Pascal had visited the injured shuttle pilot in the hospital. He found the following information:
He's in the Waygin Hospital (outside of the port in the startown) as his injuries were not too bad. No guards or anything and he'll be released in 2 days. A couple of broken ribs and a broken arm. Healing pretty fast as the hospital has Medstar auto-docs and bone grafters.
He'll say that he was just carrying General Products engine couplers. He was re-routed due while de-orbiting to pad 17 as normally he would have landed at the General Products landing field near the shipyard. But as reported, about 200 meters up the m-drive seemed to stutter and have uneven thrust. He managed to avoid the concourse and fortunately the safety systems cut in and he was not too badly hurt, but somehow the drives were on fire. The emergency shuttle was there and they got him out but the cargo and shuttle were almost entirely destroyed.
And in related news:
Dateline 357-1105SPA and the Ministery of Safety have removed the last pieces of the downed shuttle from the pad. Engineers have resurfaced the landing area, and pad 17 will be open for business by 360-1105. The investigation continues. Kane Howe has been released from the Waygin hospital, and currently is not considered responsible for the drive failures.In related news, the SPA has been unable to confirm why the General Products shuttle was rerouted from the General Products private yard to the Montca Downport. Our investigative reporter is digging into the facts.
Before Treena shows up, 2 players placed bets on the 11 teams in the Race to the Bottom. And I had not fleshed that out, and so we have another news update:
Dateline 358-1105The 43rd Race to the Bottom has finished. SeaAdventure’s Quicksilver 2 person submersible won the race in 5 hours and 13 minutes. Race results:
- SeAdventure Quicksilver, 5 hours, 13 minutes
- Otterbanks Maritime, 5 hours, 19 minutes
- General Products FastSub III, 5 hours 45 minutes
- Deepsea Hulls Orca, 5 hours 59 minutes
- Montca Motors Little Squirt, 6 hours 13 minutes
- Enri Engineering Sealcraft, 6 hours 18 minutes
- Famille Spofulum FS Torpedo, 6 hours 47 minutes - disbarred from illegal fuel source
- Ritchie Subwerks Gogetter, 6 hours 51 minutes
- WunderSubs Proto-I, 7 hours 3 minutes
- Flinks Works Minnow, DNF
- Asteria Work Group Shark, DNF
Team Famille Spofulum was disqualified after team officials tested the fuel which was highly dangerous to the environment. Racer Mitzie, dressed in her trademarked red gelsuit, had to be forcibly removed while having what witnesses say was a major hissy fit.
Treena shows up, two auto-carts following her. They gear up for Montca's thin and tainted atmosphere and walk to the halfway point between Montca Downport and the General Products Shipyards. Moses and Tyrell accompany here while Jake and Pascal stay in Concourse 17 to keep an eye on things as much as they can.
The drones fly to the ship, apparently undetected. While one plays guard and is viewing the fireworks that are now starting at the race, the other releases the spider-bot. Which opens the airlock door. With Moses' and Tyrell's help, the drone crawls around and identifies the black globe fittings, then starts mapping out the fuel tanks.
This is when Jake sees red alarm lights flashing over the GP Yards and contacts the outside team. I'll also note that comms between them are, by default, encrypted. We're talking future WeChat or whatever, and with their comms they can actually communicate directly and not need to go through Montca TelCo. Though the can. Jake starts out from the airlock as the drones lose communication with Treena and the boys. These drones are also semi-autonomous, and they had preloaded the directions, so they can operate on their own. Once the job is completed, they will return to base. While they have GPS, they also have inertial guidance systems that are independent of the network. We think it is intentional jamming on the part of GP, and someone can see a security air/raft going through the yards when communications is restored. Moses, our ex-pirate, has the drones head north towards the last of the fireworks rather than straight back to them.
As the drones are coming back from the swarm of news and blogging drones also covering the start of the race, the security air/raft shows up. The guards ask about drone license, and Treena just scowls and says they don't have that authority. Moses manages to persuade them that yes, they were streaming the fireworks and has the video proof. And at that point Jake was calling about the after party to get to. Begrudgingly the guards got back in and flew back to the GP yards.
It was late at night as they all reconvened at O'Leary's. Treena handed over the crystal memchip with all the recording information, and, after Jake got her an algae sandwich, she and her powered luggage trotted back off to the transit system to go wherever she was going. They tried to call Mr. Grey, as they are calling the Oberlines executive, and got a message service. Saying that his catering pickup would be ready at 9am the next morning, the group turned in.
We also had a quick flashback when Jake tailed our mysterious executive as he was leaving the port. He got into a very expensive speeder and left on his own. Jake also visited his old precinct and talked with Officer Fran, who he has known for 6 years. She was one of the 1st responders to the shuttle crash, and she saw what looked to be computer parts.
At 9 sharp, Mr Grey shows up. Data is verified, cash is left behind and Mr Grey takes his data, and like Treena the evening before, heads off to wherever he was heading off to.
When Jake mentioned the computer parts, and Pascal said that Kane Howe, the shuttle pilot, said it was engine couplers, they realized what was reported did not match first-hand accounts. And that a GP shuttle landing at the Downport vs their own port was unusual as well.
Before much more conversion came up, the Professor came in, worried and in a hurry. His good friend was doing research on Oollar and has gone missing! As it is on the way (sort of) to Xyman, he has decided to take that detour and leave in the next 48 hours. Giving time for the new crew to spend the Cr15K on weapons for the ship armory, as well as spend their own credits for any gear they want. With Cr60K in their pockets, and being on a high-tech world, though one with a high law level as well, they can pick up all sorts of goodies. I just need to know what they want. I will fill out the ship's armory (probably a converted stateroom as the lab ship does not have an armory!). I also need to flesh out the 2 scientists that are paying for the ship for their research. Probably not the Death Station research!
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GM Notes
Info related to some of the background things here, so the players may not want to read from this point forward! Though a good chunk of this is actually available in Library Data should they choose to research any of the companies involved here. Just not all
Oberlindes Lines pulled some strings to get the shuttle re-routed and was testing a projected energy device that can disable m-drives. The executive paying the group is part of a small group in the megacorp that is doing some industrial privateering basically, trying to get General Products. From wiki Oberlindes Lines - Traveller And I may flesh out Mr. Grey a bit more - he could well be a recurring character for something, nefarious or otherwise.
347-1105: The Bloodwell, a 1000-ton merchant owned by Oberlindes Lines, is destroyed by Imperial naval fire. (Adventure 03 - Twilight's Peak, GDW, 1980, p. 42.)
361-1105: The TNS at Dentus (Spinward Marches 2201) receives word that the "Kinunir" class colonial cruiser Adamdun mistakenly destroyed the merchant craft Bloodwell. (JTAS #05, GDW, 1980, p. 05.)
1105: Great concerns are raised over the destruction of the Oberlindes vessel Bloodwell by the Imperial battlecruiser Adamdun after the incident is attributed to the failure of a recently fitted tamper-proof transponder. (Behind the Claw, SJG, 1998, p. 08.)
1105: Oberlindes Lines passes the 200 ship mark.
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