A Day in the Life of a Traveller Gamestory

[Grav_Moped]

Commentary:
The planetside crew is in Hour 10.
The shipside crew narrative is an hour and a half behind.
Let's do something about that, shall we?

Story:
Hour 9

090-1106 Imperial
1530 Shipboard time

Pinnace ANNIC NOVA V
380,000km above
Feri/Regina (Spinward Marches 2005)
B584879-B

The comms pinged their pleasant little alert, and Roland reached across the cockpit to open the channel.
"Nova V, Nova." It was Doc from the ship.
"Nova V -- Thompson here. Go ahead."
"You have inbound -- just over 200 tons, decelerating at 1G from a running jump, transponder off. They'll have a high closing vector since you're meeting at midpoint. Should show up on your sensors in about ten minutes."
"Copy. Thanks for the heads-up!"
"Anytime. Everything ok out there?"
"So far, so good. Will update after they're past."
"Copy, Nova V. Good luck."
"Thanks, Nova. Nova V out." Roland closed the channel, got up, and went back to the stateroom where Kurt was napping.

Game Mechanics:
Starship Encounter Table.
Class B Starport (second column) with Scout Base (+1DM)
Roll: [6,6]+1=13: Inbound craft is a Type Y Yacht, and a Small Craft encounter as well.
While I could roll for the Small Craft, common sense suggests that it's the Yacht's Ship's Boat.

Commentary:
I'm going to say it's inbound from Boughene/Regina (SM1904), having done 2J1 to get here.
(This is where the terrorists came back from as passengers on the Princess P, two weeks ago.)
The Knight assigned to Boughene is on board, and he's tracking the Far Trader. (Yes, it's kind of silly to trail a J2 ship with a J1 ship, but that's how I rolled it. Could have made it a Safari Ship for the J2 range -- that's a traditional substitution.)

They've launched the Ship's Boat, which is running ahead of the Yacht at 6G inbound. It'll flip and start decelerating before the midpoint, since it has to kill the inbound vector from the Yacht's "running jump" in addition to its own inbound acceleration. It will pass Nova V very rapidly. Someone's in a hurry to get planetside...

They'll turn on the transponders for both the Yacht and the Ship's Boat about 1/3 of the way in from Jump Limit, which is also the point at which Feri's orbital sensors will surely detect them anyhow. This is not particularly unusual.

The Princess P jumped out of the system 90 minutes ago, at 1400 ship's time. The Nova's crew didn't ask them for their destination, but Starport Control might have a stated flight plan on file.

I'll write the rest of this up later.

The entire encounter ought to be over by 1600 ship's time.
At that point, they'll be half an hour out from the ship.

(And is anyone ever going to be able to get some sleep?)

Reference:
Boughene/Regina (SM1904)
A 8 B 3 5 3 1 – D

 

[Spinward Scout]

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Story
_____

A Day in the Life of some Travellers

Hour 10

090-1106 Imperial
1600 Shipboard time
Feri/Regina
Windsor

Munching on a Double AstroBurger, Smithe took Buddy off ship.

"Buddy, could you make some calls about where our Provisions are, please? I'll get us fueled up." Buddy acknowledged with a "Yes, sir" and a few beeps.

"Now how do I set this up?" he said to the thin air. Recessed into the tarmac was a button that said "PRESS FOR FUEL"

When he pressed the button, there was a loud 'buzz' and a section of the tarmac lifted from the ground. Underneath the slab was a rolling bot with a hose attached to it. A small sensor turned in different directions, looking for the fuel intake valve. Identifying the valve, it dragged the fuel hose over to the side of the ship and plugged it in.

In a crackly voice, which showed its lack of maintenance, it said "Refined or Unrefined?"

Smithe said "Refined is good."

After about 15 minutes, the 'bot said "Fuel tankage full. Please remit payment."

Smithe put in the ship's credit chip. When it seemed to take longer than usual, the 'bot finally said "Thank you and clear skies." It rolled backwards and put itself into its dock with a loud 'clank'.

