SBRD Chapter 01: Devonia[edit]

This page is a synopsis of events occurring in SBRD Chapter 01: Devonia (link to full IC thread on CotI forum).

The Setting, The Players, The Ship[edit]

[SBRD] Reavers' Deep - The Game Begins!

The Setting

This is not the familiar Third Imperium in which you may have played your Traveller games before; in fact, the Third Imperium won't even exist for another 790 years. This setting is in the year 3731 AD, a little over halfway through the period that will be known throughout Human space as The Long Night. There is no vast governmental authority in Human space, only small multi-world governments and solitary worlds making their own way the best they can.

Interstellar commerce is a mere trickle of what it has been in the past and will someday be again. In many places, pirates prey on what little commerce there is; in the rimward areas of Human space, whole worlds and governments have taken up the trade of piracy on a huge scale, raiding and looting other worlds. Some will call these forces Pirate Worlds, some will call them Space Vikings, but the name that most evokes their heyday has also become the name of the sector where many originate: Reavers' Deep!

Originally called Riftrim Deep for its proximity to the "Thumb" of the Great Rift, Reavers' Deep in 3731 AD is a vast, wild frontier among the stars. There are a few genuinely native sapient species here, and a few more minor Human sub-species that were seeded here 300,000 years ago by those known today as The Ancients. The great Vilani Empire, also known as the Ziru Sirka or First Imperium, never quite made it to this sector but stopped in Daibei sector immediately to trailing. Actual colonization of the Deep did not begin until Terran Humans met Vilani Humans in the Interstellar Wars, about 1600 years ago.

Colonizers during the Interstellar Wars were either isolationists seeking to avoid the wars, refugees seeking to escape from them, or military expeditions seeking strategic advantage. Later, after Terran victory in the Nth Interstellar War led to the collapse of the First Imperium, the Terrans declared a Second Imperium, the Rule of Man. That entity governed for less than 500 years, but during that time several new worlds in the Deep were colonized from nearby Daibei sector. That was the last wave of Human colonization into the Deep... until now.

Within the past hundred years a new wave of colonization has been spreading into the Deep from Daibei. Although many of these new colonies have fallen prey to the pirate gangs still known as Reavers, the prime era of legendary Reavers such as Blackie Duquesne and Admiral Izanak has passed, and many beings in the region are sensing a new era of hope, as multi-world governments formed to defend against Reavers now join to create leagues and associations to promote interstellar commerce.

The largest and strongest power in the region is the Imperial Realm of Daibei, a group of worlds in the middle of Daibei sector still claiming loyalty to the old Rule of Man, although ruled locally by the Viceroy of Daibei. Smaller governments abound throughout Daibei sector, and a few have even formed in Reavers' Deep. Unfortunately, the largest of the growing powers in the Deep itself is the Iltharan Empire, which continues the old practice of raiding other worlds for what it wants, robbing and enslaving in the darkest Reaver traditions.

This is the place and time that you now enter, as the crew of the frontier trader Fortunate Son.

The Players

Onboard the Fortunate Son:
Sabredog - Hampton Rhodes, Captain and Pilot
ErianFrost - Kalos Thar, First Officer and Pilot/Navigator
ATPollard - Max Black, Chief Engineer and Chief Steward
DaveChase - Doc Freeman, Medical Officer and Cargo Chief
Samuelvss - Leo P. Henry, Asst Engineer and Security
ChaosBennett - Gayne Maize, Asst Medic and Security
NPC - Janna Vilshiggur, Steward and Cargo-hand
NPC - Benjamin Chance, Gunner and Cargo-hand
NPC - Bruno Kansakarrir, Electrician/Mechanic and Cargo-hand

"Grounded" on Devonia:
Fritz_Brown - Donoma Lafitte, Navigator Extraordinaire

The Ship

Fortunate Son was formerly Close Call, a frontier trader making the circuit of great worlds and isolated backwaters in the middle of Daibei sector, throughout the Imperial Realm of Daibei and its many smaller neighbors. Captain Charles "Bull" Merrill of Close Call had a well-earned reputation for dishonest dealing, and his practices caught up to him on Garkenbaaggi (Daibei 1221), late in the month of March, 3731 AD. While the Captain was being lynched by an angry mob, First Officer Hampton Rhodes decided to take the ship to space with the remainder of the crew, and to promote himself from First Officer to Captain.

Unfortunately, the bulk of the crew (including Second/First Officer Shelia Kirimuukur and all of the other officers except for the Chief Engineer, young Max Black) quit and left the ship at its next stop, on Egarnigun (Daibei 1223), but Captain Rhodes persevered and recruited new crew, including Medical Officer Doc Freeman and Assistant Engineer Leo P. Henry. Rhodes also paid to have the name and registry of Close Call changed to Fortunate Son and a new transponder installed to match, and decided to take the ship to new trading grounds in Reavers' Deep.

Although he declined the responsibility of an officer's position, Leo Henry was a qualified pilot and could occasionally relieve Rhodes and give him some rest. Still, it was a vast relief to the Captain when the ship visited Zwingle (Daibei 1024) and he was able to recruit a new First Officer Pilot/Navigator, Kalos Thar, as well as an Assistant Medic and Security Specialist, Gayne Maize.

As our story begins, the Fortunate Son has completed its journey across the spinward portion of Daibei sector and is in jump space bound for Devonia (Reavers' Deep 3125), its first port-of-call in the Deep. Fortunate Son is carrying four passengers and some freight bound for Devonia, along with a good load of speculative cargo with which the crew hopes to make its fortune. But before the ship exits jump space, let's skip ahead a bit to the world of Devonia...

Jump Exit: 3731-08-09[edit]

Date: 09 August 3731 AD

Spacer Donoma Lafitte has been "grounded" on Devonia since she resigned her First Officer's position on her last ship, the Mary Deare. That was almost three months ago, and Donoma fears that she made the wrong choice of a world for mustering out, as she has been unable to find any new berth to her liking on any of the few ships that call on Devonia. Perhaps she should have taken passage back into Daibei sector, where ship traffic is heavier... Now she is down to her last savings, wondering where next month's rent will come from. She would almost consider selling her beloved grav bike, except that what little income she has here is from running package errands on the bike, which can earn her premium rates with its speed and versatility here on this world where even standard grav vehicles are rare.

Date: 09 August 3731 AD

Fortunate Son exits Jump into Devonia system, at the 100-D limit of Gas Giant Peytonia, planning to refuel before landing at Devonia itself. Leo Henry is on Bridge watch, as most of the crew is either asleep or playing cards, waiting for Jump Exit even though it is the middle of the "night" by shiptime. Most of those asleep are awakened by the transition effects, and Doc Freeman receives calls from the passenger IA, Jarvis, that two passengers are suffering Jump-sickness and need assistance. Both thank Doc for his help, and one hands over a printed business card reading, "David Verchanski; VERCHANSKI SUPPLY SERVICES; Import/Export and Custom Manufacturing; Devonia City, Devonia (RD 3125); [comm-code]"

After making contact with Devonia Traffic Control (90 minute lightspeed lag), Captain Rhodes asks for volunteers to clean the "bug-screens" inside the fuel scoops, and Gayne and Leo go out on EVA on the hull to take care of the task. Checking the news-dump from Devonia, he immediately spots Donoma's listing, as the ship could use a good Astrogator. With the scoop filters clean, Hampton requests Kalos to check fuel levels, and on finding the tanks over half full decides to skip refueling and head straight in for Devonia mainworld, about a 3-day trip at 3-G. Traffic Control directs the ship in where to land, and advises all to remain onboard until cleared by Customs inspection.

Meanwhile, back on Devonia, Donoma checks the ship's progress with the port status reports, and decides to earn some money taking on a few more delivery jobs. Her second job of the day takes her out to the Dresnik Mining Complex in the hills north of the City, where she delivers a small package and chats with the receptionist, her friend Wallis Kashnaravi, about how busy the mine is with a big new strike, and how the boss wants her to check on how to get it shipped out as quickly as possible. Knowing Donoma is a spacer, she seeks her advice on this.

"See, we have a contract with a dealer at Nexus for up to 10 tons per month of Lanthanum - I'm talking starship volume, not mass, because that's the way it is in the contract - which is more than we usually produce. They usually send a buyer about once every six or eight weeks to come pick up what we have, and will pick up whatever other good stuff we've refined out as well. All of our usual production will fit in our secure storage that holds 15 tons."

"Two problems with this big vein we've hit. Ha!!! I say problems, but these are the kinds of problems we could use a lot more of! Anyway, one is that we have already filled up our storage with 10 tons of Lanthanum and five tons of other metals. Everything else we are producing is being piled up in odd nooks and crannies and one shaft we aren't currently working. Second problem is that Boss has been checking, and market prices on Lanthanum have gotten a lot better than the contract price, so we could make more by selling the stuff ourselves."

"Boss really wants to move all of it beyond what our contract requires, either to some other secure storage down at the starport, or better yet by ship to market to be sold. Plus, even though he is intending to stick by the contract and hold out the required amount of Lanthanum, he'd rather not have to argue with the company man about all of the extra we have produced; he wants it out of the way before that guy shows up."

"So anyway, please let me know what you find out about this ship coming in, and I guess I'd better get back to finding ways to move and store all of this metal, and some reliable guys to guard it for us."

Donoma tells Wallis that she expects to interview for a job on the incoming Fortunate Son, and that she will try to get a feel for whether they would be reliable for a job like this.

Back on the ship, Kalos sends a request for Library Data, including market data for past 90 days. He immediately determines that Devonia would be a good market for the Machinery and Light Metals carried as spec cargo, but not for the Wood. There are also some loads of weapons available for sale that sound a little fishy, so with the right info they might make a good deal.

