer should do it. The farmer just moved up to the tree, pulled his shotgun off of his back, and shot up into the tree. When nothing fell, he shrugged.

For some strange reason, Jasp took this as a sign that these people needed to be dealt with. He raised his two big pistols and aimed them towards Mather and the farmer. Mather had a look of complete shock on his face as a bullet went through his heart and he collapsed to the ground, dead. The farmer was able to start to turn around before Jasp shot him dead. Standing over the two bodies, Jasp put his guns away and took Mather’s crossbow. He then radioed Daniel saying that he had spotted the fugitive and was giving chase.

When Daniel heard the shotgun, he asked Quillan, “I thought you specified you wanted him alive.” She confirmed that. When the two pistol shots were heard in rapid succession a few moments later, Quillan looked at the others and said, “Let’s go.”

Finding the scene wasn’t too hard. With the look of surprise still etched on Mather’s face, the farmer down as well, the crossbow missing, and the shot pellets imbedded in the tree nowhere near Jasp, Daniel had no problem piecing together what had happened. He could also see that Quillan was heading towards the same conclusions and would likely know it all once she investigated further. He immediately tried to throw her off with a couple of observations, though it was clear none of the crew were sure what they were going to do now.

Fade to Black

Synopsis of 7/18/05 Session

“Episode 1 - Dead or Alive” - Third Session

Synopsis of 7/18/05 Session

Back from commercial, we focus on Mort and Take. They had been heading out to keep an eye on the hunting party. However, when they heard gunshots, Take turned to Mort and said, “We need to get back to the ship.”

They hurried along, but before they made it back they heard the crack of a stick breaking behind them. Turning around, they found a man Declan standing behind them, stopped in mid-stride by the breaking branch. He looked nervous and tired.

Declan: Lieutenant? God it’s so good to see guys. When I saw the Captain back there, I had hoped some of the rest of the old guard were around. I didn’t do it, Lieutenant, I swear. You’ve got to get me off this planet.

Declan: I ran as soon as I heard where that crowd was headed. Was sure they were gonna get me...

They asked him why they thought it was him that blew up the factory.

Declan: I swear I was just helping 'em build the factory. It wasn't the best job, but it's a bitch to get any work after the war. No one wants to hire an independent. I'm untrustworthy just cause we lost. I don't want to cause trouble for you or your crew. I just need shuttle. That's all. Okay, maybe a little money, but I promise I'll pay you back.

They decided to stow him away onboard the ship. Mort ran ahead to make sure the coast was clear. Once onboard, Mort heard some shouting coming from the med bay, demanding the presence of his assistant and a status report on that Hwoon dahn independent.

Mort quickly closed a few doors to block the sound, then they led Declan to Take’s quarters and locked him in. Take then proceeded to take off and do donuts to erase the footprints around the ship.

-----

Back to the group at the murder scene. Quillan walked away from the group and raised her Alliance issue walkie-talkie.

Quillan: Grayson, we’ve got a probable location of the suspect. I want the Farrington to continue after the land shuttle while the rest of you rendezvous at my coordinates and begin a ground search of the area.
We’ve got a situation here with two dead volunteers I believe were killed by one of the crew. I want a team to go over the scene

Daniel and Campan took this time to talk to each other to figure out what to do about Jasp and Quillan. They called Mort on their walkie-talkie and gave him a very abbreviated and slightly coded lowdown on what had happened. Mort responded in code that Declan had shown up.

Mort: I fixed the engines. It was just like that time I got written up for smoking.

Daniel then talked with Quillan. It was very likely that Jasp had killed these two in cold blood and they both knew it. He asked her what she saw and she confirmed his suspicions.

Quillan went back to conversing with Grayson over the comm as the others tried to figure out what to do. Mort decided to head off from the ship to join up with the others.

While people were still trying to figure out what to do with the situation, Jasp returned (weapon drawn). He had dropped the crossbow in the woods. Quillan trained her gun on him and told him to drop his weapons. It took a lot of persuasion from the crew to get him to do it, but he did. When asked what had happened, he gave a rather interesting version of events.

Jasp: Well, the target showed up and the farmer shot at him. The others got in the way of my shots and went down. The target then stole his crossbow and ran off. I pursued, but lost him.

He made his best effort at making that believable, but the odds were stacked against him. Quillan kept her gun trained on him and said she wished to conduct this interview in a more formal setting and asked Daniel to fully disarm Jasp. Daniel moved towards Jasp slowly while Campan took cover behind a tree. Jasp reluctantly started removing his weapons. He tried to leave his ‘hidden’ knife (hilt sticking out of his boot), but he was made to remove ‘Betsy’.

Mort showed up to find Quillan with her gun aimed at Jasp and Jasp slowly disarming.

Mort (clueless & slightly cheerful): What’s going on?

Campan quickly shooed Mort behind a tree.

With Daniel close, Jasp stage whispered, “But they were traitors!” Jonah angrily denied this by saying Mather wouldn’t do that and that he was lying.

About this time, there was a large explosion/crashing sound off away from the city. Finding out from Grayson and Take, one of the volunteer ships had just crashed. (plot twist)

Daniel continued chatting with Take during this time and became more involved in that conversation while Quillan got slightly distracted by her conversation with Grayson. Daniel turned his back on Jasp and motioned for him to flee.

Jasp dove for his weapons, grabbing Betsy and one of his handguns, then tumbled behind a tree. Daniel dove to the ground as Quillan opened fire. While she consistently hit Jasp’s positions on the trees, Jasp kept behind cover as he fled.

After Jasp was gone Mort turned to Campan and said, “So, what’s going on?” again. Campan responded with, “Jasp murdered two people we were with.”

With Jasp gone, Daniel reminded Quillan that there was a crashed ship to deal with. Reluctantly, she asked Mort to take Jasp’s weapons, which he was already collecting, back to the ship while she collected weapons off of the two dead men. Quillan relayed the direction that Jasp had run off in and that he was armed and considered dangerous.

Upon returning to the ship, Mort stuck Jasp’s things in a box and locked it. Hearing the Commander yelling, Quillan went off to give him a status report. Mather stuck in the cargo bay while the others all headed up to the cockpit to join Take. Daniel and Campan explained what had happened to Take and Mort in a detaled and none too flattering to Jasp way. Campan also admitted the “A” word may accidentally been used with some relation to the two people who died to Jasp.

While discussing what they should do about Jasp, it was commented by the GM that Take needed to put on the Captain Pants. Bob knocked on the cockpit’s door, looking for a place to lay down. It seems that he had left the med bay a while ago due to the noise. Mort took him down to his quarters, told him he could help himself to stuff in the fridge, but not to touch anything else. He then locked Bob in.

While he didn’t like it, Take decided that Jasp was expendable and had brought the trouble down on himself. Daniel and Mort agreed but weren’t sure how they were going to deal with him. Mort started forming a plan. Before getting to the crash site, Quillan had gotten Jasp’s name out of Daniel so she could run it through the cortex.

At the crash site, they found the ship had lost engine power and just crashed into the ground, taking out a path of trees till it stopped. Campan, Mather, Quillan, Mort, and Daniel went down in a shuttle while Take stayed aboard to pilot.

Daniel tried to annoy Quillan by asking if they should really help because it looked like they’d be in the way. Quillan inadvertently reminded Daniel that the Alliance had shot his ship down, back in the war. Everyone begrudgingly pitched in as Quillan ordered people around. Things were already in full swing by the time the crew got there, after all. Mort headed for the engine room, found the problem easily, and proceeded to loot engine parts. After collecting enough stuff, he went out and informed Quillan what the problem had been. He said that the mechanic was clearly an idiot and should be killed, if he wasn’t dead already.

After a few hours, light started to appear on the horizon. The only survivors of the crash was the captain, who didn’t have a scratch on him (lucky bastard), and two volunteers, who had gotten knocked around in the cargo bay and had a broken bone or two. The Orasca had landed on a hill a mile away and Daniel had set up a tent to catch a little rest. They took the time to further discuss the Jasp problem. Campan realized that he had never seen Jasp run out of ammo, which was a fact Daniel also remembered, once it was pointed out to him. So Daniel called Take and told him to “Look for the manifest in the third room on the right.”

Take went down and into Jasp’s room. He found a backpack full of MRE type food, walls of guns, and a dresser with three and a half drawers filled with ammo (and half a drawer of clothes). And, of course, the tinfoil that lined the room. Apparently “manifests” was code for ammunition. Take responded with “Yes, I found lots of manifests.”

