??/??/2013 - Battle and Blackade (3)
Space Battle
Grant, Sloane and Cyrus go armed into the passenger’s quarters, tie up and stun the passengers. All electrical items are smashed, as are some drugs that Merlin seemed worried about. The crew then plan to fire the sand casters, which disrupt laser fire, and turn around as the pirates approach and fire their missiles. The pirates fire and manage to cause Hull damage despite the Sand Casters.
Two missiles are launched at the pirate ship. The pirates try to shoot the missiles, but they hit, inflicting three hits to Manoeuvre Drive, disabling it. This is a very lucky hit as the pirate ship is not disabled, unable to change course. The Red Queen fires missiles again. A further three hits strike the turret twice and the Hull - disabling their laser turret. The pirates are now helpless. The Red Queen manoeuvres as close as possible within missile range and orders them to surrender. Cyrus detects on the repaired sensors that the pirates are building up to a Jump. Grant orders them to power down or they will be fired on - no answer. They see that the ship is named Vengeance.
Cyrus fires two more missiles, which hit, causing six more points of Hull damage, damaging the Vengeance’s hull badly. Sloane begins to move away in case they get caught in the wake of the Jump. Cyrus fires two more missiles, which miss but they continue to home in on their target. He launches two more missiles just in case.
Victory!
The Vengeance signals to say they surrender - too late, four missile impact, Smashing the hull completely and damaging the inner structure, hitting the Bay and Hold. The Vengeance signals they have a hull breach in bay 2 and beg to surrender. Their attempt at a jump falters and fails when their power system shuts down.
A signal is then received from the Sector Authority ship Resolute. What is your situation Red Queen? Kennedy signals everything is OK now. Resolute asks what they are doing in this system, they reply delivering Medical Spice. A Lieutenant Lockerbie tells them he is dispatching two pursuit ships to their location; hold there, they will arrive in a few hours.
The crew of the Red Queen begin to discuss what to do with the crew and ship of the Vengeance. Cyrus records they have fired 12 missiles - 8 remaining. Sloane suggests ordering the pirates to abandon their ship before it is destroyed, which he does. The pirates are incredulous and go quiet.
Finding the Transmitters
Ben goes to the cargo hold to try to locate any transmitters on board that could have given their location away. He finds two using his hand scanner, but can’t see them. Then he closes in on one and it sprouts legs and moves like a spider! He chases but can’t get close enough, quick enough before it moves. He communicates with the bridge and goes to engineering to rig up an automated grabber.
Cyrus goes to see the passengers. He is attacked by the man Sam, who is in some sort of rage. Cyrus shoots Sam twice and he goes into spasms.
Sam’s girlfriend Jasmine comes out of the cabin and shouts at Cyrus. Grant hears this and runs to the cabins. They move Sam into his room and stabilise him. Grant checks on the other passenger, Merlin, who is sarcastic but does not attack.
Ben tries to catch the bug transmitter, but it is not fully magnetic so he has to try to manually grab it, but twice it just slips out of fingers. He calls Cyrus for help. The pirate ship, Vengeance, has launched a shuttle and Sloane orders them to match heading and velocity of their ship, which with its M-Drive out is drifting under its previous momentum in the same direction. The Sector Authority Fighter ships are closing, but the Red Queen is moving away from them. They ask for course change, but they can’t without letting the pirates go. ETA is still an hour then.
Passenger Problems
Cyrus is busy trying to stabilise Sam. He works out he has taken some sort of drug, which Jasmine confirms as something new called “Tempest”. He has to keep working to keep his heart rate down but manages to stabilise him eventually. Merlin enters and offers to help but is sarcastic to Cyrus as he leaves.
Eventually, Ben, Cyrus and Sloane manage to trap and disable both transmitters, flushing them out of the airlock. The ships from the Resolute arrive and order the Red Queen and the shuttle to head back to the Resolute. This will take several hours. They negotiate with Merlin who agrees not to tell the Sector Authority about them being attacked in return for a refund and medical expenses.
Aboard The Resolute
They arrive at the Resolute, which is Battle Cruiser which carries a number of smaller ships. It has dozens of fighters patrolling the planet, which are modelled on Federation Pursuit Ships. They are ordered to dock, which Sloane does.
They leave the Red Queen and are met by soldiers. A medical team takes the passengers away. Merlin does not want to press charges and says the shooting was a misunderstanding. Lieutenant Lockerbie takes them to a waiting area, asking their details. He tells them the pirates were known outlaws and there is a reward for their capture, as well as salvage of their ship.
He tells them they will be under formal interview with Commander Kryn. Ben says he is not dressed for a formal interview and Lockerbie works out that he is military and arranges formal Captain’s dress for him. The rest of the crew get a glimpse of the “military old boy’s club” mentality.
Commander Kryn
They meet Commander Kryn. She asks them why there are there and is surprised at their offer of 100 tons of medical spice. It’s very generous. When they mention the Hunt family, she is scathing of Zonnos Hunt and his arrogant demand for her to stop her relief efforts and rescue Mika Hunt.
They ask permission to go down to the planet, but she refuses. She does not have the authority to allow such private missions. She does allow them to use the Resolute’s communications network. They try to communicate with Mika Hunt on Endregaad, but get a recorded message from the Tel Bollin offices of Skydove Freight, which due to the current planetary emergency are closed. Please call back another time.
Grant calls through to the Planetary Government, but they inform him that Mika Hunt is not in the list of dead, nor is he a citizen of Endregaad. As he is an off-worlder there is no record of his current location. They go to the mess for food and then go back to the Red Queen, where Lieutenant Lockerbie is supervising the unloading of the spice from their ship. He praises the spice as very pure and it will help to save lives.
They tell him of their desire to go down to the planet to rescue the son of the man who donated the spice. He sympathises but says the planetary blockade must be maintained. He does drop into the conversation that their patrols change shifts every 6 hours and that is the most difficult time for the patrols.
Running The Blockade
They board the Red Queen and begin planning a way to run the blockade of Endregaad. They get some sleep and wait for news of their salvage of the pirate ship. Grant has a drink. Half a dozen whiskies later he is very drunk. Wanders around giving random orders then sleeps. Ben tries to work out how to run the blockade but realises he lacks the equipment to leave an orbital sensor. He goes back to engineering to try to sort out the cutting out of the life support during jump. Cyrus goes to his room to rest as he is injured and recovers. Sloane fixes the squeak on the pilot’s chair.
So ends their first day in the Ghatsokie system.