Port Landing: 3731-08-13[edit]

Hampton calls the port traffic control to confirm that he is starting his landing pattern.

"Fortunate Son, you are confirmed in landing pattern and cleared to land. Fly safe, and we'll see you when you get here."

Hampton decelerates carefully to match atmospheric velocity as well as possible, to minimize wear and tear on the hull from aerobraking. Then the ship is in atmosphere, shrieking downward as he continues to follow the pattern that was given, then BAM-CLANK there is a loud metallic sound that shakes the whole ship, and suddenly he has lost all lift in the portside bow quarter, the ship flips and is upside down so that he is looking straight down at the ocean about 15km below.

Even with inertial compensators, everyone on the ship felt that one!

The Captain's hands are almost a blur as he taps and slides holographic controls, shifting vectored thrust from the M-drive to compensate for the out of balance gravs, and ZIP-FLIP, that quickly he is back in control again and smoothing out his approach over the bay to Devonia City starport. He slows the ship to a stop above the indicated landing pad and gently lowers it into place, landing with a gentle hum of gravs and M-drive so soft it wouldn't rattle a teacup.

"Nice landing, Captain," sounds the voice of traffic control. "Was there a little problem out over the bay, or was that corkscrew just for fun?"

"No problems here, Tower, we just had a bird strike is all but everything is just fine, A-OK, FAB, yup whatever." Hampton clears the radio, shuts down the drives and raps the piece of wood screwed to the console next to his chair, "Girl, you are making me old before my time...hold together just a little longer and I promise (knock, knock, knock) I'll get you all patched up and maybe even some new paint."

Hampton takes a deep, slow breath, punches up the intership channel and says with his best "aircrew voice", "Folks, this is the captain speaking and I want to welcome you to to Devonia, and thank you for flying Fortunate Air. Will all passengers please get your transit documents together and assemble in the lounge for the customs personnel to come aboard and clear you for debarkation."

Crew-only channel...."Max? What happened back there at around 12,000 meters? Why did the ship try to kill us?"

Outside the ship it appears to be early morning, maybe 0700 local time. Another comm to the Bridge from the port: "Hello, Fortunate Son, this is Sergeant Blaser of Devonia City Police, Customs and Immigration Division. We are approaching your ship now. Please prepare for boarding through your cargo hold. If you have a central lounge or other convenient area, please have all passengers and crew who intend to leave the ship here on Devonia gathered there for arrival clearance. Please have Captain Rhodes and whichever officer is responsible for cargo stowage meet me and my squad in the cargo hold."

A grav car with police markings and lights glides over to the bow of Fortunate Son and sets down on the pad. Four officers get out and come inside the cargo hold to where Captain Rhodes and Doc Freeman are waiting.

The Sergeant steps forward with a friendly smile on his face, hand outstretched to shake. "Hello, I'm Sergeant Blaser. Which of you is Captain Rhodes?" "I notice that you are armed, which is of course your right on your own ship, but our Department policy does not allow customs inspections or immigration interviews with armed subjects. If you wouldn't mind putting away the weapons, we can continue; otherwise I'm afraid we will have to cancel this proceeding and you, your passengers, and your cargo will all have to remain on this ship."

The crew complies and the inspection proceeds smoothly, with the inspectors behaving courteously throughout.

After the inspection, Doc Freeman offers Sgt Blaser a small flask of his home-made hard apple cider. The Sgt smiles, says he cannot accept while on duty, but would be happy to meet Doc at O'Shea's Irish Pub later in the evening.

Doc Freeman then runs the passengers over to the terminal in the ship's Launch.

Max goes down to meet Donoma and discuss the ship, then Hampton joins them to discuss hiring. After some discussion of credentials and a past blackball by a large merchant corp, Donoma is hired on as Second Officer and Astrogator.

Janna takes Henry and Bruno out in the air-raft to visit some places in town that might have used parts available for some of the needed repairs (unfortunately, former Captain Merrill had been a cheap-skate with repairs and had skipped a couple years of maintenance). The men discuss ammo loads for their snub pistols. Henry: ""I am running Tranq, like I always do unless I got something particular in mind. At range, like with my laser Vivian , I can take the shot or not: the range gives me a choice. If I'm pulling a pistol I got no choice: I'm out of time. Tranq gives me the time I need to figure things out. The life you save me save your own. Plus, I can always kill somebody I've tranq'd; tranq'ing somebody I've killed doesn't work as well."

First stop is Aunt Ruthie's Pawn and Repair, where they meet Ruthie Calhoun: Henry and Bruno find a darkened shop full of stacks and piles and shelves full of various kinds of junk. What appears to be the main counter and checkout has a glassed-in display of handguns, and there are racks of rifles and shotguns nearby, all in locked glass cases.

The proprietor is a hunched over little old lady smoking what appears to be an old-fashioned rolled-leaf cigar, the kind without any filters to take out the unhealthy stuff. "I'm Ruthie Calhoun," she says in her raspy voice. "You be the ones want that busted engineer-bot, I reckon." She sticks out her hand to shake; her hands are strong and calloused.

[She pauses for Henry and Bruno to introduce themselves.]

"I checked my 'puter, I had Cr225 in that little bot, so I'll let ya have him for Cr250. Ya can take a look at him if ya want, but the broke parts are all on the inside anyway. Put a new control core in him, he'd be good as new, but to order one from out-system would cost bout as much as a whole new bot. Or I could probably fix him up for ye, same as I was gonna do for that guy that brought him; I think I could bash up an interface to make a core work out of a janitor-bot, just need the software, which I ain't got." Checking the bot over himself, Henry decides to buy it and just switch control cores with the one onboard that isn't working.

Meanwhile, Max has identified the problem that caused the grav lifter cut-out on the landing approach: a simple, cheap connector that was not up to spec and burned out under load. He keeps looking and finds more that should also be replaced, and comms that info to Henry, who buys the necessary parts from Aunt Ruthie.

Ruthie also hints she has weapons and such available. Laser weapons are illegal here, but she manages to find a belt-power-pack made for a laser-welder that "just might be adaptable for other uses" and Henry buys it. When asked about ship repair parts, Ruthie refers them to her friend Scotty McPherson, and provides his commcode.

Kalos sells the ship's spec cargo of Computers and Light Metals, and makes arrangements for freight to be picked up or transferred to storage. He is still trying to find a good buyer for the Machinery, thinking he should be able to work out a deal better than what is shown in the market listings. He also finds some Electronics for sale at a good price, that could be added to what the ship already has onboard in spec cargo.

Doc Freeman delivers a 1/2-dTon shipping unit to a middle-aged couple who are obviously grief-stricken. He checks the codes on the container and realizes this is the personal effects of their daughter, who had been killed in combat in the Imperial Realm. Doc gently tells them that he cannot advise them on disposal, but would suggest that they carefully go through the container as there are probably items that were important to their daughter, that they will want to keep.

Kalos, Hampton, and Donoma contact Wallis's boss, Nero Vulpinerrin of Dresnik Mining. Worried about security, he asks them to move to the Bridge and contact him by encrypted laser comm.

Nero Vulpinerrin appears on the screen, looking both eager and nervous. He is a large, fleshy man, and is wiping his flushed face with a handkerchief.

He begins by laying out some background: Nero Vulpinerrin is the manager and 75% owner of the Dresnik Mining Complex in the hills north of Devonia City. His miners have hit an unexpectedly rich vein of lanthamax ore that is producing more Lanthanum and other valuable rare metals in one month than the mine usually produces in any six months or more.

Nero's problem is his production contract with Ixion Corporation, by which Ixion agrees to buy, and Dresnik agrees to sell, up to 10 tons per month of Lanthanum, plus assorted other rare metals to make up the 10 tons if there is not enough production of Lanthanum.

The price paid to Dresnik by Ixion is pegged to a base Cr5M/ton. Nero has discovered that the spot prices of Lanthanum have gone up by at least 10% recently, and 10% of a base Cr5M/ton is a difference of Cr500K/ton. If he can hold back some of the Lanthanum to sell directly instead of through Ixion, his company will make an enormous profit. If he can make the sale directly to an Industrial world, the profit goes up even higher.

"Listen," Nero explains, "the first thing I did after the boys told me about this new vein or lanthamax was talk to my attorney. OK, that was the second thing; first I did a little happy-dance all around the office and drank a toast of good schnapps with Wallis, my assistant."

"My attorney and I went over that production contract word by word, and he tells me that I am not required to sell to Ixion any more than the specified 10 tons/month. It has been six weeks since Ixion sent a ship for pickup, so technically I have to sell them 15 tons of Lanthanum at the contract price, but I can make whatever arrangement I want for the rest."

"The big problem is, naturally this contract was drafted by Ixion, and my attorney says that they could get an injunction to tie me up in court over the extra production, long enough that I would probably lose any profits from it, not to mention all the legal fees. So the best thing I can do is load up everything I've got, except for that 15 tons of contract production, and ship it all out before the next ship from Ixion gets here."

"This is my chance, probably my only chance, to really have a choice about my company and my life. With these profits, I could expand my company, even buy out my investors so the place is 100% mine. Or I could sell out and retire a rich man. I don't know, I haven't decided yet, but just the chance to have those options..."

"That brings me to my problem with you people. I can't wait for another ship to come along. I feel like I am placing the best chance of my life in your hands, but I don't know you at all, and my attorney hasn't been able to find any records for me to rely on. What he did find was confidential information on some transactions you have done on Devonia, and I happen to know that you have cleared at least Cr1.5M since you have been here. So here is my proposal:"

"You buy one-quarter ton of my Lanthanum for Cr1.25M. That gives you a stake in this deal; a big chunk of your capital will be tied up in it."

