IW 7 - Big in Japan

Context

The crew of the CAMEROON extracted two bait hunters and three baits from the clasp of engineered raptors. Anika spent a while on the operating table to rescue her left lung and arm. The crew is in jumpspace, heading back to Terra, and pondering how to capitalize on the knowledge of a raptor farm on Prometheus.

The farm was located deep into the hinterland, and allegedly ran by the local kingpin of Brethrow. There, wealthy hunter purchased convicts to act as bait to a roving pack of raptors. The goal of such hunt: save the baits (which is apparently very likely to fail).

Location

Terra is the old familiar world for the reader, except that the year is 2170 and the planet is recovering from a massive orbital bombing where 12 cities were damaged with nuclear warheads. True to themselves, terrans are survivors and the planet is back on the economic rebound: a haven for free traders and mega-freighters alike.

Location: 100D Orbital space, Terra, Terra system
Terran timestamp: May 9-10th, 2170 AD

The staff room was alive with debate over the raptor questions. While Anika was recovering from her near-death encounter with the raptors, Aeryn busied herself with the research of all things dinosaurs. She advocated taking over production and exploit the raptors to the fullest. Most of the crew objected as it didn't jive with the license held over the CAMEROON for the next 16 months. Many also refused to engage in criminal activities are they were recently out of prison, or proudly never sent there in the first place.

Marion, recently a bait hunter turned bait, was interrogated from the recovery table in the infirmary. He did not know how his brother-in-law had made contact with the game master. All that he knew was that they had purchased a very expensive water purification system and donated it to an NGO called "Rising Sun Mission".

The CAMEROON was now close enough to synchronize with the live terran internet. Aeryn bypassed the usual MMA news and instead researched the NGO. She discovered that it was based in Tuskuba: a suburb of Tokyo. Probably not coincidentally, located in the same city as the Inagaki group from which there was a track record of raptor engineering publications.

Given that raptor products such as meat, skins and bones were legal but controlled, germ lines restricted and live animals banned, the crew decided to keep it straight and investigate the ability to import legal products into bigger markets such as Terra and Nusku. A list of five star restaurants along the Pacific Rim was brought up as a starting point.

Organic, dubiously fed, Promethean raptor coming to a supermarket near you.

Location: Highport GAIA, Terran low-orbit, Terra system
Terran timestamp: May 13th, 2170 AD

While the CAMEROON waited in queue for a berth, then contracted the freight handlers to empty its hold, Jane busied at building a 4-week forecast for raptor products.  She discovered a high demand, and virtually no supply as there is no commercial production anywhere near Terra and Nusku. The only live raptors are in small research facilities and unable to provide a commercial output. Potential buyers are lined up, all that is needed is a supplier.  The good news is that THEY have an inside lane to an illegal one a single jump away.

Further research into the NGO returned an interesting picture. It turns out that the "Rising Sun Mission" has provided an inordinate number of water purification systems to the community of Brethrow, Prometheus. Aeryn counted about 5 such donations in the last 12 months.  Jane, Anika and Aeryn decided to find more out about the NGO just by showing up to its headquarter in Tsukuba.

While the CAMEROON was performing an inclination correction, Diane spotted a highly valuable freight job for the 25th. She checked the terms: it was a highly restricted cargo shipped from a weapon manufacturer's facility and to be delivered to a construction site orbiting Prometheus IV, a frontier gas giant. As deputy for the UWO, they automatically qualified for the background check. The other terms was the presence of a security detail, no passengers, a ship sweep and secrecy. The competition for the job was fierce, but the crew got the gig for 626KCr. They planned for a full hold for the 25th.

Location: Tokyo Regional downport,  Terra system
Terran timestamp: May 14th, 2170 AD

According to Japanese laws, foreign starships are forbidden to enter atmospheric airspace unless on an authorized vector to the Tokyo Regional Downport (TRD). The crew landed and got hit by the predictable culture shock. Diane decided to go shopping for the next awesome thing while Jane, Aeryn and Anika bought bullet train tickets to Tsukuba.

The Rising Sun Mission HQ was no more than a hole in a wall in downtown Tsukuba. Its neighbours were importers and rental space for transient business. The receptionist was named Miho. She promptly instructed the three women to go away when they asked to talk to the NGO's director. She specified that there was no charitable donation heading for Prometheus, and that the NGO itself wasn't contracting freight directly in the first place: it relied on the logistics of benefactors. Jane dropped a 100Cr, and Miho revealed that the director's name was Mr. Toyo, and that he operated from a restaurant a few block away from this location. Aeryn found out that this restaurant was on her list of place where raptor meat had been eaten in the past.

