2171:

Trent born at New Holland terraforming colony. Tulk born on Hollywood.

2176:

Steg born on Texas.

2185:

Mish born on Pacifica.

2189:

Trent joins TFRN, commisioned as ensign and assigned to TFS Normandy.

2192:

Tulk hired at IBM.

2193:

Normandy disappearance, Trent sole survivor.

2194:

Trent court-martialed for ”dereliction of duty” in regard to Normandy disappearance.

2195:

Steg joins USCM.

2196:

Trent joins Sophie, captained by JMarceau. Steg gets jailed for “disabling” a superior officer.

2198:

Trent shot by JMarceu, and they are subsequently married.

2199:

Tulk embezzles IBM money, with the help of a friend, Spyder (Ref: OfficeSpace). Steg escapes prison at Ft. Wincott, Texas, USA, and goes on the run.

2200:

Replacement Miners: Spyder killed by IBM goons attempting to recover the stolen money; Tulk escapes, ending up at Gateway Station. After some time on the run, Steg ends up at Gateway Station. Steg & Tulk meet on Supernova Sunset, on the way to a no-questions mining job in the Core that ended in catastrophe; made off with §1M. Sunset drops Tulk & Steg off at Port Crown, where they spend some time trying to recover from their recent experience; later in the year they sign on with a tramp crew, on Annabelle Lee, on its way out of the Core.

2201:

Confederation taxes on Ozrahdi goods raised to ridiculous levels (50%) in response to OKU import taxes, causing a sharp increase in smuggling. Trent and JMarceau ”officially” divorce. Trent signs on with Lady's Grace, captained by [Plumbley], an aging former USCM medic. Tulk & Steg part company with Annabelle on Titleman Station, due to crew's concerns as to Tulk’s fitness, brought on by his nightmares/flashbacks; they find work at local pub. Later, Tulk is befriended by a hazel-skinned Boellann female named Chiana (a regular entertainer at the pub), whom he later suspects to be an information broker, insipiring him to run again. He and Steg sign on with another tramp, Dublin, bound for ”anywhere but here.”

2202:

Opn Righteous Hammer: Confederate anti-piracy campaign breaks up several small pirate companies operating on the fringes of CHW territory. Tulk & Steg part company with Dublin, Tulk suspecting them of weapons smuggling. They hire on with tramp company headed by Cpt.Plumbley (Tulk working as purser on Transaction Complete), where he meets AJ Trent. Mish graduates boarding school on Pacifica and starts “wandering.” Lady's Grace severely damaged on its way in to Pacifica in a collision that resulted in a major internal fire. For the tax write-off, Cpt. Plumbley gives the ship to Trent, Tulk & friends (who have expressed a desire to start a shipping business) to either repair or scrap. Together they scrape up £19.44M (around $2M in adjusted dollars), and the ship is repaired, rebuilt and refitted, and christened Bad Omen; DSD, LLP formed. DSD has problems making ends meet on Pacifica and starts looking to relocate.

2203:

DSD relocates to Tamborro Station, find Sophie crew is already residing there. Ty Coleman hired on. Steg rescues Mish from a bad-cop, gaining a friend and making an enemy; Mish takes working passage on Bad Omen, and is later asked to join the crew. Toward the end of the year, the CHW is rocked by scandal, as several CHWN captains are accused of accepting bribes or kickbacks from pirates in exchange for looking the other way.

2204:

Start

Foreword: In the United Stars Alliance, times are tough, and jobs hard to find; competition amongst trampers for existing cargoes is fierce and generally cutthroat. A local broker on Tamborro Station announced an upstart loco (local company) had a need for 10dT of natural furs (probably for coats or something), paying top dollar. After all the clawing and biting was over, it came down to whomever got the goods there first got the payoff. The proprietors of Deep Space Deliveries, LLP (the PCs), crew of the Bad Omen, knew exactly where to get it, and figured they could get the jump on everyone else. Yukon (Excelsior V) is a ”snowball” with a flourishing fur trade (ranchers introduced many Terran fur-bearing species, specifically for year-round fur production) not too far distant, and they knew an out-of-the-way market there that would get them a good price. Unfortunately, their bitter but good-natured rivals from Marceau Enterprises (the Rivals) also knew that market—and so the race was on. The winner would buy the loser drinks at Hard Vacuum (their favorite hangout) when everyone got back.