"You carry the rest of my Lanthanum, plus whatever other valuable metals we can load into your hold, to either Nexus or Freehold to sell. Both of those places pay Industrial planet rates, so we should make a good profit. I'll go along as a paid passenger. Now I realize that regular freight rates per ton don't compensate you for the risk of a high-value freight like this, so I propose that instead of freight-rates I would pay you 20% of the profit on the sale of metals. Even if we only make 10% profit, your share will be Cr100K/ton, quite a lot more than regular freight rates!"

"I will also pay for a close escort ship to give us some extra protection along the way."

After some negotiation, they iron out a deal to buy 1/8-dTon of the Lanthanum (so as not to tie up all of the ship's resources), get 25% of the profit, and provide free High Passage for Nero, his wife, and two assistants. They shake on the Deal and agree for the Fortunate Son to land directly at the mining complex to load the freight.

Henry, Bruno, and Janna travel to McPherson's yard. There are a few random piles of junk and parts, but most of the larger items in the yard are covered with electroplastic, a kind of memory tarp that fits itself closely around the protected items, but will peel back out of the way at the touch of a control, which Mac now does. "Check out these babies," he says proudly. "I'll bet a couple youngsters like you don't even know what you are seeing here."

What Henry sees are a matched pair of Hawley-Ridger maneuver drive gravitic phasing regulators, each almost 4m long by abt 1m high and wide. These are old pieces of machinery, probably 200 years old at least, but are in beautiful museum-quality condition. Henry figures that Max would probably swoon if he could see them. [In fact if Henry wants to show them to Max, he could comm him and then turn his comm to let Max view the regulators.] On top of that, they are correctly-sized for Fortunate Son's M-drives.

They work out an agreeable price for the Hawley-Ridgers, including credit for trading in the ship's current parts that they would replace, then take a look around and pick up miscellaneous parts and spares for other items needing repair on the ship.

Kalos makes contact w Dinah Lance, who is desperate to sell 5 tons of Comms that she received in a divorce settlement.

At 1800 the ship gets clearance to lift and move the 4km to Mac's place. Doc and Benjamin rappel down to ground level to rig the Hawley-Ridgers for lifting, Bruno controls the lift from above, and the loading goes without incident. Hampton transfers payment to Mac on receipt; Mac will transfer a portion back to the ship when they bring him the old units for credit. Hampton then flies Fortunate Son back to the starport.

While Donoma goes out to dinner with some friends to say Goodbye before leaving, most of the crew decides to get some sack time, as their personal clocks are about five hours off from local time. Doc Freeman takes a bottle of his Hard Cider and goes to meet Sgt Blaser at the Irish pub, where he also meets Blaser's friend, Inspector Ahmed Lassiter.

Discussing possible cargoes with Donoma and Hampton, Kalos says he has a lead on some TL-7 weapons for sale cheap, but probably not time to do the background check to make sure the deal is legit and try to bargain down the price. Donoma mentions that those weapons, and also the Comms, would probably sell real well at Khakhan, which is TL-2 but has wealthy warlords trying to upgrade their personal troops' weapons and comms.

Max and Henry put in a few hours evening work to save time in removal of hull plates when the whole crew starts work in the Drive Rooms in the morning.

Work Day: 3731-08-14[edit]

The whole crew spends most of the day and past local midnight using the starport's heavy equipment (and hired crew to operate it) to remove the old parts from the ship's M-drives, replace them with the two Hawley-Ridger units, then load the old parts back into the cargo hold to carry back to Mac.

Donoma and Doc hop on Donoma's grav bike for the short trip across the starport to the storage where Dinah Lance's Comms are awaiting inspection. Doc greatly enjoys the grav bike ride, and comments that he'd like to buy one of these someday. The Comms check out fine, with a note made that 10 are missing from the lot as taken by the previous owner.

Loading Up: 3731-08-15[edit]

Bright and early (0700 local) Hampton, Donoma, and Kalos zip out to Dresnik Mining Complex in the air-raft, with Donoma driving. They stop for donuts and bagels on the way. Nero is in a breakfast meeting with some guys about borrowing shipping containers, but comes out promptly at 0800 to go over the last "paperwork" (all electronic) to make sure all is ready for loading.

The crew also notice that Nero has lots of guys standing around with shotguns and assault rifles, and he explains that he has some of his miners armed as extra security for the loading.

"Now, the contract," he fiddles with a datapad, then reads from it. "Just as we agreed previously by handshake, you agree to buy 1/8 dTon of my Lanthanum for Cr625,000; you agree to transport my freight of Lanthanum and rare metals (15 tons of Lanthanum, 35 tons of other metals) to port at Nexus (RD 3226); you agree to transport me and two associates at High Passage standards to the same port; and I agree to pay you 25% of the profit (defined to be the amount that I receive above base rates on sale of goods, less any associated expenses that I pay on this trip) on both the Lanthanum and other metals you are transporting for me. That is the contract between you as Captain of Frontier Trader Fortunate Son, ID [xxxxxxxxxx], and me on behalf of Dresnik Mining Complex." He scribbles at the datapad with a stylus, then lays his hand on a large square that appears (typical appearance of a datapad equipped w biometric sensors). That completed, he slides the pad over to Hampton, and also hands over the stylus. "Now if you'll please sign on behalf of your ship, you can send a copy to your own pad and we can get to work."

Hampton signs the contract. "Now we'll head back to the ship and bring her here for loading. Once that is complete we'll leave. We are tanking up even as we speak and once that is complete we'll contact you for landing instructions." Hampton gets up to leave, shakes Nero's hand and adds, "If you'll see what sort of arrangements can be made about that escort in the meantime I'd appreciate it."

"Oh, that is all taken care of. It is officially a training cruise for the crew, but I am footing the bill for salaries, fuel, and all other expenses, since our so-called Militia Space Branch can't afford training cruises. The ship is fueled and ready, the crew is on alert, so I just need to give them an hour's notice and they will meet us in orbit. Well, not literally, I hope!" He laughs.

Vulpinerrin stands and reaches for his wallet. "One more thing," he says. "This is not part of your contract with my company, but I am asking as a personal favor." He pulls out 10 Cr1000 bills and offers them to Hampton. "I would like to take my wife along on this trip as well. She would be an additional High Passenger, but doesn't need a stateroom as she would be doubling with me. We also do not need an additional Steward."

Hampton pockets half the cash and returns the rest to Nero, "A favor gets the 'Friends and Family Discount', and besides, we appreciate the opportunity you've presented here. Bringing your wife along is just fine."

"So as soon as you have your ship up here on our landing pad, we are ready to start loading; in fact, I'll tell the boys to start bringing the first containers up out of storage and stacking them around the pad. The only slowdown may be in getting the last of the shipping containers, but I've just arranged that with these gentlemen that were here a moment ago, so we should have them this afternoon. Any further questions? If not, then I'll be eagerly looking forward to seeing your ship up here on my landing pad ASAP."

The air-raft returns to the ship, flight plan is filed with Traffic Control, and the old drives are delivered to Mac's yard for credit.

Hampton makes transfers to settle up accounts with the starport, with Ruthie, with Mac, and all cargo transactions. The 15th is also payday (15th and 30th), so ship funds are transferred into each crewperson's shipboard account.

Donoma orders some custom-fitted concealable Cloth-1 torso armor, to be delivered out to Dresnik Mines.

After some discussion, Henry and Gayne decide to wear vaccsuits while on guard during the loading operation; not only do they protect as well as Cloth armor, but are climate-controlled and will protect against gas attacks.

Hampton sends Donoma out in the Launch to fly escort on the way to the Mines, then fly high guard circling around during the loading (Launch has a single laser mount).

Dresnik Mining Complex

Located in the hills to the northwest of Devonia City. Terrain is dry hills covered w scrub brush. Tan areas are relatively flat; brown area to the west is hill rising above the complex; contour lines are every 6m of elevation.

Road approach is from the south; hiil terrain is pretty rough for most off-road ground vehicles, but not impossible.

Color coding of roads/parking areas - darker gray is hardened for loaders carrying loads, lighter gray is just plain road/parking.

All buildings except the big L-shaped building are only one story tall - say 3m if flat roof, 4m to 5m at the peak if I put a line down the middle indicating pitched roof. The big building is 6m from ground to edge of roof, 8m to peak of roof.

The mine entrance is that big opening cut into the hillside.

Orange lines out on the hardened area are rows of stacked containers. The two rows nearest the pad are where Nero's men have started bringing out the load for your ship.

Odd-shaped black jelly-beans in parking lots are supposed to be ground vehicles.

After much discussion and preparation for possibilities, the crew decides on this disposition for the loading process:

Hampton: up in the top turret, but w lasers slaved to his control rather than using the turret's missiles
Kalos: assisting in freight-handling as directed by Doc
Donoma: flying skywatch in the laser-equipped Launch and coordinating Sensor Ops from there
Doc: supervising freight-handling; also does his part as needed in the manual labor
Max: outside supplying snacks and hydration, in the shade under edge of ship, with shotgun at the ready
Gayne and Henry: roving near bow of ship; if vehicles arrive, Gayne will check out while Henry covers
Bruno: at bow cargo door, controlling internal freight-handling
Benjamin and Janna: inside cargo hold, positioning containers and locking in place

Upon landing, Nero comes forward to greet them and Hampton goes out to discuss arrangements. "Mr. Vulpinerrin, as you can see we are ready to start loading the freight, so as soon as you are ready we can get that done and you and your retinue on your way. I want to go over the safety and security arrangements with you personally before we begin. First, no one is to approach the ship other than the loader vehicles without our permission, nor do they enter the ship since we have sufficient personnel to move the load in our hold ourselves. If any new personnel arrive during the process all work must stop, and your men withdraw to the edge of the pad, until those new personnel are cleared by our security team at a safe distance from the ship. That's for the safety of your men and property, sir, not just mine. We have had some unpleasantness in similar operations in the past when people didn't comply with these rules and got caught in the middle of things. That sort of thing only increases insurance rates and is hard on the widows and orphans so I like to make sure it doesn't happen if I can with this little safety dance. DO you have any questions, sir, before we begin?"