"One more thing off the checklist," and walked up the ramp with Buddy.

_____

Commentary
_____

You should start your own Play-by-Post when we're done. You're really good at all of this.

 

[Grav_Moped]

You should start your own Play-by-Post when we're done. You're really good at all of this.

Much appreciated. I try.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Story:
Hour 10

090-1106 Imperial
1601 Shipboard time
Feri/Regina
Feri Downport, Berth 17 South

"Whatever happened to the cargo that the Princess P left on the pad when they bugged out? Could be interesting. They were headed for Roup too, weren't they? Oh, and we can't forget to pick up some good coffee when we're stocking up on supplies -- and something Vargr like, too. Zaz has got to be bored stiff with human food."

Reference (delayed):

[The inbound yacht is] inbound from Boughene/Regina (SM1904), having done 2J1 to get here.

The Knight assigned to Boughene is on board, and she's tracking the Far Trader. (Yes, it's kind of silly to trail a J2 ship with a J1 ship, but that's how I rolled it. ...)

They've launched the Ship's Boat, which is running ahead of the Yacht at 6G inbound. It'll flip and start decelerating before the midpoint, since it has to kill the inbound vector from the Yacht's "running jump" in addition to its own inbound acceleration. It will pass Nova V very rapidly. Someone's in a hurry to get planetside...

The owner of the inbound Yacht is Dame Lishbii Irshinri of Boughene/Regina (SM 1904). She's in the Ship's Boat.
It will land at Feri Downport at approximately 1715st; the yacht will arrive at Feri Highport (it's unstreamlined and cannot land here) at 2015st.

Commentary:
Boughene has one Knight, and that's Dame Irshinri. Must be something pretty important going on if she's come all the way out here in her own ship (usually she'd send it on ahead, and take a Type S or S3 for her own travel).

Out-of-character observation: A Ship's Boat will fit into the docking well on ANNIC NOVA's cargo deck. (This just might be foreshadowing.)

 

[Spinward Scout]

_____

Story
_____

A Day in the Life of some Travellers

Hour 10

090-1106 Imperial
1615 Shipboard time
Feri/Regina
Windsor


"How's it going with Provisions, Buddy?" Smithe asked.

"The StarshipMart Grocery delivery will be here in approximately one hour." Buddy said mechanically.

"Well, let's add a week's Deneb's Finest coffee for the whole crew. Some freeze-dried ice cream, several raw Groat steaks with Stalfo grass for the Chief - Groat jerky, too, and the normal lot of Traveller Dinners, and juice packs. If they aren't already on the list. Hopefully they can squeeze that in."

"Yes, sir" Buddy said.

_____

Commentary
_____

Just a short one tonight. I'll have the Scouts show up next, I think.

The cargo probably was confiscated. I doubt they'd let us rummage through it.

Will Dame Irshinri be another Passenger? Why not!

 

[Grav_Moped]

Will Dame Irshinri be another Passenger? Why not!

Commentary:
My idea is that she's chasing the Princess P and doesn't completely accept that they're not part of the organized illegal weapons trade out of Boughene (they're not, and an interview/investigation will prove it -- the crew of the Free Trader won't enjoy the process, though).
The Nova can carry the Ship's Boat; the Yacht can follow along and arrive a week later (it takes two jumps where the Nova only needs one).

I'm trying to justify why she doesn't just commandeer the spare Scout/Courier that's just sitting there instead...

Got it: The Princess P's jump flash indicated it had done a Jump-2. Based on the nature of the ship's speculative cargo, Roup seemed the most likely destination that had yet to be notified directly from Boughene (it was also its scheduled destination before it took off prematurely). Scoutships -- there are two available, including Smithe's former ship -- will be dispatched to Enope and Beck's World just in case.


This just occurred to me:
An emergency vaccination protocol is possible: Administer the vaccine then put the patient under Medical Slow for a day (standard effect of Med Slow). This provides "30 days" in which to develop a full immune response after inoculation. This must be done before any possible exposure, as medicinally-accelerated disease progression would be fatal. (After potential exposure, the only option is to watch for symptoms and test regularly, and use the synthetic antibodies if/when symptoms manifest.)

