Campaign:SBRD/Synopses/Chapter 01 Devonia

SBRD Chapter 01: Devonia

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

[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

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

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

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

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

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.