Story 10: The Pirate King!

Page 1: Metal Lass, Mr. Music, Miss Anima

The page framing is a classic 6 panel grid of the three characters walking through the Legion’s ship headquarters while, at first, talking with Olles Senn, the reporter for the Daily Planet. Miss Anima joins the other two a couple of panels into the sequence. The larger than normal panels are to show how much the Legion Q has improved just since last issue. Having the indefatigable Robot Boy around has rapidly accelerated the repairs to the ship to the point where it’s approaching space worthy. Plus, Bessie is now completely repaired, not that we pass through that part of the ship.

[BR: I’m framing it this way so I’m not dependent on one of you for an infodump, if we want to restructure so that it’s Mr. Music and Metal Lass showing of their strains of detective work without Olles there confirming it, we can do that, but in the name of expedience and also the logic of having the kids get someone to confirm their facts]

Olle’s voice is coming through Mr. Music’s communicator, “Well, Ode, I gotta admire how you kids tracked this down. Yeah, Jinnjhal’s sketches of the two women certainly do match the eyewitness reports from a couple of the pirate raids.”

The images of the two sketched women that Uncle Lardon pulled from White Raptor’s memory appears in a hologram screen, and then a blurry image of one of the women in motion on a Space Freighter, wielding what appears to be the bastard love child of a whip and a lightsaber.

Senn continues “How you convinced those tough-as-nails Jrdanians to admit that they were beat up by women… well, great work.”

Mr. Music remembers meeting the two enormous grey-shelled crustacean-humanoid space-sailors in a bar near the docks and calming their androphiliac species nature. (Jrdanians are a highly male dominated species with extreme sexual dimorphism, and their inability to understand how other races have gender equality is a consistent issue in the UP. They also like Lobstercules from the second season of The Tick.) Ode was able to calm them down and listen to a lot of their talk of how either one of them would have won the fight if they hadn’t been overcome with dizziness and loss of coordination, similar to what happens when they drink way too much in dockside bars and then have dust ups with more sober new arrivals. (This is totally normal behavior for Jrdanians… and long-haul freight crews.)

Senn’s voice takes on a clear note of pride in Mr. Music’s emotionally tuned ear, “I was able to call in some favors and confirm that this woman goes by the name of The Lash. She’s a Wynathian who was once part of the Taurus Gang. Clearly she didn’t take the chance afforded by her slipping the SP’s dragnet to go straight.”

Metal Lass arrives at this point, and upon hearing the name of the Taurus Gang can’t help but remember that Black Mace was also once part of that organization, and her stride takes the stance of someone remembering a past insult. Metal Lass’ hands are full of her research on the stolen ship designs, which ships have them, and how that ties to known or suspected Pirate attacks. She thinks she has a good idea on where they will strike next. Maybe. (There are some ‘attacks’ the SPs suspect might be ships dumping their cargo to the black market under the cover of the consistent stories of how some pirates are able to freeze their prey in place in the space lanes.)

“That she was seen at multiple attacks means it’s much more likely that there’s a coordination between the pirate crews. Some sort of ‘Pirate King’.”

[BR: feel free to respond and thread in other stuff. The pirates are a real threat, but they also don’t kill their targets – they leave them stranded in well traveled spacelanes with working life support. They aren’t anything like Roxxas the Starfinger, who raids colony planets, octomates them and leaves the survivors to starve.]

[R: Yes, Octomates them – Roxxas usually kills about 80% of the population in his initial attacks. It’s not a science but Decimates is too small a word. Anyway, he’s the “worse than pirates.”]

Page 2 Top: Miss Anima, Future Boy, Robot Boy The team who wants to be present for this (Miss Anima and Future Boy are required, the others are scientists and Mr. Music was involved int he last discussion) are in a neutral, comfortable 'hang out' room.

(I figure the base has a couple of formal 'conference rooms' and several informal 'hang out' rooms. This one happens to be the one with the holo table used for running streamed roll-playing games, which is an actual in-canon thing for the LSH - Star Boy used to play with his dad wha was back on Xanthu.)

Once animated, Mans again acclimates quickly - perhaps because he has been animated so many times before at the Institute - with his bemused expression. "Oh! Hello there."

His eyes dart over to Tok, "Does this mean you've accepted my offer to collaborate? Or did you learn that someone is trying to replicate my research in a populated area?"

"The former, fortunately. I've found a material made of a kind of strange matter. I've figured out how to use it to detune an area from spacetime, but to go further with it, I'm going to need-"

"An Einstein-Rosen bridge! Excellent!" Mans smiles a wide happy smile, slapping his hand on his thigh. "And you thought you'd consult with the old man on the negative space implications of that?"

