Play date: March 18, 2017
In-game date: April 5, EY219
Location: The garden world of Heasik-nim, innermost planet in the Aiscapo system
Previous events: Taking another job for the Black Rose
Mi Hi tries to get the crew to stay the night but they pass on the offer, saying that they're in a hurry to make some money. In reality they'd like to see what's going on with Juche's population as soon as possible, but the financial excuse works. After a final attempt to lure them into staying with the best drugs in the system, grown by Mi Hi's people in a nearby valley, fails she sighs and while her people load the produce she gives them the rundown on how the exchange works.
Everything is made more complicated by Juche's insistence on maintaining the fiction that it's completely independent. The Steel Hummingbird will have to go to a particular location in space and be there at a particular time. Sid the Fish has already contacted Juche and one of their ships will be there, at which point the Hummingbird should identify herself as "a wayward traveller in need of assistance". The naval ship will try to board them, which they should not let happen, insists Mi Hi, as they're corrupt and will take a good part of the cargo. The code phrase should get the Hummingbird directed to Keun, the larger and more distant of Juche's two moons. Without the phrase they'd be sent to the official civilian moon base on Jageun, where they'd be horribly ripped off with their deal.
When they land on Keun at the civilian base ("Songun2") that's right next to the military base (Songun). Trying to impress the navy with a bunch of handheld firepower isn't a great idea, so they should keep it a bit cool. "Evil" Mi Hi will negotiate with them and oversee the exchange. Mi Hi (who describes herself as "Good Mi Hi") tells them not to get too distracted by "Evil" Mi Hi's tits, giving Bishop a bit of a glare as she says this. Once the produce is off the ship it will be replaced with metal ingots -- Juche has its own currency called the won, which is useless anywhere else in the universe. The Hummingbird is then to fly the metal to Ungnyeo's moon of Oedari, where the Black Rose will pay them 1500 Bleahs for their troubles. Jillian does the calculations in her head and works out that it should be just over 4AU total flying distance until they drop off the metal.
Mi Hi gives a last word of warning, that some of the pirates have been getting uppity lately and a few ships on this run have been disappearing. The gate to Crapworld isn't working at the moment, so the pirates might be less selective than usual. If they run into pirate trouble the Hummingbird should drop Geomi's name and they should back off: the pirates and the Black Rose have a fairly cordial relationship but it's clear who's on top.
With all those instructions in their heads the Steel Hummingibrd's crew climb back aboard their ship and take off for Juche. It should take a little under a day to get to the rendezvous point.
April 6, EY219
They don't have to wait long at all at the waypoint before they're hailed by the Juche destroyer Inchon. At the code phrase the Inchon demands to board them but Jillian manages to stave them off with a bunch of bureaucratic bafflegab and they're directed to touch down at Landing Pad One on the moon of Keun. As the ships part both Jillian and Malcolm note that the Juche ships are distinctly run down. Part of clinging to the myth of self-sufficiency, they guess.
Bishop communicates with Chig on the Iof, asking the Grob to be ready to jump to the moon base (Jillian provides coordinates) if requested. Chig agrees: the Iof is in a war configuration and will leave Daebak's surface, fly up away from the orbital plane, and start the calculations for a jump.
Keun is a moonlet more than a moon, maybe 30 kilometres on a side and barely holding together under its feeble gravity -- the surface has deep fissures and it's more potato shaped than round. The military base has several anti-aircraft cannons scattered around it and a decent combat air patrol (Cap) -- Jillian and Malcolm make it to be one finger-four flight each of light and heavy fighters as well as another of gunships. The light fighters are of minimal danger to the well-armoured Hummingbird with someone like Malcolm at the stick but the gunships in particular are another matter -- Jillian's remaining eye twitches a bit as she remembers the last time they tangled with that sort of ship. In addition to the Cap there are several other larger ships in the general area, from smallish corvettes to a full-on cruiser. Juche also has two military space stations, but those are far down the gravity well.
The bases, both Songun and Songun2, are difficult to make out from the surface of the moon. Much of them is either underground or has been covered by lunar debris. Landing Pad One is small and unimpressive, open to space and with a large cargo airlock next to it. Only a few of the ground cannons are close enough to be dangerous here and the only sign of any ships on the ground are three nearby ships roughly the size of the Steel Hummingbird, covered with camouflaging tarps. The Cap could of course be by in a negligible amount of time.
