0004 Pequan to Tremous Dex

[terrymixon]

Flighty gestured at the briefcase on the table. "We have a briefcase that might have some info on the Zhodoni device. Might not, either. Zaki scanned it and it seems clear, but someone will have to carefully cut it open so we can see for sure. Anyone else have any psionic issues to report?"

Sigrún produces a large folding utility knife and opening it says "Já without knowing it I carved dragons and big snakes all over a workbench on the derelict ship". She shrugs "I like dragons and at the time the snake and I had been mentally... oversharing... for overlong".

She beckons with the fingers of her offhand to whoever holds or is nearest to the the briefcase and, if given custody, proceeds to immediately stab it as the first step in slicing open the bottom/rear to expose the contents.

“It’s got papers and objects, so please don’t be too stabby.”

Flighty

[Tiglath]

“It’s got papers and objects, so please don’t be too stabby.”

Sigrún retorts "I am never too stabby! Look - I am cutting along the edges".

She cuts the "bottom" out of the case efficiently slicing along the edges and being wary of the contents. Whilst destroying the case her method seems to involve access by avoiding latches and locks which might house traps or alarms.

Here she is leaning on her basic understanding of Electronics and her apparent familiarity with breaking into luggage (Streetwise) to inform her efforts.

(OOC: "The lady doth protest too much..." much? ).

[joertexas]

"I haven't in the past. Maybe I misheard. Zaki? What was it you said you said?"

Zaki shakes her head. "I know that my flying skills increased quite a bit when we were fighting at the ship. Is that what you mean?"

[joertexas]

She cuts the "bottom" out of the case efficiently slicing along the edges and being wary of the contents. Whilst destroying the case her method seems to involve access by avoiding latches and locks which might house traps or alarms.

Zaki sighs. "I must confess that I've never even heard of the Sword Worlds, much less ever met one of its denizens. Are all of your people as reckless as you?"

[terrymixon]

"I haven't in the past. Maybe I misheard. Zaki? What was it you said you said?"

Zaki shakes her head. "I know that my flying skills increased quite a bit when we were fighting at the ship. Is that what you mean?"

“That’s good to know, but I meant about Karsci. What have you observed with him?”

Flighty

[joertexas]

“That’s good to know, but I meant about Karsci. What have you observed with him?”

Zaki pauses, table knife in hand, over the sandwich she is preparing in the ship's tiny galley. "Donovan, do you want mustard or mayo on your sandwich?" She turns her attention back to Flighty. "I know that he healed very quickly, and that he spoke about fighting one of the creatures we saw. That's all I can recall."

[terrymixon]

“That’s good to know, but I meant about Karsci. What have you observed with him?”

Zaki pauses, table knife in hand, over the sandwich she is preparing in the ship's tiny galley. "Donovan, do you want mustard or mayo on your sandwich?" She turns her attention back to Flighty. "I know that he healed very quickly, and that he spoke about fighting one of the creatures we saw. That's all I can recall."

“Fast healing and maybe visions? Or something else? Karsci, how would you describe it?”

Flighty

[Tiglath]

Zaki sighs. "I must confess that I've never even heard of the Sword Worlds, much less ever met one of its denizens. Are all of your people as reckless as you?"

Sigrún laughs "That's really very "Imperial" of you!" Seemingly finding Zaki's statement genuinely amusing she asks "You've never heard of the people you were so recently at war with? Believe me those Rimward of this subsector know and fear us as do those in Lunion. The Imperial 213th Fleet know my name..."

Apparently wincing in pain, discomfort or distraction she seems to lose track of that train of thought. She then rallies and refocuses sighing as she continues "But why should you know us? Your Imperium is vast and my Confederation of planets is the size of a sub sector like Villis. The Sword Worlds are a string of planets set in space like the jewels in Freya's necklace. The original settlers came direct from Terra - or so legend has it. They were from the northern Eurozone - a land of cold, mountains and forests and where our language and culture has its roots. Our people practice psionics and venerate the Old Aesir Gods who travelled with us and most of us look like myself and Donovan - who I'm sure is from Gram". She shows her teeth as she smiles "The gods we follow are warriors themselves often fighting great beasts, giants or each other and so we are warriors. We don't have the full technology of the Imperium but we still scare them because we are fierce and where Imperials run a Sword Worlder sees the chance for a good death in battle and to enter the All Father's mead hall! So we give them cause to fear the wolves beyond the frontier".

