Those Who Stare In The Black, Game 21: Hammer
Game date: 23 Feb 2014
Present: Tabby, Chris, Sara, Paul, and Maer
Tuesday, 28 Nov 2519
Spaceport, Harvest
Red Sun (Zhu Que) System
18 Hours Earlier…
We're set to depart for Osiris in 18 hours.
We've our current cargo loaded up and ready for transport but Stone has no luck finding further work or passengers to bring us to 100% full. Still, we have cargo and a good amount of it. We're not flying broke.
Oksana takes requests for our last dinner dirtside for the next little while. The crew chimes in and the menu is chosen: tacos with all the fixings.
Xiu meanwhile works on her mechanical otter project. She's got the base skeleton done. She just needs to cover it with something that looks like fur.
Verity is still checking and rechecking the ship's systems and the bridge for Fed treachery. She's also listening to the comms chatter for news and such. Again, keeping a sharp lookout for Fed treachery.
Dinner is served and we're settled for the night when a wave comes in.
It's a report on protests on [name garbled]. The Alliance assisted in bringing down tensions and mediated both sides of the issue.
Of course, Verity has a good idea HOW the Feds brought down tensions and mediated both sides of the issue. We're all thinking it, actually, when she tells the crew of the wave.
Oksana: They assisted in "bringing down". Did they do it with diplomats, happy gas, or grenades?
Verity: They didn't say but … (bitter laugh) … what do you think?
Oksana: Possibly a combination of all three.
Verity: Probably.
Xiu: Let's get a stack pool together and see what wins.
Verity: We're taking bets? I'd put some money on it.
Oksana: You're not making pool based on other people's misery, are you?
Xiu: No, just their incompetence.
Oksana: Sucker bet. Not taking it. All bets are off.
Oksana does her fact checking on the Cortex and finds out a little more.
The protests were on Albion. Albion's experiencing "civil unrest". It's got trouble with its unions and some of its trade classes over pay issues and contract negotiations. If one had to draw an analogy, consider it very like major sports players battling their contract owners. Apparently the arguments got heated enough and the big guns were called in to quell them. She shares the information she's gleaned before turning in for bed.
Tomorrow is another day and it's best we're rested enough to face it.
Tuesday, 28 November, 2519
Spaceport, Harvest
Morning
Morning shift arrives and the crew wakes to get underway.
The mysterious "De Nile Xport" box was taken off our ship. We're all puzzling over the odd name at breakfast. It takes a while but we finally figure out it might have been code.
Xport = Transport, a common enough abbreviation used in the cargo trade.
De Nile = Denial or maybe it's a river in Old Earth Egypt.
So … the box translated might mean: River Transport
Wait …. River.
River? As in River Tam? That River?
Thinking back on it, Scrooge did say in a meeting on New Melbourne that he'd had a hand in getting River away from the Academy. He didn't give details. We didn't ask. But he did say he helped.
More significant is the ownership of that box. It wasn't in Scrooge's cargo. Marley confirmed it. It wasn't part of his shipment. It was part of the Feds, now off loaded onto a Tohoku class ship and sailing God knows where.
Even more significant is the fact that box was a cryogenic box … so … could someone have been inside it? If so, who? Why? Or … perhaps it was empty but destined to smuggle someone in the future. If so, who and when? Where is it now?
There is no telling. It could be anywhere. It's out of our hands, either way. At least we know that Marley—and through him—Scrooge knows of its existence. What he does with that information is not ours to know.
There being nothing productive in speculating what we could have done if we'd put the pieces together sooner, we roll up our sleeves and prep for take off. Verity, Xiu, and Stone get busy with the last minute ship details. Oksana makes one last run for supplies.
Two hours before lift-off we get a hail from Traffic Control. Our time slot is green. Are we on schedule? Stone verifies that we are and submits our flight plan. Our lift-off is smooth as silk. Verity plots a killer course and the numbers come back: it's an 11 day flight.
Goodbye Harvest, Hello Osiris. ETA 09 Dec 2519.
Day 9:
Verity sees something on the scanners but can't really make out a clear fix on it. It's ahead of us. Stone double checks but can't get better results. Xiu fiddles with it and manages to resolve the fuzzy image into several blobs.
They're pretty far out. A day away, at least.
Watching the blobs, we try to determine if they're moving away, toward, or in a different direction relative to our position. Verity checks and does the math—they're on the same trajectory as we are but at a slightly slower pace. At the speed we're going, we'll catch up with them when we arrive at Osiris.
Stone: Keep an eye on this, get what info you can. If it's Reavers, avoid them and send a wave out to warn others.
Stone also orders Verity to increase our speed to get closer for better res on our scanners.
We manage to get a visual, eventually. What we see makes our collective jaws hit the deck.
- 2 Tohoku class cruisers
- 2 patrol class boats
- 4 Longbow class boats
- 50 smaller ships and tenders alongside
We've barely time to register the sight when all our sensors go black.
Gorrammit, they're jamming us.
Of course, if they're aware of us enough to jam us, we can expect them to meet us and board us. Nevertheless, Stone quickly sends a warning to people he knows of what's happening out here and asks for confirmation of receipt. There is no response to our waves. We can't get any EM traffic at all.
We're flying blind.
