[Silhouette/Traveller-SOLOplay] The "Idle Threat" Logs

[Kilgs]

Cont.

Down on the planet, the past two days have been busy, Loras and Alessio manage to convince the assistant admin to meet them after work for possible assistance. They meet her in a busy nightclub at the starport. Her name is Mirabelle Lakely. After some drinks, she indicates that it may be possible to get access to her superior’s compad which would show any transactions or communications regarding their ‘delay’. She’s hoping that it will also give her some dirt on her boss. They put their heads together and come up with a Plan.

The senior administrator lives in the nearby city and commutes home daily. He locks up his office and usually leaves his compad there. Mirabelle can get them into the building and provide temporary ID’s that should hold up as janitorial staff. They can crack the lock on his office and hack out the compad. If successful, she notes that she gets a copy of its contents. They agree to meet after-hours the next evening.

Wearing custodial uniforms and a hidden hand computer, Alessio and Loras get let in the back door of the starport administration building by Lakely. She manages to manufacture a small crisis which gets the few employees on their level to attend a meeting while Loras and Alessio head for the office. Getting in is easy but the compad’s security gives Loras problems. After an hour, Mirabelle comms them and indicates the distraction is wearing thin. Loras asks for more time and she says she’ll try. As the minutes tick down, the compad finally is cracked and downloaded. They both step out of the office in time to see employees returning to their desk. Other than a few odd looks, the two of them make their way out the back and set up a meet with Mirabelle for later that night where they hand off a copy of the compad’s contents.

It’s a Solid, Safe plan. With Mirabelle running interference and the props she provides, they should have a decent run of it. It will mainly come down to breaking/entering and hacking out the compad’s memory. Loras has both Security and Computer, although at -1, but he also has a personal computer with an Intrusion program. So that gives them a +1, for a total difficulty of 7+. They roll a 12! Unfortunately, they rolled a Bad Consequence… with a +2 for a successful Plan. The task takes 4x longer than planned… Not too bad since there was a huge window before the administrator arrived in the morning.

Dana and Kaska find a couple casinos at the nearest city and decide to head in for a look. They purchase weapon permits and visitor passes to the city, are apprised of local regulations, and head out. They both decide to front the credits on their own since the Captain and the ‘Threat had taken quite a beating. After all, if this bounty pays off, they’re in better shape anyways! A shuttle bus takes them to the city which is about a half-hour distant. They spend the night working the casinos and making inquiries about their Target as discreetly as possible. Dana manages to find a talkative bartender who indicates that he may have seen the Target there a week or so ago. For a few credits, he coughs up that the Target was talking on a comm with a local travel agency. They also pick up the alias that he was using. Armed with the name, they crash at a local hotel and head out in the morning for the travel agency.

Finding the travel agency is easy and Dana decides to case the joint. They decide that a night infiltration would be much easier than trying to persuade one of the employees to pull the records. Folks tend to get nervous about such requests. After making a few brief inquiries after window-shopping, Dana has seen enough and meets back with Kaska with a Plan.

That night, Dana slips up to the access door on the side and quickly cracks the security system and the locks. They both run in and Dana resets everything to make it look like a blip. It sure helps that the tech base on this planet is a bit lower so the security and computer system are a bit basic compared to their tools. Kaska manages to access the computer system and manages to get an itinerary for the Target and his ticket purchases off-world! While rummaging through the place as a matter of habit, Dana finds a series of blank temporary visas issued by the city government! They are used to give to tour participants by the agency. Each one indicates that the bearer is a resident of the city on Ir and traveling as a visitor. A little work-up and these could come in very handy!

Pretty straight-forward Infiltration. Travel agencies aren’t too airtight and Dana has good Security. In addition, she has a security kit and Computer skills. Lucky for both of them, Kaska is a bit of a computer nut also! He has decent skill but, even better, has a loading personal computer with Intrusion, Agent, and Decrypt. The place likely has an alarm so its definitely Dangerous but I think Solid works here. With a +1 for Dana’s skill and +1 for Kaska’s computer, they have a Difficulty of 6+. They roll a 10! They also roll Good Consequences and find a valuable piece of kit.

Both successes drop the Escape Margin to 2 again. In addition, the group now has 2 Clues. But I’m going to give the Target his Cunning roll and he makes it, knows he’s being tracked. He’s going to use his Mobility to Move Locations. That will give him an automatic -2 Escape Margin. He makes the roll and is moved to a new location. ‘Where’ exactly is not important just that the Target gets the Escape Margin bump. Unfortunately, he has no further Mobility points.

