Begin a Session(13)Flashback reveals an aspect of another character, place, or faction
"Okay, sure. Well, I guess this is goodbye then. Good luck out there, Bri."
"You too. I owe you one if we ever cross paths again. I hope you find your destiny."
Bri watched Jett walk away. She looked around and walked into the first bar she saw.
"Give me one of whatever the locals drink," she said to the barman. He brought her drink and she downed it. "Another. Where do ships hire around here?"
"You have to go through the approved job boards," said the barman as he poured the drink, "You'll have to register as a jobseeker and then you can apply for ship jobs. Just asking around for work can get you into trouble."
"Fine. Where do I register?"
A few days later, Bri headed to her new ship to meet her new captain for the first time.
"You said in your posting you were an engineer. Where's your tools?" said the captain.
"I don't have any, I was hoping-"
"If you don't have tools, you're not an engineer. You can join one of the scavenger crews until you save up for tools."
"But that could take months! You said you were looking for an engineer," said Bri.
"And it looks like we still are," said the captain. "Well, are you in or out?"
"I'm in, I'm in," said Bri. Being on a scavenger crew was better than being homeless in the perpetual daylight of Port Koshiba, at least.
"Well then, welcome to the Work Ethic," said the captain.
Momentum:1 → 2
"Say, Eris. I've been doing the calculations, and I don't think this data will be enough for an exosuit," says Jett. "I'm thinking we go back to Hope and survey the surface a bit. That should give us enough data for the trade."
"That makes sense, your friend at the Cartographers Guild will only send us back out on another wild goose chase if we go back now."
"Let's head for Hope when the e-drive is charged, then."
Set a Course(Supply)—6 vs 9|3
They arrive at Hope and begin scanning the planet.
Diversity(38)Diverse (three biomes)
Biomes(6)Cold forest
Biomes(71)Temperate rainforest
Biomes(63)Shallow seas
Jett brings the ship down to land in the temperate forest area.
"We're the first humans to ever step on this planet," says Jett, 'It feels like a momentous occasion - this planet has been alone for millions of years, and this is the moment that we arrive.'
"You only feel that way because there are trees," says Eris, "When it's a barren rock or desert you don't seem to care."
"Still, there are trees though, aren't there?" Jett says as he makes his way down the ramp onto the planet's surface.
Life(91)Overrun
Planetside Feature(1)Background radiation
Lifebearing(37)Drastic environmental change
"Jett, I'm getting disturbing readings from the surface - the levels of background radiation are much higher than they should be. I think we should get off this planet as soon as we can," says Eris.
"It'll only take an hour or so, these radiation levels aren't high enough to do any damage in an hour," replies Jett. "Look at these scans though, all of these trees are recent - less than a decade or two old at most. Something happened here to cause this."
"There must be a safer way to get an exosuit."
"We're here already," replies Jett.
Undertake an Expedition(Wits)—4 vs 3|4 13 - Expedition on Hope +1 (2/10)
Lifebearing(32)Corrosive substance or environment
Jett cautiously moves through the rainforest. He notices that the patch of ground ahead of him has nothing growing on it and looks different to the rest of the dirt he sees.
He looks for a way around the patch of discolored dirt.
Explore a Waypoint(Wits)—5 vs 3|3match
Make a Discovery(45)Marvel of ancient engineering discoveries +2 (1/10)
He finds a path past the patch of dirt and moves on to the clearing beyond.
He sees something that shouldn't be there - there is a platform in the middle of the clearing. In the middle of the platform is a stairway leading downwards into the earth. Jett looks down the stairway, and it is lit by glowing stones laid along the wall at around head height. The walls are clad in a smooth, marble-like stone. The stairway goes down about fifty meters into the crust of Hope, and there are a pair of parallel ramps in the stairs as if vehicles were once moved this way. Jett follows the stairs down to the bottom, and looks around. He is in a large chamber with a large corridor leading further into the earth. It appears this is some kind of subterranean city complex, now abandoned. It must have been carved out of the rock by some ancient race of people millennia ago.
