(G232 27/02/2015 via Roll20 - MI(GM), JF) (SWN 1)

(G232 27/02/2015 via Roll20 - MI(GM), JF) (SWN 1)

[GM note : As AP was not playing we had a quick game of Stars Without Numbers with MI as the GM. This is JF
still doing the write up though.]

Meanwhile, in another place...

This tale of adventures in time and space begins on a quiet little planet called Luminus. It was technologically
advanced enough to be putting ships out into deep space and to be colonising and exploiting nearby systems.

It was ruled by an Empress, a monarch at the head of a very rigid social structure much like the Victorian period
of Great Britain. Our tale concerns a young university professor of Astrophysics who was working on an orbital
facility above the huge jungle planet of G6 in the Bodem system. His name was Professor Kramp Montrino.

He was there on behalf of a university back on Luminus to conduct field research in really complex space science
stuff. The Luminans were an industrious lot and not held back by any concerns of environment or harming it,
the orbital colony was there to gather resources and send them back to the home planet without any concern other
than how fast it could be done.

The orbital, then, was a space station called 'Tripod' and its primary purpose was to exploit the unique layers of
gases surrounding G6. It's secondary function was as a base for scientific research. The space station was watched
over by an AI called Galactron.

G6 was what was known as in the region as a 'legendary planet', consisting of a very large but life supporting
atmosphere and inhospitable jungle everywhere on the surface except at the equator which was desert. The unusual
atmosphere of the planet was so deep that it made it appear to be the size of a small gas giant from the outside.

The middle layer of the atmosphere was of the most interest to the Luminans as it contained a series of gases
unknown the them. The outer layer was harvested for MES treatments (Psychic Mutation) and the manufacture of
battle drugs. This layer also attracted a criminal element to the planet who were known as R.A.T's to the
locals and an ever present danger.

Tripod was positioned in the middle layer. Montrino was part of a research team that worked for the company that
owned the station, Lakeland Asset Acquirement. The team consisted of Senior Professor Yankrup Brainquip, Junior
Professor Kramp Montrino and eight students.

Their primary research was into a mysterious gas that could produce chemical reactions that interfered
with gravity.

Montrino found Professor Brainquip to be loud, smelly, obnoxious and in possession of a big dirty beard.
He longed to rid himself of Brainquip and lead the team himself.

The students that he could be bothered to identify as individuals were Lance Wixom, a mature student and
former maintenance guy looking to improve himself, Ashley, a dark skinned remote islander that would often
plagiarise the other students and had three boyfriends and finally Ruben Sheard , a fat young man who
was lazy but creative, who also had a fear of dogs and other hairy beings.

(day 1)

Our tale begins with Montrino waking up in the cabin he shared with his hated boss Brainquip. Montrino
ground his teeth, he couldn't stand the Senior Professor's snoring and every night in the cabin was
a torment. They'd been here a month already and he was fit to throw himself out of an airlock.

He made his way to the lab area where they were running a long series of tests on the canisters of
middle layer gas. As always he was the first to arrive at the lab and as a plan had finally formed in
his head as to how to get rid of Brainquip he put it into action.

Step one was to tamper with a gas canister and put it in the rack where Brainquip, who was always
last to arrive, would be the one to take it and run the experiments on. Brainquip would not notice
the tampering, trigger the safety system and look a fool in front of the students.

Step two would then to expose Brainquip as the incompetent oaf he really was to their superiors back
at the university and get him fired. And then - arise Sir Montrino!

And so, the students came in one after the other. Ashley was first, being half an hour early, but
was tired and rubbing her eyes. Ruben didn't turn up at all.
Brainquip was last as always and went into his office to eat his large greasy breakfast.

Now, Montrino's plan required everyone to be here, so locating Ruben was of great importance.
He tried him on his communicator, but got no answer. Lance, when questioned, said that Ruben
had not come back to their cabin the night before.

Montrino tried the security systems and found some CCTV of Ruben in 'Hangar Bay 6' four hours
previously (the time on Tripod would have been 0600 hours).

With Ruben out of the picture and having to think on his feet Montrino pretended the canister
he was working on was a dud and put it in the defect area and took the one that would have been
Ruben's.

