Episode 8 - There and back again... a Yakusa's tale
Still not clear why they were doing this, the group board the Happy Wanderer, a light fireighter with very limited comfort and less speed. the deadlne 10days to complete the journey to Gannymede wasnnt a concern, but the character in the drivers seat was. Joe had planted himself in front of the controls and was clearly intending to pilot the vessel. Thatch raised concerns, Joe ignored him. As Angelus didnt leave the cabin obviously contemplating life having sold his soul to Fred Johnson, and with Ziang deep in Yak type discussion this caused a bit of a stir amongt the others. After not answering questions about his piloting skills and with no other choice, the group allowed Joe to launch the vessel.
10 days.
Day 1 - slow long burn into space
Day 2 - slow long burn into space
Day 3 - long burn into space, Angelus checks the course breifly whilst joe isnt looking
Day 4 - long slow burn into space
Day 5 - about face, and slow deceleration towards Gannymede
Day 6 - long slow deceleration to Gannymede
Day 7 - Gannymede in sight. boarded by MCRN Frigate for Routine checks.
Landing.
Day 8 - Day 9
Discussions begin. Plots are forged, duplicate copies of encryption keys sourced and modified, and Thatch spends a mind bending 2 days 'creating' a falsified data block in the hopes of performing a switch. MCRN data is swiped by a bit of saucy corousing. the data shows the location, supply and dispostiion of MCRN and earther vessels in the area, valuable but not earth shattering stuff.
Day 10
Deadlines get closer and the group decide to launch for Calisto. Joe tells Angelus to butt out and leave the piloting to him, citing the facts that Joe has a 100% sucess of not being shot at... Angelus puts his feet up and decides to quaff the odd synthetic scotch and smiles. They land on Calisto. Local Martian Border force board vessel and scan crew. Everyone passes, but the two Yak passengers and Reuben. The group who pass are welcome to enter the station, others to remain on board. Reuben is given a limited pass 24hours. it becomes clear that 'ex' Martian miltary is probably frowned upon more than foreigners...
Its clear that the Yaks cant enter the station and therefore cant get the data from Hogan. Xiang promises his former comrades he will do the deed. Meanwhile the rest of the group consider the merit of the plan to allow sensitive data to fall into: 1. Yakusa hands, 2. Fred Johnson's hands, 3. anyone else's hands. it's decided that they will try and palm the data, deal with Xiang's Yak folks in some way and present Johnson with a corrupted fake dataset. That plan goes tits up when the group recieve no word from their contact Dutch Hogan. the 24 hours ticking down, Xiang decides to locate Hogan and get the data. the group make their way into the non military parts of Calisto.
No plan ever last longer than first engagement...they burst into the room (well ok Thatch picked the lock), and find a mess. blood everywhere and woman strapped to a bed, and it isnt a second rate pawn movie...
Considerations for next time:
1. Dutch is gone, probably wounded and maybe dead
2. Dutch has left his belter girlfirend strapped to a bed reciveing medical treatment
3. the data is nowhere to be found. the plan to find the data scuppered,
4. the group are stood over the bed of a girl being 'experiemented upon'. (you can almost hear the pounding of security feet!)
5. finding Dutch is likely to be difficult on a station they dont know, particularly as their reason for coming (the offloaded foodstuffs) had been removed hours ago.