They set out to talk to Toyo, in hope that this would lead to the administrative head of the raptor farm on Prometheus, and thus define the other end of the sale's pipeline.

Toyo and Miho, as well as the gun dealer contact are added to the Character Cast page.

Character Cast

• Tom Anders: Retired Marine, gruff, good hearted. Now get off his cargo hold.
• Diane Ayetou: born rich and far less qualified than given credit for. Gets an A for A-fort.
• Jane Calhoun: Business-like business end of things. Reluctant pilot, appreciate spirits and solitude.
• Anika Kaprescu: Recluse. Did some time, killjoy. The ship’s cat.
• Aeryn Lorien: Stumbling steward, athlete and nurse. Gets the ribbon for caring the most.
• Molly Pepper: Engineer and ship’s puppy. Her giggles are wasted on the crew.

IW 3 - Two thousand miles per second

Context

The TCIV CAMEROON fitted a second hand Jump-2 drive that they purchased from a scrapyard on Callisto. They loaded up with freight jobs, two nuns and 6 dT of fragile pharmaceuticals on their way back to Terra. There, they expect to fill the CAMEROON up for a jump to Prometheus (Alpha Centauri).

Location

Callisto is a Terran colony administered by a representative of the Saudi King, Abn Al-Baghdadi. It is a frozen world on the fringe of the solar system where few bother stopping.

Location: shahat-1, Callisto, Terra system

Terran timestamp: March 28, 2170 AD

The crew started to feel like Callisto was old hat by the 28th. There were two days left before the freight job was ready for pick-up. The entertainment buffet had gone bland. Tom befriended a veteran marine capable to cast a wide net over the Jupiter sub-system to recruit people. Aeryn got herself embroiled into a cash fight against a dependent of the Saudi King’s representative. She walked away bruised and with a limp. From the wayside, Tom had an inkling that a victory could have turned into a trouble magnet for the crew.

By the 30th, the nuns were on board as well as 7dT of freight and 720 KCr worth of pharmaceuticals that Jane scored from a shifty broker/bodybuilder. Escaping Jupiter from Callisto was a smooth burn. Destination: TSS Obama in medium Earth Orbit for a fit of the Jump-2 drive.

Location: Acceleration phase, Asteroid belt, Terra system

Terran timestamp: April 2, 2170 AD

The CAMEROON had settled in a simple routine by the 2nd as it reached its midpoint. UWO interplanetary command (UWO/IC) issued a privileged connection. UWO/IC determined that the CAMEROON was the only ship capable to intervene in an emergency situation in the belt. They offered an acting-deputy license if the ship was to engage a particular target prosecuted for piracy. The crew accepted.

The pirate ship was a small corsair navigating a busy asteroid area. The speed differential was 1967 mps (miles per second). Nothing could be done about this huge velocity vector on time for the intercept as it took two days of continuous push to achieve this velocity. Diane couldn't get a fix on the sensor array so Jane plotted in the blind and rather conservatively. The pirate ship appeared late and the intercept would be made at 15K miles. This would require timing. There was no sign of having been detected by the pirates when the light show began.

Diane spotted the ship 17 miles from a belter’s bubble. She passed the contact to Tom who began painting the target with the lead laser. A return lead laser hit them shortly as Jane began erratic vector maneuvers. Once surface spots on the target got to 500C, the dual 100MJ laser started to pulse. At the same time, forward sensors started to scream as the CAMEROON’s hull got breached and pressure in the habitat started to drop.

Standing by in sickbay, Aeryn was monitoring the external surface sensors. It became clear to her that the forward armor was melting away in two areas. Anticipating a breach, she put on her vaccsuit helmet and ran for the bridge. A blast of light came in and the air from the habitat blew the melting metal out. By then, Aeryn had barged into the bridge while Flo (the nursebot) had dashed for the rear. The structure screamed as the air howled through the pinhole made by the pirate’s laser. Diane and Jane had to gasp and reached for their helmet. On the floor, Diane missed the chance to get a readout on the damage cause to the pirate ship by their own fire. The crew stood stunned for a few second, hurling into space at 2000 mps in an uncontrolled drift.

