Difference between revisions of "Gemini Recap"

Revision as of 16:31, 28 July 2007

Gemini Index

4/6/07 Prologue

The group came together, and much adventure was had.

4/13/07 Here we go a wassaling

Finished our delivery to somebody on Diomedes for 8000 credits. Aedil and Ules spent some time at an archaeology conference with Aedil's old mentor Platocrates. They also met Leif Hrulfgarrson. Crew made some security system modifications and Glaccus got laid. Then they took a job rescuing a ship stranded after a pirate attack, and disabled the pirate ship that lay in wait. The crew were rescued and ship repaired. A reward of 20,000 credits was promised for this job.

4/27/07 The first mission

Repaired the "Optimus" and escorted it to St. Augustin Fortress. Saved Marla (ship's camp follower) from a malfunctioning cryotank and received equivalent reward.
Stayed a few hours at St. Augustin and received free copies of the Bible, plus the promised $20,000 for the S&R job
Jumped to Nestor 1 and met with Argyle Phillippe to transport 3 small crates to Troy Station; crates delivered with $12,500 (50%) paid upfront
and appear to contain frozen fish, Aedil expresses distrust; scan conducted with Archeology kit reveals no bones/skeletons
Aedil & Gloval have dinner with Argyle and associates on planet, enjoy beaches & massages; Ules fruitlessly searches for railgun ammo & successfully gambles for $650
Orentes does some electronics shopping, finishes the upgrades to ship security and takes delivery of general ship parts
Arrived at Troy Station and passed customs without incident, manifest shows that we transferred fish from freighter on Glaucus; made delivery, but freak accident occurs
and spills one crate of fresh fish & crushed ice (Aedil searches for contraband to no result); quick thinking results in a fast resolution w/out discovery
Minor fracas breaks out between Aedil and Gloval due to Aedil's actions in the fish crisis (i.e., not helping and risking our job by searching, despite Gloval's orders)

And suddenly, a VOLCANO explodes!!!!!!!! (no, this isn't a joke); we received immediate clearance to evacuate employees and Lycurgan security from Core Inc. HQ
flying low towards the Spire we see it's at an odd angle and looks to be sinking; the atmosphere is nonexistant except for trace gases

5/04/07 The adventure continues

Made several trips to the volcanic surface to rescue listed personnel, close call with a rocket launcher; Lucius Pomponius- leader of Lycurgan contnigent we rescued personally
thanked us. Made an extra trip or two and as many of the mobbed and panicking citizens as we could, attempted to contact Aedil's people and were rebuffed
Flew out and jumped away to Nestor 1 after having done all we could, discovered a stowaway "Mike" on the trip. The crew took to him quickly, but was later disappointed when they
presented him to Argyle and Cpt. Gloval overheard that "Mike" was in fact part of a crime family.
After hosting us to dinner, we quickly took up Argyle on an offer to transport a case of pearls to Priam and left immediately. We were tracked and hailed by "Mike", who we quickly
lost through our stealth capabilities, then jumped away to Priam. The transaction took place without incident and the crew split up to pursue various interests. Gloval sparred a
bit at a gentlemen's club, Aedil researched at a library and Ules set up a poker showdown on Diomedes.
The ship jumps on over and we all meet up at a bar for Ules' showdown. A contact of Ules' is also set to work looking for some ammo for the ship.
Ules shows up late at the bar and absolutely nothing happens. He later reveals he chilled with a secret club of psychonavigators. The ammo comes through and the Golden Fleece is
ready for action again.

