LogRetrograde-Jason-2

Game log for the 2018/10/07 session of Scum and Villainy: Retrograde, as taken by Jason

Ace trains Insight and gambles.

BK reduces his stress and decides he needs to blow off a little more stress on top of that.

Dr Zen ministers to those in need, and convinces some of the people who listen to him to place fake CrimeStopper tips that get the heat off Retrograde in Iota.

Eightball hits the beta wave machine and gets rid of all his Stress, then gaslights people to reduce the heat on Retrograde in Iota.

Slip grabs a nice meal to cut down on her Stress, and then convinces people that Retrograde wasn't involved in that crazy stuff happenining in Iota.

Some well-dressed guy who otherwise looks like Eightball approaches us while we're chilling on Trade Platform Auto #4. He comes up to Dr Zen and asks if such a well-known humanitarian might take a commission. The guy's tatoo says MP-18-K. He assures us his opportunity will be both humanitarian and lucrative. Eightball tries to read him and see what sort of manufactured dude he is - it seems weird that a fellow military clone is getting used for this sort of work. He reads like he's maybe a military protocol officer, a complete POG, good for expediting things at HQ. After a brief consultation, we decide that it might well be a trap, but it's still worth looking into.

Apparently there's a special drug that gets fed into a machine, kept on Station 16H in Rin. That station is a very private clinic, Hegemony only, chock full of good stuff. The job requires us to get the machine and all the drugs we can and then run it to Brekk, where we meet at Club Nebula.

Eightball recognizes that the drug is also called Sagan Serum, used to treat Malfoy's Bladderstitis, which is indeed a terminal disease, sort of like space ALS. That part of the job seems to be on the level.

Eightball comes up with some plausible-looking paperwork for Dr Zen to inject into the system. Dr Zen wheels Eightball in to the clinic, with Slip hanging out on the station nearby. Dr Zen explains his situation to the first Dr who approaches. She makes no conversation but leads him to an examination room, then leaves. Dr Zen immediately begins hacking the terminal, and gets the documents into the system properly. When a different doctor returns, Dr Zen immediately lays into him, demanding immediate treatment according to protocol, and the guy just folds right away. In minutes they have BK on a gurney, they're starting prep for the treatment, and arranging to wheel him over to Ward 32 for the full treatment with Sagan Serum. They lead Dr Zen out to the lobby.

Flashback: Dr Zen studying the station schematics, so he could be waiting by the exterior wall nearest Ward 32. Unfortunately the schematic isn't entirely up to date, so he can't get into the optimal position. He plans a device to blow the exterior wall out on BK's signal, and then departs the station, leaving Slip to cover the actual escape.

Five techs are swarming all around BK, including one with remarkably cold hands. This is one efficient place- the gurney has attachments that shave BK's ass as they push him down the hallway. The moment he's in the room with the Serum Serum bot, before he's even out of the gurney, he pounces. He's on his feet, injector in one arm, machine in the other, making a pile of loot on the gurney. Then he clocks a nurse, switches his uniform out, and wheels "the patient" toward an exit. He hits the fire alarm and joins the evacuation. Slip coaches him on how to mix in with the evacuation, and with her guidance, it's almost effortles.

Ace flies them out of there, and makes it look easy. We're back in Iota before anyone knows it, and we fly over to the Brekk gate under cloak. Eightball finds an alarm on the system, and although he found it quickly, it tells us that the pursuit is going to be coming. Eightball scans the pursuit craft and finds that it belongs to Draxler's Raiders, notorious pirates and bounty hunters, and that the fighter has called for reinforcements.

Ace and BK fake a fault in the cloak that shows the pursuers one vector, but then we re-cloak and use our full drive capability to completely change our vector. However, they're going to be guarding the Brekk gate, just because there are only two gates in the system. Dr Zen decides to get on the airwaves and look for possible buyers for the cargo, so that our pursuers might think we're unloading here. Pretty soon, anyone with the right frequency has heard that Retrograde will be unloading cargo on Lithios tomorrow.

We jump into Brekk without incident, and burn for Nightfall and its thirteen moves. Ace will fly the shuttle down with BK as copilot, with Dr Zen and Slip as away team. Eightball breaks down the city layout with Ace, so that if things go badly, he'll know exactly where to fly the shuttle to rescue them.

Dr Zen, BK, and Slip walk in, carrying a big duffel full of filler. The club is loud as hell. The contact turns out to be a human female, agitated, twitchy. She asks to see the note that MP gave us, confirms it, and then freaks out about the bag BK is carrying, all worried that we're going to get robbed and shit. BK shows her that the bag is just full of filler.

The girl tells us that she's going to put the rendezvous coordinates into the computer directly, and that's the only way the deal goes down. Dr Zen thinks he can trust her, but nobody's willing to give her hands on access to the console. Eventually she hands Ace a plastic wafer, which Dr Zen and Clip review for safety. They see nothing, but the ship's own defenses thwart the malware she tried to insert. Things just got tense as balls.

