Turn 0: First Sparks of Change
It was the fifteenth year of the U.M.'s occupation of the planet Valgon IV, the planet was only civilized on only one fourth of the planet yet it held more then fifteen trillion lives upon its harsh surface. If the Empires had known what would happen there then perhaps things would have been easier, or perhaps the Pirates we've grown to hate are the entire reason trillions of people yet live. To prevent another Valgon IV, where the U.M. turn their sights I will cover it in a sea of my blood to keep it from them. - Alfred Lestrange the pirate known as the King of the Bright Void
Durand Mondegan (Caellath)
The son of a long line of Seneschals, and here you are, son of a man who runs a galaxy spanning empire, having to follow the orders of the lowest ranking Noble on the planet, an exporter of simple circuit boards for ship-board bathrooms. Several times you've had the thought to stab the fat slob you work for in the back so you can be done with the job, but your attempts to convince your father this job is meaningless and would prove better in some slightly larger branch house are a complete failure. So here you are once again bowing as the man, Nathaniel Nasem, takes his seat on the couch he calls a chair.
The man before you, and the man you serve oh so unwillingly, is a pig of a man taking up the entirety of a chair that could fit three average men. The man is munching on a rather large leg of some turkey-like creature as you make your way to the front of the 'throne' and bow as best you can, the cloak your father gave you made from the skin of the last great predator of your home-world, the Chogath a massive tiger sized chameleon like creature capable of chewing through the Dunarim armor of a Model VI Hammerhead tank, constricts your movement slightly. But as you watch the thing settle into place your body, all except your head, disappears from sight causing a slight shudder from 'Lord' Nasem.
Taking his mouth from the food in his hand he beckons to a youngish woman cowering in the far corner of the room, and at his signal she comes rushing over, her head bowed and a tray of drink in hand. Ignoring her you wait for the man to give you the orders your sure he will, as he takes a goblet from the tray the garbage dump of a mouth starts moving and a voice fit for a young girl hits your ears,
"My dear Durand I have a very important task for you. Your skills as a steward are fair, but throughout your service your skills of coercion, stealth, and the like have proven invaluable to furthering the expansion of this great House. Now I have a task for you, one that will lead to my House's fall and your death if you don't succeed.
There is a man known as the Crimson Reaper, all the recent murders involving nobles and merchants are believed to be connected to this man who until now had no name and was simply feared by us nobles. Now he has taken his actions a step to far, this morning he killed the next in line for the throne of House Sinclair, and in the heir's blood he had the audacity to write he was coming after my House next.
I want you to find this man, this Crimson Reaper, and kill him or bring the full wrath of House Nasem down upon his heathen head. Now go! I don't want to see you until you have something I can use to find this bastard."Bowing once more you mumble your farewells, and leave the throne room and the foul stench of 'Lord' Nasem behind you. Marching down the hallway you begin to think off your options, all in all there isn't very many you have to choose from at the moment. You could go down the criminal lane, perhaps they'd be more likely to tell you were this fellow is, but your current contacts on that route are a bit lacking, you have a Black market Dealer you've never actually met, a newly created group of criminals aiming to be Space Pirates, and some very thin connections to the Black Reavers who happen to be the most violent of all the gangs on the planet. Not very good options.
Of course there is the more mundane option, you could use your connections with these planet-side merchants to try and buy some information on any supplies or people smuggled in that might be connected to this man. Or perhaps any purchases of the archaic scythe he uses to kill his targets, either way looks like you'll end up spending quite a bit of your current funds, and the 'Lord' wasn't kind enough to give you anything to spend to help with this project. Time to see how things go ...
HP: 12/12
Armor: 0
Skills:
~ Unknown ~
Funds: 600 Credits
Items:
MCS Model III [Atk: 6, Atk. Speed: 1, Ammo: 1/1, Hidden]
Weighted Dunarium Dagger [Atk: 3, Atk. Speed: 1, Melee]
Chogath Skin Cloak [+6 to all Stealth Rolls while wearing this]
Deed to your Apartment in one of the Noble Merchant's Complexes
Contacts:
Player Group [?] (The five other players' group)
Black Market Contact [?] (Supposedly a batarian according to rumors, but you've only ever met an old grizzled man when you visited)
Black Reavers Gang [2] (You have a few connections the Black Reavers gang, at least enough not to get shot if you walk up to a safe-house and ask for a meeting)
Planetary Merchants [?] (You have quite a few contacts with the planet-side merchants, you think you could hire some of their guards for missions or buy some info of them but your not sure your extent of power with this group.)
