IW 11 - Four raptors in the cargo bay

Context

The CAMEROON has picked up 22 medical refugees from a beleagued Vilani space station near Prometheus IV. They are to set out to the edge of the UWO territory, at the gates of the Vilani Empire.

IW 8 - Sake at Gonpachi

Context

The crew is chilling in Japan, if at all possible. While three of them are investigating a sham NGO in the city of Tsukuba, Diane Ayatou is shopping in the strangest of places.

Location

Tsukuba is a city to the North of Tokyo. It is of interest in this story because a research group in the University of Tsukuba has a track record of publication in the reviving of saurien genomes. It is the home of the Rising Sun Mission as well.

Campus of the University of Tsukuba

Location: Tsukuba, Terra, Sol system
Terran timestamp: May 14th, 2170 AD

While Jane and Anika are heading to the restaurant to meet the director of the NGO, Aeryn decides to split. She withdraws an advance of 2KCr from the ship's funds and disappears into the subway station underneath.

Jane and Anika arrive at the restaurant, clearly underdressed. They turn around and Jane bankrolls some clothes shopping. Jane returns as a business woman while Anika insists in sporting her dreadlocks with a schoolgirl combo. The doorman let them through this time. The hostess is polite, and offer them delicacies. Jane inquires about Mr. Toyo and passes along her business card. A young man, calling himself Yuji, tests the water until it becomes clear that the two women appear to know about the water purifier scam.

Some 15 minutes later, they are led into a private room and catch the eye of an important looking man on the way. Jane gets the chill at his sight. In the private room, Mr. Toyo informs the crewladies that there is not enough raptor meat produced to sustain the market on Terra. Jane tried real hard to convince him that she has the team to supply, but comes out sounding naive and baffled.

The two walk out of the restaurant and head for a lower-class joint for many beers, a burger and a lot of karaoke. When the night is as good as done, the two jump on the bullet train to return to Tokyo.


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

Tom and Molly busy themselves in the CAMEROON. Tom cleaning the cargo hold and Molly with the jump-drive. Molly is cheerful and her laughter makes the play stay alive. Tom convinces her to lear the basics of self-defence and passes along some of the basics. Clearly, Molly sees the whole thing as a novelty.

As they are lying on the floor of the main hold, Diane enters the room and get a droid to drop a large box. She pops the box open, and from it comes out a 3' tall robotic raptor. She laugh hysterically.

"It is the new ship's pet.", they look at her, perplexed.
"It's got a fire-extinguisher that's builtin."

Molly and Tom stare at the mini raptors, then back at Diane.

"Its name is Blue."


Location: Tokyo's Regional downport, Terra, Sol system
Terran timestamp: May 15th, 2170 AD

On the following day, Aeryn confirms that she will catch up with the CAMEROON by the 25th at the latest. The crew gets cleared to leave Japan and fly at the edge of space to New-York city to meet with a arms dealer called Atlantis. There, they binge in the purchase of all things weapons without the constraints of regulations. Anika gets herself an automatic shotgun, a loadout gauss pistol and a carbine. Jane and the others buy a number of 3mm needlers.

They still don't know what is going on with Aeryn in Japan, but the crew intends to up the ante and travel far from Earth. Over the next 10 days, Molly heads to Vancouver Island to see the family, Anika spends it at the rifle range, Tom relaxes in New York while Jane drinks on her own in her cabin. The next score will be a big one. Time to unwind.


Location: New York, Terra, Sol system
Terran timestamp: May 25th, 2170 AD

The crew of the CAMEROON are taking possession of its cargo today. The main cargo is rated as highly restricted: it is made of 60dT of packages parts to make a large gauss accelerator. It is restricted because it could be used to make a supergun. However, it is destined to Prometheus IV, a gas giant on the frontier.  The terms of the shipment forbid the recruitment of passengers.

The station on Prometheus IV is a private venture. It is a station in construction and what appears to be an unstable orbit. The entire orbital zone is cluttered with the rocks from a diffuse ring system. The radiation levels are such that the crew has to sink 10KCr in anti-radiation nanodrug. They shall earn their 626KCr for what this is worth.

Meanwhile, Aeryn has yet to report to the ship.

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.