A private showed up and informed them that they should head back to town. The rescue efforts were over and the search had been called off till the afternoon when a contingent of Alliance personnel would show up to continue the search. The crew happily picked up camp and headed back to the ship without any extra people this time.

They found things quiet onboard the Orasca. The Commander was resting and Asta was curled up on the other cot sleeping.

There was much drinking on the part of Campan and Daniel on their way back to town.

Back in town, Take landed the ship in a designated area and the crew got some rest. Before going to sleep, Mort talked to Asta and found out that the Commander could be moved off ship in a few hours. She had arranged for some men to move him off ship and was just heading off to make sure they had proper facilities set up to take care of him. Mort showed her out, hung up a sign, locked the door, and headed to his room. Declan began started knocking on the door in Take’s room. When asked what he wanted, he said he was hungry. Some protein cubes or twinkies or something got thrown to him while he was told some Alliance were still on the ship and he needed to be very quiet. While Take took to sleeping in his pilot chair on the bridge, Mort made Bob move to a chair and slept on his own bed.

Sign: Sleeping. Come back in a few hours

-----

Jasp had watched most of this from his sad little hideout at the top of a tree. Lots of pretty lights from the crash site. He hadn’t strayed far from the murder scene and was lacking any manner of survival skills. He just wedged himself in the tree and fell asleep. While asleep, a bird landed on his head. He snatched the bird, which promptly crapped on him. He broke its neck, but was at a loss as to figure out what the next step was in making it dinner. So he just sat and waited, listening to the occasional chatter on his walkie-talkie by the crew. The comments about a manifests confused him a little, especially when he figured out they referred to his room.

-----

A few hours later, Asta woke Mort up again. She had arranged for the Commander to be transported, but was going to be bringing a bunch of people on board to do so. There was a lack of pleasure about this, but what could he do. She also let him know of some developments in town.

Asta (gesturing over he shoulder): Oh, and the cavalry is here.

Mort: We have a cavalry?

Asta: Not our cavalry.

Daniel was quickly awoken and filled in. They decided to let Take sleep, since he needed his beauty sleep.


Quillan knocked on the ship door and Mort grumpily greeted her.

Mort: Do you know how much sleep we’ve had?

Quillan: More than I have. I came to talk to your captain about your crewmate.

Mort: Did you at least bring coffee?

She just looked at him. He went and woke up Daniel and Campan, then went off to make ‘coffee’ (boiled water plus caffeine tablets and a protein cube to make it brown). This led to Mort’s comment, “Be careful chewing your coffee.” Campan mixed his beer with his coffee to improve its taste.

Quillan had no problem speaking with Daniel about Jasp. It came up that Jasp had served as a mercenary in the war on the side of the Alliance. It seemed he enjoyed the violence and killing. When asked what he liked to kill, she responded that the records didn’t specify, just that he enjoyed it. His file was flagged for mental instability and he was scheduled for a psych test, but he managed to wander off before this could happen and they lost track of him. Mort made several comments about how the Alliance let a psychopath go loose and what a blunder that was. The crew made several comments about only having known him a week. Quillan asked to see his room and the gathered group all went. Mort went in first to check for booby-traps.

Mort: Dear God! Tin foil! It’s covered in tin foil!

Quillan went down and was followed by the others. As mort went through the drawers, he commented, “Well that’s excessive. That’s really excessive. Didn’t he have any clothes?” Campan passed on that they had never seen Jasp run out of ammo.

Afterwards, Quillan asked for the crew’s help in apprehending him. She didn’t want to further delay them from any pressing engagements they had elsewhere, however. She then said they would be compensated for their help. She relayed that she was going to send a squad to the area to search for both suspects. With questioning, she revealed they were being sent to retrieve, not kill, and would be armed with stun weapons. Daniel knew they were close range weapons and Mort knew those weapons had a range of about 10 feet maximum. The squad wouldn’t stand a chance against Jasp if he went sniper. She also relayed the death toll for the day (around one hundred). With a look to Campan and Mort, Daniel said they would help and asked how they would contact her. After giving that information, she left.

Daniel then proceeded to go talk to Declan. He was well rested and playing with Take’s toys when Daniel came in. Daniel asked him straight up if he had blown up the factory.

Declan:I swear I didn’t do it. You know the Alliance'll just pin this on me so it looks like they're actually doing something out here.

When pressed, Declan continued.

Declan: Besides, even if I did, it was an Alliance factory. Those gears are an essential part of a new line of military skiffs. You do remember what those skiffs did to our men on the field?

Daniel:What about all the innocent civilians who were killed by the explosion.

Declan: This is war. They were acceptable casualties. You know what a blow Tanaka’s death will be to this sector?

Daniel left Take’s room and relocked it, then went and woke Take. In a pow-wow with Campan, Take, and Mort in the cockpit, Daniel relayed that Declan had done it. This led to Mort putting together a rather brutal plan that would take care of both their problems. It was argued, by Mort, that Jasp couldn’t be allowed to live, since he knew too much about the crew and their life of crime. They should all think of it as a mercy killing, anyway. Around this time, they got a call on the walkie-talkie from Jasp.

Jasp: Guys? I’m hungry.

Mort , rather happily I might add, told him to stay put near the crash site and they’d be by to pick him up.

They then sent Quillan a wave telling her they were going to fly up to where they had last seen Jasp to flush him out. If she sent the squad by ground, they wouldn’t alert Jasp to their presence and could capture him. She thanked them for their help and signed off.

On the way up there, they went through Jasp’s stuff to find something he identified with aliens (a shiny, little green ball of a tin foil like substance). Mort then went down and talked to Declan.

Mort: Listen up. We’re going to hide you out with a friend of ours for a couple hours before. Its okay, he’ll keep you safe. Now, when you see him, show him this so he knows who you are. And here is a pistol to protect yourself.

Mort then handed him the green ball and one of Jasp’s pistols. Declan was grateful for the help and went along with the plan.

Daniel told Jasp that they’d send someone out to get him once they landed. Seeing the Orasca, Jasp climbed down from his tree and headed towards where they set down. Declan was sent out to go find Jasp.

Things quickly went south once Jasp saw Declan had one of his own guns and a ball like the one found at the wreckage of his family home. Declan somehow managed to dive out of the way of the first hail of bullets, take cover behind a tree, and even nail Jasp in the shoulder with a shot. His luck was short lived, however. Jasp’s very next shot took Declan out, despite the cover. Picking up the ball and his gun, Jasp headed towards the Orasca.

Mort closed the cargo door once the first gunshot rang out and Daniel had told him to close the gorram door.

Jasp: Uh, guys? Why is the door closed. Let me in.

Mort: Sorry. Door malfunction. Working on it.

They mentioned something about illegal aliens in the forest over the walkie-talkies as the Alliance squad showed up (plot twist). The aliens comment had the desired effect on Jasp. While Jasp fought valiantly and took out several soldiers, he forced them to resort to deadly force. He was riddled with bullets before he dropped. The remaining third of the squad collected the bodies and the leader used the walkie-talkie to thank the crew for their help and said they’d be able to collect their remuneration back I town.

Mort: Can we get our walkie-talkie back?

They were then told they could collect Jasp’s effects later, back in town.

Bob was then talked to and it was concluded that their business could be completed once the Alliance picked up stakes. The Orasca flew back to town and waited.

--------

Over the siesta, Campan monitored the incoming transmissions. The crew got a wave from Badger asking what was taking so long and saying where to drop off his payment. They got a wave from the local Alliance post saying they could pick up Jasp’s effects and their rewards. Finally, Campan got a personal wave from a guy named Logan, which seemed to worry him.

The crew picked up Jasp’s things, but the officers refused to relinquish Jasp’s backpack, which was full of ammo. They didn’t really care. Jasp’s body was also not returned to them, but they knew it wouldn’t be. They all agreed that Asta wasn’t going to be told what had actually transpired while she was taking care of the Commander and resting.

They finished their job with Bob and got off planet to drop off Badger’s payment. Campan calculated his cut of the profits from four ‘successful’ jobs. It came to just enough to make his owed payment to Logan, without the interest, of course.

Alex: Look on the bright side. Now your share of the profits is larger.


Roll Credits

Synopsis of 8/01/05 Session

“Episode 2 – Detour” – First Session

Synopsis of 8/01/05 Session – subtitled “Help Not Wanted”


With Verbena behind them, Daniel decided he had put it off talking to Asta about Jasp long enough. He omitted several bits about the level of the crew’s involvement, and mixed up by saying Campan and Mort snuck Declan on board, but added that Campan and himself felt rather badly about the turn off events with Jasp. Still, they felt it was better to have him dead than captured and able to betray the crew. Asta hadn’t even noticed Jasp missing and seemed to take what Daniel said at face value. She wasn’t too upset over it all, wondering if she should have upped his medication.