This was not necessary for the Scout security guard, because they added it to the standard Scout inoculation package when the vaccine was developed two months ago. It won't be necessary for the prisoner, either, since she'll be on an environmentally-sealed gurney/stretcher for the duration of the trip (it's like an ambulance gurney with folding legs, combined with a Rescue Ball with an external life-support pack). The Dame and her entourage (a couple of Marines and a Navy flight crew) will elect to do this -- but, for security reasons, not all at the same time.

Doc won't be fully confident that the disease has been completely eradicated from the ship for another few months. Until then, he'll keep monitoring the crew for possible breakthrough infections/relapses, and the air scrubbers for viral particles.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Commentary:
For narrative purposes, I'm considering reducing the "time to develop a full immune response" from one month (still a little quick considering how long it takes vaccines to do this for SARS-CoV-2, but Feri is TL-11, so maybe?) to 1-2 weeks (6-12 hours under Med Slow, which seems implausible but the IISS can be TL-14 where needed, so maybe?), in order to get passengers on board and able to interact with the crew before the 24 hour scenario window closes.

Were I refereeing this, I'd require the entire 24 hour duration of Med Slow ("30 days subjective") for the vaccine to be fully effective. I'm not, and we're operating within a specific window of game time so I think I'll let it go.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Commentary:
So how does Dame Irshinri fit into the whole power structure of this end of the subsector? And how does this affect the way the investigation has played out up to this point?

Reference:
Feri, as a member world of the Third Imperium, holds the estate of an Imperial knight, a baronet, and the feifdoms of a baron, and a viscount. All four are members of the Imperial Nobility charged with overseeing the world. (TravWiki)

Boughene, as a member world of the Third Imperium, holds the estate of an Imperial knight, a member of the Imperial Nobility charged with overseeing the world. (also TravWiki)

Despite its much higher TL, Boughene has a far lower population. Thus, the disparity in representation.

Commentary:
This suggests that Irshinri didn't initiate the investigation; The Nobility on Feri insisted on it, because weapons smuggling is prolonging the war. She's under some pressure here. The missiles might even have been legal on Boughene (Law Level 1), or at least not terribly illegal if the paperwork had been straight.

Which suggests this wasn't the first time this happened. Remember, the shipment left Boughene two weeks ago, and Dame Irsh doesn't know that its contents were just used to shoot down government vehicles (yet). She's tracking arms traders, not terrorists (so far). Her meeting with her counterpart (a knight, a couple of rungs down the ladder from real Imperial leadership on the ground) here on Feri is NOT going to go well unless she's arriving with some answers. Tracking the customers of the arms dealers was part of that answer. The locals aren't her direct superiors, but they do outrank her significantly.

This also explains the use of a Yacht rather than a fast-mover (Type S, or converted Safari Ship). She's not in a hurry because she'd rather not be here in the first place.

She's going to be looking for as much info as possible before her meeting with the Feri nobles. This means talking with the ANNIC NOVA personnel who were affected by the incident. (Which may end up with her discovering that the Feri "official version" of events is false... that gets interesting too, especially since the Windsor government is separate from the Imperial authorities.)

Kind of rambling here, and most of this is going to happen off-stage anyhow.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Offstage commentary:
And all this out of a random starship encounter...
- It's a yacht and its Ship's Boat.
- Who uses a lowly Type Y Yacht anyhow?
- Ok, Soc 11 or so. Who is that, and since they're inbound, where did they come from?
... and so on.

