Begin a Session(100)Unforeseen aid is on the way or within reach
Location(89)Deep Space Spaceborne Opportunity(31)Derelict ripe for the picking
Starship Type(40)Mender First Look(10)Bristling with weapons
*A venerable clan ship floated gently through the void, heavily armed and armored. The gaping hole in its side indicated that however mighty the armor may have been it wasn't enough. A cloud of debris and corpses filled the area around it, with no sign of survivors. Whatever happened here, it happened quickly.
Despite the carnage the rest of the ship appeared largely intact and the slow rotation of the wreck revealed a massive hangar door embedded into the bottom of it, flanked by a pair of retracted grappler arms.
A large fragment of shattered bulkhead slowly orbits past, revealing the name KILBY proudly emblazoned upon it.
Momentum:5 → 6
The credits rolled across the viewscreen in the captain's quarters just as a ping sounded out. A small blue holo orb appeared on the nightside table as Meg's pleasant voice emanated from speakers unseen.
"I hope you enjoyed the trip, our destination will be in view soon."
Julius stretched and suppressed a yawn, swinging his legs over the side of the generously proportioned bed and hauling himself to his feet. "Be right up, thanks Meg."
First Look(25)Built within terrain or asteroid
Entering the bridge and finding a seat in the captain's chair, Julius watched the small spec in the starfield in front of him grow to gradually become an asteroid of significant size. Bigger still was the station built into it. From the main structure snaked out dozens of struts and corridors, connecting to landing pads, other large structures, and even just observation platforms aimed to view the planet below. From the main structure, a large tower stood tall, connected to but visually distinct in style from the rest of the station. Overall the station was lively, with smaller ships zipping about bringing cargo to massive haulers that hung imposingly in the station's orbit.
Initial Contact(202)Informative
As they approached the station, Julius took note of a couple holo-banners out on space displaying adverts for products, services, and locations. One that stood out to him was for a fixer on the station by the name of The Whisper.
Even in a vacuum, The Whisper was a breath of fresh air. She had a refined look, with a classy, elegant style. Clearly she was a higher class kind of fixer, the kind of fixer who would have been kept on retainer by the wealthy elites on Taraxus over a more budget option like Vega Khan in the low city.
Shaking himself from his contemplative mood, Julius pulled up the comms console and sent a request to dock. A short while later a ping alerted him he had been assigned a landing pad, which he set about heading to. As he did so he asked "Hey Meg, what can you tell me about this place?"
The telltale blue holo-orb appeared on the console as she replied:
"Cyrus Station: Population 5118. Orbits the planet dubbed Iron Mesa, so named for its deep ore deposits and rocky, lifeless surface. The station is a major resource extraction and refinery hub thanks to mining on Iron Mesa. "
Her holo flashed a couple of metals and elements found on the planet below as she continued
"The station was originally created by a religious group known as the Serene Order as an abbey or cloister of sorts, but grew over time until the non-religious population far outweighed the initial occupants. Interestingly, the reclusive descendants of those original religious founders still technically own the station, though they appear to be relatively hands off based off of the information I have available. They prefer to stay in a monastery dubbed The Spire and let intermediaries run things."
She projected the symbol of their order: A hammer with a corona of flame around its head.
"Primary exports: refined metals, rare earth minerals. I speculate it won't be hard to find shipwrights and engineers here."
Julius nodded to her as he piloted the ship to hover above his assigned landing pad and toggled autopilot to do the rest. He took a deep breath as the ship touched down, exhaled, then stood from his seat and flashed Meg a smile. "Well, time is wasting, time to get to work making news friends."
Some time later, Julius found himself in the clean, utilitarian corridor outside of The Whisper's parlor. A large gentlemen in a rugged outfit stood beside the door, visibly armed.
"Hello, my name is Julius Gamble. Would your mistress be in?"
The guard nodded and waved him in.
"Mind your manners." He growled as Julius passed him by.
Inside was much less utilitarian than the outside. He found himself in a large round room, walls decorated with art, plants, paintings, and even a stone bust of someone he didn't recognize. It was unmistakably a very high class locale, though despite the size of the room and the reputation the that the decor implied the place was completely empty aside from its proprietor.