About a month later, the crew was currently headed for Beaumonde in hopes of finding work. Not much in the way of jobs these past couple of weeks and money was getting a little tight. They had picked up a passenger by the name of Leonard to help pay the costs of the trip. He was the kind of gent who was appealing to the eyes and could have had a way with words. The crew made sure he, for the most part, stayed in his quarters.

While sitting in the Captain’s chair, Take noticed a distress call coming over the comm. The Orasca was on the very edge of where the signal would reach, so it was very garbled and the visual was all static. The words he picked up were “Under Attack” “Cargo ship” and “Help.” Now, the Orasca was very likely too far away to be of any help in any immediate distress, but as Daniel correctly pointed out, they were close enough to pick the bones off the corpse.

Suspicious of their good fortune, they immediately suspected this to be a trap. A message was sent over the intercom that they had received a distress call and were going to make a slight detour to investigate. Asta answered back saying she’d make some med kits in case they were needed. Campan and Mort made their way to the bridge while Take altered course to bring the ship slowly into sensor range. When they finally got to within range, they were able to pick up was that there was indeed a ship there and it wasn’t moving.

Leonard came up to the bridge to inquire about was going on. He strode onto the bridge and made it clear that he did not want a detour delaying his arrival on Beaumonde. Leonard was asked to leave the bridge and Mort tried to forcibly eject him. Leonard quickly got off the bridge, leaving in a huff.

Take and Daniel brought the other two up to speed and had Mort have the ship go mostly dark to avoid detection. They set up the ship to mostly cost towards their target.

With the ship’s lights now almost all off, Leonard moved towards the only lit area he could see (the med bay). Finding Asta there, he proceeded to bombard her with questions about what was going on. She was working on her current project and wasn’t amused by the interruption. Finding he wasn’t hurt, she kicked him out of the med bay and went back to work. She made some comment about spacing him. He proceeded to stumble around the cargo bay in the dark, looking for a way off this ship of lunatics before the trouble they were heading towards tried to get him killed.

A quick conversation between the bridge and Asta led to Campan having to go down and escort their passenger back to his quarters (which he happily did with his rifle in hand). Once back in his quarters, Leonard proceeded to barricade himself in his room, to protect himself from these lunatics.

The crew eventually got within range to get a good look at the situation. The ship was alone, drifting in space. There were no heat signatures coming from the ship. When the Orasca finally got close enough to do a visual inspection, Mort was able to see that they had been immobilized with some precision work. Well-placed weapon blasts took out the weapons and other key systems so that it could be harpooned and boarded.

Daniel moved down to the Korv and set it out ready for launch, ‘just in case.’ He monitored his sensor screen while Take monitored his own.

As the Orasca docked with the other ship Mort and Campan put on suits to go investigate. The secondary door to the ship’s airlock looked to have been pried open. They found several crates and a bloated corpse. Campan was able to find a secret compartment, which had been raided. He did manage to find a second compartment hidden within that one, which contained crates of mostly foodstuffs.

Hauling the stuff back to the Orasca, they returned to the cargo ship to explore. Asta was left to move the stuff into their ship’s hidden compartment. They found the door to the mess area had a couple of bullet dents in it. With the Orasca now linked up to the ship, life support was slowly restoring air to the cargo area. Inside the mess area, Campan and Mort found a couple of people attached to the ceiling, harpooned through their skulls. This made Campan and Mort move more quickly. They found the food stores ransacked.

About this time, Daniel noticed that, in addition to the blue dot on his screen, a yellow blot had appeared and was moving in their general direction.

Campan and Mort continued on towards the engine room. They passed a partially skinned man and moved even faster. The engine room doors looked pried open and there were bodies inside. They completely ignored the bodies and checked on the engine. It had been shot, so was inoperable, but Mort found a couple of nice bits that would fetch a pretty price or go well in his engine, if he took the time to pull them out. Daniel informed them that they had company approaching. Mort decided it would take too long to pull the parts out and they hurried back to the ship.

Once back on the Orasca, they got everything set up to detach. Then Mort remembered to check for booby traps and told Take to wait on disconnecting. Mort and Campan completely failed to find any trap and declared it safe to leave. Asta and Daniel didn’t trust that and checked for themselves. Daniel flew the Korv around to look while Asta looked from the inside. They both found some wires attaching the two ships. It was a simple explosive rigged to blow a hole in the airlock, should the ships detach. Asta pointed them out to Mort and, seeing it would be easier to disable from outside, he headed out with Campan. Working quickly under stressful conditions, Mort removed the hazard and they headed back inside. Once detached, Take moved the ship away from the cargo ship and the approaching ship.

As for the approaching ship, Daniel recognized it as an older ship and slightly larger than the Orasca. Daniel docked the Korv again and Take put the cargo ship between them and the approaching ship.

The ship was about fifteen minutes behind the Orasca when it started and about 10 minutes behind by the time the Orasca got up to speed. Daniel sent a general open comm. message, with no response. He then asked the ship to identify itself. The only response he got was a green spot appearing on the radar (missile). It quickly moved towards the Orasca, but Take was easily able to avoid it.

The other ship was keeping pace with them, but wasn’t gaining anymore. By this point, Mort was jumping up and down, asking if they should go to full burn. Mort and Campan decided to pass on the info about the bodies they found. With this new info, the ship not breaking off pursuit and a second missile being launched, the answer was yes to pump up the speed.

They full-burned until the other ship was a safe distance away. It followed for a while, but eventually lost speed and slowed down, dropping off the radar. The crew were a little on edge all the way to a fueling station. Nothing eventful happened on the way to the station or while there. The trip to Beaumonde was also fairly uneventful, though they kept an eye on their sensors the whole way.

The Orasca touched down in the Capital on the docks of Beaumonde. The planet was closer to the core and its economy largely ran off of its many factories. Leonard quickly packed up his things, paid his bill and for the damages (he had smashed the intercom in his room) and left, swearing off the lunatics onboard.

Take stayed on the ship while the rest of the crew headed off to a local bar called The Maidenhead where Daniel had a couple of contacts whom he would fence the stolen goods to. It was a nice enough underground multi-level bar, with a rotating storage weapon check at the door. Daniel, Campan, and Mort went off in search of Fanty and Mingo, the proprietors of the establishment and Daniel’s contacts. Daniel knew that these twin brothers usually dealt in more risky and illegal jobs than he normally liked to perform, but when the going gets tough…

Anyway, Daniel arranged for the fencing of the foodstuffs and Campan haggled out the price with Fanty. Meanwhile, Daniel talked with Mingo. Mingo proposed to him a small job the ship might do. It was the simple transport of a man to an uninhabited, barren rock and back. When asked for the man’s name, Mingo responded, “His name is unimportant. I believe there are members of your crew that can understand the need for a certain amount of anonymity, yes? Let’s just call him Wing.” He needed to get to this rock to collect the gains of a profitable bank heist. Mort asked whom it was stolen from, Mingo responded that it was an Alliance bank. Mort happily said, “Oh goodie.” Now, since the Alliance had an interest in this, it wouldn’t have been wise for Wing to come straight to them with the goods, so he stashed it. The crew would be going along to provide transport and to make sure he didn’t skip off with the loot. Mort asked how alive Wing had to come back. Mingo’s reply was, “I would prefer him alive, since he has done good work here. If he does die, I do understand, but a sizable cut of your pay will be deducted. After all, it is hard to find good professionals.”

Daniel left the deal open ended, saying he needed to check with the Captain on the job. He then proceeded to do a little information gathering about recent criminal activity. It seems there was a sizable bank heist on Bellerophon recently.

Meanwhile, Campan collected his weaponry (hand pistols) and went off in search of Leonard. He found him chatting around looking for a job. Campan proposed that Leonard come work for the ship. Leonard was less than sure about this idea. A lengthy conversation about who to avoid on the ship ensued. Seems Campan felt Leonard had annoyed the two members of the ship you should avoid. ‘Avoid the med bay unless you’re hurt. As for Mort, just avoid him.’ Leonard got Campan to agree to more or less protect him while he was on the ship. “I swear by the Honor of... BEER! I know nothing higher than beer!”