Researching Raptors

Aeryn wants to learn more about raptors and their commercial applications.  The best time to search will be once that the CAMEROON comes out of jumpspace and synchronizes its data packet with Terra (Expert resolution@18). The cached version is only high resolution @14.

Generality


She is not versed in academic research (Research-9), but her Biology(garden worlds)-11 certainly can support. Furthermore, the ship's onboard AI can provide a +1 as well. This gives her a Research-11. She rolls a 5, a margin of success of +6: an unusual level of detail is revealed.

• The raptors encountered are NOT real raptors, but hybrids of Terran ancient genes and Prometheus reptiles. Their size altered using gene editing to make them more prized game. Aeryn has a Bioengineering book on the topic, actually.
• Raptor products are LC4 such as meat, skin and bones. Regulated usage on Terra and Prometheus.
• Raptor germ material (eggs, clone cultures, genomes) is LC3. Restricted to research under strict ethical guidelines.
• Live raptors are LC2. Banned under most jurisdictions. (Terra and Prometheus are CR4, but Brethrow seems to be a more relaxed CR3).
• Aeryn has the contact information of 4 leading research groups in Terran universities on raptor engineering. 
• Breton-Lewis group at the Museum of Natural History, London, Terra. 
• Qi group at Xerces University, Mars.
• Inagaki group, University of Tsukuba.
• Shurmed group, Nusku Institute of Natural History.
• Aeryn knows that there is a market for raptor products on Terra in Asian markets. She has a list of restaurants that allegedly serve such products. 
• Mainly institution in mainland China, Japan and Vancouver, Canada.
• Aeryn knows that Promethean authority would shutdown a raptor farm if they knew about it, and would prosecute if said farm was located on the main continent. 
• One such farm was dismantled in the lowland near the north pole a few years ago.
• Aeryn knows that raptor hunt and bait rescue hunts are very lucrative. Raptor hunting may be legal in Brethrow, but certainly not bait rescue hunts. A week probably bring in ~200K to the operators. 
• Aeryn knows about another eminent scientist in Saurien behavioural sciences, and has a list of recent graduates from her group.
• Prof. Dean Harrow-Smith, MNH (London), currently on sabbatical with the Qi group on Mars.

IW 6 - Human trafficking

Context

The CAMEROON has rescued one of its client, and three "targets". They are now trying to find a way to maximize profit amid a legally and ethically dark grey area while remaining on the high ground.

The air is thick enough to make soup with it.

Location

Prometheus is the oldest Terran colony. Brethrow is a distant developing nation where little laws are in effect. The air is thick, the temperature an uncomfortable 35C(95F). The topography is made of mountains covered by a dense jungles. The hunting ground is located 700km North of Brethrow. The environment is best described as somewhere between a mangrove and a jungle.

The insertion spot (purple), the creek (orange), the cave entrance and exit (blue).

   

Location: Hovering over the jungle canopy, mainworld, Prometheus system
Terran timestamp: May 1, 2170 AD

Marion's mangled body is hoisted on the sickbay's table as Aeryn, Molly and Flo are planning the surgery. While Tom jumps in the shower, Diane and Jane are most interested in the three "targets". One of the target, Porfirio, seems to be a man of higher stature. He explains that the hunters purchased 11 prisoners to act as raptor bait for a life-sized capture the "flags" adventure. He shares the location of the base camp, where the game master probably is.
The two other targets, who look more like tough cookies, reveal gladly that after Philip's death, they decided to use Marion as a bait to give a few of them a chance to escape. The plan went badly and only one of them had seemingly escaped.
Porfirio then reveals that the mayor/dictator in Brethrow, Hijo Stamellas,  had sold their lives against a large-scale water purification system. Porfirio offered a good sum to take his revenge on Stamellas.
The crew members were more interested in recovering Philip's body from the cave so that a claim on his life insurance be made. Anika and Tom decided to head back down shortly after Tom managed to put the 10mm Gauss railgun (dinosaur gun) together.