After six days in the system, the ‘Threat is finally ready to head out. Babs assures everyone that the part is going to work fine as they head out to the 100d limit. They know the Target is headed for Saga’s End/2209 via User-Friendly/2309. They decide to jump ahead to Saga’s End and see if they can capture him there.

Holding their breath, although they’d never admit it, the Jump drive is engaged and they’re off!

DESTINATION: Saga’s End/GD 2209
Target Escape Margin (Arrival/Departure): 3/4
Arrival Bankroll: 39,374cr
Received Payments
Freight:
Speculative Trading
1t of Titanium (Uncommon Raw Materials)(-13,000cr)
Other Credits/Debits
-Shuttle berthing at Downport
-2,200cr Downport/Highport berthing
-500 Bribes (assistant admin)
-100 bribes (bartender)
-4,000cr Jump Drive Component

079-086| Jumpspace
During the Jump, they decide to come up with a plan for actions upon arriving in Saga’s End. Vako wants a piece of the action but notes that he needs to sell the cargo or they would be broke. Sarasina and Babs are going to head out to the nearest gas giant for refueling since they need to save the money. This time everyone is headed to the Downport to find the Target and sell the cargo.

 

[Kilgs]

086-0XX| 993//SAGA’S END—GLIMMERDRIFT 2209
Suppressing a sigh of relief as they return to N-space, the crew heads into the orbital Highport at full speed. Heading into the inner system, they pass Seeker-class ship which maintains radio silence despite their hails.

They make landfall at the Downport without incident. The entire crew, feeling that they were close, decide to get a good night’s sleep before heading out in the morning. With standard gravity but a tainted atmosphere, they gear up in respirators and load weapons before heading out. Babs and Loras form one group on the hunt. Vako and Alessio head out to find a buyer for their cargo. The last three are also on the hunt.

Both hunting parties spend a Clue, since they have two, to trigger Action Scenes. As noted, an Action Scene will get them -2 Escape Margin each so they could end it here… and the Target missed his Cunning roll by 1, so there are two Scenes available. A Capture Scene is automatic at 0 Escape Margin so is not counted, if they get there.
-Babs and Loras roll “Destroy proof or information necessary for Target’s plan. On a Failure, face a Fight.”
-The other three roll “Plunder resources necessary for Target’s plan, either make a +1 Plan Difficulty roll or face a Fight. 3 Rabble and 1 Veteran.

Babs and Loras spend some time nosing around the Downport and learn that someone matching their Target’s description was trying to get in touch with a ‘cobbler’ named Moses. Apparently, Moses, a she, was known for making fake idents and visas. Given their Target’s willingness to run long and far, they figured that Moses may be part of the next stage of his disappearing act. They swung by the launch after picking up enough information and inform the Captain. After a quick discussion, the Captain sends Alessio with them and they agree to check in as soon as they’ve made their move or gone bust.

They quickly discover that the cold desert planet has a number of protected cities; all of them encased somehow. The weapon laws vary from city to city but it is clear that they are going to have some trouble openly carrying items. Dressed in low-key protec, the three of them decide to leave nearly all their weapons on the vessel except Loras’ flechette gun. They cash in a few thousand credits at the local exchanger for local scrip and catch a flight to Terna, the city where Moses is believed to be in business.

The other three do their own digging through the bars and clubs of the starport. A check-in with the Captain reveals that the Target may be looking to get off-world so they know that space travel of some type is going to be involved. Dana decides to play front and goes out looking for individuals involved in moving fugitives. Considering it is something that the ‘Threat crew has thought about, she considers it to be educational as well. After a few hours, she manages to stumble on the names of a subsidized liner that often takes special deliveries of cargo. These boxed units are quite large and come with their own integral energy system. Spreading a few hundred credits around, she gets a hit that the boxed units come from a warehouse in the same city, Terna, as their companions just headed off to. They decide to check it out and follow the other team’s lead with leaving most of their weapons behind. Most of them.

They make brief contact via comm with the other team and agree to share information when possible. But, for the most part, the operations run separately.

Back at the ‘Threat, Vako unpacks his old software and printing equipment and starts working on the visa blanks that they have from the travel agency.

CRE/Forgery, success! Now the Target has papers…

.