Now, having hired Leonard as a front man, a stewardess, crap cleaner, and to make money for Campan, Campan now had to actually get him hired by the Captain. He hooked back up with Daniel, Mort, and Asta. They were less than thrilled about the idea. But, they agreed to go along with the captain. Returning to the Orasca, there was a discussion about Leonard’s employment. An interview by Take, Daniel, and Mort was agreed upon. Asta insisted upon a psych test, after their problems with Jasp.

They set up the interview in the cargo bay and Asta brought the psych test. Several questions were handwritten in at the end, including an essay (What would you do if you were alone with two Alliance bounty hunters and one of them shot his rifle up into a tree. Please give your reasons), a question about what you think about aliens, and a question about what you’d do if asked to toast the Alliance on U-day.

Leonard reluctantly agreed to the interview (and psych test). He was unhappy when they closed the cargo bay doors (felt it might be a trap), but agreed that it gave more privacy. He got a couple of funny looks at the final questions, but Asta declared him relatively sane (at least, more sane than most of the crew). There were a couple of snags in the interview, but most of them got ironed out. Mort really didn’t like that Leonard wouldn’t lie, but seemed to accept that at least he understood the need to omit information on occasion. They also hit upon the fact that Leonard really didn’t like his veracity questioned. The interview looked like it was going marginally well until they got to the Chain of Command. Leonard kept replying that he would follow any reasonable order. This seemed to set off all three of the interviewers, since no officer wants his orders questioned and they didn’t feel they could count on him to perform a duty at a crucial moment without stopping to question it. Ultimately, this ended the interview and Leonard went upon his way.

Fade to Black

Synopsis of 8/15/05 Session

“Episode 2 – Detour” – Second Session

Synopsis of 8/15/05 Session – subtitled “Those left behind”


With Leonard gone, the crew got on with their business. After a quick chat with Take, Daniel and Campan headed back off to the bar to accept the pro-offered job.

After checking their guns, Campan noticed a guy sitting at the bar without a drink. Of course, he saw this as a very sad thing. Even sadder still, he recognized the guy as his cousin Kenny. Borrowing a bit from Daniel, he ordered a beer for Kenny, then followed Daniel back towards Mingo’s table.

Details were quickly worked out and the two were on their way back out of the bar. Daniel told Campan to go get the beer for the journey. Campan then hit Daniel up for more money to make the beer run.

Daniel: And strangely enough you never have any money.

Campan: I have a sick grandmother, sir.

Daniel: Yes. I met you sick grandmother, if you remember.

Campan: Yes sir, so you know I send her all the money I can.

Kenny intercepted them and chatted with Campan. Looking over Kenny, Daniel saw a very poor man, wearing dirty and soggy clothes. He also didn’t smell too good. Campan did his best to convince Daniel to hire his cousin.

Daniel: You’re related to him.

Campan: You can’t hold that against him.

Daniel: Does he also have a sick grandmother?

Campan: I believe he has two, sir.

Daniel did a quick pre-interview with Kenny, to assess his skills. He also asked Kenny if he had anyone hunting him. Kenny said he paid everyone so they wouldn’t hunt him. Daniel found this a bit strange, but told Campan to get his cousin cleaned up while he was buying the beer. He’d talk to Take about an interview when they got to the ship.

Daniel headed back to the ship and looked around for Take, finding the captain sleeping on the bridge. A brief, if sleepy, conversation ensued about the interview.

Daniel: He’s Campan’s cousin.

Take: Is he poor too?

Campan used a minor amount of the beer money to buy Kenny a new shirt and pants. When they arrived at the ship, Daniel greeted them while Mort was setting up the interview table. After waiting a few moments, Daniel realized he was going to have to go wake Take up again. He sure sleeps a lot for the work he does.

Once Take was woken and given some coffee, the interview could begin. Kenny passed the psych test easily, showing he was the most stable person on the ship. The rest of the interview process went smoothly and, once Take put on the Captain Pants, he was hired. Kenny was given some cleaning supplies and a bucket and Daniel showed him to Jasp’s old room. Kenny quickly started having ideas about what to do with all the tinfoil.

Daniel and Campan then discussed the beer that was procured. He really wasn’t sure about the jalapeno beer. While they were talking, there was a knock on the door to the ship. Mort opened it to find a short, bald gentleman in his sixties. The clothes he was wearing were utilitarian and a bit faded and he had a pistol holstered over his right hip. He stood with a bit of a hunch under the weight of the backpack over his left shoulder.

Wing: (holds out his hand) Howdy. I’m Wing. Nice to meet you, sonny.

Mort immediately hit the intercom button and asked Daniel if they were expecting someone. When told they were, Mort shook Wing’s hand and showed him in.

Daniel made his way down to the cargo bay to meet Wing. Wing greeted him in the same way he greeted Mort. The sonny comment confused Daniel a little, but he ignored it for the time being. Daniel asked Wing about coordinates to where they were headed.

Wing: Oh, I’ll plot in the course into your computer for you. No need to worry about that. Now, would one of you nice boys be kind enough to give me a tour of this boat. Looks like a fine ship.

Mort retreated to his engine room while Daniel gave him an abbreviated tour. He dropped his pack off in one of the passenger rooms. He was told Mort considered the engine room his private sanctum, so it’d be safer if he just stayed out of there. He was shown where the Med bay was, but told Asta considered that her sanctum, so not to go in unless he was injured. Asta didn’t seem to care for him calling her dearie. They ended the tour going through the lounge to the dining room where Campan was sitting, drinking beer.

Again there was the greeting, though Campan made the comment that Wing couldn’t have his beer. Wing said that was alright, cause he had brought his own. Campan perked up at this comment. While the two talked, Daniel went and got Take and mentioned the coordinates thing.

When Take came in, Wing again greeted with a smile and a handshake.

Wing: You’d be the Captain, right? Nice to meet you, sonny.

Wing was asked if he was hunted by anyone besides the Alliance. He responded no, adding something about being the one always left behind. When asked for the coordinates by Take, Wing tried the same line he had used on Daniel. Take said he wanted the coordinates, since he needed to know where they were going.

Campan (over the intercom to Asta): “Did you give him a backbone?”

Wing tried to reason out his argument to them, but it boiled down to him not wanting to be dumped off the ship once they knew where they had to go to get the goods. Daniel was able to convince him to hand over the coordinates.

After giving the coordinates to Take, Wing shuffled back to his quarters to get a bottle of whiskey. Perking up at the offer of some good booze, Campan was more than happy to chat with the fellow. Asta moved up to the dining area and joined them. During the trip, Kenny tried to requisition himself a gun from the armory. He found it locked. Searching out Campan, he was lent a small, concealable handgun (read the woman’s purse gun Wash has in War Stories).

Three days later, the ship made it to the small asteroid where Wing hid his bank robbings. Daniel used the scanning systems to find the hideout before Wing pointed it out and told them where to land. He told them the asteroid had an atmosphere, so they wouldn’t need suits. Gabe then proceeded to ask questions one should not ask (how does it have an atmosphere?) Alex glared at him and responded failed terraforming.

Mort, Campan and Kenny accompanied Wing into the hideout. On the approach to the hole in the ground, Wing told them to stand back as he walked in a funny, drunken pattern towards the hole. Once he brushed off a keypad and hit some combination he waved the others in. Mort had a very cautious Kenny go first, followed by an equally cautious Mort. Campan swaggered along behind.

At the bottom the ladder inside the hole, Wing punched in another combination after everyone was down. Several times through the journey down a mineshaft like tunnel, Wing stopped to disarm and then rearm traps.

They finally reached a room cluttered with lockers, crates, and four identical locked cases with small consoles. Mort and Wing checked them over to make sure they weren’t trapped. Mort got Wing to check inside one of them to make sure the goods were still there. Once they decided it was safe and the money was intact, everyone picked up a rather heavy case.

At this point, the sound of a gun powering up could be heard. An unkempt, muscular man of about six feet tall partially stepped out from behind a locker with his gun pointed at Wing.

Bad Guy: Drop the cases and leave Wing and you can leave. We’re just here for what is ours.

Mort muttered something and opened fire on the guy before dragging his moneybox into the hallway to use the door as cover. Unfortunately for him, he only hit the locker as the guy ducked back behind it. Campan and Wing both dropped their boxes and ended up diving behind the same crate near the door. Kenny dropped his box and ran behind a locker further into the room, yelling about not wanting a fight.

Wing: (from behind cover) They ain’t ruttin yours! You fled when things went bad and left me behind!

