The team sets off to find an HVT in Fallujah.
There were two possible locations for the HVT: a complex in the center of town, known as an insurgent HQ with its own generator, or a trucking company and warehouse on far east of town, rumored to have an underground bunker. Rafik and his entourage were typically in four vehicles.
The team has no difficulty getting through the friendly checkpoint, though the officer spends about 15 minutes poring over their papers. Other friendlies shared their amusement over the Knight Conquest having an XBox. Before the team set off, the officer of the watch ordered an IR strobe placed on the vehicle. Haarold discovered that the checkpoint crew put the IR strobe over the crease of the weapon bay doors. They moved the strobe.
The checkpoint officer, Captain Reynolds, offered some intel on a map of the city, circling the hospital, marking it with a '1400' and saying, "Tomorrow." He held out his hand to shake Isacc's hand, transferring to him a note containing radio frequencies, call signs, etc., including one labeled, "Spooky," a heavily-armed C130. After spending half an hour at the checkpoint, the team started toward the city.
Friendly armored vehicles were buttoned up. Infantry wore armor. A pair of Apaches flew overhead through a clear mid-afternoon sky.
Liam drove, while Isaac sat shotgun. Haarold and Viktor were in the back.
They took side streets toward the hospital, skirting around debris and holes. As they traveled through an intersection, Haarold called out, "Incoming!" Everyone turned to see (and hear) an RPG heading right for them. It made contact with Haarold's door, but the armor held against the blast.
Liam put pedal to the medal and missed their planned turn. An 12.7mm shot pierced the windshield and blasted the monitor on the console, which struck Isaac in the chest. Liam took a bullet to the head, but he remained conscious and unhurt thanks to his helmet. Haarold popped the turret, while Viktor took aim out the back in time to take a shot at one of two Hiluxes that came in to trap them.
When Haarold began spraying the left side contacts, Isaac spent the rest of his magazine on the remaining two standing on the right. Viktor's shot missed. Liam spun the vehicle around through the median. Haarold took aim at the heavier Hilux, while Isaac focused on the lighter one. Viktor knelt in the turret's ring mount. Haarold sprayed both vehicles and took them out. Isaac saw a contact take aim with an RPG and attempted to take him out without success. Viktor caught the location of the 12.7mm, took a braced aim, and wiped it out. At that point, the Conquest stalled.
The RPG struck the front of the vehicle, sending shrapnel into Isaac, whose armor took a beating. The Conquest took serious damage. The blast knocked out Liam. Viktor took out one of the contacts behind them. Haarold knocked down the RPG contact in front of them. After more gunfire and RPG's, which miss, Isaac put the truck into neutral and pulled the emergency brake.
Isaac and Viktor pulled Liam out of the driver's seat without leaving the vehicle, and Viktor took over driving. Haarold took a head shot from an AK contact but managed to take out the contact. Isaac, having had reloaded his HK, sprayed half a magazine at the five forward contacts to no effect. Haarold tried another blast from the minigun, but its belt broke; he dropped down into the truck and buttoned up the turret. Viktor started the truck and drove it into the first northbound side street. Haarold passed out in the back.
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Monday, May 20, 2013
First Intermission: Reboot
Re-introducing a character, Liam, with a new concept - "driver". While shopping for the vehicle, we were given a tip regarding the van we were to purchase, it was a wreck. Liam suggested a different dealer, siting all of the issues with Shane's offerings.
Haarold and Isaac exchanged information with Liam and met up with him at Securicorp's firing range. Bring a variety of armaments to the range, Haarold left a few "gotchas" for Liam to find. He "passed" the inspection test easily and turned out to be quite gifted with pistol. Isaac spent time showing off his golden Desert Eagle, and the group spent time getting to know each other. They eventually drop off the box truck at the warehouse and Liam drives them to a falafel shop in the H1 he borrowed from Shane.