This provides:
- Interaction with the outbound pinnace (Roland and Kurt)
- Follow-up interaction with Chief Doen (who talked the captain of the Princess P into providing timely and mostly-complete info to Feri)
- Follow-up interaction on-world with Jon and Captain Puch.
- Passengers and cargo (the 30Td ship's boat at Cr1000/Td)
- Contacts and possible allies (Dame Irshinri, maybe some of the Feri nobles once they find that the Windsor government has been lying to them about the facts on the ground)
- Possibly an audience with some of Feri's Imperial Nobility to repeat what we tell Dame Irshinri.
- Possibly a function-test of how the ANNIC NOVA handles with a small craft pushing from the cargo-bay nose-dock and both pinnaces available for attitude control and a little thrust too.
- Eventually, an unhappy contact (the crew of the Princess P, who won't be entirely pleased that we're helping track them down even though they really were just patsies in the scheme).

 

[Grav_Moped]

Story:
Hour 10

090-1106 Imperial
1640 Shipboard time
Feri/Regina
Feri Downport, Berth 17 South
Onboard the parked ANNIC NOVA I

I answer the phone -- it's Coordinator Preston, and the "encrypted" icon shows. Too early to be working the prisoner transfer...
He's not happy, but I kind of expect that. "Scout Puch, I've got an inbound Imperial Knight demanding to see the flight data recorder from that air/raft you got shot up this afternoon. What did you tell her?"

Oh, it's that. "I didn't tell her anything. I just told Scout Smithe, Mr. Thompson, and Chief Doen to give her the the truth about what happened and their talks with the Princess P."

"Not the official story?"

"Well, that too."

He sighs. "I'd hoped we could keep this whole thing under wraps. Sir Gaaradelii at Starport Administration isn't going to take this well, even though it wasn't technically illegal. And if he brings it up to the locals, you're not going to be welcome outside the extrality zone."

"Hold on a minute. The Nobles should know this already -- what do we have to do with it?"

"They should know. They don't -- there's a lot they don't know. It's easier that way, most of the time."

This, I think, is how that war keeps going. "That's pretty messed up, Coordinator."

He responds, a little wearily, "Yeah, Tome, it is." Weariness gives way to worry as he continues. "But if they get too involved, they'll call on Regina for help and then the Navy and Marines will come down on this planet like the fist of an angry god, with six hundred million Ferians caught in the crossfire. That'd be pretty messed up too, wouldn't it?"

"I don't envy you. Not one bit."

"I wish we had good options here, but there aren't any."

"So do I."

"Oh, just a heads-up. If they start looking into things, that deferred Detached Duty recall stunt might not hold them off -- you might be on the hook for the other fifteen kilocredits."

"Frack. Well, we've got some spec cargo from Efate that we'd hoped to take to Roup. We could dump that here at a loss and maybe cover it, if it comes to that. Let me know."

"It might not come to that. I'll keep you posted. We'll have the prisoner ready for you whenever you lift off."

"Thanks. And sorry for the extra trouble."

"Comes with the job. We'll talk later."

Commentary:
All of that outlining and background, and I just blew through most of it by having it happen offstage.

Dame Irshinri won't make planetfall for another 45 minutes. She'll want to talk with us before she meets with Sir Gaaradelii.

 

[Spinward Scout]

_____

Story
_____

A Day in the Life of some Travellers

Hour 10

090-1106 Imperial
1645 Shipboard time
Feri/Regina
Windsor
Downport
Berth 17 South

"This is Scout Security Officer Denius. We'd like to come over to make preparations for the Prisoner transfer. At most, we'd be removing the door to the stateroom" said the voice on the Comm.

"Bring what you need. I don't have extra tools here," Smithe said. The line closed.

"I guess we're going to have some company, Buddy," he said to the 'bot next to him.

_____

Commentary
_____

Check your messages on your profile.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Commentary:
Messages checked and replied to on profile. (Probably should figure out how to do private messages on here, but that can wait.)

The cage should be unnecessary, as the prisoner is to be transported in a medical coma (dosed with Medical Fast Drug, on a stretcher), as noted in my post #77 and explained in the middle of post #75.

I'm trying to come up with a "yes, and...." set of actions here instead of a "no" or even a "no, but..." response.