In the center of the room stood a large circular desk made of a polished white stone. In a tall chair behind it sat The Whisper. Contrary to Gamble's initial assessment, her advert outside the station wasn't touched up, she genuinely was just that stunning. Shoulder length red hair framed a slender face with a carefully neutral expression, her dancer's figure was at odds with the broad, grand chair it sat it. Her striking blue eyes fixed on him, assessing him in kind with a calculating intellect. She reminded him of the femme fatales in his old adventure serials in a way he found equally familiar and alarming.
Clearing his throat, he announced himself before approaching her desk.
"Greetings, I am Captain Gamble. I'm looking for for someone, I thought you might be able to help. She's an engineer named Brianna Savela, goes by Bri. She's supposed to have passed through here recently. Discretion is appreciated in this matter."
She gestured to a chair opposite her, the perfect facsimile of magnanimous host. She finally spoke, her voice was soft and warm, maybe even sultry. It was a voice that could reassure you even as it told you of your imminent demise. Julius made conscious effort to keep his guard up, even though the atmosphere seemed to encourage you to relax.
"I understand, captain. I'll see what I can dig up for you."
She pulled up a holo-terminal and began tapping away as Julius took a seat. Now seated across the desk from her, he was able to see flecks of something reflective in the stone slab that served as the desktop. Quartz? Gold? Something else entirely? It was unclear but he was pretty confident by the rest of the decor in the room it was worth a small fortune.
He was taken out of his musings as Whisper announced "I have some information for you. Callsign Bri, full name Brianna Savela. Former scrapper, highly competent according to the service records I can find of her serving as an engineer. Is that your target?"
Julius nodded, trying to present a confident and charming persona as he replied.
Make a Connection(Heart)—4 vs 8|7 Underworld RetributionThe Starforged/Campaign Julius Gamble/Clocks/Underworld Retribution.md → 1/2
"That's excellent news, if you can just give me the data on her last known location I'll be on my way and out of your luscious hair."
Compel(Heart)—8 vs 9|3
Whisper smiled slightly but rolled her eyes at his compliment.
"I'm afraid there's still the matter of my fee, I don't do charity work without good reason."
Julius cleared his throat tentatively "Ah yes, that. Fair enough. What's this going to cost me?"
Her cool blue eyes locked on his as she made her offer.
"Normally I'd charge you a credits-based broker fee, but her latest location isn't far from another job I need done. If you're willing to investigate a derelict for me, I think we can both come out ahead. If not, credits are still an option."
Julius weighed the options carefully, skepticism was plain to see on his face "What kind of derelict? And why hasn't anyone else taken the job before me?"
Now it was Whisper's turn to be a bit coy. "It's... a personal matter I'm looking into. There was a clan ship from humanity's early days in the Forge that went missing in action during one of the first clan wars. I have good intel indicating the derelict is within a certain range of coordinates, but the whole area is full of proximity mines so I can't get anything more concrete."
She quickly continued, not letting him ponder on how vague or dangerous this job was for long.
"It's not a journey for the faint of heart, but all I need is a crew manifest from the ship, anything else you find is yours to keep. Think of it as a token of appreciation for taking on something this big."
Julius raised his eyebrows. A ship from the first clan wars was a very rare and potentially valuable find indeed. Anything like that would have been reclaimed quickly by the clans, or stripped by scavengers on account of the high quality clan-made weapons and armor it would likely have aboard. A single powered suit of armor could turn a even a small time ganger into a force to be wary of, so clans were naturally highly possessive of their property too.
Considering that he was unlikely to afford the services of such a high end fixer unless he wanted to start pawning off the more over-the-top accents from his ship (which he made a mental note to consider doing as he made it more to his liking), he didn't really have much choice. Inwardly he couldn't help but grumble that this engineer better be worth the trouble.
Returning to the matter at hand, he responded more confidently than he felt, aiming to keep his lack of funding a secret so as to secure a better deal.
"I accept your offer. However, I suspect the services of an engineer may be helpful when working within a minefield. I'm prepared to swear an iron vow as assurance, but I would request Bri's location now so I can make use of her skills in fulfilling the job."
Whisper looked away a moment, considering something privately before responding.
"Deal. Swear it."
