So about a week ago on twitter, I tweeted a kick off for a little space RPG action. A buddy of mine, @Valthonis actually picked it up and we played out a good bit in twitter. I’ve never really GMed anything and I didn’t really have a system to base it off but the hook felt solid. Below is a little fiction write up on what happened till we both got too busy and had to stop. With the medium of play being twitter, I naturally embellish some with the story. But basically everything that happens below, happened in the twitter exchange. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Enough to start looking into finding a good space system to run a game. Thanks, Duane for being a good player. I hope someday to sit at a table with you in real life.
The tweet that started it.
The decision is natural. Duane and his crew haven’t made a decent claim in 20 cycles. He would follow any signal beacon they pick up straight into a black hole if it meant the chance to find something profitable. The Consortium was on his back and the crew deserved to be rewarded. Duane demanded only the best serve on his ship and had the clout to get it, but it comes with expectations. So here they go.
“Take us in. Nice and slow, Baker,” Duane says.
“Aye, Cap.”
“How far in the nebula is the signal origin?” Duane asks his science officer.
“100,000 kilometers more or less…the nebula is reflecting a good bit of our scans,” Char replies.
Duane set his jaw as The Catch and Release made its way into the remote nebula. They were at least 15 light-years away from any reasonable trade route and a 6 month journey to the closest hospitable spaceport. He knew the risks running this far out of the Consortium’s influence, but he also knew the rewards. Claims from this side of the arm always brought more than the scrap found back home.
An uneventful 20 minutes pass as the ship arrives at its destination. The signal beacon is emitting from a behemoth of a vessel. Larger than any star liner Duane has ever seen. At well over 14 kilometers long, it fills the view port blocking out the nebula surrounding them. The silence on the bridge is only broken when the Operations Officer finally looks up from his console and whistles.
“That’s a big ole girl, cap,” Yevish says.
“What’s she doing all the way out here?” Duane asks. “Char, any life signs?”
“None that I can see in the operations areas, but there’s a dampening field encasing 80% of the aft section. Sensors can’t penetrate it.” At the sound of the dampening field a wave of excitement shoots through the bridge.
“Well that’s a good sign!” Baker says.
“Easy there, stick. Dampening fields may indicate something they want to hide, but it doesn’t always mean it’s something we want.” Duane says, “Take us around her. Let’s survey the hull.”
It takes nearly half an hour to survey the entire ship. In that time, they see no signs of damage from either battle or the natural hazards of space. The configuration of the ship doesn’t match up to anything in the computer’s database and the only markings they find fail to lead to any clues as to where this thing came from or where it was meant to go. Two docking ports show up in the visual scan of the hull. One fore and one aft, both appear to be in working condition.
“I recommend we pop in to the aft lock, take what we can grab, and get out of here, Cap.” Yevhish says.
“We’re not sure what’s waiting behind the aft port, sir.” Char replies, “I suggest we make for the foreword port and access the bridge.” Duane considers both his officer’s recommendations but curiosity gets the better of him. How is there no record of there every being a ship this size and how did it end up here?
“Baker, tie us up to the forward docking port.” Duane says as he accesses the communication system, “Prepare for boarding. I want two teams to meet us at the airlock. Arm yourselves.” As the acknowledgement comes through, Duane nods to Char and Yevish as they all retrieve their side arms from the bridge weapons locker and make for the lift.
Char makes quick work of overriding the airlock and the boarding party keeps their weapons trained on the door as it hisses open into a darkened corridor with no end.
“Detail One, you’re on guard duty. Bring up some flood lamps. If something starts running towards the ship, I want you to see it. Char, Yev, Detail 2, you’re with me.” Duane says.
As they navigate the corridors to the bridge, they notice the condition of the interior of the ship is the same as the hull, pristine. No signs of a battle. They arrive at the bridge to find it as dark as the rest of the ship. Char moves to the terminals to see what can be done as Duane sends Detail 2 to start searching aft.
“It looks like everything is just in stand-by, “Char says, bringing a terminal to life. “Give me maybe, 20 minutes?”
“Get to it,” Duane says as he walks around. This bridge is quite larger than his but the layout is similar. He finds what looks to be a commission plaque but it’s in a language he doesn’t recognize. He spends a good deal of time just taking in everything that’s happened so far. What language could this be? Who built this thing? Could they power it up and get it home? How much would it bring them? That last one makes him smile a bit as Yevish brings him back to now.
“What do you think, Cap?” Yevish asks.
“I think I don’t know a lot about this bucket. Until I do-“Duane is interrupted by a chirp on his comm.
“Go ahead.” Duane says.
“Captain, Detail Two. We’ve hit a bulkhead, sir. We’ll need some heavy gear to cut through it. Can’t see what’s behind it because the dampening field edge is only a few more meters aft.”
