Evening Alex,

This is not going to help me get to sleep to night with all the fun you are having. Thanks for another update.

Tom Rux

> On 06/19/2020 8:09 PM Alex Goodwin <xxxxxx@multitel.com.au> wrote:
>
>
> Upon arriving at Gashidda, Drake took the opportunity to refuel before
> docking at the downport.
>
> Bert finished up the cooking he had been doing, brewing up their spec
> lot of pharmaceuticals into something with a little more ... kick. 
> Nothing had exploded... yet.
>
> El Capitane went a few more rounds with paperwork.
>
> Nikki had collared Lily to get some work done on the jump drive.
>
> Badass-Moustache, being the one tasked by Derryn Dodgie, headed into
> startown to meet who he was supposed to meet.  Rosa tagged along to
> watch his back and assist in delivering any needed violence.
>
> Despite Jim's general LARGEness (since Terrans average approx 5cm taller
> than Vilani - he had more than some difficulty wedging into drop pods
> back in the day ) and their obviously barbarian features,
> Badass-Moustache and Rosa managed to make it into startown without
> getting caught on too much surveillance footage.  Not being complete
> blithering idiots, they took their time and a long, indirect route to
> the low-end dive that was their destination.  Upon arrival, they cased
> the joint for a bit, then lobbed inside.
>
> Long story short, Rosa's previous
> "stuck-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-border" term in the UNNF Scouts turned
> up an unexpected benefit - their contact (in-game) was also one of
> Rosa's Contacts (in game-mechanics), one Miiraama Amii (this time
> recycled from a previous game, not an attempt at fiction).  After
> Miiraama flirted with the both of them (the word "boytoy" came up a
> couple of times, much to Eddles' bemusement - Badass-Moustache and the
> word "androgynous" don't fit together), she not only gave the right
> challenges and responses but, causing this little gem:
>
> "Oh yeah, THIS certainly ain't prearranged or anything..." - Eddles
>
> produced the matching half of the card that Derryn had given
> Badass-Moustache earlier (much like hawala systems function now, IIUC).
>
> Fides bona established, it turned out the boodle to be transported was
> four dissident types that had a burning need to depart the Ziru Sirka
> all quiet-like.  Running afoul of the AZS en route would _not_ be
> beneficial.
>
> To minimise opportunity for inadvertent disclosures, the dissidents
> would be travelling switchoff in portable low berths (thank you Jeff
> Zeitlin for the idea) that would need to be discreetly moved through the
> port and into the Paradise's hold.
>
> After arranging pickup time (three nights' hence, at a warehouse closer
> to the port), Badass-Moustache started scheming up a way to get the low
> berths aboard in a way that would likely evade customs notice as he and
> Rosa headed back to the Paradise's berth, again taking a different long,
> indirect route back.
>
>
> Bert was running some quality checks on the um...enhanced
> pharmaceuticals when El Capitane chatted him about them.
>
> "They don't react well to gunpowder or laser fire." - Bert
>
> "We won't put 'em in our weapons, then." - El Capitane
>
> I can't remember who decided to palm the um...enhanced pharmaceuticals
> off somewhere in startown.  So we'll blame El Capitane.
>
> "Don't do it unarmed - that would be dumb and suicidal" - El Capitane
>
> Moustache managed to find an um... legitimate buyer for the
> um...enhanced pharmaceuticals while they were waiting to pick up the boodle.
>
> I'd actually managed to forget that Badass-Moustache was also a
> lowish-grade psyker - Eddles took glee in reminding me of that - and he
> proceeded to read the buyer, a local ... legitimate ... businesscritter
> who planned to offload some at the naval base.  1176k in precious metals
> later, the um...pharmaceuticals were no longer the PCs' problem.
>
> It was only _after_ this that El Capitane found out exactly why they had
> trooped 7 parsecs into Vilani space, while Nikki was palming off the
> machine tooling they'd picked up earlier for another hundred grand.
>
> After this, (for reasons I'm still not clear about), Bert decided that
> he needed a local to experiment on, so he and El Capitane headed out to
> startown to snatch some poor sod, while Rosa and Jim made ready for
> their pickup.
>
> "While the captain and doctor head out to commit crimes under local law,
> Rosa and Jim head out to commit crimes under Imperial law." - Me
>
> Da Plan was to smuggle the boodle disguised as "common stuffs",
> accompanied by an epic work of fiction otherwise known as "the
> paperwork".  Nikki succeeding by 5 on the forgery roll (picked up during
> her time as a guest of the German state) produced such a work. 
> Transport was to be via the amazingly high-tech piece of kit known as "a
> truck".
>
> Bert and Drake eventually found an appropriate poor sod in startown and
> jumped him.  As Bert hit him with the sedatives he had prepared earlier,
> the poor sod started convulsing.  Beating penalties for poor kit and
> disadvantage on his roll, Bert figures out it was a sedation overdose
> interacting poorly with drugs he couldn't easily identify.
>
>
> Jim and Rosa lobbed at their pickup - after a couple of tense moments,
> they made their pickup and again took a (different) scenic route back. 
> The paperwork held up and the boodle was duly loaded with the
> cargomaster's (Jim) connivance.
>
> Bert and El Capitane lobbed back with poor sod - manure spreaders chain
> detonated in the background as they got him into their berth.
>
> Further diagnosis revealed an unfavourable reaction between the
> administered overdose, cardiac drugs and antiepileptics.  "Hell with it"
> - poor sod got chucked into a low berth.
>
> El Capitane borrowed some knockout drugs and headed back into startown
> on his own.  May not have been the best timing, as at least two groups
> of ... legitimate ... operators decided to settle a grievance
> violently.  Chemical and magnetic slugthrowers were in use as Drake
> ended up getting shot - 5 points of damage after his armour.
>
> He found poor sod #2 and tried to jump him, only to run afoul of Mr
> Sweep's famous dice karma.  However, it had rubbed off on me, resulting
> in a mutual crap-off.  Snake eyes all round.
>
> "Excuse me sir, does this cloth smell like chloroform" matched up with
> dodging _into_ the attack.  El Capitane "helped" him back to the berth,
> further aggravating his injuries (2 more points of injury).
>
> Bert froze down poor sod #2, as Drake gives the order to lift to
> Shulgiili before collapsing.
>
> "That firefight had nothing to do with us.  The kidnappings, on the
> other hand..." - Mr Sweep.
>
> Bert does what he was originally trained to do back in the day - trauma
> surgery - pointing and laughing at a -7 penalty.  With El Capitane being
> operated on, Badass-Moustache takes over to get Das Boot underway and
> into jump.
>
> "You finally have an excuse to say the captain can't captain" - Mr Sweep
>
> "According to Bert, the captain's going to be laid up for 7 days" - Me.
>
> "Stop celebrating, dammit!" - Mr Sweep
>
> --
>
>  
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