LogStormlight-Jacko-1

Game log for the 2020-11-22 session of Impulse Drive: Stormlight, as taken by Jacko

The crew finds themselves on Hole in One, a dinky planetoid with artificial gravity and atmosphere that likes to think it's a real place but it's more of a waystation. They're looking for work but Hole in One is a dangerous place to be. Vinny Star, a notorious local gangboss, seems to be pretty upset with us and is blocking our access to the Stormlight, our ship.

Janus decides that getting a job is the right move and calls up Sally Three Hands. She always has three hands but one of them doesn't belong to her and it seems to always change. Janus and Sally have a conversation about a run to Mundy's Paradise, booze for palladium. Sally's had two couriers vanish on her and she's wondering if someone's trying to horn in her or not. Whatever the case, she needs to find out and is willing to pay, so Janus takes the job.

The crew likes the prospect of a job but they still need to get to the ship. Kyruss is keen to get out towards the docks and get eyes on so he can snipe them while Ember and Drix will take a much more forward route. Franco decides to see what the situation at the dock is like and hacks into the surveillance system. He isn't able to get the feeds up that he'd prefer but he does find that Vinnie has set out a smorgasboard of information on the entire crew and his stated desire that they be taken in dead.

Kyruss hears boots coming down the corridor towards the alcove where the crew has been planning their route and he starts shooting. The other crew beats feet, running for their lives to the airlock that will spit them out on the surface. They manage to make it, though Janus sees that there's more than a few guys surrounding our ship. Kyruss wonders if Rurkuk, aka 8-Man, Spider-Man, Spider-8, due to the number of arms he has, might be among them. If so, his distaste of Vinnie might be a handy distraction. Kyruss floats the idea to Franco, and Janus gives him a cred chip for his troubles.

Franco moves towards the docking area, low-crawling and moving with some stealth before finding himself at the edge of the docking area. He identifies Rurkuk and calls him up on his communicator, offering that he should switch sides and tell Vinnie to go fuck himself. Rurkuk, in a sudden unexpected reversal, tells Franco to go fuck himself instead! Curses! Franco let's the crew know they're in dire straits and they go hell for leather, moving towards the dock to bring the fight.

Kyruss and Drix are pinned down but Ember and Janus keep moving forward, firing at Vinnie's crew around the ship and taking some fire in return. Franco recharges his Chameleon but the sudden shock of pain draws attention to his position. Ember keeps up the weight of fire, firing at the mob as does Kyruss but his fire gets him shot for his efforts. Some of Vinnie's men began looking for Franco and also taking cover behind the Stormlight. Drix begins moving in but comes under heavy fire and has to hit the dirt.

One of the gangers figures out where Franco is and heads in, switching out his rifle for a pistol, which confuses Franco while he waits with his blade. The Infiltrator is shot but he stabs the man in return, killing him outright. The nano-blade putting out a spray of blood draws the attention of the others and they begin to zero in on him. Kyruss lays down more showy, but ineffective, cover fire, Drix tries the same and gets shot for his efforts. Ember keeps running headlong into the fight with her pistol, seemingly impervious to the rifle fire that's zipping by her. She ends up behind the same berm as Franco and Janus tries to draw more fire with her pistol.

A particularly creative thug begins climbing aboard the Stormlight, likely intent to cause some damage to the interior, but Kyruss is able to pick him off with his rifle. Franco takes the opportunity to pop up and pump shotgun shells into the gangers from his protected position. The remaining thug chooses valor and high tails it and the crew scramble into the ship.

Drix is happy to slip into the Autodoc while Janus gets the ship up and away from Hole in One, establishing sub-light travel from the planetoid. She tells the rest of the crew that Sally Three Hands wants to know why her ships are disappearing. The crew lays in a course and heads towards Mundy's Paradise and its home system, deciding to scope out the system. Drix plans out a roundabout route that will help keep stellar objects in

They find there are multiple derelict spaceships in the system and they seem to match up with the ships Sally has sent. The Stormlight puts itself down, out of the way, amid the rather flat farmfields that dot the surface. The crew pile into the shuttle and head for Landing City, finding a lot of bored farmers hoping for interstellar tradeliners. Kyruss checks in on the bounty messageboard before heading to the bar with Janus in tow and Ember bringing up the rear. Drix and Franco are more mission oriented and head for station control, hoping to find out more about stellar traffic in the system.

The bartender tells Janus that there's been no interstellar traffic landing here in weeks. That seems to work out since there's no other souls in sight and the barkeep mentions that the grain elevators are full.

Drix and Franco find approach control staffed by a older human female and a roly-poly felinoid. Drix makes noises about stellar obstacles being in the way and presenting navigational difficulties. He shows them data on his personal pad to back up his assertion. Franco plays off the pair by acting as an officious prick with Drix as his technical liaison, demanding access to their sensors and data. They cave and allow the two to take a look.

Kyruss tells Janus and Ember to head back to the ship and he'll be along shortly before he circles back to the bar. The barkeeps bounty file specified 'alive' so the bounty hunter ordered another drink to distract the man before levelling a shotgun at him. The portly man isn't about to start a fight and goes quietly-ish, only needing a couple smacks from Kyruss.

The crew reassembles in the shuttle, minus Kyruss, and decide that going exo-planetary in the shuttle to determine what happened to the derelicts is their next move. They stop by the Stormlight and drop off the bartender before heading out of the atmosphere.

It's quickly obvious when they get near one of the derelicts that there are many more sensor readings up there than anticipated. Janus does some quick flying to avoid the autonomous mobile units, while Franco and Drix use the sensor data and readings to hone in on the kill-units floating around the ship. One of them seems to realize they're near and the crew heads back into the safety of the atmosphere. There's some discussion on how they could approach the derelict with Franco promoting caution while Janus thinks taking the shuttle in dead-stick is the best option. Drix tries to look within for answers and finds beauty in the savagery of the situation. To everyone else, he's mumbling to himself.

They set off once more in the shuttle and align themselves using the navigational data before going for a burn. Janus manages to put the shuttle right up against the hulk and the crew began suiting up to head in, with Janus promising to have the shuttle ready to jam out if trouble arose.

To be continued...