Cut Scenes Volturnus Campaign

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Cut Scenes Volturnus Campaign

Postby jedion357 » Fri May 03, 2013 10:30 pm

[OOC: As the Serena Dawn was entering the Volturnus system]

The night view of Port Loren was breath taking, hard for it not to be from the upper quarter of the tallest building in the mega city. Daniel’s attention was elsewhere despite the spectacular light show from the atomic rockets launching a squadron of the new assault scouts into space.

It was the circumstances of the launch of that squadron that was occupying his mind. The penetration of the operational security by a Star Law agent and the sudden posting of Strike Force Nova to Truane’s Star were more than troubling. Discovery of the Star Law agent had been pure luck but Space Fleet leaked like a sieve and he knew the true reason for the deployment of Strike Force Nova.

The use of pirates had been perhaps a poor choice since they were a wild card and had clearly been attracting attention to the operation with by enslaving and kidnapping Frontier citizens. The prize had been tempting as every known source of tomarillium and Vibrillium had played out in a year or less and the deposits on Volturnus has lasted two years and appeared to be still going strong.

The plan had been to use the pirates to get the rare and valuable alloys out of Volturnus before anyone else even knew it was there with the expectation that the operation would only take a year. The pirates were excellent cut outs and patsies but now were becoming a liability. The purchase of a “cruiser” by their leader had not gone unnoticed by both Star Law and Space Fleet. Sure their cut of the profits from this operation was making the band rich and allowing it to purchase new hulls but the purchase of a military grade ship and the assembling of a pirate fleet that rivaled many militia forces could not help but draw Space Fleet’s attention. What was the Star Devil thinking? Hadn’t he survived the First Common Muster?

It was time to exercise Case Omega and burn all connections between the corporation and the shell corporation the pirates were using as well as the band itself.
He opened a draw and took out a special untraceable burner chronocom and dialed a number from memory.

The terse voice on the other end simply said, “Yes.”

“It’s time for Case Omega, burn all bridges.”

“Understood.”

“Hiroshima Protocol.”

There was a pause then the terse voice repeated, “Understood.”
A second year delivery driver who still could not back up his van told me, "Its Not that I Cant back it up a van its that I Dont want to." Funny I use to say the same about sex in high School.
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Re: Cut Scenes Volturnus Campaign

Postby jedion357 » Tue May 28, 2013 7:31 am

Gibber Hovell was fat. Really fat. In fact his obesity was beginning to impact his ability to move and getting specially tailored suits was a pain. One of these day he might just forgo clothing altogether, after all a dralasite was just as comfortable naked as clothed.

Gibber was gleefully stuffing his mouth at Sollar's Chilli Parlor, Port Loren. He was here to deal with the recent snags in the triangle trade coming out of the ultra secret Zebulon system. It seemed that the government of Pale had sent another expedition to Zebulon and Streel corp was getting suspicious. His contact at Pan Gal was getting edgy and likely would need to have his ruffles smoothed. Gibber had arranged for the pirates as cut outs for everyone's security but most of all his. No doubt this Nervous Nelly of an exec was worried that it could lead back to him.

Tammy, his human female assistant entered and strode directly to Gibber's booth. Gibber like to keep what human's thought of as the cliche sexy secretary to distract them from noticing his immense bulk. He knew that obesity was somewhat looked down on but the same cultural standards just didn't apply for dralasites. Non the less he wasn't about to let his fatness ruin business deals especially the deal with PGC and its mostly human executives. Thus, the very very sexy Tammy. Looking at her he knew something was wrong.

"I have information."
"Can it wait till latter?"
"No and its for your ears only."

Gibber nodded to Tog his chief body guard who surreptitiously did yet another scan of the booth for listening or recording devices before drawing the curtain on the booth and activating the special hush screen that would ensure privacy. Tog resumed his guard dog stance outside the booth.

"What is it."
"Our friend at PGC just ordered a hit on the Star Devil."
"WHAT!" choked the fat dralasite.
"Its a special black ops Galactic Task Force team that only does PGC dirty work and they've been ordered to activate something called the Hiroshima Protocol."
"What the frag-hole is a Hiroshima Protocol?
"I would guess that it involves a nuclear device as back on Old Earth Hiroshima was one of the places that a nuclear bomb was fist used in war."
"Frag it all!"