5/11/07 Andromache 3

The jump was made to Andromache 3, but the Fleece was a fraction off on its exit. Ules claims something is funky in the software, but Sola can't find anything wrong. Orentes modified the hovertruck to operate in desert conditions and the ship is warned off on its current landing trajectory by a Lycurgan ship captain. Ules takes the ship in under stealth, but away from the focus of the Lycurgan site. After landing, Orentes, Ules and Aedil trek out (500') to inspect a potential site. Minor silverware is found after a full day's work. Everyone goes to sleep in the ship except Aedil. When Orentes wakes up and finds Aedil safely asleep, he notices that the mining robot has been stolen. No tracks lead anywhere and the evidence points to very sneaky local thieves. We take an airborne scan and fly towards the nearest settlement. Aedil and Ules talk to the locals on the radio and go to inspect the building with some traces of the robot alloy where they're jumped by THE Stonewall Jackson and quickly taken prisoners. After the dust settles, it all turns out that Stonewall had advertised the work for the planet and was simply making sure that the Fleece wasn't a bunch of mercs. The crew (minus Orentes and Sola) landed and all went to talk it over with Stonewall.
Stonewall's opinion is that such thefts are frequent and profitable, and that there's going to be a new mining site opening up shortly at the Lycurgan site. He also thinks that it is the Chino gang that is responsible, who is also the problem he's called in help for. The Chino's are highly mobile, constantly staying in different villages and with extensive contacts, possibly possessing an orbital transport. Long discussion over possible ways to attack the Chinos leads nowhere. We decide to fly in close to Peatsedge and drive in from there with: Ules, Aedil and Gracchus and hope to contact the local black market and see if we can track down the robot. After a brief poker game at a local dive, they're directed over to The Casino on Queen St. for a much bigger game.

5/18/07 The Gambler, the Gang and the Golden Fleece

Ules & Aedil enter "The Casino" and work their way into the backroom games and strike up a deal with Grandfather Smitty to get some automated mining equipment. 4 hours later they exit and the whole group returns safely to the ship. Further scans from orbit reveal a robot in a warehouse in Peatsedge. Sola hacks in and finds that the robot is the exact same model of our robot. The robot lacks logs, isn't listed on public registration sites and has a slightly newer motherboard then our version. Ules visits G. Smitty again and offers him money to get the Chinos. Smitty says he'll think it over and Gracchus chases down some kid that had been keeping watch on them. The kid doesn't know anything and is let go after being frightened out of his mind. Brief contact is made with Stonewall who is unhappy about being contacted over un-related matters. The warehouse the robot is stored in is owned by Porphory Corp. and data on the servers doesn't provide any info pro or con as to it having been stolen or produced legitimately. Further talks with Porphory Customer Support reveal an anti-theft transponder that doesn't come up in a search when we run it.

Further contact with G. Smitty leads to a deal to turn over the Chinos in return for the armor and rifle of Stonewall. We agree to bring the armor if G. Smitty brings the Chinos. Much planning goes into the raid onto the Chino bar that's been identified to us. A sneaky plan to ambush the Chinos is put into place with Gracchus, Ules, Aedil and Stonewall surrounding the building with the Golden Fleece hovering above the bar. The break-in didn't go as plan, and opening shots by Gracchus set off a gas-filled room, demolishing the entire building. Gracchus barely survived by dodging into the walk-in cooler; Aedil walked away unscathed, but only because Stonewall took the full blast meant for him and fell into a coma. Only a complete refusal to give up and amazing skill allowed Asmodeus to stabilize Stonewall. Sharp eyes beheld a lone figure fleeing another building down the street from the bar and Ules took off after him. Gracchus also gave chase and managed to drop the runner with a ramjet round. Asmodeus saved this suspicious character as well for later questioning. The 'Fleece took to the skies once another ship of bounty hunters entered the disaster zone and the crew paused to breath and consider the consequences their actions may have caused.

5/25/07 Get me the hell off this planet!!

