About 6 hours after we first interrogate Tigerlord a vessel comes into sensor range that we detect on approach to pirate island planet. We can tell it’s slightly smaller than we are and is using induction engines. It’s not trying to hide as it’s using active sensors to sweep the area. We’re unsure if it has detected us. We elect to drop into the atmosphere, away from the city, to hide, leaving the ship on autopilot to circle safely. We track the ship until it begins decelerating, assuredly to enter orbit, when we lose tracking.
We wait 24 hours and try to mind rape Tigerlord again for his access codes as those are rather integral to getting to Pirate Island. This time we are successful at getting his codes to access Pirate Island. We keep in mind that we’d be appearing to be him in this case. While we have him we try to extract more information; Sinon tries to get access codes to his financial accounts. Unfortunately he’s not able to extract the information and he’s kicked out of Tigerlord’s mind. We promptly put him into stasis to make sure he stays asleep during the visit.
We decide to pose as Tigerlord’s lackeys as we’re showing up under his access codes. Hilo-chai offers to alter the ship’s appearance with tiger stripes to help with the convincing. We consider it and decide to utilize a high-TL disguise kit to make Blake look like Tigerlord; Gargoyle ends up doing a good job of it, making his roll by 5. Blake watches some video footage of Tigerlord to get a good feel for him to best emulate his behavior.
Holo-chai establishes contact with a gruff man who looks the part of a space pirate. He notices that it’s not Tigerlord’s ship and wants to know what’s up. Blake indicates there was a change of plans and Tigerlord’s normal ship is not available. He states that we’re here to pick up more supplies. The man is confused but Blake tries to verbally muscle past him and states that his time is being wasted. The man accedes and sends docking coordinates. It’s a challenging landing but Blake is able to negotiate the descent successfully. The station is made of a large array of interlocking hexagons with a large structure built on top. There appears to be some kind of structure below the surface as well as above. Our docking area, once we land, descends and a covering to our docking pod closes above as our vehicles wings fold upward. We find by connecting to the local grid that there are several levels to the complex including temporary living quarters, a place to stay for the more permanent staff. We find ourselves in a dimly lit docking bay on Pirate Island.
Nobody comes to greet us. Trying to think like Tigerlord we decide to go and find a casino on-station. We gear up in our combat equipment and leave the ship. There’s a loud, constant hum from the environmental systems to the complex which work overtime to keep the habitat comfortable from the extreme heat and humidity outside. We quickly arrive in a large concourse – a piratical bazaar of many individuals milling about in various no-good activities. Fortunately all of the occupants are armed and armored as we are, showing little trust for each other. In short it’s a bad place to start a fight. There are six levels to the huge complex made of concentric circles of vendor’s stalls. We’re able to identify standing crew of the station by black armbands.
We want to move quickly through this large area towards the casino/brothel/etc, which is on the third floor – down two from our current location. We ignore the hawkers screaming for our attention from nearby stalls. Less traffic is present in the casino although it’s still populated. About 50 piratical folks are present. We get a private room to plan our next move. After observing a large number of folks taking the brainbug drugs one option we consider is looking for a concentration of addicts to start our work. Instead we decide on the plan to go up to one of the retailers and let them know that Tigerlord wishes to speak with them. We can try and get them to give up their supplier with some fast-talk from “Tigerlord” or Sinon to just mind-rape him for the information. Aiden and Seamus go up to fetch one. Unfortunately the first one is rather resistant to talking further about their supplier.
We head back to the ship and dig into Tigerlord’s mind some more. Sinon is able to find out how Tigerlord goes about obtaining his brainbug supply on Pirate Island. He normally arranges to sell his captured loot on the top level where the illegal sales and brokerages are. After then he waits around for a while and a crate of them shows up in his docking bay. We ask how his relationship with his supplier started; apparently he was approached by a grey-faced man in a flowing coat with shark-like teeth; the man asked him if he would want to make extra money when he arrives. He doesn’t have knowledge of any means with which to contact the supplier. The delivery always happens when he and his crew are not present and not watching. Three or four random station workers bring in the crate and then leave. Sinon tries to extract details about the suppliers from inside info he may have; he’s unable to do so. We are able to get information for some financial accounts that he has on the station. Apparently some of the lower levels of the station may contain the individuals that we want to talk with to obtain access to lower levels of the station. We unfortunately aren’t able to gather further information and decide to end the mind rape.