The course she fed us puts us on an evasive trip a long way around the globe to a high floor in a hive tower. Ace takes it all at speed, which makes things bumpy. We're met by a beautiful human woman, so beautiful she seems to be synthetic. The woman from the club is still on the shuttle. The woman who meets us introduces herself as Seren Galia. Dr Zen tells her we're not thrilled about the homing malware. She hands him the payout, and tells him she also owes him a favor. She talks about the favor as though it really means something. We leave the bag girl on the same tower, bugger off, and meet up with Retrograde in orbit.

Downtime in Brekk! Ace gambles and trains Insight, BK paints and train Prowess, Dr Zen meditates and trains Playbook, Eightball trains Playbook and works on his fine Hacking rig schematic, and Slip trains Playbook and Resolve.

We're loitering in Yaw, enjoying a moment, when a nondescript androgynous human approaches approaches BK on the docks and whispers, "Psst... got a job." BK announces that he's not looking for work. They stick a vibroknife in his ribs and say, "Come this way, I've got an offer for you." They don't take BK too far, just over to a nearby tea shop. They sit BK down at a table with a guy showing a full set of gold teeth. He claims to represent a group that does high-end work, and he's got a need for just that, to help out his comrades in the Borniko Syndicate. BK tells him that he doesn't make the decisions. The Borniko guy gives him a time and a place for a meet. BK calls Dr Zen and relays the details. The meet will be in a secure area of the starport, so in theory, it's safe for everyone.

Dr Zen goes to the meet, serenely confident that nothing too bad can happen. Everyone but Ace goes along; Ace turns up late at the ship. The guy from the shop directs everyone in to a restaurant and buys them a greasy pile of goat and rice. There's a new guy there with gold teeth, jewelry, and an air of complete confidence. He explains about the Borniko Syndicate, and how they'd like us to go to Warren and steal a device that claims to be an Ur matter transporter. Of course, such a job would be astonishingly valuable. They can only tell us the thing is on Warren; we'll have to figure out who has it and how to get it. There's a lot of money in it if we can pull it off. It's known to be in a scientific institute on Warren, definitely being studied by a cult, probably under the observation of the Ashen Knives, government involvement unknown. It's a big thing, large enough for a person to fit inside, so it's bulky but it could be moved on a shuttle.

Dr Zen comes up with a plan based on getting hold of a drop pod - a single-use military-grade orbital insertion craft. We spend the ship's entire treasury on a mil-surp drop pod, and by mil surp, we mean someone was bribed to call it surplus just last month (meaning it's tier 4). We pick it up and fly to Rin.

In Rin, we get set up in orbit around Warren, and Eightball gets to scanning the facility with all our sensors, including the active ones. We're finding weapons, power draw, geology and hydrology, the works. Along with what we expected, we find... a big black hole. That would be the secure area.

Eightball overclocks the ECM/ECCM systems on the drop pod and the thing works beautifully. Nobody on the defense side even knows what's happening when this thing flops from orbit into their vault tier. When the party emerges, they see emergency lighting, tangled metal, concrete chunks, and other signs of mayhem. Dr Zen uses his Way skills to try to locate the artifact, and he's able to find it pretty quickly, but it turns out to be super heavy. It's gonna need three people to move it, or else power equipment. BK somehow wedges himself into the forklift with his armor on, and he's able to pick up the transporter and lug it back to the hole, looking up at four stories of building.

Flashback: we see Eightball putting cargo lift cables on the shuttle, so we can just haul the party directly out of here.

Ace comes wooshing in like the second meteor in the shower and drops the cables exactly on top of the entry hole. The crew hurriedly rig up the device and themselves to the cables, Eightball tosses a demo charge into the drop pod, and Ace pours on the thrust. As they ascend, BK opens fire with his detonator launcher and tries to start blowing up anything worth while, but since he's dangling from a rope, he's not hitting much, he's just creating a lot of frag. Luckily, he's wearing armor, so the frag isn't a big deal. Ace pours on the coal and lifts everyone out of there with sheer thrust.

Getting into void was easy, but Ace struggles hard with the dock, unused to dealing with the crazy inertia of that dangling matter transmitter. That might be a problem later. Everyone to stations! Cloak! Run! Ace heads straight south of the ecliptic and then maneuvers for a roundabout approach to the gate. As we try to figure out how to avoid any pursuit, we flash back to Dr Zen and Slip hacking the facility's comms and injecting a worm to mess with their outgoing comms. Success! The alert gets delayed an hour, so we're long gone by the time the authorities realize there's been an incident.

We have no trouble getting to Brekk, which is always nice.

Ace gambles and trains Insight, and then pays to train Playbook. BK makes some street art of a research facility getting hammered by the fist of god, and trains Prowess. Dr Zen meditates and trains Playbook and Resolve. Eightball trains Resolve and works on his schematic, and then spends a cred to get some dream time. Slip goes shopping, though she can't find the right stuff initially.

We have enough ship XP to upgrade crew rating, so we do. This beast is a tier 1 ride now.