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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ptolemy" data-source="post: 9566389" data-attributes="member: 1412">Our new passengers consisted of two “bounty hunters”, Wol and Domir, and a zero-G/vacc. suit instructor, Mennol Sinar. We didn’t take on any more cargo at Egypt and wanted to get going as soon as possible. As usual, I took the helm and Fox plotted the cause. I guided us out of Nút station and towards Fox’s coordinates. It wasn’t long before it became apparent that the flight to jump wasn’t going to be as smooth as we hoped. A pinnace was barreling towards us - there was no doubt that they were on an intercept cause. I pushed our engines but it was no contest. A pinnace is a fast, manoeuvrable craft and a Far Trader is a lumbering elephant by comparison. One which is a lot sturdier than a pinnace, but a lot slower.  This wasn’t my first rodeo and it would take a very skilled pilot to take on an experienced pilot Imperial Navy trained pilot in these circumstances. Still, ship combat is always a risk.I put us through some evasive moves and Noah got a lock on with the missile launcher. We were loath to fire a missile costing thousands of credits but after they opened fire Miskom yelled “Shoot the goddam thing down!” Noah didn’t need telling twice. He fired a fragmentation missile which did what it was designed to do: it detonated just in front of the speeding light craft and threw a cloud of shrapnel into the face of our enemy. The pinnace exploded instantly. “Let’s get out of this system” barked Miskom and within minutes we were back in jump-space. It was the guys first time being attacked in ship combat and I could see they were very relieved.During the jump I spent some time giving Fox a working knowledge of stunners, as she had never used one before. We had a chance to get to know our “bounty hunters”. They brought an air/raft with them and intended to jump-ship as soon as we were in the Mertactor system. I’m putting the words bounty hunters in inverted commas as they had a contract from Bracero Industries to bring Jekki Kelerin and Marin Parvolen in dead. They were essentially assassins. We had pulled together as a crew quickly and the jump went as smoothly as you would hope. We jumped back into real-space bang on the coordinates Fox had coded for and the lads left us in their air/raft.Fox and Noah became suspicious of Mennol. As the four of us left the ship and headed to the shuttle to the surface Noah peeled off and followed Mennol home. He turned out to be exactly what he had said he was, a contractor who had been hired to teach the use and maintenance of vacc. suits and was on his way home. We joined up back on the planet and after I had checked into the local TAS hotel we headed out for some fun. Mertactor is not a particularly pleasant planet and the law level is low, but it does have a great amusement arcade. We won some money on the shoot ’n fly game and where suitably scared in the haunted house - I thought for a moment that Tristan was going to try and burrow his way through the wall to get out!We also went shopping. We realised that we were up against some well trained and equipped opponents in the form of the mercenaries which Dressor was running around with. So we wanted to tool up. Fox was like a child in a sweet factory and Noah wasn’t much better. We all bought a flak jacket each and the others all picked up some good quality stunners. Noah and Fox couldn’t resist the grenade launchers on sale and between us we bought a few regular grenades as well. Fox gleefully purchased a shiny new laser rifle which is illegal on most planets in the Imperium. The grenades and the plastic explosives were delivered to the Helena the next day and the rest we walked out of the shop with. We stayed the night in the TAS and just as we were making a move towards one of the local museums we got a call form Miskom asking us to meet him back at the ship. It was time to deliver the packages to Zol!Zol was actually three people, in a sense. Zol the information-broker and two Zol clones. There were also a couple of goons flanking him. Miskom knew Zol of old and made introductions. Zol laughed to see Miskom with another crew. Zol owed Miskom and as we had helped Miskom out with the repairs to the Helena he let us ask some questions. Tristan wanted a copy of Dr. Popel’s restricted research and I wanted to know more about Dressor. The paper was duly supplied and Zol told us that Dressor was rumoured to be the daughter of one Soledar Bracero of Holex, founded of Bracero Industries. That sobered us up as we realised the power set against us. Zol also introduced us to two mendicant monks of the Brotherhood, Brother Herric, a man in his late 60’s who was confined to a wheel-chair and Brother Lorgar, another middle aged man with a scare from his chin and across his neck who had to sign as he couldn’t speak. Miskom groaned - Monks of the Brotherhood usually take vows of poverty and didn’t pay for transport.Miskom had sold the 20 tons of liquid polymers and after our trip to Zol’s we had to fill our hold and spare cabins as best we could and, we hoped, make good speed to Glisten. We picked up 50 tons of liquor as standard haulage and Miskom bought 5 tons of somewhat dodge biochemicals. We also got paid. Miskom didn’t want to dock at Nút station on our way back after we had blown up a ship in the system. We didn’t want to answer any questions about it either, even though we were innocent of any crime - they attacked us and we only had missiles to defend ourselves with. We would have had our ship impounded for the duration of the investigation, which is right and proper, you can’t have people blowing each other up without checking on what happened, but it is a pain in the arse and we couldn’t afford the delay. That meant fuel skimming.Our first two passengers were a young mum, Venice Ligiure, and her daughter Thanier, who was about 10 and couldn't speak. She got on well with Lorgar who signed perfectly. I could make out a few words and tried to chat to her but to no avail. Venice and Thainer had booked to New Rome as the university there was a sector centre of excellence in the treatment of hearing difficulties. Along with the mendicants and the family we had two other passengers for Glisten and two for New Rome. Rock Redburn and his agent, Karin Vipar, needed passage as Rock was hosting a section of the Gala we were going to. Rock was a faded DataNet star who was the lead in the Blade of the Spinward Marches until he was unceremoniously dumped for “inappropriate behaviour”, and I think we all know what that means. Tristan had grown up a big fan of “the Blade” and gushed a lot. Which was handy as Rock gave us tickets, not just to the Gala event he was hosting but to the dress rehearsal the day before. Slowly, our plan started to take tangible shape…Fox was going to put together a short but damning documentary and we were going to use our access to the venue to hack the hardware and instead of some naughty word funny clip during Rock’s presentation we were going to broadcast live to millions just what Drassor and by association Bracero Industries had been up to - murdering kids and breaking the Psionic Repression Laws. We didn’t think we had enough to make the charges stick in court but we wanted to prevent Bracero from getting the Naval contract and becoming a MegaCorp. As we relaxed in jump the old monks couldn’t resist Fox’s charms and talked her into helping them put together a DataNet video about their Brotherhood. Old letches!Skimming went well. I scanned the gas giant at Egypt and plotted a course avoiding the worst of the hydrogen “storms”. We noticed another trader, the Brusheer, was following an excessively steep decent into the atmosphere of the giant and I told them so. They told us to mind our own business so we did. They ended up with some hull damage but our sensors told us that they weren’t compromised to we let them set course for Nút and dived in. It was one of the smoothest skimming runs I have ever made. Miskom was suitably impressed and we were soon floating towards our jump point as our ship processed the raw gasses taken on board into useable fuel. And then we were off to New Rome.</blockquote>

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