[Begin a Session: (20) Flashback reveals an aspect of another character, place, or faction]
The winds began to howl between the rocky spires of Mirage, carrying ages-old dust and sand with every gust. Pearson leaned forward, hauling on the makeshift sled as he trudged on toward the horizon. Winter wasn't going to make it far on her broken leg, but they weren't going to leave her behind.
It was just the four of them now - Hunter and Finn each dragged a sled as well. They were just body panels from the shuttle, with lengths of cable to pull on, but they needed a way to bring along their few remaining supplies. If Jonny hadn't been killed by that energy discharge, he could have helped - Jonny would have tirelessly dragged all four of them and their supplies if he had to, until he could move no more.
They couldn't raise the ship on their handheld comms, and the comms in the shuttle had been irreparably damaged in the crash. If the Captain came looking for them, she wouldn't know where to find the crash site, but she would definitely check on the Starter. It was their best hope for survival, and maybe rescue. The four of them could never build a mighty city on their own from it, but with its supplies, they could hold out as long as they had to.
Breaker's Log - Day Six
The Scrounger was all loaded up and ready to go. They had packed anything the town could spare for trade, and whatever rations they could manage for me. That an already-starving settlement had given all the food and water they could spare, reminded me of the urgency of my mission. I could not afford to fail, or there might be no Ramshackle to return to.
Fran wanted to come with me. I wanted to bring her along - I felt bad about always leaving her behind while I worked - but it wouldn't be safe to put a kid into who-knows-what kind of danger. She was safe with Old Jin, and she could help the settlement to get by until I returned. We strapped in and lifted off.
[Expedition: Travel to Petrichor (Formidable)]
[Undertake an Expedition: +Wits, 6+4 vs 4/8. Strong Hit. Mark Progress (1)]
I had never been off Mirage before - I had never even been more than a day's ride from Ramshackle. Here I was, out in the Black, blazing a trail to a rainforest world. I had no idea what to expect along the way.
We dropped from the Drift at the first anchorage and I beheld a sight I could never have even imagined. Dozens of snub fighters drifted lifelessly through the dark of space at the Lagrange point. As I flew closer, I discovered that they weren't ships at all... they appeared to be organic. Those weren't wings, they were fins. What I had thought were nose cones were actually armored beaks.
I had only heard spacer's tales, but these were Void Shepherds. They protected wayward ships and helped them to find their way to safety. This must be where they went to die.
[Undertake an Expedition: +Wits, 2+4 vs 3/6. Weak Hit. Mark Progress (2). Peril (44)]
As we emerged from our second jump, proximity warnings began to sound and I heard pings and rattling along the hull. We had dropped into a meteoroid storm. We needed to navigate away from the area quickly, or the ship might be damaged or destroyed.
[Face Danger: +Edge, 5+3 vs 5/8. Weak Hit. Withstand Damage -1 (4)]
[+Integrity, 2+4 vs 2/9. Weak Hit. -1 Momentum (9), +1 Integrity (5)]
I was able to dodge through the hailstorm of tiny rocks and get the ship to safety. Scrounger had sustained some minor damage, but nothing that couldn't easily be fixed with a little time while the drives were recharging.
[Undertake an Expedition: +Wits, 6+4 vs 4/0. Weak Hit. Mark Progress (3). Peril (22)]
Our next jump took us a little too close into the gravity well of an uncharted orange star. The good news was that the extra energy would recharge the drives in an hour or so. The bad news was, if I didn't escape from this gravity well, the ship would be pulled into the sun in an hour or so.
[Face Danger: +Edge, 6+3 vs 4/7. Strong Hit. +1 Momentum (10)]
[Undertake an Expedition: +Wits, 6+4 vs 7/10. Weak Hit. Mark Progress (4). Endure Stress -1 (4)]
[+Spirit, 1+4 vs 2/3. Strong Hit. +1 Spirit (5)]
I was able to navigate the ship to a safe distance and made another jump. I was tired. It had been a long day - full of wonders that most in my village had never seen, nor even heard of. I told JONES to monitor the proximity sensors and headed aft for some sleep.
Breaker's Logs - Day Seven
I felt refreshed after some sleep - though being on an unfamiliar bunk in the depths of space wasn't as restful a night as I'd have liked. JONES powered down to recharge as I plotted our next jump.
[Undertake an Expedition: +Wits, 2+4 vs 1/4. Strong Hit. Mark Progress (5)]
The Scrounger dropped from the Drift near an asteroid belt. There were no planets or stars nearby, but the scanners showed that this field was rich in minerals. I logged the location - perhaps the information would be valuable to someone.
