All the Gemini Notes. Ever.

Gemini Story Elements: 070407 In Gemini, I will not drive the plot towards any greater goal. My plan is to create a number of different “tiers” of story: first, those that will happen and involve the players regardless (ie, favors called in, dependents in trouble, etc.), which reflect standard RP story types. Second, thoses that will involve the players regardless, but which will not happen unless the players actively pursue it (ie, missions in the ship's email, background elements from the characters like amnesia, etc)m and those that will not necessarily involve the players, but will move forward independently of the players if they don't pursue it. I hope to have some overlap between these different story elements (ie, a favor gets called in, which happens to relate to some bigger movement in the Gemini, and if the characters catch it, they might pick mission x over mission y. Another important consideration: the character's background essentially describes them “falling into” a jump capable ship. This is not something that will just fall by the wayside: word is now probably getting out, and different elements will respond differently. This week, I will put something on the ship's screamsheet stating that there are rumors of a sixth jump capable ship in the Gemini.

Tier 1 story kernels: (those that happen/involve regardless) Hunted (Matt) Slavers (most of the characters with low status) Hunted (Medic) Favors (Sola) Dependent (Sola) Insulted K-tech buyers (all) Dieter's Illness: flare-up (Dieter) Organized Casino Crime Ring: Vengeance (All) The mysterious origins of the Golden Fleece (All) Pirate Attack! (All) Corporate intervention (all) Dieter taking the heat for the Medic's illicit dealings (Dieter) Matt taking the heat for a betrayal, real or imagined (Matt) Ship Breakdown: 1.)Computer Failure/Fritz, ex: Matt Getting zonked by the ship, reprise (all) 2.)Engine Failure 3.)Crash 4.)Etc. Tier 2 story kernels (those that happen/involve at player will) Ship Mission Queue (probable mission types) 1.)Archeological Dig (plundering) (Gabe and Ed) 2.)Passenger Transport: high end 3.)Assassination/Spying (Medic) 4.)Medical Response (Medic) 5.)Search and Rescue 6.)Trading 7.)Smuggling 8.)Repair/Construction (Sola/Dieter) 9.)Salvage 10.)Hakzors (Sola) 11.)Survey 12.)Exploration (!) 13.)Data Mining (Sola) 14.)Entertainment (Matt) Enemy [the mysterious female card master] (Matt) Corporate intervention (all) Kingslayer (Matt) Erased (Soldier) Debt (sola) Psycho-Navigation (Matt) Guardian Angel (Ed) Amnesia (Ed) The Fate of Ed's People (Ed) Matt's getting zonked by the ship's system (Matt) Tier 3 story kernels (those that function independent of players) Guardian Angel (Ed) AI (Gabe and Sola) The Mysterious Attack in the Nebula (All: relates to AI, I think...) The mysterious origins of the Golden Fleece (all) Search and Rescue Missions: Collapse of a major mine on Troy (will lead to possible connections to more sinister/far reaching plotz). Medical/Repair Missions

Important Considerations Re the group and the Golden Fleece in terms of how they are likely to proceed: 1.)I need to come up with special rules for their uber-uber-uber sensor array. Coupled with their jump capability, they could do a lot with them, but it's a question of what they do do with it...I think this will fall into the Tier 2/3 story kernels: the characters can dick around getting rich with their ship, but unlike Tetsuo Hara, the characters do not have the aegis of the corps protecting them, and people will soon have designs on them, and not people like AI who know that you can't “impress” psycho-navigators into service... 2.)Politics: This will be a significant section, and I will just add to it as I go along. I don't want to define things too rigidly to give players the opportunity to use storytelling points to build the world as they like (although I should make it clear that they can actually do this). 1.We'll say it's been a few hundred years since the sundering, maybe 300 or so. Perhaps 100 years ago, the Aeneans attacked Troy, and it has been under their control ever since. Since that time, they have not been militarily aggressive outside of actions on their own planets.