Vulpinerrin is not smiling. You might even get the idea that this is a man who does not like surprises, or receiving instructions when he expects to be giving them. He studies Hampton for a full 45 seconds, then slowly smiles (not a big smile, but it is there). "OK, I can see the sense in that. In our usual procedure, the Ixion people pay me for my metals and take possession before loading, so security is mostly their problem, and they bring in security people with them. As you can see, I have some of my men armed and standing guard at the roadway, but I expect that your people are more professional at this. I'll follow your suggestions." He puts a slight emphasis on that last word.

He gestures toward the south, where you can see that four hard-hatted mineworkers with weapons are standing guard at a temporary wooden barricade blocking the 10-meter gap where the road continues north from the employee parking lot. "I'm not planning on letting anyone onto the property past that point. I also have men," he points, "down there by the road." (He is pointing at four more men, at the southern edge of the map where the road runs into the parking lot.) "I also," he points up past the mine opening to the crest of the hill, "have a sensor array up there hooked to my security chief's workstation in the office. Do you want to have one of your people monitor that? Bob is at home sick today, so I have one of the shop foremen manning his desk."

[He pauses for a moment to see if Hampton has any questions or suggestions.]

"As for loading," he continues. "I understand from our earlier comm that you intend to follow our usual procedure. As you can see, we already have some of the containers stacked over there," he points to the two rows of containers west of the landing pad, "and as soon as your men are ready, I will have a loader devoted solely to moving that stack to your cargo bay to hand off to your people. Meanwhile, I have five other loaders that will continues working to bring containers to that stack. We have found that method efficient for getting the job done. So I'll just walk on over with you, and when your people are ready I can comm the loaders - they all have headsets - and let them know that one of them needs to switch over to loading the ship."

Loading proceeds without incident, other than a phased slowdown at lunch-time for all to enjoy Max's sandwiches, until about 1530 local time when Donoma detects a groundcar approaching by road. While Donoma is monitoring the groundcar's approach to the mining complex, another of her programmed alerts goes off and she sees an aircraft approaching from the city, on course directly for the mining complex. Visual zoom shows a medium-sized VTOL, apparently a cargo-carrier. Transponder says it belongs to Hevener Transport, Devonia City Starport. Hampton orders the loaders to quickly place a couple of containers to block the road into the loading area.

Gayne goes out to stop the approaching groundcar. The car screeches to a stop about 6m (20 feet) away from Gayne's position at the driveway from road to parking lot - the driver probably can't hear him, but his body language is clear enough. (One problem w the high-UV sunlight on this planet - almost all vehicles have heavily-tinted windows so you cannot see inside.)

Hampton: "Gayne, have the driver exit the car....be scary but remember to say "please", "sir", and "than you" in case they are Nero's people. Henry, you and Gayne can take it from here."

Gayne: "Please. Sir. Than you. Get outta the car."

The driver's side window slides down and a very frightened-looking woman peers out. "Iraalo," she calls out, "what is this? Why all the guns? Where is Joey?"

"Aw, crap," Gayne hears one of the men behind him mutter. Then, "I'm really sorry, Ms. Blanton. Wait just a second," and the man steps forward, next to Gayne. "Sir, this is Joey Blanton's mom. Please hang on while I comm Joey." The man mutters into his headset, "Gina, call Joey Blanton," then after a moment, "Joey, your mom's here at the gate, but we're on restricted access. Can you come out here, or what should I tell her?" He listens for a few moments, then, "OK. End call." The man takes another step toward the groundcar. "Ms. Blanton, I'm really sorry about this, but we're on restricted access today so I can't let you in. Joey will be here in a minute or two, if you can pull over and wait." He turns back to Gayne. "Sorry about that, sir. Joey will be right out to talk with her." A very red-faced Joey Blanton goes out to the road to talk with his mom for a few minutes and take a package from her, glares at Gayne but doesn't say anything, then heads back to the big-L building. Ms. Blanton drives away, still shaking a bit.

"Hampton, we also have a VTOL belonging to Hevener Transport coming our way. Can you confirm with Mr V whether it is or isn't his containers? I'm bringing my altitude down to its level." Donoma does exactly that, dropping down to the altitude of the VTOL^ before it arrives. She also does a broadcast on the "common" frequency, "Approaching aircraft, please hover and identify yourself." The VTOL does not appear armed. Size, about 25m long, wingspan 18m. Altitude 1000m. After some back and forth discussion with a VTOL pilot with bad attitude, Nero confirms these are the extra containers he requested, and Donoma lets the VTOL proceed. Then there is the issue of where to land it; finally a bunch of miners move their vehicles to the other end of the parking lot so the VTOL can land in the lot near the building where the containers are needed.

Another minor mishap in transfer from a loader to the ship's internal hoist-track system resulted in damage to one of the hoists, but examination by Max and Bruno resulted in quick removal of the damaged unit, leaving the system reduced by one but still able to function quite well. Minor delay, approximately 30 minutes.

Pole-mounted floodlights come on as the shadow of the mountains falls across the complex about 1815; full dark arrives about 1900, although there is still some light in the sky over the mountains. The floodlights do a good job of lighting up the area around the landing pad; in fact, all of the areas shown as paved on the map are fairly well lit. The surrounding scrub brush is not, however the ship's multispectrum sensors should do a good job of spotting any but the most technically-advanced interlopers.

About 2015 local, Nero Vulpinerrin comms Hampton to say he is coming out to have a look at how things are going, and that he will be walking over from the office building, so please instruct all Fortunate Son personnel not to shoot him. He requests that Hampton meet him down at the loading port if possible, to discuss wrapping up the operation, loading passengers, and getting off planet. If that is not possible, he will request an escort up to the Bridge or wherever Hampton is. Hampton elects to come down, passes supervision to Donoma.

The numbers all seem to agree so far, matching scanned tags and container weights from Dresnik's records to what has been received by Fortunate Son.

Then, just as all seems to be coming along to satisfaction, Bruno looks up from his datapad with concern. "This container here," he points to one that he has just lifted from a loader with the ship's hoist system. "The weight is wrong. I mean, it matches up with the data that Mr. V just gave us, but it is off weight from the other containers, lighter by almost 5%, whereas everything else we've loaded today has been within a tolerance of 2%." He looks to Nero. "Does that sound right to you?"

Vulpinnerin frowns, and points the scan-port of his datapad at the machine-coded label on the container, then examines the result. "Hmmm. This shows it is one of the containers we stored down in the mine, in a side-tunnel that had a good secure door we could keep locked. But you are right about the weight discrepancy... something is odd here. You," he nods at Bruno, "can you set that down here so we can open it up and have a look?" Bruno looks to Hampton for instructions. (This seems to irritate Nero slightly, but he says nothing and fumes in silence.) While waiting for Hampton to speak, Nero comms the driver of the loader that just dropped this off, and tells him to come back to the ship.

Hampton directs that the container be moved out onto the open pad about 20m east of the ship, then Doc opens it up and shines his flashlight down inside. Nero looks inside, then tosses the lid to the side w a stream of curses. He turns back to Doc, "Can you help me move... No, we'll need the big guy. Call him over here, please."

When Bruno arrives, Nero asks him to help him shift the top ingots over to one side. [If Doc looks inside the container, he will see that it is less than full, probably a full three layers of ingots missing below the top of the container.] The two big men, working together, are able to shift enough of the heavy ingots over to one side to clear a small space several more layers down. Nero begins cursing again, then notices Doc's flashlight. "Mr. Freeman, would you please shine your light down in here so I can make sure of this?"

Doc can see that beneath the light-colored metal ingots of lanthanum, there is another layer of darker-colored ingots. Nero reaches in and grunts as he lifts one of the darker ingots up to the top layer where he can see it better. "Just as I thought! These aren't lanthanum, these are [another metal that is denser than lanthanum]! Somebody has been getting into the secure storage down in that mine-shaft and messing with my containers!"

[Doc makes an Int check modified by Admin and notices the serial numbers stamped into the top of each ingot, indicating that these are brand new ingots just stamped this morning.] 'Those numbers seem to match the correct order for being processed this morning. You are not going to like this, but I would suggest that we lock down the mine and check each container that has already been loaded.' Turning on his communicator, 'Captain, we have a problem.'

Having been filled in by Doc on what Doc saw in the box, Hampton thinks back over past smuggling scams he has heard about. [Int roll, modified by Streetwise-2] He recalls some scams in which valuable stuff was removed from container, w lesser amount of more dense stuff substituted to try to match the expected weight. [Now maybe somebody should tell Nero and see if he can connect the dots.]

Nero turns to Doc. "Waitaminnit!!! What did you say? These were processed this morning?" He grabs Doc's flashlight to get a better look at the serial numbers on the ingots. "BLITZIT!!! You're right, this stuff was poured and stamped today - there is no way it should be in a container from down in the mineshaft storage... Hmmm..." Nero looks around. "Hey, Joey, where did you pick up this container?" Looks around some more. "Where the hockeysticks is Joey? I commed him to come back to the ship after we got the funny weight reading on this container he brought?"