[BR: I do need to know who is in scene as it will color some of his responses - Lisa, Myles, are any of your PCs present?] "Not just that," Tok says. "I don't know how to build an Einstein-Rosen bridge; it's too far outside any field I've worked in, and I certainly don't know how to work with negative space safely. I'd need your expertise and help to even make the attempt."

[JK: Lisa says she's fine with Mr. Music not being in the scene. Myles?]

[BR: if Bubble Boy _isn’t_ there I’ll add Robot Boy and we can have this plot running parallel for the issue while everyone else is in space.]

"Of course," Mans says, "Even with your obvious skill level trying to do this without a theoretical would be too much of a risk. You were wise to ask. and of course I'll help.

"Science is my life's work."

He turns to Miss Anima, "Thank you again, Miss, for this opportunity. I'm afraid this may task your abilities to the utmost, as some of the components we'd need are too complicated to handle via simple fabrication...."

"I've never animated something I didn't draw from life -- or at least, very recently after seeing it," Miss Anima says, "but I'm game to give it a try as long as we test it."

(She plans to bring up the medical issue during this appearance, and has a datapad set up, but this seems to already be going, so let's let it go somewhere. Ideally she'd change the topic when the physics conversation peters out, but she suspects the physics conversation won't peter out and she'll eventually have to cut in.)

"That's a great...I hadn't thought of asking Miss Anima to fab parts. Too focused on my own fabbing tech. Anima, the strain of animating Dr Wyla and a bunch of parts won't risk being too much, will it?"

[BR: in a mechanical sense if she strains her ability to the utmost she can animate something/someone for 4 hours. That takes a little more than half her energy to do, so she can wait a few minutes and do it again and leave herself pretty much exhausted. It takes about 30 minutes to recover from that effort. It's also possible for her to animate 4 things fr 15 minutes each and leave herself exhausted. I'm assuming you have Mans for 4 hours. Drawing on her like this repeatedly will be exhausting., but it's possible.]

"Then let's get started!"

The above was the top row of 3 panels; below that we have a set of smaller panels showing a building montage of Mans describing an object to Jinnjahl so she can sketch it, then animate it; Tok then shoves it into a scanner to get a functioning sense of what it is for later fabrication. During the scenes where Tok is radically reworking the fabricator to be able to capture the slightly insane things that are materializing under Man's direction and Adom is offering technical commentary on his Creator's use of workhole technology, we see Dr. Wyla reading over the tablet that Jinnjal left lying around. There's one shot of his brow furrowing on anger as he absorbs the data on the screen, but the reader can't tell if that's due to his medical treatments or his financial arrangements.

Jinnjahl, looking drawn, comes up to Dr. Wyla after he's had a little while to look through the datapad. "I'm willing to help you handle things almost however you want," she says quietly, "but it has to be your decision. And I'd really rather pretend the datapad was an accident." She sighs. "As far as I can tell, the Institute is managing a sticky situation as best it can, and the only real mistake it's made is being so puffed up about actual study of medicine that it didn't ask your advice, but anything you want to do will put them in the middle of a mess and I don't want to tell them I *invited* you to."

Wyla continues to look at the datapad for a moment before looking up at Jinnjahl with sincere gratitude on his face. “Thank you, I appreciate that. I’ll have to think about best path forward. I wouldn’t want to place you in an awkward situation.”

He may have been about to say more when Robot Boy speaks up, “Cuationary Statement: I do not believe this is the most efficient configuration of the energy containment manifold.”

Wyla turns over, “Hmmmm? Why? What makes you say that?”

“Statement: Two reasons. First, my creators had not discovered faster than light travel prior to my entombment, but instead relied on AI units such as myself to reach planets via slower than light drives, initiate terraforming and construct stargates, and this device is substantially similar to those stargates in design. Second, my programming makes it extremely unpleasant to witness Sapients to placing themselves in unnecessary harm, and operating this device with an inferior containment manifold would constitute such risk.”

"That is very considerate programming," Tok says, "But do you have any concrete ideas on how to improve the containment manifold? What specifically makes it less efficient than possible?"

"Statement: The manifold design put forward by Dr. Wyla is would place the materials of the passing through the gate under what I believe to be an undue negative space stress. Depending on the conditions of the material my calculations indicate potential sub cellular level effects."

"Recommendations: can we consider the following design changes that I think better meld Dr. Wyla's innovations with my creator's technology. Observation: this should provide protection without expanding requirements to my original decades-long construction cycle."

"Let me think about this," Tok says, and he starts working on some equations on a holoboard.

