Introduction

Due to various events and the things you have done previously as players the way this particular scenario was going to play out was always going to be potentially significantly different to the TV series.

Not giving up the Vault code to Wexlar was one particular change, but your retrieval of the ISO containers from the Far Horizon, meant there was another secure location that he could use instead. In the series he does get the code, Three gives it up but Wexlar still spaces Two although she later turns the tables (hint), and he locks the crew in the vault – yes it is airtight.

There are a number of other elements the TV series plays fast and loose with, often incorrectly, like the airlock being under the cargo hold but the Trenches, as per all the design models and documentation, being on the upper hull. The cargo hold and its layout is another one.

There are a couple if things I need to address arising from discussions primarily at the end of the session.

The first is in relation to ‘neural images’ both in the context of Transfer Transit 2000 and Cryo-Stasis. Technically the hint is in the name “Neural Image” which is how the data is stored. Thus there is no known mechanism for actually reading the contents of that neural image and constructing some form of Avatar from it or even being able to correlate strings of neurons into "memories".

Even if there were possible to construct an Avatar then the Avatar would behave in exactly the same way as the person from which the neural image were taken. There are also a whole raft of GA regulations relating to Neural Images.

Now for both the Transfer Transit and Cryo-Statis cases the ‘person’ from whom the image was taken is still alive in the pod that was the source of the image, and in the process of “waking” that person, the contained neural image is ‘restored’ correcting any neural degradation, or in the case of Transfer Transit, adding the new neural connections and their structure to the ‘original’ host, thus transferring the new memories. Once the neural image is transferred it is deleted. GA regulations prevent the retention of Neural Images for any purpose!

Sarah’s case is marginally different, she was placed in cryo-stasis in a ‘mobile’ pod, much like the Transfer Transit Pods, which has its own neural storage array – the Razza has a ‘central’ neural storge array to which all of the Cryo-pods are connected. When Sarah died in the Cryo-pod, due to the pod malfunctioning, due to the electrical surges induced along with the radiation from the proximity to the star, the Pod still held her neural image. There was no body to transfer it back to and because the pod was damaged and offline it didn't get deleted. Thus it was possible to transfer that neural image to the Razza's Stasis Mainframe.

The second relates to Armour and how Armour works.

Effectively all Armour has an Armour Rating, a Damage Capacity, and a Damage Resistance.

The Armour Rating relates to how much of the body the armour covers and how effectively the armour protects the area it covers. To have an AR of 20 you need Full Environmental Body Armour or a mechanism that creates a ‘force field type effect around the person’ (which you won’t find in this game). Note the SpaceSuits, whilst environmental do not class as Armour as they are to easy to damage which is where the Damage Resistance comes in.

Almost all weapons have a PV, Penetration Value, which determines how easily they penetrate into objects, thus ‘Blunt’ weapon have a PV of 0 and thus you can ‘tank’ the damage.

As above, Armour also has a Damage Capacity, this is a measure of how much damage the armour can absorb before it no longer functions as armour. The more damage the armour absorbs the less effective it becomes, thus its Armour Rating drops (just think of it as having holes created in it through which things can penetrate without resistance). Now the armour you got of the Feris Troopers was basically a Torso covering jacket, with a ‘Back and Breast’ and shoulder plates, and a set of ‘toughened’ trousers and boots, which has an AR of 14.

The Volkov-Russi troopers were wearing pretty much the same except, that they also had shoulder plates, upper and lower arm and leg protector plates, and knee and elbow plates, and much heavier boots, thus giving them an AR of 16.

A helmet on its own will protect against head shots, whilst when worm with ‘Armour’ increases the AR by 1. Both the Feris and Volko-Russi Troopers were wearing helmets.

Attack rolls greater than the AR ignore the AR (except if the AR is 20 and the attack is a critical, for which there are additional rules) whilst an attack greater than the required minimum to hit (8 for melee, 12 for ranged) hits the armour. This is where the PV of the weapon and the DR of the Armour come into play.

If the PV is less than or equal to the DR, then both the wearer and Armour take no damage – note there are special cases for area effect weapons like explosives.

If the PV is greater than the DR of the armour, then some of the damage gets through, the amount depending on the relative values, but additionally the armour takes damage as well reducing its DC. Again, how much damage the armour takes depends on the relative values.