The "yes, and..." sequence of events is that the workers didn't get the memo. They show up with a work order to install the cage in a stateroom in the starship. Except this isn't a starship, and doesn't have any staterooms (the passenger pinnace just got to the ship). Hey, no problem, take 'em up to orbit to where the ship is and they'll do it there -- except the ANNIC NOVA isn't in orbit, it's more than two hours out on a very fast boat. At which point this all comes to a screeching halt as they call their dispatcher for further instructions.

We need to get them out of the pinnace by the time Dame Irshinri lands, because she wants to talk to us specifically. Our crew's candid responses do not line up with the report she got from the knight in charge of starport operations... (He was lied to, but until her ship's engineer reviews the air/raft's flight data recorder readout she doesn't know this -- might suspect, but doesn't know.)

I'm extremely tired at this late hour; I'll write this as narrative in the morning.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Story:
Hour 10

090-1106 Imperial
1650 Shipboard time
Feri/Regina
Feri Downport, Berth 17 South
Onboard the parked ANNIC NOVA I

I open the door from the flight deck. Jon and his bot have a couple of the folding seats set up, and are relaxing. (I'm kind of surprised that a robot can relax, or at least look relaxed.)

"Jon, I think we're going to have some trouble. Just got got off the comms with Roland, Kurt, and Zaz. They're pretty sure the Dame doesn't believe us. On the other hand, she did ask for the air/raft's flight data recorder information, so she's at least willing to check -- I guess we'll find out."
"Also, Zaz got the impression she was a little off balance, but was trying to hide it. Said it was bit of insecurity he didn't expect to see from an Imperial Knight on a mission, but couldn't pin down why. Might give us an opening if she's somehow not convinced we were straight with her. In any case, we probably ought to stay put until she gets here, since her assistant said she'd want to interview us in person."

 

[Spinward Scout]

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Commentary
_____

This is where I get stuck in Play-by-Post. I'm not sure where to go from here without possibly disrupting something you have planned out.

_____

The way I see it, we have to do the following:

Get the Provisions from StarshipMart Grocery delivery
- there's always something missing
- it's bad luck if nothing is missing

Dame Irshinri interviews us
- possible delays
- possible headaches

Prisoner arrives with Security Scouts
- and we discuss what's going to happen

Other Passengers?
Any last-minute Cargo we can strap in?
Arcturian Poon-tang? (got to stick at least 1 ALIENS reference in here)

PREPARE FOR LIFTOFF

Secure the ship
Pre-flight checklist
Starport Robots Clear Moorings
Clearance from Feri Starport and Airspace Control (COAAC?)

Liftoff at 4am gives us 2 hours to get back to the ship
- we should probably Liftoff at least an hour earlier at 3am
- Pilot and Astrogation plot to ANNIC NOVA at the Jump Point
- Buddy can recharge from the pinnace power plant on the way back
- any fun adventures on the way to the ANNIC NOVA?

 

[Grav_Moped]

_____

Commentary
_____

This is where I get stuck in Play-by-Post. I'm not sure where to go from here without possibly disrupting something you have planned out.

_____

The way I see it, we have to do the following:

Get the Provisions from StarshipMart Grocery delivery
- there's always something missing
- it's bad luck if nothing is missing

Dame Irshinri interviews us
- possible delays
- possible headaches

Prisoner arrives with Security Scouts
- and we discuss what's going to happen

Other Passengers?
Any last-minute Cargo we can strap in?
Arcturian Poon-tang? (got to stick at least 1 ALIENS reference in here)

PREPARE FOR LIFTOFF

Secure the ship
Pre-flight checklist
Starport Robots Clear Moorings
Clearance from Feri Starport and Airspace Control (COAAC?)

Liftoff at 4am gives us 2 hours to get back to the ship
- we should probably Liftoff at least an hour earlier at 3am
- Pilot and Astrogation plot to ANNIC NOVA at the Jump Point
- Buddy can recharge from the pinnace power plant on the way back
- any fun adventures on the way to the ANNIC NOVA?