Upon arrival in Terna, they find their precautions slightly overkill as there is minimal security at the common entrance. The flyer is short-range so it does not touch down at the airport. They do notice that security heading back to the starport is a bit more thorough.

Babs, Loras and Alessio head out in search of this Moses. Their inquiries get them to a retail district that specializes in boutiques and antiquities. With the majority of shops closed for the day, they zero in on the store that functions as the front for Mose’s shop. Loras scouts the place out and discovers a single guard near the back of the business. The door seems secure but the guard is inattentive. They meet back up and decide on a plan. It seems that the place is open for business in the wee hours and there is no time like the present. They quickly come up with a Plan.

Plan is to get access to Moses, explain that they are on behalf of the Target and to get a hold of his new identity. They’re betting that he had to pay up-front. It’s a fairly Shaky Plan and we know that a Fight breaks out if they fail. So we’ll just roll and see what happens. Loras has a good Deception and his Investigate skill has given him a decent background on the Target, so the difficulty is 9+. Oops. I’ll just figure out opposition right now… 4 Rabble and 1 Veteran. Great.

 

[Kilgs]

Loras and Babs make for the back door while Alessio stakes the place out with his comms ready. Babs has secreted Loras’ stealth blade and the ex-agent had his flechette pistol tucked into his back waistband. The guard is suspicious but they manage to get past him with a few carefully chosen words implying they have business. In the back, they’re ushered into an open workshop where Moses, a young bespectacled woman, requests their business. Behind them, the guard steps back outside as there are two others in the workshop with Moses and the visitors. Loras goes for broke and tries to bluff his way past Moses’ defensive instincts. She remains suspicious and finally tells one of her crew to empty their pockets to see if they’re telling the truth! There’s no turning back now…

As one of the goons moves to frisk her, Babs whips the stealth blade out and slashes at him. The blade catches him across the neck and sends blood spraying. The guard drops to the ground and starts grasping at his throat to stem the gushing. The guard nearest Moses, who looked the most threatening, steps in front of Moses and draws his gun. He fires a snapshot at Loras who managed to sidestep it while drawing his own sidearm. The flechette pistol was silent as it coughed out its steel darts but they merely peppered the wall behind the bodyguard.

Combat Sense rolls for Init. Order as Babs, Veteran, Loras, Rabble1, Moses. All of them are in the room. Babs takes a -1 for two actions-drawing and cutting. She hits with a MoS of x3. Her Armed Damage is 7+7(dagger) for 14. With a x3 Multiplier, that’s 42 damage! The Rabble1 has Jack Armor and STA of 25. He suffers a Flesh Wound at 12(+5), Deep at 25 (+5) and is Dead at 50(+5). So Babs inflicts a Deep Wound! Even worse, he has to make a Consciousness roll at -2 and Fumbles! The Veteran takes a shot at Loras. He rolls a 6! Loras has to roll Defense in a major way. Loras buys an Emergency Dice with an XP as his Defense is only 1 dice. He rolls a 6! A tie goes to the defender! That was pretty darn lucky… Loras draws his flechette pistol and shoots the Veteran back. The Veteran beats Loras’ attack roll. And the rest is summed up below…

Moses turned and bolted for the interior door. Moses got her hand on the handle when Babs launched herself over the counter. Loras fired twice at the bodyguard but both shots went wide. The bodyguard was still in the way when Babs came through and he took the brunt of her attack. He tried to block the knife with arm but she managed to get past his defense. Unfortunately, his under-armor took the brunt of the blow. He returned the favor by kneeing her in the abdomen. She blocked most of it but grunted regardless. Moses got hung up at the door as another henchman came pushing through with a silenced SMG. She navigated around him but they got hung up for a crucial few seconds.

The harsh gun reports were audible outside and the guard outside started moving towards the door. Alessio dropped out of his hiding spot to follow him in but the guard detected him and turned around while reaching for his own sidearm. Alessio rushed him and slammed him into the side of the building to the sound of breaking bones. The guard coughed and recovered enough to swing at him clumsily. It was enough to chuff Alessio on the chin but did little else. They parted for a moment and then waded into each other!

