Session 05: Period of Tyranny I
The Distress Call
The characters are between assignments when they receive an automated distress call from a nearby vessel. The Beatrix, a passenger liner travelling between Knossos and Triptolemus, has suffered an internal explosion and requires immediate assistance.
The signal carries sideband data on the ship, which a character with Decryption can access:
The Survivors
Jeff Porter: A corporate executive and investor in
his mid-sixties. Porter is used to the finer things in
life, and was shocked when his luxury cruise turned
into a death-trap. He will do anything to survive;
when the lasers arrived, he was busy looking for a
bludgeon and working out which of the other two
survivors was consuming the most oxygen. .
Deerd Larmon: She is a would-be singer in her
early twenties. She is Porter’s trophy girlfriend; he
found her singing in a bar in a spaceport and took
her away, promising to show her the core worlds.
She is poorly educated and unworldly, but isn’t stupid.
She realized that the kitchen area was probably
fireproofed and therefore airtight, and so saved
Jeff’s life by dragging him in here.
Hector Jinks: He is one of the ship’s waitstaff... or, as
he introduces himself, ‘acting captain Hector Jinks’.
Poor Hector is trying to take charge of the situation
and save the passengers, but he only joined the crew
a week ago and doesn’t even know his way around
the ship. He has a head injury and a mild concussion.
Pioneer
Monitoring transmissions from Pioneer turns up some troubling information. All the holovision channels are full of government propaganda. The characters get lots of variations on the following themes:
The ‘ongoing emergency’, caused by alien attack. As
a temporary security measure, certain civil rights and
privileges have been suspended, all to preserve our
FREEDOM!
The glorious leadership of President Caver, who has
singlehandedly brought Pioneer out of anarchy and
who is forging the pure new human empire based
on FREEDOM!
The perfidy of aliens (other than kch-thk). Aliens are
not like us; they were responsible for the attack, and
continue to sabotage and hate the good people of
Pioneer. Never trust an alien!
Kch-thk are popular on Pioneer. Back during the
McMillenist period, the kch-thk were strong allies
of humanity. This strongly suggests that the government is consciously replicating McMillenism.
The equal perfidy of ‘xenosymps’, ‘alien-lovers’, ‘seditionists’, ‘imperialists’ and ‘Combine traitors’ who
work with aliens to bring down the glorious regine
of President Caver.
Stay calm. Work hard. Serve President Caver. For FREEDOM!
Support FREEDOM! Report on your neighbors, friends and family.
She has a crew of 12 and was carrying 80 passengers.
The ship’s bridge and translight drive are both
destroyed.
She is venting atmosphere, and the hull is breaking
up. The Beatrix can’t last much longer.
The sideband data also includes what lasers call an SVC, a ‘Standard Vengeance Clause’. This is a bond placed by the ship owners in a special account. If the ship is attacked, this bond is paid to any organisation or individual who successfully brings the attackers to justice. SVCs are a controversial way of dissuading piracy, as they encourage vigilantism.
The bond will be paid if the characters determine what happened to the Beatrix and arrest those responsible. The bond is worth a standard payment for the laser crew.
Sundancer's Notes:
Let's see... There's at least two different summits about the Bleed going on. One of them is attended by a delegate that shares looks and identity with the ship's (alledged) saboteur (who used a Star Dagger) but seems to have not been anywhere near it.
We've got a "Blue Lady" in the slums/alien sector who has contact with arms dealers and, IIRC, we learned she is involved in some sort of alien resistance.
On the way there, we rescued a girl (balla?) who was getting beat up in an alleyway. Oh, and we learned that half-ton, disrupter-armed Tavak gangsters are like way, WAY more fragile than jungle spiders, and go down quicker than a sex-cultist on Andarta. :-P
That's plot points I remember, though I feel I'm forgetting at least one potential clue path somewhere.
Laser's Log:
- The pro-Combinists are meeting on Ossa One. The Beatrix was full of bigwigs in the Combinist movement.
- You found a secret Bleedist conclave on Pioneer, the same planet that the escape pod went to.
- You forged credentials for yourselves to the Bleedist conclave after you tailed someone to the hotel where the conventioneers are staying. You are delegates from NuVegas, according to your credentials.
- At the hotel you tracked down Willa Lewis, the suspected terrorist.
- She looks (and eats), nothing like the person who used her name on the Beatrix.
- Willa argues from a pacifist position, saying that the Bleed should secede from the Combine in a peaceful manner.
- She wants a united Bleed that allows worlds to go their own way in terms of local culture.
- She landed on Pioneer days before the Beatrix was destroyed by a star dagger.
- In the Tharsis district, you tracked down Sister Pelao, the Blue Lady.
- She is a Restreamer, and believes this is the wrong timeline, and it's time to reboot reality. She's more the direct action type of Restreamer.
- She told you about a weapons dealer who might know about star daggers. In return she wants you to buy weapons for her resistance efforts.
- His name is Greyval and he works out of a restaurant in the Ceres district, The Hanging Gardens. Ask for the 'special menu' to see weapons for sale. To talk to Greyval, ask to speak to the chef. Don't forget to ask for the Blue Lady's weapons.
- She also gave you a Restreamer contact at the Bleedist conclave: Dwain Stenger. He's the diplomatic type of Restreamer. He can afford to be, he doesn't live of Pioneer.
- Ovy is the Balla you rescued. She got caught on Pioneer when Caver took over, and hasn't been able to afford to get off world. You promised her transit off, and are thinking about making her a crew member. She was a gunner for the Combine fleet in the war.