Once they touch down the cargo airlock rolls up and several people in EVA suits begin pulling a shoddy-looking umbilical towards the Hummingbird. This doesn't fill anyone in the ship with a lot of faith in its structural integrity but it's soon clipped to the hull with magnets and ties to various attachment points and someone's knocking on the human-sized door. Peering out the small window Jillian notices that the people in the umbilical have naval suits but aren't dressed for vacuum. She tentatively opens the door and is greeted by Lieutenant Command Mi Hi Son, whose tailored uniform does indeed show off her aesthetically pleasing chest.
"Good" Mi Hi told them not to show up armed for bear, so they're not carrying much in the way of weaponry and have it all holstered. Azar has a pistol and knife, Bishop's typically unarmed, Jillian has a pistol, Malcolm naturally has his Blingmaster, and Volkova's got Khnuta. Ghost, Sheema, and Whang are all upstairs and keeping quiet.
Not trusting the umbilical, Malcolm's unspooled a length of cable from the Blingmaster and tied it to a nearby loop in the hold. Jillian doesn't trust the umbilical either and has Volkova go out to make sure it's ok. It is nominally safe, though there is a bit of whistling. Volkova shrugs; she's seen worse. They open the cargo door and Bishop starts to negotiate with Mi Hi while also checking out the status of everyone he comes close to. There are four guards with slung submachine guns, six grunts to unload the material on cargo carts, and a large scowling brute introduced as Lieutenant Sehun, who doesn't say a word but looks like trouble. They're all converted by the Song.
Bishop's a little distracted by reading the Song status of everyone here but since he doesn't really care about the deal they're getting for vegetable he lets himself be very distracted by Mi Hi's chest and gets totally ripped off. Like he cares. They're here for more important things.
Instead of loading up the ship with ingots and taking off right away he tells Mi Hi that they're interested in another job couriering anything that the military would like to have sent off to elsewhere in the system or beyond. They'd also like to stay on the station overnight and go on a tour of Juche's surface, or at least the capital of Ungjin, tomorrow. Mi Hi is surprised by this; it's obvious that they usually don't get these sorts of requests. She'll make the arrangements while they relax and spend the night in the hotel here.
When everyone returns to the Hummingbird and gets their toiletries and a fresh set of clothes for tomorrow Sheema and Whang are asked to stay on board, just in case, and to stay away from the windows. Who knows what will happen and it's good to have an ace in the hole.
It's not a far trip to where they're staying in the civilian end of the base, but with at best minimal training in getting around in microgravity it's a slow. awkward trip. It's obvious that this end of the base doesn't get much use. The "hotel" feels more like a low-end youth hostel or a military barracks. There are rough towels that have obviously been sitting in a closet for too long, rooms that are still in the process of being warmed up, food that's just come out of cans, and a hotelier who seems totally out of her depth despite the five guests being neither impatient nor needy. After a mediocre meal -- made worse after experiencing Azar's cooking -- in a small dining room whose only decoration is a large framed photo of Rhee Ha-Neul, the man whose cult of personality has the planet under its sway, they retire to their three rooms, whose only decoration is a large framed photo of Rhee Ha-Neul, and sleep as well as they can in beds, held in place with straps so they don't drift off in the night.
April 7, EY219
After a mediocre night's sleep and a vaguely warmed-up breakfast they're informed by Mi Hi that she has arranged a tour guide for Ungjin, who will meet them when they land. There is an enforced exchange of Bleahs for won that is probably a total ripoff, especially as they won't be able to spend the currency anywhere else. They can't bring their weapons, so they return to the Hummingbird to drop them off. In reality Malcolm naturally keeps his Blingmaster -- imagine him leaving it behind! -- and Azar tucks a holdout pistol in her clothing. They've been informed that it's autumn down on Juche, so they can wear some bulkier clothing to hide their weapons. Sheema and Whang are kept up to date with their expected return time. Then it's a drifting through the tunnels to Landing Pad Two and a walk through another ominously whistling umbilical to a fairly ramshackle shuttle that has three naval goons in it, who pretty much refuse to acknowledge the crew. Everyone assumes without a word that they'll be part of the "escort". They're Songed, as are the pilot and co-pilot.
Juche shuttles seem to be built with a fairly minimal amount of safety features and the turbulence-reduction measures aren't great. JIllian's stomach doesn't deal well with the bumpy ride and although the shuttle doesn't have much in it there are airsickness bags, which she (and everyone else) is grateful for.