There’s something about the change of his stance and the intensity of his work that Jinnjahl recognizes from her own artistic endeavors, and when Mans starts to ask what’s happening the diminutive icon of images holds up a quieting hand.

It’s several minutes and multiple holoscreens (and some time for Mans to go back to perusing his medical record and making notes of his own for Jinnjahl to act upon) before Tok looks back up at the others....

[BR: Josh, short form is Robot Boy is right, his design is safer. Long form (because your inventing roll was a 1!) is that Mans’ original design would have placed the people passing though it under a moment of negative space shock that would only be damaging if their body were already carrying a noticeable negative space charge - and you would build up such a charge when using the Time Portal. Each trip would be increasingly risky for the sort of accident that gives people Atomic Horror Movie Villains mutations/powers.]

Page 2 Bottom: Mr. Music, Metal Lass, Bubble Boy, Diskette

The scene is one of the more formal conference rooms, with everyone present and Mr. Music in the official "Chairperson's Chair"

(BR: Strong urge to have Chairface Chippendale show up in the next open application as Chair Person)  

The topic of discussion is next steps from Metal Lass' deduction on the next target for the pirates. Here's what you know, which Metal Lass and Mr. Music will lay out right before the start of the scene. 1) White Raptor was selling the stolen spaceship part plans to two women, one of whom has been identified as "The Lash". She is a former member of the Taurus Gang and wielder of an energy whip, who was identified at some of the pirate attacks 1.1) You don't know what the other woman is capable of, but the Jrdanians Mr. Music interviewed spoke of being disoriented. 2) The target is a luxury cruise liner, full of very wealthy people on a very expensive cruise. This would be their first civilian target, but the profile of high visibility, low defense, heavily outfitted with the equipment for which they have stolen plans fits 3) The pirates are thieves and assailants, but not murderers - they crew of the targeted ships have been given a chance to surrender, and left battered but alive in ships with working life support in traveled space lanes. (Metal Lass may want to bring up that while they are thieves they aren't dishonorable ones, at least not in her framework. Mr. Music might want to indicate in scene that the threats are financial and not _yet_ life or death, but that the piracy is already having an effect on UP defense strategy) 4) The pirates apparently have some means to hold their target ships immobile in space that frustrates conventional shielding against Gravity or EM weaponry. Could be some new super tech 5) Any reasonable plan will get you on to the ship and engage you with the pirates; borderline plans might give the pirates some sort of advantage, but don't go nuts here. 6) Only one PC per player. Robot Boy will at minimum stay behind on monitor duty unless you insist on dragging him along, while Josh has to pick whether to bring Diskette or Future Boy and Lisa has to pick Mr. Music or Ree the strange badger-dog-thing-that-lives-in-the-base)

Scene Open: Mr. Music says "Thank you, Metal Lass." He turns to the team. "This is everything we know...."

In the room are Mr. Music, Metal Lass, Bubble Boy and Diskette. Everyone, having a chance to chew on the data, waits for a beat before expressing their various levels of interest in the affair, starting with a Whoop from Bubble Boy for being able to fight space pirates.

[BR: can someone start some planning dialogue on which method)s) you intend to use to get on board?

"...and that leaves the question of how we get on board in the first place," says Mr. Music.

"Well, the money isn't a problem," Patin says."Felos has already requested that the Legion look into this, so we'll cover any reasonble expense.Honestly, I can just get a stateroom and have the rest of you come as my friends; nobody will think twice."  

"Yes, a nice cruise and pirates! Do they have all-you-can eat buffets?" Gorvo asks. 

Page 3: Mr. Music, Metal Lass, Bubble Boy, Diskette, (Linda)

SPLASH PAGE The whole of the page is one of those no edge bleeding off the paper shots showing the Boundless Stars luxury liner in orbit over Carekesh. There are several shuttles docked already but we are focusing on a Felos Industries craft coming in from the upper left hand side, and a second private craft coming in from the upper right. Following each crafts trail is a series of smaller panels

Felos Track

Diskette is at controls, with the rest of the Legionnaires around her. Gorvo is looking at a tablet rather than gawking at the enormous space freighter

Gorvo: "An all you can eat buffet!"

Gorvo replies, "On Tallag, it was eat or be eaten in the early days, and the habit is culturally ingrained at this point. At least, that's what I say when I go back for second helpings."

He looks longingly at the tablet display, which shows obscene amounts of food temptingly arrayed.

Station: "Felos 1138, you are cleared for approach to docking bay AA3. Manifest shows stateroom with four adjoining bedrooms. I also see a note here for a 'special weapons clearance'. Please transmit documentation for code 43A17 Fencing Supplies, Miscellaneous."