“Detail Two, Cap. Alright come on back to the bridge. Catch and Release prep an EVA team.”
“Going for a walk?” Yevish says.
“Cutting through the hull might be easier than that bulkhead. I want to know what’s so important to hide, that you run power only to a dampening field before you abandon the ship.” The lights on the bridge come on and a soft breeze moves through the bridge as the air exchangers ramp up to full power.
“Systems are starting to reboot, sir. It’s heavily automated.” Char reports. The familiar sounds of a repeating carbine down the corridor send everyone to cover. Duane, with his side arm drawn and aiming at the bridge hatchway, yells into his comm:
“Captain, Airlock or Detail Two, Report”
“Airlock, Captain. Lock secure, sir. It wasn’t us.”
“Detail Two, status, now!” For a few eternal seconds there is only silence at the other end until finally Detail Two’s leader responds.
“Captain, Detail Two. False contact, sir. Newbie burned a cleaning droid as it came online.”
“Double time it back to the bridge, Detail Two.” Duane says with a gruff but chuckles to himself when the commlink closes.
“Three rooks in that detail,” Yevish says, “bet it was Harkson.”
“No way,” Duane replies, “I picked Harkson myself.”
“How much?”
“20 Credits.”
Not too sure of your choices then, eh Cap?” Yevish prods. This draws a sigh from Duane.
“40 then.” Duane concedes.
“Bridge systems at 100%, sir. We have access to the computer as well, Char says as Detail Two enters the bridge with one of its members looking awfully sheepish. The patch on his chest reads ‘Harkson’ in red stitching. Duane discreetly passes Yevish a couple of credit chips as he says:
“Let’s start looking over the logs. Start with sensor logs, ship manifest, and itinerary. I want the captain’s last five log entries.” Duane orders.
“Sensor logs are damaged the further back you go. Last telemetry data shows a position in space I’m not familiar with.” Char says.
“What’s the relative date on that entry.” Duane asks.
“635 years, 6 months, and 12 days.”
“The hell? Alright, everyone back to the Catch. Char, take a dump of the sensor logs and everything else you can grab. We’ll make sense of it later.”
“Captain, I can establish a link with our ship’s computer to control key systems. It may prove to be useful later on.”
“Do it.”
Back on board the Catch and Release, Duane, Char, and Yevish discuss their options.
“I want to keep the ship over our position while we breach the hull. I want flood lights on us at all times.” Duane says.
“Cap, shouldn’t we try that aft port before we go cutting a hole in a perfectly good boat?” Yevish asks.
“The port is in the dampening field. Are we sure it works?”
“System readouts show all egress points as functional.” Char responds.
“Very well, secure the ship. Baker, cut us loose and take us to the aft port.” Baker keys his console and grunts.
“What’s the problem, stick?” Yevish asks.
“I can’t release the docking clamps.” Baker says, “Wait, there they go.” The ship drifts away from the larger vessel and quietly hovers as the crew makes sense of what’s happening.
“Report. I want to know why we couldn’t cut loose.” Duane says.
“These old salvage barges can be finicky sometimes, Cap. I wouldn’t worry too much over it.” Yevish says.
“Finicky, huh?” Duane responds, “Next time we put into port we’re overhauling the docking system. Ops will supervise.”
“Yes, sir.” Yevish says a bit sullenly.
“Sir, looks like there was a temporary interruption in the command pathways between here and the clamps.” Baker says.
“Char?” Duane asks, “Any ideas what would cause this? Don’t tell me we’ve picked up some kind of virus from that ship.”
“It’s possible the link to the derelict put enough of a strain on our computer to choke out some higher level commands. Their system is much more sophisticated than ours.” Char answers.
“How hard would it be to run the Catch without the computer?”
“You mean to take the main computer offline, sir?” Baker asks.
“Yes I do, stick.”
“I’d have a bitch of a time docking without it, Cap. Matching to drift is tricky even with the comp.”
“We’d be blind too,” Yevish offers, “wouldn’t know anything was out there till it’s too late.”
“I’d also be unable to help you navigate the aft section without the computer link.” Char says.
“Alright, alright.” Just keep an eye on things. Baker, hook us on to the aft docking port.” Duane says as he moves to the comm system, “Boarding party to the airlock.” He heads to the heavy weapons locker between the bridge and the airlock to pick up a few things he hopes he doesn’t need. Baker has docked and the airlock cycle is near complete as he meets the boarding party. Their weapons are trained on the door as a loud thump reverberates in the deck plate as the airlock doors begin to slide open. Duane takes the first step into the unknown and notices the staleness of the air and the dead silence.
“…I have a bad feeling about this.”
