A Day in the Life of a Traveller Gamestory

[Grav_Moped]

Story:
"Don't do it," Kurt said forcefully, then continued emphatically in a foreign language. Jon could only make out the few words of Galanglic that cropped up within rapid-fire gibberish: "Grav Taxi," the acronym for the Windsorian secret police, "Scout Service", "Falstaff Police", and "downport extrality line."

Commentary:
Situation:
The "riotous mob" seems to have just rolled a reaction of 3: "Hostile, attacks on 5+."
Kurt's trying to defuse the "...attacks on 5+" part of that.
DMs:
-2 (advantageous) because he's a member of their in-group (demonstrated by fluency in Iskandarian).
Roll: [4,2]-2=4. Does not attack.

Story:
Jon's assailant paused, confused and slightly embarrassed. "What did you say? I... I don't speak Iskandarian."

An elderly woman spoke up from the crowd, "Let him go. The secret police shot down their taxi and his friend here saved his life after the crash."

Kurt and the woman spoke briefly and incomprehensibly, Kurt finishing with what sounded like gratitude.

He turned to face Jon. "We'd better go now. That way." He gestured north, away from the crowd, rather than due west toward the starport. "And take off that jacket until we reprogram it."
------------------------------------------
Reference:
The Scout Uniform is a TL-13 Combat Environment Suit with thermal control and full-spectrum active camouflage*. As a full suit, it's Cloth -1 (better), but Jon is only wearing the jacket (unless declared otherwise!) so it's effectively just Cloth.

It is generally used with a flexible clear head covering for use in adverse environments, and provides filtering and air compression functions. With its gloves and boots, it can be sealed pressure-tight. A "fishbowl" helmet and auxiliary air-pack enable operations in vacuum.

Its active camouflage pattern is currently set to look like an ordinary Scout jacket with a name tag and mission patches.

(The reason it needs to be re-programmable is to avoid having to take a red paint pen to it here in a moment...)

-------
*This isn't an "invisibility cloak" (that's TL 16). Basically, it changes to the most-appropriate camouflage pattern for the immediate surroundings rather than blending in exactly. It can also be set to a fixed color pattern, including details such as a name patch.
--------------------------------------


Story, (abstracted):
When they're safely away from the protestors, Kurt will advise Jon to reprogram his jacket's display to all black, and add a handwritten Iskandarian phrase in red on the front and back. Loosely translated, it's "Remember the School Angels". This refers to a Windsorian armed forces raid on a Ishkiri religious school last year here in Little Imim, in which a dozen children were killed (accounts differ as to whether the raid was justified).

....and, scene.
0955 Ship's time.
-------------------------------
Commentary:
It's handwritten to be harder for optical character recognition (and thus automated real-time translation by the police) to interpret. Still, he'll want to switch back to the default color scheme if they encounter police.


And yes, Kurt just lied his @ss off -- he knows the Windsorian secret police had nothing to do with it. The terrorists are trying to provoke a police overreaction against the protestors (with bonus points for combining that with an assassination attempt against K.C. Jones). However, it's an easy sell to convince the crowd that it was a false-flag attack, not one committed by Iskandarian agents...

 

[Spinward Scout]

_____

Story
_____

A Day in the Life of some Travellers

Hour 5

090-1106 Imperial
10:15am Shipboard time
Feri/Regina
Windsor/Falstaff City

As they passed a kiosk, a newsscreen was showing the carnage. After a few scenes, they saw themselves on the viewer near the tipped grav taxi. The screen zoomed in on their faces.

Smithe couldn't understand what the news was saying. "Do they think it was us?"

_____

Commentary
_____

Mood music.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

 

[Grav_Moped]

Story:
Hour 3

090-1106 Imperial
0950 Shipboard time

Pinnace ANNIC NOVA I
at Jump Limit Distance from
Feri/Regina (Spinward Marches 2005)
B584879-B

I keep forgetting how weird this ship is. After these few months flying her, it feels almost normal. Not the way I'd have built it, but normal.

From here on the flight deck of the port-side pinnace, it doesn't look normal at all. The other maneuver drive pod is gone. Well, ok, it's actually the other pinnace and it's down on Feri, but the asymmetry still jars. Won't feel any better when I undock this thing and head down there too, either (but at least it'll match). Why didn't they build any maneuvering capability at all into the ship?