Nero fiddles with his datapad, then points toward the mineshaft opening. "Got a location on his headset - he's over there in the mine!" Nero turns and jumps on the loader that moved this container from the ramp to the hardpad, yelling toward his workers at the barricade. "Frank! George! Linda! Eneri! You guys all follow me, I gotta go talk to Joey and figure this out, and something really STINKS here!" He powers up the loader and zooms off across the hardpad toward the mineshaft, with the four barricade guards jogging after him. Kalos quickly leaps onto the back of Nero's loader as it speeds off. On his comm: "Captain, I'm headed with Nero to the mine. I'll keep you updated."

Henry climbs onto one of the unused loaders, hollers at Bruno to grab a shotgun from the security locker and defend the ramp, then yells to Gayne: "You coming with me, or not?"

Hampton: "Henry, where do you think you're going?"

Henry: "Following Kalos, sir. I think he needs more backup than those yokels with their shotguns and AKs. Do you have some other orders for me?"

Hampton: "Henry, ...go, go. Just remember, you're heading down into a mine you don't know with a bunch of as you just established - yokels with AK's and shotguns - running around. Not the greatest idea, but go ahead."

Henry replies (while Gayne is running over and scrambling aboard): "Boss, there is a very important difference. Gayne and I are both semi-armored and have killed more people than we care to remember. I doubt any of these yokels have ever been in a firefight. Kalos needs some competent help." With that, Gayne is securely standing on the back of the loader as Henry puts it in gear and zooms off after the others toward the mineshaft.

Gayne: "Time for some thrilling heroics..."

Thrilling Heroics: 3731-08-15[edit]

Henry and Gayne are at least 30 seconds behind the loader with Nero and Kalos on it, but easily catch up and pass the running hard-hat guards, swerving to avoid running them down. The forward loader swerves into the mine entrance and stops while Nero consults his datapad again, allowing Henry and Gayne a chance to catch up.

Forward motion is stopped while Nero checks datapad, so Kalos is relatively secure and can shift for better grip - just keep safety on and finger out of trigger guard in case he starts up suddenly. Nero curses again - he seems to be having a bad evening. "Frackin' datapad says he is standing right over there," he points, "but obviously he isn't there."

The mineshaft is also fairly well lit by ceiling lights. Looking where Nero is pointing, Kalos notices something on the ground in the shadow of a rock.

Kalos hops off the loader and cautiously approaches. He's worried Joey might have rigged some sort of explosive into whatever Nero is using to track him (comm?), and is prepared to dive away at the first sign of trouble. Looks like just a comm headset, the kind you have noticed many of the mine workers wearing under their hard-hats. No sign of anything wired or attached to it. Kalos quickly jogs back to Nero's side. "There's a headset over there. Joey's, probably." Glancing back towards the approaching workers (the ones who are running over here from the ship), Kalos asks in an undertone, "How many of those men do you trust to watch your back, Mr. Vulpinerrin? Any of them friends of Joey's, the kind that might take his side in this?"

Nero glances back over his shoulder, starts to answer, stops to think. "I've never really had to trust any of them in that kind of way. Hades, I would have trusted Joey with anything, and it looks like he is up to something here. Apparently some of my men are in on this - but who? Most of the guys here are pretty friendly with each other, but I don't know about special friends that Joey hung out with. Since I've moved up into management and owner, I don't spend as much time with the guys as I used to when I was just a foreman..."

"I'm trying to think where else to look for Joey... He had to throw down his headset here just to throw us off track. Those lanthanum ingots that Doc looked at were from this morning's work - let's check the foundry." He points to the nearby north end of the L-shaped building. "We can go right through there."

Kalos starts to reply, then pauses and activates his comm (it's a headset type thing, like a bluetooth earpiece). "Captain, I'm going to leave my comm on so everyone can hear developments as they happen." Then, to Nero: "I advise you tell your workers to turn over their weapons to Mr. Maize and Mr. Henry. If you're not sure which of them to trust, none of them should have weapons. It'll make identifying any of Joey's accomplices easier, as well."

Henry and Gayne get off their loader and take up positions slightly apart, so as not to interfere with each other's or Kalos' lines of sight or fire. Nero calls out to the approaching workers (all rather winded from their unaccustomed 125m jog while carrying weapons). "Frank, George, Linda, Eneri, I need all of you to put down your weapons on the ground here. I trust you guys with my life, but we apparently have some here on the Dresnik team that are trying to rip us off, and until I can clear everybody I want only the spacers carrying guns."

The miners are obviously not happy, but finally bend down to comply and put down their guns; THEN SUDDENLY Linda grabs the pistol grip of her assault rifle, takes a step back to shield herself behind the others, and raises the weapon toward Nero. "You'll never get..."

We'll never know what else she intended to say as she is cut off by the sound of Henry and Gayne firing their weapons.

Linda staggers back, laser and needle wounds through the center of her torso, drops her rifle and falls to the ground without another sound.

Her co-workers turn to look at her, start forward as if to check her condition, then simultaneously step back as if wanting to have nothing to do with whatever she was involved with. Frank turns to Nero. "Sorry, Boss, I never would have thought... I mean, Linda..."

Nero waves off whatever else Frank wanted to say. "We'll all have to deal with that later. For now, just leave your weapons here and hoof it back to the spaceship. I think Captain Rhodes had some questions he wanted to ask, and that will probably be the safest place for you to be tonight, unarmed." He comms Hampton to tell him briefly about Linda's action, and that he is sending Frank, George and Eneri back unarmed. The office building is the closest building other than the foundry itself. Nero gestures toward it. "Should we stash the guns in there and lock them in my office, or just carry them down the mine a bit and hope nobody that is against us find them? By the way, please let me have one of those shotguns; I can handle one, and I'm feeling a bit naked at the moment after seeing Linda's intentions."

Henry grabs the guns from the ground, including Linda's. He quickly drops magazines and ejects chambered rounds, then tosses the two assault rifles and one shotgun into the brush, and hands the still-loaded shotgun to Nero. He watches critically as Nero checks the safety, then partially draws back the bolt to make sure he has one in the chamber. Henry nods in approval; at least Nero was telling the truth about being able to handle one.

"OK," says Henry. "Problem solved. Let's go."

With Gayne and Henry alternating at point by leapfrogging, the group moves toward the double doors at the north end of the L-shaped foundry building as indicated by Nero.

"Here, wait a second," Nero says, tapping at his datapad. "Here is a layout of the building. Don't have any security cams inside, unfortunately; never thought I would need them." [Note this is higher scale than the exterior; these are standard 1.5m squares rather than the 3m squares I used for outdoors. Also the orientation is different; on this west is at the top, north is to the right.]

Kalos: "Captain, Ms. Lafitte -- could one of you use your connection to the Dresden security system to initiate a trace on all the workers' comms? I think a rough estimate of their positions would be useful."

Hampton calls Donoma and relays the request to Donoma. He does a quick scan of the surrounding lots and buildings for anything that looks human moving around with the electronic IR sights on his ACR. "Doc...you're in charge here. I'm heading for the offices to see what the shooting was about." He starts trotting towards the mine and calls Kalos for a status check.

Vulpinerrin taps a code into the lock next to the double doors, then moves to shove the door open just enough to enter. He listens, then looks around the corner into the building. "Lights are on inside," he says, preparing to move.

Gayne lays a hand on Nero's shoulder. "Sir, if you'd let me and Henry go first... We do at least have some armor." He refrains from comment on relative experience in gun-battles. Nero steps aside and Gayne moves forward in his place, cautiously, leading with his rifle.

The inside of the building looks as pictured, but there are no people in sight. The main room of the building is full two-story height, filled with machinery. The machines pictured are also interconnected above ground level by numerous cables and massive insulated pipes, but with plenty of room for people of loaders to pass underneath. The stairs to the immediate left of the door lead up to a catwalk that provides access to another row of rooms above the first.

Kalos: "We just entered the foundry, sir. No sign yet of anyone inside. Want us to hold here and wait for you to join us?"

Donoma reports seeing more human-like heat sources moving back and forth between the south end of the L-shaped building and the VTOL parked in the adjacent parking lot.

Nero comms the workers at the road, telling them that they are to immediately lay down their weapons and move toward the "spaceship" - assuring them that they are not suspected of anything but that there has been some shooting and this is a safety measure.

Hampton "collects" the two men at ACR point, "Drop the guns now. Walk ahead of me to the mine offices....your boss is fine but someone tried to shoot him and he wants to find out who and why. Nothing personal but keep your hands up and keep moving."

Known mine-worker inventory:
Frank, George, and Eneri were disarmed at the mineshaft and sent back to the ship. (Linda was shot and left on the ground.)
Two unarmed loader drivers were near the ship, and are apparently now in custody of Hampton at gunpoint.
Four armed guards down near the road were commed by Nero and told to put down their weapons and head toward the starship.

Max scans the tarmacs and spots the VTOL in the distance and has a thought: "Hey Captain, Donoma, if a robbery is going on today, based on the date on the ingots, then could they be using a conveniently placed VTOL to carry off the lanthanum?"

Hampton will tell the two miners with him to head for the office and he will split off for the VTOL's position. "You two miners better keep your heads down. Things will get really dangerous in a minute for anyone who isn't really obviously on your boss' s side. So go hide somewhere. Donoma, take a position above the VTOL and when I tell you to light it up with Wild Ride's landing lights. I'll be over there in a few seconds and when you light them I'll tell 'em to surrender. It they don't then you can fire a shot across their nose with the laser and see if that helps." Hampton will move to a cover position where he can see the VTOL and crew through his ACRs light amp sights. He will try to get within 50 meters to do this.

