out into the black

[nikharwood]

Excellent stuff M - top-notch 

Only thing that would make this better would be seeing it gamed out in 10mm 

[Maenoferren]

I have resized the plans for the Jo Lyn down to 10mm and keep on meaning to get some figures painted - as yet no paint has been waved about, never mind put on any fgures. I did get them out the other day and and then thouht bollox can't be ars*d and put them away again
I will attempt to paint some fgures and then get some photos taken of a game in progress, however most of it is in the minds of the players and only combat causes figures to be broken out

[Maenoferren]

After a brief Hiatus we return to Whitefall again.

The crew were heading towards Halldene Canyon star port with their 7 contented cows and a strongbox containing a lot of dosh.
About 40 minutes out from their destination Toad got an inkling that the engine wasn’t quite right, whether it was a sound or a vibration nobody knows but after an amazing roll he realised that the compression boot was bent and if they didn’t land within an hour the ship would land for them more than likely in a flaming fireball. The captain ordered that Toad do what he could to keep them flying. Toad went back to the engine, and again with an impressive roll on his repair dice, he managed to extend the flight time to 4 hours.

Everyone got ready for a crash landing just in case.

Upon landing in Halldene Canyon they were met by an officious looking customs officer who asked where they had come from as they hadn’t appeared on any of the long range or short range scanners (they had in fact landed illegally to sell the original herd of cattle) When asked what the cargo was the captain replied cattle...
Then the questioning began
“Where did you get them?” a quick look at the map
“Errrrr Ita?”
How long have you had them?
“Emmmmm a long time” a quick think “in fact they are almost part of the crew!”
“You will of course have a bill of sale as well as custom dockets?”
“I believe we have suh, somewhere on the ship, as I said we have had them a long time!”

The customs officer then went aside a little and spoke into a communicator, before inviting the crew to a meeting with the commander of the base. The concrete and steel structure was akin to a heliport. All other buildings surrounding it, and outside the perimeter fence were made of wood or adobe.

The commander asked the questions again and this time Toad (who has the big mouth hindrance got to answer before the captain)

“Why didn’t we pick your vessel up on our long range or short range scanners?”
“That’s easy mate, because we sneaked in, avoiding them!”
“Oh really and why would that be?”
The captain tried valiantly to get a word in before Toad in his Australian accent burst out,
“We were smuggling cows to that town over in Greendale, then we went up to Dry Gulch and killed a pile of people, oh yeah and a pile of dogs, oh not to mention those bank robbers too”
The captain apologised for the outburst of his chief engineer, stating that...”as a decorated soldier he had received a head wound, and unfortunately he has these strange outbursts poor man, actually believes what he is saying!”

The commander flicks a switch and there on the cortex is the picture of the crew in the process of thwarting the aforementioned bank robbery.

“SO captain would you like to reassess the story you have just told me, or would you like to continue with the pretence?”

Having been rumbled the crew were left to stew a bit, after first of all Toad asking if they had a compression boot to replace theirs. A few moments later the commander informed them that they did and that it would cost 4000 credits to get it.

After a few hours the crew were again interrupted by the commander who asked if they would be willing to pay a fine, before the governor arrived. The captain, a few twinkles short of a rainbow, snapped that the man should call it the bribe rather than a fine. Without blinking, the commander then repeated would they be willing to pay a bribe, before the governor got there, he then added that the Governor could potentially impound their vessel for illegal entry, smuggling, travelling without necessary paperwork, lying to an official and other illegal activities that they would find with enough time. The crew however, decided to risk the governor the following day.


Around an hour later a gentleman wandered into the room and asked for the captain of the Jo Lyn as he had a proposition to make to him.

It transpired that he was the captain of the Anaconda the Firefly class that they saw on landing. Unfortunately the ship wasn’t able to fly due to a plasma coil breech. He wanted to know whether our captain would be willing to take his cargo of passengers to Athens, if he would Captain Luther would pay for the fuel and a little something on top. The captain pointed out that the Jo Lyn although spacious, had only one cabin spare and the Anaconda had seven that needed accommodation for the two day flight.

Luther had solved the problem with his company’s ingenious hab pod set up. Basically within a few hours a self contained habitation block could be installed in the Jo Lyn’s forward hold. This block could hold up to 6 people, with running water, toilets and entertainment. It did not have space for catering, so the passengers would eat with the crew, or at least use the Jo Lyn’s mess for their meals at a  different time to the crew.