An automated voice echoes up the tunnel connecting this pinnace with the starship: "Gunner Thompson, you are entering a zero-G area." The two gunners and I are the only ones who've been back here since the ship started with that warning; we all had taken to snapping back at it, not that it cared. Probably something Tenya did -- I'll have to have a word with her about that when we get back.

Credit to her for trying though. Always pushes herself just a little beyond her ability, and most of the time it works out.

"Two cases coming at you, Captain!" Roland calls from down the tunnel.
"Not just yet!" I shout back, undoing the seatbelts and pulling myself aft toward the airlock to catch the boxes. "Ok, toss 'em!"
-----------
Game Mechanics:
Task: Cleanly toss a crate up the 12-meter docking tube and through the airlocks: Throw 18+
DMs: +Dexterity (A), +Vacc Suit or 0-G Cbt (+1) [Note: Modeled on blade-throwing rule.]
Net required throw: 7+
Roll: [2,6]=8. First crate clears all the handrails and the airlock doorways and sails right into the pinnace.

Task: Catch the tossed crate: Routine (6+)
DMs: Dexterity mod (none) or Strength mod (none).
Roll: [2,4]=6 Success.

Task: Maintain orientation after catching crate: Difficult (10+)
DMs: Using handhold (+5) [Borrowed from Snapshot]
Roll: [4,6]=10 Success.
----------
Story:
He throws it straight, and I catch it cleanly, then lash it to the deck with a bungee cord. "Next!" I call out.

"Incoming!" he replies and lets the second crate fly.
-----------
Game Mechanics:
As before:
Toss, 7+ on 2D. Roll: [5,1]=6. Failure.
Case gets stopped at (1D): 1-2, in the tunnel; 3-4, at the inner airlock door; 5-6, at the outer airlock door.
Roll: [3]. It hits the inner airlock doorframe and comes to a halt, spinning slowly in the air.
----------
Story:
"Almost made it!" Roland says, "I've got it, you get this thing going."

"Ok. Gravity's coming back in a moment, watch your step."
I activate the inertial compensation, and the console calmly states a brief alien warning. The only word of it I understand is "gravity". And there it is -- we drift to the deck as weight returns.

"Ship-side airlock, both doors sealed," Roland announces. "Outer airlock door sealed."

I look at the checklist on the screen, and tap the next step. "Pressurization Check." My ears pop, twice, and the checkbox shows green. Drives are green, fuel's at 80%, everything else shows green. "That's it, we're good to go. Sit down and hang on!" I chuckle -- the inertial compensation means we won't feel the drives.

I call the ship. "ANNIC NOVA, NOVA One, comms check."

"Nova One, we copy. Status?" Doc was on the bridge. I trust him; he's a fellow Scout.

"Green down the board. Separating now. You guys take care, ok? We'll be right back."

"Affirmative. Good luck."

I jog the shuttlecraft to the left, and yaw right. It's hard to fight the feeling that we're hanging nose-down over an inky lake, but it's just the collector sail. It's retracting; creases are starting to show. Somehow that makes the illusion even more convincing. We'll be halfway to Feri before it's fully folded.

And there are the Jump Drive pods. Why two jump drives? Anyhow, Zaz is in there -- one of the best engineers I've worked with, obsessively attentive to detail. You'd never know from asking him though. Wouldn't have believed I'd ever meet a modest Vargr! The drives are in good hands.

The yaw stops. One last look at ANNIC NOVA -- yeah, there's the other weird bit, all the windows on the hydroponics section and that huge observation dome, when the ship never gets close enough to anything to actually see it without scopes. What were they thinking?

There's the faint blue dot of Feri hanging in the stars ahead of us. I check the heading, hit the button, and we're off.

The starship drops away from us.



-----------------------
It's 1000 ship's time.
Begin Hour 4.
ETA Feri Downport: 1200 ship's time.

Commentary:
Yes, I've clipped 15 minutes out of the indicated travel time for narrative purposes.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Hour 4

090-1106 Imperial
1015 Shipboard time

Pinnace ANNIC NOVA I
In transit from Jump Limit to
Feri/Regina (Spinward Marches 2005)
B584879-B

"Detached Duty Coordinator's office, Scout Preston speaking. Oh, hey Tom, good to hear from you. How's it going?"