She dexterously twirls the knife through her fingers to change the angle of her cut "Because we are warriors Imperials find us reckless - but that's not it. I'd say we're direct in word and deed and just do what needs doing for the good of all. We are also proud and value personal honour".

Changing tack she adds "Now, I happen to have some experience of quickly getting into luggage and I know that this case suffered the same deceleration on impact that pulped the wreck's unlucky Engineer so I think any fine triggered trap inside here was likely destroyed or went off when the ship crashed but in any event I'm cutting through the case and not the lock".

Edited: just a light fiddling with!

[helvorn]

Zaki starts to answer, and then she turns to the door as Karcsi comes in.

I would like to try our Sigrid's idea, let me do what I know as first aid and concentrate on the procedure and see if I can accomplish any healing like I heard a Shaman from another tribe did many years ago."

Zaki thinks for a moment. "Donovan, do you want him to try his method?"


OOG: Preempting the rest of the procedure for the moment...

"Mayo and mustard on the sandwich please Zaki." Donovan thought about it for a moment and then shrugged. "Sure why not have Karcsi try. My mind has already been shaken and stirred. Let's really roll the dice and see what we get. We need to understand eventually."

[Eris]

Zaki starts to answer, and then she turns to the door as Karcsi comes in.

I would like to try our Sigrid's idea, let me do what I know as first aid and concentrate on the procedure and see if I can accomplish any healing like I heard a Shaman from another tribe did many years ago."

Zaki thinks for a moment. "Donovan, do you want him to try his method?"


OOG: Preempting the rest of the procedure for the moment...

"Mayo and mustard on the sandwich please Zaki." Donovan thought about it for a moment and then shrugged. "Sure why not have Karcsi try. My mind has already been shaken and stirred. Let's really roll the dice and see what we get. We need to understand eventually."

OOC: Doesn't seem to help with Donovan's injury. Maybe it's just on himself, maybe it requires Karcsi to be asleep, maybe it's just random and Karcsi has no idea how to either start or stop it?

Okay the week in jump is rapidly passing by, what is everyone doing?

[terrymixon]

OOC: We’re still waiting to hear what was in the briefcase. As it was in progress and only you could respond to it, we’ve been waiting on you before we proceed.

“While Sigrún commits violence on the briefcase, Bob and Doug, we’ll need to look the ship over for other surprises. If there was a bomb, there might be location beacons, software bypasses to open hatches, or other shenanigans. Anyone else have something we should be thinking about? Before we come out of jump? If not, we need to talk about what we do when we get there.”

Flighty

[ateno]

"They posted this bomb, it was to supposed to blow while in jump, so there should be no trigger for entering normal space. I will help in looking if that what is needed."

Karcsi

[Tiglath]

“While Sigrún commits violence on the briefcase... Anyone else have something we should be thinking about? Before we come out of jump? If not, we need to talk about what we do when we get there.”

Carving case with brutal economy Sigrún pauses in her destruction and eyes Flighty levelly "What if Karcsi and my visions were of after we have removed the bomb? It follows because if we emerge back into realspace then the bomb has failed. So we need to be stood to in vacc suits and closed up for action when we exit jump space. Everyone who can be should be armed - the sort of people who deal in stolen Zhodani Psi artefacts won't leave witnesses or take prisoners".

"If we exit jump to a place in system where we have enough space and time to set jump coordinates and transfer fuel for our next jump then we're good - somewhere far from the gas giant is all I can suggest. If not then we'll have to engage them ship to ship". She pauses in thought "We could maybe buy time by broadcasting a declared jump emergency on arrival. It would fit closely enough to what they expect and maybe that the bomb half worked but because we now can't escape this might tempt them to close, board us and take the artefact. There are many unknows - most importantly the nature of our enemy but it might buy us some time".

She gives Karcsi a feral grin "I think I'm going to need that axe".

