Session 6

Session 6 notes

Plans to turn grav truck into Elon Musk cybertruck… with guns!

Jed is stir-crazy and tries to learn how to do basic repairs on the truck/ship from Aquila.

Gravity of ship is 1.2G (Chhayan surface), Aegis ships have lower gravity due to being made in space. It’s possible to make modifications to ship to turn off artificial gravity, but further modifications are difficult (almost TL5).

Fastest time to get back into drill space is 15 minutes, but average time is 30 minutes. This is the time to refuel from fuel bunkers, and you are supposed to be the most alert. Coming out of drill space, the flash blinders retract quickly and the blast shields go away (which are there to protect against exposure to metaspace, which screws with your brain). Rowan does a sweep of the area for transistors and finds an SOS signal with directions encoded.

There are pirate strategies involving honeypotting, but they don’t usually involve a tight beam (which allows you to communicate in real time). A possible cause is messing up a drill, but still burning the fuel (and thus not having enough fuel to get back). They open up communication.

The ship broadcasts as a Chhayan-made ship (not in the navy) “Goes to eleven” and Rowan can get a general shape with radar pings. The leader is a shaky woman’s voice who says they ran out of fuel after botching a navigation jump. They offer to pay for fuel, and said that a ship passed by 3 days ago that had “higher priorities”.

We start heading in that direction. Rowan wants pay, but Aquila and Jedidiah don’t want pay. The leader mentions their brother getting burned while trying to repair. They probably moved their ship away from the jump areas (so that people coming out of drill space wouldn’t shoot them out of fear): they have a working system drive, just not a working drill drive. Just her and her brother, they have a month of air: traveling from Pusti to Katla.

Lorelai brings up John Turner with Janick, who says that they don’t think that has to happen.

Lampray lock: forcibly connect airlock to another ship in battle. Much easier when both parties are willing.

They claim to be hauling rocks from the asteroid belt in Pusti. They’re offering 100 credits per person, but we top off our air on them and bring the price down to 75 per. Bijou is hiding in some space during the encounter (her usual space). Aquila set up a hammock in the engine room, so the guests can sleep in Aquila’s room. Their names are Norah and Oliver. They have special equipment to mine by hand, which indicates either illegal mining (trying not to kick up emissions and be seen) or delicate mining. They claim it’s for “efficiency” (only getting the actual desired minerals inside the rock, as opposed to the rocks themselves). Most of listed minerals are common things (contrary to what he says, “he only gets the best stuff”), like metals for spaceship hulls or TL4 armors. He probably has more valuable stuff in his ship, but he’s not disclosing it.

Norah is obviously not as good of a pilot as Janick. You can blow the airlock, but it will cause damage to the ship and vent anyone in the airlock or on their side of the airlock into space. Engaging/disengaging an airlock takes 15 to 30 minutes. You can link up ships in drill space (probably used by some general to link fighters famously to win a fight), but a level 1 spike drive cannot tow another ship.

Jedidiah and Rowan set up in the cargo bay to cover the party’s back. Everyone else goes onto the ship. Tall, slender, athletic built woman and shorter, thickly man wearing a technician’s jumpsuit unzipped to his waist with the top half down. His right arm is covered in burns with bandages over them, but the burns are leaking. The woman is wearing a flight suit that anything like armor/vac-suit can be worn over it. Both are armed, but they’re not trying to hide it. Aquila brings a board of space cheese.

Rowan does his mind link thing and gets frustration and a little embarrassment from Oliver, and nervousness from Norah. Their last name is Green. Rowan uses a mental power to figure out what the woman is thinking, saying “just the two of you?” Norah is think-asking why Rowan is hiding behind the truck? Jedidiah asks about how the book was, which Norah dodges and thinks about not letting Jedidiah down too hard. Oliver gets taken to the med bay, and Norah is worried about Oliver getting taken to a part of the ship that she’s not at. Aquila and Janick take Oliver to the med bay, Lorelai and Rowan go with Norah onto the ship, and Jedidiah stays in the cargo bay.

Janick got a “surplus” ship which is why his ship is nicer than Oliver’s similarly-Chhayan-made ship. The med bay has a burn station, and Janick can easily give Oliver something to dull the pain (but not necessarily treat it) and sterilize the wound. Oliver’s wounds aren’t normally supposed to be severe, but the lack of good medical equipment on their ship probably led to it being worse than it should’ve been. Aquila patches up Oliver and holds a conversation with him. Oliver always wanted to be an engineer, and Aquila offers to go check out his work. Aquila goes with Oliver onto the ship, and Janick stays behind (gets Jedidiah to take his place in the med bay and goes back to the bridge to monitor scanners).

It’s still cold in the cargo bay (although it has air and is pressurized). Rowan knows the code to get into the cargo bay by hearing Norah think it. There are subzero temperatures in the cargo hold, and there are tons of rocks. Rowan asks about Norah’s best rocks, while Norah gets a coat labelled “Norah” (and gives the other coat to Rowan, after Lorelai passes on it). The rocks have no organization, and nothing looks secured (combat maneuvers would likely lead to rocks going everywhere). The ship is very well reinforced (it might take a few shots to breach the hull), but the walls of the hull are dinged up. Some of the asteroids very obviously have minerals in them, and others have ice. Norah and Lorelai start jumping on the rocks, looking around for “shiny rocks”. They come to a sedan-sized hump of rock that Norah is proud of (one of the last rocks they got in the Pusti system) with a geode in it: “the shiniest thing they’ve got in the cargo hold” (and she’s not lying). Rowan asks what the most valuable thing in the cargo hold, to which Norah is immediately suspicious. Lorelai punches Rowan in the stomach: Norah obviously likes Lorelai a lot, and dislikes Rowan a lot. Even if Rowan keeps asking, Norah only thinks about steering the conversation and disliking Rowan. Lorelai used to collect rocks with her mom, and Norah seems to be genuinely empathetic. Rowan tries to leave the cargo bay, and Norah tries to follow Rowan (obviously not trusting him). Rowan says “we’re rescuing you, young lady” and pisses Norah off. Lorelai gets them to all return to the ship to check on Oliver, and Rowan telepathically tells Lorelai the passcode.