"Not so good, to be perfectly honest. We've got a couple of crewmen down there in trouble outside the extrality line, and we need to bring them back. We're inbound to the downport, ETA two hours from now. Can you help us find them?"

"Maybe. Who are they, and what kind of trouble?"

"One of them is Scout Smithe -- you remember him, with the Type S. The other is a local we hired on as an engineer, Kurt C. Jones. Somebody shot down their grav taxi over Little Imim, and they're trying to escape on foot with a robot."

"Smithe? Sure! Hold on a minute, I'll get our comms guys on it." Eerily soothing hold music tinkled from the comm console.

"Roland, could you bring up the Travellers' Aid news feed while we're waiting? The locals probably censor stuff all to heck, but TAS ought to have something."

The gunner types into his console, bringing a video feed up on the main display. A reporter stands in front of scenes of burning buildings and wrecked grav vehicles. The chyron reads: "BREAKING NEWS: TERROR OVER FALSTAFF". "... live from Falstaff City, Feri/Regina, where several vehicles have been shot down during ongoing demonstrations against the Windsor government. Officials report that a terrorist cell shot down a taxi and two ambulances, and then blew up an apartment complex as tactical response teams closed in. Casualty figures are not available at this time. The security services released a video showing two individuals who may have been eyewitnesses, described as 'persons of interest.'"

"Captain! That's them!" Roland exclaims, as the video feed continues, unnoticed.

"Yeah, and they look pretty beat up -- that must have been just after the crash."

"It'll be ok. The police'll find them and get them out of the riots, then we pick them up at the starport and bounce."

I start to agree, "The police..." then stop. "Crap. Kurt's Iskandarian. They're going to think he was in on it! If the cops get a hold of him, we won't be getting him back before we have to Jump to Roup -- or ever."

The hold music stops; Coordinator Preston speaks: "Tom, we've got some data. Looks like they were both in the taxi when it went down, then their comms dropped off the net. Nothing after that, though, except that facial recognition scans match two people that appeared in local news broadcasts. Oh, and Smithe posted an XMail message at exactly the time of the crash, to someone on Mainz/Mora."

"Coordinator, what was in the XMessage?" I ask.

"We are not allowed to access the contents of XMail."

"Come on, man -- I know how this works just as well as you do. What's in it?"

"Well, ok. It looks like it was to his parents, and let's just say he wasn't optimistic about his chances of survival in that moment."

"Good enough. Can you hold it for 24 hours? Give him a chance to cancel it when we get him back."

"Um, yeah, I can do that. Anybody else, no -- but he's a Scout, he'll understand."

"Thank you, I think he'll appreciate that. We're hoping they'll check in when they're somewhere safe -- when they do, could you send someone to pick them up? We're moving as fast as we can, but are still a hundred minutes out."

Frustration fights sadness for control of the Coordinator's voice, and loses. "I wish we could. Starport Authority has restricted all Scout personnel assigned to the base to the extrality line. Order came down 20 minutes ago."

"Got it," I reply. "Can we land this boat off-starport and pick them up ourselves?"

This time frustration wins. "No-fly zone. Imperial Marines detachment won't allow anything bigger than four tons or faster than 120 klicks over Windsor. Took down a couple of fighters launched out of Khur City two weeks ago."

I curse. "Then how are we supposed to get them?!"

"Let me think.... let me think. Ah -- we can loan you the air/raft from Smithe's scoutship."

"But the starport's locked down, we can't do anything with it!"

The Coordinator smiled, for the first time during the call. "But you're not assigned to the Scout Base."

"You mean..." I trail off, the two-second lightspeed delay stretching the pause.

"Yes. The lockdown order does not apply to you."

"Starport Control has us slotted into Landing Pad 14 South. Can you have it there before we touch down?"

"Certainly. We'll see you when you get here. Coordinator Preston out." The connection closes.

Roland turns to me and says, "Good thing I brought the guns..."



It's 1030 ship's time.
-------------------
Flashback:
"...'persons of interest'. Huh."
"That's better than 'suspects' or 'perpetrators," right?"
"Well, yeah -- still don't trust 'em one bit." A pause. "Oh crap, now they know they missed me!"

.... and, scene.