A brief firefight ensued as the bad guy’s companions, a short bald chick with a peacemaker and an ugly bastard with a submachine gun, joined the game. Campan and Mort got shot up good. Mort managed to get all the moneyboxes out into the hallway while Wing and Campan moved their cover towards the door. Wing wasn’t hitting anything, but he also wasn’t getting hit. Kenny moved further into the room before trying to get back out. Unfortunately for him, he tripped and fell in the middle of room. The Bad Guy moved over and picked up Kenny, using him as cover and a hostage (not that the others seemed to care). When a shot was made at the guy and the bullet whizzed passed Kenny, Kenny tried to convince him to move behind some cover.

Kenny: Could we move behind that locker? Cause now they’re just going to shoot both of us.

Daniel had been watching the scanners to keep an eye on the party as they went into the compound. They had dropped off the screen a minute or two ago, but he expected that. About this time, he noticed another ship approaching on the scanners. With the clip it was moving at, it’d get there in three or so minutes. He tried to call the others in the hideout, but all he got was static. He moved to the Korv, leaving Take and Asta on the bridge. Asta started working on boosting the comm. signal to reach those inside.

Once they identified the ship as looking and acting like the one they left in the dust a week or so ago, Asta got Take to set up some suits for the rest of the crew. Daniel took off in the Korv and got it situated in a nice spot away from the Orasca.

Campan shot the Bad Guy twice, dropping him. This freed Kenny up to dive behind their cover. Mort, much annoyed by now, cursed and moved into the room to mow down the guy with the submachine gun. About this time, Asta got through on the comm.

Asta: You should know it would be best if you returned to the ship post haste. (I can't remember what was said exactly and can't inflict the complete lack of urgency in which this was said)

Mort: We’re a bit busy at the moment. Can this wait?

Asta: Not when Mr. Likes-to-put-holes-in-the-ship is above us.

Seeing two of her crewmates downed in a hail of bullets, the Bald Chick swore in Chinese. The crew heard the tearing of something, the tinkle of metal hitting the ground, and saw something small and round land near the door between Campan and Mort, as the Bald Chick moved further behind her locker. Crouching behind Campan near the door, Kenny was the first to react to the grenade. He fled further into the room, hiding in a corner behind a locker. Campan picked up the grenade and chucked it back towards the Bald Chick, but didn’t get it far enough away from Mort. The Bald Chick dove behind a crate further away. Mort moved up and kicked the grenade so that it would hit a box and ricochet towards the Bald Chick... then shot at her twice for good measure. One second later, it exploded, obliterating the Bald Chick and tearing up Mort’s jacket, shirt, bullet proof vest, vest, and undershirt, filling his chest with shrapnel.

Exiting from his hiding spot, Kenny and Campan wanted to take the time to loot. Wing had heard Asta’s response and was already carting his moneybox down the shaft. The grenade had toasted the Bald Chick and the Ugly Bastard, along with their stuff. In their seriously injured states, Mort grabbed one moneybox while Campan dragged two. Kenny wanted to stick around and strip the Bad Guy, but ended up just dragging him, at the insistence of Mort.

On the way back to the surface, Mort asked Wing about the guys they just met. He said they were the crew that had done the bank job with him, but they had left him to rot when the feds showed up. By the time they got through the traps, Kenny had partially looted the body, gaining a mangled and hole filled bulletproof vest and a Peacemaker.

The group made it to the surface in time to see the Orasca lifting off, leaving them behind as the ship that looked like Reavers from the last session pursued it. Wing jumped up and down and cursed at the Orasca for getting left behind again. Mort said they weren’t getting left behind and opened fire with his gun at the pursuing ship. Mort asked Wing if that ship was the one guys inside used, to which Wing responded he'd never seen it before. The Korv flew by about a click behind the Reavers.

As the ship had passed the Korv earlier, Daniel noted they once again weren’t pumping out a ship ID single or radiation. A dogfight commenced with the Korv dealing pretty much all the damage. The Orasca and the Korv were just too maneuverable for the Reaver missiles. Daniel damaged the Reaver ship’s maneuverability and destroyed their food and supplies stores while doing a lot of structural damage. The Reavers broke off pursuit and went to full burn to escape.

While waiting for the Orasca to return, Mort asked Wing why his former partners didn’t just make off with the cases if they could get into his hideout.

Wing: The cases have a lock code on them. I’ll admit my security may be a little lacking, sonny, but a code (smiles and chuckles a little, shaking his finger), ah yes. A good code, I can make.

Mort was now covering his chest. He informed Asta that they were going to need serious medical attention. Without doing anything for their wounds and overexerting themselves, Mort and Campan were just gushing out blood.

Campan’s speech was getting slurred by the pain and fatigue.

Campan: I’m sleepy.

Wing cursed and reached into his pack to pull out a bottle of Whiskey. Handing it over, Campan started drinking.

Wing: You’re supposed to pour it… eh, whatever.

Daniel did a scan for the ship of Wing's former crew, but came up with nothing. The Korv redocked with the Orasca as it touched down to pick up its passengers.

Fade to Black

Synopsis of beginning of 8/29/05 Session

“Episode 2 – Detour” – Wrap-up

Synopsis of beginning of 8/29/05 Session

Asta patched Campan up while a very stubborn Mort went back to his quarters, insisting he get taken care of there. Take watched over Mort until Asta arrived. Once Take left, Mort locked the door. Asta worked on patching up Mort, who eventually passed out. Asta, being locked in, set up some monitoring equipment, called Take to check on Campan and let him know she was going to be in there a while and took a nap on Mort's floor until Mort woke up.

A few days later, Mort gave a report on the happenings down in Wing's hideout to Daniel. Daniel then sought out Campan for his report.

At one of the meals that most everyone was there for, Daniel talked to Wing publicly, telling him they were unlikely to work together again, since Wing didn't give them all the necessary info. Wing didn't bother explaining, since he felt he already had. He just retorted that he had no idea that was going to happen and left it at that.
(Director's comment: Wing probably should have made a comment like, "You burn the bridges you feel you have to.")

The crew made it back to Beaumonde and met with Fanti and Mingo. Daniel brought Kenny along, since he was the least damaged 'bodyguard.' Daniel tried to get some hazard pay for the crew getting all shot up and Kenny butted in with his own reasoning. All they got were strange looks and a comment, "Maybe you should bring that up during job negotiations."
(Director's comment: Damn bastards rolled too well to use the following comment. "When you take on a job in this line of work, there is a certain expectation of danger involved, even on a cake-run like this one. If you can't accept that, you're in the wrong line of work. Your men getting shot up is a damn shame, but it's not our problem. Look, you do a good job, but don't get too full of yourself. There are plenty of others like you and they are just happy to have the work. You keep up that attitude and you're going to find yourself begging for scraps somewhere.)

The crew unloaded Wing and the cargo and got paid.

Roll Credits

Synopsis of 8/29/05 Session

“Episode 3 – Bounties” – First Session

Synopsis of 8/29/05 Session

It had been two months since the retrieval of the bank heist gains. While they had received a job or two early on, they were fairly small scale. Since then, most people just didn’t have anything for them. They’ve had dry spells before, but usually not after some good jobs.

The Orasca stopped on Santo to refuel before heading on to the Georgia System, where they hoped to find some work. The Alliance chooses to pay more attention to nearby Persephone, leaving only a small post here, making this a nice stop over point. The crew set off their separate ways to run a few errands during their stay and took advantage of a few of the place’s wonderful amenities.

Campan ended up at the local whorehouse drinking some booze and chatting with the women. He managed to pick up news on a small bounty. Kenny ended up chatting with a friend of his, the head of the local Alliance post. He picked up some news on two possible bounties. Take used the quiet time on the ship to play with his dinosaurs. Daniel ended up at the local smugglers den chatting with the bartender. He too picked up some news of possible work, though was distrustful of the source.

Mort visited the local junkyard looking for parts. He found the man’s goods third rate and prices outrageous. Mort got into a shouting match with the man and threatened his life.

Asta approached the junkyard in hopes of finding some medical equipment for a portable crash cart. She passed a seriously annoyed Mort on the way there, but Mort in a pissy mood was nothing she hadn’t experienced before. She got to the junkyard ‘office’ a few minutes later and looked around for the caretaker. She found him lying on the ground, moaning, with blood pooling out of his shoulder. She quickly proceeded to stop the bleeding and patch him up. When she asked him what happened, he told her some lunatic shot him, describing Mort. When asked why, he said the nut job didn’t like his prices threatened his life. When he wouldn’t change them, the maniac shot him. Asta took him back to the Orasca to get him better taken care of and to get him a beer.