At this point with the collected information we have we elect to go up to the merchants’ level and purchase a few doses of the brainbugs for later analysis, then elect to take what we have to the Concord and to turn in our bounty on Tigerlord. Gargoyle, Aiden and Seamus go up to make the purchase. Upon their return to the ship they find three station crew loitering by the entrance to our docking bay. They appear to be tense-looking. When approached by our group they state that they’re supposed to inform us there’s some kind of problem with our ship. He states that there’s some sort of problem with its registration or ownership. Aiden looms over the poor station worker, who already looks nervous but looks much more so after. Unfortunately he states that he must lock down our docking bay. Gargoyle lets Seamus know that he’ll take the one on the left if he takes the one on the right. Seamus stares at his target and demands he unlock the docking bay. He refuses instead. The crewmembers indicate that we must go see the station administration to have our ship released. We indicate that they need to talk to our captain, who is inside; they finally relent and let us in; we can apparently now use communications. Seamus, Aiden and Gargoyle explain the situation.
Blake, posing as Tigerlord, gives a call to admin and tries to throw his weight around, but to no avail; they state that they think we’re bounty hunters posing as Tigerlord. Blake repositions the ship so that plasma cannons are facing down the ingress corridor; we threaten to begin shooting the docking area if they try to board us. Station control states that we should leave and never return, opening our bay doors. We take off very quickly and leave; the station unsurprisingly starts shooting at us. Blake fires up the deflection inducers and dodges wildly; all their shots miss. As we ascend into orbit, however, the ship that we previously detected come in to orbit is waiting for us and moves to attack. It’s slightly smaller than we are and appears to be some type of customized pirate freighter that looks to be well-armed. We move for a direct confrontation.
We all receive three character points.
Session 14
Space combat commences! We are between 200 and 20,000 miles from the enemy ship (our current range band). The enemy spacecraft’s transponder reads as the Cruel Moon and appears to be slightly more heavily armed.
Aiden begins barking out orders to get the crew organized. Benton heads back to the engine room to doctor the engines. Holo-chai takes navigation and communication. Seamus grabs a gunner’s seat, as does Aiden. Gargoyle and Sinon strap in for the ride.
Blake begins by accelerating hard towards the target, managing to out-maneuver him early on and moves in on an attack vector. Our mass cannon fires but misses the target but the plasma cannons manage to hit! One of the twin plasma cannons takes out their deflection inducer completely while the second cannon shot disables one of the main weapon batteries of the attacker. A secondary explosion takes out their secondary sensor array.
The enemy pilot panics and takes evasive action to avoid further hits and expands the range between the two ships. They wheel around and try a long-range shot but miss in pathetic fashion.
Blake takes the ship in a vicious turn and bears down directly at the ship at an aggressive vector; the enemy manages to evade him at first but Blake is able to get into an advantageous position by giving up his defensive posture. The mass cannon hits this time to incredible effect as the ship’s flank is presented to the Talon. It’s plasma beam batteries are destroyed and the armor severely weakened. The hull stress is severe enough that the ship shears and its drive pushes the ship apart; it disintegrates into some quickly-moving debris. The plasma cannons are also dead-on but fire through the empty space the hull previously occupied.
We begin moving out-system to jump away. Holo-chai gathers some detailed sensor readings of the target ship in case it had a bounty on it. We spend a few weeks travelling to Acheron and drop him off with the Federation of Acheson, netting 195,000 credits. We celebrate. Next step is to go travel to the Concord to inform them of our findings on Pirate Island.
On that we end for now. We receive two character points for our brief and bloody space battle.
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