 October 31, 2008 - 1:35pm | Day 1: ARRIVAL Slowly the grind of the airlock seals in the link between the Decontamination Chamber of the Zeneb Mining Facility and the PGC transport Discover. The party adjusts their gear, making sure that they did not forget anything in their tiny cabins on the transport ship. After some initial bumps and scrapes, lights above the large airlock door indicate a successful link. Suddenly, a human male face appears on the vid screen. The party turns to look. "This is Rexar Kallaway, the manager of this Facility. Welcome to your new home for the next six months. We will meet as soon as you go through Decontamination and a quick medical screen." Siggy Murtleford looks up at the small image. "Got it, chief," he says as the airlock door whooshes open. The airlock opens into a plain metallic room with many small doors on either side and a large door opposite the airlock entrance. A small dralasite stands there. "Hello. I am Globo Breeb, the Chief Technician here at Zeneb. Dr. K'zar is in the next room, and will conduct your medical checks. Disrobe and leave your equipment here for a few minutes. I will do the decontamination checks on your gear while Doctor K'Zar completes your medical exams in the next room." Opening another large door reveals a small medical clinic with examination benches. The Vrusk doctor, joints orange with age, motions the party to sit as he gives a cursory examination. After asking some innocuous medical questions about recent history and exposure to certain diseases, the doctor and his equipment indicate a clean bill of health for the party. After about 20 minutes, Globo Breeb emerges with all of the character's equipment, neatly separated by individual. "Great. All clear," says Dr. K'Zar. He opens several drawers. Here are your uniforms. Mix and match among you as for the various sizes that you need." The uniforms have PGC Security insignia on them. They are also Security Skeinsuits (50 pts. of ballistic protection.) The doctor motions towards a large door, moving his bulky insectoid form out of the way. This opens into the interior of the Zeneb Mining Facility. Almost immediately, the party is startled by the view above! Brilliant stars shine forth with decorative nebula. How is this possible? The party looks up, agape and in awe. "You like that effect, eh? The image is a hologram but is exactly accurate of the current state of our night or day sky. These images are proven by mental health experts to be far more soothing than the gun-metal gray interior of the air circulation ducts. We appreciate it. Speaking of towers, we all have a meeting scheduled now in The Tower, which is right this way. Numbered garage doors dominate this portion of the facility. The doors are all closed now. They are huge - easily able to fit two Explorers side-by-side. In fact, you believe that the lines painted on the floor in luminescent paint are for exactly that purpose. Next to each garage door is a regular door. Huge machines jut out from the walls between the garages. "This Outer Ring is the water and ammonia Processing, Refining and Atomization center. This is where we break down the ice and ammonia from the surface of Zeneb. Big and noisy - but an important part of our operation here. No ammonia, no gold or rhenium. No ice and - well let's just say we could last several tendays, but not too much longer than that. It's pretty much that simple." You walk across the enormous gallery, easily a few hundred meters just to get to the Inner Ring. You go through another, smaller airlock to the Inner Ring. This one is just a plain hall - strictly a safety feature as opposed to the Decontamination area which contained a small medical clinic and the non-organic chamber. "Come on - this part is no big deal. You're all set with decon. This room is only important when we are working outside." Huge windows run both sides of the small hallway, revealing parked Explorers and ground and hover trucks. As you approach the door to the Inner Ring, is quickly sweeps open. To the party's left, looms the Central Tower. This tower within a tower has several rings of windows around it's rectangular base. It is even bigger than the Main Power Plant, which is right next to it, on the north side of the base. Four other buildings marked "Storage" are strewn throughout the corners of the Inner Ring. To the party's right, is a small building which looks out of place among these giants. A neon sign simply says "Sencho's" on it. Suddenly, there erupts a loud ruckuss from the small building. CRASH! SMASH! and a great deal of shouting (mostly Yazirians, judging from the yaps and yelps). The party cannot make out anything that is said. Kras immediately draws his automatic pistol. "Looks like we have trouble over there." Alfrood responds, "But we have to get to the Tower for the meeting!" The party bickers back and forth, hesitating and not knowing what to do. Ignoring the situation, Globo Breeb, who had been walking with the party the entire time and had not said a word, walks towards the central Tower. Alfrood runs up to him, calling to him and asking him about the ruckuss. Breeb simply says, "Sounds like a security situation," and turns and walks back towards the Tower. Alfrood is stunned by his brethren's callous response. The doctor is visibly shaken by the situation, and can just manage some "Um's and uhhhs - not really knowing what to do at first." Finally the crashing of objects stops, and several Yazirans and humans stumble out of the building. Judging from their staggering, "Sencho's" must be a bar. They start chanting, "CONTRACT! CONTRACT! CONTRACT!" in unison. Yazirians growl and yelp with agreement in the background. As the PCs argue about what to do, a group of the drunks turns to the party. "There are some PGC cheapskate bastards right there! Let's get 'em." Fortunately, the distance that the toughs