Location: Jungle floor, mainworld, Prometheus system
Terran timestamp: May 1, 2170 AD

Diane used the sensor array to identify movement under the canopy. She guessed that these were 2-3 raptors circling around the cave entrance. As Tom and Anika geared to descend in the air raft, she engaged with a sustained fire downward to burn the foliage to the ground. Amid the wood cracking in the steam and smouldering foliage, Tom struggled with the raft. They landed on the floor more or less blinded by steam, smoke and the impenetrable green of the jungle. With them, Rey, a psychopathic-looking target whom they equipped with the ship's shotgun.

Hey, Anika, you smell like lunch.

The advance in the foliage was slow and noisy. It got interrupted when they reached the pile of bodies and a raptor ambushed them out of the blue. Tom snapped a few 10mm shot and tore the raptor's left leg with the overpowered gun. The beast struggled, but soon the bodies of the three dead targets were on board. Anika, shaken from the ambush, trader her Gauss pistol for Tom's rifle. She had no intention to head down into the tunnel. Tom jumped in, shortly followed by Rey. 

Anika never saw the second ambusher until its fangs had penetrated her nanoweave suit and punctured her lung. In the struggle, the raptor nearly cleaned the flesh from her left arm's bone, severing the main artery and vein.

As her eyesight blurred by the fountain of blood, she could see Flo rapelling from above and the shots of Rey's shotgun felling the beast.



Location: Brethrow, mainworld, Prometheus system
Terran timestamp: May 1, 2170 AD

The medbot "Flo" saved the lungs but admitted defeat with the arm. Anika, an exceptionally strong woman, had survived the shock and the hemorrhage, but her arm was still more or less detached from her body. The CAMEROON flew to Brethrow after contacting a surgeon there. They rushed Anika to his practice. There, Aeryn, Flo and Molly spent the next three hours assisting the surgeon on a very difficult procedure to save Anika's arm.

In the ship, the guest became reckless. Porfirio demanded to be released so that he could get his men to bring him to a safe place. The two other targets showed no interest in returning to Brethrow where they were convicted criminals. After some tough negotiations,  Porfirio transferred 5KCr and waited for the night to exit the ship.

Anika returned late in the evening, stable but still in a critical conditions (-20HP). The CAMEROON left Prometheus and dropped the last two targets in a low-orbit transit station. As the ship sped to the 100D line for a return jump to Terra. They agreed with Marion that he would pay 25KCr for his safe return home. The crew wanted more, but the threat to turn him over for human trafficking rang hollow as they would have gotten no money out of following this option.


Location: Jumpspace, Terra-bound
Terran timestamp: May 2, 2170 AD

The crew decided to look into the business opportunity granted by the presence of farmed raptors on Prometheus. No one really knew how to capitalize this, but it smelled like a high-profit venture.  The all settled for the quiet drone of the jumpdrive for the next 7 days.

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 5 - Blue Jungle

Context

The crew of the CAMEROON has received a distress call of their clients. The call, extremely weak, is taking them deep in the hinterland of Brethrow, a backwater on Prometheus. The clients are shady hunters from Terra. They are short of weapons, and are suspecting that the extraction will be complicated by the presence of raptors.

The air is thick enough to make soup with it.

Location

Prometheus is the oldest Terran colony. Brethrow is a distant developing nation where little laws are in effect. The air is thick, the temperature an uncomfortable 35C(95F). The topography is made of mountains covered by a dense jungles.

The insertion spot (purple), the creek (orange), the cave entrance and exit (blue).

   

Location: 400m of approximate extraction site, mainworld, Prometheus system
Terran timestamp: May 1, 2170 AD

The CAMEROON descends to 20m and release the air raft. On board of the raft, Tom and Anika. The only weapon on board is a 4mm gaussian pistol that Tom puts between his legs as he drives the craft over a creek heading up the slopes. On the CAMEROON, Diane pinpoints the signal from the transmission to a nook at the foot of the mountains. She passes the data to the raft and the CAMEROON begin sweeping the area. The free trader grates against the tree canopy to mask the approach of the raft. Jane has the dual 100MJ laser at the ready.


