Traveller: Session 51

 

This session was run on December 14, 2023.

192-1118

When the travellers arrived at Gyration, knowing that the system only had a Class D starport, they proceeded directly to the gas giant to begin refueling operations. While scooping hydrogen from the upper levels of the gas giant they spread Arenui’s ashes in orbit. The droyne had been quite taken with the idea of a planet named Gyration, so they felt they were doing what he would have wanted with his remains.

While inbound to the mainworld, they used the system-wide net to find a broker in hopes of finding a good deal for their open cargo space. They were unable to find a deal they thought was fair before they made landfall. Once on the surface, they discovered that Gyration was a small, airless, desert world. Its population of two million lives in domes on the surface. Immediately after disembarking, they were confronted with large pictures of the Glorious Leader Hemphstaid III. An audio message blared out a warning that the glorious leader was cracking down on “counter-revolutionary forces,” but the details on their exact motivations were vague. They would encounter statues and pictures of Hemphstaid III on almost every street corner during their stay, always accompanied by a propaganda message.

Despite dedicating all of their efforts to the search, they failed to find any freight at an acceptable price over the next three days. While the Gyration system had large petroleum reserves, the glorious leader levied a large export tax as part of a “Gyration Oil for Gyrators” campaign.

195-1118

They found two job opportunities that were of interest:

“Mr. Johnson” was offering to pay 12,000Cr for the travellers to transport a briefcase to Westfir. “Mr. Johnson” explained that the contents of the briefcase were very valuable but not dangerous to them, or The Prismatic Ray. They decide this sounds like easy money and take the job. He tells them to leave the briefcase with his cousin, “Mr. Johnson” at the spaceport.

M’Han took a job from Abraham Neville, a middle-aged man he met in the hospital, paying 2,000Cr to carry a message to Hewes. Abraham explained that he was a communications router and carried short communications, which he memorized, only saying them out loud to the intended recipient. He told M’Han that he thinks of himself as a link in a chain, delivering the message to another who will carry it for a few systems before repeating it themselves. The messages are always in code, and the delivery instructions always arrive separately from the message itself. Due to his injuries, he would be unable to deliver the message himself. M’Han agreed to carry the message, “Walk red through green falcons,” to D’ay’uwo, a female Aslan he would find in the Dry Dock bar.

Since Gyration only had a Class D starport, they were unable to complete the monthly maintenance due on 194 and, deciding to take the risk, jumped to Raasara.

202-1118

They misjumped, due to poor maintenance, and suffered damage to their fuel scoops and armor. The misjump left them three days from the mainworld.

205-1118

Raasara was a wet world with a diameter slightly less than that of Terra with a tainted atmosphere and four million inhabitants. Its Class B starport was able to provide refined fuel as well as all the repair services needed to fix The Prismatic Ray. The repair bill for the missed maintenance was 40,000Cr on top of the usual monthly costs. The next maintenance would be due on 235-1118. Once the ship was secured in the repair facility, the travellers dropped of Gyr, the young singer they picked up on Daazu, and collected her 15,000Cr fare.

Simi finally broke her run of bad luck when it came to finding freight and secured a deal for 6 tons of crystals and gems for 85% of their usual base price.  Simi spent the next two days securing fake identification for Sanya in the hope of avoiding any of her gold-digging ex-husbands until she reached Feme.

208-1118

With one passenger birth open, they took on Shenmess Ceic, a human female in her late twenties headed for Westfir. Ceic was a short, blond woman in a smartly pressed Navy uniform bearing the rank of Sublieutenant. Her wore medals indicating that she had been honorably discharged based on injury and a Medal for Conspicuous Gallantry. She told them that she had been an artillery officer and was hoping to find mercenary work.

They took a job from Tandy Shraigh, a communications engineer, to serve as the crew on a three-day space lane data collection contract in the outer system. On the first day, Aryanna noticed that all of the data they were collecting seemed to be communications from ships with registration errors. When pressed for more information, Tandy admitted that she was an agent with Raasara law enforcement and needed an unknown ship to monitor for potential slavers. The travellers decided that this was a worthy cause and decided to continue despite the deception.

On the second day, they intercepted radio traffic indicating that a ship called The Hawk had slaves for sale. Most likely belt miners that had defaulted on high-interest pay day loans. They located The Hawk, a poorly maintained far trader, and began tailing it.

On the third day, they detected a small explosion from one of The Hawk’s maneuver drives that was quickly followed by a distress signal. The Prismatic Ray pulled alongside the damaged ship and mated hatches. The travellers armed up and went aboard to find two crew members, Dirk and Matzu, and six people in cold sleep. They arrested the two crew and towed the ship back to the spaceport. They were paid 2,000Cr each for the job and a 3,333Cr reward for rescuing the enslaved miners.

211-1118

Their work done on Raasara, they decided to take what appeared to be an easy escort mission out to the jump point. Zash Brek was convinced that someone was trying to murder him and offered 25000Cr for the travellers to escort his small scout ship to the jump point. Six hours into the trip, Ceic, who was taking a turn at the sensors, detected a ship shadowing them, a deeper scan revealed it to be a system patrol boat. They radioed Zash to warn him about the ship and question him as to why a system patrol boat might be looking for him. He cut off communications and  started to accelerate hard away.

The system patrol boat closed quickly with The Prismatic Ray and hailed them. They decided they had no loyalty to Zash, especially since he skipped out without paying them, and told law enforcement who was aboard the fleeing ship. They were warned that Zash was wanted for murder and the patrol boat took off in pursuit. The travellers jumped away to Hewes.