Liam introduces us to "Crazy Akhmed", who is very congenial. Liam shows off custom work he did for Akhmed, a Lamborghini LM002. Akhmed had three Knight Conquest vehicles he purchased for $120 and was willing to let them go for the same price. The group took an afternoon to pick up the two bags of cut, unmarked diamonds from the warehouse and visited a jeweler that Liam knew. They successfully negotiated a sale for $180,000 and $10,000 for Shane's Hummer, courtesy of Liam's gripe with him.
Liam, Haarold, and Isaac spent the better part of a week working on building a working KC. They were left with a full set of spare tires on wheels, wiring, one driver-side rear and passenger rear door. One cargo door, one top mount lift door, two complete sets of seats, 2 extra windshield, 1 radiator with oil cooler and trans-oil cooler. 2 extra fuel tanks, 1 complete rear suspension assembly. Got the driver's IR system working. One spare set of MBC filters, miscellaneous parts. Liam's mechanical skills came to shine, as the rebuilt vehicle better than factory on body and engine (better than 1/4 skill), with a great job on electrical and sub-systems (better than 1/2 skill). The weapon deploy system, lacking a weapon, works perfectly.
On the way to pick up Victktor from the hospital, Isaac and Haarold play X-box -- Isaac pwnd. Liam hammered it down, drifted around a corner, and power-stopped in front of the hospital. Stopped on the way for cigarettes and vodka for the Russian. Roark phoned the group immediately after the pickup, and called them in to brief on a new high value target, Sayed Rafik, wanted alive. The man just surfaced in Fallujah and generally travels with an entourage. He was instrumental in IED training for the insurgence. The right side of his face was scarred with burns, with reports of a missing ear and other scarring. His right hand is missing two smaller digits. He'll give us two to three hours before he briefs the other teams.
The group takes time to visit Ahkmed to outfit the KC with a 7.62 minigun on a ringmount, which they were able to install in 45 minutes, with round trip to the warehouse and ammo pickup at Securicorp, 2 hours burned. The team ended up with an hour lead-time on the other teams, all said and done.
(And we called it a night; 5 xp gained per character.)
Haarold and Isaac exchanged information with Liam and met up with him at Securicorp's firing range. Bring a variety of armaments to the range, Haarold left a few "gotchas" for Liam to find. He "passed" the inspection test easily and turned out to be quite gifted with pistol. Isaac spent time showing off his golden Desert Eagle, and the group spent time getting to know each other. They eventually drop off the box truck at the warehouse and Liam drives them to a falafel shop in the H1 he borrowed from Shane.
Liam introduces us to "Crazy Akhmed", who is very congenial. Liam shows off custom work he did for Akhmed, a Lamborghini LM002. Akhmed had three Knight Conquest vehicles he purchased for $120 and was willing to let them go for the same price. The group took an afternoon to pick up the two bags of cut, unmarked diamonds from the warehouse and visited a jeweler that Liam knew. They successfully negotiated a sale for $180,000 and $10,000 for Shane's Hummer, courtesy of Liam's gripe with him.
Liam, Haarold, and Isaac spent the better part of a week working on building a working KC. They were left with a full set of spare tires on wheels, wiring, one driver-side rear and passenger rear door. One cargo door, one top mount lift door, two complete sets of seats, 2 extra windshield, 1 radiator with oil cooler and trans-oil cooler. 2 extra fuel tanks, 1 complete rear suspension assembly. Got the driver's IR system working. One spare set of MBC filters, miscellaneous parts. Liam's mechanical skills came to shine, as the rebuilt vehicle better than factory on body and engine (better than 1/4 skill), with a great job on electrical and sub-systems (better than 1/2 skill). The weapon deploy system, lacking a weapon, works perfectly.
On the way to pick up Victktor from the hospital, Isaac and Haarold play X-box -- Isaac pwnd. Liam hammered it down, drifted around a corner, and power-stopped in front of the hospital. Stopped on the way for cigarettes and vodka for the Russian. Roark phoned the group immediately after the pickup, and called them in to brief on a new high value target, Sayed Rafik, wanted alive. The man just surfaced in Fallujah and generally travels with an entourage. He was instrumental in IED training for the insurgence. The right side of his face was scarred with burns, with reports of a missing ear and other scarring. His right hand is missing two smaller digits. He'll give us two to three hours before he briefs the other teams.
