It will be a long time before Black Moon Orbital is back to normal. The bombs caused considerable damage and too many people were killed and wounded. The team eventually regroups on ROCK and, after getting some rest, meets in the wardroom for some discussions. The events of the last 48 hours are replayed and discussed to analyze what the Anubi Brotherhood might know. The results are not good. The Anubi Brotherhood almost certainly knows of the group and their ship. They may or may not still have a presence on the orbital but they will almost certainly be monitoring ROCK from a distance and will follow her when she departs the orbital in the belief that she will be attempting a rendevous with Xorn.
JACK: I take it there is no reason to believe that ROCK can disable the Brotherhood's ship, and we do not want to force a conflict. I certainly would not mind the chance to take them down a peg or two but it seems risky in space. Since I was not there in the bar I'd like to get a report from those that were, get an idea of what we might be facing the next time we come into contact with one of their teams, how strong were they Vareq, Kyle? (Or are we assuming that that discussion has already taken place?)
KYLE: FWIW, Kyle would have given a detailed account of the first two seconds of the fight, including how quickly he was taken out.
GM: I'm assuming that discussion already occurred.
PROFESSOR: "I've had further discussions with Rockora on the matter since she retrieved Rocknetta and absorbed her collected knowledge. The Anubi Brotherhood also knows that someone has been helping Xorn on Black Moon for quite awhile. They know that someone paid the prison psychologist off so that he would not renew the mind blocks that kept Xorn from accessing his powers in prison. The prison psychologist was kidnapped and murdered quite some time ago and it would be difficult to believe that it was not the work of the Anubi Brotherhood. We should assume that the brotherhood knows everything that the psychologist knew."
JACK: Jack shakes his head sadly and adds, "Which also may or may not include all his data on the powers and psychology of each of us that were inmates at Black Moon. It seems we will be more of a liability than an asset in the attempt to contact Xorn.
PROFESSOR: "The Anubi Brotherhood believes that they know more about this person who has been helping Xorn but it's probable that they don't. That person, of course, is Rocknetta. Rocknetta has been employed in Circle City for the last few years. She set up ficticious personalities and addresses and always worked remotely. The Anubi Brotherhood believe that Rocknetta is a real person who has always managed to stay one step ahead of the brotherhood. Having been unsuccessful in tracking her down physically, they made an attempt to kill her in the net. That attempt also failed. It is very difficult to kill an AI in their native environment."
PROFESSOR: "That's a little background. The question is what to do next. Here is what I propose. Rocknetta will communicate with Xorn and let him know that now is not the time. Xorn is very long lived and another year or two on Black Moon is not likely to mean much to him. Rocknetta will remain on Black Moon as a contact with Xorn and to continue monitoring the Anubi Brotherhood as best she can. Sometime in the future, Iwill again return to Black Moon in an effort to retrieve Xorn."
KYLE: "That seems wise. Please let me know when you want to make the attempt again, and I'll be happy to come and help."
PROFESSOR: "That means that this mission is over. We leave here and head towards Regina. We avoid Black Moon JP when we jump. There are 13 possible destinations that we can reach from here and I propose choosing one at random to reduce the risk of the brotherhood second-guessing us. Then we make our way toward Regina."
SURGE: Surge nods then adds, "It seems that would be prudent. Any further action at the point would be very difficult and dangerous. Coming back when they are less likely to suspect it seems best."
SURGE: Surge also agrees with the tactic to leave the system and helps to suggest the best alternative in terms of putting any pursuit from the Brotherhood off course.
JACK: The Brotherhood may well try to attack us if we try to move away from Black Moon in an effort to jump away too, we simply don't know how heavy their presence is in this system. Here near the gravity wells is the only place they can be sure to catch us and stop us from leaving, once they realize we have decided not to make contact they could well try to force us to stay until we do. It seems in keeping with their profile. They have been patient and methodical in the past, but now that they have a lead, it would seem equally likely they will 'ride' that lead hard, not willing to let their best chance in 2 years slip away.