Commentary:
The only things I've got planned are:
1745-1845: Interview (I kind of want your take on what happened. I have one input as a prompt, but the rest is open. Will probably elide Puch's story so you can tell it.)
1930-2030: (Offstage) Dame I meets with the Nobles. It'll be awkward for everyone (they won't like dealing with the locals having lied to them).
2100: Dame I calls and requests passage to Roup along with a few retainers, and transport for her Ship's Boat. She's nominally tracking the Princess P, but really she just wants out of here. (Yacht goes back to Boughene.) The ship's life support can cover the added load and there's space, but the passengers will likely sleep aboard the Ship's Boat. Scout base medical staff can adminster the accelerated-immunity vaccination protocol so we can skip that.

Her eventual destination is likely Regina. We could go that way (and make the necessary Jump-3) if necessary. But that's outside the scope of this scenario.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Commentary:
Post moved to follow yours.

It's nice to have a few minutes for an edit window again!

 

[Spinward Scout]

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Story
_____

A Day in the Life of some Travellers

Hour 11

090-1106 Imperial
1715 Shipboard time
Feri/Regina
Windsor
Downport
Berth 17 South

Smithe's Comm rings. He answers it with "'ello?"

"This is your StarshipMart Grocery delivery. We are outside your ship. Where would you like your groceries?" said a mechanized voice.

"Ok, we'll be right there." and clicked off the Comm.

"Alright Buddy, let's get the Groceries loaded," and when he opened the hatch, there were 7 robots holding boxes, and another with a baseball cap on and holding a clipboard.

_____

Commentary
_____

We can delay the interview for a few posts, if you want. What questions did you want asked/answered. Honestly, I don't remember what they are interviewing us about.

I have to figure out how to jury rig securing this stuff in a passenger boat. I figure I can fold down some seats. I assume some of it went with the cargo ship. But with each 'bot holding one, it should go fast once I figure what to do. I really don't know how much it'll take.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Commentary
_____

We can delay the interview for a few posts, if you want. What questions did you want asked/answered. Honestly, I don't remember what they are interviewing us about.

I have to figure out how to jury rig securing this stuff in a passenger boat. I figure I can fold down some seats. I assume some of it went with the cargo ship. But with each 'bot holding one, it should go fast once I figure what to do. I really don't know how much it'll take.

Commentary:
Looks like we crossed posts. Oops. Ok, deleted and reposted at the end of this one so it's fixed now.

Nova I is the cargo pinnace. It has 20Td of cargo space, of which 8Td can either be 16 fold-away seats or 8Td of cargo. There's more than enough room.

You're looking at groceries for 9 persons (as far as we know right now) for a week, plus life-support expendables (less of those than you might expect, since the ship has hydroponics and carniculture tanks).

But hurry, Dame Irshinri's driver will be here in just a few minutes!

You can probably just slide everything off the grav-lifter into the cargo bay and tie it down when we get back.
There are tiedown points and cargo nets. Look at interior images of military transport planes (C130, C17) for ideas.

(We sent the passenger pinnace back with Kurt so he could get a nap on the way back to the ship, back in Post #62.)

BIG FREAKIN' EDIT TO GET THIS IN SEQUENCE:

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary:
I've skipped ahead of the workmen showing up at the pinnace. If you want to write that, you're quite welcome to do so. It could be quite amusing

Story

Hour 11

090-1106 Imperial
1745 Shipboard time
Feri/Regina
Feri Downport, Berth 12 West
At the parked Ship's Boat Skipping Stone

"Madame, our guests are here," says the driver into his comms as the air/raft pulls alongside the shuttle. A parking bay opens, and we glide in. There's room for two of these flying cars in here, with some to spare. That was half of our cargo boat's payload, here just set aside to park grav cars! On the short trip over, he'd seemed a lot less confrontational than we'd expected from our previous contacts.

It's probably a ploy of some sort, but I hold out hope that it's more than that.

