Episode 2.1

From HOTGT

Colony Ship: Speedwell: The Black (Four Days Ago)

"Captain Jamison, may I have a word?" Doc Wesson called to the busy looking CO.

"What is it Doctor, everything going according to plan?" The Captain replied.

"Er, Yes and no Captain. The passengers show no signs of coming out of their torpor."

"That's good. I was told we had ten hours to get them off ship."

"Yes, but they seem, if anything to be going deeper into the state. I worry that some my suffer cardiac trauma."

"Doctor, I share your concern. I don't want anyone to suffer.."

[A claxon can be heard]

"What is that?" The CO commanded to his staff.

"Security Alarm - Central Deck." A junior officer barked back.

"Get security down there. Probably one of the resisters."

"Resister's Captain?" the Doctor asked.

"Some people refused to take the pill, or said they would, then didn't. You should get back down and see we get the rest of our 'more cooperative' passengers on the shuttles."

"Aye sir." Said the Doctoring returning to medical.

"Captain, we are getting reports of gunfire. Two men down. Wait, three men. Someone has a knife."

"A knife?!" The Captain looked furious "Open the arms locker and take care of him!" He bellowed.

"Sir, we've lost contact with Engineering." Another officer called to him.

The captain began to pace the command deck nervously.

"What kind of Tian Fuhn Di Fu is this? Someone get down there, take care of our assailant and tell me what is going on!" He screamed.

Just then the main power flickered once, then cut off. The emergency lights came on.

The bridge crew stood hands off the controls, looking to the Captain for instructions.

The XO moved to ready the emergency beacon. A shot rang out through the dark bridge.

The XO fell to the floor. The Captain stood holding his pistol. "Anyone else touch the beacon and they will die too. We are in too deep to call for help, we'll just have to settle this ourselves." The Captain said grimly as he went to the Beacon controls and yanked out the wires attaching them to controls.

The Camera moves from the bridge through the decks, past dozens of listless bodies standing, sitting or lying on the floor, in the dark, unmoved by the change. It passes over the prone form of a man cut open from his neck to his groin, blood pooling around him. A security guard comes upon the scene in disgust, he hears a sound, the camera pulls back into the darkness of the hull as a scream echoes through the hall. It pulls away from the ship.

---

Mao's Claw, in the Black (Somewhere between Dandelion Station and Angel) - (Present Day)

Vincent: (Yawning) Flying by wire, clearly a good use of my talents.

Nadia: Did you adjust the flight plan to the signal beacon on Serafina?

Vincent: Indeed, I might need to rest my tapping finger after that work out.

Nadia: Vincent, this job is going to keep us fly'n for weeks. After food and fuel, we'll be up near 1000 credits. Then maybe I can find some excitement for you.

Vincent: Promises.. promises.. hmm what is that? A Captain, I am getting a low level emergency beacon just off our course.

Nadia: How far are we to Serafina?

Vincent: About a day.

Nadia: With a stop and restart we will have enough fuel?

Vincent: Sure thing, only need reaction thrusters at this range.

Nadia: Alright drop us into inertia and check it out.

Vincent: Looks like a shuttle, very low energy, but possible life sign.

The Mao's Claw maneuvers itself to intersect the tumbling shuttle. Using his deft piloting skills Vincent matches the spin of the shuttle and brings it closer. Del, from the Magnetic Claw brings the shuttle into the ship's cargo bay (now very full). Once pressure is normalized in the hold the team rushes to the shuttle to investigate. It bears the name "Speedwell" the same colony ship they were following. Opening the doors, they find the unconscious body of a man, some bags, and what appears to be an accordian case. They bring him to medical, and with some oxygen he quickly recovers and tells them his tale.

Bob: We were about a day out from planetfall when the crew gave this warning about 'gravity fluctuations' and advised taking a pill to deal with it. It seemed fishy to me, so I abstained. When I caught sight of some other passengers in some sort of daze I got nervous. I checked around and saw lots of passengers just sort of standing around, not talking, not doing anything. The crew, or much of them anyway were busy carting around the passengers like so much baggage. I swung by medical and saw a number of passengers being processed or something. I figured these must be slavers, knocking out the passengers and selling them to the mines or something. Not wasting my time, I grabbed my bags, snuck aboard a shuttle and tried to escape. Something went bad and I lost control. I drifted for a few hours before the air starting getting thin, then I passed out. When I woke up I was here.

There were a hundred passengers on that ship. He added

The Mao's Claw returned to its course and in a few hours came upon the Speedwell, adrift and powered down. Life Support was on, but little else. Still there sensors indicated over a hundred people on board.

The maneuvered the Mao's Claw up to one of the gantry access air locks and locked in. With a little help from James, they jimmied the air lock of the Speedwell open, and James, Nadia and Vincent entered the ship. It was eeriely quiet. They came upon a man in some kind of daze, a few spatters of blood upon him, but otherwise unhurt. A few feet from him was a door to the sickbay, it was painted in blood, clearly the scene of something grotesque. They tried the door, locked, and locked well. Banging on the door didn't elicit a response, so they started in on it with a crowbar.

That got someone's attention. The elevator next to them began to open. They readied themselves against a possible attack, but they weren't ready for the grenade set to go off as the doors opened. Vincent's cat like reflexes allowed him to dodge around a corner, Nadia dove to cover the dazed man, and took the blast full on. Luckily she wasn't terribly hurt by the explosion.

Shortly thereafter, they were set on by more men, a sniper and another man with a pistol. They moved to meet their attackers. Then a man with shotgun exited Sickbay and shot at Vincent. Nadia moved to intercept the man with her sword and quickly disarmed him.

Meanwhile James took advantage of the chaos to sneak into the sickbay. He spotted a couple passengers in bed before he was set on by another medic wielding a scalpel. Untrained in combat James easily avoided the medic, and covered im with his pistol. The medic surrendered.

The sniper offered a trade of Vincent for the Doctor (the man with the Shotgun) the spot of his laser sight attesting to his control of the situation. There was a brief discussion and Nadia pushed the Doctor ahead of her to continue it. Once he had a clear shot the sniper took advantage of it and killed the Doctor, then he disappeared into the darkness. The team retreated back to the Mao's Claw with the captive medic and one of the dazed passengers.

A quick physical by 'Bob' the musician, revealed the passenger to be in okay health, though dehydrated and malnourished. His torpor, the result of the drug, G22 paxilon hydroclorate, had not abated, and it could only be surmised he'd been in this state for days. The Mao's Claw pulled away from the Speedwell, and the team gathered to discuss their options.

The Medic denied being part of anything more than piracy, and stated that the drug was supposed to only last a few hours. During that time, they were going to load the passengers into the shuttles, without their valuables, and deposit them on Serafina (how they would survive there, he didn't know). But things went south from there. There was some sort of resistance, bloody violent resistance, and the ship lost power. The crew had been unable to gain control of engineering, and he and the doctor had been holed up in the sickbay for all that time.

Here's how it is. The passengers of the Speedwell had been drugged, and were incapable of taking care of themselves, in days they would die of dehydration. The crew of the Speedwell, would be pirates, had lost control of the ship and were engaged in some sort of ongoing battle with a bloodthirsty and violent force. That force, was unknown.

Nadia's first instinct was to protect her crew. She could get to Angel and try to find work to pay for fuel back to civilization, maybe even sell the stuff they had on board, and call the whole thing even. Another job gone to hell. Still, there were at least a hundred innocent people on board, and if this Bob fellow could figure out a way to revive them, and they could get control of the ship, reason with one side or the other, they could save them.

End

Heroes of the Great Tree Topics
Impossibilities	I-verse background • Player Characters • NPCs • House Rules
Phantapunk	Aeryn Background • Player Characters • NPCs • House Rules
Concrete & Crimson	World Background • Scoobies • NPCs • House Rules
Keep Flying	The 'Verse • The Crew • NPCs • House Rules
Polybius	The World • Investigators • NPCs • House Rules
Labyrinth	The World • PCs • NPCs • House Rules