had to cover was a long one. Kras raises his automatic pistol and Siggy and Alfrood ready knives and grenades to meet the attack. Alfrood throws a tangler grenade, but it bounces sharply on the hard floor and rolls away until turning into a blob of white strands on the floor. As the drunks surge forward, Kras fires a burst of automatic fire into the air. The bullets ping off of the bulkheads with an echoing racket. Simultaneously, the doctor snaps out of his shock and nervously calls a security alert on his chronocom. Within seconds, 2 large robots and 1 Human and Yazirian run out from the Tower, weapons drawn. The 2 robots are hulking anthropomorphic Security Robots - over 2 meters tall each and intimidating. They have tentacles and arms, and bristle with various weapons. By the time they reach your group, the mob scatters, running off towards various stairwells. The robots and Yazirian attempt to pursue for a few seconds, but the mob is long gone before they can get into any kind of range. They regroup with the human male, who looks like Rexar Kallaway, the tall, gruff weathered human male boss of this place that they saw on the viewscreen a few minutes ago in the decontamination center. "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE!" Kallaway exclaims. The group walks to the bar, which looks like a scene of devastation. Tables and chairs and bottles lie smashed and strewn about the floor. A Yazirian, visibly shaken, comes out from behind the bar. "Look what happened to my place! Where was Security?!" While the group surveys the damage, several undamaged holo screens are all on the same channel, INN, Interstellar Network News. There is some sort of interview going on, with a Human Female asking questions to certain Vrusk and Dralasite analysts. One of the experts clicks on: "...the breakdown of these negotiations was a great surprise to all involved. The Refiner's Guild demands were roundly rejected by the Mineral Corporate Consortium. With the contract officially now expired and the negotiations stalled, the status of thousands of workers in the refining field is being thrown into great uncertainty." The woman reporter turns to the Dralasite in the holo, "Could this lead to a mass walk out, Dr. Gloob?" The Dralasite analyst, a labor lawyer specializing in interstellar union contracting, answers: "The intention of the Guild is unknown at this time. I am not directly involved in this case, but I will be with the Miner's contract that is coming up for renewal in about 20 tendays. I can assure you that the entire extraction industry will be watching this refining contract as a model. The Consortium is claiming poverty and poor demand, while insisting that the Union's desires are too great for the viable extraction of certain minerals, particularly precious metals. In the past, this has lead to work stoppages, strikes, protests and other issues and actions. However, the situation is just too new to do anything but speculate at this time..." The party and the Plant Manager argue over the new group's lack of initiative. The party explains that they had just arrived and did not know what to do, since they had not even recieved their ID cards yet. Kras is also criticized for firing his auto pistol inside the Facility, although the Plant Manager and the Head of Security, a Yazirian by the name of Rizel Katarn, grudgingly admit that Kras had little choice. After a few moments of argument, the Plant Manager softens his attitude somewhat due to the circumstances. Kallaway assures the party that they will not be held liable for the damage at all, and then gruffly informs Sencho that his bar furniture is insured. Kallaway is clearly disappointed, however. The group walks quietly to the Central Tower for their meeting. Rizel orders a robot cleaning crew to the area, and within minutes maintenence bots arrive to clear the wreckage. The door slides open, leading to the interior of the Tower. The first floor is dominated by Central Security, which, in turn, is dominated by a large conference table connected to various computers and communications devices. Dozens of screens line the walls, some are security images, some are inactive, some depicting some sort of statistical information which changes and scrolls every several seconds. A large hologram also float above the center of the large table, containing the meeting agenda. Several people are seated around the conference table, who look up to meet the new Security Team. |
 October 31, 2008 - 1:43pm | I should be able to be there. I'll be in Quebec at my conference so no class interference. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
 October 31, 2008 - 6:22pm | For a Star Frontiers game today I will gladly pay you on Tuesday. yes, yes, YES |
November 1, 2008 - 9:11am | Cool - hopefully Shadow will be available, too. |
November 1, 2008 - 11:48am | Cool - hopefully Shadow will be available, too. I sent him email. |
November 4, 2008 - 7:07am | Shadow is a maybe due to voting. w00t is there like shareware. Terl I believe will be present and accounted for. Let the g00dness commence! |
November 4, 2008 - 11:11am | I have a poor internet connection up here at my hotel in Quebec but I'll be there if I can. The conference dinner is tonight at 8pm Eastern but I should be back by 10. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
November 4, 2008 - 2:53pm | I have a poor internet connection up here at my hotel in Quebec but I'll be there if I can. The conference dinner is tonight at 8pm Eastern but I should be back by 10. Brain, Let's play SSW II if this gets cancelled. Or I could get Gilbert to RPG some. |
November 4, 2008 - 11:05pm | Great game tonight. Too bad the mooks are out to get us. I wanted to use the bar and roll on the Drunk Table.  |
 November 6, 2008 - 7:14pm | I'll be out next week (11/10-11/14), so K'ras-Tvil's "charm" will take a back seat |