The golden fleece: story considerations 1.)The ship sat in a junk yard before matt won it in a poker game: how long was it there? Who owned it? Where did they get it? How did it get there? 1.The ship sat in the junkyard for a few weeks after being salvaged. It was salvaged at a fringe of somewhere, but which fringed will remain undefined. 2.I'm not sure about this yet. It should be someone powerful but relatively independent, since this person will probably get involved with the crew a lot. Once they find out the crew has a jump ship, they will be eager to “collect” on their part, and they should be powerful enough to exert at least some sort of pressure on the group. Furthermore, the crew may want to contact them in order to learn more about the ship. They will know it's location and perhaps some stuff that was recovered out of the ship. I think that I will base this on character backgrounds: Tieg From Matt's background is actually a good choice, but I'll see what else comes through. Of course, a high boss would not be so stupid as to lose it in a poker game. So, the question remains, how did that happen? Perhaps it was stolen by pirates. Yeah, that's good. 3.They found it on a salvage run: they saw it on some sort of sweep, and dragged it in. Then, pirates attack, they dump the salvage, the pirates take it in. They tried to fix it, but even after they fixed the obvious stuff, it was still so oddly put together and had so many odd parts that they figured it would be better to sell “as is”. The foolish pirate captain, deep in with Matt's character and having realized that he may have pissed off someone important by stealing the ship, decides it would be a good thing to use as a betting tool rather than money. 4.I think that I will make this ship the ship of legend, albeit rare and hard to find legend, the “Grendel”, Captained by the famous/legendary/possibly fake Captain “Beowulf”. This captain figures into the legends of Troy, but not in reference to a jump ship, since the people of Troy didn't really understand it: some of the legends place him in the chaos following the sundering that saw much of Troy's population decimated, some in the resistance against the Aeneans. I think that the truth will be that both are right: The ship was found again by another captain during the Aenean war, and the captain took the name Beowulf for rep purposes. During an escape following a serious injury, he jumped but fucked up the calculation due to rushing, which tossed him “on the waves of space” so to speak. His ship was recently dumped back into known space. 1.Consequences of this: where was the ship? I think that the body of the captain, in a sarcophagus of some sort, and the remains of the other crew members, will be in the possession of the original salvagers. Also, obviously valuable historical artifacts. 2.The ship will actually reveal numerous norse symbology, etc. as more of it's original form is revealed, especiall pre-second beowulf, who was obviously less into norse shit than the original (but still into it). 2.)Once won, Dieter and Sola fix the ship to run: how are they able to do this when it had not happened before? Was this due to neglect, lack of funds, or lack of ability on the part of the previous owners? 1.They're fucking smart. Also, Sola's bilingual and Dieter's various high ass skillz, etc. Also, not enough time, and the heat from the original salvagers. 3.)Once fixed, the ship blasts off and escapes from it's attackers via an unplanned jump, which takes them almost exactly to the location which they were headed for: what is the significance of this? Is the location perhaps significant in its own right? Is the thing they found actually more important than they realized? 1.It is significant, because that location was where Beowulf's crew laid him to rest before making their final jump that got fucked up because of damage to the ship. What the characters found is an important component of this shrine/crypt, but they didn't realize it. Thus, that location represents the “last coordinates of the ship.” 2.The location will also be significant because the first shrine/crypt is actually an addendum to the crypt of the first Beowulf. This shrine will obviously be pimpz...but extremely difficult to find. The characters should have many frustrating archeological digs before they find this. If they find it, crazy shit will go down. 3.The item they found is important because it will relate back to an archeological site on Troy: ie, it will set them on the road to another good archeological site, but not the one on cassandra. 4.)The ship breaks, but this gives the crew an opportuinty to familiarize themselves with the ship: how familiar are they with it? What all do they find on it? How much of the ship is K-tech? 1.The ship is a tangle of fixes from two separate eras two to three hundred years apart. In short, there isn't anything that is standard on the ship. Even what they have figured out is Beowulf the second's interface with Beowulf the first's interface with the original K-tech interface. As far as I'm concerned, they've accomplished the practical goal of figuring out the second's interface, but nothing deeper. 2.The ship's engine, sensors, and central computer AI are all K-tech, as well as whatever is in the box, which is probably a part of these three things...maybe the First or Second's psycho-navigator is in there...might be kind of cool if the Second never needed a psycho-nav because the First one had his lover, Cassandra, interned in the ship after she was injured. This could tie in to the mysterious woman who beats Matt at cards... She finally “died” when the ship got fucked up in the broken jump, or at least got stuck in stasis or something. Maybe she's just crazy and that's what zapped matt (see below). 5.)They fix it and manage to jump back, and sell the item, which is first exposed as a fake, but then revealed to be, in fact, real. 6.)They find a map left on their ship which suggests something out in a nebula which may have been the site of a battle pre-sundering way outside of pollux. They jump there and find a bad ass engine attachment, which locks itself onto the ship with some strange control panel that they also find. They also find some other bit of something at Ed's behest. To get out there in the first place, they had to run super bad ass scanner reroutings to see that there was something out there. What sort of stuff could they do with their sensors? What is the stuff they found? 1.The characters may/may not get to thinking about what they could do with their sensors. This is not something I will define strictly, but I should get some sort of idea regarding it's limits...there may not be any real limits. 1.Spying 2.Tracking down pirates 3.Surveying 4.Exploration 5.Archeology/Surface scans 6.