The group takes time to visit Ahkmed to outfit the KC with a 7.62 minigun on a ringmount, which they were able to install in 45 minutes, with round trip to the warehouse and ammo pickup at Securicorp, 2 hours burned. The team ended up with an hour lead-time on the other teams, all said and done.
(And we called it a night; 5 xp gained per character.)
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
First Intermission: Convolescence
Late February, 2012: Haarold and Isaac enjoyed well deserved reprieve from the raid and successful capture of Jalal Al'Saratti, a former Hussein informant, while Vicktor recovered from his life-threatening injuries at a local military hospital. Over the weeks that followed, Haarold occupied himself with custom weapon-smith work for SecuriCorp and refining various skills he used during the Warehouse Raid. Isaac spent a considerable amount of time at the military hospital under advanced instruction for medicine.
(Jeremy's character, Liam Sweeny, joined the party during a between session operation and was found to be a competent addition to the group.) Interested in finding better transportation around town than the cube truck obtained during the Warehouse Raid, Isaac and Haarold visited a local "fixer", Shane, another employee of SecuriCorp. He was a true fixer and was able to procure a custom 4x4 Ford V10 van for $30,000, a steal based on the $54,000 sticker price. Of course, no VIN could be found, but in this area, it probably wouldn't be scrutinized. The men risk it, and purchase the van.
Shane gifted them with a high quality bottle of Vodka for Vicktor. Roark calls at 08:30 for an appointment at his office at SecuriCorp. At 09:30, Liam, Vicktor, Isaac and Haarold arrived to find that some great Intel was found from the Hotel Raid procurement of the laptop. We have a new High Value Target (HVT), instrumental in IED training for the insurgence. The right side of his face was scarred with burns, with reports of a missing ear and other scarring. They've narrowed down his possible locations to Faluja, more likley of the two, and Tikrit. It would be similar to the Warehouse raid, where the HVT frequents a fortified location. The payout alive would be $200,000 to the team that extracts him. $50,000 dead. There are two other teams meeting with SecuriCorp later that day, competition to our own team.
Roark indicates that we can contract a Conquest for $5,000 per mission, which the team agrees to; the new van has no real armor to speak of. The contract was effective immediately upon leaving the building, with approximately a 90 minute lead on the other teams being briefed. Vicktor's evaluation of the information given points the team to Faluja.
In the final checkpoint before entering Faluja, we were held up by a First Lieutenant to "thoroughly check our paperwork". Vicktor attempted to bully the officer into letting us through worried that he's trying to delay for another team. Dropping SecuriCorp's name to get through did not work as a tactic. Isaac was able to flex his rank surreptitiously, keeping the Lt. from revealing it to the group.
The team enters on the Old Bridge, and the city is a "ghost town". Liam carefully picks his way through the street litter when Haarold notices a drain culvert grate that appears to have been tampered with. He called, "Stop!" He noticed a trip-wire boobie-trap running across the road from the culvert to the wall of a building. Isaac noticed an aggressor running from a building to the potential IED location with rifle in hand and is able to take a shot, clipping him in the left leg. Vicktor hit an aggressor in a Toyota HiLux with a recoil-less rifle, but didn't seem to phase him. Another HiLux sandwiched us in place.
Liam gasses in reverse, plows through the HiLux behind the team, spins out of control but they end up around the corner and with cover. The engine stalled, while an RPG explodes behind the vehicle. A group of four aggressors exit an alley and fire upon the vehicle. The two firing RPGs fail to hit any target, one of the aggressors fires an AK47 to the vehicle, and another has a MALF blow up in his face.
The second HiLux with another .50 cal recoil-less rifle tears through the rear of the vehicle, hitting Vicktor, once again and Isaac took a hit to the helmet. Liam accelerated in reverse to pull the same maneuver to ram into and through the aggressor. The Conquest took some (2 pts) armor damage from the two collisions and .50 cal, but was still running clear.