(Taricus)
Sitting upright with a gasp you grab the snatch your gun from its resting place and find yourself whirling about looking for an enemy that doesn't exist. Putting the gun back in its place you take a seat on the edge of the bed and put your face in your hands for a moment, listening you can hear the newscaster on your tv speaking,
"Do to recent discoveries we have recently uncovered the reasons behind the recent mysterious murders of various nobles of Valgon IV, the murderer calling himself the Crimson Reaper left a whole list of notes and an explanation of his actions at the crime scenes. The U.M. General Markov Griffon has recently released a video confronting this killer, lets watch it now ..."Pissed off you pick up your salvaged rifle and shoot the tv several times, with a small pop of an explosion smoke fizzles out of the holes but quickly dissipates as you set about getting ready for the day. After a quick ten minutes of wolfing down the leftover food from yesterday's dinner you grab a few of your belongings, most importantly your gun and the small leather bag of credits. Locking the door behind you you begin to think of your next move, your not supposed to be at the group meeting for another three hours so you could spend sometime elsewhere.
The most appealing places to you right now are
Local Marketplace, your
Black Market Contact's Store, your group's
Hideout, and the
Docks. The
Local Marketplace is best if you want to buy mundane items like scrap metal and such though you can get a few lower end weapons meant for self-defense, but with the gear the gangs carry around they won't help much. Your
Black Market Contact's Store isn't far from your group's hideout, you've never actually met the owner though, all you've ever dealt with was a grizzled old man with a gun that could likely shoot straight through a damn tank, if you want to buy some more 'unique' gear here is where you'll want to go if you don't want the UM swarming down on your head.
The
Hideout isn't much, its a bare cavern you guys found awhile back hidden from view by a secret door and a five foot thick steel bulkhead, that's where the meeting will take place. You could if you want take a bunch of your 'product' there and start working on building something if you wanted. Then finally there's the
Docks a pair of sub-orbital station's where almost every civilian is forced to buy a docking space and park their ships if they have one, you could go there, pick up your scavenging vessel and get a good half-an-hour of scav-work done before having to come to the meeting.
HP: 12/12
Armor: 0
Skills:
~ Unknown ~
Funds: 200 Credits
Items:
Salvaged Pre-1st War Tactical Rifle [Atk: 1, Atk. Speed: 8, Ammo: 40/40]
10 Units of Scrap
5 Units of Computers
10 Units of Electronics
Deed to your tiny housing Block
Ships
Salvage Vessel
AR: 5/5
Fuel: 50/50
Weapons
- Salvaged Prometheus Flak Turret [Atk: 1, Atk Speed: 4]
- Salvage Crane [Salvage Rate of 20 per Turn]
Cargo Space: 0/100
(Tiruin)
You sit watching up at the stars from your seat in the observatory of the
Hadron X space station, one of the less successful stations in orbit around the planet of
Valgon IV, but here you are. Your personal guard and something of a friend, Zelnar, sits off a little ways refusing to sit and talk to you claiming himself to be unworthy of talking to you. This thought saddens you, but you remember what your mother told you so long ago when she presented this man, at the time he was only twelve years old, as your life long companion and guard. That was the day you were whisked away, all you can really remember is meeting Zelnar.
Since then you've spent most of your life on this hell-hole, until a year or two ago Zelnar provided for your needs through means you feel you'd rather not know, and your sure he wouldn't explain even if you ordered him. After that you managed to get a job here, and with your skills as a Navigator you've been plotting ways through the battlefield graveyards, asteroid belts, and the like ever since. You never truly realized that the space around
Valgon IV was a literal minefield till you began working here, half of the space was filled with scrap, dead hulks of ships, and asteroids while the other half was filled with the same but also mined with every scrap of explosive the UM could spare.
Standing up you instinctively rub the Tri-pointed Star, a keepsake from your family, and your past-life, clearing your throat you watch as Zelnar jumps up, and dashes to your side.