So Nervous Nelly was cutting out Gibber's cut outs without telling him, did this mean that Gibber was on the list of loose ends to be tied up? Hiroshima Protocol? Gibber could just guess what that was about. PGC had supplied new ships to upgrade the Star Devil's antiquated little pirate fleet and thus make him a rising power player in the byzantine political structure at Outer Reach. One that was still dominated by the Zenk (vrusk mofia). PGC was building the new station at Outer Reach to expand its market share into vrusk space which was still dominated by vrusk trade houses and conglomerates as well as a few dralasite owned businesses like Gibber's. Gibber and the Star Devil as his strong arm were going to grab the high orbitals with PGC's help and possibly realign the power structure at Outer Reach away from the Zenk. This would not happen if the Star Devil was cut out. Not that Gibber hadn't been making contacts with other vrusk pirates who resented the control of the Zenk. What bothered him was the sudden necessity for a face to face meeting on the heels of the order to rub out the cut out. He had a rather bad feeling about that.

Gibber deactivated the hush screen that screened the booth and announced to his body guard, "Tog, call the car around I think I'd like some ool pudding for desert."

Tammy and Tog tensed, because they both knew that Gibber couldn't stand ool pudding. It was a pre established code word and just as well that he used it. A robot with a holo screen impersonated Gibber Hovel entering an air car limo that departed for Gibber's yacht at the star port. Unfortunately, for the air car suffered a fatal engine malfunction and crashed.

Latter at a suite in the Stellar Tower Hotel, Gibber instructed Tammy, "Get a subspace call out to the Star Devil and tell him to search his ships for nukes that PGC may have installed before turning them over to him. Then get a message back to Outer Reach and halt all shipments of refined ore from the Volturnus operation as well as double and triple our operations there. Finally we need to arrange transport off this rock as nearly everyone here works for PGC or GT which is the same as working for PGC."

Gunfire sounded in the hall. A com message from Tog announced that a hit team had located their hotel suite. The crescendo of weapon's fire rose before the com link was killed.

Gibber looked nervous as he said, "We need to find a way out of here."

However, Tammy responded, "You aint going anywhere, " as she drew a concealed pistol and fired two laser shots into Gibber's head.

The image of Gibber wavered and then winked out as the holo image of the fat dralasite disappeared to reveal a robot impersonating him.

"Nooo!" screamed Tammy.

From another part of the Stellar Tower Gibber and Tog observed Tammy from a view screen. Gibber activate the comm device linked to the now dead robot and said, "Tammy, I regret to inform you that your services are being terminated."

He then then activate a radio detonator for the charge of explosives hidden within the robot that had been impersonating him and the view screen went dead.

To Tog he announced, "That is that. I looked up Hiroshima in the Encyclopedia Galacticana, they also dropped a second bomb at a place called Nagasaki. This is what we're going to do but not quite so literally. I want this whole Volturnus thing to blow up in PGC's face. We'll call it Operation Nagasaki and stick it right up Daniel's frag hole over at PGC. I also want all PGC/GT personnel working on the station at Outer Reach interrogated with telol if necessary to find out if there are any other surprises for us. Arrange for more security, people we can trust, robots if necessary and find me a ship to get off this rock and back to Outer Reach."
A second year delivery driver who still could not back up his van told me, "Its Not that I Cant back it up a van its that I Dont want to." Funny I use to say the same about sex in high School.
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Re: Cut Scenes Volturnus Campaign

Postby jedion357 » Wed May 29, 2013 8:20 pm

Tog and two combat robots stood by while Gibber Hovel fidgeted with his barely touched food. The fat crime boss clearly had something on his mind because his appetite was legendary. They had barely escaped Port Loren, outed Gibber's assistant as a corporate spy, and learned that the wheels were coming off the Volturnus operation. The Volturnus Operation had catapulted Gibber's smuggling business to the top of the pile at Outer Reach. True the vrusk controlled Zenk still ran the show at Outer Reach but for the first time ever a dralasite controlled business was top of the heap just beneath the Zenk.

Tog had thought the plan to build Dark World Station was crazy but the profits from the Volturnus operation and aid from PGC had brought that to fruition, though PGC had thought they'd be pulling the strings on Dark World Station. The Zenk controlled the planet's surface and Gibber had had a vision to carve out a kingdom in the sky. He had courted the pirate bands and provided them with a place to dock, rest, refurbish and fence ill gotten gains. Gibber's star was rising but how long till the Zenk took notice.

PGC has slipped a corporate spy into their organization at the upper levels, could not the Zenk do the same? Clearly Gibber's insistence on buying a cargo hold worth of combat robots suggested he was concerned with trusting employees. The station was nearly finished and the robotic police force would go a long way to keeping it secure especially with the sorts of star ships crews likely to be taking shore leave at it.