Basic investigation of Wall's mayor and several days of interrogation of the captured prisoner, code-named, "Joey", reveals no applicable information. The crew accepts payment of 120,000cr from G. Smitty, drops "Joey" off at the outskirts of Glendale and flies off to Andromache 1 to pick up a new mining 'bot Samuel, Gracchus and Ules stay behind in Wall to keep watch over things. Purchases are made and the town stays blissfully quiet. Digging resumes on the original site with no particular finds, save for a bottle, for several days, with the exception of strange activity around the hole, possible animal in origin. Aedil uncovers an ancient PDA in a pocket of water that Gloval identifies as a pre-Sundering mining brand, after careful consideration it is removed and placed into an archeochamber. A very odd series of circumstances leads to someone excavating our dig site and leaving all the findings with carefully marked tags out for us. We don't ask questions and take everything, drop Stonewall back off at Wall and hear the news that the mayor of Glendale was murdered. We purchase 20 head of cattle and take off from Andromache 3 and fly off to Nestor 1. Upon arrival we pay the docking fee ($500) and contact Phillippe and offer him first crack at our cattle-cargo. Mike contacts us again and offers us $50k for a no-questions-asked job making a quick delivery. The crew discusses but doesn't come to any immediate decision. Phillippe comes through with a contact at the local Lycurgan island and all heads are sold for a net profit of $950 each ($1,200 per crewmember). The action stops there to be picked up next week. Same bat time, same bat channel.

6/02/07 Double, Double, toil and trouble

The Fleece departs the Lycurgan resort on the surface of Nestor 1 to the Main Station in orbit and docks while the crew decides what to do. Much discussion ensues to no resolution. Aedil contacts his academic mentor Platocrates and arranges to drop off the items dug up on Andromache 3, Ules enters into secret discussion with Mike, Gloval enters a contract with Phillippe and Orentes goes off to buy brewing equipment. The crew becomes suspicious and had Sola look into Ules' communications. An enormous argument ensues among the crew regarding future actions. Orentes is separately kidnapped by the crew of the Boa Contractor who are licensed bounty hunters under the impression he is the reknowned criminal "The Kingsnake". Orentes manages to receive a call from Argyle Phillipe and gets out a brief message with dock# and the bounty hunters' insignia (black & red snakes twining together and fighting). The crew continues the discussion and Ules goes off ship to arrange his own deals. Gloval finally hears his phone ringing and calls Phillippe back and finally receives Orentes' message. The crew goes into action and tracks the Boa Contractor as having departed 10 minutes previous. The Fleece tries to hack the Boa but can't stop it, so the crew settles for plotting the Boa's course. With around 20 days until the Boa reaches its predicted destination and Phillippe pressuring the crew to take care of the Lycurgan shipment. The Fleece returns to Main Station and picks up Ules with 2 giant crates that turn out to be full of very high quality and very illegal weaponry, plus Mike himself. After much grumbling the crew decides to continue with the mission but with some caveats in terms of security. A very quick turn around on Priam brings another large crate and a Lycurgan courier. An uneventful trip and the crew is suddenly faced with a customs inspection. The illegal crates are hidden on the shuttle and the secret compartment and the customs inspector with twin bodyguards show up. The Lycurgan passes with flying colors and sends the crate off with his contact. The inspector is invited to a nice repast of whiskey, stakes and $10k credits. Everything goes off without a hitch after that and the crew (mostly) breathes a sigh of relief to have all the danger off of the ship.

During all this, Orentes is put in a featureless cubical jail cell. Using his mad skilz, Orentes spoofs the ship's sensors into opening the door and makes his escape. He's quickly spotted and manages to blow-out all the lights in the cargo bay. Using the confusion to drop a level down, Orentes flees up towards the bridge and manages to find a pistol which he wields to deadly effect, killing one of his pursuers and setting another two to flight. Unfortunately for our intrepid hero, a fourth bounty hunter jumps from above and wrestles the gun away, disabling Orentes with a shot to the arm.

Back to the Golden Fleece, the crew discusses its tactical options. Settling on a battleplan, the crew pulls a familiar maneuver and jumps in with a surprise strafe and makes a strong hit. Both ships immediately open up dialogue and settle in to negotiate. Cpt. Straczynski of the Boa has heard of Cpt. Gloval, and nothing good, so he refuses to turn over Orentes unless it's at a neutral port or collateral is put up. The ship's funds are put up to Samuel's bail bondsman contact as escrow and a small handcart of junk and a lone spacesuited figure is ejected out of the Boa's airlock. The Fleece gathers everything up and Orentes' wounds are tended.

