View source for Transport WTF5309

[[Category:Campaigns]]
== Characters ==
* [[Jonny Stone]], Darren's science-minded bounty hunter
* [[21]], aka "Slim", Drew's mute mechanic monkey
* [[Jack Burton]], Ernest's "best pilot evah"
* [[??]], Blair's ?



{{:Into The Black}}

== Campaign Intro ==

The scrappy settlements on the other habitable planets and moons of the Eridani system are often beyond the reach of UN laws and regulations. This has led to a sort of "wild west" of regional pseudo-authorities and a thriving black market for:
* Weapons - technology has brought about devastating weapons; the UN restricts many weapons to uniformed troops. 
* Slaves - the only thing better than cheap labor is free labor.
* ChromeTech - banned cybernetic/genetic human enhancement/augmentation technology
* Drugs - the list of synthetic drugs prohibited by the UN now numbers in the millions.
* Regulated goods - alcohol, fuel, and certain technology and equipment that are legal but require transfer licenses, fees, inspections, regulations.  

The thriving black market has generated an ever-increasing UN 'Wanted: dead or alive" list.

Which has led to a secondary (tertiary?) market for bounty hunters. Of course, some roguish individuals play the role of hunted and hunter at different times.


 

=== Your Team & Vessel ===
[[Image:New_London.jpg|thumb|right|400px]]

You are part of the crew on '''WTF5309''', a small cargo shuttle capable of travel throughout the inhabited Eridani system. Like many other vessels, yours is part of the gray-market/bounty hunter ecosystem.  As a group, you might be considered "chaotic good", not caring much for the laws and regulations of the UN, but generally hewing to principles of justice and fairness -- as long as you can make a buck in the process. (You'd rather collect a bounty on a slave trader than make the same money buying and selling slaves, for example.)

Whether your team has a 'smash and grab' style or a more diplomatic approach to encounters depends on the characters created.

The WTF5309 can be manually operated by just two people. Is is quick and nimble for its class, but has no offensive capabilities (a strictly regulated configuration).  It is equipped with a relatively modern medical bay, private bunks for 12, and an excellent array of tools, cargo rigging, and containers. To support your occasional dalliance in smuggling contraband, there are multiple small secret cargo holds that typical inspectors almost never find.   Finally, you have one all-terrain ground transport vehicle; it's pretty banged up, but reliable.

=== Some Previous Jobs ===
* Transported some wealthy religious pilgrims from Eridani Prime to a distant moon colony. ($250,000)
* Stole and sold fuel from a fuel thief ($50,000)
* Tracked down and delivered to the UN an obnoxious gun-runner ($200,000 plus a very nice illegal sniper rifle that mysteriously went missing)
* Rescued a mining company's shuttle with 200 burly miners aboard ($100,000 plus a full tank of fuel)

=== Character Creation ===
==== GM Creation ====
The GM will build out the character after you provide:
* name
* age
* gender
* height
* weight
* appearance 
* background
* wealth (poor / struggling / average / wealthy / rich)
* profession / role
* your specialty, if any
* personality / mannerisms / addictions / compulsions / habits
* enemies, if any
* secrets, if any
* allies, if any
* contacts, if any
* cybernetic/genetic enhancements, if any



==== Player-creation ====
* These are 150-point humans, Tech Level 10
* Max -50 Disadvantages plus up to -5 in quirks
* Any genetic/cybernetic enhancement requires an additional 5 point Unusual Background advantage and is subject to GM approval
* One or more characters should have some Skills in:
** Navigation (Space)
** Legal Enforcement Powers (bounty hunting license)
** Piloting (High-Performance Spacecraft)
** Mechanic (High-Performance Spacecraft)

== What Happened ==

=== Just a Fuel Stop ===

On a remote mining moon bathed in whipping winds and clinging dust, the WTF5309 team stops to spend the last of their cash on fuel rods.
Whilst lugging the 80-lb cases back to the ship, an explosion rocks the urban streets, and debris falls all around.

Spooked, young [[21]] drops his case and sprints back towards the ship, leaving [[Jonny Stone]] and [[Jack Burton]] to collaborate on carrying the third case.

Meanwhile, the remaining crew on the ship conclude the explosion was too close for comfort, and agree to rendezvous with the fuel-fetchers in a field south of the settlement.

As white-armored and mirror-faced "unis" emerge from buildings to investigate the blast, 21 hotwires a cargo hovercraft and inexpertly blasts down the road to help with the cases. Out of control, he runs down a uni before picking up the team and cargo.  

Jack takes over and blasts south, only to encounter 3 unis in the middle of the road gesturing for the team to halt. Their weapons are ready, but Jack accelerates and smashes through them as they open fire.

Fatally damaged by high-velocity rounds, the hovercraft careens into a sand dune a few hundred yards later.

The WTF5309 crew picks up the away team and fires the atmo-buster engines, rapidly ascending above the dusty settlement and blasting into space.

=== Breakin the Law
[[Image:JackBurton.jpg|thumb|right|300px|[[Jack Burton]]]]
[[Image:FionaFyre.jpg|thumb|right|300px|[[Fiona Fyre]]]]
[[Image:21.jpg|thumb|right|300px|[[21]]]]
[[Image:JonnyStone.jpg|thumb|right|300px|[[Jonny Stone]]]]
Shortly after leaving atmo, the WTF5309 is hailed.  Debate ensues as Jack zigs and zags.  [[21]] settles the issue by accepting the call.

It's the UN - they demand that the team halt and prepare to be boarded for the mayhem on the surface. Jack fires the thrusters and the WTF5309 darts into deep space.

Safely away, Jack makes a delicious meal while [[BAIDER]] monitors their travels. During his cooking session, Jack notices that food supplies are very low and that will need to be the next stop.

The team makes for [[Station XXX]], now a pleasure station orbiting an enormous ball of iron that contained more precious metals before the mining industry had their way.  There also happens to be a fugitive ([[Malcolm]] the slaver) last spotted on the station and Jonny's thinking about the $100k bounty, now that the team is penniless. Problem is that the station has a  $5k docking fee.

A solution is concocted after reaching out to the [[Dolphin]], a luxury cruiser, to make a trade of fuel for food.

As [[Fiona Fyre]] retrieves the rods for the deal, she notices that half the rods they just purchased are counterfeit - worthless. So the ship is at something like 60% fuel now, rather than 90%.

During the transfer of goods, [[21]] sneaks aboard the cruiser with ideas of adventure and booty, but is overcome by his cowardice and stays hunkered down in the utility cart in which he boarded.

After much debate, internal and external subterfuge, hacking, counter-hacking, and desperation, Jack simply reached out to [[Tabitha]], the Dolphin's owner, and says he has misplaced his "pet". He is allowed to re-board and collected the mischievous little monkey, but not before the simian trickster has stolen a segment of an enormous green crystal rod, origins unknown.

With that, the WTF5309 peels away from the Dolphin and Station XXX and heads for a previously detected "ghost ship", a heavy transport believed lost more than twenty years ago...