"Tog! I've been thinking about our Nagasaki protocol, operation or whatever. Lets not halt all the runs for raw ore. Lets send an independent freighter captained by a patsy."

"Did you have a specific freighter and captain in mind?"

"Tog, you frag hole, you know damn I do. That cheeky bastard of an independent on whose ship that you ran us back to Dramune on. That human and his stuck up crew of all dralasites that were ever so polite but clearly looking down their dermis at me! Him send him but make it look like that other cheeky bastard, Daniel, over at PGC sent him."

"You know with a Space Fleet task force and the Pale militia on alert he's likely to be caught."

"That's sort of the idea isn't? In fact lets shove that Hiroshima protocol up Daniel's back side on this one and make it look like he's sending nukes to the pirates on Volturnus to wipe out any evidence of their operation there. Let Space Fleet stumble across that."

"Stumble?" asked Tog.

Gibber Hovel chuckled, "You know I mean."

"And the Galactic Task Force team with their Hiroshima order?"

"If they succeed and any of the Star Devils ships go up in nuclear fire, it will just be confirmation that the nukes and orders to wipe out the Volturnus installations; that WILL be found on the Gullwind; are legit. Space Fleet and Star Law will investigate and all lines of information will lead back to Daniel at PGC."

Tog chuckled.

"What?"

"I almost feel sorry for Garlus Tylapper, we've used his ship numerous times for sensitive cargoes we didn't want in our own hulls in case the ship was boarded. He's never not come through for us I hate to toss away a useful tool like him."

"Ahhhh," Gibber waved dismissively, "Tools are there to be used. Now get some more food in here, I feel my appetite coming back."
A second year delivery driver who still could not back up his van told me, "Its Not that I Cant back it up a van its that I Dont want to." Funny I use to say the same about sex in high School.
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Re: Cut Scenes Volturnus Campaign

Postby jedion357 » Thu Jun 06, 2013 1:55 pm

Lt. Daskin was in a quandary. His brother's gambling debts would be cancelled if he did a small favor for the loan shark. It just required finding a scan discrepancy for a ship due to arrive in Pale, a discrpancy that would trigger a boarding and full inspection of said ship. The problem was that this was all against regulations. However, the loan shark was going to hurt or kill his brother. No doubt once he had done one favor there would be others down the road as well.

He knew he would do this to save his brother. His brother, Davis, was the last family he had since none of their other relatives had survived the sathar attack on Pale. His brother had never been right after his internment in a sathar internment camp. Daskin had entered the militia when he was old enough after the war but Davis had spiraled down into alcohol abuse, gamboling and seemingly insanity with the rants of voices in his head. Daskin knew that it should have been him that ended up in the clutches of the sathar but Davis being oldest had hid Daskin and allowed the sathar to capture him.

No matter what Daskin was going to do this to save his big brother and any other consequences be damned. Besides the word was that this Gullwind was a arms smuggler bringing nukes into Traune's Star so this favor was really in the interest of the state. No doubt the nukes must be destined for the terrorist at Cygnus Omicron 9 or on New Pale. The idea that one of these extremist were looking to obtain nukes was chilling.

Daskin nodded to himself, yes he'd save his brother and put a dent in the plans of some terrorist group at the same time. He do the refined energy scans and pick up the energy signatures that would cause the Pale militia to scrutinize the Gullwind closer. He might even get a commendation out of this with a whole Space Fleet task force in system and a militia ship is the one to catch a dangerous arms smuggler!

Lt Daskin never paused to ask himself why a criminal would want the Pale militia to catch another criminal. He simple dilligently watched the reports of incoming merchant vessels for one named Gullwind. His captand and 1st officer joked that the marked increase in attention to detail by Lt. Daskin must be related to the presence of Task Force Nova from Space Fleet and perhaps Truane's Star should host major Space Fleet task forces more often.
A second year delivery driver who still could not back up his van told me, "Its Not that I Cant back it up a van its that I Dont want to." Funny I use to say the same about sex in high School.
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Re: Cut Scenes Volturnus Campaign

Postby jedion357 » Sat Jun 08, 2013 8:04 pm

Glom, able bodied spacer of the crew of the Gullwind, lazily cleaned the cargo hold. It was punishment duty for the joke played on the first officer. Still he thought it was worth it, a good laugh.