(OOC: The session ended here in interest of us getting real life sleep.)
(Jeremy's character, Liam Sweeny, joined the party during a between session operation and was found to be a competent addition to the group.) Interested in finding better transportation around town than the cube truck obtained during the Warehouse Raid, Isaac and Haarold visited a local "fixer", Shane, another employee of SecuriCorp. He was a true fixer and was able to procure a custom 4x4 Ford V10 van for $30,000, a steal based on the $54,000 sticker price. Of course, no VIN could be found, but in this area, it probably wouldn't be scrutinized. The men risk it, and purchase the van.
Shane gifted them with a high quality bottle of Vodka for Vicktor. Roark calls at 08:30 for an appointment at his office at SecuriCorp. At 09:30, Liam, Vicktor, Isaac and Haarold arrived to find that some great Intel was found from the Hotel Raid procurement of the laptop. We have a new High Value Target (HVT), instrumental in IED training for the insurgence. The right side of his face was scarred with burns, with reports of a missing ear and other scarring. They've narrowed down his possible locations to Faluja, more likley of the two, and Tikrit. It would be similar to the Warehouse raid, where the HVT frequents a fortified location. The payout alive would be $200,000 to the team that extracts him. $50,000 dead. There are two other teams meeting with SecuriCorp later that day, competition to our own team.
Roark indicates that we can contract a Conquest for $5,000 per mission, which the team agrees to; the new van has no real armor to speak of. The contract was effective immediately upon leaving the building, with approximately a 90 minute lead on the other teams being briefed. Vicktor's evaluation of the information given points the team to Faluja.
In the final checkpoint before entering Faluja, we were held up by a First Lieutenant to "thoroughly check our paperwork". Vicktor attempted to bully the officer into letting us through worried that he's trying to delay for another team. Dropping SecuriCorp's name to get through did not work as a tactic. Isaac was able to flex his rank surreptitiously, keeping the Lt. from revealing it to the group.
The team enters on the Old Bridge, and the city is a "ghost town". Liam carefully picks his way through the street litter when Haarold notices a drain culvert grate that appears to have been tampered with. He called, "Stop!" He noticed a trip-wire boobie-trap running across the road from the culvert to the wall of a building. Isaac noticed an aggressor running from a building to the potential IED location with rifle in hand and is able to take a shot, clipping him in the left leg. Vicktor hit an aggressor in a Toyota HiLux with a recoil-less rifle, but didn't seem to phase him. Another HiLux sandwiched us in place.
Liam gasses in reverse, plows through the HiLux behind the team, spins out of control but they end up around the corner and with cover. The engine stalled, while an RPG explodes behind the vehicle. A group of four aggressors exit an alley and fire upon the vehicle. The two firing RPGs fail to hit any target, one of the aggressors fires an AK47 to the vehicle, and another has a MALF blow up in his face.
The second HiLux with another .50 cal recoil-less rifle tears through the rear of the vehicle, hitting Vicktor, once again and Isaac took a hit to the helmet. Liam accelerated in reverse to pull the same maneuver to ram into and through the aggressor. The Conquest took some (2 pts) armor damage from the two collisions and .50 cal, but was still running clear.
(OOC: The session ended here in interest of us getting real life sleep.)
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Character Sheet: Lenny "Weps" Ramis
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| Lenny "Weps" Ramis |
Lenny is a 23 year old spaceship gunner, spacer, planet-side adventurer, a Regina Rally race winner, and now co-owner of a trading company, Red Dwarf, LIC. His experience in the Navy had given him valuable skills, but left him with a general distaste for Navy Officers. He had very little regard for his CO, whom he saw as complete tool. She just couldn’t see the humor in Lenny’s jokes. Reversing the flow of the latrine vac is hilarious! Lenny was quickly booted planet-side, where he was placed in the Security Group where he manned and maintained the base missile and gun batteries. On his off-duty time, he thoroughly enjoyed piloting grav sleds, generally as fast as he possibly could get them to go, or skydiving off of them.