The Sophie beat them to Yukon by a solar-day, but it would take a few days to fill the order for both ships. As it turned out, both orders would be ready at about the same time. They had to spend their last dime to cover all the costs involved -purchase, taxes, fees and the like- and if they didn't beat the Sophie back to Tamborro they stood to lose big-time—and rent on their dockhouse was due soon.

There's no real starport there on the backside of the planet (hence the good prices), and the only local hangout is several miles away—some crappy, no-name pub (Ref: X-Men-Wolverine intro). Everybody was there waiting it out—the PCs, their Rivals, and a handful of yokels (probably half the town). It started out friendly enough, but tensions were high. After everyone had gotten a few drinks in them (except Trent, who doesn't touch the stuff), knowing the parties involved, a brawl was inevitable…

---

The Game: It started with a fist flying toward Trent's face. Everyone was pretty sure the Rivals instigated the fight (Em being the most likely culprit). It was short, lasting only a few seconds. Steg demonstrated his quality, as he easily pummeled several yokels into submission, breaking the jaw of one and consigning him to the local med-station (where he was later treated and released—everyone was sure he'd been (nearly) killed, at the time). Tulk ducked under the table, intending to sneak out to tamper with their Rivals' vehicle, but ended up throwing an ash tray at Lionel (but nearly hitting Ditch instead). Mishka pretty much stayed out of it. All in all, no PC was injured—or touched, for that matter. About the time they were dusting off their hands, their comm goes off, alerting them that their cargo was ready to be loaded up; the Rivals' comm went off at the same time, though, so the race was on.

Both ”teams” were driving a rented jeep-thingy (Ref: Warthog-Halo). Everyone snapped sober and piled in, Steg driving for the PCs and Monk driving for the Rivals. Steg got off to a good start, but the lead changed many times over the course, as both vehicles slipped and swerved on the iced-over road. After Steg miraculously avoided a few near-disasters and was lagging way behind, Monk totally wiped out as he hit the iced-over creek and ended up spinning out and rolling over a few times, the vehicle landing on its side. The Rivals jumped out and righted the vehicle, but to no avail, as Steg blew past them toward the ships. The PCs got a sizeable head start loading the ship, and were starside in short order.

(Map of the Bad Omen) The trip back to the Helene system would end up taking PCs around 7½ days, and was relatively uneventful overall. Trent pulled some risky navigational and piloting tricks to get ahead, with good results. They skirted close to an incoming meteor shower on day3 (before their first jump), shrinking what could have been a much longer delay to less than an hour. They hailed a convoy of merchantmen, led by Captain Heinlein of the Maddox, that they passed on arrival at Helene system. They entered Tamborro space without incident, and noticed the Confederate frigate, CSS Ajax, as they passed over the docking rings on their way in. The Sophie had been diverted by a dark nebula on the jump out of Excelsior, and had barreled in at full burn for nearly the entire trip in a nearly-successful attempt to catch up, leaving them only 30min behind the PCs (as a result, PCs saw no sign of them for most of the trip).