JACK: Out of curiousity, why Regina? What are your plans next? It would seem it is time to part company, it's not like you really need us any more, unless you intend to go into business radically different from your past activities. I will definitely miss the freedom and mobility that ROCK has provided for us though.
PROFESSOR: "Regina is my home."
JACK: As for me, I wouldn't mind doing some investigation on Regina or Jewell into some of our loose ends in an attempt to curtail their illegal and/or violent activities in the future. Whether that is Barrier Industries and their running of Black Moon MULE, the parole system that kept Xorn in prison for 140 years, Serene Mining Corporation's shanghai techniques for orbital asteroid mining, or even the Brotherhood itself, once we're on the ground and investigating from the outside we won't be at such a disadvantage, I would hope. I am not exactly well- suited for such an investigation though, and of course we don't have the political clout to make such charges stick.
OMEN: Vareq shrugs. "I think that investigating further into the Brotherhood that seems to be bent on killing us is a good idea. I don't know much about the Anubi Brotherhood. I don't know what their goals are, or why they are interested in Xorn. I do they are powerful mentalists and they've proven they can get to us. I say we either eliminate them completely or get the heck out of their gunsights."
JACK: Maybe it would be simpler to hire on as a ship's crew and keep travelling, and try to earn enough to get our own ship again someday, possibly through salvaging a dead ship hulk like we did with ROCK. Perhaps we could join a small time salvage operation and earn shares of the ships and credits or something. I'd say we could even form our own salvage operation, except we need a ship to conduct that from. What of the rest of you?
KYLE: "As I said when we headed off to Black Moon, I hadn't given much thought to what I was going to do from now on. I wouldn't mind sticking around to learn some astrogation and engineering. And I certainly don't have any other jobs lined up. I'm also still new to being a mutant in the Imperium. I wouldn't mind sticking around with you guys for a while so I can get used to it. Seems the Imperium is not necessarily a safe place for a guy with mutant powers.
JACK: "The biggest thing is not to show off and make it blatant. 90% of the time if you're saving the life of someone like those people on the station, and not throwing your powers in their faces, they will overlook it and only really think about the fact that you were a mutant, and a good one, well after the fact. I was concerned about the administrator or security teams on the Orbital getting too curious about us too quickly, and linking us to the bombs, but thankfully our efforts to clean up and not grandstand and get credit/paid for it seem to have assuaged any suspicion they may have had.
OMEN: "I certainly wouldn't mind having a ship. I think we should take the Anubi's. That one looked pretty decent."
MIDNIGHT: "I think leaving the brotherhood as far behind as possible is the best answer right now although I think Jack has a point that they may not just let us leave. As for a ship, I don't mind working towards our own or signing on with another crew. I think many of us got licensed during our last break because of the inevitability of leaving Rock in the near future."
VAMPERINA: Vamperina nods in agreement with the others. "I like the idea of sticking together. We might be able to start out own small time salvage company. Another possibility is to start out own "troubleshooting" company. If someone needs a difficult job done, they can hire us to do it. We would have the luxury of being able to refuse jobs that look blatantly illegal or that we would otherwise object to. The fact that we have all of the required licenses and skills to operate a commercial starship would be a point in our favor, especially if we could have a separate engineer and astrogator - and I believe Kyle has already expressed an interest in learning astrogation."
VAMPERINA: "In any event, Regina would be a good place to start. Cape Goliath is the capital of the Spinward Marches and the most populous city."
SURGE: "As I've lived on Regina, it's unofficially my home. I'll have some friends and family to catch up with once we arrive planet side. I'm also thinking about all these credits and if I want to spend them right now. I'm definitely up for sticking together. A salvage company sounds neat as well as the troubleshooting one. I suppose we can see what comes up. I can also work on the side with programming jobs if credits are getting tight. How about everyone else?"
JACK: "I don't have a problem with Regina, per se, I have lived in Cape Goliath multiple times over the years, some of those times I tried to stay completely out of the limelight as a normal man, others I attempted to use my powers to help people and stop crime, and became what Xorn was back in his day, what the media calls a 'Mutant Vigilante'. I am very familiar with Cape Goliath in any case, so that will help us to get settled into a niche that we are all comfortable with, or if someone wishes to strike out on his own, I can help you to find something that will work out for you better than staying with us. My only hesitation is that someone may recognize me from those old publicity shots and notice that I haven't aged a day. Most recently I was a film actor here, which is where I was when I was shanghaied to Black Moon.