Looking out the window as they come in for a landing Ungjin doesn't look like much other than poured concrete, grey and lifeless. When the shuttle taxis to a stop they clamber down the steps into the vaguely sulphurous air to be met by their guide, Joo Dee. She's young, composed, and not corrupted by the Song. Strange. She leads them to a tour minibus driven by a small chain-smoking driver whose best conversation is the occasional grunt. He's also unaffected by the Song. Malcolm looks at the minibus with a sigh of regret over the loss of his own, left behind in the Leary's crew's secret base in Vishnu. The naval escorts get into the back of the bus in a way that indicates that they're not supposed to be acknowledged, and Joo Dee acts as if they're not there. Joo Dee is the only one who talks with them in the bus.
The tour is as nice as such a thing can be. There isn't much to see in the city and Joo Dee keeps up what's obviously a very practiced line of patter on a very unspontaneous route. The stop for lunch is in a restaurant that's much nicer than any of the others that they've seen during their drive. Bishop talks a bit with Joo Dee and finds that the people of Juche are similar to those on uBuntu in that they've managed to build up a society in a place that's hostile to human life and feel a sense of unity and pride out of this. Rhee Ha-Neul may be the "Best Leader" and twisted the unity of the people here but at its core the unity is heartfelt. Jillian feels that Joo Dee is honestly proud of what the people of Juche have managed to accomplish and not just brainwashed. She's not so sure about the driver, who has a small photo of Rhee Ha-Neul hanging from his rear-view mirror; every time he starts the engine he kisses his fingers and puts them to the photo for an instant.
Bishop suggests that they visit something a little more natural, so they can see more of the planet than just the city. Joo Dee suggests that they visit Lake Laogai once they have seen People's Square.
When they stop at the People's Square everyone takes advantage of getting off the bus to stretch their legs and spread out, so that the three navy guards and Joo Dee can't follow each of them -- the bus driver could have helped but he doesn't seem interested in leaving his bus or his cigarettes. The square has a smattering of people and more green plants than they've seen in the rest of the city put together. Dominating the square is a ten-metre tall bronze statue of Rhee Ha-Neul, the "Leading Leader" recognizable from the numerous photos, posters, and banners of him that they've been seeing all day. Bizarrely, Neul isn't even the official leader of the planet; Ji-Hun Cho is the governor but his image is nowhere to be seen. There are carts with flowers at the entrance to the square and everyone coming in has been buying a bouquet and leaving it at the feet of the statue. The party members spend some of their useless won on bouquets and do likewise, to Joo Dee's delight.
While wandering around Bishop and Volkova are reading the Songed state of the populace and are surprised to find that they can't find anyone who is under it's influence. Not Joo Dee or her driver, not the lunch restaurant staff, not the obvious plants presented as "average citizens" for them to talk to, not anyone in this square, not even the Juche United Military Police who are patrolling the city. The only people here who are Songed are the naval guards that are still following them in a totally bored fashion. If the Song wants to spread, why not just drive a truck full of the black ooze through the city and convert everyone?
This is very much like what happened in Vishnu: the navy is converted while the populace isn't. Given what happened in Vishnu it might be time to get back to Daebak and tell the navy there what they've found so that they can do something before a moon gets dropped on Ungjin or something similar happens. They beg off the trip to Lake Laogai, claiming to be tired, and tell Joo Dee that they'd love to see her again and visit the planet again. The drive back to the airport is uneventful, and talking to Joo Dee they ask her everything that comes to mind while they still have the opportunity. She isn't the best source of information for anything outside of her limited purview; she's never heard of Orang Jahat and doesn't know much of anything about the navy.
There's some waiting at the airport while the pilot and copilot run through their pre-flight routine, and when they take off Joo Dee is waving to them from the ground -- they seem to have made a good impression on her. The flight up to the moon is smoother than the way down, and they're soon getting ready to land on the moon when Malcolm notices that the Hummingbird isn't on Landing Pad One anymore! A quick visual scan shows that she's under a tarp along with the other ships they'd noticed previously, with some drag marks to indicate how she got there.