"Of course," Diskette says, "stand by for transmit."

Ranzz Track

The inside of the other shuttle we see a perfectly normal Wynathian family with two parents, a brood of three children, a butler who is piloting the ship and an au pair. Perfectly normal extremely wealthy family.

Station: Private Shuttle Ranzz 4, you are cleared for approach to docking back AA5. Manifest shows stateroom with master bedroom, second bedroom, three child bedroom and au pair chamber. Welcome to the Boundless Stars.

Scattered across the rest of the page, overlaying the ship to indicate where things are, we have panels of the characters doing things on the ship before the predicted attack.

LINDA

Linda checks to see how effectively she can make sure the the kids leaving their rooms will wake her in hers, then takes them exploring the ship. That's a split panel -- all three kids are enthusiastically listing what they want to see as she's checking out the suite layout, and she's agreeably asking, "How long do you think you can keep walking?" and then in the third of a panel representing the end of the exploration she's got a kid riding piggyback and the other two yawning while they trudge next to her and she's cheerfully saying, "We can explore more after naps."

LEGIONNAIRES

At the No-Limit Bar, Patin, clad in a white cocktail dress, with only a few required touches--a single valuable bracelet; an expensive antigrav "Beagle Pocket" purse following discretely near her side--to show how rich her family is, steps up to what Superboy (or another late 20th centurian) would certainly recognize as a not-that-distant descendant of a karaoke machine. The music swells, and behind her a tri-D image of, Patin, only dressed like a rock star, takes shape, as she shamelessly, athletically, and adroitly dances to the long instrumental intro. And, planting her feet just in time, begins to sing.

Ode's sitting in the bar with a milkshake in front of him. His thought balloon of Patin as a back up dancer has broken in half, a lightning bulb between the two halves.

"She can _sing_?" he asks, stunned enough to be unaware he's spoken aloud.

So it would seem.” Dolar says, as she flips through the map of the ship. “Look at this — they have a zero-grav arena!” Her pose, barely restrained, denotes excitement at the prospect of a new experience. “Do you think the rest of the team would like to try it?"

Patin makes her way back to her friends once her performance ends, looking breathless. "Well, I didn't have to pretend to be nervous," she says, sitting down near her friends. "But the show must go on."

“Are you going to take a turn, Ode?”, Dolar asks, looking up from the digital flimsy, shifting into a form denoting pride for the talents of friends. “Perhaps you and Patin could choose a duet?"

“Look at this — they have a zero-grav arena!” Dolar's pose, barely restrained, denotes excitement at the prospect of a new experience. “Do you think the rest of the team would like to try it?"

"Zero-G is great fun, but I might end up squashing a few team mates. We play Zero-G pinball at home sometimes but it takes a strong stomach not to get motion sick."

"I would," Patin hasn't quite regained her wind, but you wouldn't know it by her body language. "That sounds terrific, and a great workout besides. "Gorvo, don't you think that...where's he go?"

We get a single panel of an opulent doorway to a dining room with a sign saying 'All Hours Buffet'. In the doorway is the receding blue-grey silhouette of Gorvo.

Page 4: All Characters

There is a sudden hideous lurch as the _Boundless Stars_ loses all forward momentum. It had been paused outside one of its scenic systems, where a gravitational anomaly was pulling a par of gas giants and their attendant 72 moons into Red Dwarf star in a truly beautiful decade long collapse. The liner had been on a modest drift around the system over the course of a day to give everyone a chance to see it from all angles before moving on. That forward momentum is gone in an instant, as if something had reached out at caught the ship like a slow pitch moopsball.

[BR: A brief digression on spaceship travel in the LSH setting: the LSH uses Star Trek rules, where the ships are in normal space, just moving faster than light when they decide to get moving. There are faster than light communications and sensors that make this possible. Robot Boy’s creators developed stargates with instant point to point transport between fixed devices, but no one in Federation space uses those, and certainly no one has developed jump drives for an individual ship to teleport on its own (only Diskette can do that…). Your average ship can run at FTL speed for days at a time and then needs some time to either refuel from gas giants (for older safer models) or recalibrate and clean the engines (for newer, faster models that don’t have to hit a star system with gas giants in it to refuel]

[BR: Can everyone please give me one cool thing they do to help/save people during the sudden stop? There can be some damage to the amenities but while this was jarring it wasn’t the equivalent of hitting a brick wall so no structural damage to the ship. Diane, Metal Lass is feeling a distinct queasiness.]