7.)The engine turns out to be a shuttle, which boards them and they are captured by strange soldiers, that knock them out. When they wake up, the engine is gone, but the ship is otherwise untouched. Later, they will realize that their computers have been messed with. Who were those masked men? What did they want? How did they get on the ship? Why didn't they do anything or take anything other than mess with the computers? 1.The masked men were agents of AI, I think, maybe another major corp, but I think AI makes sense. It has to, actually, since they are the only one with Jump capability, they are eager to find out what the deal is with the new jumping ship they've detected. So they lure it out somewhere where their activities won't arouse suspicion, jump the sleipnir out, drop another stealth ship, and hide the sleipnir (which is size class 8, I think, so they drop a size 4 shuttle which itself has a size 2 boarding vessel. (going over the old records might reveal some trace of a fairly large ship hanging around). Then they board the ship, check the logs, find it to be just a complete mess, shake their heads, and report to corporate (sort of a shock factor). AI is well aware that impressing psycho-navigators into service is usually catastrophic. Thus, instead they will start maneuvering to try to convince the characters to work for them at some point, and they will try to leverage Gabe to this end. Also, Cerberus had spies on the Sleipnir, so they will also want to try the same thing. Cerberus is not aware that the Sleipnir is gone, they just think their spies got caught. 2.The masked men wanted to find out what the new jump ship was, who controlled it, etc. It was clear it was some old junker uncovered, and they wanted to act before the crew wised up and started protecting their asset. They did put bugs on the ship but they were effectively jammed by Gabe. As of right now, they couldn't get much info about the ship: it took the crew like a month to get info themselves because it is such a chaos. For now, they know it is captained by Gabe and a bunch of nobodies...in fact it is unclear to them who the psycho-navigator might be, although they strongly suspect either Sola or Matt's character because of their interface plugs. 8.)After some programming to prevent tracking, the ship returns to diomedes. The preacher makes the crew rapidly transport a rescue crew to Nestor 1, where their sensors are put to use helping rescue a crashed space ship. How much do the characters spread the word about their jump ship? 1.This, along with their subsequent Milk Run, are the only representations of their public use of Jump capability to date. As such, if they told the rescue team to keep hush, then word won't get out much at all to date. Obviously, there are rumors, but that's it regardless...how fast those spread will be affected by this though. 9.)Their ship is damaged at an abortive capture attempt. Furthermore, Ed discovers a symbol of Tyr on the ship which reveals an internal compartment housing more of the ship's precursor tech guts. What do these components do? Why is there a symbol of Tyr on the ship? 1.The internal compartment may be the last resting place of the Grendel's first Psycho-navigator. Or maybe something else. Or maybe something else AND the first psychonav. 2.For symbol, see history of ship above. 10.)The crew run their first milk run after revealing themselves to be jump capable. On the return voyage, they are ambushed by pirates: they try to gun them down when their gun runs out of ammo, but are then saved following prayers of Ed by the appearance of bounty hunters. How does that work? Why did the pirates jump them all of a sudden? 1.This also affects how many people know about the ship. Should we start with the characters making their delivery on X planet? 11.)Who is the mysterious woman who bested matt's character in cards? Why does it matter? 1.This is one I still have to mull over. She will be important. She may be tied to Cassandra. She may...be a shadow operator in control of a cyborg body. She may just be a talented young girl. 12.)Why did matt get zapped by the ship? 1.This will relate to the contents of the strange box, I think, and the possibility of a strange, partly friendly, partly malign AI on the ship? Maybe, maybe not.

The Ship's Path: this path should incorporate the following: Luck, the Norse Mythology, The fact that the ship is a chaotic mess that works really well. The Path of the Moirae:

Focus Hierarchy 1-While onboard, players may use reputation number of storytelling dice for other players 2- Any roll by a non-crew member to search (like to find hidden compartments), investigate, or understand/spy on the ship (once they are actually on the ship) is at +reputation difficulty. This does not affect difficulties to actually get into the ship/it's computer systems, nor simple “messing”, like, say, shutting the ship down via hacking. 3-The ship has the “pack rat” advantage: the value of the item may be up to [(reputation)^2]*10 credits. 4-The ship has the “daredevil” advantage, with +reputation to “death-defying” actions. 5- Anyone attempting to spot (in stealth), track, or otherwise monitor the Golden Fleece is at +Reputation difficulty. This effect also affects attempts to hack into the Golden Fleece's computer. 6-Reputation SDC are automatically repaired at the end of every combat round, and reputation # of location specific hits may be ignored in terms of effect. 7-The ship gains the “in the nick of time” advantage. 8-During ship combat, roll reputation dice (d12) you may add these to any of your pools during combat as you see fit. 9-Once per session, the crew may move the time it takes to calculate a jump reputation steps down the time chart (to a minimum of a single combat or ship combat turn). 10-The ship gains reputation in permanent storytelling points.

Matt's Path: Path of Odysseus 1 Failing to receive accolades, praise, or material rewards for your accomplishments 2 Backing down from a challenge 3 Settling any issue forcefully when it could have been done by cunning 4 Allowing your crew to be shamed, humiliated, or dominated 5 Ignoring an opportunity to demonstrate your superiority (in any arena) 6 Refusing to dominate/humiliate (ie, make sure he/she and everyone else knows) your opponents. This does not apply to members of your crew. 7 Failing to properly plan/think through a challenge before approaching it 8 Allowing yourself to be outwitted or beaten by cunning 9 Failing to anticipate cunning, subterfuge, or plans aimed at your crew. 10 Failing to challenge those more reknowned than you for cunning, subterfuge, or wit.

Focus Hierarchy 1 +Focus to the bonus from your “flare for the dramatic” advantage 2 +Focus to resist intimidation, human perception, or torture/drugs 3 +Focus to persuasion, oratory, leadership, or social to prevent violence or preserve the honor of your crew. 4 You gain Focus storytelling points that regenerate per campaign/story arc instead of per session. These may be burned as permanent storytelling points, but at the cost of a permanent Focus point (!). 5 Focus times per campaign/story arc, you gain +Focus to the “Presence” skill, regardless of whether you have the skill or not. 6 Focus times per campaing/story arc, you may force a PC or NPC to accept a challenge. 7 You gain +Focus for intelligence or cool skills instead of +1 for the first step you go up the time chart. 8 +Focus to reputation or status (max of 10) until the end of the scene. This ability may be used Focus times per campaign/story arc. 9 You gain either the Battle Sense (ignore prereqs.) or Master Strategist (at Focus/4 level, round down) advantage for the scene. This ability may be used Focus times per campaign/story arc. 10 +Focus to Charm, Empathy, Intelligence, and Cool, permanently.

Ules' Path Rating: 5 Ules' Focus Rating: 4

Aedil's Path: Path of Valhalla 1 Deliberate impiety 2 Showing fear/weakness 3 Allowing your friends/allies to come to harm before you 4 Taking action without considering the will of the gods 5 Failing to divine the will of the gods. 6 Backing down from a challenge 7 Seeking Personal Gain 8 Being disrespectful 9 Being Used or Manipulated 10 Taking anything other than the most direct route to accomplish something

Focus Hierarchy 1 +Focus to Strength when battling the impious 2 +Focus to Morale when fighting for an honorable cause 3 +Focus to Oratory, Persuasion, or Leadership when exorting people to be courageous, strong, or honorable. (must still have the skill in order to get the bonus) 4 +Focus to Intelligence when attempting to divine the will of the gods 5 Ignore up to your Focus in wound penalties until the end of combat 6 Gain +Focus in the skill “Presence” in the pursuit of piety, strength, or honor. This ability may be used Focus times per campaing/story arc. 7 +Focus to intimidate, interrogation, or human perception in the pursuit of truth. 8 Focus times per campaign/story arc, automatically succeed in a roll in the pursuit of piety, strength, or honor. 9 +Focus to Toughness 10 Increase a chosen skill or attribute to 10, or gain an advantage of your choice, for the rest of the scene. This ability may be employed Focus times per campaign/story arc.