Donoma comms Wallis to tie in their locator system, but also simply uses the radio sensors to tag all emitters (these comms, based on Nero's comments, are probably like cell phones with a constant broadcast signal). When the mine system is linked in, she will tie the information together, particularly looking for sources that are not in the mine grid. Wallis agrees to set that up, then comms back few minutes later that she is having some difficulty getting the locator interface to tie in w the sensor data that she can share, will keep working on it and let you know. On Donoma's own efforts to spot and tag the worker comms, she sees the expected cluster around the nose of the ship for disarmed workers; then another cluster of five moving about in the office management building; one lone comm not moving at the entrance to the mineshaft; another lone comm not moving, located in between the mineshaft and the office building; then another cluster of three down at the south end of the foundry, moving in and out between the foundry and VTOL - if she zooms in close enough on both views, she can note that some of those match up with the heat sources that she has moving in that area outside the building, except that two of the heat sources do not have comm tags associated.

Kalos cautiously begins to move south through the foundry, keeping an eye out for movement. Nero is extremely agitated and keeps trying to move ahead, frustrating Gayne and Henry who are trying to move quickly but cautiously by leapfrog movements.

As Gayne moves cautiously around the corner near the southernmost set of stairs, someone raises up from the down-ramp with a weapon, but is instantly dropped with a brain boiled and cooked by a laser shot from Henry, who was just a bit to the north of the ramp keeping watch for Gayne. Unfortunately, this is the last straw for Nero, and he charges forward to the door (visible between clumps of machinery near the southwest corner of the building) and reaches for the doorknob.

Gayne: "WHAT ARE YOU DOING, YOU IDIOT!?!"

The door appears to be locked, but after yanking on the handle once to confirm this, Nero reaches up and taps a code into the lock pad, and pulls the door open. He steps into the doorway - he is a big man, 6'4" and getting a bit fat, so blocks the doorway pretty thoroughly. You can all hear him yelling, "David?!? WHY?!?"

Kalos will rush forward and try to pull Nero aside. He's having terrible visions of a glorious payday getting blasted apart!

Kalos was hanging back a little ways letting Gayne and Henry make the advance, so he has a little ways to run before he can do that.

Kalos (and all of you, by comm) can hear some yelling back and forth, unintelligible, then Nero yelling, "You MORONS! I was going to share!!!" Then gunfire, just as Kalos yanks Nero out of the doorway (or tries; Nero is big and Kalos Str 6; OK, he manages to pull Nero to the side and out of the doorway, but probably a little more slowly than intended).

Umm, gunfire at Kalos - misses. Assuming he is dragging Nero to the west, out of line of fire, right?

Yes. Once Kalos has Nero fairly out-of-the-way, he'll check him over to see if he's been hit.

Yes, he is hit (twice through the abdomen), and bleeding badly, but not really pumping so as to be in danger of bleeding out soon.

Henry yells, "Fire in the hole!" and tosses a Tranq grenade through the now open doorway into the room beyond.

Gayne and Henry are both are in vaccsuits anyway; as they cautiously enter the room, everybody they can see is on the floor, except one guy who was apparently sitting down and is slumped across a table.

"Donoma, light up the VTOL and lot now." When she does this Hampton yells to the men around the craft to put their hands on and get on their knees. "Anyone who doesn't comply right now will force me to kill them and that launch up there will turn you into ash and slag. Drop the guns and get on your knees with your hands in the air!" Hampton's ACR is on autofire with discarding sabot loaded. He is using a parked vehicle for cover.

[I also took another look at the drawing of the sprint chopper I used as base for this VTOL; the way the tail sweeps up, Hampton should have a good view of a strip about 4.5m wide measured out from the south edge of the building.]

When Donoma lights up the area (even brighter than the floodlights that were already on), one guy right by the door drops his load and pivots to dive back into the building. Hampton could probably snap a shot at him if you want, but he isn't actively firing at Hampton, just fleeing. Two other guys that Hampton can see drop their loads and raise their hands. Donoma can see (and I assume would share w Hampton by comm) two other guys, one humping his load in through the open cargo door (toward rear of VTOL) and scrambling in after it, another near the front of the VTOL scrambling into the pilot's cabin.

Hampton: "Kalos...you got one running into the building possibly towards you."

Hampton: "Donoma, fire the laser into the ground in front of the nose of that plane"

Hampton: "Everyone out and on the ground now or the next shot fries you all!"

Donoma's laser shot makes a nice splash of molten rock, steam, and dirt fragments from the hillside just in front of the VTOL.

They've just fired up the engines, so I don't know if anyone over there can hear Hampton yelling (maybe route it through exterior speakers on Launch?), but nobody that you can see is moving, and the VTOL isn't lifting. (Actually, the two guys w hands up probably jumped and turned to look when that laser shot hit, but otherwise they are being very still.)

Hampton: "Donoma, shoot out the port side rotor on the plane."

Impressive explosion as bits of metal and composites fly through the air, but Hampton's choice of port side protects everyone from frags.

The VTOL rocks back and forth a bit and the starboard engine also shuts down.

Hampton: "Everybody out of the plane and on the ground right now. Last warning! Max, bring some of the hands over here to take custody of these guys...bring something to tie them up. Kalos you catch the guy who ran inside?"

Kalos looks over towards Gayne and Henry, noting the lack of gunfire. "It appears so. Mr. Vulpinerrin has been hit, but it doesn't look too bad."

Henry comes to the door and gives a thumbs-up.

Loose Ends: 3731-08-15[edit]

Doc leaves the ship in the hands of Max and Bruno, then after a quick climb upstairs to get his bag, jumps in the air-raft that Hampton had moved near the nose, and zooms over to the double doors at the bend of the L (AA-17). He is avoiding the area of the VTOL and those people until all is secured, just wants to get to Nero V. to check him over.

Guys, I would LOVE to sort all this out right now, but have a real thumper of a headache that is very distracting. Can we just figure you take the bad guys into custody, and sort out all the loose ends later on? BTW, Sgt Blaser will be arriving soon, he was on his way to do a customs check before take-off; Nero called him at the same time he called his wife. So you will have actual cops on hand to turn this over to - unless there is anything y'all want to do before he gets here, which we can sort out later.

Thanks to everyone for showing up and wrapping up the big climax!

BTW, as soon as he is conscious to speak, Nero will insist on being carried aboard to be treated by Doc in the med-bay, as he expects better care from Doc w TL 10 med equipment than he could get here on Devonia at TL 8, plus he is desperate to get off-planet before someone from Ixion arrives to stir up trouble. Nero's wife should arrives soon by grav car w their luggage. The other two guys who are coming along are in the office building w Wallis, and have their luggage in their offices.

Donoma also made an Int check and realizes that a really logical suspect for masterminding all of this switching of labels and so forth would be her friend Wallis in the office. Donoma is starting to feel seriously hurt contemplating that idea. As the situation on the ground begins to settle out, and she isn't needed at 300m for blasting/lighting, she rises back up to about 1,000m (and turns off the landing lights). She ensures she has good coverage for personnel and vehicles leaving any portion of the site. Then she turns her attention to the mine's comm system - getting through its encryption to open it up. MIJI/exploitation - using sensors and communications gear.

Inside the room where Henry tossed the two grenades there are four guys asleep from the Tranq, plus a pile of 12 lanthanum ingots, plus weapons - all four had autopistols, plus two of the AKs lying on the table. If you allow Wallis or any other Dresnik employee in to make ID (after the gas is cleared), the four will be identified as Dresnik employees David Schuster, Frieda Peregrin, and Joey Blanton, plus a non-employee whose ID says that his name is Zarith Bluviriiil. David's pistol has been fired recently.

Outside in the crippled VTOL, the prisoners include two Hevener Transport employees (the pilot and assistant), one Dresnik employee, and one unknown whose ID says that she is Erinna Helkerrin. In the back of the VTOL are eight metal crates, each holding 25 Lanthanum ingots (suitable for moving around by 500kg grav lifter), plus 15 more ingots laying around haphazardly, apparently carried out and tossed in one or two at a time as the thieves became alarmed and were trying to get away.

[Any more details y'all want from the "crime scene"? I'm still kinda sleepy and realize I may have left off something important here.]

[I may be off a bit on quantity. The idea is that with what is in the VTOL and left in the packing room, these guys were close to getting away w roughly 2 dTons of Lanthanum (base Cr10M). If I'm short on the count, that just means there were more of the 500kg crates already out in the VTOL.]

Doc is able to quickly stabilize Nero and stop his bleeding, but needs to get him back to the Med-bay to further assess the damage and see what all "innards" he needs to go in and fix before closing up the wounds (both shots were clear through, but may have left fragments or bits of cloth needing to be cleaned out).

At the med-bay, he allows Nero to regain consciousness to discuss his condition and give formal consent for further treatment (before that he had used a medical stun device to keep Nero unconscious and pain-free for field exam and treatment). Nero formally agrees that he is asking Doc to treat him, makes a joke about how he thought that "Doc" was just a nickname for the cargo chief, then is put back under w the medical stunner while Doc works on him.

By the time Nero's wife Marisa arrives, treatment is done and Nero is closed up, suited in the 38th Century equivalent of a hospital gown (surely they have developed something better than what we have now! ).

[Dave, feel free to build on from here if you'd like to have more conversation among Doc, Nero and Marisa, or if you have other ideas for what Doc should do in treatment or whatever.]

As for conversation, Doc will simply explain to Nero's wife Marisa, what took place and that he (Nero) will need X days of recovery time and that this might be a fine time to make him (Nero) take her on a real and good vacation. Of course this is all done while Nero is still under and not in the same room, just incase he can still hear while under.