Lenny grew up in a seedy suburb in a Mountainous region of Regina in the Spinward Marches with his aging mother, Despenia, and fiery little sister Griz (short for Griselda). Regina is a Terran Prime, rich world; a capital of this sub-sector -- though they saw none of the wealth. He was never really that envious of those better off than he. His entertainment as a child was taking his sister climbing and survivalist camping, when he wasn’t trying to cut classes from public schooling.
From a young age, Lenny suspected he was different. He could hear the thoughts of others, particularly that of a strange man that used to hang out at a local coffee shop. Everyone called him “The Old Bastard”, a man who would often stare unblinkingly off into the distance for minutes on end. On occasion, he seemed to be speaking to himself. People simply thought he was crazy, but Lenny knew otherwise. He had a found a friend in The Old Bastard, someone who understood him, someone he could talk to, without talking at all - literally. This knowledge he kept secret from all but the Old Bastard himself.
Just before leaving for the Navy, The Old Bastard was discovered as a psi, and arrested. According to the official reports, he 'committed suicide' to prevent his revealing other psionics to the authorities, but Lenny just knew that they - obviously Imperial Authorities - executed him. He intends on finding the people responsible for the Old Bastard’s death and bringing them to justice, legal or otherwise. In order to do this, he believes that he must improve his psionic skills and strengths. Whether that means he is willing to go undercover remains to be seen.
Lenny grew up in a seedy suburb in a Mountainous region of Regina in the Spinward Marches with his aging mother, Despenia, and fiery little sister Griz (short for Griselda). Regina is a Terran Prime, rich world; a capital of this sub-sector -- though they saw none of the wealth. He was never really that envious of those better off than he. His entertainment as a child was taking his sister climbing and survivalist camping, when he wasn’t trying to cut classes from public schooling.
From a young age, Lenny suspected he was different. He could hear the thoughts of others, particularly that of a strange man that used to hang out at a local coffee shop. Everyone called him “The Old Bastard”, a man who would often stare unblinkingly off into the distance for minutes on end. On occasion, he seemed to be speaking to himself. People simply thought he was crazy, but Lenny knew otherwise. He had a found a friend in The Old Bastard, someone who understood him, someone he could talk to, without talking at all - literally. This knowledge he kept secret from all but the Old Bastard himself.
Just before leaving for the Navy, The Old Bastard was discovered as a psi, and arrested. According to the official reports, he 'committed suicide' to prevent his revealing other psionics to the authorities, but Lenny just knew that they - obviously Imperial Authorities - executed him. He intends on finding the people responsible for the Old Bastard’s death and bringing them to justice, legal or otherwise. In order to do this, he believes that he must improve his psionic skills and strengths. Whether that means he is willing to go undercover remains to be seen.
- Lenny "Weps" Ramis Character Sheet (GURPS 4e - Google Docs)
- Traveller: Red Dwarf, LIC. Collection (Google Docs)
[Edit: Added in the Collection of documents for this campaign.]
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Moderator Comments and Background #1
Greetings from the Moderator!
Well, life has surely been interesting, so far, for this adventurous duo.
Their actions to date have covered the following activities:
[Session One]
No sooner had the pair met (in a bar, of all places; where else?!) than they were accosted by the proverbial 'roving gang of hooligans', who were actually employees of the Imperial Megacorporation Dagudashag. These misfits accused the duo of being 'Oberlindes scum' [employees of a regional trading and shipping firm, Oberlindes Lines, LIC; OL]. Of course, they aren't, but when has that ever stopped drunk spacehands? The pair escaped serious injury, even though outnumbered at least six-to-one, and were soon hired by OL to do some 'side work'.
Oberlindes and Dagudashag were at the beginnings of a regional Trade War, contesting over the Imperial Navy's awarding supply shipping contracts to OL after Dagudashag failed to meet obligations...
Their first mission was scouting a local warehouse used by Dagu to process local cargoes. After several days of observation (and nearly been spotted and blowing the entire mission at least once...) the two managed to 'sneak' into the warehouse and determine its layout, security, etc.
