| Journal |
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| They spend the next 2 days scouting out the area. Pack'Ar (oddly enough!) finds the perfect spot in between some beams under the bridge. Then the party begins. Around 11am on 199-1099 they sneak out of the ongoing party at a nightclub and make their way through the crowded city to an alley near the bridge. At a curve in the road they run across the street and vault the fence, in broad daylight no less! (What they don't know is that a government stormtrooper is hovering in a gravbelt not too far away. It sucks to roll a critical failure on his alertness roll and not even be able to mention it to anyone.) By 12:30 they're in position. Pack'Ar with the rifle, Conrad with the spotting scope, and Kenjiko smoking under the shadow of the bridge. Shortly after 1300 the sub docks and the hardmen swarm out onto the pier, ready to take a bullet for their boss. Conrad whispers; "Target exiting the submarine." Pack'Ar takes aim, then holds while the mark is obscured, being helped up the ladder. Kenjiko fails to notice the grav-vehicles on patrol near the roof of the cavern. Conrad is suprised by a super-sonic CRACK! and watches as the target soundlessly collapses. He stares through the scope at a frozen young man, spattered with the mayor's blood. "That's a kill. I say again we have a kill." The Vargr nods, and shoves Conrad off of the beam and into the river. After seeing Pack'Ar follow his spotter, Kenjiko secures his own helmet and follows them into the river. The trio crawls downstream along the bottom of the river and finally surfaces underneath a large bush. After changing back to their street clothes, they quickly go under a gap in the fence and through another alley. Within seconds they are back among the press of thousands of people. Tonight we're gonna party like its 1099! They climb back through the window into the restroom, rejoin their fellows, and head back to their hotel just as the city-wide alert is announced on every media channel. A stage two security alert has been declared, the whole city is locked down. Our hapless adventurers are forced to spend the next 72 hours trapped in their hotel with the young women they picked up at the nightclub. What a hard life they lead! If no one else can help you... Turning down what appears to be an excellent bounty, they instead take another mercenary ticket. This one is even completely above board. Before they jump out of Glisten, Gene talks Jack into using ships funds to buy a droid on a 30 year contract. This new assistant crewman/funbot named Kahli Orion quickly becomes a favorite both of the passengers and crew.They spend the next few weeks uneventfully taking passengers to Overnale, and then dead-heading to Melior. So 232-1099 finds the IPS Orion dropping out of Jump in the Melior system. Craig, the job contact who rode with them makes a few calls and joins them all later in a starport bar looking real unhappy. The bad guys have struck his tribe of surface nomads again. Quickly they fly out to the site, talk briefly with the natives, spot the surveilance, and fly the launch back to the starport. So far, so good. We've got a plan! That night they fly the ship low and fast, out to a point about 7km from the tribe. Pack'Ar moves out first, getting into a good snipers position. Then Kenjiko and Jack head in. They dig-in about 250 meters south-east of the camp. The waiting begins. Next morning, most of them stiff from having slept in position, they begin the laong walk back to the ship. About 50 meters from the Orion, Pack'Ar spots a message on the soft ground; Let us meet at Caspians Tommorrow. After a thorough examination he concludes that a human in armor stood here, barely 50 meters from Orion, traced this into the ground, and then flew away. Not good news. With ship and crew safely back at the starport, a little checking reveales that Caspians is a 3 star restaurant, and that one of the banquet rooms is indeed reserved for a private party, tommorrow. Meeting of the minds At 15hours local time (Melior has a 30 hour day) Jack and Pack-Ar dressed in suits show up at Caspians, and are excorted to the reserved banquet room. Meanwhile, Conrad and Kenjiko are in the gift shop next door, discretely listening on their headsets. The bodyguard enters the banquet room first of course, and then Zane, his tall lithe boss strides in and introduces himself to the mercenaries. Once dinner has arrived nether side wastes any time. Within minutes both sides have come clean. The Porter party that they've been hired to kill, and Zane (and co) that they've been raiding to get the funds to fix their ship and leave this rock. The gregarious Vargr making a deduction based on eyewitness accounts of the SeQoyn's strange new air/raft, and Zane's unusual way of speaking, comes right out and asks his adversary what a Zhodani is doing on Melior. Zane merely glares at him and refuses to answer. In less than an hour they hammer out a plan. The crew of the Orion offers to take one of Zane's men to nearby Mille Falcs to purchase the materials they need and bring them back. Zane agrees to stop the raids while he consults with his men on this. Roll the dice, move your mice, build a trap! Four days later they get a call on the radio. Zane and company want to meet in two hours to discuss the agreement. Everyone agrees on some random coordinates and the meeting is set. Five minutes early the air/raft stops at the spot. Jack and Pack'Ar get out, while Kenjiko stands behind the drivers door, police style. Right on time a speeder flies over a nearby ridge. Seconds later two armed men are out and looking around. Then the third man gets out. Obviously he's on of Zane's people. Tall, thin, weapons and armor too high-tech to be a local. He tells Jack they've approved the plan and just need to arrange a few things. Suddenly, one of the guards springs up in the low gravity, rifle swinging up to shoot. Kenjiko blows him in half with a triple-tap from his magnum snub pistol. The other guard nervously reacts bringing his rifle up toward Jack. Before anyone else can react the Zhodani fast-draws his gauss-carbine and unzipps his own man with a burst of armor-piercing autofire. They grab Zane's man and throw him into the air/raft. Kenjiko clears a misfire, and hops into the driver's seat. They fly backwards at speed just as the targeting laser sensor starts sqawking. Back in the ship Gene at the gunner's station zooms in on the guy with the MANPADS. He launches his first missile, Gene shoots in down. He launches a second one, and Gene destroys it as well. Taking aim at the man, Gene watches him jump behind the ridge, out of the fight. So he shoots anyway, blowing off half the ridge, and convincing the soldier not to show himself again. On the road again After making contact with Zane over the radio, and hearing his explanation of an attempted coup by his native tribesmen, they agree to continue with the plan. Within a few days they've picked up the engineer, informed their clients they'll be incommunicado for awhile, and hit the jump point. Everything goes as planned. They pick up the materials, make a few credits on some medical supplies and land back on Melior. They buy some booze, check in with their clients, and head out to the back country to party a little, and wait. They're not dissapointed. A few days later, Zane contacts them. Letting them know they'll have to take a few natives that were loyal to him off world as part of the deal. He transmits their locale from high orbit to prove he's off world. The Orion picks up its new cargo. Four couples and 6 children, bound for Mertactor. After taking a photo of their passengers designed to make them look dead. They roll around in the dirt a bit and head to the nomad camp. After convincing some of the sceptical natives they've done their job, they pick up the check, and it's off to Mertacor. Couples, crew, children, cargo, and three young ladies they picked up in a bar at the starport. What a hard life they lead! Orion docks at Mertactor downport on 268-1099. And the job hunt begins anew... |
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| Another one bites the dust |
| Unfortunately this journal was discontinued due to lack of interest on the part of my players. Since no one was reading it I decided it didn't make any sense to continue writing it. Rest assured the adventures continued. The group even went on to find an ancient's site. Maybe one day I'll sit down and write that story. |