Chapter 1, Part 11: Krenshawz
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| The Cat's Paw Nebula, imaged here by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech |
If you want to start at the beginning....
Rules for this referee-less, play by post game.
Chapter 1
Part 11
Krenshawz
Greogory escorts Banks and his crew into the conference room. The crew of the Deimos stand. As Greogory follows them in, he gives a thumbs-up signal to the XO and commander. The raiders are unarmed. Lero gestures to the water and finger foods in the center of the conference room’s table and then sits.
Banks remains standing. “Let’s get something out of the way. We’re Imperial agents.” He pulls out his datapad and flings identifications and orders into the holographic screen. “Glad to be aboard commander.”
The crew of the Deimos sit in stunned silence. Lero eventually forces a few words out. ”Well, this is a surprise. Explain to me your mission.” He brushes the orders on the screen away.
Zernov passes the credentials of Banks and his crew to Intel to have them verify with the Imperium. minimum 2 weeks for an x-boat to ferry that message and get a response back to the Deimos.
Banks "Over the span of our lifetimes we've watched as the Krenshawz government has fallen from one of purpose and virtue to a corrupt drug cartel. Premier Rosa Norman and her party started out as a splinter political faction with some murky ties to organized crime. Myself and the rest of Akai Aneh watched in horror at their rise to power. Rosa is not the first Premier from this party but she is the most effective.
They turned our food crops to psychoactives and began exporting the drug as a 'mental aide' to nearby systems. That's the primary source of their funding, dark money from what was originally illegal drug trafficking has now been nationalized as part of a 'medical export' initiative.
Her tough on crime platform? It's knocking off other growers and crime families. Cleaning up their own when someone gets out of line. Silencing dissenters.
Several years ago myself and the rest of the crew were contacted by who I would guess you'd call our handler. Agent Hare, Mervin Hare, recruited us and gave us something we could do about this terrible trend.
We raid and destroy the cash crop that's destined for other systems. Our priority is on shipments to Imperium space but frankly we are happy to hit most any convoy worth enough to these thugs. If they sent you, it means we've been making a difference."
Lero leans back in his chair, rolling a napkin between his fingers. ”It’ll take a couple of weeks at best before we get official confirmation. Is Agent Hare local to the system?”
Several years ago myself and the rest of the crew were contacted by who I would guess you'd call our handler. Agent Hare, Mervin Hare, recruited us and gave us something we could do about this terrible trend.
We raid and destroy the cash crop that's destined for other systems. Our priority is on shipments to Imperium space but frankly we are happy to hit most any convoy worth enough to these thugs. If they sent you, it means we've been making a difference."
Lero leans back in his chair, rolling a napkin between his fingers. ”It’ll take a couple of weeks at best before we get official confirmation. Is Agent Hare local to the system?”
Banks lowers his head. “That’s something. Yes, he’s local, but he disappeared a month ago. We haven’t been able to get any info, which is weird. We have contacts, but Hare’s a ghost.”
Lero says, ”What about this girl?”
“She survived an assault by Krenshawz local cops. Her parents didn’t. I took her under our wing, but she’s not safe with us. I’m hoping you can take her in. Get her back to the Imperium.” Banks sees the look cross the commander’s face. “Not asking you to take her on as crew. I’m sure you have a crew or two that want to return to Imperial space. Book passage for them on the next liner.”
The Count stared right at Banks, in a bane attempt to read his body language. The story he was telling, while a bit far fetched, seemed reasonable. Heck, whe Hertwig used to work in the Intelligence division, these sort of missions where their bread and butter. The only thing that didn’t add up was the whole story about the missing handler. Most undercover mission usually have a secondary point of contact in case something happened to the main one. A couple of years ago, several handlers went AWOL, resulting in the death/disappearance of multiple undercover agents. From that point in, the agency decided to setup “backup” handlers who new about their mission and how to get a hold of them.