The captain agreed that as they (if they managed to get away with their ship) were going to Athens anyway would surely be delighted to help a fellow businessman. â€" The trick would be getting out of the star port, preferably alive.
The captain asked Luther how he accessed the room; the simple answer was to pay the man outside the door to let him in J
The shepherd asked to speak to the commander using barely veiled threats about what would happen when the governor arrived, somehow the shepherd seems to be changing, it is almost as if she has been reprogrammed and the outer facade is starting to slip... I mean she knows brothels and has contacts with a crime lord; it does make one wonder, but anyway...

The commander seemed unduly worried as he was a nephew of the governor and believed that blood was indeed thicker than water. Evidently they weren’t going to leave through intimidation. Perhaps money would talk where threats wouldn’t...
A mere 1000 credits would allow them to leave; the captain offered a tenth of this price, merely 100 credits.

As it happened, Patience (the governor) arrived the following morning, after the shepherd gave their word that the crew would not try to escape even when allowed to return to the ship.
The cows had been sold for a quarter of their value, but at least they were out of number two hold. The captain and Alice were off talking to the passengers, worried that they may cause problems, Toad was attempting to help the crew of the Anaconda get her working again, this left the shepherd to deal with patience, which she did admirably. It was agreed that they would pay the fine of 100 credits as well as take a personal cargo to Athens for the governor.

All that remained was for the passengers to assemble on board and then once refuelled they could take off, admitedly with the mysterious cylinder complete with a cryogenic computer attached.

The captain and Alice were a suspicious lot and had already a brief description from Luther on who the passengers were.

A soap star
An underwear model
An agricultural parts salesman
A married couple moving to angel to set up a hardware store with their son
A Chinese Traveller, seeing the verse
A businessman of nondescript origin.

Therefore they decided that the Chinese passenger was obviously part of a Tong gang and they would be looking for missing fingers and tattoos up both arms.

As for the agricultural parts salesman, he would be selling guns, missiles and the odd tank.

The model was fair game for Alice - or so he thought (she might actually be a model for the magazine Chicks with D*cks we are keeping him in suspense on that one )


When they entered (what might be described as the passenger lounge)  they were met by a Woman with Purple hair, in her 50's who was shocked that they did not recognise her. Evidently Kelli Eyte thought everyone had seen her in the Cortex smash hit 'Whitefall' (think Dallas,dynasty and Little House on the Prairie all rolled into one) She was most put out by their indifference, which was tempered when they pointed out that the shepherd was a fan.

Second to catch their eye was a well endowed woman in her early 30's who was watching them with interest. Jane Owens the underwear model, although in her 30's is a good looking woman with ample assests to help sell ladies underwear.
Alice introduced himself, by saying that he would quite happily share his cabin with her. The captain again had to apologise for Alice's behaviour mentioning the head wound, (or potential head wound if he didn’t stop it).

Bob Worthington the arms dealer - sorry agricultural dealer was indeed a tractor parts salesman.  He was able to show Alice a very nice working model of the latest design.

Lei Chow Fe is a man in his early 20's who is travelling the verse on the futuristic equivalent of a gap year. He is travelling from planet to planet on his journey before returning to the central planets. Much to their relief he had all digits attached and lack of visible tattoos.

Angelo and Vivian Potter are the married couple travelling to Athens and then to Angel to meet with their son.

Mr Roy Keene however was missing and only arrived as the ship was about to leave.

The captain decreed that Miss Owens would have the one spare cabin  in the ship, much to the disgust of Ms Eyte. He also considered asking toad to put a temporary weld on her door, or better still Alice's.

As soon as the shepherd heard that the captain had 'allowed' the heroine of Whitefall to languish in the hold immediately offered her cabin for the duration of the journey.

A few minutes before take off Mr Keene arrived in a rush apologising for his lateness as he had been in a meeting with a lady. The captain did enquire as to whether or not the lady in question would be setting out an arrest warent against mr Keene, who assured him that Tallulah had been recompensated and she wouldn't be worried about anything

With roaring engines the Jo-Lyn lifted off, with the new compression boot repaired to such a high standard that I allowed the original ship hindrance to be removed.

We shall have to wait until next week to see what will happen next

[nikharwood]

Excellent again - nicely set up for the next shenanigans 

[Maenoferren]

Cheers Nik - two days  journey time between Whitefall and Athens, I am sure nothing can possibly go wrong 

[Squirrel]

Great stuff again

I am sure nothing can possibly go wrong 

I'm sure ......... can't wait to see what does

Cheers,

Kev

[Maenoferren]

Shhhh don't tell anyone else but there will be at least one murder and a run in with a reaver vessel, and let's not forget the shepherd has been increasing her combat edges as her programming begins to assert itself, but whatever you do, don't tell Wiggy or Jim

[Squirrel]

Mum's the word, secret's safe with me 

Cheers,

Kev

[Maenoferren]

Help, help, help the shepherd is a psycho, she took out two reavers with a frying pan, that programming for hers is failing really fast now. She even wore a dress like this in a poker game:


I will try and get it written up over the next couple of days

[nikharwood]

Nice...like it 

Looking forward to reading the next instalment...