Idly he supervised the custodial bot as it moved between the equipment destined for Truane's Star. Romnulus would likely assign weeks of punishment duty for the successful prankl

As he leaned against the an explorer his toxy rad gauges flickered, "Huh?" he said to himself.

Glom set the custodial bot for a sweep pattern in its cleaning and broke out some tools.

"What about an explorer would trigger the rad light on a toxy-rad gauge?" he said to himself.
A second year delivery driver who still could not back up his van told me, "Its Not that I Cant back it up a van its that I Dont want to." Funny I use to say the same about sex in high School.
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Re: Cut Scenes Volturnus Campaign

Postby jedion357 » Sun Jun 09, 2013 10:34 pm

Garlus was silent as Romolondo kept up his report.

"You see here they used shielding but someone was sloppy. That's why Glom's toxy rad gauge picked it up otherwise we would have never known. My CAS device could barely register the devices hidden in the other vehicles. These nukes were really well hidden."

Romolondo fell silent and that silence stretched uncomfortably for a minutes that felt like hours.

Garlus eventually broke the silence, "Anyway to know what the yield of these devices is?"

"Couldn't say sir, I'm just an old star ship engineer not a weapons expert. They could be 1 kiloton or 5 megaton I just wouldn't know."

Garlus swore and kicked a plate from the engine housing. For five of the vehicles they were shipping the engine housing was used to conceal a nuclear device. The housings had been lined with shielding but on one the shielding had been done in a hurry and the ever curious Glom had discovered the nuke when his toxy rad gauge had pinged. Now they were hours from entering Truane's Star system. A system where a major Space Fleet task force had recently been posted officially for the purpose of joint training with the Truane's Star militia but rumor had it for rooting out the recent upswing in piracy in this area.

Coincidentally here the Gullwind was unwittingly smuggling 5 nuclear devices into the system. Garlus rather doubted that the Truane's Star militia was going to fail to discover the nukes and the consequences for the Gullwind and her crew did not bear thinking on. No wonder the deal had been a little too "sweet". Garlus swore again.

After a another long silence he addressed the crew, "Alright, we need to exit jump space and ditch this cargo, all of it. We enter Truane's Star in hours and we'll go dark till we till we off load every bit of cargo. Everyone will be suited and will assist while I start number crunching a new jump back to Dixon's Star. We dump cargo and run. Its as simple as that. I wont risk docking at Pale. We will never speak of this again. Not a word. Understood?"

There was a ragged chorus of affirmatives.

Garlus rode the bridge alone as the Gullwind's computers counted down the decel maneuver that would cause the Gullwind to exit jump space. Romolondo was at his station in engineering but everyone else was suited in vacuum suites and waiting to open the cargo door and begin off loading the cargo. Space was so incredibly large the odds of a ship being in range of the Gullwind when she exited jump space was incredibly small. On top of that Garlus never plotted for a least time course to the closest habitable planet. Being a smuggler made him cautious by nature and he always subtly shifted his jump calculations to put his ship a little off the expected jump exit. With luck they would have the cargo unloaded in a few hours the maneuver thrusters would be fired to create a growing distance between the Gullwind and its dangerous cargo and 50 hours after entering the system they would accelerate again and re-enter jump space destined for Dixon's Star. Garlus never much liked trusting luck though but he just didn't have many options.

Lt. Daskin blinked incredulously as his scanners picked up the jump foot print of an arriving freighter almost exactly where his information said it would be light minutes off the least time jump exit window for ships heading to Pale. He was surprised but then anyone smuggling weapons as this ship was suppose to be might just shift their jump exit. He logged the contact. It was time to play his part and be prepared to run a full scan sweep and detect the odd readings that he was suppose to detect.

Romnulus floated on the bridge with Garlus and reviewed the scan data. A militia ship had been placed perfectly to catch the Gullwind almost as if someone had known that the Gullwind never exited on a least time flight profile. The ship had witnessed the Gullwind going dark and not lighting off her drive to decel for a course to reach Pale which was extremely suspicious. The militia and no doubt more than a few Space Fleet ships were hell bent for leather to catch up to the Gullwind. It was only a matter of time before they closed with the ship as she sped along at just under 1% of light speed.They would be running a plot and if the Gullwind dumped cargo there was a chance that some of it could be found.

Romnulus asked, "What do we do now? We look so guilty and once they board and find the nukes we're dead."

"We jump blind."

"Are you serious? Without precise calculations we could fly right through a star, or bounce too close to a supernova and that'd end our trip real quick, wouldn't it?"

