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Amaryst slows the shuttle and pulls into a tightly spiraling left turn, coming out behind the spinning frigate. She jinks right as she pushes the throttles forward to recover lost speed.
Rollo keeps his head down, staring at the targeting display, and waits for his moment. The target circle lights on the frigate and he initiates fire. ....
Argintum Amaryst guides the shuttle into a sweeping left turn, lining up on the frigate's stern, hoping to capitalize on the shield damaged by the core vessels fusillade. With dismay she witnesses her target's tight turn and realizes that now Argintum just doesn't have the speed to round on the frigate's stern. Hoping to keep the flak thrower in position to defend the core ships, the lashunta pilot decelerates slightly. "OK, Rollo! Everyone get ready to take fire." Rollo focuses on his targeting display and launches a flurry of small projectiles at the oncoming enemy.
....
Argintum stats for reference: Tier 3 Shuttles are Small, with perfect maneuverability, 35 hp, one weapon mount, and 3 expansion bays. They can be piloted by only one person, but have four crew spots. Power Core: Pulse Red (capacity 200) - we have a surplus of 27 units of power, so we can power other machines as well, and charge technological items for free! Thrusters: S10 (10 hexes per movement - the fastest with no maneuverability penalty for their size) Weapons: One forward-facing flak thrower. (3d4, range 5) Quarters: Four luxurious quarters, with private bathrooms and kitchenettes, comfort amenities and good aesthetic Shields: Basic 20 shields (20 points of shielding, distributed between four quadrants of the ship) Armor: Zero, zip, don't get hit! Drift Engine: Signal Booster (a tier 2 engine; twice as fast as the tier 1 engine!) Sensors: Advanced Medium-Range Scanners (they have a range of 10 miles and provide a +4 bonus on checks made to scan things) - - - Expansion Bays
Life Boats (two life boats fit for two people each. Basic thrusters capable of maneuvering to a nearby planet, landing, and enough food to support both people for 15 days) Smuggler Compartment (cargo bay hidden within the ship capable of transporting 10 tons of cargo. Perception or Computers necessary to notice it) - - - Extras
Anti-Hacking Module (Add +4 to the DC to hack the ship's computers) Mk 2 duonode computer upgrade (Add a +2 bonus to any two checks during starship combat per round)
Argintum "There it is!" Amaryst exclaims when the burst of jamming static floods the external comms. She punches the button to bring the thrusters up to power and immediately slaps another button to start a computer controlled exit of the crater. As the ship's nose clears the crater's rim, she takes manual control of the ship and adds more thruster power as she slews to nose into a lead pursuit course. The direction set to her satisfaction, she pushes the throttle levers to full forward.
Amaryst glances back down at the controls. Her friends might be hurt or dying on the pirate ship. She considers lifting off in pursuit of the pirates, and drops her hand to the throttle. If we don't here from them soon...
"What are they doing?"
On vacation til the 11th or 12th. Amaryst has 2 ranks in piloting and a net modifier of 10.
(Good, Zen. Although my question was meant more personally. You sound more than calm enough.} Amaryst looks back down at her controls and indicators. Then she stretches forward to look out the window again.
Amaryst sits in Argintum's pilot's chair and looks out the forward viewport. Although crater walls block much of the sky from view, if she cranes forward and twists her head to the left, she can just make out the station. It's an awkward posture made more so by her bulky armor. The lashunta slumps back to a more comfortable position and reviews her intial sequence of controls to clear the crater. Then she double checks her personal weapons and the big new reaction cannon strapped beside her. Foolishness. If I need that, the whole ship is probably an expanding ball of fire. She glances over at Rollo. {Ready?} And twists to look at K-van, bundled in his space suit, strapped in a chair. "Stay strapped in unless I tell you to move. Then follow us." Then she sets the internal comm on full open.
Her hand rests on the button that will fire the vertical lift rockets and she waits for the burst of static, or -- what will the jammer sound like? -- noise from the external comm that will signal the beginning of combat.
What an honest lot we are. Facing a stiff firefight with a hold full of weapons, we preserve the sanctity of the shipper's privacy. Guys do we want to store the weapons on the station, you know, in case Argintum does her best supernova impersonation during the fight?
"They do have plenty of rocks here."
"Does anybody want my reaction cannon? It will put an enemy down faster than the sidearms that most of you are carrying." Amaryst considers offering up her heavy armor too, but decides she's going to need it if her combat is unsuccessful.
"So turning the jammer on will be our signal to go?"
