Big Wreck Session 5 - Leaving Antiquity

The meeting at the TAS Hotel went well, and the group is given a Cr150,000 credstick to purchase transport to the Big Wreck via the Freekin Awesome. After a good night's rest, the go to Unit 54 of the Magnum Hostel, the lobby with a very drunken Naval crewman giving it the proper impression. A brief conversation over the cracked and frankly germ-ridden comm screen and they meet Jarred, the man who actually helped out in the L7 bar by shooting one of the attackers. Fees were discussed and the group gets to an agreement and heads back to the port in the grav vehicle, our Johnny Cab as they are relying on the high-tech auto-pilot to get them where they are going.

At the port they split up: one group to finalize the transfer of the cargo, high tech weapons going to Ahngrim. No questions asked as to who the buyer may be, but they are getting the standard cargo fee to transport the weapons. It will take about 45 minutes to transfer the cargo from the warehouse outside the port to Bay E-23. In the meantime, Jarred was paying off his port fees, the group retrieves the weapons stashed in the grav vehicle.

They also encounter someone watching, and Santiago catches up to the man before he can flee, using his dew claw to dig in for that little extra grip, signifying he could as easily rip the man to shreds as hold him. Some quick conversation and, yielding only name, rank and serial number, Rand uses his truth serum. Apparently a very fast acting truth serum as, getting more and more loose, our anonymous agent lets loose that their is still a squad in the port, and Zandra is here as well. About to pass out, they put the man in a nearby chair, Santiago lightly cutting a small S into the mans' forehead and Rand spilling booze all over him  Carting their weapons and what little luggage they do have, they get to the entrance of the gangway.

It is here where two well-armed thugs approached and drew weapons. Santiago, having no compunctions against firing, shoots a burst from his gauss pistol. This shreds one of the thugs, and the other shoots and misses. However the lockdown procedures have started and perhaps a dozen meters behind them, and 70+ meters in front, bulkhead doors drop down sealing the group, the thugs and a few unfortunate pedestrians in the corridor. Next round, the access door to the gangway opens and the group runs through. Santiago wants another round but the shutdown is also closing off that access, so he joins the group. While shooting at the door is somewhat futile, the group is stuck in the access block, not on the actual gangway to the ship. Lockdown has also sealed the inner door. Kelya, using electronics, rolls a 12 (!) and bypasses the locking mechanism on his 1st roll. They hurry to the ship and seal it behind them.

The port calls in, and they explain what happened, and as there are security cameras, the port is letting this go as self-defense. (yes, there probably should be red tape but (a) we were approaching the end of the session and (b) there are only 2 more sessions available, so we need to get to the next location. Last game I ran we go to the final location then ran out of time, so trying to pace this to get what I consider the adventure completed).

They monitor the cargo getting loaded - two dockworkers load the cargo, two dock workers leave, and the ship takes off, heading to Ahngrim.

Now, a few things. Still not happy with combat but I think I am wanting a more tactical game, and this a role playing game. So while we could get a lot more technical, I think I am the only one who wants to go that route. So we stick with the more abstract Mongoose version. Everyone also got to do something this session, so that was a good thing. I think everyone had a pretty good time.

This coming week (which is already half over) I need to do prep work for Ahngrim. They will need to refuel, restock, and find drop tanks on a TL-2 world. And drop the guns off. I am thinking that, even though the government is listed as a participating democracy, some may want to be more equal than others via increased fire power. How that will play into the adventure will be an interesting challenge.

There are 2 more sessions left. Ahngrim has the 3 objectives: refuel, get drop tanks, restock. Then the Big Wreck and I need to figure out which ending I am going with. I've a few possibilities:

1. Kafers! Just kidding - while the others have played 2300, I have not
2.  Empty ship, full and aggressive AI
3.  humans barely alive and needing rescue (and how are they still alive?)
4.  chamax horde!
5.   zombies!

And also, why is SolSec concerned? As I do have at least 1 player that reads this I'll leave that out. But I feel that somehow they will meet up with Zandra on Ahngrim and the reasons may come out.

Big Wreck - typical decks in the core

The ship has a central core made of up dozens of decks, many taller than your typical 3m height. Fuel decks have just the central elevator core with 24 meters of fuel - a baffled storage system 4 decks high. Cargo decks tend to be 5 meters high with cranes and equipment to help move cargo. Cargo was primarily food stores as well as the equipment and vehicles to colonize the new world.  As each standard deck is 600dT, this means a fuel deck is 1600dT of fuel - they were planning for the long journey.

A typical cargo deck (bottom image) has the elevator core and 2 flanking cargo areas, each generally separated out into smaller cargo spaces. Some sections would be refrigerated or frozen, carrying seed stock, frozen animal embryos, and other things they think they will need.

A typical passenger deck again has the central elevator core, and one of many several different habitation plans. Crew tended towards more standard, smaller staterooms while families and officers may have had more luxurious quarters.

Engineering decks were always under the fuel decks. Each engineering deck in theory could access all required engineering systems: the builders were fond of redundancy despite it eventually failing them (hence the wreck part!). In practice, though, each engineering deck tended to concentrate on specific things, such as the jump drive, maneuver systems and life support.

I'll have to do an outline of the decks based on the overall schematics. I figure there will be clumps of habitation decks (and I need to have a gym deck). As the ship is at least 400 meters long there is a fair amount of room for a lot of decks.

And Kafers. Let us not forget the Kafers. Probably won't put them in there but I do need to put in something interesting. And I need to map out the domes and some specific areas. Basically this could well be a dungeon crawl in spa-a-a-ace! But I actually do have some other plans...

All I can say is thank goodness for Robert Pierce and Another Traveller Site, where I got these geomorphs!