Okay the week in jump is rapidly passing by, what is everyone doing?

While they're not engaged in pre-emptive bomb disposal and/or "unsabotage" Sigrún pesters the engineers to "print" her axe.

Edit: missed a "not" out...

[Eris]

OOC: We’re still waiting to hear what was in the briefcase. As it was in progress and only you could respond to it, we’ve been waiting on you before we proceed.

“While Sigrún commits violence on the briefcase, Bob and Doug, we’ll need to look the ship over for other surprises. If there was a bomb, there might be location beacons, software bypasses to open hatches, or other shenanigans. Anyone else have something we should be thinking about? Before we come out of jump? If not, we need to talk about what we do when we get there.”

Flighty

OOC: Sorry! Here you are...

The briefcase, not a ruined mess, disgorges a folder of papers, a snub pistol and a small high tech combination smartphone/computer.

The papers in the folder contain a report on someone named Henri de Champs. Whoever the owner of the briefcase was (you don't find their name in the papers anywhere) was clearly investigating this de Champs fellow. Henri de Champs is described as a businessman on Arden who is Chairman of the Board for Arden Starships a well known ship builder in the area, and privately a high member of The Arden Society. The Arden Society is a semi-secret group that more or less runs the Federation of Arden (Arden and several worlds around it). It seems de Champs has been secretly involved with a shadowy pirate group run by someone going by the alias of Roberts.

It appears, de Champs has been arranging for starship parts to be removed from corporate inventory and those parts are showing up on ships engaged in piracy in Arden, Darrian and Imperial space. It also names Baron de Roth as an Imperial noble that de Champs is directly paying off to turn a blind eye to pirate base operating in the Dinom system.

The electronic device is very, very, locked down. You all think it is going to take a high electronics and computer skills to hack into it, and even then doing so might just corrupt the data on it.

[terrymixon]

“While Sigrún commits violence on the briefcase... Anyone else have something we should be thinking about? Before we come out of jump? If not, we need to talk about what we do when we get there.”

Carving case with brutal economy Sigrún pauses in her destruction and eyes Flighty levelly "What if Karcsi and my visions were of after we have removed the bomb? It follows because if we emerge back into realspace then the bomb has failed. So we need to be stood to in vacc suits and closed up for action when we exit jump space. Everyone who can be should be armed - the sort of people who deal in stolen Zhodani Psi artefacts won't leave witnesses or take prisoners".

"If we exit jump to a place in system where we have enough space and time to set jump coordinates and transfer fuel for our next jump then we're good - somewhere far from the gas giant is all I can suggest. If not then we'll have to engage them ship to ship". She pauses in thought "We could maybe buy time by broadcasting a declared jump emergency on arrival. It would fit closely enough to what they expect and maybe that the bomb half worked but because we now can't escape this might tempt them to close, board us and take the artefact. There are many unknows - most importantly the nature of our enemy but it might buy us some time".

She gives Karcsi a feral grin "I think I'm going to need that axe".

"I agree we need to be in suits and armed, but I'm hesitant to reveal ourselves once we emerge. We have fuel for another jump and I agree that getting back out of there might be the best call. Without proof we're alive, we will fade from their minds. We could get to Rangent with the fuel we already have and make a run from there. It's not even in Arden space, so it politically gives us more cover."

Okay the week in jump is rapidly passing by, what is everyone doing?

Flighty is going to go over everything in the flight control computers and controls, as well as the communications system, to be sure there aren't any surprises there. No matter what they decide, he needs to be sure those are clean. He'll use his training time to have Sigrun beat him up... er, train him in melee combat so it can go from 0 to 1 with work.

Flighty

[terrymixon]

OOC: Sorry! Here you are...

The briefcase, not a ruined mess, disgorges a folder of papers, a snub pistol and a small high tech combination smartphone/computer.

The papers in the folder contain a report on someone named Henri de Champs. Whoever the owner of the briefcase was (you don't find their name in the papers anywhere) was clearly investigating this de Champs fellow. Henri de Champs is described as a businessman on Arden who is Chairman of the Board for Arden Starships a well known ship builder in the area, and privately a high member of The Arden Society. The Arden Society is a semi-secret group that more or less runs the Federation of Arden (Arden and several worlds around it). It seems de Champs has been secretly involved with a shadowy pirate group run by someone going by the alias of Roberts.