[Squirrel]

 

Get writing!

Cheers,

Kev

[Pruneau]

Hehe, nice story so far, Maenoferren!  Looking forward to see what mishaps the crew encounter next:)

[Maenoferren]

I got half way through the write up last night then it dawned on me it was 1.40am and i needed sleep. 

[Maenoferren]

We left the crew with their eclectic group of passengers on the two day trip from Whitefall to Athens.
Kelli, the one ensconced in the shepherd's room asked to speak to the captain. When the shepherd asked the reason why, after a bit of persuasion, Kelli divulged that she wished to see Whitefall for the last time, much to the Shepherd's dismay, thinking her heroine was about to die, but Kelli would not divulge her reasons for the comment. SO the Shepherd went up to the bridge to ask the captain if he wouldn’t mind turning the Jo Lyn around so that Kelli could look upon the planet again... it took a bit of persuading, but eventually he agreed and turned the ship about.
Kelli had a lovely view of Whitefall for all of 15 seconds before the Jo Lyn returned to her earlier course.

Poor Kelli had to view the receding Whitefall  in the corridor on a chair 'stolen' from Alice's room by the Shepherd. Alice Was out in the various corridors armed with his side arm when Miss Owens appeared from her room, she asked to see his weapon, and after a moment of confusion he realised that she meant his side arm. He  handed it over, without thinking. Within seconds she had it disassembled and then reassembled, before handing it back to him. Alice was in love â€" or possibly Lust... he quickly rushed back to his room to check his back copies of Bikini Girls with Guns, just in case Miss Owens was a centrefold, although he was sure he would have remembered if she was.

The Shepherd invited everyone for coffeein the dining room and to ask if they would be willing to take part in a poker game an hour after dinner.  She also wanted to check everyone out and it was when Roy Keene arrived that the really interesting thing happened. Kelli was doing what she does best, being the centre of attention, when she noticed Roy. She suddenly rushed across the room shouting Flyn and hugged him much to the amusement of everyone except the man himself. He managed to untangle himself and informed both Kelli and the room in general that his name was Roy Keene and that the lady in question was very much mistaken.
Kelli seemed unperturbed and carried on talking about the last time they met at that Casino on Angel and how that simply horrid man he was with had spoiled the party atmosphere totally.
Roy or Flyn seemed most put out by the turn of events and said that he would like to take his coffee in his room and promptly left. Kelli was the centre of attention once again with everyone including the shepherd asking her questions. The shepherd managed to get Kelli alone and obtained the following information.

She had met Roy Keene or Flyn Arthur around 5 years before on Angel, they were both regulars in a casino. Flyn was an accountant and on their last visit he was with a rather wealthy but totally unsavoury type. He was obnoxious in the extreme. He was just like cousin Jim Bob in the show, you know the one who was a that bad man. A few discussions then revolved around what happened in the various episodes following Jim Bob's disappearance after the fire and then re-appearance in episode 354. The Shepherd then found out that a few days later Flyn disappeared and wouldn’t answer his phone or respond to any kind of a messages.
The shepherd asked whether Kelli could be mistaken but she responded that Flyn  had a scar under his right eye and strangely enough  so did Mr Keene.
The Shepherd left Kelli  to get ready for the poker match and went to check on her dedicated sourcebox for the name Roy Keene, it came back with a banker from Whitefall, well respected, two children etc, etc, etc!
She then tried Flyn Arthur Accountant and all of a sudden the screen disrupted and a classified file screen popped up. Followed by a quick upload off ship. Somebody now knew the shepherd had tried to check up on Flyn. Toad was summoned to sort out the computer and concurred that info had been uploaded. HE then used a repair skill to re-jig the sourcebox and ensure it would be seen by everyone else as a different machine.
The shepherd then went to have a quiet chat with Roy/flyn who inisite3d that he was Keene and that Kelli was mistaken. He did however refuse to leave his room in the ventral hold.