Aedil's Path rating: 7 Aedil's Focus rating: 3

Asmodeus' Path: Path of Lazarus 1 Doing harm to your team/crew/family 2 Allowing, through inaction, harm to come to your team/crew/family 3 Revealing, or allowing to be revealed, anything about your past 4 Ignoring honest pleas for help 5 Being dishonest with your team/crew/family 6 Harboring pride or vanity 7 Seeking material gain 8 Forming loyalties, debts, or favors to anyone outside your family/crew/team 9 Engaging in any sort of treachery, deceit, or acts of cunning 10 Associating with anyone from your old life

Focus Hierarchy 1 +Focus to Doctor rolls for members of the crew only 2 +Focus to Resist/Torture Drugs and Social to hide information about your past or information that might endanger the crew 3 +Focus to awareness/notice, human perception, interview, or interrogation when trying to discover a threat to your crew 4 +Focus to stamina, recovery, and stun saves when trying to protect/aid your crew. 5 Focus times per campaign/story arc, your Contacts or Allies rating increases to 10 for the remainder of the scene (or until story-appropriate). 6 Focus times per story arc, you may make an NPC or PC forget some crucial detail of your choice 7 Focus times per story arc, you may force any NPC or PC to answer one question truthfully. 8 You gain the “in the nick of time” advantage 9 Gain +Focus to your storytelling attribute, so long as you still have the “selfless” disad. If you no longer have this disad, you do not gain the bonus, but may instead now spend your fortune points on yourself or your teammates as you please. 10

070411 update Important Heroes in the norse mythos of Gemini: Beowulf: A great hero born when a Jotun Hag Witch tricked Thor with wine and bore him a son. Because of his combination of Guile and Strength, he became a favored warrior of Odin: he figures into many many legends (sort of like Hercules in Greek Myth) spanning from Before Ragnarok, through the sundering, to the war with the Aeneans. In all the great battles he is shown as a brilliant warrior who, against ever increasing odds, defeated the enemy at every turn until, by treachery or deceit or simply overwhelming numbers, he is killed. Only one legend exists to explain this (it's only an inconsistency for non-believers, really): namely, that because of his Jotun heritage, he was denied entrance into valhalla each time he fell, but he was too mighty for Hel, so he was returned to life again and again to fight the foe.

Jagha: Also called the Traveller, or The Witch (with Capitals). She was the most wily and villainous agent of Loki, suckled at the teats of the Serpent (forgot it's name), who wrought much evil in the Gemini until she layed eyes on Beowulf. Then, overcome with Love, she laid aside her evil ways and became his faithful wife, guiding him with her wisdom.

Jaghatai Kahn: Literally “King Jaghatai”: The only son of Jagha and Beowulf, also features prominently in many legends. Supposedly, he was destined to lead your people to greatness around the time of the Aenean invasion (about 100 years ago), and, to keep them from their destiny, the Aeneans used treachery and foul guile to assassinate him.

Hrulfgarr Erickson: A notable fighter in the resistance against the Aeneans, he was eventually recruited to the crew of the notorious pirate Archibald the Wayfarer. He was killed fighting a desperate (yet successful) rearguard in the only ambush that ever caught the Wayfarer. Those responsible for the trap were never known.