[Undertake an Expedition: +Wits, 1+4 vs 4/9. Weak Hit. Mark Progress (6). Peril (34)]
I heard some unusual sounds down the passageway - some scraping, a couple of thumps, and what sounded like... footsteps. I drew my pistol and crept cautiously toward the source of the sounds. They seemed to be coming from one of the crew cabins. I slid the door open carefully, ready to react to an attack from whatever animal might have made its home in the ship...
It was a small, bipedal creature about four feet tall. It was Fran. "I'm hungry, Brake," she said as she ran to hug me.
"Oh, Franny... what are you doing here? I told you to stay with Old Jin, she must be worried sick!" It was too late to bring her home, we were already halfway to Petrichor. I wasn't counting on looking after a kid in the middle of all this. "How about you get washed up and we'll have some lunch. You probably haven't eaten since yesterday, have you?"
She grinned and reached into her little pack. She had brought a change of clothes, her datapad with all of her books and games, a water bottle and some snacks. She clearly hadn't planned for the length of our journey.
[Undertake an Expedition: +Wits, 5+4 vs 9/9. Burn Momentum (10). Reset Momentum (2). Strong Hit with a Match. Mark Progress twice (8)]
Fran came up to the cockpit to watch as we continued on. She was a bit frightened, but also marveled at the beautiful sights we encountered along the way. She spent much of her time playing with JONES, whom she preferred to call "Jonny". Surprisingly, it was really good with children. They both shared a sense of wonderment, innocence and curiosity.
[Undertake an Expedition: +Wits, 4+4 vs 3/10. Weak Hit. Mark Progress (9). Peril (42)]
Later in the day, Fran started to shiver. It did feel kind of cold in here, and the panel also showed that oxygen levels and onboard atmospheric pressure were slowly dropping. There was probably a small leak somewhere in the systems that had gone unnoticed when we had been dirtside. I got a blanket for Fran, and then JONES and I headed back to Engineering to have a look.
[Repair: +Bot Health, +Gearhead. 1+4+1 vs 2/10. Weak Hit. +2 Momentum (4)]
JONES was able to help me locate and repair the leak. Thankfully it was just a compression coupling that needed to be tightened. Over the next couple of hours the temperature, pressure and oxygen levels crept back up to nominal levels.
[Undertake an Expedition: +Wits, 4+4 vs 3/8. Weak Hit. Mark Progress (10). Peril (79)]
We came out of our final jump into the Canopus system. It was a burning yellow star, and right within its habitable zone, we found the jungle world known as Petrichor. Clouds covered most of the surface, but scanners located the settlement of Silvana on the surface below.
As I prepared to hail the settlement, we were already receiving a challenge from a starfighter that had scrambled from the surface.
"Unidentified vessel, state your identity and purpose for your unannounced arrival. You are trespassing and have not been cleared to land. You have five seconds to comply or we will open fire."
I wasn't sure what kind of welcome we would expect when we arrived here, but this certainly wasn't it. "Uh, roger, hello, I am Blake, captain of the Scrounger, out of Ramshackle on Mirage. We are here on a trade mission. We have no hostile intent but require supplies for our settlement. Please assist, over?"
[Compel: +Heart, 2+2 vs 4/7. Miss. Pay the Price (51)]
"Negative, Scrounger. You have not been cleared to land here. We have never heard of Ramshackle but we don't need beggars coming around in rattletraps looking for handouts. Give me one good reason we shouldn't just destroy you, over?"
Fran was holding onto JONES, tears running down her cheeks. "Because I have a little kid on board, for frak's sake!" I told them. "You're scaring the hell out of her. If we had hostile intent, do you think we'd be having this conversation? How about we land and you take me to someone who can make use of the information I've got to offer?"
There were a few tense moments before the fighter responded. "Affirmative, Scrounger. Please follow us to these coordinates. Do not deviate from this vector or we will fire upon your ship."
I could already tell that we were going to have a great time here.
[Finish an Expedition: 10 vs 1/7. Strong Hit. +1 box to Discoveries legacy track. +2 XP (4)]
[Milestone on Vow "Acquire resources for Ramshackle": Mark Progress (2)]
[End a Session: Breaker needs to negotiate with Silvana for the supplies his settlement needs. Will he find someone who is willing to listen to reason? +1 Momentum (5)]