JACK: "I am curious about this idea of a 'troubleshooting company', though. I don't think I've ever heard it put quite that way, it could be interesting to try, though I don't know exactly how we'd legitimize or advertise the company to get the attention of the right clientele. Sounds something like a cross between a Private Investigation firm, a bounty hunter, a salvage company, and even a mercenary stealth strike team when the occasion called for it. All things we could do, and be good at, but how do we get the right kind of attention, and avoid the wrong kind of attention... hmmmm..."
JACK (OOC): Honestly I don't see it as being plausible, but Jack might be able to figure out a way to organize a business like that, he's good with people, and marketing would be right up his alley, he even has some of the supporting skills for it like Trading and Bureaucratics. I assume there are licenses for each of those business ideas listed above, would we need to get all of them?
GM: I wouldn't know how to go about setting it up either but I'm assuming that Jack, with all his contacts, and his Trading and Bureaucratic skills, would probably have some very good ideas on how to start something like this.
JACK (GM): Once we're on the ground in Cape Goliath, one of the things I would want to do is send a quick message to my friends connected with the movie industry, simply a smiling (pre-recorded vid), "Hi, I just wanted to let you know that they finally figured out that it wasn't me that killed that guard. I can understand if you never want to speak to me again, but in case you ever gave me the benefit of the doubt, I wanted you to know that things worked out. Best of luck, Jack." I would also want to check my TAS box on Cape Goliath, which is what I have given to everyone since Black Moon as a way to contact me if needed, people like Eli, Curt, Max, even Arpad, Dayne, Axel, Felip, and Dan that escaped with us, as well as Kobi and other 'passing friends' who have since left our group. I am not assuming it is uncompromised, but just in case there's any legitimate messages in there, I'll check it out.
GM: I'll leave it up to Marty to decide on the outcome of your movie industry results. There is nothing from Eli. There are messages from Curt and Max, both saying that they are doing fine and will keep in touch. Curt is still on Jewell and Max doesn't say where he is. There is also a message from Scooter saying that he, Dayne and Arpad are doing good. This last message is initially somewhat perplexing until Jack realizes who it is really from (Scooter doesn't use anyone's real name). Basically it says, in so many words, that they managed to get passage out of the Newcomb system are are doing fine. It is dated about a year ago. There is also a contact TAS box for any return messages.
KYLE: "I studied for a time at the University of Regina, so I'm at least familiar with the system. And staying there for a time would give me a chance to see if I can get permission to visit the Ancients dig they're working on at Beck's World - or at least see if I can look at some of what they've found. And I am a pretty quick study. With some help from Surge I could get up-to-speed on astrogation pretty quickly."
JACK: "Could be interesting, we tried a brief archeological dig on Black Moon, actually, Eli had dug up some info that there might have been a ruin worth checking out, but they had no real luck. Max would certainly have been interested in anything of the sort, but he's gone his own way now. I wonder hat he's up to...
KYLE: "Was that an Ancients ruin you found? If so, that would be big news. Those are rare enough that any new one can be important. In fact, if there were an Ancients site on planet, it might be a way to bring some attention to the MULE there. Those sorts of places don't tend to do well out int eh light where the press can see what they really do."
JACK: "Sorry, I didn't mean to give you the wrong impression. They found nothing at all, no ruin, nothing. Eli had simply believed there MIGHT be something at this site, from correlating reams and reams of data/research he'd done, and a few people went to check it out just as a sort of vacation from our humdrum lives in Circle City. I didn't actually go, I was just the wheel man for the entry and exit from Circle City with the rental car, and the radio contact on the ground. Surge, you were there, weren't you?
SURGE: "Yes, I was. No, Eli did not find anything and it could have been just a wild goose chase. It would have been nice to check it out with better equipment and more time. But I didn't get the sense that it was anything special." Surge shrugged. |