Two days after this, 'commando' raiders from OL looted and torched the facility in the overnight hours.
[Session Two]
Soon after this, the duo and the nearly-famous JBT [Johnathon B. Templeton, a Scout who lost almost his entire body, and is now essentially a starship...] to scout out a Dagudashag refueling facity in the outskirts of the nearby Forboldn system. The group faked a fuel leak, got the Dagu facility to send out a repair crew to assist.
While the repair crew was aboard, Lenny used his unique observation skills to ascertain important data from the local Dagu head (who was foolish enough to work on critical data when Lenny could see his computer; I guess he was too busy and confident...), which included the layout of the refueling facility.
The group was also able, through observation of Jump coordinates and vectors, to determine the relative destinations of various Dagu raider groups, which were setting off to raid/interdict OL shipping assets...
[Sessions Three and Four]
During these sessions, the group, using a ship with improved weaponry supplied by OL, and with a larger fleet of raiders and cargo ships, went to the Dagu refueling facility they had scouted previously (in the Forboldn system). In that system, they interdicted all Dagudashag shipping that entered the system. This was a normal refueling spot for Dagudashag (a shortcut, bypassing numerous local systems of nominal trade value to that company). In a three week or so time span, they intercepted approximately 30 ships, seriously hurting Dagu's bottom line in this region of space.
In one memorable action the pair's ship (the modified fat trader "Pride of Regina" managed to intercept a yacht, which was carrying the local head of Dagudashag for this region. This pair of actions (intercepting Dagu shipping and capturing their local leader) effectively ended this Trade War, and Dagudashag has been slowly removing assets from the local systems.
[Sessions Five and Six]
THE REGINA RALLY!
Soon after the Trade War sessions were complete, Taezon finally received his scout/courier (a benefit of dedicated service to the scouts). Not only did he receive a ship, he received a Ship. It had longer legs (Jump 3, not Jump 2) than other scout/couriers, and it was FAST: 6G acceleration.
They took the ship a few parsecs away on a trading/test run, making a little money in the process.
Then they immediately entered their newly named ship, the Red Dwarf, in the prestigeous Category Three level of the Regina Rally.
To make a long story short the ship had no serious problems with the Rally. It was easily faster than any other ship in its category; apparently speed kills. ;)
However they did run into a few problems...
First, an Imperial Baron, Tran Elsinore, was to be the final participant in the Rally. However, the pair of Taezon and Lenny beat him in final registration by a mere hour. The Baron was outraged, and first attempted to buy them out of the race (against the rules, but heard of none-the-less). When that failed, he threatened them with various Imperial problems, which of course failed (and probably wouldn't have worked, regardless).
The real kicker was when the Baron, using his racing ship, Fireball, attacked the Red Dwarf while refueling at a gas giant in the Knorbes system. After a three hour combat, the smaller Red Dwarf managed to get away from the larger ship and make its escape. More on this in a bit...
After this, there were no other problems for the Red Dwarf and crew in the actual race. This ship was just too fast for the other participants. There was one serious issue remaining, however...
The Red Dwarf (the fifth ship of its class off the construction lines) began developing CRACKS in its main keel sometime during the Rally. The crew finally discovered them just over half-way through, and this made refueling (and potential combat) difficult, to say the least...
[You should have seen the looks on the crew's faces when they found the cracks; it was priceless!]
And of course, soon after his development, there were reports of Vargr Corsairs in the next system... which they managed to avoid (as they had enough fuel to essentially bypass the system entirely).
Using local geography (i.e., bypassing systems where they would need to refuel at a gas giant and/or enter a planetary atmosphere), they were able to prevent the Red Dwarf from developing any more serious cracks in the keel, and won the Rally handily.
They are now completing their Rally-required obligations for the next game-month.
Soon after the Rally was won, they had a private meeting with a Noble, who explained that the Baron (Elsinore) had recently developed terminal brain cancer, and this caused him to 'snap' when he couldn't enter the Rally, then attacked the players. Soon after being beaten in combat, he realized the stupidity of his actions and made amends for them.