Commentary:
Mood music:
Life During Wartime

 

[Grav_Moped]

Game Mechanics:
Starship Encounters
- Starport B
- Scout Base Present: +1DM
Roll: [4,3] +1 = 8. A Type A Free Trader is encountered.

Commentary:
For narrative purposes, it's best if they're outbound, and encountered close to the planet.

Outbound, because they can provide information on current events.

Close to the planet because otherwise the closing velocity will severely limit how long the encounter can last.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Game Mechanics:
Starship Encounters
- Starport B
- Scout Base Present: +1DM
Roll: [4,3] +1 = 8. A Type A Free Trader is encountered.

Commentary:
For narrative purposes, it's best if they're outbound, and encountered close to the planet.

Outbound, because they can provide information on current events.

Close to the planet because otherwise the closing velocity will severely limit how long the encounter can last.

Commentary:
I've got what I think is a really nifty concept for this. It requires the ship to be a Type A2 Far Trader instead, based on where it would have had to have come from.

 

[Spinward Scout]

_____

Commentary
_____

More mood music.

https://youtu.be/01-2pNCZiNk

_____

I don't think the time being off matters much when they are separated.

I liked the conversation with the Scout Coordinator.

The Flashback and Game Mechanic categories are nice and useful.

If you want to plan ahead, that's cool. I've got one for later, too.

I'm going to have to read through when I'm more awake. I'll work on the story tonight.

It's beginning Hour 5, tho.

6-7 is 1
7-8 is 2
8-9 is 3
9-10 is 4
After 10:00am is the 5th Hour.
I know, it's weird.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Commentary:
Note the timestamp. This shouldn't affect anything outside the crew of the pinnace until after the two wayward crewmen and the robot are back inside the extrality line, or vice versa.

Feel free to write events that occur in the 1030-1115 ship's time timeframe.

Story:
Hour 5

090-1106 Imperial
1115 Shipboard time

Pinnace ANNIC NOVA I
45 minutes from landing on
Feri/Regina (Spinward Marches 2005)
B584879-B

We're 15 minutes into the braking burn with 45 left to go, drives still green down the board.
Roland points to his tactical display. "There it is, the outbound Far Trader that Starport Control notified us about."

-----------------

EDITORIAL NOTE: I expect to write this out later, but might leave it this way because it's kinda late...

The Far Trader Princess P left Feri Downport 90 minutes ago.
Her captain turns out to be a bit talkative.
A week ago, they arrived from Boughine with 4 members of a "militia".
These militia members were also shipping 1Td of "small-arms and ammo".
Said the Windsor government wasn't taking the threat from Iskandari immigrants seriously enough, so they were stockpiling weapons "for when they rise up and take over."
The 1Td crate was placarded as "high explosives, non-mass-detonating with fragment hazard," but small-arms ammo should be "mass fire" (low explosives).
They insisted on shipping it to Feri despite being told it wouldn't be allowed out of the starport, saying it'd be ok because they had "connections".
Captain agreed despite his misgivings, because he expected to buy it off them cheap (whatever it was) when they couldn't take it with them. Turned out they did have connections -- the customs person just waved it through!

The Far Trader lifted shortly after the taxi shootdown, leaving some cargo behind. Captain says it was because that the situation around the starport became too risky.

The player characters realize that "blast with frag" explosives hazard describes anti-aircraft missiles. Missiles like those that shot down the taxi.

When confronted, the trader captain admits he put two and two together after seeing the reports of the vehicle shoot-downs, and fled to avoid questions and delays from the local authorities. Swears he had no idea what the militia guys planned -- and seems sincere in that. Will provide video and IDs of the militia members, but begs the player characters to not turn the info over to the authorities until after his ship jumps out of the system.


Commentary:
Apparently these militia guys are the current round of "terrorists".
They're trying to provoke the authorities into retaliating against the Iskandari community ("take the threat seriously").
Collateral damage against their fellow Windsorians? Well, omelettes, eggs -- you know the drill.
Kurt was targeted because he was a foreigner, not because he was a defector (though that makes for a nice bit of misdirection).
Someone at the starport pointed him out; maybe linked to the corrupt customs inspector?

The surviving militia dudes think Kurt and Jon are witnesses, and seek to eliminate them before they can contact the authorities.

---------------

Reference:
At 2G, the Princess P requires 3.5 hours to reach the 100D limit. It will do so at 1400 ship's time, as the A2 departed at approximately 1030.

