Player Characters:
Everett de Clisson (Adam), Medic and Engineer
Ganidiirsi Ashran (Ben), Steward and Cargomaster
John Matrix (Nick), Broker and Navigator
Sacha Bright (ChaoticNeutral), Pilot and Temporary First Officer
PCs Temporarily Run by the GM:
Gvoudzon, Vargr Gunner and Pilot
Dale Conan Wilder, Captain
Significant NPCs:
Lisa Fireau, Fireau et Fille Winery Co-Owner
Gustav Fireau, Fireau et Fille Winery Co-Owner
Boris Dree, Fireau et Fille Employee
Lorn Denveldt, Tukera Lines Employee
Jelika Chan / Arion Jamail, disgraced Akerut Engineer / kidnapper
Marc hault-Oberlindes, CEO, Oberlindes Lines
Commander Eneri Giilaan, Imperial Naval Intelligence
Detective Carter Voight, Imperial Starport Authority
Lord Magistrate Vernor, Klavisur politician
Harlan Jann, Professor and pyramid researcher
Dates:
325-1105 to 332-1105
Worlds:
Aramanx/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3005)
While waiting for Boris Dree to return from Zila, Gani went carousing in Aramanx highport's bars, looking for anything interesting. He met an older man named Professor Harlan Jann who was looking for evidence of pyramids on many worlds throughout the Spinward Marches. He said he had finished surveying the Rhylanor and Regina subsectors and was starting on the Aramis subsector, and was looking for a ship that would let him take long-term middle passage and explore various worlds along the way. Gani got the Professor's contact information and said he'd run the idea by the Captain and get back in touch before they left Aramanx.
When the Oberlindes Lines fast courier returned from Zila, it had Gustav Fireau, Lisa's father, on board. Gustav had the MCr 20 ransom, secured by a short-term loan against the winery. He insisted that the group pay the ransom and try to recover Lisa, rather than immediately resorting to force and possibly getting his daughter killed.
The kidnappers contacted the March Harrier again and instructed that Gvoudzon should take the public shuttle, alone, to Ulfrey, the capital of Klavisur, and then await further instructions. Before Gvoudzon left, he gave his brooch to John for safekeeping, and Gani made a copy of the brooch in the March Harrier's workshop. Gvoudzon also swallowed a small tracking device, so that the crew could find him if something went wrong.
Gvoudzon took the shuttle down to the surface, then waited for a phone call from the kidnappers. Meanwhile, most of the crew piled into the launch and flew above the ocean, outside of Klavisur waters, to attempt to track Gvoudzon, using both sensors and the tracking device. The kidnappers called Gvoudzon and instructed him to go to a certain warehouse just outside the spaceport. Gvoudzon complied, then someone snuck up behind him and hit him over the head.
When Gvoudzon stopped responding to communications, the crew started tracking him. They saw that his phone was no longer trackable (because the kidnappers had smashed it and left the pieces behind), but his tracking device was headed east at high speed, probably aboard an aircraft. They used their sensors and eventually found the aircraft, which landed at Ulrach on the east coast. Sacha flew the launch up to orbital altitude to avoid infringing on Klavisur airspace, then over to the east coast. At that point Gvoudzon was removed from the airplane and placed on a high-speed boat headed to Zenfalen Island. The crew tracked the boat and got some fuzzy pictures of it docked at a private dock on the northeast corner of the island, near the villa. They then tracked Gvoudzon being taken to the villa, where they already suspected Lisa was held.
At that point, Gustav Fireau agreed that the kidnappers were unlikely to return Lisa and that a rescue operation to recover Gvoudzon, Lisa, and the ransom was the best option. Everett suggested contacting Detective Voight of the SPA and Commander Giilaan of the Navy, but neither could render any direct assistance. So the plan was to put the crew and all their weapons in the launch, fly down to the villa at night, and rescue both kidnap victims.
The launch descended slowly in the dark, with all lights out. Sensors showed one guard in the courtyard and a couple outside the villa's wall. Sacha put the launch down in the tree-lined courtyard. Unfortunately, he hit one of the trees. Fortunately, the damage to the launch was fairly minor. The crew all piled out of the launch. The nearby guard got on his radio, yelling for help, as he started shooting at the crew with a machine pistol. He missed, as Gani (wearing a grav belt) flew right up to him. Gani and John closed in on the guard from the east and south and shot him in the leg, crippling it and knocking him down. Sacha went south into a door and found a kitchen.
Gani checked his scanner and saw that Gvoudzon was to the west. There was a doorway in that direction. John and Gani headed west into the villa, with Captain Wilder right behind them. Then another guard they hadn't seen took careful aim at the Captain and put a bullet in his forehead. Wilder collapsed to the ground immediately. Everett grabbed the Captain and dragged him back into the launch then started first aid.
