Session 1. Hired by Clyde Lew to escort her to a restricted world for a meeting.
Score: 427 | 7/27/19 |
Lynx (JJ), Flavius (Anders), and Kojiro (Daniel) were low on funds as they plied the spaceways with their ship, the Witching Hour. O (Imre) was not with them, he was downloading a patch. Anyway, they got a job offer to meet a contact of the House of Lew, a wealthy aristocratic outfit, at Draxive Station.
The Job
They met Clyde at the appointed time and place, and over noodles they discussed what parts of her plan she was willing to reveal. They were headed to Bailiff’s Crown, a restricted space station over a prohibited planet. Since they were paid extra to not be too curious, they agreed with that basic information. Their ship wasn’t big enough to take the cargo pod she wanted to take along (she claimed it had her outfits and makeup; an obvious lie, but the ambiguity clause in the contract meant she didn’t have to tell them.)
The Jump
They took her ship and headed out, and while she put herself in a zoned-out sleep with tech goggles, they checked out the mission. The cargo pod was in the ship’s center, replacing the crew quarters, but dummied up to project an energy signature like it was crew quarters (a smuggling trick.) The planet was ruled by a broken down retired cyborg lawman, and there were only a handful of people there as the defense was managed by an impressive Synsdyne integrated simulated intelligence algorithmic sensory scanning system augmented with multiple solutions for various threat levels or investigation requirements on a global scale, from orbital missile platforms to hoverdrones looking for trouble. Their investigation on the ship also revealed that the hidden compartment probably had some kind of vehicle in it.
Troubled by too many questions, they woke Clyde up and asked her what they were getting into. She told them the mission was to fake a core breach accident so they could land on the planet and attempt emergency repairs far from any surface usage; flooding the area with energy to discourage sensors, they would take the submersible in the passenger container and go meet her friend.
The Crash
While Flavius channeled his very real anxiety into begging and demanding access, Clyde worked with Kojiro to take the safeties offline and manipulate the power core, so the ship would have a convincing energy signature and Lynx could pilot an unsteady simulated near-crash without causing any significant damage to the craft. Flavius was wildly successful in saying just the right things in just the right tone, and a blanket landing permit was issued for six hours. Inspired by his success, Lynx not only managed a convincing crippled descent, he landed closer to the rendezvous point and half submerged in the profoundly polluted water, so when they blew the charges and entered the submersible in the back half of the craft they got into the water undetected.
The Approach
After detecting underwater sensors and avoiding those, Lynx managed to nudge the craft through debris to surface in the fighter bay of a wrecked capitol ship that crashed on the planet decades ago. There they met their contact, Casewrap the Lesser, who guided them through the interior of the ship to where a massive maximum security sarcophagus was surrounded by makeshift defense turrets, hidden in the onboard drydock for assembling fighters. The wildly tilted floor and destroyed environment was eerie in the dark, and everyone had to wear space suits because the atmosphere was unbreathable.
Clyde brought encrypted top security clearance Transit Authority nanokeys, which (combined with knowledge of procedure and codes) were the only way to crack this uncrackable prison. She worked with Casewrap the Lesser and opened the casket, freeing a cranky cyborg with an attitude.
The Ambush
While the spacers were trying to identify the cyborg’s unique hardware, a sniper with a custom stealth assault weapon opened fire, killing Casewrap the Lesser and destroying the power source for the turrets and lights as the spacers scattered for cover.
The freed cyborg is apparently a Rogue Archive: Mechatronics, living encoded repository of all the specs and needed plans to create a proprietary cutting-edge planetary distribution system; a vastly valuable resource, but one that requires his cooperation to benefit, and massive resources to use the information. He was not worried about being killed, but he told them they were all going to die while he was going to be taken offworld by their expensive assailant.