Commentary:
I'm winging it on the math for when the pinnace and far trader pass each other. Don't @ me.


And the evolving whodunnit:
Version 1: Rioters/rebels planted a bomb in the taxi?
Version 2: Iskandarian infiltrators shot taxi down, then attacked first responders
Version 3: Windsorian secret police shot taxi down and blew up a building, to frame the Iskandarians (this was an intentional lie by Kurt)
Version 4: Windsorian militia shot taxi down and attacked first responders to provoke Windsorian authorities to crack down on Iskandarian community (probably true).

 

[Grav_Moped]

_____

Commentary
_____

More mood music.

https://youtu.be/01-2pNCZiNk

_____

I don't think the time being off matters much when they are separated.

I liked the conversation with the Scout Coordinator.

The Flashback and Game Mechanic categories are nice and useful.

If you want to plan ahead, that's cool. I've got one for later, too.

Commentary, I suppose...

Thanks! I'm relatively new to writing dialogue, so it's a relief that it worked.

My lead planning is for a multi-car pileup at a safehouse.
PCs are hiding.
Terrorists show up, start searching.
Police officer shows up, is killed. (neighbors call space-911 after gunshot)
PC rescue team shows up, drives off terrorists temporarily.
Air/raft chase to starport ensues: PCs, chased by terrorists, chased by police.
Terrorists have man-portable antiaircraft missiles.
Air/raft has a countermeasures suite. (Your Scout knows how it works, anyone else would have to figure it out first.)

 

[Grav_Moped]

Story:
Hour 6 [previous s/b 6 also, but it's not editable due to the forum platform transition]

(Notification Display of Medium-Range Communicator)
Text Messages (1)
Priority: High
11:29 AM st
From: Tomas Puch

<Open Message>
Jon and Kurt, avoid these four individuals.
They're the [redacted] who tried to kill you.
Locals. Windsorian paranoids.
Authorities not briefed.
Info from outbound starship.
Save the attachments if you need to.
Delete message.
Will explain on arrival.
Downport ETA 1200st
Hang in there!

<View Attachments>
[Each of the four attachments is a scanned passport. The third is one of Kurt's former co-workers.]

Commentary:
Message sent at 1129, but Jon and Kurt might not see it until later if they're otherwise occupied.
Puch's intent was to not distract them with a conversation, not knowing what their current situation is.

 

[Grav_Moped]

...
From: Tomas Puch
....

Commentary: I missed a typo, but the edit window closed.
Captain's first name is Tomos (with an 'o,' not an 'a').

 

[Grav_Moped]

Story:
Hour 6

090-1106 Imperial
1204 Shipboard time

Feri/Regina (Spinward Marches 2005)
B584879-B
Nation of Windsor
"Little Imim" district of Falstaff City, 5 km west of Feri Downport's extrality perimiter


A bad parody of a riot-control squad walks out of an alley with exaggerated casualness.

“You’re sure he won’t go to the cops?” the smaller of the three asks.

“He won’t. Iskies are afraid of ‘em -- cops are on our side,” replies another, clearly their leader.

“But they killed Brian!” exclaims the third.

“That’s because they thought he was an Iskie shooting at them. We gotta finish what he started or it won’t mean anything.. That Iskie from the taxi is going down, and now we know where he’s hiding. Him, that Scout, and the stupid robot. Let's get back to the air/raft and take care of business."

 

[Grav_Moped]

Game Mechanics:
Starship Malfunctions:
13+ for malfunction.
+DM: 1 engineer missing from crew list, +1.
Roll: [6,6] +1 =13. Drive malfunction.
Each drive fails on 7+
Rolls:
J2 drive: [5,1]=6, no failure
J3 drive: [1,4]=5, no failure
Canopy [5,3]=8 Canopy malfunction
Accumulator [5,6]=11 Accumulator malfunction
-------------------------------------------------
Commentary:

Yes, I fudged the rolls a bit to get this event to happen.

The intent was to get to “stuck canopy requiring EVA to fix”; I hadn’t expected the Accumulator to fail too.

This event is out of sequence, it happens while Pinnace I is still accelerating towards Feri, before the flip and deceleration burn. I’m assuming Captain Puch was briefed on this but it didn’t come up in the narrative.