Jillian and Malcolm are incensed at what's happened to their ship but the shuttle pilot claims ignorance of what happened and doesn't seem to care too much, either. They browbeat her until she calls in to the control tower, which also refuses to mention anything about what happened. Taking control of the shuttle would be possible, but with the cannons and air patrol there's not much that Malcolm could do with this clumsy shuttle that would result in them not being blown out of the sky. The lack of EVA suits means that a race across the moon's surface to the Hummingbird is out of the question. All they can do is go along with events for now and hope for an opening.
When they land and enter the base through the umbilical the scowling Sehun is there to greet them with four naval goons, all armed with submachine guns. The three guards who accompanied them to the surface are dismissed and the crew is escorted through the corridors by the five remaining navy personnel. Sehun isn't terribly forthcoming with where they're going. As before, the lack of micro-g training makes the Hummingbird's crew clumsy and they're definitely at a disadvantage. Bishop, holding on to the Egg in his pocket, gives the Iof the signal to get ready to jump in and begin shooting things up to cause a diversion, but not to destroy the Steel Hummingbird!
They're marched past the "hotel" they stayed at and run into Mi Hi. She briefly interrogates them about the delegation coming back from Daebak whose ship exploded but the party plays dumb and pissed off. The latter is certainly true, and they demand to know what's going on with their ship. Mi Hi tells them it's been commandeered for the common good and doesn't seem to care that the "vegetable sellers" won't be happy about this. After just a few exchanges Mi Hi tells Sehun to put them "with the others" and heads off somewhere else. With the number of goons equal to the number of crew it's probably best to act before they're led too far into the base or come across more guards. Jillian gives the signal and everyone leaps into action.
Bishop tells the Iof to jump now and Malcolm starts the fight proper by pretending to clumsily run into a wall due to the lack of training but then in one fluid motion draws his Blingmaster and gut shoots Sehun at point-blank range. From that point it turns into a chaotic free-for-all. Normally, Azar, Malcolm, and Volkova would have little trouble dispatching their opponents but the lack of gravity makes them terribly inefficient. The Juche personnel all have submachine guns at the ready and are trained in fighting in low-gravity situations. Nonetheless, having Sehun badly injured at the outset is a blow for them, and things get worse when Azar and then Jillian get their hands on submachine guns that injured guards have dropped.
Rumbling and explosions indicate that the Iof is indeed sowing chaos above them, and it distracts the guards a bit. Bishop helps as best he can by flinging grubs in people's faces. Hey, it worked against Flint Cardesco and his gang on isiBhakabhaka! It works here, too, and the fight is soon over with only two wounds on the party's side: Malcolm's gotten grazed by a bullet and Bishop's taken a painful but not crippling bullet to his leg. Somehow Jillian is the one who took out three of the five guards: binocular vision isn't that important in such close quarters! Bishop and Malcolm quickly patch themselves up while Jillian writes "Don't fuck with the Black Rose" on the wall in blood. She also rucks up her sleeve to show her Black Rose tattoo. Misdirection is always good! It's a bizarre aftermath to a fight, with bodies floating and blood hanging in the air in blobs, but there really isn't any time to waste taking this in and they get going back to the gate to Landing Pad One. Jillian knows the way with her sense of direction, but low gravity and nagging injuries make things slow. There are still sounds of ship combat drifting down the hallways as they go.
Arriving at the airlock they see that the Steel Hummingbird is waiting just outside, with her cargo door open! No one's sure how she got here, but they need to get onto her as soon as possible. Looking for EVA suits and donning them would take forever; with the Hummingbird right there it's probably best to just go through vacuum for the few metres' distance. Malcolm gives everyone a vary brief primer in surviving in vacuum (exhale, keep your eyes closed, and so on) and then opens the airlock. Jumping blindly into vacuum isn't something that anyone has much experience with but they all make it into the hold and Volkova, even with her eyes closed, finds the emergency close button on the door, slamming it shut in a way that's really bad for its structure, and then hits the emergency repressurization button, filling the hold with atmosphere in a manner of seconds. It hasn't been long at all but everyone, with the apparent exception of Azar, is feeling some effect from the exposure.
Seo's voice comes over the intercom, asking if everyone is on board and saying that a better pilot should be at the helm. Everyone runs to the stairs to their battlestations. They've made it to their ship, but they still need to get away from the Juche navy...
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Bishop's Bedpost Notch Count: 1 (offscreen but contractually obligated; running total: 28)
Jillian's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 5)
Malcolm's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 15)
Volkova's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 7)