Session Three: A Boyd in Hand
General Summary
Last week, our intrepid crew was exploring the disabled star-freighter, The Sorghum. Having explored the bridge and crew cabins, they arrived at the cargo bays, an apparent survivor tossed a grenade at their feet. And now the session begins; Initiative rolls are made. Gabriel quickly and quietly rushes into the cargo hold. Sand, holding his flashlight, charges into the room looking for their attacker. Ramiel griping his shotgun, entering the room at Sand's side. Through his computer connection to the Sorghum, Korvas turns the emergency lights on in the cargo hold, flooding it with dim light. He then looks at getting the disabled cameras working in the cargo hold, but they are to far gone for a quick fix. He takes a breath to steady himself. The grenade explodes. Sticky strands of goo spread out across the hall catching Jack and holding him fast. Angelique DeMonde screams as she runs away down the corridor. Jack strains to try and free himself from the chemical webbing, suddenly snapping the bonds and he stumbles into the cargo hold. A coppery stench assails the crew in the cargo hold. Ramiel tells Korvas to get the ventilation fans running. The vents cycle on and begin to clear the air. The cargo hold is quite large and filled with cargo crates. some crates stacked high. Several crates are shattered, their contents strewn around. The whole space seems in disarray and almost maze-like. Gabriel begins to make calculations while in an obscure corner of the hold. Ramiel and Sand move forward cautiously looking for the attacker, making sure to stay well spaced from each other. Sand hears insane giggling coming from a crate near Ramiel just out of sight from the open doors. They approach, Sand preparing to strike with his stun-stick as Ramiel prepares to lift the lid with one hand, shotgun in his other hand. As Ramiel lifts the lid, the recording of the insane laughter skips a beat as it resets to the beginning, and the tripwire sets off the explosive. "I have not finished making my calculations, stop moving." Gabriel complains emotionlessly. Sand lifts his arm to cover his face, his battle suit absorbing the effects of the blast. Ramiel's armored bodysuit blocks most of the blast, rattling him soundly. After the blast, with the crews ears ringing, a voice calls out, "You canna see! No! Too much light. Too much light." And the hold goes dark as if someone cut the power. The crew hears the voice scamper fervently off in the darkness. (The tension increases)2 Jack pinpoints where the voice has moved to and throws a poison gas grenade with a precise trajectory, but a faulty trigger causes the device to explode at the apex of it's arc, and the now functional vents efficiently suck the gas out of the room. (The tension increases)3 Korvas searches the Sorghum's cargo manifest for anything of use in the hold his companions are in. He finds the manifest with little effort. The hold his companions are in held medical supplies. Another hold held farming implements. Another held Waste and biohazards. And the last was a secured military contracted cargo, the manifest contained no other information on it's contents. Korvas could tell, from looking at the feed from Gabriel's camera, that the current contents of the hold did not all start out in this hold. He passes that information on to the crew. Gabriel pinpoints the laughing man position. Three rows over behind what appears to be three tractors stacked on top of each other. He points at the spot so his crew-mates can know where he is. Ramiel moves to engage. Sand whispers, "Let's not kill him. He's space-mad, it's not his fault." as he follows Ramiel. Ramiel crouches taking an over-watch stance waiting for a shot. Sand rushes forward to try and get to the madman and lights him up with his flashlight. "I found him!' he shouts back at Ramiel. Ramiel fires his shotgun. The madman, bleeding profusely, scampers around the corner shouting, "Not fair. Not fair! You shoot... You kill my friends. You kill my friends. You make me eat ... Oh! No! It's not fair. Don't shoot. You pirates leave me alone!" As he runs off. Jack moves to try to cut off the madman. Ramiel runs after the madman, jumping over boxes and bouncing off of crates, landing right with the madman. "Follow my voice! He's right here." Ramiel calls out. Sand swiftly follows, ending up on the madman's other side. Gabriel moves closer, joining Jack. The madman with a thick beard, stands there emaciated, pulls a grenade from under his ragged clothes, flipping a switch on it and says, "Stay back! Stay back! Don't come any closer!" Jack moves forward to join the confrontation, but he steps in a slick spot and slides, right past Sand and Ramiel, into the face of the madman. In shock the madman drops the grenade and it bounces behind Jake, going off. Ramiel ducks behind a plow blade avoiding the blast. Sand is unconcerned as his battle suit absorbs the damage easily. Jack takes a back-full of shrapnel. (The tension increases)4 Sand reaches around Jack to strike the madman's face with is stun stick, but just barely misses, coming centimetres from his nose "Oh, pretty! You miss. He-He-He, Ha-Ha." The madman cackles. Ramiel strikes him with the butt of his shotgun. "You 'it me in me 'ead." the madman complained. Gabriel moves to stand in front of the madman and rapidly taps several nerve clusters in the emaciated man's body. The madman looks down, and then back up to Gabriel and says, "That's new." as he collapses. Gabriel binds the madman and carries him back to the Morningstar. Sand helps him with the intent of finding Angelique. They find Angelique at the airlock crying. They secure the Madman on the ship. Angelique, seeing this, locks herself in her cabin. Sand grabs the Medical Assistant from Ramiel. Gabriel rejoins Jack and Ramiel in the cargo hold. Jack and Ramiel and Gabriel begin to search the cargo hold. Sand tries to treat the madman's wounds. The Medical Assistant assists with wiry arms tipped with scanners and other devices, following Sand's directions. He successfully binds the man's wounds. The madman comes around "Dude, it's okay. It's okay. We're no here to hurt you buddy. We're here to help. I know we look like pirates, but we're not pirates." Sand says comfortingly. "You're not pirates?" the man says disbelievingly. "We're not pirates. I saw what the pirates did to you though, and that's horrible. But we're here to help. Do you got a name?" Sand soothed. "Boyd." Boyd says. "Your Boyd. I'm Sand. Good to meet you Boyd." Sand said in a soothing tone. "Are you the only person left on that ship?" Boyd's eyes watered as he wailed, "Yes!" "It's okay buddy." sand said trying to calm Boyd down. Taking the blanket covering Boyd, Sand wiped the man's eyes, and nose and patted the blanket back down around Boyd. After calming the man, Sand steps to the galley to prepare some soup for Boyd. When Sand returns, Boyd is talking to himself, but stops before Sand can overhear. After Boyd has been fed some, Sand begins to gently question Boyd about what happened. After combing through the detritus of the open cargo hold, Ramiel finds a crate of bandages, Gabriel finds a couple of interesting things, and Jack find half a dozen useful items. Most medical, but some military tech. They carry their finds back to the Morningstar. Korvas hears a chime coming from the cockpit of the Morningstar. He goes to check it out and sees the proximity alert glowing an ominous red. There are six fighters inbound. From their lack of transponders, and their silent running approach, it's clear they're pirates. They would have gotten much closer if not for the added sensor strength from still being connected to the Sorghum's systems. Korvas keys on his com and says, "Gentlemen, no time for love. We have got to go. Now." The crew run back to their ship in a rush. Tune in next week.
Rewards Granted
A crate of bandages, and eight Cyphers recovered from a cargo hold aboard the Sorghum.
- X-ray Viewer (Level 10) a panel with a screen and dials on one side and sensors on the other.
- Muscular deployer (Level 4) Hypo-spray
- Repeating Module (Level 7)
- Mono-blade (Level 5)
- Portable bio-lab (Level 5) red mushroom
- Blunt force null-field (Level 7)
- Infiltrator (Level 8) stealth drone
- Rejuvenating Field (Level 5)
Character(s) interacted with
Engineer Boyd Maori is rescued from the Sorghum, and departs with the crew aboard the Morningstar.