(Map of Tamborro Station) PCs disembarked, and wrapped up their business concerns; profits from the sale came to £960,000...enough to get them by for a while with a little to spare. Afterward, they and the Rivals met at Hard Vacuum, a small pub on Tamborro owned and operated by Anson Law, a good friend to both parties. They all took up positions at the bar, rounds were bought, jokes were made, etc. PCs asked Anson about the Confederate frigate they passed on the way in. Mishka, being the anti-socialite, excused herself and left, taking some time to call in a contact of hers in local gov't to see if she could find out anything about the frigate. As she left, a man entered, who Steg & Tulk recognized as Mac Sabo, a spacer that was a regular at the bar they worked on Titleman Station years ago. He joined them at the bar, they swapped stories for a bit, and he discreetly told them about a ”rush job” he had for them. PCs noticed Em was listening in, and Sabo suggested they take their conversation somewhere a little more private. Before they got up, however, a squad of Confederate marines entered the bar, and Cmdr. Crawley, the officer-in-charge (XO of the Ajax) started canvassing the patrons as to the whereabouts of a man, who PCs identified as Sabo. The PCs sprang into action, as Steg escorted Sabo around the action, while Tulk engaged the commander and pointed an accusatory finger at Em. The ensuing argument between Tulk (who intentionally aggravated the matter), Anson (who played along with Tulk simply to embarrass the marines, being distrustful of the Confederacy), Em (who fervently, and rightly (for once) defended hersef, nearly coming to blows) and the commander (who remained totally confused) allowed Sabo to slip by in spite of his poor attempt at stealth, and ended with Em being removed from the bar to be questioned elsewhere by the marines. Trent was basically unaware of what went on, until the rest of the Rivals left to see to Em.

The crew were all called back to Mishka's apartment to discuss Sabo's job. Being their first time to see it, the others were amazed at the relative luxury of Mishka's place. Sabo then told them his story. He had overheard some spacers talking about the location of a treasure-wreck on Antichrist, a moon in the Lucifer system (a secret pirate/smuggler system). He went there to check it out personally. He was on his way out to get some equipment, when his ship broke down. He got picked up by some smugglers (in a small merchantman, the Natasha), who stole his blackbox, brought him back to Tamborro, and sold him out as a pirate to the CHW authorities, from whom he had just recently escaped. He managed to get out with a Rii (a highly sought-after Ozrahdi coin), which he showed them as proof. They would have to get the blackbox back from the smugglers in order to make this happen. Tulk was sure Sabo wasn't telling the whole story, and started playing “bad-cop,” but Trent stepped in more diplomatically when that effort began to fail. Overall, they managed to squeeze out of Sabo that it was actually a pirate cache, and they would, no doubt, be upset if it came up missing. Tulk was still unsatisfied with Sabo's confession, but decided to wait until later to grill him some more.

PCs hit the streets to track down the cargo the smugglers were trying to sell here on the station, as described by Sabo. Tulk, Steg & Sabo went down to the dockyards to narrow the search a bit, when Ali Woetzel, first mate on the smuggler's ship, was sighted. Sabo wasted no time in committee, having a score to settle, and tore after him—the others soon followed. Ali was pretty fast, but Tulk was able to keep up, and tackled him some distance later. Ali was spirited away to a nearby restroom, and Trent and Mishka were called in to assist in the interrogation. Once all were present, Tulk and Steg worked together and easily broke the cowardly Ali, not only gaining the blackbox's location, but access to the Natasha as well. Lest he should have become a problem afterward, the PCs bound Ali with duct-tape and locked him in the restroom's utility closet.

The group wasted no time, and headed straight for the smugglers' dockhouse. They entered, using Ali's passcard, and were greeted at the ship's ramp by the watch, led by a crewman named Hank. PCs made a passing effort to bluff past, but Hank was having none of it, and fisticuffs ensued. It was a quick fight, with many (mostly ineffectual) punches traded, but was ultimately ended when Tulk pulled out his plasma-blaster pistol. The smuggler crewmen were locked in a nearby cargo container, and the PCs entered the ship to retrieve the blackbox. As they prepared to leave, the bay door of the dockhouse opened to reveal more of the smuggler crew, including the captain, and a gaggle of dockworkers all entering.

The Game: (Map of the Natasha) PCs all ducked behind some crates in the hold where they were, but the smugglers were alerted to their presence by the crewmen locked in the cargo container. Truman Clark, the smuggler captain, sent the dockworkers, led by a burly Union-fanatic named Lewis Ray, into the hold to toss the intruders out, with promises of cash. As they advanced, at Trent's suggestion, Tulk fired a shot from his blaster to trigger the ship's fire suppression system, creating a flame-retardant fog. Trent, in possession of the blackbox, took advantage of the cover, grabbed Mishka and bolted for the back of the hold, where a utility ATV was moored. Tulk's shot took the fire out of the dockworkers (;D), but Clark still had an ember burning, and answered with a warning shot from his screamer pistol, tearing open a crate the PCs were hiding behind. After an exchange of words, and thrown objects, not to mention another shot from the screamer, Steg stood up and strode forward in a false attempt at further diplomacy. About that time, Mishka gunned the ATV forward, Trent on the back, and sped toward the captain. As they passed, Sabo jumped out from behind the crates and caught the ATV's cargo rail, allowing him to drag behind on the way out of the dockhouse. Trent threw a hammer at Clark as they passed him, hitting him squarely. As Steg had produced his own (large and menacing) firearm by this point, Clark found himself wounded and outgunned; he surrendered his weapon to the remaining PCs and allowed them to leave without further incident.

With the blackbox in hand, the PCs set about prepping for the new voyage. Mish and Tulk worked together to crack the security on the blackbox (which apparently was the property of someone other than Sabo, until recently, as he confessed). Trent spent some time making flight arrangements and studying the new blackbox, which he determined had been illegally tampered with, and contained many secrets...no doubt, it belonged to the pirates.

Tulk, Steg and Sabo hit the streets to get their hands on some less-than-legal hardware for the trip. As they were on their way out, Sabo suddenly charged around the corner after some unidentified lurker, coincidentally about the time some station cops showed up canvassing the locals about the whereabouts of some no-name pirate (Sabo). Tulk & Steg were poised to bolt, but were caught in the open, and had to talk their way out. After some tense moments, as Sabo returned to the scene and was nearly spotted, the cops moved on, apparently satisfied with Tulk & Steg's story that they hadn't seen him. Afterward, Sabo explained that the lurker was in possession of some of his effects, obviously sold under-the-table by some enterprising Ajax crewman, and had run off to retrieve them.

In the process of provisioning for the journey, Tulk ran into Julie at the chandler and had a brief conversation, where he discovered the Rivals were also prepping for a new voyage, scheduled to be leaving about a week after their own. As the time came for PCs to set out, they discovered that a squad of CHW marines was blocking entrance to their dockhouse. Upon inquiry, it was learned that they were inspecting all craft scheduled to leave at that time, to ensure that Sabo was not among the crew/passengers, and sealing them in. After some discussion (far from the scene), it was decided that Sabo would have to space-walk to the ship on the outside of the station, as the rest of the crew entered by the dockhouse as normal. To access an airlock, Tulk hacked into the public dockhouse recently vacated by the smuggler captain, and Sabo went out in a vacc suit, taking 30min or so to reach the ship. The marines allowed the rest of the crew to enter the ship, and sealed them in without incident, being oblivious to Sabo's external approach.

The Bad Omen set sail for Antichrist, jumping first to the Deianeira system, then Shamafar before the final jump to the Lucifer system. On the way out of the Helene system, they encountered the Birmingham, and Captain Hubbard, who informed them that they were being tailed by a pinnace masking itself from their view in the sun.

After clearing an early-morning fuel jam, the pinnace, the Solo, captained by a former-janitor-turned-bounty-hunter named Bubba Tango, caught up with the PCs and demanded they cut thrust and hand over Sabo, after having fired a warning shot. Trent performed an endover, prompting the Solo to fire on them, except that her weapons malfunctioned and missed wildly. Steg returned fire with a burst from the gatling blaster and evaporated one of the Solo's engine pods, disabling the ship.

The remainder of the trip passed without incident, and the Bad Omen entered orbit around Antichrist. They made a few passes over the surface to locate the wreck. Meanwhile, Tulk picked up on the ship's sensors a faint energy trace -no doubt, a reactor- out at one of the moon's Lagrange points, leading them to believe they were being watched. The wreck was eventually located, and the ship descended to the surface. Ty remained on-board and flew a patrol, keeping an eye out for incoming traffic, while the others entered the wreck. There was some discussion of cutting through the cargo doors, but eventually Tulk hacked the main lock, bypassing an EMP boobytrap (at Sabo's oddly-prescient suggestion). On entering the hold of the ship, they found a great deal of riches, in coin and goods. Sabo made a beeline for a special case among the goods, the contents of which could make them all rich beyond the rest of the treasure combined. The Bad Omen was then landed nearby, and the PCs began to load the treasure into her hold.

During the loading process, Ty (still on the ship) announced that sensors had detected a ship approaching, that turned out to be the Sophie. The PCs Rivals emerged, and presented them a document declaring they had full claim to the contents of the ship. Given their armament, it was certain they meant to take it all, regardless of the PCs willingness to share. However, as the two parties negotiated, the Rivals appeared weary (as Captain Marceau admitted they had been sitting idle at the Lagrange point for several days, with no gravity and only backup power) and eventually relented, accepting an even split of the treasure; the PCs offered to help them load it, as well.

As the loading operation was coming to a close, Ty announced (again) that they had a sensor contact, except this time the incoming ships were already right on top of them—4 launches, obviously stealth-equipped. At the same time, they received a communication from the orbiting Roever, captained by the pirate whose treasure this was, demanding they stand down or be destroyed. As Sabo then admitted to being a former member of the crew of the Roever, and described its capabilities, the PCs and their Rivals resigned themselves to capture, as numerous pirates stepped out of the boats to apprehend them.

Foreword: The pirates had the group surrounded and outnumbered by quite a bit, and included Tohre-Chi, Bœllann and Humans of various origins (as much as can be determined, as they were wearing vacc suits). Everyone was disarmed and forced onto the boats; Trent, Steg, Tulk, Mishka and Sabo are in the same boat. At the same time, the pirates who formerly occupied the boats onto which the captured crew were being herded were boarding the other ships, no doubt as prize crews.

The trip into orbit took about 20 minutes. During the trip, Sabo confessed to his deceptions and recounted the story of how he ended up in this situation. He was part of a pirate company operating out of the Core. When the captain refused to attack Terran shipping against the wishes of many of the crew, he was voted out and replaced by Samson Bale. Sabo was on the former captain's side of the argument, and eventually began covertly seeking support to replace Bale himself. Later down the road, Black Bale decided to stash his share of the loot so far. He enlisted Sabo's help in hiding the goods—something he usually keeps well away from crewmen (especially the Chi). The company was towing a beat-up pinnace at the time (a recent capture). After hiding the goods, Sabo was cuffed to the helm of the pinnace (”made captain,” as Bale put it), and the ship was placed in a rapidly decaying orbit over Antichrist. However, Bale forgot one thing...”I'm Mac-friggin'-Sabo” (who has been known for miraculous escapes). Sabo knew the betrayal was coming, but could do nothing to stop it—except that he managed to switch out Bale's blackbox with the one on the pinnace, as a last act of defiance. (He never explained how he escaped, BTW)

On board the Roever, the group was distributed among several ”cells” (just modified staterooms with no door controls on the inside, and a thick window -pretty standard for non-military vessels). Trent, Tulk, Steg and Mishka were in the same cell, with the others nearby. Bale, Atilios (a rather large Præxian) and some Chi bodyguards were present, and as the doors were closed Bale delivered a trademark speech through the comm...