"Is there something you'd still like to do here my Lady? Or would you like to head to the meeting area right away?"HP: 12/12
Armor: 0
Skills:
~ Unknown ~
Funds: 300 Credits
Items:
XRZ Pistol Model 1 [Atk: 1, Atk. Speed: 4, Ammo: 12/12]
Serrated Combat Knife [Atk: 3, Atk. Speed: 3, Melee]
Deed to your Housing Complex on the Hadron X
Stellar Compass [+1 to navigation in space]
Datapad (Contains Details on all your charts of the surrounding space of Valgon IV
Ships:
T-85 'Puma' Light Fighter-Shuttle
AR: 10
Fuel: 25/25
Weapons
- 2x Mk. III Striker Lasers [Atk: 3, Atk Speed: 1]
- 2x Missile Holsters [2x Hunter-Killers Model IV (Atk: 10, Atk Speed: .25, Anti-Fighter/Anti-Drone/Anti-Missile)]
Companions:
Zelnar
HP: 10/10
Armor: 5/5
Equipment:
- Deterium Reinforced Sword [Atk: 6, Atk Speed: 2, Melee]
- Dual 'Hound' G85 SMGs [Atk: 1, Atk Speed: 12, Ammo: 60/60]
(10ebbor10)
You rub yours eyes once more trying to clear the fog of sleep from your mind and vision, yawning slightly you throw the rifle over your back as you continue down the dimly lit stone corridor. With each step you travel twice as far as you normally would do to the half-gravity within the base, an after effect of the asteroid's constant spinning, you pass a few other of your comrades as you make your way to Meeting Room Six. Arriving at your destination you shove the rusted door open, and an ear-splitting squeal fills the air, you remind yourself to get them to oil the door hinges before bringing your attention to the people within. The first thing that catches your eye is a group of eight of your comrades dressed entirely in black, the
Hunters they called themselves though the technical term is just Spec-Ops, and the next thing you notice is a woman, blonde her down past her shoulders and a rather striking face.
You literally freeze mid-step as you realize who she is, the leader of your group's military Lilith Vansema an ex-special forces soldier of the UM now leading your group in their little 'rebellion' against the UM occupation of
Valgon IV. She doesn't entirely agree with your ideals, but the real leaders couldn't risk getting rid of such a great asset, and the entire plan of driving the UM out is part of the group's plans anyway. Shaking your head slightly at seeing her you take your seat in the back of the room, and wait for the meeting to begin. After a few minutes of waiting two more black clad figures enter the room and take their seat in front of you, oddly enough choosing not to sit with their own kind.
With their entrance the lights dim, a projector kicks on covering the stone wall beside Lilith in a white sheen, and Lilith herself steps forward and clears her throat as she begins to talk,
"You are all wondering why you've been called here I'm sure, well this is the reason ..."Cutting off she points to the portion of the wall where the projector is now displaying an image. The image is of the largest shipyard in orbit of
Valgon IV, ran by the
Newman Family the shipyard
Gorgon was capable of producing Dreadnought class ships but as it stood the Outer Rim had no chance of getting the resources for such a construction. For now it catered to the UM fleet stationed over, and near
Valgon IV taking care of repairs, supplying them with fighters & shuttles, and whatever else the UM wanted from them. At least that is what the captions by the image told you anyway, turning back to Lilith you listen as she continues her little speech,
"This shipyard, the Gorgon, is why you all here. According to some recent intelligence we've got from some of our alliance members the UM have found out the whereabouts of this base, and several of our allies from a mole, we already found the mole and disposed of them so no need to worry about anymore information leaks. Anyway back to the mission, this shipyard is said to be secretly constructing numerous wings of drone fighters, and escorting them to the UM station Phalanx stationed near this asteroid field."Once more she cut-off as the projector image switched to display the station
Phalanx. It seems to be made up of four
these all connected to a sphere in the center the size of your average asteroid with numerous passageways, and massive fifty foot thick deterium hydraulic supports capable of detaching entire sections of the station if need be. Once again most of those details come from the captions to the side, but how your group has so much information on the targets confuses you to no end. Once again Lilith picks up her briefing speech,
"Robert you will be using that group of criminals you know down on Valgon IV, I want you to try and convince them to help us perform a strike on the station. As I understand it a few of them have space-fairing vessels and one of them has an old shuttle from his captain days, we can use them and a stolen UM identification code to sneak them, Fire-team Alpha, and Fire-team Bravo onboard to neutralize all threats. You have permission to offer them up to 2000 credits for their assistance in this matter, and two favors from us on top of that. Fire-team Alpha your objective will be ..."With that said you wait for the meeting to conclude, and think of what to do when it ends. You could go straight to the group's hideout and wait there for the others, it'd give you a chance to mess around with the junk thats lying around in there and search for something useful. Or you could of course ask Lilith some questions about the operation. What to do, what to do ...
HP: 12/12
Armor: 5 Lightly Armored Clothing
Skills:
~ Unknown ~
Funds: 300 Credits
Items:
Modified Treysan Model Battle-Rifle [Atk: 4(6), Atk Speed: 2(1), Ammo: 6/6]
Salvaged UM Officer Laser Pistol [Atk: 1, Atk Speed: 6, Overheat: 18 Shots]
Homemade Stun Grenade [Stuns targets with a successful 5 or higher, 2 Turn Recharge]
Key to Room at your faction's hidden Base
Deed to tiny housing block
(Tavik Toth)
You sip idly at the beer in your hand as you watch the bar's tv, it's showing one of the gladiatorial fights hosted here on the planet, supposedly all of the gladiators are 'volunteers' according to the UM but most people know better. All the fools who get thrown in there are 'savages', 'traitors', or some other term of the people smart enough to fight back against the UM, you gave up on that a long time agao and let them take your precious ship. You watched as their salvage vessels tore it into part right before your eyes, and you doubt you'll ever forget that especially since they launched you into space in that rust bucket of a shuttle that you know have as your 'vessel'.