"Good. Show them forward to the lounge," says the Dame through the comms. Dignified, but not pompous. The driver exits the car and steps over to the inner personnel door, remotely closing the outer bay door and spinning open the inner one. He steps through, and beckons us to follow. "This way, please." There's a short corridor with doors that apparently hide staterooms, leading into a small common area.

Dame Irshinri is seated at a fold-out desk, and places a datapad on it as we enter. She's flanked by two men clad in personal armor and military bearing; they're armed but not tense.

"Gentlemen, this is Dame Lishbii Irshinri of The Honorable Order of the Emperor's Guard, Knight of Boughene," announces the chauffeur with well-practiced formality. She stands, statuesque and impeccably dressed. Her formal suit is crossed by a sash bearing the apple emblem of her Order and a swirling amber badge -- a styilized image of Boughene, perhaps? I'm not sure bowing is appropriate, but Scouts aren't big on social niceties anyhow so if it would have been, I expect she'll cope somehow. I merely nod, and Jon follows my lead. She doesn't seem offended, so we're probably ok so far.

He turns to us. "Madame, these are," he glances at his wrist, "Captain Tomos Puch of the starship ANNIC NOVA, and Scout Jon Smithe, also of the ANNIC NOVA."

"Pleased to make your acquaintance, Ma'am," I offer.

"And likewise," she replies. "First, let me say that my initial skepticism regarding your crew's tales of derring-do has been allayed by my engineer's review of the air/raft's flight data recorder. It appears to confirm your report, while contradicting what I was briefed by the local authorities. Incidentally, Shavonne would like to commend whoever was driving; she said that trick of flopping over to the already-damaged side just before impact, triggering the collision-avoidance jets to break the fall, was an inspired maneuver."

I sighed with relief, as did Jon. Preston didn't sell us out, and it looks like we're not in trouble -- at least with her.

"Please, please, gentlemen, have a seat -- I'd like to hear your experiences from earlier today. Let's start with you, Scout Smithe. You were in the grav taxi that was shot down?" She turns to the chauffeur, "James, would you see if these fellows would like a drink?"

Commentary:
The "collision-avoidance jets" thing was the input prompt I wanted to insert.
@ Spinward Scout: Remember, it was your character's air/raft for a while so he was quite familiar with it (take a couple of skill levels of air/raft, ok? )

Reference:
Honorable Order of the Emperor's Guard (TravWiki). It seemed the best fit for her.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Commentary:
Deleted earlier post, shifted content into later post, putting this post here as a flag so this all gets noticed. (Scroll back a post or two).

Ok, interview deets:

Official story (false, and the Knight now knows it's false):
- Terrorists (now they're off-world terrorists, from Boughene!) shot down Jon's taxi and two ambulances, then blew up a building.
- Special forces rescued Jon and Kurt from the random residence in which they were held hostage by terrorists.

Real story:
- Terrorists (who were domestic accelerationists staging a false-flag attack) shot down the taxi, an ambulance, and at least one police GCarrier. The building was destroyed by return-fire from another GCarrier.
- Jon and Kurt fled to a safe-house in Little Ismi after encountering a demonstration.
- (off-stage) Terrorists interrogated a local (beating the crap out of him) and found out where Jon and Kurt were hiding.
- Tomos and Roland arrive at downport, borrow the air/raft from Jon's Type S, head for safe-house.
- Terrorists find safe-house, kill policeman who accidentally stumbled into the situation, kill owner of safehouse, start searching for Jon and Kurt.
- Tomos and Roland arrive at safe-house, (illegal-)guns blazing, kill one of the three surviving terrorists and drive the other two off temporarily.
- All 4 flee back to starport, pursued by the 2 surviving terrorists -- who are shooting at them.
- Police join pursuit, pull back when terrorists fire a missile at them. Terrorists shoot another at the PCs' air/raft but its ECM/countermeasures cause it to miss. Terrorists then close range and open fire with automatic weapons, damaging one of the grav modules.
- Roland returns fire with his submachine gun, which distracts their driver enough to cause an uncontrolled flight into terrain mishap (oops, building in the way. Thud.)
- Jon barely gets the air/raft across the starport perimeter fence before it falls out of the air.