There, she set him up in the med bay and called Take over the intercom to come down to med bay with a beer, since they had a visitor. Take got the skunked beer out of the fridge and brought it down. When Asta filled Take in on Mort shooting a guy, they compared notes on Mort’s homicidal tendencies. Take immediately got the guy a better beer from Daniel’s cache and they did their best to placate the fellow (in an effort to keep the authorities out of it). Now mellowed a bit more, he went back into business mode and asked Asta what she had wanted from his yard. They headed back there to look to see what he had (with her radio off).

Campan and Kenny returned to the ship about this time, from their separate treks. They discussed their potential jobs and Kenny asked whom he should bring them to. Campan told Kenny to tell Daniel while Take was in the room, to cover all bases. They headed into the ship to find Take or Daniel.

Take then called Mort over the walkie-talkie.

Take: Umm Mort, could you come back, right about now and… make sure no one sees you.

Mort: Okay.

Take: Particularly that mechanic who, you know, got hurt.

Mort: I didn’t shoot anyone!

Take: Who said anything about you shooting anyone?

Mort: Nobody. And I didn't do it.

Hearing this, Daniel also hastened his way back to the ship. Getting back on board, he quickly made his way to the bridge and got Take to fill him in. Take was very careful to use the word someone instead of saying Mort.

Hearing lots of people in conference, Campan told Kenny something important was happening on the bridge and gestured to Kenny to follow him up. Arriving, Campan announced they had work. Asta countered by announcing to Campan that some beer was missing from the fridge. Campan immediately forgot about the work and started demanding they search for the beer thief, even if it was just the back-up beer.

Daniel: So, what work have you found?

Campan: Uh, whores, sir.

Campan wanted to be paid in beer, but the whores offered services or some money. Seems they just wanted them to beat up or kill a guy or two.

(breaking in) Kenny : I also found something to, sir. Apparently, uh, the authorities are looking for a man named Jardin (said with Texan pronunciation). There is a, uh, reward on him. And I heard it through the grapevine that he can be found on Ebbon. If, we didn’t want to work on the whores.

Daniel showed interest in this case. Kenny also relayed info about an official looking for a guy named Jasp. The crew ignored that one and Daniel then started to say something about the whore job, but got distracted by Mort walking in.

They were fairly quickly able to determine, upon questioning and examining of his gun, that Mort hadn’t shot anyone. Of course, Mort’s solution to stopping this guy from spreading around rumors about Mort shooting him was to kill him. Since no one liked that idea, he suggested they leave.

Now, the ship needed some money for refueling, so they were stuck at a bit of an impasse.

Coming back to the whore discussion, thanks to Campan, Daniel relayed that the whores wanted someone to kill the guys, and that they didn’t have any money. He heard there was a third party hiring people to protect these men from the whores’ friends.

It was decided that Asta would bring the junkyard guy back to the ship where Daniel could interrogate him. Meanwhile, Mort and Take would sneak into the shop and check for surveillance equipment to incriminate Mort. And Kenny would arrange a meet with his contact about the Jardin job at ‘the bar people don’t go to.’ Mort went and got his black hat and bandana mask from his room and the ones he got for Campan. Handing Campan’s off to him, he headed out on a leisurely route to the junkyard.

Take headed off on a direct route and found Asta & the junkyard guy in the back, looking at some junked medical equipment. Take let Asta in on the plan and proceeded to get roped into helping haul stuff back to the ship.

Mort got into the shop, and quickly surmised that the only security this place had was a pair of Rottweilers. He occupied the dogs with some found peanut butter, then moved about into the shop. He found a pair of knotholes that would be a good place to shoot someone from, if they were standing by the pool of blood on the floor. He then proceeded to loot things he actually wanted when he was there earlier. He finished it off with heading to ‘the bar people don’t go to.’

When Asta, Take, and the junkyard guy returned to the ship with a lot of medical junk, Campan immediately accused the guy of stealing his beer.

Campan: The beer does not follow the chain of command!

The crew, minus Mort, assembled in the dining hall and offered to help the guy find out about this shooting and stuff.

Junkyard guy: Well, uh, thanks. Can’t really pay you, but, uhh, I got junk.

Daniel questioned the man about what happened.

Junkyard guy: Well, I was having an argument with this totally irrational man. Saying I had only crap and saying I was way overcharging. Being a general jackass. He’s threatening my life. He didn’t pull his pistol out and wave it at me, but I could tell he wanted to. And finally he makes a couple violent remarks and walks out. A few seconds later, I’m shot! I had turned around to put away some stock.

Daniel: Why would he shoot you and not kill you?

Junkyard guy: Well, apparently he is a suck shot. Either that or he was so pissed off that he… missed.

He thought he saw a revolver, but Mort didn’t take it out, so he didn’t know. He said he'd never picked up a gun, so he didn’t know them.

Campan collected money from Asta and Daniel to go and get beer ‘for the whole crew.’ Kenny was sent along to supervise. They went to ‘the bar people don’t go to’ and ran into Mort. Wasn’t hard to run into him, since he was the only other guy in the bar, save for the bartender. The bartender was elated to have so many customers in one day. They got him to sing for their entertainment, but it was more torture then entertaining. The poor guy didn’t even have bottles of beer, just a tap.

Back on the ship, Daniel set about trying to convince the guy it wouldn’t make any sense for someone to have an argument, storm off, and then shoot him. He then went on to find out if he had problems with anyone. Most he could come up with was a guy a couple months back that wanted to work there. But, you know, he couldn’t really afford a helper, so turned him down. The guy was pissed about that. The guy had worked odd jobs around before hand; at a bar, as a stable boy, and constructing the new gambling parlor. He hadn’t seen the guy since. When asked to describe the guy, it was fairly vague (about Daniel’s height, but younger, didn’t wear glasses, had brownish hair, name started with a J).

Daniel headed back to the junkyard with the guy to check out the scene and see if someone showed up. He made sure his radio was off.

Take radioed the others to let them know to come back to the ship. Despite the bartender saying he could get bottles, they decided to get portable beer elsewhere.

Bartender: (pitiful voice) You’re coming back, right?

Campan: Sure, we’ll be back tomorrow.

Bartender: (overly enthusiastic) Come back anytime!

Mort: What’s wrong with this bar?

Bartender: I don’t… know. People just stopped coming… Don’t know why.

Dropping off his ill-gotten gains in the hidden compartment, Mort and the others sought out Take. He relayed what he found to everyone there, minus the liberated parts. Asta retrieved the bullet and they determined that it was a fairly common bullet that could have come from Mort’s revolver, though they knew it didn’t.

The crew then analyzed what ‘real job’ prospects they had. The whorehouse job was out, since it wasn’t a real job. Jasp was out, cause he was already tracked down and killed. Mort said they might want to ask Buggs about hunting down Jardin.

Daniel inspected the scene, found the knotholes, and figured from the angle of impact that the gun was shot from there, not the doorway. He pointed this all out to the junkyard guy and told him he had an enemy here. He was able to cast sufficient doubt into this man's mind about Mort shooting him. Daniel stuck around for an hour or two, then went back to the ship.

Mort met Daniel at the door and asked him about the Jardin job. Daniel said Kenny was already setting up a meet. They headed up to the cockpit to find Take. Up there, they discussed the meet tomorrow and the location.

Daniel: So, I’m not going to be inconspicuous sitting in the corner.

Mort: Take a newspaper. Go there twice. The bartender will think you’re his regular.

They decided they’d fill Campan in on the plan and leave Kenny ignorant, since Kenny was under the impression the crew was serious about taking the job. They discussed the possibility that they’d need to kill this contact of Kenny’s. They did decide to let Kenny do the job they hired him for, talking. After Mort got Campan, they told him they were going to meet with this guy about the Jardin job, cause they wanted to ‘deal’ with someone who might want him dead. They were planning on either killing this guy because he was after Jardin, or getting a meeting with the guy who wanted him dead. They did decide Kenny’s contact couldn’t see the ship unless they were going to vent him into space. Many methods of death were discussed.

Daniel took this time to fill them in on an actual business opportunity. Opposite of the whore job.

Daniel: The whores have no money and are trying get someone to kill a couple of men A local, allegedly local at least, businesswoman is hiring people to protect these men from getting killed by the whores, for whatever reason I’m trying to figure out why. She actually does have money.

She is either trying to set up her own business, she runs the new gambling house. She is trying to prevent Alliance attention. Or she has some interest in these men, who are contractors for the Alliance. Freighters who cart stuff for the Alliance. I don’t know if they WORK for the Alliance. I don’t know if she has connections to the Alliance. I don’t know why they’re valuable, but she wants them alive and I want to find that one out.

Probably Mort: That sounds really complicated. Can’t we just shoot people?