Hoping no one spotted what he was up to he then got to work. It wasn't long before Brainquip
requested Montrino to come into his office. The canny Junior Professor took in Brainquip's
canister and placed it on the desk. It wasn't the canister that interested the Senior
Professor though.
He had some work for Montrino,
'A surface team have found some interesting things in a cave down on the planet. We need to send
someone down there. Take two students with you. Remember your bio suits. You'll be out of our usual
field but I'm sure you can handle it. There are lots of reports about the caves, you'll need to read up
on them.'
Dumbfounded Montrino asked, 'What's the budget?'
'We'll see. Put in a request with the station for what you think you'll need.'
'I'll get on it right away.'

Montrino left his work on the gases for the rest of the day and read the reports from the cave. They showed
pictures of fossils, mainly local domesticated animals, but some were of parts of a human skull. If these
bones were 'pre-scream' then they could be valuable, especially to religious types such as the 'faithful'.

He selected Lance and Ashley to come with him. Lance merely said 'Very well.' and Ashley had fallen asleep
at her desk, but seemed to be ok with the assignment.

Montrino gathered together their equipment from stores, including enviro-suits, picks and shovels, rations,
a hover vehicle, side arms, monoblades, climbing equipment, a climbing droid, supply crates and an emergency
beacon.

They were also assigned two security guards called Peceen and Pomme and a glider craft with a female pilot
called Elizabeth.

(day 2)

Ashley slept in on the morning of the mission but once she turned up they were all ready to go. The
glider craft took them down to the planet and across the desert regions of the equator and then into
the jungles with its massive forests, some trees growning as astonishing tall as five kilometres.

They landed in a clearing of a military camp. The camp consisted only of tents and there was a large
one covering the cave entrance they were to investigate.

They team reported to Sergeant Rowan, who told them they were having trouble with the natives so
they were to keep their eyes open for trouble. He scribbled a map of the caves for them and off
they went.

It was a journey of two kilometres underground to get to the archeological site. They went past
several junctions and the tunnels had a feel of a giant insect hive.
Deeper into the tunnels they could smell sulphur and an analysis of the gases showed that their
were substances present that would choke them to death if they breathed too much of it, so they used
their breathing apparatus for the last leg of the journey making careful note of the fact they
only had air for six hours.

It took one hour to get there and as they cautiously shone their torches into the large cavern
before them they saw an area covered in the bones of something like twenty bodies. It looked
like a battle ground.

They didn't have too much time to hang about though and they started digging out the bones and
putting them into boxes. They were not trained archeologists but did as best as they could.

Montrino took lots of photographs first and as he did so, a criminal scheme entered his head.
He carefully excluded two bodies from the main photographs and took some ones of his own to
document the location of the two 'special' bodies and proof that they belonged to the main
dig. He then put the two bodies in a separate box.

It so happened that Montrino's brother in law was a gentleman known as Mad Jim 'Knuckles' Trendle
and could probably handle such stolen artifacts.

Montrino realised he would need Ashley and Lance in on the scheme. Ashley needed no persuasion at
all, but Lance was skeptical. In the end though they agreed on a 30/30/40 split, with Montrino
getting the 40. He felt this was rather unfair since it was his idea and it would be him that
found a buyer, but Ashley did say that she knew a good place on the station to hide the bones
so the students were at least contributing something. He supposed he could always doublecross
them later.

They shook hands on it and headed back up to the surface. On the way Peceen shot at some
small bugs in the tunnels. Montrino disliked harming wildlife but took a few live samples
of the small creatures.

As they arrived at the surface they could hear sounds of fighting. They advanced cautiously
to the tent flap. Humming sounds, gun fire, screams of pain, but no shouting could be heard
from outside.

Nervously Montrino opened the tent flap and looked out. He could see a big flying bug doing
battle with a tank and another giant bug ripping up Sergeant Rowan's tent, while a third
was fighting a group of soldiers.

Not knowing what else to do, they started shooting at the bugs, starting with one that
had decided to attack the glider craft they had come in on. They were not expert marksmen
but enough hits were scored on the creature to kill it.

They then began to shoot at the one attacking the tent and managed to scare it off.

As the battle ended they exited the tent and helped with the clean up. One soldier was
dead and another was injured. Montrino was beginning to remember why he hated field
work so much!