Location: some godless creek bed, mainworld, Prometheus system
Terran timestamp: May 1, 2170 AD

Anika clings to her dazzler laser flashlight. Tom is speeding over the creek bed in a scary display of driving prowess. Debris and leaves are rubbing against the craft and the visibility is down to nothing from her point of view. When the raft begins banking, Tom swerves to avoid crashing into trees. A 5m long raptor is now perched at the rear of the raft, and came out of nowhere. Anika has to throw herself off the raft to avoid a deadly bite to her torso. She lands heavily in the creek bed, but the nanoweave suit turns a deadly fall into a bad one. Her hands clings to her dazzler. As she wipes the wet hair from her face, she sees the raptor lose its footing and falls into the creek, some 20m upstream. 

Hey, Anika, you smell like lunch.

Tom has abandoned the wheel and takes a few shots at the raptor. One 4mm tungsten rod hits the beast hard enough to make it jerk out of sight. Anika is struggling in the heavy foliage on the bank. The scene calms down: only the cackle of the creek and the drone of the CAMEROON overhead remains. Anika climbs back on the raft, sore from the fall.

On the CAMEROON, Diane detect a heat signature as well as a weak electromagnetic signal. The location is piped on the raft’s computer with a precision of 1m. Tom hits the throttle until the creek becomes too narrow. The raft then starts to slalom in slow motion at 15m off the ground, sandwiched between the undergrowth and the canopy.


Location: Cave entrance, mainworld, Prometheus system
Terran timestamp: May 1, 2170 AD

The raft descends through the undergrowth and get a visual on the entrance of a man-made cave. A trail of smoke is coming out, and the smell of thermite lingers. Tom lands the rafts and head to the tiny hole, both weapons trained on the unknown. Anika trips, hangs upside down and panics. She thrashes and tries to climb back on the raft as Tom slips down into the cave.

Tom finds a tablet, but it is locked. He switches his flashlight to the LED. The tunnel is about 1.5m high by 0.6m. The air was sucked out by the burning of a thermite grenade. He finds the mangled body of Phillip, one of his client. He was somehow dragged by a small toothed creature that held him by the throat. The dirt nearby has turned to glass by the heat.

Anika takes a hold of herself and slips down into the tunnel. The smell of thermite is intense. She can see the glimmer of Tom’s light ahead, but keeps the dazzler mode on, just in case. The two meet a little past Phillip’s body, into a small antechamber. The room is filled with trash, some of the wrappers are Terran household brands "Mr. Noodles". The place was used recently. They head out by the other access tunnel.


Location: Cave exit, mainworld, Prometheus system
Terran timestamp: May 1, 2170 AD

The cave exits to another sealable trapdoor. The light is blinding as Tom peers outside. Nothing snatches his head, but a raptor could be a few meters away and he wouldn’t be able to tell. Three horribly mutilated bodies are lying on the ground next to him. The scene makes him woozy and he needs to catch his breath. Anika looses her cookies loudly back into the cave entrance. Amongst their anxious whimpering, the weak voice of a man hanging overhead. Tom recognizes Marion, the other hunter and client. He is swinging at the end of a rope, attached by his waist. His head is badly beaten.

Marion cues Tom of the impending charge of a raptor. Tom blinds the monster with his dazzler laser. The raptor runs into a tree and finds a way to get out of sight in the thick undergrowth. They can hear it scurry away. Maybe 150m to the North the CAMEROON has opened fire with the dual laser. In the thick and moist atmosphere, the laser makes noise analogous to thunder. Tree trunks explode in the intense heat of the beam. A number of raptors seems to be scattering away from the scene.

Anika locates a rope and climbs to meet Marion. He points at three terrorized men clinging to a tree 20m above. He refers to them as targets/flags. Tom makes the connections. He thinks back at the 3dT of unknown cargo that was in his hold before and figure out that the targets had been smuggled in a cryo state.

“Have you smuggled these men to hunt, asshole?”, Tom and Anika seem to be on the brink to execute Marion on the spot. Marion begs for mercy, but his voicebox has been smashed and nothing but gargles come out.


Location: Brethrow airspace, 1000m alt., mainworld, Prometheus system
Terran timestamp: May 1, 2170 AD

It turns out that the targets are Prometheans natives. They speak a hard to parse cajun. Tom finds on the damage dinosaur gun and make it his. Marion is hauled onboard and given to the care of Aeryn and Flo. If Marion survives, which he should, they’ll make him pay and then turn him over to law enforcement for his sins.

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.