He gave the Red Dwarf crew Traveller's Aid Society memberships (Cr 1,000,000 each in value), as well as giving them ownership of his racing ship, the Fireball, newly rebuilt and restored to original specifications. (Not as good or fast as the Red Dwarf, but still a nice ship.)
What is in store for the now-famous crew of the Red Dwarf? How will they make money to pay for the construction of their 'dream ship'? How will they deal with crew (and other) changes?
Tune in for more developments!
Well, life has surely been interesting, so far, for this adventurous duo.
Their actions to date have covered the following activities:
[Session One]
No sooner had the pair met (in a bar, of all places; where else?!) than they were accosted by the proverbial 'roving gang of hooligans', who were actually employees of the Imperial Megacorporation Dagudashag. These misfits accused the duo of being 'Oberlindes scum' [employees of a regional trading and shipping firm, Oberlindes Lines, LIC; OL]. Of course, they aren't, but when has that ever stopped drunk spacehands? The pair escaped serious injury, even though outnumbered at least six-to-one, and were soon hired by OL to do some 'side work'.
Oberlindes and Dagudashag were at the beginnings of a regional Trade War, contesting over the Imperial Navy's awarding supply shipping contracts to OL after Dagudashag failed to meet obligations...
Their first mission was scouting a local warehouse used by Dagu to process local cargoes. After several days of observation (and nearly been spotted and blowing the entire mission at least once...) the two managed to 'sneak' into the warehouse and determine its layout, security, etc.
Two days after this, 'commando' raiders from OL looted and torched the facility in the overnight hours.
[Session Two]
Soon after this, the duo and the nearly-famous JBT [Johnathon B. Templeton, a Scout who lost almost his entire body, and is now essentially a starship...] to scout out a Dagudashag refueling facity in the outskirts of the nearby Forboldn system. The group faked a fuel leak, got the Dagu facility to send out a repair crew to assist.
While the repair crew was aboard, Lenny used his unique observation skills to ascertain important data from the local Dagu head (who was foolish enough to work on critical data when Lenny could see his computer; I guess he was too busy and confident...), which included the layout of the refueling facility.
The group was also able, through observation of Jump coordinates and vectors, to determine the relative destinations of various Dagu raider groups, which were setting off to raid/interdict OL shipping assets...
[Sessions Three and Four]
During these sessions, the group, using a ship with improved weaponry supplied by OL, and with a larger fleet of raiders and cargo ships, went to the Dagu refueling facility they had scouted previously (in the Forboldn system). In that system, they interdicted all Dagudashag shipping that entered the system. This was a normal refueling spot for Dagudashag (a shortcut, bypassing numerous local systems of nominal trade value to that company). In a three week or so time span, they intercepted approximately 30 ships, seriously hurting Dagu's bottom line in this region of space.
In one memorable action the pair's ship (the modified fat trader "Pride of Regina" managed to intercept a yacht, which was carrying the local head of Dagudashag for this region. This pair of actions (intercepting Dagu shipping and capturing their local leader) effectively ended this Trade War, and Dagudashag has been slowly removing assets from the local systems.
[Sessions Five and Six]
THE REGINA RALLY!
Soon after the Trade War sessions were complete, Taezon finally received his scout/courier (a benefit of dedicated service to the scouts). Not only did he receive a ship, he received a Ship. It had longer legs (Jump 3, not Jump 2) than other scout/couriers, and it was FAST: 6G acceleration.
They took the ship a few parsecs away on a trading/test run, making a little money in the process.
Then they immediately entered their newly named ship, the Red Dwarf, in the prestigeous Category Three level of the Regina Rally.
To make a long story short the ship had no serious problems with the Rally. It was easily faster than any other ship in its category; apparently speed kills. ;)
However they did run into a few problems...
First, an Imperial Baron, Tran Elsinore, was to be the final participant in the Rally. However, the pair of Taezon and Lenny beat him in final registration by a mere hour. The Baron was outraged, and first attempted to buy them out of the race (against the rules, but heard of none-the-less). When that failed, he threatened them with various Imperial problems, which of course failed (and probably wouldn't have worked, regardless).