Inside things were rapidly getting out of hand. Moses and her back-up danced around each for a moment and then she was gone through the door. The new guy leveled his SMG at Loras and fired a quick burst which ripped objects off the counter but nothing else. Loras fires twice at him in return. A burst of blood from his shoulder signaled a hit. Babs and the bodyguard traded blows and stabs with the occasional grunt. Another round of silent gunfire arced across the room and the back-up guy dropped to the ground as another flurry of flechettes found his flesh. As that firefight took place, Babs had dropped the knife and tried to strip her opponents gun from his hand. He responded with firing two rounds at point-blank range but both rounds went into the ceiling. Then his gun went flying from a chop to his wrist and they knuckled up to each other! A devastating series of blows were exchanged between them as Loras wondered what to do. His choice was made for him when the bodyguard delivered a combo that dropped Babs to the ground unconscious. He fired three times as the bodyguard came at him and scored two hits!

The bodyguard heaved towards him and Loras leveled the gun at him and told him to stop! The bodyguard stepped back, bleeding, and raised his hands. Loras assured him that they would not kill him. After getting him splayed out, a knocking on the door came and Loras let in a thoroughly blooded Alessio. The ex-grunt dragged his opponent into the room. Alessio quickly checked on Babs and indicated that he lacked the ability to bind her up here. It would be best to get her out of here and resting. None of her injuries looked too serious.

 

[Kilgs]

They secured the prisoners with cargo tape and ransacked the place looking for the Target’s documents. Loras found them secreted in a folder near the workstation. Moses must have been working on them when they arrived! With that, they decided to hightail it out of there. They picked up Babs and figured they did not have long until law enforcement was en route. They ducked into an alley just as sirens began to sound nearby. Hurrying for another few blocks, Loras indicated that his previous recon had a sleazy hotel nearby. Loras made for it and secured a room for several days with cash. He quickly deactivated the back camera and let Alessio in where they secured themselves in the room.

Mission success but they picked up some serious Heat! Luckily Babs is not too hurt, she really rolled low to fail her consciousness roll. On the positive side, Moses is now an Enemy but she isn’t likely to want the cops investigating inside her shop! So the police presence is likely to fade quickly. I rolled basic Luck to see if she left the documents there… Escape Margin drops to 2 as it was an Action Scene worth 2 pts

That same night, on the other side of town, Dana, Kaska and Sarasina scoped out the shuttle company that would be transporting the cargo out to the outer system. They had good intel that the shuttle company was transporting their Target in the next few days. By breaking into the offices, they had hopes of getting the shuttle manifests and being able to intercept the shuttle en route to its rendezvous with the smuggler. After casing the place, Dana deactivated the security system and snuck her and Kaska into the office. He cracked the terminal and downloaded the flight plans for the next month. They managed to get out of there, to their thinking without a hitch, but things would turn out otherwise.

Plan is to infiltrate the shuttle company and steal their manifest their next couple days. Random roll to see if the whole company is corrupt or just the employees and it turns out the whole company is corrupt. That’s going to make security tough and raise it to Dangerous. Dana has good Security and Kaska has his computer so that’s a +2. But it’s at -1 due to the Action Scene parameters. They succeed but suffer Bad Consequences. They roll and determine that they seriously antagonize an NPC or will… but that goes without saying.
-A security camera nearby catches them snooping around and the Shipping Company will get their hands on it and visual ID the team members in the near future.

It took Babs a few hours to wake up and Alessio supplied some booze stains to all of their clothes while they stumbled back to the airport in the early morning hours. Loras had dumped the knife and flechette pistol to avoid any undue notice getting through security. They passed muster and flew out to the starport.

Once there, Alessio grabbed his medikit and ushered Babs into the medbay for a touch-up on her wounds. The bodyguard knew how to hit so he ended up patch-taping ribs into place and cleaning her cuts. They filled the Captain in on the results of their escapades and he decided that it might be a good time to head out. He had found a buyer and was scheduled to complete the transaction for the titanium that day.

 

[Kilgs]

My apologies for not posting further. My PbP Glimmerdrift campaign kicked off a while ago and I had designed much of the plots for that campaign while working on this Solo project. So to avoid spoiling any adventures, this baby is going on hiatus.

I am still tweaking the bounty hunter mechanics. Payment needs to go up (Clement Sector book has more realistic numbers than I did) and I need to simplify it a bit. Add some random tables to it as well.

I've also reworked chargen about 10 times in the past four months. I've come up with some cool ones but the MegaTrav hack is still the most stable mechanic. Kinda odd really.

On a different note, I'm going to go SOLO exploring some campaign mechanics ideas that have been on my "list" for a few years so look for that. It's a Traveller sector but not OTU so doesn't fit in the new homebrew mechanics thread.

So it will likely be coming here...