”There comes a time in a man's life when he's gotta start lookin' to the future. I mean, a man can't just keep lootin' and pillagin' to the end o' time. Everybody's gonna die someday—everybody gets older...weaker. Ya gotta look to the end while you're still capable of doin' somethin' about it...gotta start settin' somethin' aside for the days when ya can't make your livin' like ya used to. So that's what I've been doin' here—settin' somethin' aside. And here I come now, all ready to settle down...enjoy the fruits of my labors an' all. Only now I find some goram vultures peckin' at my nest-egg—an' after I went to such great pains to tuck it away, y'see? Now normally, I treat my guests with respect and decency—but since I caught you folks here makin' off with my retirement fund...well...now, that would make you my enemies, then, wouldn't it? I don't treat my enemies with respect and decency. In fact, I tend to kill my enemies in nasty ways. My mutinous ex-friend, Sabo, here, could tell ya all about that—he kinda knows first-hand, y'understand—'cept Sabo shoulda had the sense to die when I killed 'im the first time. Now, I'm takin' all this personally, y'see? I mean, you're killin' me—not to my face, but you're stabbin' me in the back when I'm old and can't defend myself. That ain't right. Ya just can't go 'round killin' old men on their sick-beds. Hell—I'm an evil bastard, an' I don't go 'round doin' that. And if that ain't injustice enough, now I've suddenly got some goram Confederate frigate bearin' down on me—I don't suppose any o' you folks know anything about that?... So now, I gotta decide what to do with you, only I don't have time to do it proper, since I gotta go deal with the ”cavalry.” There's gonna be a fight, an' I don't know how it's gonna shake out—if I had the rest o' my fleet here, that'd be a different story. God forbid, I might only have time to have one o' my boys plug you each in the head while my ship is comin' apart around us all, an' I won't have time to explain myself. So...should it come down to all that, when you come to your inevitable and untimely end, I think you should understand why it happened.”

As Bale was about to excuse himself to deal with the incoming ”business,” Trent quickly spoke up, ”Captain Bale, apologies are in order. Until you arrived, we were under the mistaken impression that the—your nest egg belonged to someone else.” (This is said with a heated glare at Sabo or at least in his direction; Trent is absolutely furious that this piece of merde has put his crew into this situation). ”If anyone must pay for the insult given to you, I would ask that it be me and not my crew...except for that fils de putain.” (again, said with a glare at Sabo). ”Captain's Right.”

Bale responded, ”Captain's Right, eh? Y'know, if I didn't have this 'thing' to take care of, I'd see your 'Captain's Right' right here and now—put this whole business to bed. Looks like it'll have to wait, though. You really wanna get dirty with me—well, pray to whatever god you want that I come out on top here shortly, and we'll see...”

Bale then excused himself, leaving a couple of Chi to guard the prisoners. Some moments later, PCs heard a clanging toward the back of the cell, and a floor panel removed itself to reveal Sabo, having apparently accessed a crawlspace between decks. With a confident (or cocky) smile, he apologized for his tardiness, and bade the PCs to follow him, about the time the ship's gravity cut off.

---

The Game: (Map of the Roever)As Sabo led the PCs through the crawlspace, Tulk grabbed him by the throat, but was interrupted by the others who insisted the throttling could wait until later. As they crawled forward, Sabo explained that they were moving across the ship toward the armory, and that they would come back for the others. The plan was to nab one of the ship's boats before Bale launched them in preparation for combat, after which they could re-take their ships. Midway across, klaxons could be heard, calling the ship's crew to action stations.

As they approached the armory, Tulk picked up some radio static on his implant communicator, which they identified as Tohre-Chi ”chatter,” indicating their presence. Peeking through the floor grating, they could make out two Chi, and one Bœllann above, loafing about. The PCs were armed only with a single holdout laser pistol that Tulk managed to sneak on-board with. There were two removable panels in the armory floor, one on either end of the room. Steg used the far one to quietly pop up and create a distraction, opening with a zero-G flying kick to the nearest pirate, while the others sneaked out of the near one in a flanking move, grabbing for the nearest weapon on the racks. The pirates were caught by surprise. The battle lasted for many seconds, as the group learned how thick the Chi's armor was—as it turned out, only the laser weapons were able to do any real damage. Sabo wrestled with the Bœllann and smashed his head into the nearest locker, but was rendered unconscious for the remainder of the fight by the pirate's bioelectric tongue-strike; the Bœllann then turned to grab for Trent's leg but got his head vaporized for his efforts instead. Overall, the PCs made good use of the lack of gravity, floating up and down to get a better shot in, and eventually won out. Mishka didn't participate in the fighting (as usual), but she did manage to lock down the door and gather weapons for everyone else. After the fight was over, Trent uncharacteristically saw to it that the fallen Chi would never again rise. Everyone was able to collect their personal effects that had been confiscated upon their capture, except that, to his chagrin, Steg's cutlass came up missing.