The real kicker was when the Baron, using his racing ship, Fireball, attacked the Red Dwarf while refueling at a gas giant in the Knorbes system. After a three hour combat, the smaller Red Dwarf managed to get away from the larger ship and make its escape. More on this in a bit...
After this, there were no other problems for the Red Dwarf and crew in the actual race. This ship was just too fast for the other participants. There was one serious issue remaining, however...
The Red Dwarf (the fifth ship of its class off the construction lines) began developing CRACKS in its main keel sometime during the Rally. The crew finally discovered them just over half-way through, and this made refueling (and potential combat) difficult, to say the least...
[You should have seen the looks on the crew's faces when they found the cracks; it was priceless!]
And of course, soon after his development, there were reports of Vargr Corsairs in the next system... which they managed to avoid (as they had enough fuel to essentially bypass the system entirely).
Using local geography (i.e., bypassing systems where they would need to refuel at a gas giant and/or enter a planetary atmosphere), they were able to prevent the Red Dwarf from developing any more serious cracks in the keel, and won the Rally handily.
They are now completing their Rally-required obligations for the next game-month.
Soon after the Rally was won, they had a private meeting with a Noble, who explained that the Baron (Elsinore) had recently developed terminal brain cancer, and this caused him to 'snap' when he couldn't enter the Rally, then attacked the players. Soon after being beaten in combat, he realized the stupidity of his actions and made amends for them.
He gave the Red Dwarf crew Traveller's Aid Society memberships (Cr 1,000,000 each in value), as well as giving them ownership of his racing ship, the Fireball, newly rebuilt and restored to original specifications. (Not as good or fast as the Red Dwarf, but still a nice ship.)
What is in store for the now-famous crew of the Red Dwarf? How will they make money to pay for the construction of their 'dream ship'? How will they deal with crew (and other) changes?
Tune in for more developments!
Thursday, January 13, 2011
After the Rally
Hello from Captain Taezon Bhaasch. As Lenny has said things are real chaotic following the finish of the race. We are currently shaking down a new vessel to ensure we can provide prompt and reliable services. She's no Red Dwarf but she'll do just fine. Let me be the first to say that although the Red Dwarf suffered an unrepairable failure of the keel, the design is sound and once the materials issues and structural engineering is sorted out, vessels of her class will go on to even more amazing feats beyond winning races.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Welcome, from Weps!
Hello, racing fans! Life has been amazingly busy in the last few weeks since the completion of the race. We are have mixed feelings about the Red Dwarf and its grounded status. As many of you know, Captain Taezon had been waiting a long time for his first commission as an independent scout, and when the opportunity to captain the newest, fasted ship off the scout line, he obviously jumped at the chance. Our first run with this rare ship was a short hop across the galaxy from Regina, enough to demonstrate its amazing qualities.
Timing was incredible in that the Regina Rally was right around the corner. The experience of the race will be remembered for a lifetime and more. It is unfortunate that the Red Dwarf did not survive past the finish of the race, but the knowledge that the safety of our men and women in service will be spared from unspeakable fate is worth it.
We have some exciting news to share. Red Dwarf Racing, LIC (Limited Imperial Charter) has officially changed its name to Red Dwarf, LIC. We will bring the same success we had in racing to the you, the traveler, the businessmen and women. Stay tuned, and watch this site for more news.
Lenny "Weps" Ramis
Timing was incredible in that the Regina Rally was right around the corner. The experience of the race will be remembered for a lifetime and more. It is unfortunate that the Red Dwarf did not survive past the finish of the race, but the knowledge that the safety of our men and women in service will be spared from unspeakable fate is worth it.
We have some exciting news to share. Red Dwarf Racing, LIC (Limited Imperial Charter) has officially changed its name to Red Dwarf, LIC. We will bring the same success we had in racing to the you, the traveler, the businessmen and women. Stay tuned, and watch this site for more news.
Lenny "Weps" Ramis
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