Jett decides to look around the site a little - he doesn't know what kind of creatures or defenses might be waiting for him, but if he can get any clues as to what this place is they're bound to be worth a lot to the right people. Very cautiously, he inches forwards.
Undertake an Expedition(Wits)—4 vs 3|10 13 - Expedition on Hope +1 (4/10)
Jett walks further into the site - it appears to be some kind of well-guarded city - and looks inside a few of the rooms. Whatever was once inside has long since rotted away, only the stone remains.
Then, as he is walking out of one of the rooms, Jett thinks he sees movement out of the corner of his eye at the end of a corridor further inside the site. He starts running towards the exit as fast as he can.
Face Danger(Edge)—3 vs 7|8
As he starts running, something begins chasing him through the darkness. He can hear it behind him as he runs. He turns around to take a look and sees
Land(35)Humanoid / bipedal
Scale(66)Large (vehicle-sized)
A man, or what appears to be a man. Its face is twisted and distorted, it is about three times the size of a human, and it is crawling along the ground through a corridor that is far too small for it with alarming speed.
Jett keeps running as fast as he can. If he can get outside, maybe he can lose the creature in the woods or even get to the ship.
Face Danger(Edge)—6 vs 6|9
The creature is moving faster than Jett, closing the gap between them. He can hear it panting and grunting. He is terrified. Spirit:3 → 1
He reaches the bottom of the stairs, and begins the long climb to the top. His legs and chest are burning, but he has to keep moving.
Face Danger(Edge)—4 vs 1|3 Momentum:2 → 3
As the creature nears the entrance to the tunnel, it covers its eyes and wails. The light is hurting it. Jett slows down and stops at the top of the tunnel, and looks down at the monster. It looks back at him for a moment, then turns around and slinks back into the mysterious sunken city.
Jett has enough data to barter for an exosuit, so he heads back to The Irony. "Let's get out of here before it gets dark." he says to Eris.
"What happens when it gets dark?"
"I don't want to be here to find out."
Finish an Expedition(track)—13 vs 4|3 discoveries +1 (1/10) 13 - Expedition on Hopecompleted
Once in orbit, Jett takes a rest and calms down, then reviews his sensor readings from his expedition. A lot of the recording is corrupted - perhaps it was the background radiation, perhaps it was something more sinister in that bizarre site interfering with his equipment, but either way he was going to have less data than he hoped to trade. It should still be enough to get the exosuit, but there would be less left over than he would have liked. He sets a course for Port Koshiba.
Set a Course(Supply)—8 vs 8|10
Spaceborne Peril(19)Familiar foe appears or sends an ominous message
Jett comes out of warp at one of the waypoints along the way. His long-range scanners show what appears to be an Ascendancy fighter motionless in deep space. Jett immediately switches to silent running in the hope that the ship won't notice him - they have powerful scanners, but if they aren't paying attention to scans he should be able to avoid detection.
Face Danger(Shadow)—5 vs 8|1
The ascendancy ship doesn't move, although running silent means the e-drive takes longer to charge than it usually would. Momentum:3 → 2 Eventually, after a very long and very tense wait, the ship is ready and Jett jumps away to Port Koshiba.
Jett immediately sets about trading the data he recovered for a brand new exosuit and gets it stored aboard The Irony.
Then he decides he needs some time to recover after his long journey. He heads to the bar to share stories of lost underground cities and men the size of train carriages with the locals.
Sojourn(Heart)—5 vs 4|8 Spirit:1 → 4
He has a wild night drinking with the locals; they are most amused by his tale although skeptical when they hear that most of his sensor data was corrupted and the only proof he has is blurry, glitchy stills of a giant man in a tunnel.
When he wakes up on the ship the next morning, feeling a little worse for wear, he gets one of the dockside techs to take a look at the damage to his ship.
Repair(Supply)—7 vs 9|6 Starship / Integrity:3 → 5
Before long, it's as good as new. Jett is in good spirits and ready to begin his journey to Pyla.
End a Session
Momentum:2 → 3