Swear an Iron Vow(Heart)—8 vs 1|1match Recover the Crew Manifest Momentum:6 → 8 MATCH: Greatly increased rewards
Drawing his combat knife from where it was hidden, he held the blackened blade out in front of him pointed upwards.
"I swear I will see this derelict explored and return to you its crew manifest."
Whisper nodded, pleased. With a swipe across her desktop, a ping notified Julius he had received a new data packet. Tucking his blade away and bringing up his wrist computer, he quickly scrubbed through it to find the details on both Bri's location and the derelict in question.
He stood from his seat, extending a hand to shake.
"Looks like I'm headed to Trion."
Whisper hesitated a moment as if she were unused to physical contact, then shook his hand.
"Good luck, I'm counting on you."
Strolling onto the ship with a couple provisions he acquired on the way back, Julius called out to Meg
"I'm back."
"Welcome aboard, Julius."
Setting his supplies down in the ship's mess, he made his way to the pilot's chair and sat down.
"I have a heading on our engineer. Please set course for Trion, we don't have much time to waste."
"As you wish. Setting course."
Set a Course(Supply)—10 vs 5|2 Momentum:8 → 9
The ship rumbled to life, lifting off of the pad and blasting into space. As he piloted, Julius couldn't help but smile and feel a small sense of wonder at the sights and sensations of space flight even though it threatened to become commonplace at this rate.
Safely out of the station's orbit, he turned on the autopilot and pulled up the datapacket Whisper had given him once more. This time, he focus was the derelict ship, the Kilby.
According to the data Whisper provided, the Kilby was a large ship belonging to Clan Zarrakmar. Her service record shows she was a mender used in a war against a rival founder clan. She vanished somewhere in the Gorrick sector and her resting place was only recently rediscovered when half of one of her emergency buoys was found by salvage crew sweeping the outskirts of the Anaxes Minefield. Its unconfirmed but assumed that the minefield is what crippled and doomed the ship. The datapacket didn't specify the vessel's cargo or destination, so Julius could only hope those details didn't add any further complications to what looked to be an already complicated extraction job.
With a deep breath he stood up from the pilot's chair.
"Meg, you have the controls. Let me know if anything comes up, I'm going to do a little maintenance on my gear in my quarters."
"Understood, I'll remain vigilant." Meg replied coolly.
Settling in at the desk in a captain's quarters he withdrew his pistols from their holsters and began to disassemble them, meticulously cleaning, oiling, and polishing the components as needed.
The pistols had been equal parts gift and apology from his old boss Vega when he was essentially trafficked into service with Nix Cargor. They were worn but well maintained, and they'd gotten him out of trouble more than once since leaving Vega's employ.
Similarly, he disconnected the maneuvering thrust modules from his jump-jet rig checking and double checking seals and rotational bearings. These handy little guys had been picked up relatively early in his career with Cargor. Julius realized his need for a little extra agility after he had his first unwanted close encounter with a blade swinging ganger who passionately disagreed with Julius' habit of flirting with his sister.
Finally, he stood up, strode to the wardrobe, and took the time to change out of his ganger clothes into something a bit more...bold.
He settled on a collared black shirt and pants, with a sleeveless red and white coat with long tails, then kicked off his heavily worn grey boots and pulled on a pair of brown leather boots with a single vertical red stripe running the length of them on either side. These clothes would need to be tailored later to add more hidden pockets, sheaths, and flair, but they were significantly more comfortable than his previous outfit.
He added his jump jet rig and holsters to the new outfit, adjusting straps and ensuring a snug fit before holstering his pistols and attaching the thrust modules to the rig with a satisfying click and hiss. Julius closed his eyes and took a moment to center himself, standing in the middle of his cabin. He took a deep breath, the room smelled like oil, leather, and a hint of something floral from his clothing. He smiled to himself and opened his eyes as he called out.
"Hey Meg, I need a second opinion: How do I look?"
A little blue holo orb appeared on his desk. Julius detected some amusement in her voice as she replied.
"Hmm... Some might call it a bit much. Personally however, I find you look rather dashing in red."
At this Julius grinned and replied "Perfect. Thank you Meg, I think it's time for Captain Gamble to start living a little."
Secure an Advantage(Heart)—8 vs 6|10
+1 to next non-progress roll
End a Session Reach a Milestone Secure A New Hull ID +1 (6/10)