-----------------------------------------

Story:

Hour 5

090-1106 Imperial
1032 Shipboard time
ISS ANNIC NOVA over Feri/Regina (Spinward Marches 2005)
B584879-B

Tenya slapped at the alarm clock. It didn’t help.
“Engineer Cardosa, this is Chief Doen – WAKE UP!” blasted from the intercom. He wasn’t angry, he was… worried?
“Wha…?” she asked, wearily.
“Oh, good, you’re awake. That saves me having to come get you, and we don’t have much time.”
“Time? It’s…” she looked at the clock. “1032 hours. They won’t be back until...”
“Canopy retraction failed.”
“Now I’m awake.” She stumbled out of bed, over to the intercom panel. The room lights came up. “What happened?”
The be-robed wolf looked off to the side, reading. “Error code says Arm 2, Hinge 3, motor underload.” He looked back into the camera. “The Canopy stopped folding, and the Accumulator dropped offline. I’m running diagnostics on the Accumulator now. Captain Puch and Pilot Martin have been briefed.”
“Pilot Martin – oh, right, you mean Doc. I’ll be up there as soon as I can.”
“Engineer Cardosa, thank you.”
“No, thank you.” She started to get dressed, then realized she’d fallen asleep in her shipsuit. Well, that’s convenient, she thought to herself. Shoes on, down the hall, through the lounge and back to the kitchen – there’s the coffee machine. Latte? No time. Grab the thermos and place it under the spigot. Rapid punches at the keypad: triple, four sugar, two cream, ice. She’d drink it on the way.

In the elevator, she pinged Annie’s comm. “Annie, it’s Tenya.”
“Hi. What’s up?” She seemed a little surprised.
“You’re running the recon drones, right?”
“Yeah, Roland put them out but I’ve got it now he’s headed to Feri. What do you need?”
“How precisely can you control them?”
“Park ‘em on a decicredit and give you nine centis change.”
“Seriously? If so, I need you on the engineering deck ASAP.”
“Dead serious – I do the docking sequences manually for fun. See you there.”

Tenya opened the outer hatch and pulled herself through it. “Taxi!” she said into the comms.
“Right here,” Annie’s voice came through loud, clear, and cheerful. The recon drone was, indeed, right there outside the hatch, looking for all the stars like an ordinary missile. Tenya pushed off and drifted to it, and locked on with boots and gloves.
“Let’s do this,” she said.

“Gunner Oakley, position Engineer Cardosa at the first waypoint and hold. Maintain ten meters minimum clearance from the Canopy.” Chief Doen there, directing.
“Acknowledged, proceeding. But could you please stop with the job titles for now? We don’t have time for formalities.”
“Understood. Last names only, then?”
“That’ll do,” “Yes,” the women say simultaneously.

Tenya thought the partially-folded Canopy looked like an enormous ancient flower surrounding the Jump Drive pods. “Chief, Cardosa. First waypoint,” she announced. “Copy,” replied the Vargr. “Deploy flash sentinel.”
She chuckled. Flash sentinel? It’s a shop rag! She knew what it was for, but it seemed pretentious nonetheless. She set it out, drifting, with a slight spin to keep it flat. “Chief, Cardosa. Flash marker deployed.”

“Copy. Oakley, position Cardosa at the second waypoint and hold.”
“Acknowledged, proceeding.” Around the edge of the giant flower, and… stop.
“Chief, Cardosa. Second waypoint.”

“Copy. Verify grounding, deploy discharge wand.” Suit to drone, yep. Wand to suit, yep. Wand to drone, yep. She pressed the button on the wand, telescoping it out to its full three meter length, and pointed it at the Canopy joint. “Grounding, check. Wand, check.”
“Oakley, engage drone camera sun shutter.”
“Copy. Shutter closed.”
“Cardosa, verify wand position and activate visor blackout.”
“Copy.” One last check that she was stabbing in the right direction, a pressed button, and she was in pitch darkness. This is where shit gets real, she thought. “Wand position verified. Visor blackout.”

“Oakley – On Cardosa’s command, stop. Copy?”
“Copy.”
“Proceed.” A slight nudge from the drone. Wait for it, wait for it… BANG! from her headset, then a hiss of static. Ok, I’m not dead. This isn’t the day I’ll see my star again.