Dinner was held in the dining room with everyone present except Mr Keene, After dinner those who wished to play poker did so in the dining room, whilst Alice stayed on duty in the bridge. Miss Owens showed an aptitude for cards as well as guns and ladies underwear. The Shepherd shocked everyone except the captain, as she wasn't carrying a fried chicken, by wearing a rather revealing black number.
As the game finished Alice got a proximity warning light flashing. He called the captain to the bridge and it seemed that there was another ship out there on a perpendicular heading which would pass within a couple of miles of theirs. A quick scan showed a higher level of radiation than there should be, as if a core was exposed. Reavers. They dropped the nose then shut off all power, hoping that they would disappear in the black, but unfortunately the residual heat from the engines remained and the other ship dropped their nose too and drew closer.
The captain ordered crew to don their space suits and for all passengers to make their way to the Galley. Alice was ordered to stand guard whilst the captain made evasive manoeuvres.

Without warning and EMP burst struck the JO Lyn and all controls were lost.  The captain valiantly 
tried to get them back on line and succeeded just as another burst hit the ship, the Captain used his ace edge to soak the damage and attempted to get behind the Reaver ship but failed to do so, they were stuck on his tail. Instead he over pressurised the rear hold. Toad was ordered to the bridge in case of further hits. It was then that the captain gained the higher card, and as the Reaver prepared to fire he opened the back doors. Unfortunately Toad in his rush to get to the bridge forgot to close the intervening doors, He had a few moments of sphincter twitching and managed to hold on before the emergency override kicked in and the doors shut. The debris that blew out of the rear doors struck the Reaver craft on the bridge. Unfortunately the strike did no damage. The shepherd managed to send a mayday message. Seconds later a massive EMP burst struck the Jo Lyn doing 32 points of damage, all electrical circuits blew in an instant. Alice managed to open the doors manually, handing his side arm to Owens, he made his way down to the bridge. Everyone knew that a boarding action was imminent.
A few moments later the ventral hold door was breached and everyone readied their weapons.  Alice mad the first kill as the Reavers rushed up the stairs from the cargo hold.
Toad rushed to his workshop to design a bomb using his McGiver edge. Alice killed the next Reaver, but the third rushed forwards big axe waving, he hit Alice but failed to wound. Both the captain and shepherd  fired but missed.
The captain gained a joker and fired although he hit he failed to wound the Reaver, who went next and swung at Alice. Luckily he missed. The shepherd grabbed her frying pan and swung around the bulkhead. Even at a -4 on the dice roll she scored a 13 and then a massive 21 damage on the wound roll breaking the
Reaver's neck.
Toad manages to produce his home made bomb and heads back to the stairwell where more Reavers are rushing forwards.
The first Reaver manages to wound Alice, but he easily shrugs off the damage. The captain and shepherd both fire the captain misses and the shepherd fails to wound.
The shepherd gains a joker and swings around the corner again. She hits with a raise then deals out enough damage to break another neck. Toad rushes forward, priming his bomb as he goes. He flings it down the stairwell and throws himself back as a huge blast rocks the ship and bits of Reaver and bits of passenger pods fly up the stairs. He managed to deal 38 damage on 3 D8.
The Shepherd rushes upstairs to check on the passengers whilst Alice and the captain make their way down to the ventral hold. As he goes the Captain orders the surrender of any remaining Reavers.
Strangely enough they didn’t comply and the two remaining ones attacked as Alice entered the hold.
They shake him. Luckily he goes first and uses a benny to unshake. Killing the Reaver out right. The remaining one attacks  and fails to do any damage. The captain takes careful aim and drills him between the eyes and with no bennies left the Reaver is unable to soak any wounds.
The captain and Alice carefully check the hold for any remaining Reavers. Luckily their aren’t, but there is a Reaver craft docked with theirs, which will need checking. Unfortunately Toad's bomb has shredded both Reavers and accommodation pod. We will have to wait until next Monday to see if they have the guts to enter the Reaver craft.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Great report.
Ohhh! THey're in trouble!

[nikharwood]

Excellent - nice stuff again M 

[Maenoferren]

We had a fight so we used figures THe crew defend the stair well whilst toad makes his mento's and coke bomb surrounded by cermaic ball bearings and monofillament wire

[nikharwood]

Coolio 

It'd look betterer in 10mm though, eh? 

[Maenoferren]

Coolio 

It'd look betterer in 10mm though, eh? 

it is 
2 from the sci fi male civillians, one from the masai set and the other from the bearers set... stad ins for the time being, the reavers were fro another company.

[nikharwood]

it is 
2 from the sci fi male civillians, one from the masai set and the other from the bearers set... stad ins for the time being, the reavers were fro another company.

Oops....I'll get me coat 

This is good: