No good deed goes unpunished.
Jan. 15th, 2003 12:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothOr at least, that's the theme of Lance's Traveller game, judging by tonight's session. Yeah, we played Traveller tonight because Dan flaked again and didn't show up.
The first thing that happened was that Whitmore stole AKI's new ship, kidnapping the pilot as she was one of the ship's systems, after distracting AKI with makework that didn't require the use of the ship. Spot immediately declared open season on Whitmore Industries facilities and employees, but Joker and Coocoo kept her in line.
Lord Gray, a minor player in the politics of the Trias system, offered to lend the party a broken down death-trap of a ghost ship as a favor, because he didn't like the thought of the pilot being kidnapped (and, perhaps, liked the thought of bloody vengeance being wreaked).
So AKI flew to Crescent, where the ship had been spirited off to, and infiltrated the research facility by hiding on a modular cutter, which Spot convinced Joker to rig to explode (with the force of a nuclear bomb) as a distraction, if needed. They EVAd across the outside of the research station, and were able to spot their ship, in pieces, in one of two drydocks inside the security cordon they'd just snuck through. In the other drydock, in which Coocoo had telepathically sensed the pilot's presence, was a huge military vessel done in the same style.
So AKI stole a couple utility vehicles, dressed as technicians, and scouted out the second drydock. The pilot, sealed into her shell, was being slowly disassembled by techs, as was the large military ship, a light carrier. But the ship was still usable, although its pilot-shell was dead.
Spot managed to talk one of the technicians disassembling the pilot into helping AKI install her on the carrier, with a story about verifying compatability. "Whatever you do, don't plug in those three wires, or the shell will have full control of the ship!" he warned, but let them attach her to all the lesser systems.
The pilot, upon being attached, set off radiation leak warnings and scared everyone off the ship. Spot (and the rest of AKI) valiantly remained behind while sending their helpful technician running for his own safety... then plugged in the rest of the wires and ran to man the turrets, which the pilot-shells were never allowed to access.
In response to a challenge from the drydock, Spot opened fire randomly... then with Coocoo's help blew off the clamps holding the ship in place. Joker started to set off the modular cutter, but it was unclamped from the base and towed off into deep space -- not as effective as they'd hoped. And worse, the Morning Glory, a huge Imperial Battleship, was spotted on Lidar burning for Crescent at full speed.
But the carrier was more powerful than anything less, and even with only a few of the turrets functional, they managed to blow a hole in the defenses and get to safe distance to jump.
While drifting in deep space (a week later) and waiting for the jump engine to slowly recharge over the course of several days, an alien distress call was detected. Coocoo was sent out in a shuttle to investigate, since he would be able to teleport himself back if it turned out to be something nasty.
It turned out to be a single cryogenic lifepod, nearing the end of its useful life. Coocoo awoke the inhabitant, who had strange eyes and a very disturbing grin. He probed the stranger telepathically, while quizzing him on his intentions: Are you going to kill us? No. Is anyone chasing you? No. Are you infected with any horrible alien diseases? No. Satisfied, the stranger was brought back to the ship.
"OH MY GOD!" screamed the pilot (once AKI was away from the stranger), "He's infected with Hiver Nanites! They'll infect anyone he touches, and the entire ship! My homeworld was nuked just because they thought we had a couple hivers living there!"
"Er, but I already touched him," Coocoo said. Cut to Coocoo and the stranger floating in separate shuttlecraft, quarantined while the jump drive recharged and Joker and Spot waited to see if Coocoo had been infected.
In short, he was. The nanites (as they always did) devoured his brain and the rest of his body, replacing it with a nanite colony that thought it was still him, only faster, stronger, and more powerful psionically. "There's nothing wrong with me!" he protested. "If you set foot on this ship I'm blowing up the damn jump drive and killing us all," Spot replied. Meanwhile, Joker quietly set the shuttlecraft to detonate their engines, but the stranger detected it and informed Coocoo, and Joker was forced to cancel the detonation (or have Coocoo immediately teleport back onto the ship and infect him and Spot).
There was a long standoff. The stranger insisted that he was perfectly safe, and that Coocoo had only been infected because he'd touched the infested lifepod. He claimed that he was infected by GOOD nanites, not the evil slaver nanites that everyone was afraid of (100 years ago).
Joker and Spot countered that even if they were good nanites, if anyone knew they existed then they'd all be killed -- and likely as not the Imperials would sterilize the entire Trias system, just to be sure.
Eventually, Joker agreed to tow Coocoo and the stranger through hyperspace back to the Trias system, as long as they promised not to approach any planet or infect anyone. Obviously, this is a trick.
last session next session
There were *so* many things this session that made me want to just say 'Fuck you, Lance'.