Daniel figured there would have to be some killing if they were to take this job. Mort suggested just shooting the whores, to simplify things. If there was no one to pay them, then no one would hunt these guys.

Daniel was asked about the businesswoman and he mentioned her name was Pearl Parker. At the mention of the name, Campan turned bright red.

Take: Is there something wrong, Campan? You look as if your beer suddenly exploded.

Campan denied anything was wrong, but was now definitely in favor of helping this woman. He let on that Daniel now knew the name of his sick grandmother. He said he wasn’t going on this job and wasn’t on this planet or ship. Mort asked him if his grandmother was mad at him.

Campan: I send her money…when I can… sometimes.

Campan just wanted his grandmother to be happy… and alive.

Mort went and asked Kenny if he had a sick grandmother named Pearl Parker. He responded affirmatively, and sounded sincere about it to Mort.
Mort: Okay, so, things we need to do. Have a meeting with someone we may or may not kill. Have a meeting with Mrs. Parker so we can kill the whores for her.

Daniel: But what if her goal is no deaths at all while she sets up shop?

Mort: Then that’s overly complicated and we don’t get involved.

Fade to Black

-----

Paul: Why would anyone bother framing me? There is so much I’m guilty of already.

Gabe: Why do I see the end of the adventure, whichever night it ends, is going to end with; Kill the whores, kill the men (Mike: Kill Kenny), kill the guy, and on the way out, kill the mechanic.

Synopsis of 9/12/05 Session

“Episode 3 – Bounties” – Second Session

Synopsis of 9/12/05 Session – subtitled “Whole Lot of Talking”


Daniel spent the rest of the evening setting himself up as the regular at the bar nobody goes to. Tom, the bartender, was more than happy to make sure he was a satisfied customer and was elated to find out he’d be bringing in even more business ‘in the morning.’

‘In the morning’ turned out to be the afternoon. Daniel showed up at the bar first with a urine-stained newspaper. He made sure the light was out over his table. He drank more than he should, spilling a lot of it on himself. He then ‘took a nap.’

Asta showed up about two hours before the meet was supposed to happen with some gadgets and a bunch of technical textbooks. She plunked herself down on the middle table and ordered some cider.

Back on the ship, Mort and Campan took Kenny aside to make sure he knew what was going to go on at the meet. They made sure that they needed to get the info about contacting the ‘head guy’ for the job. No middlemen, since they get a cut of the profits. Campan also reminded Kenny that they get money for turning in crewmembers. Kenny didn’t take it as the threat it was.

After a few ciders, Asta asked Tom if he knew where she could get a large rat or a rabbit… and a plastic tablecloth. After explaining that she wanted to brush up on some dissection techniques, Tom told her he was cutting her off. Some hard cider must have got mixed in with her drink somehow. He offered to get her some coffee and something to eat. When he came back with his lunch and the coffee, she found it was actual coffee flavored coffee and didn’t have any chunks.

Asta: What do you use the strain the chunks out of it?

Tom the bartender: I…………….’m going over here now.

Asta achieved her goal of establishing that she wasn’t someone he wanted to deal too much with.

When Mort, Kenny, and Campan arrived, they found Asta happily sitting at her table and Tom casting worried glances at her. The trio sat down at the empty table and pulled it about a foot farther from Asta. For entertainment, Campan asked Tom to sing for them. The group was then tortured by the GM’s bad singing and the GM’s fiancée scolded Campan’s player. Mort then ordered a beer and sat smugly between the two guys without beer money. Campan countered this by pulling a beer out of his coat.

About this point, Tom cut an overly hyper Asta off of coffee. Time passed until a man in comfortable clothes entered the bar. He was in his mid thirties, with speckled gray hair and wearing glasses. He called out to Tom to get him a beer and headed over to Kenny’s table. Greeting Kenny, he got him to introduce Mort and his cousin Campan. As he pulled up a chair, he introduced himself as Gene Wheeler.

He filled in the trio and the listening-in bystanders on the Daniel Jardin case. They were told that he had been in the area recently, a max of a month or two ago and were given a description (43 years old, light brown peppery hair, brown eyes, average height, etc). Gene offered to send them a picture of the guy after he got back to his office. Dead or Alive wasn’t specified, but Gene supposed that Alive was preferred. The reward was about five thousand credits, depending upon his condition (Rough translation of money).

Kenny asked him where the money was coming from, to which Gene responded that they’d need to contact Lieutenant Garrett Sarv, who was based over at Ebbon at the moment. Once Kenny expressed that they’d take up the job, Gene ordered beers for the table and sat around to chew the fat. Gene talked about how he was the quartermaster in charge of the local Alliance. He was only a Sergeant, but they don’t need someone important in charge, since he only had to check stuff in and out and keep and eye on it. Left him with a lot of time to kill. Mort asked what Jardin was wanted for, but Gene didn’t know.

Mort: Might be for shooting rapists…
(pause)
Campan: I like molesters. (long pause) SHOOTING them.

They talked a bit about the Jasp job, Campan saying he thought he’d heard of him a couple planets ago. Turns out he was wanted for killing a prefect’s son on some moon about a year ago. Gene told them the local sheriff of that moon would appreciate any information they could give him. Gene eventually begged off, saying he had a shipment coming in that night. Some high tech gizmo from R&D or whatever. Mort got a little too interested in this.

With Kenny’s contact gone, the others left in fairly short order. Daniel stuck around a little bit to spend all of his money buying off Tom’s coffee. Asta tidied up her table and got Kenny to help her carry her stuff back to the ship.

Mort wandered up to the bridge and filled Take in on the meeting. The name of the Lieutenant in charge of the Jardin case peeked something in the back of Take’s mind.

Daniel did not let Campan know that he had spent the beer budget on coffee. He did, however, get Kenny to find out if any other guys were on the case, to which there were two.

Meanwhile, Mort and Take sought out Asta to ask her about this guy who shared her last name.

Take: You know how we have a problem with losing manifests.

Asta: You should probably look into getting a secretary for the manifests.

Mort: Nonono. Secretaries are bad. They keep track of information.

She told them that she had a little brother named Garrett, but she hadn’t spoken with him or the rest of her family in years, since she kind of wandered off duty in the middle of a war and the Alliance probably doesn’t like that fact. He was at boarding school when she left. Mort marked down Garrett’s name on his clipboard. Asta commented how she would prefer if they didn’t off her little brother. Sure, he was annoying and all (as much younger brothers tend to be), but he is family.

Deciding to work on part two of the agenda for the day, Daniel arranged a meeting with Pearl Parker. His initial idea of taking Campan and Mort with him was shot down by Campan. Since Campan said Kenny might also be afraid of their possibly contagious grandmother, Mort suggested taking Asta along instead.

They found Pearl’s gambling parlor to be a much more spacious environment. It was a large wooden building with large wooden doors (The non swinging kind). There were a number of wooden tables for drinking, a faro table, some pool tables, craps table, a new piano, and long bar. There were several doors along the back wall and a large open wooden staircase with a number of doors on the upper level as well.

The brute behind the bar led them upstairs to Miss Parker’s office. It was a nice sized office with a door that led out to a balcony and another door that was closed. There was a nice oak desk to one side with three chairs on the employee/client side of the desk and a standing safe over in the corner by the balcony. Sitting behind the desk was a woman with gray hair about Daniel’s age wearing a business suit. Mort cased the room and determined the safe was too big for him to carry.

Daniel was a little suspicious of the fact that, while they were looked over when they were brought up to the office, they weren’t disarmed and they were now the only ones in the room with Miss Parker. Daniel greeted Pearl before he and Asta each took a seat. Mort relaxed up against the wall with the door to the gambling parlor on it. Daniel introduced himself and the others and asked Pearl to fill them in on the specifics of the job.

Ms Parker: What I’m looking for is a couple of gentlemen or ladies…

Mort (Shifts uncomfortably and looks towards the door): I don’t think you want those.

Ms Parker: Well, it’s more polite than calling you s.

Mort: I don’t think you want those either. I think those are the ones you want dealt with.

She explained that what she was looking for was some people to stop whoever took on the whores’ bounty, since the murder of a couple of Alliance contracted men would be likely to attract the Alliance’s attention. At the moment, all they had to deal with is the local sheriff, who turned a blind eye to ‘Federal’ matters. If the Alliance took an interest, this would be bad for business for everyone who operates through Santo. She informed Daniel of her belief that the whores may have found some people that see things their way. She spoke of how the sheriff’s hands were tied until the whores made their move.

Mort, getting bored with the coded conversation, spoke up.

Mort: You don’t so much need a sheriff for this as you need an assassin. So, would you like another killing? Then you can have the nice sheriff arrest anyone you want and deal with the situation locally.

Ms Parker: Now, if more people were to die, that would be a damn shame. But, if they were to simply leave, that would be the best for everyone.

She wasn’t sure just how many of the whores were truly gunning for these men to be dead, but word was they all pooled their money together. She said there were six whores in total at the house, plus their engineer, Joel Starr. The engineer hadn’t been involved in their bounty. He got compensated for his damaged goods and was happy with it. He had proven to not be able to control his whores when they set their mind to something.

Ms Parker: You can only slap them around so much before you start losing money.

When asked, Ms Parker said she could get Daniel in contact with the man she had keeping an eye on the whores, Dan.

On the discussion of payment, they were given a rough abstract figure that was the equivalent of a Resources +1 (Middle Class) man’s earnings for a month. She said that this figure was fluid depending upon time spent on the job and how quietly or efficiently it was pulled off.

Mort: Louder is cheaper.

Ms Parker: Louder is always cheaper and messier. (pause). I do give bonus to people who take the time to do a good job and are careful of their work.

Daniel brought up the subject of hazard pay, which she responded that she had been fairly straight forward that this was not a job without risk and she was offering a reasonable pay. While she wouldn’t offer extra pay for those that got shot, she would offer the use of the town doctor or his supplies. Asta said she’d take advantage of his supplies, but they wouldn’t need his services. Pearl did toss in a free go with one of her ladies… or boys.

Asta: Have your girls had all their shots?

Ms Parker: I run a clean establishment.

From questioning, Daniel found that Doc Cochran had racked up a debt to Pearl. She said he had a weakness for cards. Around town, most of his patients bartered goods or services instead of paying him in money. He was known to care to the whores for services rendered. She said he was a skillful doctor, when he was sober.

Out of the blue, Mort blurted out a question.

Mort: What the hell is wrong with Tom’s bar?

(pause)

Ms Parker: Tom’s bar was the best bar, in its day. But, he hasn’t been catering to customer as he should. He didn’t learn to diversify. He’s a good man and I offered him a position, but he’s happy with his bar.

Asta: He doesn’t like you to dissect rats on his tables.

Ms Parker: Can’t say I disagree with him there. People don’t like to eat or drink around that sort of scene.

When asked about characters they should look out for, she told Daniel that she’d kept an eye on the docks, but has had a lot of things on her mind lately. A couple of nights ago, a couple of bruisers came in to her establishment, but weren’t looking to pay her rates. They were just an example of the colorful types this planet attracts.

Now, she didn’t know the location of the men that were currently being hunted; Jack Grenier and Larry Cook. She figured they were off somewhere working on a job. They must be aware of the bounty, so were likely laying low.

Before they left, Mort helped himself to a couple cigars, but felt cheapened when Pearl opened the box for him. They decided to head back to the ship to work out their plan for the job instead of whiling away time at the gambling parlor.

Once back on the ship, they found Campan and Kenny in the cargo hold throwing lawn darts at each other.

Mort: What are you idiots doing? You’re getting blood on my floor!

Kenny: Not much.

Campan: It’s mostly his.

Mort: Asta, I think these two need more medication.

Asta: I don’t think there is medication for that.

Before they went off to their officer’s meeting, Daniel asked Asta to look over the sensor logs to see how hard they were watched when they landed there and how often the ship manifest was accessed.

Daniel: I got a feeling our sick grandmother might know a bit more about us than we want her to.

Mort: Oh yeah. We forgot to ask her about her health.

The crew then took a couple minutes to figure out how old she must have been when she had kids for Campan to be her grandson.

Asta found the only person to access the ship manifest was the dock master. Meanwhile, she sent Kenny off to collect rumors on Garret Sarv. Since he hadn’t been around for several months, there really wasn’t much. He found out who his favorite whore was. He wasn’t on planet more than a couple days. He frequented Tom’s and was a good tipper. From Wheeler, he found out Garret’s official rank was Lieutenant Junior Grade and he was stationed on Ebbon. He had a good service record and he was on planet escorting some goods.

The general crew meeting, which followed the officers’ meeting, started with the questioning of Campan about his genealogy.

Campan: Have we just come here to discuss my sick grandmother?

Mort: No. Your family tree is disturbing us all.

Daniel took direction of the meeting to fill the others in.

Daniel: The situation that we have here is a job that involves us being quiet and it involves keeping Campan’s grandmother alive and happy, which, last I checked, was in his best interests.

Asta: It also involves keeping two guys whom we don’t know where they are, alive.

Daniel: We have some bloodthirsty whores, say about six of them, with a fairly inept sounding engineer who doesn’t care if they get themselves in trouble.

Mort: So we kill the engineer and give them to Tom.

Daniel: If we really think Tom is good enough to keep them in line.

Daniel then went on about the guys they were ‘protecting.’

Daniel: These might not be the brightest bunch in the box. Seems one of them managed to get himself physical with one of the whores and did the ungentlemanly thing of beating her up. These men were whipped by the sheriff and had to compensate for the damages. From what I’m told, this was a fairly reasonable settlement for all parties, but the whores wanted them dead. So, they’ve been slowly pooling up enough money to hire some foreign and local talent thugs to take care of these two men. These two men are transient shippers working for the Alliance most of the time and carrying cargo for them, mostly minor stuff and not directly for the Alliance.
Here are the issues we have at hand and what I think is available to us:
The men – We don’t know where they are. They haven’t returned to the ship in a long time and we’re hoping they’re laying low. We have to find them. Right now we’ve got no one watching them.
The pay – Is critical. It is going to get us off the planet to another planet and hopefully into a little less stressful of an environment. Plus, we’ll make a little money on the side.
On the note of the local doctor, Doctor Cochran, he likes alcohol, gambling, and whores. He owes a little bit of a debt to our friend Parker. Takes cares of the enemy whores on the side for benefits, to make sure they’re up to date on their shots, which from what I hear, they don’t keep up to speed on. Keep that in mind, Campan. There is a reason I’m pointing that out to him.
Ms Parker has a friend named Dan. Dan is keeping an eye on the whores for us. We’re going to be talking to Dan and getting some information out of him.
Campan. At some time I’d like to send you into the enemy whorehouse and get some intel. Asta, I think I’d like to send you on to get along with the Doctor. The doctor has treated the enemy whores.
One of the key things about this job is we’re trying to keep this planet wide open. We don’t want the Alliance on this planet and we don’t want extra death or extra trouble. Therefore, if these men go off-planet or these whores go off-planet, they should do so quietly.
Couple notes. I’d like to take a look at our friends’ ship, cause they’re not there, so why don’t we go on in. Sound like something for you Mort?

Mort: Walk into somebody else’s ship? That sounds fun. Can I take Campan?

Daniel: No looting at this time, but that might factor into a plan for later. Right now I want to look for clues as to where they’ve gone.

They got into a lengthy discussion about other ships they may loot, like the guys working with the whores, but Daniel wanted to concentrate for now on the guys ship.

Mort: Alright. It’s the guys we’re trying to protect’s ship that we’re going into. Can I still take Campan?

Daniel: With someone else.

Campan: But we’re going to get shot if we take someone else!

Daniel offered to be the extra guy on this expedition. He let the others know that he didn’t want to steal from them at first cause his initial idea for getting these guys off planet was for Kenny to arrange with Sergeant Wheeler a shipping job for them, pronto.

Daniel: If that doesn’t work, we’re going to have to resort to dropping in on Joel the engineer, or spacing these whores. And, we have no problem with making these whores disappear as long as we do it quietly.

Mort: We can probably cut down on the killing by just taking out the uppity whores.

Daniel: That’s why we need Campan to find out which whores are the uppity ones. So he’s going to have to interview each whore separately.

Campan: (sad & sarcastic) Oh boy…

Daniel: We should probably start checking out some of the other ships in dock. I hear tell some of them are brutes, but I figure that is where our problems are going to come from.

Asta suggested Campan agree to work for the whores to delay them for a couple days. Mort added he should get paid up front. Asta took Campan off to make sure he had all his shots... and a wide variety of prophylactics.

Daniel: Reason we’re looking at the brutes, by the way, is cause they didn’t want to pay for Ms. Parker’s civilized whores. So if you see some big, ugly men waiting in the whorehouse, keep an eye on them.

Campan: I’ll be looking at THEM.

They wrapped up the meeting and Daniel headed off to talk to Ms. Parker.

Fade to Black