070626 update

Long time no write. The characters have gone down several story roads, and I don't have time to recap all of them. What will happen this weekend? Important ongoing things: 1.)Dieter/Ed are determined to get into the egg: if they do this carefully, they will discover that there is incredibly complex computer tech in there. If they dig around too much, they will break the sarcophagus holding jagha, and the ship will lose its ability to jump until they rebuild the primary-to-secondary interface (see note on beowulf 1 to beowulf 2 mods, above). The use of any explosives will crack it as well. 2.)The Sleipnir: not a likely lead they will follow in the absence of Ed, but nevertheless, if they jump out to it, they will find a hollow shell. 3.)Phedre will want to throw the party. Present will be several notable peoples, including Publius Scipio Maximus, the young imperator in charge of the sphere of Aeneas. Also Perturabo, Phedres boy-toy and a major player at Cerberus in charge of defense tech. During this party, most of the talk will be of the coming war with the Aeneans, and what the consequences will be, etc. 4.)Maybe it's time to bring in Jeremy's hunted flaw in, or maybe I should just give them an opportunity for some fightin' some other way. 5.)There will be word via screamsheet to anyone with military contacts that someone is looking to hire people with extensive command experience. 6.)Military contacts AND streetwise will know that several underground sources have offered bounties on any Aenean agents. To spice things up this session, I may have some sort of fight break out around this. 7.)Tieg: if tieg finds out about the sleipnir, he will move on the crew to try and begin building his ultra-ship. He will continue to try to get Mia and Ules together. 8.)Merc missions: the convict is still holed up on Diomedes, but both the bounty and the rescue fee have gone up: investigation will reveal that he has been caught by some enterprising mercs who are trying to start a bidding war. Good opportunity for the fightin' that Jeremy wants...also a good opportunity for a bunch of characters to get killed. They will be a group of 10 mercs, of the not lowest but 2nd to lowest group: armed with smgs, pistols, and rifles. The best 3 have some grenades. All are armored AP12, with the best 3 AP18. The best 3 are the 3rd tier guys. They are holed up in a base in the tunnel system in the slums of the Diomedes capital. It's basically a safehouse setup, with lots of entrances and exits.

070718 Update 1.)Jeremy: Samuel's “hunted” has come in, and been beautifully misinterpreted by the players. They actually believe that the man who tried to kill samuel was an aggrieved husband, when in fact he was an agent of the zealots on calchas, who are afraid that their prophet, who was a disciple of Samuel's will be influenced by him. This will probably not come up again until they try to kill him a second time. 2.)Sleipnir: if the characters let it be known in the underground that they know of the Sleipnir, Tieg will enter the picture and will try to build his “super ship”. If they tell AI, AI will enter into very aggressive, but civil negotiations to get the characters to help with its return. If they start selling parts of it, AI will start hunting them very, very aggressively. If they outright tell cerberus...well, cerberus doesn't have a jump ship, but this could also go down a very dark road. 3.)The Helen: If the characters drop off the goods to Livewire on Glauchus as is, he will be killed by Cerberus/Fenris, and the Helen will essentially declare a blood fued on every crew member except Ules, he being a psychonavigator. The way this will play out mostly, though, since Sparrowhawk assumes they have powerful backing (if this happens), is that Sparrowhawk will try to plan a mega-heist on their ship to steal their catalyst to replace what he has lost. I will need to plan this out as they would plan it, carefully: this will not be an easy thing for the players to escape. If the characters ask Mike about the goods, he will tell them it is likely going to Livewire, a very reclusive, dangerous, and very wanted freelance catalyst manufacturer with a very high price on his head. 4.)After the livewire episode resolves itself (somewhat...the heist will not happen that quickly, although sparrowhawk will want to strike sooner rather than later), there will be an announcement (which will be noted previously in the screamsheet) by von Goettingen, in which he will use a lot of strength and honor language (corporations are corrupt, manipulative, the Aeneans are fat and disgusting and weak, with no honor or decency) and declare the Castor system independent. This will essentially be the first verbal shot in the oncoming war. IMPORTANT: if Ed supports this guy, or if he says nothing when his people later declare for von Goettingen, he will successfully fight off the corporations and the Lycurgans: I will probably let the players play out this pitched battle in some sort of storytelling mechanism, probably like the prologue. It will cost him, but the lycurgans and the corps will also take very heavy losses (ie, half the lycurgan army and half the corporate fleet: actually, probably not that many, they will retreat first, maybe 25-50% losses). Of course, the lycurgans, phedre's militia, and the corps will take Aeneas, and will then prepare to mount a new attack on Castor. Ed's people will also, of course, have huge numbers of their warriors decimated, at least their veterans, although they will still have plenty of people to defend Troy should the need arise. If Ed's people do not help the Aeneans, then the Aeneans will lose in the first “war” though not immediately (although von goettingen is brilliant, he is matched by the lycurgan imperators, and the lycurgan boarding teams will cancel out his superior firepower, and they will retreat to calchas, which is the only planet they will hold firmly (althoough they will wreak havoc on troy, training their troops there in battle against ed's people. Prior to this, Ed will gain a few disads and bonuses to represent him further going to the dark side, especially if he continues to be of two minds ofn the livewire thing. Shortly after the announcement, corporate loyalists will attempt to fortify key areas of glauchus, since it will be evident that these areas will come under attack from the Aneneans. Probably in the next few sessions, this attack will arrive: von Goettingen will not be one to dily daly. The players can choose to ignore these happenings. Of course, their actions will affect them greatly. If the helen gets their catalyst, they will be able to make ammo for their sniper rifle and take out the medusa, at least temporarily, a major blow to von Goettingen.

The heist: The crew of the helen: Tin Can: weapons mechanic and muscle Im in your blank blanking your blank: Hacker and Security Carmichael: ex aenean robotics specialist and general mechanic Sparrowhawk: captain and muscle and contacts The Villalobos bros.: pilots Clytemnestra Mycenae: Psychonavigator and architect/planning Kyla Bertrand: Planning/security/hacker/structural mechanic Vladimir: contacts, muscle, demolitions, ship weapons Comtessa Vera du Germain: thief, b and e, security, planning, sniping/assassination Snake pliskin: thief, b and e, security, muscle, ship weapons Aeschylus: medic, chemist, muscle, chef Berndt: muscle, ship weapons, mechanics (?)

The helen will begin by hacking into whatever ship bay the characters are in on glaucus and downloading all their ship ID tags and everything about their docking situation. They will also enter in several viruses/commands to cause very innocuous things to go wrong in the base: problems that will delay their departure by 1-2 days. They will also use their contacts to just send a lot of fluff their way: invitations from fences and so forth, in the wake of the fighting, pleas for help, requests for important deliveries, etc. If the characters leave, they will try to keep their eyes out for them on other planets and try the same stunt there. Once they have them in one spot for a few days, they will jump in and get the plans for the station, or as much of it as they can. They will send Snake and the Comtessa into the tunnels to scout things out and get hardline connections. If they can, they will get a bug onto the ship, although I'm not sure how they will do this (if a character gets really drunk in a bar...) they will obviously try to tail the characters, although very, very carefully. Once they have the bay and so forth scouted out, they will map out all possible in and out paths to the bay: they assume that help is hidden but easily available, and rightly so, that the computer security of the station is much weaker than that of the ship. Once they have this, they will set up a program that will, on their signal, cause a power failure in the station and make it think that there is a leak, so that all the doors are locked; they will also have (unnecessarily) fused many other access ways to the bay. Having thus isolated the ship (at some night point), they will simultaneouslyno, no....prior to this, they will get the comtesse into the bay, and she will try to secrete herself on their ship. This will probably be the touchiest part of the mission, and they will probably run some interference when this happens (a “gang fight” or something in front of their bay. Once she is in place and is working on the ship's security from a hard connection, they will set up their guys in access ports close to the ship. As soon as the power cuts out, the comtesse will open one of the airlocks from inside and snake will join her with an emp charge. They will try to stealth their way to the bridge and take out anyone in the way (not fatally, at this point) and then steal the catalyst. If the crew gets wind of this, they will activate the emp charge. When the computer auto-reboots, the I'm in your blank will set up a virus that will deactivate all the doors and so forth on the ship. Meanwhile, Snake and the comtesse will hole themselves up/run interference while the muscle shows up for a bag and grab. If the crew defend for more than a few rounds, they will retreat. Their retreat will go through an access tunnel, which they will seal and then blow explosives to vent everything between the ship and them. They will drop to lower tunnels, jump on a rocket sled driven by one of the villalobos brothers, switch vehicles once, and then split up, with one person taking the item back to their ship, sealing it at one way point in its special casing. They will then slowly and discreetly make their way back to their shuttle, and then out to their ship, stealthed but landed on the other side of the planet.