Note the Windsor government's promotion of the terrorists from being foreign to being off-worlders. This was meant to get the Feri nobles to pressure Dame Irshinri to stop the arms trade on Boughene (which is mostly legal there, and a significant revenue source for them, so she wasn't inclined to do so). If she hadn't found out from the PCs that the terrorists were Windsor locals, instead of agents of an anti-Feri organization based on Boughene, it might have worked. . .

 

[Grav_Moped]

Commentary:
Shouldn't Roland and Kurt have reached the ANNIC NOVA by now? That's right, they arrived an hour and a half ago.

Story:

Hour 10 [Yes, it's out of sequence, but corrected Hour #]

090-1106 Imperial
1705 Sidereal Time
Starship ANNIC NOVA
at Jump Limit Distance from
Feri/Regina (Spinward Marches 2005)
B584879-B

Kurt left the elevator and walked up the gangway to the drives. Doc had let him know that the other two engineers were out cold, but the drives were good. Chief Doen would be up again to relieve him at 2030 -- Vargr didn't need much sleep, but when they needed it they really needed it. And Tenya hadn't gotten much sleep at all today, and she worked graveyard shift.

Plants. A whole corridor of them waited at the top of the gangway, under grow lights. It was a pleasant welcome when he came aboard through here half an hour ago, and still refreshing. Apparently the aliens who flew this thing before had planted thorny shrubs; the Scouts replaced them with a standard horticulture package when their decontamination process accidentally killed off the original foliage. Kurt wondered what they had looked like. At least the new plants didn't hurt when he pushed through them to the drive room. He still found it mind-boggling that there weren't any airtight doors between the hydroponics section and the drive bays. Captain Puch said that was on the list of things to fix eventually... just more weirdness. Kurt wondered if he'd ever get used to it.

He passed the massive accumulator banks on the way to the main engineering controls, sat down and logged in.

Pass-on Log
090-1106 Imperial
<scroll>
0945: Canopy retraction sequence initiated. J2 Accumulator 100% charge, J3 accumulator 97% charge. ZD
1015: Canopy retraction sequence failed at Step 5. Error 53172: "Arm 2 Hinge 3 Motor Underload". Accumulator malfunction. Error 14257: "Charge Status Not Available," also Error 12235: "Discharge disabled". ZD
1030: Recalling Engineer Cardosa for assistance. ZD
1115: Engineer Cardosa, during EVA, diagnosed canopy malfunction: broken pivot pin. Replicating pin with Maker Device. ZD
1235: Attempting Accumulator controller reset. ZD
1240: Controller reset failed self test, Step 5: "Input Continuity Fault" ZD
1245: Pivot pin replaced. Canopy retraction sequence re-initiated. ZD
1250: Canopy retraction sequence nominal. ZD
1305: Canopy retraction sequence complete. Mechanical downlocks verified engaged. TC
1310: Attempting Accumulator controller reset. ZD
1320: Controller reset failed self test, Step 17: "Excitation State Out Of Limits" ZD
1325: Re-calibrating accumulator excitation state sensor. ZD
1335: Attempting Accumulator controller reset. ZD
1350: Controller reset complete. ZD
1355: Anomaly: J3 accumulator reads 100% charged, was 97% charged before canopy retraction failure. ZD
1400: Anomaly resolved. "Excess charge" was accumulated while canopy incompletely retracted. ZD
1405: Releasing Engineer Cardosa. ZD

1500: All systems nominal. ZD

1600: All systems nominal. Jump field configuration must be reset when pinnace(s) return, as it is currently set for "no carried craft".
1600: Acting Captain Martin has been briefed. I have been released from shift. I will return to relieve you at 2030.

Welcome back to ANNIC NOVA, Engineer Jones.
-- Chief Engineer Zazuezdez Doen

1715: Engineer Jones on duty. All systems nominal. KCJ