"Gentlemen, we have a problem here. Mr Banks, even if we are able to confirm your story, you got to realize that if we do not act as Premier Rosa expects, we would be putting your mission and our mission at risk. Best case scenario, the allow us to leave Krenshawz' space alive, but all your months of hard work be wasted and we would have failed in our first attempt to setup diplomatic relations with them. Thus, we need to reach a middle ground. Unless any of you gentlemen have any better ideas I would suggest a 3 stage plan: (1) We allow you to gather some of your equipment and all of your people and you leave the asteroid. We would have to do some damage to it and send in a crew to "check it". (2) We report back to Premier Rosa that we managed to dismantle the operation but some of the pirates manage to escape. We kept our side of the bargain and we can continue to negotiate with them, while also digging a little bit deeper into this drug smuggling claim you make (3) We meet again in two weeks to determine our next steps." The Count turns around to face Lero and the XO. It is not the best plan, but they are truly between a rock and a hard place. "Commander, XO, any thoughts on this plan or do you have any other ideas?"
Lero listens to the Count outline his plan. He’s hit on the fundamental challenge. He looks at Banks. ”Any of these raiders not aware of what you are and are actual pirates?”
Banks nods, “A few.”
”Then we take them into custody. We’ll hand them over to the Krenshawz government. That’s the only modification to the Excellency’s plan that I would recommend. We can also venture further out and deal with the other pirates. That buys us a few more days. And we expect you to share any info you have on Kopan.”
Banks nods. “I can help with that.”
Attack on Aneh Akai station. 20 Marines, outnumber pirates, +1 to Marines, +3 for armor, +2 for firepower, -3 for position, +1 for advantage. Roll 2d6, Average (8+).
/r 2d6+4
2d6+4 = (4+2)+4 = 10roll for casualties
/r 2d6
2d6 = (3+5) = 8
No significant casualties
The staff follows the assault on the Aneh Akai remnants, resulting in a total route, capturing the remaining pirates, and destroying the base. Lero calls up the chaplain, Lonnie Willis, to talk with the girl and ensure she is provided for. He watches Willis escort Natalie out and wonders how a child had the bad luck to be raised by Imperial agents posing as raiders. He dismisses the crew and orders the Deimos to lay in a course for Neronton, the gas giant that Kopan uses as bait for unsuspecting ships needing fuel.
Zernov returns to his quarters. reviewing the day's reports and logs. A ship of this size creates an oppressive amount of paperwork in a day. Checking through late intel reports that are no longer relevant, the media briefs on how our recent actions have been received. Currently Akai Aneh are being characterized as the worst pirates in the system, by irradiating them the Imperium shows it is eager to work with the Premier and President.
It's not wrong per-say they have killed people in their mission. If it even is a mission... But agents are asked to do the unpleasant. Zernov imagines a life where his path as an Agent wasn't cut tragically short. How would he have treated the crew of a boarded ship? The thread lingers for a while before Zernov shakes from the hypothetical.
2d6+3 = (5+1)+3 = 9
What's this now?
Zernov opens coms down to the signaling pod. "Signalling, Ensign, I need you to keep passive sensors on this drive signature -y78BQj. See if we can ID the vessel."
"Aye sir, we already have an ID. before it went dark it's transponder was broadcasting 'SDB-Light Hope' sir. A system defense boat, small silhouette, maybe a shuttle or a recon vessel Sir."
"We pick anything up from them? are they actively scanning?"
"No sir."
"Are they close enough to optically see the asteroid, the traders on that asteroid, and us?"
"With some enhanced equipment, they could be sir."
"Very well, stay on them and see if they follow us to our next destination."
"Aye Aye."
Zernov keys to the commander's quarters. "Not urgent, but figured you should be aware we may have a tail. Details incoming."
Zernov keys to the commander's quarters. "Not urgent, but figured you should be aware we may have a tail. Details incoming."
Lero reads the report and grunts. What the hell? He responds to Zernov, ”Noted. Looks like they followed a trajectory that kept them away for a while but knew we’d end up in the vicinity. Keep signal ops on this. They’ll probably tightbeam comms back to base, but we might get lucky. And let’s drop the occasional passive buoy to see if we can get anything behind them.”
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