070722 update The characters had their ship break down, with their fuel reserve finally running dry. Orentes fixed this relatively quickly, but in the meantime, the delivery to Livewire went awry and he was killed by Fenris agents. As such, the Helen declared blood fued on them and began plotting their heist. They kept the Golden Fleece in its bay for a while, then smuggled their stealth person onboard. They then went to steal the catalyst, but it took too long and the alarm was raised. There was a brutal battle, in which snake pliskin, the captain, and asmodeus were all forced to burn a storytelling point, but the catalyst was taken. Subsequently, the captain insulted the ship's egg by talking about captain bear, and the ship jumped to cassandra. Aedil expressed support for von Goettingen, which bodes badly for the Gemini, since his people will no be going over to Goettingen's side. The fact that none of the crew suspect Root is somewhat interesting...I don't know if I should clue them in or not. I suspect that next session they will try to get in touch with Hardwire: hardwire will already have been contacted by the Helen about a catalyst job critical to the safety of the Gemini...he will not have accepted yet, but he will be very concerned about the conflict between two jump ships especially at this time: the death of livewire will also be painful and worrisome to him. As such, he will bring the two ships to the table: the Helen with the promise of doing the catalyst job, the Golden Fleece by offering to return their catalyst, undamaged, to them. They will need to talk in a safe spot, so both crews will have to be able to come into the bar, even though Singularity rules don't allow battling crews in...Hardwire will manage to set up a meeting time in the bar, no weapons: hrulfgarr will be armed to the teeth for this occasion and will not hesitate to put the smack down. He will have concussion grenades, stun gas grenades, emp grenades, a stunner, a microwaver, an assault rifle, and a pistol...basically a walking death machine. Hardwire will try to orchestrate a peace and will try to get the crew thinking who might have killed livewire, assuming he believes the crew that they didn't do it...which the evidence largely supports (although then the obvious follow up would be, they told somebody). This could lead to a hunt for mike (likely) or perhaps the discovery that root may have his own agenda. Hardwire will return the Golden Fleece's catalyst, but with the warning that they must use it to find a replacement piece of catalyst of similar size (unprocessed) to the last one to make good to the Helen: in addition, they will owe them a blood debt (very high level favor) because their error/unseemly pirate-y conduct led to the death of livewire. In return, the helen calls off the feud. If the players accept, Hardwire will modify the catalyst container with a small device that will damage it should the players double cross him or the helen. If they refuse...well, then they can do whatever they want, although Matt will then likely lose Hardwire as a contact. Once this is agreed upon, the characters can set out to get catalyst: there is some in the sleipnir, which they could steal (a piece similar in size to their own: Hardwire will need about half of this to produce the bullet). Screamsheet news should include the takeover of much of calchas by christian fundamentalists, who will declare themselves for von Goettingen (which may serve as a clue to the characters that he might be trouble). Also, screamsheets will include a declaration that a pan-pollux militia is being formed, recruiting from all social classes and planets, to bring down Aeneas: pay is room and board and equipment, but all recruits are guaranteed property (ie, spoils) from Aeneas. The Lycurgan imperator of Castor will be indicated as being on Glaucus, organizing the defense of the planet. Those with military contacts will know that the imperator is looking for a small, maneuverable, and well stealthed vessel to take a package to Calchas. If the players try to get this job, it will not be easy convincing the Imperator that they are good for it, especially with their smuggler nega-rep...although admittedly, they cannot jump again, yet. Of course, if they get the issue with the catalyst resolved, they will be able to. The cargo is the 2 ten man teams of lycurgans that used to work for core: they are well familiar with tunnel fighting, castor, and are even somewhat aware (only in the tiniest sense) of the norse, who will of course now become a bigger presence). They are basically going underground on Calchas to stir up trouble, gather intel, etc. These two teams will become very important if this mission goes well, so I really want to players to have a hand in it. News will also report (after I send Ed an email) that Sources indicate that von Goettingen has suddenly gained access to large quantities of infantry on Troy, a division in which he was sorely lacking. This shores up the main weakness in his armada and may protect him against the dangerous boarding threat of the lycurgans. Once the characters have resolved their debate with Hardwire, they will probably need to go out and get some catalyst. Perhaps I'll let them get ambushed by somebody out to get the kingsnake just so they can whoop on somebody.