Session One: Meet the Argonauts
General Summary
The year is 1021 R.E. The GCS Argus is a year into it's first voyage under the command of Captain Ruck Harriman (Chuck), a botanist raised to captaincy when he preformed a lifesaving maneuver on Admiral Gvan's Aide-de-Camp. A few months past there was an accident in Engineering that led to the deaths of Chief Engineer Arty Stoer, and the majority of the senior engineering staff. Captain Harriman promoted Sylvester "Sly" Mirage (Jeff) to the Chief's spot based upon the wonderful reviews in his personnel file. Secretly a charming hedonistic lay-about. Time will tell if he ever achieves any growth. Robert Tyson "Ty" Cobb (Roy) is a Company man. He is here to oversee the operations of his company's proprietary navigational system installed on the Argus. He acts as the senior navigator, and makes sure the ship gets where the captain wants it to go. Hopefully he can avoid agents of Ares Corp. as they attempt industrial espionage/sabotage. Science Officer Doctor Ming Gulla (Hobie) specializes in Exo-Archaeology. Suffered horrible disfigurement during an disastrous experiment that granted him strange mental powers. Is fixated upon learning the mental and technological secrets of the Ahzuuri. Chief of Security Zed Steele (Doug) is a member of the Cult of Oo-RA, and seeks revenge against Andor Kilraven and his Red Hound Corsairs for what he did to Zed's Master Thad Won. Little is known of the Commander of the ship's starfighter wing, Lazarus AO (James), other than his undying hatred of robots. The Ship's Medical Officer (Todd) was busy combating an outbreak of Stygian Flu amongst the crew, and not present for this adventure. The Game begins: A citizen of the Coalition, Erin Okerstrom, has requested extraction from the planet Kamena, in the Ishara System. Captain Harriman has Mr. Cobb set a course for Kamina. Ensign Erik Buccheri is eager to learn and often has questions for Chief Mirage. Upon arriving at Kamena, the Argus transitions out of fold-space into real space. The crew feels the familiar discomforting feeling of being turned inside out. Kamina is a burned out planet, orbiting dangerously close to a red giant star. Sensors have shown that an unusual and dangerous magnetic flare is active over the location where Captain Harriman is supposed to meet Erin Okerstrom, and her security team, blocking communications and preventing flight through the region. Because of this atmospheric oddity, the closest safe landing site is about five kilometres from the rendezvous site (45 minute walk). Captain Harriman takes Zed Steele, Dr. Gulla, Mr. Cobb, Lazarus, and the reluctant Chief Mirage with him on the shuttle. The shuttle lands safely. The planet is hot, oppressively hot, and this is the dark side of the planet. A unique aspect of orbiting a red giant star as close as this planet is that it looks like the sun is about to rise in whichever direction one wants to look. Small machines approximating flora lifeforms are discovered in the nearby rocks. Captain Harriman examines the "plant life" and determines that a large enough quantity of these machines could explain the existence of breathable atmosphere on this hellish rock. It is easy to assume that fauna mechanoids might be present upon this planet as well. After walking about three kilometres, the away team finds themselves in a rocky canyon of sorts. Red dust swirls around their feet as they walk. And deep shadows paint the canyon walls. The away team notices glowing red robotic eyes in the darkness of the canyon. Vaguely wolf-like mechanical creatures pad towards the team in an aggressive manner. They make a grating sound like metal scraping against metal, which has a distinct growl-like consistency to it. Combat ensues. The team makes short work of the mechanical monstrosities. They find a piece of precursor tech tucked in the ribcage of the largest wolf. They continue on their way to the rendezvous point. Erin is glad the captain and his crew have arrived and is eager to show off her finds. "Check this out!" she says as she thrusts a crystal like device in front of Dr. Gulla's nose. It pulsates with a green glow. "I think it could be a data crystal! Professor Harcourt would know for sure." she adds, almost to herself. Then she looks up to see Dr. Gulla, and backs hesitantly away as he takes the proffered device and examines it. Nero, the head of the security team steps up and begins talking. "About time you got here." He then introduces his team. "this is Otho, that's Gaius, and Thrax is over there." Chief Mirage take an instant liking to Nero, thinking that he seems to be a upright individual. Captain Harriman is not as impressed. "Did you have any problem with the cyber-wolves? We set up a sub-sonic suppressor to keep them away. Otho can show you over there." Nero said, changing the conversation away from the Captain's desire to leave. Dr. Gulla determines that the ancient data crystal glowing with a green radiance could contain a treasure trove of information, if it can be decoded into a comprehensible form. Captain Harriman, seeing more of the mechanoid plant life, carefully collects samples. Zed and Lazarus make a sweep of the perimiter. "Do you got a mechanic on your team? our hover-car broke down. If you can fix it, that will make Lady Okerstrom's trip to your shuttle much safer." Nero said, again moving the topic of conversation. Chief Mirage and Mr. Cobb went with Thrax to examine the hover-car. Sly was sure it would have been well within his capabilities to fix if it weren't for the spin stabilizer being completely missing from the thrust assembly. This was deliberately sabotaged. Sly briefly conferred with Mr. Cobb to watch Thrax, and went to talk to the captain. Sly informs the captain of the saboteur amongst Lady Okerstrom's security team, and then begins to escort Erin back to the shuttle under the pretense of recovering some gear to fix the hover-car, to get her out of potential danger. Lazarus noticed a gleam off of a Photon rifle barrel amongst the ruins surrounding them. Two fire teams of mercenaries are approaching from the south west, and the south east. Lazarus notifies the team. Captain Harriman cowed Nero and his men into not betraying Lady Okerstrom. Dr. Gulla uncovers his face and stares at Otho. Otho soils himself. The mercenaries approach and demand all the relics that Erin and her team had recovered. Negotiations are attempted. Lazarus' bloodthirsty tendencies are barely held in check. Sly steps forward, telling the captain, "I got this." And then attempts to convince the mercenaries that he's on their side, and the plan has changed, but the mercenary leader sees through the falsehood. Sly dives over a low wall to take cover from the imminent firefight. Combat ensues. Security Officer Steele draws the attention of the western pair of mercenaries, trading fire with them. He burns out a power cell, and replaces it. The Captain, and the rest of the crew turn their attention to the leader and his partner on the east side. They trade fire with him and his partner, and quickly burn the leader down with focused fire. The remaining three abandon the field, running for their lives. The Captain orders the breaking of camp. Nero and his men are tasked with carrying all the goods and gear back to the shuttle. Sly Mirage takes it upon himself to escort the Lady Erin Okerstrom back to the shuttle. The mercenary leader's body is stripped recovering an employee ID for the RL Imports company, a photon rifle, and an armored bodysuit. Upon arriving safely back aboard the Argus, Captain Harriman is informed by his XO that new orders await him. The Argus has been requested to go to Gurgan Station to expedite the extraction of a Coalition ambassador from the planet Stone in Ahzuuri space. His skills are needed for an important assignment elsewhere. Expected travel time: 39 days, although Mr. Cobb thinks he save a day or two by "shaving the bubble," if the captain wants.
Rewards Granted
Glowing ancient precursor data crystal artifact. Mechanoid plant life from planet Kamena Sub-sonic suppressor designed by technician Otho to keep Cyber Wolves at bay Employee ID for RL Imports, Photon Rifle, Armored Bodysuit. Cypher - Force Shield Projector 2 xp
Character(s) interacted with
Erin Okerstrom, and her disloyal security team (Nero, Otho, Gaius, and Thrax) returned to the Argus with the away team. A mercenary team associated with RL Imports who sought to steal the precursor relics were driven off by the away team after their leader was killed in a firefight.