“The nuns!”, exclaimed Aeryn as she remember hustling them to her bunk room just before the engagement. Tom and Aeryn secured their helmets and warned the other that they would be attempting a rescue in the decompressed habitat. As the hatch opened, the vacuum sucked them in and they found themselves in microgravity: tumbling in the lounge. They found the two nuns in Aeryn’s quarter. One of them had panicked and vomitted all over the 0G room and showed sign of severe ebullism. The other nun was breathing into her mask, curdled in the fetal position.

Sisters Maria and Angeline had better days before their unfateful decision to travel onboard of the CAMEROON.

Diane tunnelled into Flo’s video feed. Flo was on the other side. Molly has suited up and was getting ready to enter the habitat when the hatch-unlocking warning light started to flicker. The light went off for a second and the pressure stepped down. Aeryn and Tom got thrown back into the lounge, clasping tumbling nuns.

Flo aimed for the nun covered in vomit: her lungs had collapsed and her blood was a bubbly mess. Tom, Aeryn and Flo applied first aid to revive both of them while Molly returned to the habitat to assess the breach. By then, Jane was filling the intercom with chinese obscenity as she tried to restore the gravitic field in the breached area. About 30 minutes later, Molly abdicated and admitted damaging the hull patching kit beyond repair. An EVA to fix from the outside wasn’t advisable in the belt, so they decided to evacuate as much material from the habitat for the next three days.

Flo, the ship's nursebot

Location: TSS Obama, Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), Terra system

Terran timestamp: April 5, 2170 AD

UWO/IC processed the CAMEROON’s log and issued a SITREP 3 hours later. System arrays scanners suggested that the CAMEROON had either destroyed or disabled the pirate ship.  The CAMEROON built a makeshift sickbay and kept the nuns alive during the deceleration thrust that lasted about 3 days. When they docked to TSS Obama, they were granted immediate access and a medical team took the nuns away (without paying the CAMEROON). Because the damage had incurred under an acting-deputy license, the UWO/IC committed to have the ship’s hull fixed and placed on a queue.

Location: TSS Obama, Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), Terra system

Terran timestamp: April 9, 2170 AD

Molly took advantage of the top-notch UWO/IC equipment to install the Jump-2 drive and reported readiness. She bought a shuttle ticket and headed to British Columbia to visit her family on the surface.

Jane was drinking along in her cabin after botching the sales of the pharmaceuticals with a 15K loss. Live and learn, she concluded.

Location: TSS Obama, Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), Terra system

Terran timestamp: April 10, 2170 AD

Tom took upon himself to recruit passenger for a departure for Prometheus on the 16th (the projected date for the completion of the UWO/IC repairs). It does looks like filling the passenger room will be easy this time around. However, a pair of passengers drew his attention:

Philip was a portly dentist from New Jersey, accompanied by his brother-in-law Marion were looking for a pair of high passages to Prometheus. They were willing to pay 9KCr for it, but conditionally to 4 low passages for their porters, 3 dT of unknown cargo that they claimed to be hunting supplies, and the necessity to be dropped at a particular location in the wild without the knowledge of Prometheus’ ground command. They also expressed the interest to pay 15KCr for a similar pickup on short notice up to 5 days later, possibly with up to 6 dT of cargo.

Back at the ship, Jane and Anika opposed the job as it smelled bad and that they were only 6 weeks out of a Brazilian UWO prison. The rest of the crew, however, showed an overwhelming level of enthusiasm for the hunting dentists.  

Character Cast

• ✦✦✦ Tom Anders: Retired Marine, gruff, good hearted. Now get off his cargo hold.
• ✦✦✦ Diane Ayetou: born rich and far less qualified than given credit for. Gets an A for A-fort.
• ✦ Jane Calhoun: Business-like business end of things. Reluctant pilot, appreciate spirits and solitude.
• Anika Kaprescu: Recluse. Did some time, killjoy. The ship’s cat.
• ✦✦ Aeryn Lorien: Stumbling steward, athlete and nurse. Gets the ribbon for caring the most.
• Molly Pepper: Engineer and ship’s puppy. Her giggles are wasted on the crew.
• Flo : Diane’s nursebot, dodger of decompressing habitats.

✦ : 1 vote are this session’s most awesome player.

IW1 - Advertising faux-pas

We had a very brief session. But we are sorting out how we want to play this game.