Despite Aedil's grumbling, the crew decides to take a leisurely 5-day cruise back to Nestor 1. Upon arrival, Phillippe delivers an invitation to a ball at the Lycurgan resort for himself, Ules and guest (which turns out to be Aedil). The partygoers make their preparations while Gloval convinces Orentes to stay on the ship while he goes shopping for him. Gloval picks up an insane variety of equipment without incident and the crew settles in for a (hopefully) quiet evening. Meanwhile, on the surface, Ules and Aedil are having a slightly uncomfortable time mixing with all the VIPs. They run into DJ Phedre and begin discussions about the future party on the ship. Aedil discovers his new suit is worth ~$100,000cr and Ules, fashionable in his ghost suit and blazer combo, tracks down the the navigator of the Monte Cristo, Mia Cavalierre. The intrepid duo then moves on to Mia's employer, and richest man in the Gemini, Tetsuo Haraa. A brief conversation that Ules and Aedil immediately forget flits by and Aedil is next approached by Root, sysops admin of Ceberus, who appears most interested in the archeological work done by the Fleece on Andromache 3. Ules pursues more conversation with Mia before finally calling it a night. The Golden Fleece departs for Diomedes the next day on an easy jump, only to find itself coming out of the warp in unknown space, Ules unconscious on the floor and alarms blaring that there may be an overheated coil somewhere...