Doc will Comm the Captain and tell him that Nero is OK, and that Doc and the Captain need to speak in private about it when he (Captain) is ready, no hurry. After that, Doc will send out a general comm to the crew of the ship and to who ever is currently present/nearby from the mine that Nero is alive and healing and can see a supervisor the next morning with any questions before the ship takes off.

After sorting out the cloths and inventorying what Nero was carrying, while taking images of all the clothing before having them sealed up, Doc finishes two medical reports. One for authorities, one for the ship. The ship one has more details about procedures and medicines used.

One thing that Nero said repeatedly to Doc when they were talking while Doc had him conscious, was that he did not want to delay this trip, he had everything pre-arranged to be handled while he was gone, was expected to leave tonight anyway. If Doc conveys that to Marisa (or when he lets Nero wake up and talk with her), she will agree that it is best to go ahead as planned, since it appears that Nero is in good hands for treatment aboard ship.

Shortly after the shooting stops, Sgt Blaser arrives to perform the customs and immigration clearance for the trip. If he is shocked by what he finds at the site, he hides it well, simply putting in a call for more uniforms to come take custody of everyone found in the wrong place at the wrong time (all of those around the VTOL and who got Tranqed in the room with the stolen Lanthanum). He also calls crime scene people to do their stuff, requesting copies of all recordings from both Fortunate Son and Dresnik comms and sensors for the relevant period. They are taking this quite seriously, since in addition to the theft (or attempted theft) there were two deaths, and Devonia has a felony murder law.

The Lanthanum ingots from the VTOL and the "packing room" are impounded as evidence, but should be returned to Dresnik after all is sorted out. When informed of this while awakened for interview by Sgt Blaser, Nero winces but feels that he must agree; any metals not marked as evidence will be loaded onto the ship to take to Nexus, but evidence will have to wait for the next trip. Nero also confirms to Sgt Blaser that David Schuster was the one who shot him, gives a recorded statement and promises to return to the jurisdiction in time for testimony at trial (if there is one).

[Anybody have questions or conversation for Blaser before he completes his exit interviews and clears y'all to take off?]

[I'm also assuming y'all will cooperate w Blaser and evidence techs in providing copies of comms and sensor records from Fortunate Son; otherwise he is not going to clear the ship to leave until DCPD has gone through necessary requests for warrants and so forth.]

EDIT: Oh yeah, I forgot the other two passengers: One is an assistant manager named Wawepaba (Bwap) and the other is an administrative assistant named Lester Jordan (Human); in his case, "administrative assistant" might also mean "bodyguard" as he is big and quite fit (Gayne-sized!) and hands over a small locked case which he identifies as his personal weapons to be locked in the ship's secure storage.

[Also forgot the Donoma/Wallis problem: Fritz, the ball is in your court there, to proceed as Donoma sees fit.]

Donoma lands the Launch and sorts through the various Signal Intelligence that she had gathered during and after the fighting:

Lots of comm traffic through Dresnik's system as remaining workers clean up and confer about what happened, but only one of real significance:

She doesn't recognize the female voice, but the system IDs it as Victoria Rivera: "Listen you gotta help me out on this or we're all gonna catch it for those idiots that got themselves killed. The cops are here trying to copy all of our comm and sensor stuff from all day today, and if they get that, we're biscuits and gravy."

Other voice, male: "So what do you want me to do about it? There's another ship due in two days; I suggest we both lie low and then be on that ship when it leaves, before one of the others cuts a deal and dregs us out to the cops."

Victoria: "Not much we can do about the guys they have in custody, but if they get these comm records before we can leave, that's it. I managed to fritz up the machine and backup here, but I don't know when Wallis had the offsite backup set to run, or even what service that is stored on. We gotta grab Wallis, make her give us the info on backups and how to get rid of them. Then we get rid of her, and even if there is some copy somewhere, nobody will be able to find it without Wallis to help them."

Other voice: "Listen, I'm a businessman, not a thug. What do I know about getting somebody and making them talk? You had all the rough guys from your crew there at the mine."

Victoria: "I have a tranq gun at home we can use to handle Wallis, but I'm not big enough to carry her by myself. This is just you and me now, and I don't want any other weak links getting involved. I'm nervous enough that one of the guys they caught will flip on us."

Other voice: "Blitz all this frakkin shazzo! How did I let you get me into this? This morning I was a reasonably law-abiding citizen, and now I'm supposed to help you kidnap and kill somebody?"

Victoria: "We don't have to kill her, just keep her doped and out of the way until we are safely outsystem to wherever this next ship is going."

Other voice (immensely frustrated): "And if we don't do this, they'll get the comm records before we can leave, huh? All right, I'll come by your place at 0200. Do you even know where Wallis lives?"

Victoria: "Yeah, I've been there. She is actually a friend of mine. I hate to do this, but if we don't, we're ashes. Frakk those dummies with their guns, going and getting themselves killed! This was supposed to go smooth and easy, and let everything get blamed on the spacers. Frakk that Joey, too, for blowing his cool like that! Listen, I gotta go; see you at 0200."

Call ends. Comm record shows the other end of the call was Wilfred Krottzen.

As soon as Donoma hears "You gotta help me out on this..." she marks the recording. (Everything is being recorded, though most of it will just get dumped as unimportant.) She also checks the system to see if it will give her the location of the two ends of the call - if it does, she will tag those comm units for continued tracking. (One of them might be offsite and I probably can't track that, but a Dresnik comm unit onsite should be tracked anyway.) She also marks the recording when the call ends.

About the time she finishes with that, she gets the call to dock, and talk to the authorities. She descends at a *very* safe descent rate to give her time to call Wallis, using their personal comms. (That way Wallis will know it's her, and she will figure out that it is probably important.) If anyone calls her wanting to know why she is so slow, she will explain that she's running diagnostics to ensure no shrapnel from the aircraft engine harmed the boat.

Wallis answers right away. "Donoma! Oh, I'm so glad you're OK, with all of this going on! There was a shooting right outside my office, one of our workers, Linda Enderby! They said she tried to kill Nero! Are you still up in your Launch?"

Donoma: "Yes, hun, I'm ok. A couple of folks tried to kill Mr V. I'm coming down to dock, now. Listen... are you alone? Or can you step away and talk quietly for a minute?"

Wallis: "Umm, well, they told us we all need to stay handy for interviews by some detectives, but I guess it would be OK as long as I take my comm and tell Victoria where I'm going. But where are you? Are you still up in the air? Where do you want me to meet you?"

Donoma: "No, hun, I just need you to be where Victoria can't overhear. I have some information you need to know - and just you for now."

Wallis: "Well, OK... I can just step into the fresher, my comm has a headset that I use when the office gets too busy, so I can bring that."

Donoma: [Once Wallis sounds like she's in the fresher,] "I hope you aren't angry with me, but I broke the code on your comms at the mine. I figured there were other folks who might be involved, and they might be talking. Well, I was right. Victoria - on your comm system - was talking to someone identified as 'Wilfred Krottzen' about getting the comm and sensor logs and keeping them from the police."

Wallis: "Victoria? That's odd. We have some glitch in our comm logs and she has been helping me try to fix it since the police arrived and made their request a little while ago. Why would she want to keep the logs away from the police? And who is this Wilfred person?"

Donoma plays back the bit of conversation. Before Wallis can react (storm out or anything), she also says, "I think I have copies of a lot of the stuff already. If you have it backed up right, those backups will be safe, too."

Wallis is unfortunately not a person who handles threats of personal danger very well. "But I have to get out of here, get down to where the police are! They are talking about kidnapping me, making me talk, killing or drugging me! I can't believe that was Victoria saying those things, she's my friend!" Wallis's voice is getting high, near hysterical.

Donoma: "Wallis, baby, calm down. I'll send in Gayne to get you. You stay where you are. Make like you're sick."

Donoma does what she can to get Wallis calm enough to be quiet, and IF she can, comms Gayne. IF not, we'll have to go back and forth a bit more.

Donoma: "Gayne, can I ask you to go take care of Wallis? She's freaked out, and with good reason - the other woman in the office is in on this caper. You probably shouldn't shoot anyone unnecessarily.... listen, play it cool, if you can. Don't let on to the other woman that there's a problem if you can help it."

Gayne: "Sure. I just love babysitting!"

Donoma finishes docking, then downloads all the sensor data in common sense packets (one with the common operating picture, another with each of the sensors' information, one with comms from the shooting, one with the entirety of the comms she intercepted) and sets them for retrieval when Alfred is asked.

"Captain? We have another bit of the puzzle, and a small threat to a friend of mine. I just asked Gayne to go 'babysit' Wallis, as he called it. Well, here...." And, she plays the snippet between Victoria and Wilfred for him. "I have finished docking the launch. The data is ready for download whenever Alfred is asked for it. Do you mind if I go and chat with Wallis?"

Donoma hustles through the ship and heads for the admin building. As she exits the ship, she pauses, and looks around for any of the cops that she knows - maybe Shrake. If she sees one, she will go to them and try not to interrupt too rudely. "Hey, John, can I speak to you for a second? I'm not sure what the rules are about intercepting communications, but I have information that one of the conspirators is in the admin building and is trying to destroy evidence, and might harm my friend Wallis in trying to do so. Can you help me out?"

FYI, she is still packing both weapons - cannon in the shoulder holster, and compact concealed in the ankle holster. (She didn't really pay attention to any general orders about disarming ourselves, or organizing for the investigation - she was too busy worrying about packaging all the evidence, and getting things shut down safely.)