“Arc flash observed,” announced the chief engineer, as lighting illuminated the drifting shop towel. Tenya felt the wand push back, and yelled, “STOP!” She did. Not dead, and didn’t punch through the Canopy. A sigh of relief. Now to get to work…
-----------------------------------------------

Game Mechanics:
Throw 10+ to repair each malfunctioning drive, once per day.
+DM: Skill level of attending Engineer. (+2)

[House Rule, adapted from MgT task chaining:]
Success in properly positioning the drone gives Tenya an additional +1 to do the repair.

Throw 8+ to succeed.
+DM: + Gunner skill (+2), +3 for very short range, -1 because the drone has a person hanging off it.
Net DM: +4

Roll (Annie, to assist Tenya): [6,3]+4=13, success. She nailed the positioning.
Roll (Tenya, to fix the stuck hinge): [3,4]+2 (skill) +1 (assistance) = 10, success. The repair is accomplished in the first day. But when in that day? Assume a 12-hour shift, call it 2D hours.
Roll: [1,3]=4. Task takes 4 hours from starting time.

Doen, to bring the Accumulator back on line
Throw 10+
+DM: Engineer skill (+3). +1 if Canopy repair succeeds, since they’re linked systems.
Roll: [3,4]+4=11, success. The repair is accomplished in the first day. When?
Roll: [2,2]=4. Task takes 4 hours from starting time.

------------------

Commentary:
I fudged the living daylights out of those duration rolls for narrative purposes. It’s only fair, since I made the mishap occur in the first place.

Repairs are completed at 1430 ship’s time, with canopy successfully retracted.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Commentary:
No, canon doesn't say that Collector canopies carry a teravolt charge (they probably don't, actually).
I still wanted to write a scene combining hot-wire high-voltage-line work with a space walk.

If it's not clear, the space-rag is there because neither Tenya, nor Annie through the drone's camera, will be able to observe the arc flash without being blinded.
Nobody else will, either, since the canopy is between the initial contact point and the rest of the ship and there's no air to reflect/refract the light around the canopy.
When it sparks, the light illuminates the rag (which would otherwise be unlit and dark against the blackness of space).

 

[Grav_Moped]

Commentary:
Soundtrack for Tenya's spacewalk (Kebu- Just Another Space Odyssey) [Youtube]
Soundtrack for Zazuezdez's Accumulator repair (Daft Punk - Harder Better Faster) [Youtube] (Yeah, it's a cliche. So?)

Also, on re-reading this, I realize that I totally missed the opportunity to play up the visual of "surfing on a rocket" in this scene. And I can't edit it!

 

[Grav_Moped]

Hour 7

090-1106 Imperial
1330 Shipboard time

Feri/Regina (Spinward Marches 2005)
B584879-B
Feri Downport

Starport Administration Building, Room 712

Story:

The conference room isn’t quite big enough for all of us. There’s the two Scouts we’ve been chatting with for the last ten minutes; they’re carrying sidearms. The two Starport Security types, also armed but far less talkative, were there when we got there. Roland’s to my left, Jon and Kurt to the right. There’s an empty chair at the far end of the table.

The door opens, and two men in oversized and ill-fitting suits – there’s body armor underneath, I’m sure, and guns — enter, followed by a man whose suit is impeccably-tailored and very expensive. His companions post to the corners behind him as he pushes the chair off to the side and lays a briefcase on the table.

He draws a wallet from his coat, and opens it to show a badge. “Deputy Director Tangent, Windsor Internal Security, he announces.”

I stand, and offer my hand across the table. “Pleased to meet you,” I lie, “I’m Captain Tomos Puch, of the ANNIC NOVA.”

“That’s not necessary,” he responds, curtly. “I’ve read your dossiers. But I bring you good news.”

We don’t relax, of course.

He continues, “None of you will be charged with murder, assault, illegal possession of deadly weapons, breaking and entering, or unauthorized manual operation of a grav vehicle. We do reserve the right to press charges if you fail to cooperate.”

Roland interjects, “Cooperate? You’ve got our statements, you’re not going to charge us, what more do you need? Forensics’ll show we were straight with you.”

“I’m getting to that,” Tangent responds. “With your statements, and the information sent by the captain of the Princess P, we’ve identified all four perpetrators and determined that they have have been terminated. The customs agent is in custody.”