From a certain perspective the fly in the Armour ointment are Stunners. Armour does not protect against Stunners (it does against ShockSticks because of the way they work), but Stunners have a very limited range and are ‘slow’ to use as a weapon. Stunners are most effective at <1m and completely ineffective at >3m. Note this relates to the Stun Pistols you have available. Stunners work by overloading the bodies nervous system, which 99% of the time renders the target unconscious, which is also why it works against Androids, except they are far more resistant to their affect, but unlike organic life forms they actually suffer physical damage in addition to the energy overload. The Armscorp TRC12 MKII Blaster rifle that Three has is both a Heavy Energy Weapon, even slower that the pistols, but works at significantly greater ranges. Whilst we’re on the subject I have already determined the point at which you get the schematics you need to build the recharge units, if we get that far.

One more thing before the actual session log. Technically the only “Hostile” left on board the Razza is Wexlar. Logically, the most likely place he will be is on the Bridge. You have about a 10 minute window before the Volkov-Russi troopers recover from being stunned/rendered unconscious, more that enough time to deal with Wexlar, not that it should take more than one (of is that Two) of you to do so.

And one more for luck. I did in the log from a couple of sessions ago note that when Five turns 16 she gets some more skills.. some are sort of defined by what’s she’s been doing, but if she wants to learn ‘combat’ skills then somebody will need to teach her. See Session Log 11: So Far So Good, the 4th paragraph under combat notes.

Surprise! Surprise!

We pickup with the Razza unexpectedly exiting FTL, and the Command console ‘lighting up’ with a whole array of warning messages that Five recognises from their previous occurrence.

Tash and Vons also appear on the bridge due to the unexpected occurrence.

Wexlar grudgingly lets Five run a diagnostic, watching over her shoulder like a Hawk, as she confirms one of the main reactor power couplings has failed. Wexlar wants to know how she did it, but Five says its nothing to do with her he saw everything she did, and that this has happened before and they now carry spares in case it happens.

He wants to know how to ‘fix’ it and Five, making Wexlar even more unhappy, says that somebody has to go outside into the Couplings housing and manually change it, and last time they sent the Android outside to fix it. Tash asks Wexlar about using the Android but he says reactivating her is too dangerous. Vons volunteers to go.

Wexlar tells Cain to put the others somewhere secure, whilst Vons and Tash escort Five to Engineering to get the spare coupling. What the characters didn't know is that Wexlar contacts the Volkov-Russi destroyer at this point and gives them the Razza's co-ordinates. They are also not that far away, a little over 0.1ly. Wexlar then meets them at the elevator to the upper airlock once they’re got the spare coupling.

They all then go up to the upper airlock where Vons puts on one of the Razza space suits. Once he’s ready to go Wexlar, Tash, and Five return to the Bridge so that they can monitor Von’s progress. Note there are no cameras but Von’s position can be tracked via telemetry from the suit.

Vons enters the airlock, depressurizes it, and opens the outer door. He exits commenting “I have to say it really is beautiful out here”.
Wexlar responds with  “You can write a poem about it later, just get on with the job”.
Vons confirms “I can see the trench housing the couplings, directly ahead of me, moving towards it now.”
There is then an expletive from Vons "What the hell" (frantic) "I'm loosing suit pressure"
Wexlar "What are you talking about?"
Vons (suffocating) "My mag boots, they're deactivated"
Wexlar "Can you identify where the breach is"
Vons (Screaming)
On the bridge Von’s suit’s telemetry suggests he is moving away from the Razza.
Tash "He's off the ship"
Wexlar "Vons, do you read me?"
15 seconds pass
Tash "Do something"
The readouts from Vons suit flatline
Wexlar "It's too late"
Cain (looming over Five) "What the hell just happened?"
Five "I don't know.Vons volunteered to go. I have about as much of an idea as what happened as you do."

Something else I missed at this point, Wexlar then notices the alarm on the security console.
Wexlar (checking the console readouts) "That's impossible"
Tash "What"
Wexlar "Someone's pressurising the airlock"
Tash (to Cain) "Are you sure the prisoners are secure?"
Cain "Yes. Posative"
Tash (to Five) "Who else is on the ship?"
Five "No one"
Tash "You're lying"
Wexlar (to Tash) "Take her an put her with the others"
Wexlar (to Cain) "Get up there and check the airlock"

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Winding back time a little and changing the perspective.