It appears, de Champs has been arranging for starship parts to be removed from corporate inventory and those parts are showing up on ships engaged in piracy in Arden, Darrian and Imperial space. It also names Baron de Roth as an Imperial noble that de Champs is directly paying off to turn a blind eye to pirate base operating in the Dinom system.

The electronic device is very, very, locked down. You all think it is going to take a high electronics and computer skills to hack into it, and even then doing so might just corrupt the data on it.

"This is interesting but doesn't seem immediately pressing. It might be why everyone on that ship had to die. If the pirates took it out to kill the guy with this, it would fit the circumstances. I wish we could get at the contents of the device, but it might be uncrackable at the moment. What do you think, Zaki?"

Flighty

[helvorn]

"This is interesting but doesn't seem immediately pressing. It might be why everyone on that ship had to die. If the pirates took it out to kill the guy with this, it would fit the circumstances. I wish we could get at the contents of the device, but it might be uncrackable at the moment. What do you think, Zaki?"

Flighty

"What gets me is why they would shoot the ship down but did not strip the wreck of anything incriminating or of value. The ship was damaged but anyone with experience would have tracked her down to the crash site. Not like anything on the planet could stop an armed ship from taking what they want at least away from the star port." Donovan shakes his head. "I can help you go through the flight controls and avionics if you want Flighty. I don't think I can do much to help Zaki unless her shoulders get too tense"

[terrymixon]

"This is interesting but doesn't seem immediately pressing. It might be why everyone on that ship had to die. If the pirates took it out to kill the guy with this, it would fit the circumstances. I wish we could get at the contents of the device, but it might be uncrackable at the moment. What do you think, Zaki?"

Flighty

"What gets me is why they would shoot the ship down but did not strip the wreck of anything incriminating or of value. The ship was damaged but anyone with experience would have tracked her down to the crash site. Not like anything on the planet could stop an armed ship from taking what they want at least away from the star port." Donovan shakes his head. "I can help you go through the flight controls and avionics if you want Flighty. I don't think I can do much to help Zaki unless her shoulders get too tense"

Flighty nodded. “We’re just guessing at this point. We may never know the details. I’ll gladly take your help. What do you think we should do when we drop out of jump space?”

Flighty

[ateno]

"I was working on the axe and spear when the thing with the cargo went haywire. They might be done now."

Karcsi thinks.

"Hey after I check on those, I will go thru every stateroom and all the vents and such looking for anything.

I think we should be at battle ready when we jump out."

Karcsi

[Eris]

Doug listens to all this talk and finally chips in his two credits, "Yeah, I think us disappearing is the best thing for us to do. We have plenty of fuel for another jump and I can have that processed and loaded in the tanks ready to use as soon as we emerge into normal space. We could be back in jump within, what, 10 minutes? We'd have to have a jump plot already laid in and everything prepared."

"The only problem I see with the systems is we'll start having some funk in the air and a tang to the water by the end of another jump if we don't get a chance to recharge the life support modules. We can live off food packs, we've got enough of those to feed us for a few weeks." Doug shrugs, "Everything else will recycle so it'll be breathable and drinkable, but a little off. I guess if you've been in space a while you know that. I'd strongly suggest we don't go too many weeks on recycled life support though. We'll have to start recyling the waste into food again and I don't think anybody wants to do that if we can avoid it. All told, we could survive a few months of quick refuel and jump, but we'd never get the stink out of the ship and our taste buds would never be the same."

"So, Rangent or back to Pequan? Those are the only places we can go." Doug offers, "I don't know anything about Rangent, but I really don't desire a quick return to Pequan, do you?"

"I guess the bigger question is what are we going to do about this ship, assuming we survive whatever awaits us at Tremous Dex?" Doug says, "I think we're going to need to run a-ways and disappear from whoever is behind this. To do that, I think we need to acquire a different identity, get a new Transponder saying we're a different ship. Might be better to get a subsector or two away from here, too."