"Our range is too short, Cross. Unless Emily is stronger …." Amaryst lets the comment trail off, hoping that her human friend will surprise her once again. "Even a simple optical beacon would suffice to start the engagement. We could use color codes for simple communication. But it will be difficult to maintain line of sight while maneuvering."
A second later Amaryst frowns. "Jin, if you're jamming comms we'll need some other way to communicate.
Amaryst looks coolly at the psychics, and nods. "If this is what you want to do.... " "I think the assault team is still a little thin. You should take another member."
"Taking out their comms is good. Jin, is there any way we could rig shielding for the core ships? Or for the cores personally? "
"I'm not saying we should split up, but if we did, I'm not sure where I would be of most use. The assault could use someone in heavy armor, but I'm probably the best ship's gunner."
"Cross, it's bold to the point of suicide. You're only going to be able to sabotage both ships if they land somewhere. And presumably they'll have friends or at least business partners where they land. "
Once again, Amaryst finds herself agreeing with Rollo, "Even if we sell Argintum I doubt we'd be able to buy a ship with sufficient firepower to handle both of these at once. I was hoping a well planned ambush would earn us control of the big freighter, but that seems unlikely." "So why fight at all? Diesel, can you relocate? Just strap on a couple thrusters and push everything sideways. Then lie low when it's time for them to come back. With a couple weeks of thrust you could be thousands of clicks from here. "Or ship out your ore early? Tell the pirates that corporate moved up their delivery time table. "Or could you negotiate a better long term rate? If corporate shuts you down, the pirates would have nothing. That would buy us time." Proposing the ancient 'protection' racket is repugnant to Amaryst, but it seems better than the immediate alternative.
"Where does the exchange happen? Is it in vacuum? Do they come out of the ship?"
"EMPs can't penetrate a ship's shields. We'd have to get their shields down first."
"They're too strong for us too engage in ship to ship combat. It sounds like the light freighter alone is more than a match for us. So we have to either follow them,or hit them while they are loading. What happens while they load, Diesel?" "Or..., the one week schedule suggests that they're in system, or very close. Is it even possible to hide a refinery? Are they sailing into a legitimate refinery and pretended that they mined the ore themselves?"
"Is the refinery run only by cores, or is there a conventional manned crew too? Is it more heavily defended? I guess I'm wondering why the pirates wouldn't hit them too? Refined metal would be more valuable."
Amaryst nods, "Khal has substantial problems right now. You can't expect any help from them. "Tell us more about the pirates. How many ships? What classes? How are they armed? How much warning do we have between them drifting in and their arrival? When do you expect them next?"
The lashunta steps forward, head up shoulders square. "Amaryst Geil, champion of democracy."
Once we're underway, Amaryst will gather Maldor, Emily and K-van. "Maldor's expressed interest in learning how to run Argintum. I think it's a good idea. We'll be aboard her for a while, and you all need to be able to run the essential systems in case one of us isn't available. "We'll start with life boats, but what do you want to know about after that?"
Zenvisk: {She has a little more power than most ships her size, and there's the hidden hold and the life boats. Both are a little odd in a ship like this. Other than that Argintum is, she was, a wealthy gentleman's yacht. Evy is a little better than most basic ship computers and Eastern had her interface customized to handle verbal communication, but she's not sophisticated enough to have a real sense of self. Eastern and I personalized, no, -- it's anthropomorphized, her for our own mental health.}
{I've been thinking about asking Jin to overlay Evy with Cassius. Cassius is a real AI. It might expand Argintum's capabilities.} "Call me when you're ready to coil and stow those cables. The long ones get heavy and I could use a little workout."
Amaryst lugs her new purchase back to her room and stows the reaction cannon in the drawer under her bed. It's ammunition goes into a cubbyhole locker. She closes the locker drawer with a satisfied smile. That will end any trouble quickly. I may not care for the vesk, but they make fine weapons. She wanders down to engineering for a preflight check, greeting Zenvisk casually, if they're there. Then she's off to the flightdeck for undocking.
I like the big payoff. We're already fraternizing with contraband. We need to make a low profile jump and the big job would require a low profile. We'll just try not to think about what the guns are for. Sounds like whatever we do, Amaryst is going to want a bigger gun. I want to do some shopping before we leave. I've got to work it out, but provisionally: light reaction cannon , 250
Checked. And if she doesn't carry the food or some other sundries, she can carry it unencumbered. That leaves her 160 credits.