"Do you want to spend the next 20 years on an asteroid prison?"

The dralasite 1st mate shrugged then toggled the intercom to inform the crew.

The Gullwind accelerated and disappeared from normal space at Truane's Star. Garlus had guess-timated a time that would jump them about 5 light years from Truane's Star. He was hoping luck would dump them in Dixon's Star which just happened to be 5 light years away but even better would be Cassidine system which was a similar distance. In his heart he knew he'd have no such luck as they had been on the wrong heading for those systems. They were jumping blind and were likely to end up beyond the borders of the UPF.
A second year delivery driver who still could not back up his van told me, "Its Not that I Cant back it up a van its that I Dont want to." Funny I use to say the same about sex in high School.
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Re: Cut Scenes Volturnus Campaign

Postby jedion357 » Mon Jun 17, 2013 6:43 pm

The Gullwind bucked and heaved the crossing from void space to normal space. Power winked off and on then stayed off.

Then a dralasite voice asked, "Are we dead?"

"Can it!" ordered Romnulus the dralasite first mate.

Garlus said, "Engineering report!"

"Captain, this is going to sound crazy but my instruments say we had a hyper-ignite in all engines."

"That's impossible, hyper-ignites don't happen in multiple engines at the same time and it usually happens only on lift off when someone cuts short the pre-flight checks!"

"I know but that's what the instruments are saying."

Garlus keyed the all hands setting on the intercom and said, "All hands stand by to assist engineering."

To Romnulus he said, "Get down there and figure out what happened but do it carefully, I think our fuel pellets were sabotaged so be careful and don't overlook anything. I'm going to start taking sightings of stars and see if I cant figure out where we are."

later:

Garlus considered the ships situation. The atomic fuel had indeed been sabotaged and they had one good fuel pellet left. They had taken on the bad fuel in Dramune and it had taken until Truane's Star for the rest of their old fuel to be used up. When they jumped blind they had been lucky the hyper-ignite had not happened in the face of militia pursuit.
Unfortunately the ship was now stranded.

The icing on the cake was that they had ended up outside the Frontier in an uncharted system- he had confirmed that much. He'd soon have their exact position but it was somewhere beyond Truane's Star close to the Xagyg nebula.

"Alright," Garlus addressed the crew, "we're on radio silence with a round the clock watch on scan. We're also reducing power emissions as much as possible and doing a low thrust decent into the inner system to see if there is anything here that we might get some fuel from. Lastly," he said looking at Romnulus the First mate and Romolondo the engineer, "I want you two to see if you can determine if any of those nukes are armed, if they are then jettison them in place in the vehicle they're hidden in. If they are not armed then see if you can remove a nuclear core, SAFELY. This is probably crazy and wont work but lets see if we can use bomb material somehow in the engines."

"I can already tell you that it wont wor..."

"Well, something needs to go our way or we're stuck here unless we radio for rescue and Space Fleet will come and take a good hard look at us that we dont need. So lets just try this and see if we cant get a lucky break."
A second year delivery driver who still could not back up his van told me, "Its Not that I Cant back it up a van its that I Dont want to." Funny I use to say the same about sex in high School.
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Re: Cut Scenes Volturnus Campaign

Postby jedion357 » Tue Jun 25, 2013 6:59 am

It had fallen to Romolondo, as 2nd officer and the Gulwind's engineer to dismantle the nuke found in one of the explorers. As he already knew from his schooling on Inner Reach that there were many radioactive elements and the material in the bomb was not the same as that used for fuel in the atomic engines. They just were not going to power the engines with material from the bombs.

"Alright, so we cant use fissionable material from the bombs in the engines. What can you tell me about the bombs?" queried the Captain.

Rolomondo answered, "They were made to radio detonate."

"Really, that suggests the person detonating them was going to be fairly close when it went off. I'm guessing they are small nukes, perhaps only a few kilotons."

"That's still enough to damage a city or destroy a ship. A ship like ours for example."

Garlus ignored the pointed comment from his engineer. He knew the dralasite was unhappy with the nukes remaining on board but with them stuck in an uncharted system Garlus was not about to get rid of anything they might need, though he was at a loss for how they might use a nuke in a constructive way.
For now they would limp into the system on one engine and conserve power will passively scanning the system and charting their location.
A second year delivery driver who still could not back up his van told me, "Its Not that I Cant back it up a van its that I Dont want to." Funny I use to say the same about sex in high School.
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