Its some old UM shuttle from before their participation in the second Galactic War, you were going to use it to get your ship back, but now your stuck on this planet and your ship is being used to fill holes on them damned UM frigates. You swirl the last remains of the drink around a bit then throw the glass onto the table along side three silver coins, your payment for the drink and 'fine' services of this bar. Outside the cold air starts to seep into your bones rather quickly and you pull your coat around you tighter as you begin to walk down the alley.
The most appealing places to you right now are
Local Marketplace, your
Black Market Contact's Store, and your group's
Hideout]. The
Local Marketplace is best if you want to buy mundane items like scrap metal and such though you can get a few lower end weapons meant for self-defense, but with the gear the gangs carry around they won't help much. Your
Black Market Contact's Store isn't far from your group's hideout, you've never actually met the owner though, all you've ever dealt with was a grizzled old man with a gun that could likely shoot straight through a damn tank, if you want to buy some more 'unique' gear here is where you'll want to go if you don't want the UM swarming down on your head.
The
Hideout isn't much, its a bare cavern you guys found awhile back hidden from view by a secret door and a five foot thick steel bulkhead, that's where the meeting will take place. You could if you want take a bunch of your 'product' there and start working on building something if you wanted.
HP: 12/12
Armor: 0
Skills:
~ Unknown ~
Funds: 200 Credits
Items:
Antique Mercenary Officer's Revolver [Atk: 8, Atk Speed: 1, Ammo: 6/6]
Serrated Combat Knife [Atk: 3, Atk Speed: 1, Melee]
Blank Antique Neural Core [Your not sure what this does, but its the only part you manged to take from your ship before the UM confiscated it]
Deed to tiny Housing Block
Ships:
Pre-2nd Galactic War UM Shuttle
AR: 5
Fuel: 25/25
Weapons
- 2x Mk. III Striker Lasers [Atk: 3, Atk Speed: 1]
Cargo Capacity: 0/30
(Spinal_Taper)
The cavern that is your group's hideout is rather cold, so cold you can see your breath which leads you to pull your thick jacket a bit closer before zipping it up completely. On the wood table before you are the parts to your K33 'Lynx' Bolt-Action .30 Caliber Rifle, a bit of an outdated and conventional weapon, but pretty much everything is outdated here in the Outer Colonies. After all these colonies were abandoned for nearly five years when the Swarm threatened to engulf the entirety of the Galactic Empires, to think of the women lost during that period brings tears to your eyes at the mere thought.
Trying to ignore that you deftly begin reassembling your gun, within a minute you have your rifle back to its normal shape, scope and all. Loading a bullet in you aim at a mushroom growing near the waterfall on the far side of the cavern and pull the trigger, with a resounding bang the bullet whizzes through the air ... and misses completely sending chunks of rock flying in every direction. Shaking your head you realize you forgot the readjust the scopes settings, and turn back to your work. Now what to do you could go to the
Local Marketplace, or to your
Black Market Dealer's Shop.
The
Local Marketplace is best if you want to buy mundane items like scrap metal and such though you can get a few lower end weapons meant for self-defense, but with the gear the gangs carry around they won't help much. Your
Black Market Contact's Store isn't far from your group's hideout, you've never actually met the owner though, all you've ever dealt with was a grizzled old man with a gun that could likely shoot straight through a damn tank, if you want to buy some more 'unique' gear here is where you'll want to go if you don't want the UM swarming down on your head. That or you could sort through the junk here in the hideout and see what useful stuff you can find if anything.
HP: 12/12
Armor: 5
Skills:
~ Unknown ~
Funds: 600 Credits
Items:
K33 'Lynx' Bolt-Action .30 Caliber Rifle [Atk: 8, Atk Speed: 1, Ammo: 1/1]
Model S-40 Combat Shotgun [Atk: 4, Atk Speed: 2, Ammo: 6/6]
'Hound' G85 SMGs [Atk: 1, Atk Speed: 6, Ammo: 30/30]
----------------------------
And its off
Let us see where you brave and conniving criminals take us shall we?
Author
Topic: Crossing the Bright Void 2 - A Space Pirate RTD: Sieging a Space Station (Read 24835 times)