7/06/07: Bite of the Kingsnake

Hanging out on Glauchus, Orentes went out to find a local contact to try and track down some superior armor for himself and Aedil. He was again mistaken for the mysterious "Kingsnake" and managed to leave without further difficulties. Gracchus and Samuel went out carousing on the town. This nearly turned to tragedy when a fanatical religious zealot tried to gun down Samuel for having allegedly date-raped his wife, who then committed suicide. Samuel n hgbarely survived the attempt (lost a Storytelling point) and brought the vigilante back to the ship for interrogation. Gracchus and Aedil failed to elicit more than the basic story out of the vigilante and were at a loss as to their next step. Samuel eventually left with the vigilante and claims to have turned him over to the local police.
Aedil, Orentes and Sola worked together to rig the archeoscanner up to create a detailed image of the old memory chip from the PDA Aedil dug up on Andromache 3 and are now trying to create a working virtual model of the memory based off of the scan and the closest matching modern chip. They'll then try and defrag & reconstruct the actual stored data.
While later resting and recuperating on the Fleece, the crew was awakened to the sound of the bay doors being blown in and a band of armed men swarming towards the ship!! As Gracchus and Aedil rushed to the armory to prepare for battle, Orentes ran up to the bridge and engaged a desparate maneuver: test firing the engines within port. Orentes managed to override the AI safety systems and burned the invaders to atoms. Unfortunately, and with the best intentions in mind, Orentes forgot that the surface of Glauchus was airless and that ships use their antigrav systems to take-off and land. The sudden introduction of a several million-kelvin stream of ions, while successfully eliminating the threat, also destroyed the entire rear wall of the spaceport and cracked the landing dome, leading to explosive decompression of the general area. Orentes did his best to con the landing tower about the cause of the incident, but their hardline approach and demand to "stand down and prepare to be boarded" left little choice in the matter. As the landing dome was locked closed, Gracchus blew them apart and the Golden Fleece blasted out of Glauchus Port like the proverbial bat out of hell. Luckily there were no collateral casualties (Orentes burned a permanent Storytelling point), but unfortunately it was too late to try and cover the tracks via Sola's hacking skills. Orentes called back to his local contacts and was informed that the "Kingsnake's" armor would be ready as soon as they could get it, and to please not burn them all up like at the spaceport.
At this point Orentes became 110% behind the Aedil Initiative to revisit the Orion Nebula. After flying a sufficient ways outside of Glauchus, Ules calculated a successful jump to the coordinates given to Aedil by the gods and the ship arrived safely. A scan by Sola revealed a the possibility of a heavily cloaked ship a mere tens of thousands of kilometers away. The crew paused to discuss their options and calculated a jump back to Nestor just to have a way out. Further scans revealed metallic fragments in the general area where the mystery ship could be hiding. Having prepared their escape, the crew decides to try and hail the ship. Despite empassioned attempts by Aedil, the comms remained silent. Thanks to an amazing bit of sensor manipulation by Sola, the Fleece was able to pin down the area of the ship and began a 3D search grid. About an hour into the search, Aedil's sharp eyes notice the light of a far away star being blocked out. The ship approaches and after shining the ship's enormous searchlight onto it, Aedil comes to the shocking realization that he recognizes the ship. It's the most well-known ship of the entire Gemini: the SLEIPNIR. After overcoming their shock, the crew scans the exterior of the ship and realizes that all the airlocks appear to have been smoothly cut right out of the hull! Revising their original plan, Orentes, Aedil and Samuel fly over in the shuttle in spacesuits and prepare to board.
Due to the lack of airlocks on the Sleipnir, Samuel has to maneuver the shuttle as close as possible and then have the crew leap across the black gulf of emptiness. Aedil, bravest of the brave, takes the first leap into history, and promptly bumps into the lip of the shuttle airlock and spins out of control. Aedil bounces down the corridor out of control, losing first his flashlight, then his pistol, and finally his hammer. His radio signal oddly breaks up as he enters the ship, and his desperate attempts to activate the magnetic boots results in the activation of his emergency immobilization myomers there for injured patients. Orentes, meanwhile, is attempting to screw up his courage to make the leap across and balks. Despite great exhortations by Samuel, Orentes cannot muster his courage to make the leap. Things are not aided by the sudden appearance of Aedil's lost flashlight bouncing off the shuttles portal, which sets Orentes afright, ending in a fouled airlock and the shuttle on a return trip to the Golden Fleece to return Orentes and pick up Gracchus. As Orentes seeks to calm his nerves with a stiff drink, Gracchus returns to the Sleipnir and makes the leap to find Aedil. Despite also being surprised by nonfunctional magnetic boots, Gracchus managed to make contact with Aedil and find him. Successfully freeing Aedil from his suit's iron grasp, the two tie themselves together, orient themselves towards the bow. Aedil calls back his hammer and the two intrepid explorers begin the trek through the ship.
Meanwhile, back on the ship, Orentes manages to calm himself and calls over to Samuel to see how things stand. Samuel, deciding it an appropriate time for a prank, begins screaming like a lost soul suffering the ternal torment of Hell. Orentes again violently loses the contents of his stomach and flees straight to the bridge to demand Cpt. Gloval and Ules fly back to the jump coordinates and return to safe space. Gloval moves the Fleece a few miles away for safety reasons and attempts to contact Samuel. Samuel acts the innocent and Orentes whispers madly that all those who have left the ship have already been lost and it is in fact the Others who are now speaking in their voices. Getting Sola to replay their previous contact, Gloval does become suspicious as to whether it is Samuel speaking or not. Aedil and Gracchus finally find their way out of the Sleipnir, but are unsure as to where they have exited and see neither the shuttle or Fleece. Lucky for them, Gloval dismisses Orentes' mad ravings and picks up the rest of the crew. Orentes is sedated by Asmodeus when he proves to be unable to regain control of himself.
Cpt. Gloval begins the debrief of Aedil and Gracchus on what they saw (odd floating debris and a complete lack of power, gravity or bodies) and begins to outline the general layout of the Sleipnir.


(At this point Jeremy had to go for work the next day, so the group quit on a cliffhanger)

07/13/07 Cliff ahead; pedal to the metal

Continued investigation of the Sleipnir revealed that all the corridors and chambers and doors and airlocks had been surgiaclly removed such that you could not tell they had ever been there. any traces of non-Ktech materials were gone. Gloval, Graccus and Orentes explored. there was much floating bits and they found the ring from the psychonavigator as well as a 3 foot egg shaped metalic thing. The Egg glows when touched by human hand, other floating bits from the seipnir (which are presumably all K tech), and Aedil's hammer, but not other inanimate objects. Scan of the egg reveals definitely k tech origin and very old. The ring does not register on the archeoscanner, and makes the egg glow also, suggesting it is k tech. Out of ideas, we departed for Andromache 3.