The first thing that happened was that Whitmore stole AKI's new ship, kidnapping the pilot as she was one of the ship's systems, after distracting AKI with makework that didn't require the use of the ship. Spot immediately declared open season on Whitmore Industries facilities and employees, but Joker and Coocoo kept her in line.
Lord Gray, a minor player in the politics of the Trias system, offered to lend the party a broken down death-trap of a ghost ship as a favor, because he didn't like the thought of the pilot being kidnapped (and, perhaps, liked the thought of bloody vengeance being wreaked).
So AKI flew to Crescent, where the ship had been spirited off to, and infiltrated the research facility by hiding on a modular cutter, which Spot convinced Joker to rig to explode (with the force of a nuclear bomb) as a distraction, if needed. They EVAd across the outside of the research station, and were able to spot their ship, in pieces, in one of two drydocks inside the security cordon they'd just snuck through. In the other drydock, in which Coocoo had telepathically sensed the pilot's presence, was a huge military vessel done in the same style.
So AKI stole a couple utility vehicles, dressed as technicians, and scouted out the second drydock. The pilot, sealed into her shell, was being slowly disassembled by techs, as was the large military ship, a light carrier. But the ship was still usable, although its pilot-shell was dead.
Spot managed to talk one of the technicians disassembling the pilot into helping AKI install her on the carrier, with a story about verifying compatability. "Whatever you do, don't plug in those three wires, or the shell will have full control of the ship!" he warned, but let them attach her to all the lesser systems.
The pilot, upon being attached, set off radiation leak warnings and scared everyone off the ship. Spot (and the rest of AKI) valiantly remained behind while sending their helpful technician running for his own safety... then plugged in the rest of the wires and ran to man the turrets, which the pilot-shells were never allowed to access.
In response to a challenge from the drydock, Spot opened fire randomly... then with Coocoo's help blew off the clamps holding the ship in place. Joker started to set off the modular cutter, but it was unclamped from the base and towed off into deep space -- not as effective as they'd hoped. And worse, the Morning Glory, a huge Imperial Battleship, was spotted on Lidar burning for Crescent at full speed.
But the carrier was more powerful than anything less, and even with only a few of the turrets functional, they managed to blow a hole in the defenses and get to safe distance to jump.
While drifting in deep space (a week later) and waiting for the jump engine to slowly recharge over the course of several days, an alien distress call was detected. Coocoo was sent out in a shuttle to investigate, since he would be able to teleport himself back if it turned out to be something nasty.
It turned out to be a single cryogenic lifepod, nearing the end of its useful life. Coocoo awoke the inhabitant, who had strange eyes and a very disturbing grin. He probed the stranger telepathically, while quizzing him on his intentions: Are you going to kill us? No. Is anyone chasing you? No. Are you infected with any horrible alien diseases? No. Satisfied, the stranger was brought back to the ship.
"OH MY GOD!" screamed the pilot (once AKI was away from the stranger), "He's infected with Hiver Nanites! They'll infect anyone he touches, and the entire ship! My homeworld was nuked just because they thought we had a couple hivers living there!"
"Er, but I already touched him," Coocoo said. Cut to Coocoo and the stranger floating in separate shuttlecraft, quarantined while the jump drive recharged and Joker and Spot waited to see if Coocoo had been infected.
In short, he was. The nanites (as they always did) devoured his brain and the rest of his body, replacing it with a nanite colony that thought it was still him, only faster, stronger, and more powerful psionically. "There's nothing wrong with me!" he protested. "If you set foot on this ship I'm blowing up the damn jump drive and killing us all," Spot replied. Meanwhile, Joker quietly set the shuttlecraft to detonate their engines, but the stranger detected it and informed Coocoo, and Joker was forced to cancel the detonation (or have Coocoo immediately teleport back onto the ship and infect him and Spot).
There was a long standoff. The stranger insisted that he was perfectly safe, and that Coocoo had only been infected because he'd touched the infested lifepod. He claimed that he was infected by GOOD nanites, not the evil slaver nanites that everyone was afraid of (100 years ago).
Joker and Spot countered that even if they were good nanites, if anyone knew they existed then they'd all be killed -- and likely as not the Imperials would sterilize the entire Trias system, just to be sure.
Eventually, Joker agreed to tow Coocoo and the stranger through hyperspace back to the Trias system, as long as they promised not to approach any planet or infect anyone. Obviously, this is a trick.
last session next session
There were *so* many things this session that made me want to just say 'Fuck you, Lance'.