Douala’s Tramp freighter market, March 10th 2170AD 

The meeting with Pierrot ended by early afternoon. The contract for charter 22 was signed, but the CAMEROON was still in low-earth orbit at TSS Merkel. Molly, Aeryn and Anika bought a shuttle ticket and caught the burn upward just as the gate was closing. Some two hours later, they keyed in the passcode and entered the tramp freighter. Molly ran a few diagnostic, Aeryn . Aeryn checked life support then the kitchen. Anika looked in vain in the ship’s locker for armament, then established contact with orbital control to obtain the permission for a reentry to Douala regional spaceport. The last crew were smokers and the ship felt filthy. With minimal system’s running, Molly made the first of many burn and plunged into Terra’s atmosphere.

Callisto (Moon)

Synopsis

Callisto is a 50 y.o. terran colony built barely outside of the 100D line from Jupiter. Its mainstay economy is fast refueling of traffic going through Terra but not heading to the mainworld. An auxiliary economy based on the harvest of rare metal at the bottom of its subsurface ocean.  

Data Block

Physical: Diameter: 2,400Km (0.4 Earth); Gravity: 0.127G; Type: Frozen(Ice); Temperature: 134K (Frozen); Atmosphere: Trace; Other: Tidal locked;

Commercial: WTN: 3.0; Gravity: 0.127G; Code: Ni, Na, Ex; Starport: Class II 1 downport, 1 refueling orbital station;  

Shatah colony

Population: 44K; Environment: Terrain: underground (ice); Hygiene: +1; Culture: Language: Terra(Middle-East); Language: Anglic, Arabic; Literacy: Normal; TL: 9; Wealth: Average; Status: 0-3;  Politics: Government: Corporate Administration; CR: 3; Military: --;  DB: +4; 

Shatah-1: Main colony (35K). Located 85Km under the surface. Home of civil administration. Homogeneously muslim. Local diet made of imported goods and locally grown autotrophic biomass from the depth of the subsurface ocean.

Shatah-2: Lowport (8K). Located 100m under the surface. Starport operations, scrapyards, and limited engineering capacity.  Magrail elevator to Shatah-1 and Gaussian Orbital canon for freight. 

Shatah-3: Corporate Mining Venture (1.5K). Run by Callisto Prospectorate LLC. Built on the ocean floor. Reachable only via submarines. 

Shatah-5: Remote nuclear fusion plant powering the entire planet. Location undisclosed. 

Notes

Shatah was founded by Saudi interest and populated with middle-eastern colonists. The moon is covered by 100km of ice (Water, carbon dioxide, volatile compounds). The moon is under regular bombardment by meteorites. As a result, the installations are all carved under at least 100m of the moon's crust. The bulk of the colony is, however, located near the ceiling of the subsurface ocean.

The main economic activity is the fast-refueling service allowing transient traffic to be intercepted out of the 100D line of Jupiter. The interceptors are refueling drones propelled from Callisto using gaussian accelerators. 

IW0 - Inception

Doualé, Cameroon, Terra; March 10 2170 AD -- Life had been cramping Diane Ayatou's style like a dead bird hanging over the porch. Her dreams of the next big thing, of unfettered pop explosion seemed dead in the water for years. However, that stalled ship had sailed: she read once more her obituary and giggled. Of course, her wife will take a while to heal, but this is the cost of loving someone like her. Most importantly, the gremlins from the Atomic Energy Board were certain to get off her tail for as long as she was no longer a player in Western Africa.

Pierrot Ekangaki

Pierrot Ekangaki [105]

Human, age: 35, 5’10”, 180lb, TL9

IQ-11 [20], DX-9 [-20], Will-12 [5]

Status: 2 [10] Wealth: Comfortable [10] Reputation:Dealer [5]

Language: French [0], Anglic [6]

Talent:Business Acumen [10]

Disadvantage: Obsession(Riches for Consortium) [-10]

Computer-12 [2], Area Knowledge(Sol)-13 [4], Merchant-13 [4*], Market Analysis-13 [8*], psychology-10 [2], propaganda-12 [2*], carousing-11 [1*]

Contact: Nge Gaston, Economic-15, Usually reliable, CR-12 [8]

Contact: Mairama Tasontouni, Current Affairs-18, Usually reliable, CR-12 [12]

Patron: Douale Consortium, $300K Organization, CR-9 [15]

Net Wealth: $150,000 (1%: $1500)

Free CP: 10

The Doualé Consortium LLC

The consortium has Pierrot Ekangaki as its CEO. Pierrot is the mastermind behind the corporation that draws funds largely from a large number of small, middle-class investors.

Pierrot is on a one man mission to bring wealth to the Douale Consortium. His strategy is to use his social standing, reputation, current affairs contact and a light touch of psychology/carousing to recruit more investors into the consortium.