Linda grabs Garth as he starts to topple out of the chair he'd been standing on, dropping him immediately (and therefore rather roughly) on his chair as she grabs the light table they'd been sitting at and interposes it between herself and the children and the collection of dinnerware, cutlery, and oddments flying all over the room.

Garth squeals "Wheeeee!" as she spins him to the ground, followed by "Woah" as the upended table absorbs an array of airborne assaults.

Irma looks worries "Are we gonna crash into the sun, like the planets are?"

"No."

Diskette does a skater's gesture with her arms almost as soon as "down" briefly changes directions, and her hands and feet all go into discs--her feet bracing her as they appear against the far wall, and the her hands, pushing forward through disks, each catching someone who was flying off at a dangerous angle. Meanwhile, the other score of discs she summoned serve a bunch of more targeted purposes--some catching flying objects to clatter harmlessly against the wall and others in groups of three or four to catch large pieces of furniture and brace them against the wall.

Gorvo, in the buffet dining room, feels the ship lurch and instinctively strengthens his force field, reaching out to grab other passengers nearby to shield them from flying shrimp and assorted plates and cutlery. The airborne debris clatters harmlessly off the force field. Only the sauces and soup cling briefly to the surface to run down and drip onto the carpeted floor.

As the ship rights itself, Bubble Boy releases the other passengers and calls out. "You heard the captain, head for your cabins!"

The items flying around the cabin include the insturments the band normally uses when people aren’t doing the tri-d kaeroke. As the guitar goes flying past Ode reaches out and casyally snags its neck before it can clobber an unspecting passenger.

At the lurch, Metal Lass throws out her hands and spreads her fingers wide, and flying forks and knives stop short and settle gently to the floor. As they land, she folds in on herself, arms wrapped around her stomach. “Drell’s basin! What is this?"

The emergency lights start flashing at their lowest level and a calm, soothing voice says “Good morning, this is the captain. We seem to be experiencing a minor inertial disturbance. Please head to a designated zone while we restore normal function.” There’s a brief pause and then the lights shift from pale amber to a harsher red. In the enormous viewscreen overhead (not a transparent material, but a perfect 1:1 imaging of the outside sky on the inside of the ship that has the same effect” the Legionnaires can spot a trio of ominous ships – a smaller one hanging back with weapons while the one larger and one small are approaching the Boundless Stars.

“This is the Captain: Please return to your rooms immediately in an orderly and calm fashion.”

[BR: Beth, Linda can recognize these ships as refitted vessels from the last Khund War – old, but dangerous and completely capable of taking out an unarmed ship like the _Boundless Stars_. Compared to today’s technology they are a bit Eggshells with Hammers, but the hammers are strong enough to destroy the _Stars_ if they hit it enough times before the _Stars_ can fire up its engines and get out of here. Tactically, if the pirates take much or any damage they may withdraw, but everything really depends on getting the _Stars_ moving again.] Linda looks at the ceiling viewscreen, purses her lips, and says, "Let's go, kids; we're supposed to evacuate -- and frightened crowds are no place for children." She grabs food and drink, especially drink, as she shepherds the kids out of the room and tries to figure out which lifeboat is safest if the emergency turns more dire. Somewhere she can dog the latches and tell the kids to keep the latches dogged even if she needs to go out to deal with something. Ideally with the kids' parents; barring that, another adult who she trusts to be at least minimally competent. She does not, however, explain this to the children until she gets them out of a crowd.

Garth grabs Irma's hand to pull her ahead "We're gonna get to fight pirates!"

Irma resists, and Mekt grabs Garths other arm, perhaps roughly, to hold him in check, "They have guns and swords you goober! We're eight! We're not gonna fight anyone. Linda is gonna fight people."

Irma stands stock still for a second, freezing everyone, "No one is going to fight anyone! That would be stupid." Once the boys absorb this she lets Linda keep moving them forward at her brisk pace. "Linda, where are we going to go?"

"Yeah?" Garth asks, "Where are we gonna go?" Despite his bravado there's some fear in his voice after his brother explained the harsh reality, and Linda knows enough of the group dynamic to know that if Garth is getting scared the other two are likely barely holding on.

"Those were older ships," Linda tells the kids conversationally as she takes them out of the crowd and away from their rooms, "but armed, and we're not. It's okay to be scared. In fact, it's smart to to be scared. It's not okay to panic. The safest place to be right now is the lifeboats. So we're going there, not to your rooms. We're going this way because if your parents are headed back to the suite we may meet them."

Mekt nods once, and then starts dragging his brother in that direction,, even as Garth is craining his head to see what's going on.

"Scared people," Linda tells Garth (and the others), "no pirates nearby. Run for a moment, I want to through the next intersection and a flight up before anyone panics." (That's where there's a chance to intercept the parents. RIGHT NOW, a panicked crowd is a way bigger threat to three fragile children than pirates who are probably boarding soon.) She scoops up Irma, who is not at all likely to run off, but the other two will freak if she gets hurt, and runs down the corridor at the kids' best pace. (This way she'll have one kid that isn't winded, she can manage one on her back and one on her shoulders if she really has to, but carrying all three at much would require a harness.)

[Diane, the _Stars_, for all its bulk, it doubtless a faster ship (Metal Lass knows this from her analysis of the various ships systems that White Raptor was stealing, as the _Stars_ has that engine design). If the crew can get it moving and avoid incoming fire for a short while they can get clear. Plus, you still feel really wonky. Something is messing with you.]

[Josh, you can extrapolate the most likely target – it’s out of character for the Pirates to go for kidnapping or ransom, but the _Stars_ sold itself to the wealthy with the combination of maximum safety and convenience for their valuables. There’s a complex internal dumbwaiter system that gives each room its own ‘safe’ that actually carries the coded and tagged valuables down to an ultra-secure vault in the core of the ship. Key in a code in your room and one of a number of ‘safe deposit boxes’ will whisk up to your safe for you to extract your jewelry, contracts, bearer bonds, used to be legal to make but not anymore so your existing ones are grandfathered in and fantastically valuable Karelia Silkfur shawls and so on. The Vault is clearly the most secure part of the ship, but if you have the means to make entry you can scoop up everything of value rather than have to take it room from room from each panic-stricken passenger.]

[Lisa: Mr. Music can hear the murmur of the passengers and crew and can tell that aside from the four Legionnaires this is a complete shock – the crew and ships security is unprepared for this. You can also hear a note of calm, one self-assured instrument in the symphony, coming from the aft starboard, where one of the shuttle bays for the small excursion ships are (imagine 4 person kayaks with outriggers used for sightseeing around the ship and you have the right idea.]

[Lisa: to clarify – Josh is correct. She can hear that there are some people amidst the chaos who are prepared for what’s happening. These are also Rob People Pirates, just to clarify]

"The Vault," Diskette says, tapping a control at her belt, causing her dress to assume the color scheme (although not the style) of her typical costume, and pulling her viewscreen to help her navigate. They have to be planning to hit the vault!"

"This way!"

Ode adds, “Someone expected this aft starboard. Heading there. The rest of you follow Diskette's lead -- she's right." Ode heads off, guitar in hand, playing a song to calm the crowd and make the evacuation as orderly as possible, as he works with casual deliberation towards themetaphirical calm instrument in the cacophony. The music sweeps across the atrium and the near panicked crowd instead forms orderly queues and moves with a quick pace to their quarters, as requested.

Gorvo dashes out of the dining room in the games room where Diskette and the others were to catch Diskette leading the charge for the Vault. "A cruise, all-you-can eat buffets and space pirates? This is amazing!"

Before he can reach the rapidly moving Diskette he spies the unmoving Dolar, clearly in some sort of distress.

Still curled in a half-ball, Metal Lass extends her metal-sense outward — towards the ship’s hull — looking for the source of her discomfort, the point where that metal’s harmony is being disturbed.

Her contact with the ships hull leaves her recoiled with shock, and the hope that her contact was too brief to be felt. THERE’S ANOTHER METAXIAN HOLDING THE SHIP IN PLACE!

Page 4 Bottom: Metal Lass, Bubble Boy, Diskette

Eyes wide and shoulders set in the form for the discovery of betrayal, Dolar gasps, “Gorvo! One of…my kind…stopping the ship. Can’t tell whether…they’re on this ship…or the other. Feedback…in…my…metal sense…feels...awful. Tried to hide…don’t know whether….they felt me here…"

"Dolar!" Gorvo rushes to her side. "Another Metaxian? With the pirates? Crashing comets, that's bad news!"

He extends his force field in a generous cushion under and behind Dolar's body. "Are you okay? Can you stand up? I can help." His brow wrinkles in concern as he concentrates on being as gentle as possible. "You'll be fine, Metal Lass. I know it."

As soon as Govo says those words Metal Lass’ nausea ends. The enormous array of metal bending power that had been holding the entire spaceframe in place vanished. Unfortunately, this doesn’t result in the Boundless Stars moving forward again.

(Diskette has obviously noticed at this point that her strike team has been delayed…)

Diskette doesn't pause her advance as she responds to the news she's overheard over the team's communicators.  "Metaxian?  Got it. That's...gotta be their safe-breaker  I'm going in--catch up when you can."

"No metal on me, she thinks. Except..." One hand goes to the nape of her neck as she runs, and her necklace falls, slipping through a quickly summoned hole to parts unknown. "and there it goes".

Given her powers and training she would have easily outdistanced her allies even without their concerns for Dolar, and she is able quickly reach the floor where the vault resides, the corridors around it providing no access to the supposedly impregnable box. A series of disk periscopes yield a surreptitious glance around the whole of the vault and she can spot a red-headed woman in a stylized space suit waiting by a hole that has just been melded into the vault space, and the deposit boxes have likewise disgorged their contents across the floor. The woman is clearly the one from the memory sketch that Olles had been able to track down as The Lash, formerly of the Taurus gang. But according to Senn, this woman is Wynathian. The woman is looking at a small device in one hand that is blinking red while speaking into a wrist communicator.

Through the warp Patin can hear her say "Rum, Lash here. Vault is open, but the big prizes aren't here."

Lash then looks up at the pinhole disk....

BR: Josh, I'm presuming some logical behavior on Diskette's part to scout out with her powers. Let me know if this is problematic and, if not, what you intend to do next. You _think_ she's spotted the warp but maybe not.

[JK: It's fine--I didn't have her try to warp directly down largely because I didn't want to entirely short circuit the race if you didn't want (or arguably because as long as she was leading part of the team down she didn't want to get too far ahead--once it became clear backup would be slower that becomes less important), but of course even a large ship tends to be fairly small if you don't have to worry about elevators, and a periscope probe is sensible once she hits a predictable dead end and she's dome it before]

Diskette thinks: "There's got to be a metaxian out of sight, unless it's Lash. Can I really beat them alone?. But I sped down herr to buy time, so..." Patin opens up a gate to drop up behind Lash, her gloves shifting and merging together to form her trademark weapon. "Let me guess, she says--this was a good place to hide from the pirate attack?"

JK: Basic strategy: Keep Lash talking if she can to give the rest of the team a chance to regroup, and use some small periscope portals to make it harder to ambush her. If Lash attacks, defend and try to separate her from the device, whatever it is, then go on the offensive if practical. If things stay conversational for a bit, try to find out what she's looking for or why she's doing this, but mostly try to stretch things out--that said, Diskette's sarcasm will likely push things physical sooner than not.

ROUND 1 28: Diskette The lithe Legionnaire drops down behind her potential opponent and says “ Let me guess, she says--this was a good place to hide from the pirate attack?"

[BR my assumption is that Diskette is setting up an Evasion to go along with her defense and help buy time if things turn into a fight. Her current Vitality is 50 after the rescues, the periscope disk and her appear from behind move, so any attacks on her are at -5 attack base.]

19: the Lash Lash’s response is clearly not that of someone inclined to banter. She barks into the communicator “Captain Ahn, Legionnaires!”

The hand holding the flashing gizmo suddenly extends a long line sinuous glowing energy, and with a practiced flick of her arm the pirate sends it lashing through the air at Diskette.

[BR: base attack is 17, reduced to 12 for Parry defense, reduced to 7 for the Evasion, increased to 8 for level modification. Roll is a 10. Each use of the defense costs 1 Vitality so after this she is at 49]

Diskettes instinctive was shield catches the energy line two thirds up its length, and Diskette realizes a problem when the explosive force of the contact leaves a scar on a nearby wall - unlike on a planet where her parries can be safely grounded here every strike she blocks risks damaging the ships frame.

This flashes through her head in the split second before the energy whip continues its momentum, curling around the blocking disk on its path towards her. Only her nearly inhuman reflexes keep the tip from ripping open her shoulder.

13: Diskette (BR following through on Josh’s stated plan) Her specially designed sword forming out of her gloves, Diskette lunges with a decade of training, scoring a nearly impossible hit on the tip of the device in the whip hand. Whatever it is, it shatters into a million pieces.

[BR: attack base is 16, a called shot requires an odd hit to work in the deeply tested new rule that I just made up to account for how the dice are different. Since she wasn’t aiming for Lash directly you don’t know if she has any defenses that might apply. Roll is a 3. Maximum damage is rolled (10 points!)]

4: Lash, Captain Ahn Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that the device is what is creating the energy whip, as Lash still has it to hand, and now has a nasty grin, “I don’t need any gizmos to do this, Diskette - by the blessings of the Hermit Gods this is allllll natural!”

[BR: as above but her chance is 1 better because at 49 Vitality Diskettes Evasion is now only -4. The roll is a 1! A hit! Damage roll is 9, and I assume Diskette rolls with 4 points of it. Her current Vitality is 45, Hit Points are 7]

Lash expertly weaves her unpredictable weapon between Diskettes sword and her warp shield, and the tip leaves a long hot bruise along Patin’s right thigh. Had she not already been in motion the force of the energy weapon might well have, given Patins loss of Terran endurance, shattered the girls hip.

The floating warp that Diskette is using to avoid ambush reveals to her glance that the wall of the vault is rippling, and with an instinctive leap braced by her free hand on the floating bit of wall that has been serving as her shield the fastest of the Legionnaires flies through the air and over the incoming flow of liquid metal that burst free of the vault wall. There’s no sign of her Metaxian opponents location but their presence is felt.

[BR: I’m not gonna do the math on the to hit here because Patin has no way or judging her unseen attacker, but suffice it to say it was close. 1 more Vitality down for another use of the Defense. You are at 44.]

Lash speaks again “don’t worry about me, Captain. It’s been a long time since I saw someone this good and I want to enjoy this....”

[BR: Actions next round are dependent on what Bubble Boy and Metal Lass are doing. If they started immediately after Diskette they will be there next round. If not the duel continues....]

[BR: Diane, here’s what you absolutely know: any Metaxians control over metal is time dependent - once you grab hold of something you can keep manipulating it for about 150 seconds (your endurance in 15 second combat rounds). Whoever took control of the ship held it for about that long, but they might also have decided to focus their energy on one or more places from that original control, the way you might pull off a hunk of your sculpture to use as a shield and not care about the rest. It would be possible for a Metaxian to grab the whole ship and then - If they had access to the plans for the devices - disable the FTL and standard drives so they didn’t have to strain against the ship the whole time. such a person would have to be incredibly experienced and in peak physical condition to grab the entire 325 ton ship and that must have been exhausting. They probably still have control of at least one hunk of metal from that first grab, but its hard to tell for how much longer - no Metxian has ever held a connection longer than 6 minutes.]

[...And yes you did hear “Captain Ahn” come through Diskettes communicator because it’s more dramatic that way and of course Patin would have set it to 1 way transmit while sneaking to keep you in the loop]

• By the Five Gods, what will the elders say?* Dolar thinks as she dashes down the corridor.

Gorvo chases in the direction the fleet Diskette went, hoping that she's not in over her head. "Not the first time," he mutters, "but she has a way of making it work."

Page 5: Mr. Music and Linda

Linda and her charges are making their way with best speed through the halls to get to the life boats. The quartet have outraced the crowds, which were not as panicked as Linda feared (nor are the children, nor herself come to think of it), making their treck to the starboard aft lifeboats (the closest she remembered from the ship scehmatics) as easy as possible. There’s been no sign of the pirates yet, but by her estimation they are likely docking right about now, probably via any of the dozens of locked down private shuttlebays that her employers and the other most affluent patrons used to board the ship.

Unfortunately, that last surmise, while logical, was incorrect.

Mr. Music, having clamed the ship with his powers (non-combat pushed used for 5 times efficacy, 16 Vitality, you have 36 vitality remaining after resting some on the way here, but nearly everyone on the ship is being calm and logical in their actions), makes his way to the aft starboard area of calm. That’s the small craft bay. A quick glance shows him the ships crew who should be guarding the bay are lying unconscious, splayed across the room, save one who is woozily trying to hold himself up as a striking woman with long raven-black hair wearing a black and white stylizard space suit approaches him. He thinks he recognizes her as one of the two women from Miss Anima’s sketch of White Raptor’s memories. The one they know nothing about.

There is already a rough and tumble troop carrier docked past the air lock, and the remaining crew member is trying to manipulate the controls to prevent the lock from cycling. Before Mr. Music can intervene, he hears the patter of multiple feet approaching him and hears a kid stage whisper “It’s a pirate!”

Linda, rounding a corner, sees the small suttle lock entrance, where a young Wynathian, oh-so-stylingly dressed and carrying… A guitar?... is peering around the corner when Garth inevitably pipes up. Mekht slaps his hand over his brother’s mouth with an actual whisper “what do you think a pirate looks like?!”, but it’s too late.

Inside the room, the woman deliveres an experienced front kick to the officer’s face, rendering the already staggered man unconscious. Mr. Music hears the man’s jaw break, and sees the spray of blood, but can also hear the breathing of the other crew isn’t accompanied with moans or other sounds of pain. It’s possible that this was the only blow struck.

Linda can also hear the sharp crack of a breaking bone, and the collapse of a body inside the room. She also hears the airlock cycle.

The pirates are on board.