Shrake is one of the uniforms standing around sort of keeping watch while the crime scene people do their stuff. He listens to what Donoma has to say, then quickly comms Inspector Lassiter to come over and hear it again. Lassiter thinks it over and nods. "No reason we need to take any action against you. We already have permission from Mr. Vulpinerrin to access all company comms, so that isn't a problem that you helped us out on that. Please comm both Ms. Kashnaravi and the man you have guarding her to warn them that we are coming in and they should stay out of our way and not get upset. In fact, tell them that we will be pretending to arrest Ms. Kashnaravi, so that we can check on her and have her point out Ms. Rivera to us." He turns to Shrake. "Get a couple more uniforms over here so we can block the exits in case this Ms. Rivera tries to run for it." Back to Domoma. "If you'd make those comms now, we can go in as soon as a couple more men get over here."

Donoma links her personal comm to Wallis again, "Hun, it's going to be all right. We're coming in to get you. The police are going to make it appear as if they are arresting you so you can point out Victoria to them. Everything will be all right, I'll be with them. You sit tight."

She then comms Gayne on the ship's network, "Gayne, how's it going? Good. The cops are coming in. They want to make it look like they are arresting Wallis, so she'll be protected and she can point out the other woman to them. Yeah, it's Inspector Lassiter and Shrake and a couple of others. Yeah, they're covering the exits on the outside. Thanks. I owe you a beer."

She is torn by the fact the police are coming because it means she probably won't get to shoot Victoria, but she's sorta glad, too, since she doesn't relish shooting anyone. Her brain spends a moment while the 'uniforms' gather contemplating whether this would fall under the "needed killing" rule on Freehold....

When Donoma complete her calls and the uniformed officers are in position, Lassiter and Shrake will be ready to go in the front. Lassiter asks Donoma if she can sort of standby in the entry to take over comfort and protection of Wallis while they make the arrest on Victoria; apparently he picked up on the incipient hysteria in Wallis's voice in the recorded comm as well. (BTW, she sounded a little better to Donoma in the last comm, w police on the way in.)

Donoma says quietly, with an attempt at sounding light-hearted, "As if you could stop me. I'm right behind you."

The arrest goes very smoothly. Lassiter enters first, turns to the right and see Victoria at her desk. "Hey, are you Victoria? Nero said we needed to talk with you about some equipment rental related to this case." When she agrees that she is Victoria, Lassiter moves over to her desk, grabs one arm, and smoothly turns her around and has her in cuffs, advising that she is under arrest for attempted grand larceny, two counts of felony murder, and conspiracy to commit aggravated kidnapping.

Wallis runs to Donoma, crying. "Oh, Donoma, thank you so much! I hate to think what they might have done to me!"

Lassiter asks Victoria about Wilfred (that turned out to be a fake name on the comm, a "burner"), but she refuses to talk until she can consult an attorney. Lassiter hands her over to Shrake to take her back to the crime scene for transport to DCPD HQ. Lassiter comes over to Donoma and Wallis and Gayne, to ask if they can help in sorting out the Dresnik comm mess and getting the full backup data. Wallis agrees, but says that if Donoma is leaving now, she would like to see her off before digging into the backups.

(Donoma will give Victoria the look that only women can give - the one that, if her eyes were weapons, they would be spinal mount meson guns, burning out the very soul of their target.)

Donoma will help for a short bit, digging into the comms (so much as her ability might allow), then take a few minutes to privately (out of view) say good bye to Wallis. She stops briefly on the way out to talk quietly with Shrake, asking him/them to keep an eye on Wallis, since they don't know who "Wilfred" really is.

Shrake smiles and agrees. "One of the others will flip on him for a deal, you can pretty much count on that."

Donoma heads out to the Fortunate Son with Gayne. She picks up her package, laying just inside the ramp and reports in, "Captain? I'm onboard with Gayne. I'll be on the bridge as soon as I drop by my stateroom." She pauses with one foot on the rungs to climb out of the cargo bay, closes her eyes, then resumes climbing the ladder, "Captain... the other ship is still over a day out. They should be in decel, but not totally committed to the grav well, yet. If you want to leave quietly... well, as quietly as we can at this point, might I suggest we modify the night-side route I planned, and aim for the far side of the well for our jump point. I'll update everything in the computer when I get on the bridge."

Once he's released by Devonia's Finest, Henry's going to make his way to the security station in the hold, and coordinate with the captain and whoever's on board on making sure the Son is secure. There was a great deal of running around; he is going to check that nobody had a chance to get onboard or tamper with ship or cargo in all the confusion.

Y'all have an Anti-Hijack program running for Alfred to access. I treat this as not only a piece of software but additions of related hardware for internal sensors. Although IMTU it is not quite the wonder of psycho-predictive magic as in OTU, it is certainly sufficient for Alfred to have been keeping track of persons getting on and off the ship (except for special measures such as chameleon suits to defeat sensors). Alfred can confirm (assuming exit interviews completed) that there is no one on board other than crew and 4 expected passengers. Henry can use the security workstation to double-check Alfred's conclusion by such techniques as running the recordings on fast-forward, and then having Alfred follow any visitors (again at fast-forward) as they move around the ship, until they leave. Henry is pretty sure that Alfred is correct; all have departed except those expected to remain.

Hampton: Right then, let's haul mass.

Hampton takes his seat on the bridge and readies the ship for flight. "Devonia Control - Fortunate Son requesting clearance for take off and a corridor for a brief overland flight to orbit, then to jump. We have filed our route and ready to lift." To the passengers, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain speaking (aside to Donoma, "I always love saying that.")...we are about to launch - please make sure your seatbelts are fastened and observe the no smoking sign." Then, "Donoma, set up the flight plan to take us out of here that keeps the world between us and incoming traffic, and straight to jump."

Once in orbit, the Close Escort is there waiting. Alfred announces a comm for Captain Rhodes from Lieutenant Quigley of the DCMS Leozard. A young man in a blue uniform appears in your holo. "Greetings, Captain. I am Lieutenant Patrick Quigley, commanding DCMS Leozard. My orders are for a practice mission escorting your ship to Nexus XII-G, and I originally commed to request our flight plan, but my comms officer reports that we have just received that from your Navigator." He glances to the side for a moment. "So it appears fairly simple; out to the 100-D limit here, then Jump to Nexus system, 100-D out from Nexus XII, then a landing at the starport. Once your ship has landed, I am to return here. The only question I have is about rendezvous after Jump. If Leozard exits first, we will remain at the exit point to escort your ship when you exit. What are your intentions if you exit first? Do you prefer to wait for us, or proceed to the starport?"

"That sounds good, Captain. We will wait for you if we exit first, unless we have some emergency demanding otherwise. Thank you for the escort. Out"

Leozard takes up a position about 10 km away from Fortunate Son, prepared to begin maneuver toward the selected jump point whenever you do. As velocity increases during the accel phase, Leozard will adjust distance accordingly so that any slight wobble is less likely to result in collision.

Fortunate Son is just under an hour from 100-D when a Jump Exit is detected, another ship jumping into Devonia system, not too far from the point you are planning to make your Jump out. ("Not too far" in space terms; about 30,000 km. Assuming the other ship sets course directly for Devonia, nearest approach to you will be about 20,000 km, unless one of you alters course for nearer approach.)

"Captain, I have a Jump Exit - 30,000 out along the 100D. Leozard, please confirm Jump Exit at [bearing, distance]."

Donoma checks that she is still tied into the beacon network, and waits for an ID to be transmitted. She also checks what she can with the sensors to figure displacement, configuration, emissions (including any engine information that sensors can provide).

The new ship's transponder identifies her as Wells Fargo VII, registered out of Delphi, Captain Eberi Vilshivuus commanding.

Shortly after you receive the transponder report, Alfred notifies Hampton of an incoming laser-comm from the other ship. It is a recorded message: The image shows a man in a dark green uniform, recognizable as a tailored vaccsuit, with a logo on the left breast and a namepatch above that. He is blond and bearded and looks more like an Old Earth Viking than a Vilani, but he smiles and says: "Greetings! I am Eberi Vilshivuus, commanding Wells Fargo VII, registered courier. I hope that I have the honor of addressing Captain Rhodes, yes? I have a proposition for you, Captain Rhodes. You do not poke at my ship with active sensors or targeting systems, and I will do you the same courtesy, yes? Wells Fargo VII, out."

"Donoma! Did you poke his ship? I'm shocked at such rudeness, really.", Hampton laughs, "No more poking, just quiet caresses with passive only."

"Kalos, if you're not to busy could you get in a turret now just in case this new guy is twitchy? Keep the fire control off and power off until we need you to shoot him full of holes. It's probably nothing but one never knows."

Lt. Quigley comms to tell Hampton that he received the same recorded message from Cpt. Vilshivuus, that he has gunners ready but is holding off any active sensors or targeting at this time, and to confer with Hampton. (He is not under Hampton's orders on this mission, but as an escort - and also as a younger, less-experienced officer - he wants to make sure they are working together.)

Wells Fargo VII having passed without any further exchange of messages, missiles, or coherent photons, Fortunate Son and Leozard reach Devonia's 100-D limit without further incident.

Donoma checks the Navigation program's jump parameters against her own and makes a few minor tweaks, then passes the corrected parameters to Hampton and to Leozard.

Hampton approves the parameters and presses the Go button on his holo-console. The Jump drive sucks in an enormous quantity of liquid hydrogen, and blue energy fields crackle out through the jump grid all over the exterior of the ship. If anyone looks quickly enough, they can see a similar phenomenon engulfing Leozard. Then there is a brilliant flash and the exterior sensors show nothing - or at least nothing perceptible to Human senses; the readings are correct for a normal entry into Jumpspace.

For the next 168 hours, plus or minus a few, Fortunate Son will be at the center of its own little universe... and then: Nexus system.

Campaign:SBRD/Synopses/Chapter 01 Devonia

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