| Journal |
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| IN THE BEGINNING |
| After many months spent pursing every lead. Bounty hunter Jack Porter, and his partner Dalyon, finally get a lead on the most dangerous fugitive of their careers. Convicted murderer and escaped convict Rafael Argus. While on Mertactor/District 268, Jack talks to a former co-worker of one "James Anderson". He identifies the flat pic of Argus. Seems he's living on Dallia, in an harvester vehicle with a half-dozen heavily armed cohorts. Porter realizes that he's going to need help dealing with the opposition, and he's rather hire it here, than on the world where his mark's been hiding for the last 2 years. He places an ad on the local net, and within a couple of days hires himself some backup. A pilot/wheelman, a medic, and a vargr sniper. All licensed mercenaries. Then a JTAS journalist watching them in a merc bar rolls up, and asks to come along for the ride. The next morning everyone piles into Dalyon's scout/courier and then away they go. Freeze! Bail enforcement agents! On 097-1099 the scout/courier "Frosty Bites" drops out of jump space in the Dallia/District 268 system. Our band of misfits dock at the orbital and flee from cabin-fever. After visiting such classy joints as Soldier of Fiction (a merc bar), and Wide-Wild-World-of-Guns (a retail chain store), they eventually get ready to go after their target. Scrouging up the info on his where-abouts isn't half as hard as finding a pilot willing to fly in Dallia's atmosphere. It's ok, Jack says over and over, this is all on the company credit card! First visit to the surface... they go to where they are expecting Rafael's harvester-crawler to end up in two weeks. Namely his mining claim parcel. Out in the middle of no-where, up against a small ridge, they find a cobbled together modular base. Pack'Ar climbs up the ridge accompanied by the journalist. One portable snipers nest up and running. The rest of the party, sans medic, approach the enviro-module on foot. After deafeating the security system, they open the outer door. Within minutes, they enter a bunk room and shoot an armed attacker. So much for the stealth op. A short fire-fight ensues, and in the end 1 friendly is injured. The opposition numbers are; 1 captured, 1 injured, and 1 dead. They take their charges to the local cops, and convice them to hold them incommunicado for 2 weeks. Second visit to the surface... they go back down 3 days before Rafael and his crew are expected to show in their harvester vehicle. They fool him with a password from one of the captives, and several prerecorded phrases. Next day they're ready. The enormous harvester vehicle goes by, disgorging an ATV. As the ATV approaches, a lone gunman rolls out and scouts ahead on foot. The ATV enters the module through the vehicle bay door. The party lies in wait in the next room, food burning on the stove. Three armed men enter the environ and are ambushed by the party. During the intense firefight, the base is breached by the ATV's turret cannon. Many rounds of smallarms fire are exchanged, leaving almost everone wounded, one dead, and Rafael trapped inside the mangled ATV. Surrounded, and trapped, he surrenders. Now Jack will have the last few credits he needs to purchase his own Safari ship. Here's the catch... In the early morning hours of 124-1099 their scout ship drops out of jump space in the Mertactor/District 268 system. Later that day they transfer custody of Rafael to the local authorities, and take the "receipt" into the office. In literally no time, Jack finds himself in the office of the local CFO. It seems that he's one of the few Hunters successful enough to ever take advantage of the company's starship purchase funds matching program. He's assured that the company isn't going to back out of the deal, but they aren't happy about it either. So the CFO informs Jack that his used starship is now his, free and clear. After taking the company gold card back the executive smiles and says; "Oh, by the way. It's in the Dulani dockyard in the Glisten system. Good luck." Ordinarily that would be no problem. Jack and Dalyon would simply get into his scout ship and be on their way. Not this time though... Daylon tells Jack that he stripped a priority message off of the nav satellite on the way in. It seems the Scouts are reactivating him, and he's got a little less than 8 hours to report in. Fill out this application please. Figuring the best way to get to Glisten is to get a job, Jack stops by Assignments. He was just about ready to take his chance with the low lottery when he spots a high ticket item. One Dame Estelle has notified the company that she requires a small group of minders to escort her nephews back home to Glisten. It seems a pair of rich-kids are hiding from daddy. The perfect job, yes? Well, at least there shouldn't be any shooting. After making an appointment, Jack and Pack'Ar meet with Dame Estelle. After a grueling interview session, which Jack almost blows, they are hired. Heading to Startown to nab their principals, they arrive to find them gone. Checked out after an argument with the manager. Some quick