4 hours later:
We're close enough to visually ID the ships themselves, and take a headcount of the fleet in front of us.
There are 4 Tohoku class ships. Four. A full two/thirds of the ships in the fleet are Longbows, not just 2 as we'd originally thought. The remaining one/third are made up of the patrol boats.
Ai yah, we're screwed.
Stone: Are these real ships? Or fake?
We're jammed but they haven't managed to hack into our systems and erase what we managed to glean pre-jam. Verity analyzes the numbers and confirms it: they're for-hell real.
Determined to find a way to get the word out, we rig up a crybaby and put it on a timer. Once it's outside the sphere of jammer effect, it will start screaming. Hopefully someone will hear the message before the Feds find it and kill it.
Xiu builds it. Verity programs it. Stone kicks it out the airlock. It's the best we can do.
Day 10:
We can see most of the ships in the fleet now. We're not picking up any comm chatter. Of course. The jam is still on. Stone has us send a tight beam laser signal asking the fleet what's going on. If they're jamming us, they'll intercept it. If they're feeling generous, maybe they'll answer.
No response.
Verity: Fine. If they don't want to deal with us, we won't deal with them.
Day 11, Thursday, 09 Dec 2519:
We've visual of the entire fleet now, being practically on top of it. It's huge. Dear God it's huge. Four hours out of Osiris the formation surrounds the planet like a cloud of locusts, starts to move around it in slow motion. Several ships peel away from the mass and take up positions in orbit while the rest of the fleet moves beyond into space.
- 2 Tohokus take up position over the poles, north and south
- 5 Frigates
- 5 Longbows
- 10 Patrol boats
The last three take up positions elsewhere in orbit around the planet. The rest of the fleet continues on its trajectory, flying farther away from Osiris as we watch. Where are they going? We don't know. Of more immediate concern is getting on the ground on Osiris. We have cargo to deliver. Will they let us land? A couple of fighters peel off to intercept us.
Looks like we're about to find out.
We can't run and hide. The only place in range is Albion, ironically enough, and it's 5 days away. There are a couple of privately held space stations we could get to, about 2 days way, but really, do we want to drag the Feds on their heads?
Stone decides to risk it. He tells Verity to plot a course away from Osiris.
We get hailed by the Feds to land on Osiris. The fighters back up that injunction, harrying us until we pick up speed for Osiris as ordered.
There's nothing for it but to see it through and hope fate is kind to us. We land, as ordered. Beautifully. Verity is nothing if not the best damned pilot in the Verse.
We get a wave from the Harbormaster. He confirms our cargo for loading and off loading. They will have the personnel necessary to get it done tomorrow. General ground maintenance will still occur on schedule and service of our ship will not be affected.
Stone: And this is due to the … unusual traffic in the area, right?
Harbormaster: Yes.
Oksana: (undertone) Instead of one Sword of Damocles, you have two. And assorted little friends.
Xiu: That's not the Sword of Damocles. That's the Cutlery Drawer of Damocles.
Xiu passes the time by working on her otter. She and Stone debate skin vs. shell for a hide. Xiu eyes Stone's neat beard speculatively. Hmmm, how attached is the Captain to his beard? Hmmm….
Stone dissuades her. He keeps the beard.
Friday, 10 Dec 2519
Spaceport, Osiris
All comms suddenly shut down except official traffic. The government, military, Port Authority, Police, and other first responders are the only organizations with comms traffic.
Nevertheless, Stone tries to tight beam the other ships parked beside us. Tight beams, he reasons, cannot be picked up by the Feds and blocked. Unfortunately, not all ships have the ability to pick up tight beam so his results come back … with nothing.
Our sensors are giving off random ghosts, too. The readings are getting spoofed by the government. Stone eyeballs the physical ships in line of sight of our bridge, checking their own comms arrays—if any are pointed in our direction they should be able to pick up something …
But nope. We don't get a single pingback in response.
While Stone is puzzling this out, Oksana packs a med bag and finds a nearby clinic. She takes Xiu. Yay! Field trip! Oksana packs meds and some portables but she also packs her gun and wears her vest. Just in case.
Verity: You're actually going to walk out there?
Oksana: I may be humanitarian and I may be optimistic, but I am not stupid.
Verity: (nodding at the sky) You sure about this?
Xiu: Where's the nearest clinic?
Oksana: Three miles out.
It's nicely placed between the working class docks and the working class slums that server the docks.
Stone: Take the mule.
Xiu looks at the mule critically, eyeballing the space inside it.
Xiu: Can we fit an engineer's cart on the mule?
Stone: There is already engineering equipment on the mule.
Xiu: I'm not going to fix the mule, but fix the clinic.
Verity: You're going to fix the clinic?
Oksana: I will offer my services as a doctor. She will offer her services as a fix-it.
Xiu: All right. I'll just carry my regular mechanic's kit and my triage-in-training kit.
Even though Osiris is technically the Core, it's far enough out that there is a definite underclass that needs services that are sometimes found wanting. Stone checks the channels on our personal comms. The range is short and the reception is spotty … but with a booster, we might be able to make them work. He makes sure that Oksana and Xiu do not leave the ship without comms and boosters.
Just in case.
The rest of the episode coming soon. Stay tuned!
Go to Season One: Purpose And Place | Timeline | Those Who Stare In The Black