Meanwhile, Orentes turned a laser shotgun into an emp rifle and zapped the new robot. Having fired 40% of the robots circuits and destroying our rifle in the process, Orentes returned with his prize to the machine shop.

Sola continued investigation on the PDA chip, fixing some of the damage, but realizing that she needs cryptographic expertise to decode the corupted data. Anyone know a cryptographer?

On Andromache 3, Gloval offered the lycrugan coin to Stonewall, who refused the gift on the grounds that he was not allowed to accept it. Quick search for things to do revealed a pair of hicks straned in the desert; Orentes fixed their entine on the spot in return for a possible lead on a archeo-site. site turned out to be aedil's previous dig from years ago, and although there were no new finds, the graves of his companions had been disturbed. Upon restoring the graves, Aedil and the Doc found that all 8 men had been killed by blunt force trauma and have been Erased.

We next recieved a job offer, and Orentes acknowledged our interest. Flew to Iomedius to meet the contractor and found a cloaked domed city that apparently moves. This spooked Orentes, who demanded that we flee. As Aedil was not particularly interested in anohter milk run and Gloval was gorked out on Benadryl, the ship left. As Orentes appeared reticent to contact the contractor, Aedil sent message declining the job and upon their response said that Orentes was uneasy with the job. This unleased a barrage of insults regarding Orentes possible castration or gender. Orentes reconsidered and agreed to meet in space. The cloaked city turned out to be the smuggler central Tortuga. The contractor turned out to be the Helen, a piraty jump ship, which entered into aggressive negotiations. Orentes and Samuel ended up meeting their representative on a shuttle and agreed to transport an item to Glachus and then another item from Glauchus to _______ for 120,000 credits. Aedil found the whole deal suspicious as the Helen was a jump ship and could do the run itself, so he wanted to scan the package. Orentes disabled the archeoscanner, and refused to fix it, so Aedil smashed the box open. Inside was the exact same piece of Catalyst that the crew previously found on Cassandra and had since sold. Suspecting fould intent, Aedil querries the crew on what to do next while Orentes does his best to ignore him. ......

07/20/2007 Exit Catalyst

The crew resolved to travel to Glaucus, and complete the mission. They dropped the mangled Catalyst box into a garbage chute, and were instructed to wait for the finished product to take back to Cassandra. Instead, the Helen accused them of murdering Livewire, the man who supposedly would shape the Catalyst and a former crew member of the Helen, and declared a blood feud.

Then the Helen's elite strike team bbqpwned the crew of the Golden Fleece in a daring stealthsuit heist, and managed to steal the catalyst from the ship's psycho-nav console, but not without sustaining some injury (apparently to one "I thought you were dead" Snake Pliskin), and not without taking a serious pounding from Sola's inspired hacking. In the humbling aftermath of the conflict, Gloval taunts the ship's egg thingy, and apparently the ship jumps (out of the docking bay on Glaucus) to Cassandra.

Ules collapses in a heap, sobbing "not again, don't do it again, Captain Bear..."

...And is promptly struck unconscious in a single blow by Braeus: "sorry sir, according to our contract, it is for your own good."

7/27/07 Here we go a bickering

Hotwire offered the crew a chance to reconcile with the Helen; he would provide a temporary fix to the psycho-nav and the two crews would meet on Diomedes. Much bickering ensued. Mostly, the captain insisted that the crew was too incompetent to meet the Helen crew again, regardless of the assurances of the rules of parley. Eventually, Gloval gave in to Ules and Aedil. On Diomedes, the crew met the Helen crew in the Psycho-Nav bar. On the way in, Orentes burned a permanent storytelling point to explode a bomb as it was being checked at the door. Only by all crew members burning storytelling points did the crew survive and have the bomb not explode. Aedil broke his middle finger moments later when Orentes flipped him the bird. The Helen demanded replacement for their lost catalyst, but Gloval vociferously proclaimed that the crew was too incompetent to undertake such an assignment. When it was revealed that catalyst could be scavenged from the Sleipnir at almost no risk, Gloval gave in. Completely demoralized by their own incompetence and disunity, the crew returned to the ship with their tails between their legs.