investigative work, and a savy taxi-driver later, finds Jack, Pack'Ar, and Kenjiko walking down a hotel hallway toward a bodyguard. Kenjiko orders him down at pistol-point, while the others push their way into the loud party. Jack and Pack'Ar manage to get nephew #1 (Bryan) into the bedroom. Jack zaps him, his stunner set on "barf". When nephew #2 (Jeryn) is lured into the bedroom with his brother, trouble starts. His shotgun wielding friend realizes something is amiss at the locked door. Kenjiko disarms one shotguner and is forced to shoot the other. Unfortunately, in this crowed room, the round punches through the punk nearly killing a young girl. The party-goers, incensed and armed, open up on Kenjiko in perfect firing-squad style. While Kenjiko is on the floor of the now shattered kitchen, Conrad throws the Air/Raft into manual. Flying up to the 3rd story, while everybody is reloading, his only passenger Gene is contacted on the vehicle's com by the police. The party evacs the nephews out the window into the Air/Raft. Kenjiko is trying to convice the party-goers to let him first-aid the girl before she dies. As the Air/Raft leaves, principals rescued, Pack'Ar flies into the front room swat-style. Surprised, the party-people surrender, allowing Kenjiko to treat the girl and the shotgun brothers. While Kenjiko and Pack'Ar flee on foot, the rest of the party in the grav-vehicle gets questioned by the cops. Upon realizing who the nephews are, the police handback everyones ID and tell them to move-along. Now they only have to sit on the 2 young men for five days until the passenger ship "Star Princess" departs for jump space. Tickets please And on 133-1099 they board the cruise ship. Happy that at least for a little while they won't have to worry about their charges trying to escape. After all, in jump space there's nowhere to go. Despite day excursions onto Egypt's orbital starport, and Overnale's startown, the trip is rather uneventful. On 161-1099 Star Princess docks at Glisten City. Having been contacted by Jack on the ride in, a chartered shuttle is awaiting their arrival. Despite the bustle of Glisten Starport, they quickly spot the shuttle pilot holding the neon flashing card; "Porter Party". Anti-climactically, they simple drop the rich-kids off at the Trenton estate, pick up their pay, and head for the Glisten Shipyard. They survey their new ship, and quickly realize that, other than Conrad, nobody has any shipboard skills. Somehow, nobody in the party even considers allowing Conrad to be the Captain. The crew quickly pools their funds. Jack and Pack'Ar are sent to Glisten sleep teaching clinic to learn piloting and Engineering skills. During the 20 day course, Kenjiko buys a personal sleep-teacher, and improves his medical skiils. One filing fee, and a passed test later he's now Doctor Smith. Pack'Ar gets his engineering cert, and Jack his Master Operators License. So they have a ship, a full tank of fuel, and almost no money. I was looking for a job when I found this one Turning down a job to process serve the governor of Glisten's Deidresii city, they take one that pays better, and is possibly even more dangerous. An old buddy of Pack'Ars from his old outfit Rifles Inc. offers him a sweet deal. A one-shot sniper job on a local politico in the Aki system, one jump away. Because of Aki's high law-level, the party decides in for a penny-in-for-a-pound. In addition to bringing passengers as a cover, they go looking for some drug smugglers. Aki is amber zoned because of civil unrest. The authorities have appealed to the Imperium to assist them in combating drug-suggling. Now it's 186-1099, and Pack'Ar is on his way to meet a dealer who's actually an undercover Imperial Narc-Agent. This one's on me After meeting the "dealer" in Angelo's, a three-star restaurant in Glisten starport, Pack'Ar senses something isn't quite right. The canny Vargr pays for lunch, and thanks the shady character for his time. After finding out that Jack has arranged for someone else to ship some "product" aboard the Orion, Pack'Ar goes to see his buddy the Master Sergeant. He picks up the chip with the mission briefing. Back at the Orion, Gene has spotted a small, spidery, police surveilance drone, mostly by shear luck. Jack thanks the fixer for his time, and cancels the shipping deal. Kenjiko promptly goes shopping, and picks up a trunk-load of anti-surveilance gear. The police, disappointedly watch, as the Orion powers out toward the jump point on 188-1099. Doing the tourist thing Having lost their chance to get their gear smuggled in by pros, they settle for disassembling the gauss rifle and secreting it in a specially made grav-chair they paid a good chunk for in Glisten. After all of the grumbling about Nazi-esque security and desperate planning during the jump, the actual mission turns out to be almost anti-climactic. Orion docks at the orbital and the crew rides to the downport in the shuttle. After splitting up they manage to circumvent both security and the car rental desk. They finally end up staying in 2 rooms in a hotel mere blocks from Capitol Island. |
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