accomplishedCHARACTERS
Hendra Carpentar (Kathy) - Belt miner
Malina Arkestro (Angela) - Bodyguard
Zera Chirinos (Ellison) - Technician
Grigor Morgant (David) - Archaeologist
Sandar Kelemon (Mark) - Explorer
March 16th, 2701 AD
Fuelled by adrenalin, Malina Arkestro desperately looks around for anything that she might use against the swarmbots, and spots what appears to be a pair of EMP grenades on one of the bodies in the cargo bay. Using her combat reflexes, Malina grabs the two EMP grenades, and detonates one close to the swarmbots, instantly scrambling them and making them dormant. Shouting that it won't affect them for long, Malina and the rest of the player characters move as fast as they can back the way they came. Sandar Kelemon tells her that was good thinking on her part, but she replies it was just luck. As they enter the main ship again, Zera Chirinos comments to the others that the swarmbots are active again, but don't seem to be in pursuit. The others breathe a sigh of relief.
Back aboard the Blue Daphne, Grigor Morgant is engaging in a heated argument with Fritz, the ship's AI, about their course of action. Fritz interrupts him to inform Grigor that a shuttle from the Tafuri vessel is making its way towards the Blue Daphne. Grigor asks the AI what they can do, but Fritz informs him that they don't have any weapons on board, other than the personal arms of the crew and several others for their own security forces (when they have them). Fritz tells him that Sandar had a series of old laser cannons aboard the ship, but they're not functional; however, if Grigor acts as his hands, Fritz can take him through a possible means of repairing them. As he walks through the ship, Grigor asks why Fritz is helping him like this. The AI coolly replies that he's heard tales of the Tafuri, and doesn't want to end up as spare parts.
On the Mackenzie Heron, Sandar and the player characters return to the ship's bridge, and learn that the Tafuri vessel has despatched a shuttle. Hendra Carpentar is alarmed to see that rather than going to the MacKenzie Heron, the shuttle is heading for the Blue Daphne! Hendra desperately suggests that perhaps they should see if they can juryrig the MacKenzie Heron's engines, but Zera says that she was in engineering - there's nothing power-wise on this sinking tub left to play with. Malina suggests they could board the Wanda1 and head back to the Blue Daphne, and the rest of the group approve of this, much to the chagrin of Sandar. He hems and haws somewhat, but eventually caves in to the will of the others. They had back to where they left the Wanda1.
On the Blue Daphne, Grigor tells Fritz that it's hopeless. He's not up to making the modifications the AI wants, but Fritz tell him it doesn't matter - as the Blue Daphne shudders, the AI says it's too late, as the Tafur shuttle has docked with the ship. Grigor races to where the Tafur ship is docked, grabbing a pair of slug weapons, and arrives just as the red armour-clad Tafuri come through the airlock. The two Tafuri look around, and see that no one is present. Grigor opens fire at the two reavers, but his slug rifle shots have no effect, but he managed to get in a lucky shot [he expends 2 Hero Points to do so], and shorts out a wall unit, that causes the electricity to arc between the two Tafuri. The EMP pulses appear to short out their armour temporarily.
On the Mackenzie Heron, the player characters debate what the Tafuri have hung around for in the area, and Sandar posits that it's whatever happens to be in the cargo area. Zera points out they can't get the Heron's computers and AI working, so they can't access the cargo manifest to see what they were carrying. Hendra says that if they get the communications system working, they could get that information from the Blue Daphne. Zera says she could do that, but they'd still need a source of energy to power the system, though Sandar warns them that they may not have time, depending on what the Tafuri do. Malina comments that the Tafuri are or were after whatever the swarmbots were protecting - unless they belonged to the Tafuri, but she doubts that. Much against Sandar's wishes, Malina says she can't just stay here and wait, and that she's going to explore a little more, see what she can find. Sandar doesn't stop here, and she heads out to look around, being told to be cautious in her investigations.
The Tafuri shuttle edges away from the Blue Daphne, and begins to make its way over to the Mackenzie Heron, much to Sandar and Zera's surprise. On board the shuttle, Grigor says he's not doing well, and that he's not a pilot; that's why the Institute hired Sandar and his ship. The two Tafuri wake up inside their cell aboard the shuttle, and are infuriated at being trapped this way. Sandar informs Malina that the shuttle from the Tafur ship is approaching the Mackenzie Heron, and she tells him to let her know where it's going to try and dock, and will meet it there.
Zera tells Sandar that she's repaired the comm circuits as best she can, but they still need a source of energy. He sends her to the engineering section to see what she can rig up, over her protests, since she's worried about the Tafur shuttle coming in, but he tells her that he's sent Malina to deal with it. Hendra volunteers to go along with Zera, for which the latter is grateful, and the two head off through the ship's interior.
The Tafur shuttle docks with the Mackenzie Heron, and as Grigor emerges from the shuttle, the sharp witted Malina says that she almost put a hole in him, aiming her rifle at him. He tells her what's happened back on the Blue Daphne, and that he's got the two Tafuri imprisoned on the shuttle; they don't want to go there, as the Tafuri aren't armoured, and it's not a pretty sight. The two head for the bridge, but Sandar tells her to go and make sure that Zera and Hendra are all right, and so Malina heads that way, over Grigor's objections.
In the engineering section, while Hendra wanders around and checks out the situation there, Zera is surprised when she finds that there's a source of energy coming from the main engine systems. Hendra tells her that she's found a couple of bodies, and Zera checks them out, and sees that they're wearing Gardenhome tech guild uniforms. The two of them can't figure out what Gardenhome personnel would be doing aboard the Mackenzie Heron, but the two are interrupted by the arrival of Malina, and much to Hendra and Zera's surprise, Grigor. Grigor tells them what's been going on, and Zera tells them about the energy source that she found. She leads the three characters back in that direction, but Hendra is bothered by the bodies that she found while doing her search, and doesn't understand the almost cryogenic preservation look to the bodies. It is Grigor who shouts the warning, as a cloud of nanodevices come swirling towards them out of the sub-light engine conduits...
The Friday night game session of River of Heaven had a lot of good stuff going on in it, and while there were no action scenes per se, did involve a good degree of conflict among the player characters (which may or may not have come through in this write-up). All of the players were pleased with how things went, and some of the stuff that happened, and were pretty shocked at the end of the session, and wondered where this is going. So my plan worked... <evil g> The game session had a bit of everything in it, and while the players seemed to be a little off their game and somewhat disoriented, that was actually all part of the plan.
I'm looking forward to the next session of River of Heaven, and am hoping that I can wrap up the scenario before the CanGames weekend, but we'll see how things go.