The group wasted no further time, and proceeded across the hold to the mess-area next to their cells, where they stormed in and quickly dispatched the Chi guards, in a blaze of shotgun and laser fire. Afterward, Tulk and Steg quickly cooperated to bypass the cells' locks, releasing the remaining prisoners, as they were all aware that more pirates were on their way. The others were let in on the plan, and the Rivals made for the launch on the opposite side of the ship under PCs' cover fire, and the door was jammed shut behind them. During the exchange of fire, Steg noticed that one of the pirates was in possession of his cutlass, and he vowed to himself to recover it one day.

(Map of the Roever's launch(es)) The crew of the Omen settled into the launch and took off. Sabo suggested that Bale was probably using the Omen and the Sophie as bait, while the Roever remained just over the horizon in ambush position; once the incoming frigate approached the bait, they would slow to allow the Roever to catch up, eliminating the need for direct communication. Trent expertly laid-in a transfer orbit that would intercept the Omen. The other ship's boats were launched as well, in what was determined to be an attempt to warn of PCs approach and/or prevent them from boarding. As they cleared the horizon, they could see the Omen and the Sophie, as well as the incoming frigate out at the edge of sensor range, which they identified as the CSS Ajax coming in fast. Trent managed to keep the boat in position to block the pursuing boat's laser communicator's line of sight to the Omen, preventing their attempted warning, while Steg and Ty manned the door-guns in the rear of the craft and shot their pursuer out of orbit. As a result, Trent was able to easily sidle up to the Omen in position to board.

The group bypassed the security on their own ship and boarded, quickly subduing all occupants, who were caught almost completely by surprise; PCs had home-field advantage, after all. The pirates had made a mess of the place, but nothing was missing (they didn't manage to get into Tulk's room, however, as he had modified the security system on his quarters).

Once more in control of their ship, Trent made a command decision to contact the Ajax and inform them of the waiting ambush and hand over Sabo. The Ajax demanded they stand down while they dealt with the pirates, and the PCs complied (the Sophie, however, would do no such thing, and immediately bolted). The Ajax and the Roever disappeared over the horizon, and some time later the Ajax returned, the Roever having apparently been able to escape after sustaining heavy damage. As the PCs prepared to hand over Sabo, they discovered he had already taken off in the Roever's launch, obviously having caught wind of the crew's intentions. Instead, the PCs handed over the pirate's blackbox to the arriving Confederate authorities. Captain Titas of the Ajax was happy enough with the Tohre-Chi secrets he had just gained that he was willing to overlook the fact that the PCs were hanging out in a ghost-system, and allowed them to leave, unmolested, with their treasure.

The Loot: (Assuming it was split evenly between the Omen and the Sophie): $1,750,000 in hard currency (45%-Rii(Ozradhi), 20%-§(Chets, Kyahnti), 18%-€(CBills, CHW), 17%-other), 2.5dT of lümpe (expensive Ozrahdi ”wine” valued at ~$100k, minus import duties (unless smuggled in ;)), .5dT of Cuban cigars (value TBD); total ~$1,850,000. There is also .25dT of ”miscellaneous adventuring-related gear,” specifics TBD. GM Note: This may seem like a lot of money to modern thinking, but given the inflation rate, and the expense of operating a shipping company, it doesn't amount to nearly so much; it will, however, be enough to justify buying off the ”Struggling” Trait.