And sometimes it's even easier to imagine they're children. Amaryst looks away from the capering human toward the speaker. "We're hardly outfitted to take on an armed ship, but there's no harm in looking at the job. I like that idea better than meddling in a human bio-lab which may or may not have links to UFIA. There's bound to be cameras and a lot of security interest in a place like that."
"Perhaps I should become a tyrant." Amaryst sighs.
Amaryst grimaces. "We'll see who's suited to what role on our next long voyage. For now we need to decide our immediate plan. I suggest we depart this system as soon as possible, preferably with a cargo. What do you all think?" The emotional read if Em's looking: Amaryst is working hard to keep calm, but annoyance and worry are leaking out.
Zen:
{Yes. But we can not decide for them, nor can we protect them. They must decide.}
Amaryst looks at the two humans. It's so easy to think of them as children. They know so little outside of their lab. She replies gently, "Didn't you understand? Argintum is not my ship. Argintum is home to us all. I am not a tyrant to put people on or off her. "
"Castrovelli Corporate. I knew it." Amaryst mutters with a trace of bitterness.
Amaryst bristles momentarily, "Castrovel, the people and government, are fine. It's the corporations that will gut you and pick your bones. " Then a bit sadly, she continues, "But the corporations wield the power. I agree Castrovel would not be safe. Jin has offered Cyrune and it's secret. No one except their pilots know where it is. Once we're inside the Witchwyrd's sphere, it will be very difficult for anyone from Earth or Castrovel to track us." "But I don't think this is the place to pad our pockets. If we can find a cargo out of here, good,. That would be ideal. But we should clear this system as soon as possible and try to find more work farther from Sol."
At Tau Ceti -- group loot 7700 credits. Spare medkit 4 healing serums.
"Interesting. But those old stories are just something we tell children to preserve their sense of awe and wonder in the world. Gemnal and the Throwing Stone. Haydua's Challenge. And the stories always end sadly for the title character. Whatever you invent, name it after Ayda or Savael." Amaryst spoons some stew into her bowl. "I've been thinking about some things people have said and done in the last few days. Argintum has the body of Space Available but she is not the same ship. Cassius shares Evy's memory banks. Cross has integrated himself to drive her more intimately than I ever could. And we all fill her with a different kind of life than she had before. "Argintum is a 'roinnt'. She is something we hold and make together. So we should run her together like a 'treubh'. That means we have equal shares and equal votes in her fate. My share and my vote are no more or less important merely because my agency brought her hull to us all." Lashunta or Castrovelli: roinnt - a slippery word meaning share, some, or distribution
treubh -- a loose extended family unit
Maldor follows his nose into the ship, inhaling deeply and saying, "That smells sooo good! After years of food cubes or MREs in the Institute, I almost forgot what the real stuff was like. Thank you for cooking!!" And that's the last you'll get out of Maldor, except an occasional slurp or exclamation, while he power-chows the meal. Amaryst nods with a benign smile, then turns to the Witchwyrd, "What are you working on, Jin? You sound excited about it." Amaryst uses the question to cover not directly replying to Maldor's compliment. The lashunta dosen't have the heart to tell him that the stew is composed primarily of standard vegetable-based protein and fiber. It's only the fact that she was able to slow cook it, and the custom spice simulators that Eastern had installed, that made it taste a little better than the average fare. Emily turned up at the dinner table when Amaryst beckoned, eager to see what was cooking. "The station was okay," she answered. "They had a ton of stores, and so many lights and signs! It was kinda confusing, actually... But we found some things, and then Jin helped us find the same exact same stuff but with better prices." "Commerce is war by fiscal means," Amaryst quotes with a small, but decidedly not benign smile. Know culture, DC 10: The quote is commonly attributed to various lashunta corporate leaders, and supposedly represents the highly competitive nature of Castovelli mercantilism.
Eventually Amaryst returns to the kitchen and begins cooking a slow simmering stew. Warned by Evy, she meets the returning party at the main airlock door where she gathers in her battery and spare ammunition from Rollo. "What did you all think? Come, tell me over dinner."
While everyone else, except Cross, is off the ship, Amaryst wanders through the public rooms. Twirling and swaying, she circles each one then glides serpentine down the passageway to the next. Eventually she winds up in the smuggler's hole, where she ceases her motion by sliding down a bulkhead until she's seated on the deck. Why did Eastern have this fitted in the ship? It always seemed so strange.
You mean this post? That's the one. Thanks. Search wouldn't find sink hole or various spellings of Khal. *** I think any healing items Maldor wants should come out of the group fund. I'll chip in on those purchases if the group as a whole doesn't agree. Via Rollo, Amayst buys a battery (60 units) and 30 rounds (40 units). If the group wants I'll track the common fund OOC. It's not something Amaryst would want to do in character. She'd want everyone to have access. Hazrond, after the alley fight, Jin scooped up a pulsecaster and the boss thug's cestus. Any plans for those?
"Sounds good," replies Rollo. "I should stock up on batteries and ammunition anyway." "Good idea. Can you pick up a battery and a box of rounds for me too?"
In Cross' absence, Amaryst sits on the bridge, thinking. As usual on ship, she's dressed in her multi-pocketed overalls. Her pistol is still on her hip, but, unusually, her battleglove is in her cabin. She replies to Cross' inquiry by text over the comm. "No thanks, Cross. I've got spare clothes here." She sits brooding a while more. Having Ayda and Savael off Space Av -- no, Argintum made her less worried, but she would feel even better once they were wel away. Even with the biometric locks, she didn't want to leave the ship unguarded so close to Earth. And someone needed to guard Emily and Maldor. And they needed to collect the money, if Ayda had managed to transfer it already. One cannot live without trust. She thumbed the comm to opena channel to Rollo, "Rollo, how'd you like to get off ship and watch over Jin and the others? Then texts Jin to give him her Castrovelli account number. "I'm staying to guard the ship. Empty the account except for a few credits to keep it open. I won't want to use it for a while in case they try to trace it."
"We're all afraid we're monsters inside. That's why we're afraid of being read. Cross didn't suffer any lasting hurt. He's probably already put it behind him. Tomorrow if you pretend nothing happened tonight, he'll probably pretend the same." The lashunta stands back up. "If you need some time alone, I'll go sleep in the tri-vid den. Here or there, I'm going to bed now."
Amaryst's breathing stops for several heart beats. Breathing resumes while she considers what MLE has said and thinks back over the fight. She sits heavily at the foot of the bed. "Sweet Mindgather, I'm not sure what to say to that. Except they would have killed us and sold you and Maldor back to UFIA, or worse. We all did our best to put them down. To kill or hurt them before they could, us. Did any of us deserve what happened? "A week ago, I'd never fired my weapon in anger. Now I've killed a Vesk and helped kill five men. I would have killed Ayda and Savael in the warehouse too if you and Maldor hadn't stopped the fight. I can't help you encompass this because I haven't had time to absorb it at all myself. "But -- I, I don't think it matters how we did it. Dead is dead. We're alive and free. " The emo read: Amaryst is still clamped down pretty tight with some pretty strong angst leaking around the edges of that bravado tinged determination .
Em: Amaryst follows MLE into vocal speech, nodding as she replies, "You're right, Cross will...." She stops, cocks her head, antennae coming together, nearly touching. "What did you do to the guys in the alley?"
Em:
[b]{What happened at dinner wasn't your fault, Sugar. Cross is the strong silent type. Who knew he could be so sensitive? And Jin was out of line telling us about you, your power, without your permission. It's probably a good thing that it's out there early in our trip. It's the kind of thing that might give us an edge in a negotiation or a fight.} {But people are going to be sensitive about it until they get used to it. I'll confess it was a shock to me. To close to the 'emopaths' from lashunta myths and legends. They're a kind of bogeyman, like werewolves and vampires for humans. Because they can see emotions, they can see your deeper self, and that gives them leverage to twist you to their will. } {I think many humans feel the same way about telepathy. They think it's like a magic, and an intrusion into themselves. It took me a long time to understand that.} If Em reads Amaryst: The lashunta is suppressing pretty hard. There's a sense of determination holding everything down. Seeping out around the edges concern, worry, a touch of fear. But I imagine 'why' any of those is there is beyond Em's ability to know.
Amaryst goes to talk to Rollo when K-Van is busy in the trivid den learning how to play Castles and Mages, a simulation fantasy game, from Korvan. He looks up from a datapad when she enters, chuckling when she brings up that line of inquiry. "Well," he starts, "I wasn't running with the assumption that I was free to be along just because I said so. So... What is your thought?" "We started out at daggers, but you've steadied out and pitched in. You stood with us in the alley and at the race. It's a long way to anywhere that could be safe for Maldor and Emily. There's a good chance Earth will track us down. We could use a good man in a fight."
*** Approaching Azusa *** Amaryst waits for a moment to catch Rollo alone in his cabin. "Have you made up your mind whether you're staying with us or leaving? We can't offer you a payday or promotion, but the food's pretty good and the bunks are comfortable, if small. You can see Maldor and Em to safety, if you think that's the right end to your mission." |