Gani flew right at the attacker, firing gyroc rounds. John followed up, firing his shotgun. A gyroc round hit the guard in the arm, destroying it. The guard collapsed in pain. There were two locked doors. John and Gani each took one. The first one had Lisa behind it, so Gani told her to stand back then shot the lock with a gyroc round. Lisa came running out and grabbed the guard's gun. Meanwhile, John got no response behind the other door, so bashed the lock open and found an unconscious and beat up Gvoudzon lying on a bed inside.
The crew carried Gvoudzon into the launch and herded Lisa inside too. Everett relieved Lisa of the guard's machine pistol, so Lisa grabbed another one from the other disabled guard. Someone interrogated one of the guards as to where the leader was, and he indicated that the woman Arion Jamail was the leader and her quarters were to the north. The crew headed that way quickly, with Sacha breaking into the eastern door while John broke into the southern door. In her bedroom, they found Gvoudzon's bag, which Sacha quickly checked to verify it still contained (at least most of) the ransom money.
One of the guards' radios was squawking with chatters from other guards, so at that point the crew decided to grab both wounded guards, pile into the launch, and take off before reinforcements arrived. As they prepared to take off, a jet fighter flew over the villa. Everett got on the radio and told the fighter that they were doing a medical evacuation and to stand down, while the fighter pilot told them to land their vehicle and get out. Sacha basically blasted off straight up at maximum speed. 1G isn't much for a starship, but it's much faster than a low-tech fighter plane, and the launch escaped Klavisur airspace before anything faster came after it.
Approaching orbit, the crew debated going back to the March Harrier with its small med bay, or just taking the Captain straight to the (hopefully better equipped) hospital at the highport. They went to the highport, first making a radio call to announce that they were inbound with three gunshot casualties, one a life-threatening head wound and two with serious limb wounds. They were given clearance to dock near the medical facility, where a team with grav stretchers awaited. Captain Wilder was immediately whisked off to surgery. Unfortunately, he did not survive. Both guards were also treated, and both survived their wounds.
Lisa told the crew that she had been treated well during her captivity. Gvoudzon, on the other hand, had initially been treated well (other than being knocked unconscious), but after the kidnappers realized the brooch they'd taken was a fake, they had beat him up to try to find where the original brooch was. Arion Jamail (who appeared to be the same person formerly called Jelika Chan) had been the main questioner.
Detective Voight was alerted to the incoming combat casualties and questioned everyone. The crew told him the truth, that the kidnappers had taken the ransom and kidnapped Gvoudzon, so they had no choice but to launch a rescue mission. One of the kidnappers refused to answer questions, but the other one believed Voight's talk about a murder charge for shooting the Captain, and said that the kidnappers were working for the Vemene, Tukera's covert security service, and that Arion Jamail was in charge.
After the crew was released, John used an override code to look through the Captain's records and found his will. He had a lawyer named Ezraa Foxwell on Aramis who needed to be contacted. His cash and minor possessions were to be divided equally between his two children, except that Cr 1 was to go to his ex-wife. His share of the March Harrier was to be divided equally among the active crew. This raised John and Everett's ownership to 20% each, with Gani, Gvoudzon, and Sacha each becoming 3.3% owners, and the Duke of Rhylanor's Aramis Trace Commercial Development Trust, LIC owning the other 50%.
Gustav and Lisa Fireau met with the crew before heading back to Zila. Gustav indicated that in gratitude for rescuing Lisa and recovering the ransom money, he would give the March Harrier an exclusive export contract for five years.
Marc hault-Oberlindes contacted the crew with a message of condolences on the loss of their captain, and a note that they should contact him about a business matter before leaving Aramanx. When the crew met with Oberlindes, he informed them that he had recently purchased their subsidy contract from the Duke of Rhylanor. He thought the March Harrier was clearly a great venture to have a half interest in, based on their recent run of profitability. He clarified that he couldn't change anything in the subsidy contract without the crew's permission, but that he was willing to expand the subsidy area from the Aramis Trace to the entire Aramis subsector, giving the crew more freedom to wander. Oberlindes also said that Gustav Fireau had told him that he was giving the March Harrier an exclusive license contract, and Oberlindes offered to have Oberlindes Lines handle the Zila wine exports for them, in exchange for a 1% royalty. The crew discussed this and ensured that they got to keep the whole 1%, not give half of it back to Oberlindes as the subsidy holder.
The last order of business was picking a new captain. The two qualified candidates were John and Sacha. John had more seniority, so it was agreed that John would become Captain and Sacha would be (permanent) First Officer. Gvoudzon asked if as a co-owner he could be promoted to Chief of Security, and the title bump was approved, though this didn't change his actual duties.
We stopped at that point, with the March Harrier ready to leave Aramanx and in search of passengers, freight, and cargo.
"Everett grabbed the Captain and dragged him back into the launch then started first aid." First aid? Captain has a bloody hole in his forehead! Skip straight to last rights.
ReplyDeleteIt is fortuitous the one that got killed was an NPC and also the NPC whose death benefits the PCs the most.