He’d done it! Zaz talked him into cooperating, but … he wouldn’t be at jump limit yet…? I glanced at my watch, did some math – right, they're too far out for the authorities to intercept even if they’d wanted to.

I repeated Roland’s question. “So, what more do you want from us?”

Tangent opens the briefcase and hands each of us a sheet of paper. “Memorandum: Timeline, Events of 090-1106” was as far as I get before he speaks again.

“Unofficially, the Government of Windsor greatly appreciates your assistance in thwarting this threat to our security. This will not be spoken of again, by either you or by us.”

“This is the official record of events: You two,” he points at Roland and I, “did not leave Feri Starport after landing.” I share a skeptical glance with Roland, but we both nod.

“You,” he points at Jon, “were rescued by Internal Security agents.” Jon nods as well.

“And finally, you,” pointing at Kurt, “have been detained for questioning.” Behind us, the Scouts go for their sidearms and step forward; the Security troops do likewise, and Tangent’s bodyguards as well. Kurt jumps to his feet. “You can’t do that here -- the starport is Imperial territory!”

Tangent quietly motions to his bodyguards to stand down. “You misunderstand. Officially, you have been detained for questioning. Regrettably, we cannot in fact take you into custody.”

“But they tried to kill me! Twice!”

He replied with pure ice. “Not. Officially. Officially, you’re a Person of Interest that we haven’t determined isn’t an accomplice. Captain Puch’s ship is scheduled to leave for Roup in eight hours. Be on it. It’s your only way out of here that doesn’t involve handcuffs.”

Tangent then addressed us all: “The sheets in front of you are the official report on today’s events. As far as the Nation of Windsor is concerned, this is what happened. If you are caught asserting otherwise, we will revive the charges against you. Is this understood?”

Commentary:
This jumps us past the rescue mission and its aftermath. Anyone who wants to fill in the intervening events is welcome to do so.

 

[Spinward Scout]

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Commentary
_____

Uggg! I guess I should read the error message completely when I go to log in. I've been thinking the site has been down all this time. I didn't think there was a brand new one.

Wow you are really good at this.

I have about 5 days of reading to catch up on.

Looks great!

 

[Grav_Moped]

_____

Commentary
_____

Uggg! I guess I should read the error message completely when I go to log in. I've been thinking the site has been down all this time. I didn't think there was a brand new one.

Wow you are really good at this.

I have about 5 days of reading to catch up on.

Looks great!

Commentary:
Thanks, and welcome back!

Honestly, this has turned into a dialog-writing exercise for me. This is the first time I've really written fiction dialogue; the last time I did was for a writing exercise in Freshman Comp a few years ago (my second time around for college).

Operating procedures, I can write -- and personnel evaluations. Standard 8-page essays with footnotes in APA or MLA Style? Sure. Policy reports? Kinda. Dialogue? Scroll up, and you decide.

It's been fun so far. Thanks for the opportunity and motivation!

 

[The Pakkrat]

Story
Zazuezdez Doen washed his claws in the Fresher basin, soap for his palm and digit pads and shampoo for the rest of his forearms pelt. He had to scrub the grime from his claws too. It had been a long day what with the Canopy retraction glitch. His watch was done, spilling over into his mealtime and recreation time. The Pentitent friar pulled off his Cloth-8 robe, hung it on the hook in his cabin locker. When would Humaniti learn that Vargr are great out of the gate, but not so much on the back stretch? Lair and Vargr cycles had taken their toll over the evolution of Doen's race. The friar was beat. His ears did not want to hear the hum of the Drives for another minute. Doen's tail was drooping too. It had been a ship-Day. The minute his head the pillow, Zazuezdez Doen was off to dreamland.

Commentary
The Vargr Personal Day is roughly twelve hours plus-or-minus five hours. They reach Sleepy and are at risk of falling asleep after twice their Vigor in hours, having to make Checks before any Task at that time. The trade-off is that after only four hours of sound sleep, a Vargr returns to Optimal attention as if a Human had had a full eight hours of sleep. This plays havoc with mixed-race crews and the Captains who must draft schedules. This can be compounded by adding an Aslan to the crew.

 

[whartung]

Commentary

Uggg! I guess I should read the error message completely when I go to log in

Yea, took me a day of staring at the message to realize the site was actually up.