Two having secured an oxygen source for herself (One of the suit emergency bottles (32mm dia by 80mm high) containing about 50ml of compressed Oxygen, stored in the tool cases in the Couplings Housing Trench), accesses the engineering control console in the Coupling Housing and disconnects one of the main power couplings causing the Razza to drop out of FTL. She then retraces her steps, and hides between the barrels of the anti-fighter turret above the airlock waiting for somebody to come and fix the problem.

Time passes then a figure emerges from the airlock. They are not moving particularly confidently as somebody used to EVA would be. As the figure stops and looks around she gains enough information to be reasonably sure they are not one of the Razza crew, although given that Wexlar is not completely stupid, the chances of him sending one of the Razza crew to fix the issue would be remote at best.

As the figure starts to move forward, she drops down behind it and decouples the air lines, then deactivates the controls for the figures mag boots. Adjusting her grip she propels the figure forward and up using the opposite reaction to propel herself backwards into the airlock. Once inside she hits the button to cycle the airlock, blacking out for a minute as it repressurises.

Now gasping for air she knows that if anybody is monitoring the airlock they will know its been cycled. She staggers out the airlock, and drops into the elevator shaft, exiting on Upper Deck about a minute before Cain heads up to the airlock.

Wanting to arm herself she heads for the starboard side stairs onto the bridge deck. Once there she considers either going to her own room or Threes room but there is too great a chance of her running into somebody, and remembering there are still the weapon crates in the cargo hold decides to head there instead. As she descends the stairs to the Lower deck she catches the sound of Tash’s altercation with Five, where Tash blames Five completely for her brother’s death and as a result she’s going to make her pay.

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Two makes a somewhat highspeed entrance down the stairs, body tackingly Tash and taking her away from Five, much to Five’s complete surprise at her sudden reappearance.

A short but not completely one side fight ensues until Two manages to successfully grapple Tash, put her in a head lock and then break her neck. As she lets Tash’s limp body go and stands up, Five vomits noisily. [GM Note: I cant remember exactly what Five said at this point].. Two responds with “Nanites and an oxygen supply.. but we need to move”. She collects the Stunner and the Pistol Tash has and give the stunner to Five “If you get attacked just shoot the attacker with that”. They move down to the Lower Cargo Deck.

Five is still somewhat still completely overwhelmed by Two’s reappearance as she fails to notice that the Cargo Container that held the Mixed Scrap Metals isn’t open as they’d left it previously. Two does notice. Five uses the ‘Customs’ Code to open it. Inside in the complete dark and depleting oxygen atmosphere (No point in having a cargo container that can be exposed to the vacuum of space not be air tight.. might cause a significant number of issues depending on what’s being transported) are Three, Four, Six, and Seven- who’s still bleeding from the wounds inflicted by Cain for being lippy.

Given that the armoury is in the vault, they open the Vault to access the weapons. [GM note: Technically the medical supplies would most likely have been in the Med Bay, but I’ll let you off.] They grab some of the Med Patches, and patch up Sevens would to stop them bleeding further,  and the armour they acquired from the Feris Troopers on Alaris-6 (The mining Colony)

As they’re about to close up the Vault, Two hears the telltale sound of a ship docking, with enough echo given her position on the Upper Cargo deck, to determine that it was the Port side Airlock. They all move in the direction of the Port side airlock.

As they enter the link corridor, between the cargo bay and the main access stairs, the doors on the opposite end of the corridor open, revealing three troopers armed with assault rifles in heavy combat armour. What they fail to notice (despite the fact that as we’re using Foundry and I’d moved Cain’s token into the Cargo Hold behind them) is Cain approaching from the rear.

Two, Three, and Six engage the Troopers, Three rendering one Unconscious as he’s using a pair of Stunners. Cain fires at Seven who’s oblivious to his presence. Three and Six dispatch the other two troopers in front of them whilst Two treats her wounds with patches.

Four and Two then engage Cain, whilst Seven crawls out of the firing line. Three advances down the corridor completely failing to notice the Troopers on the stairs until Six shouts a warning. The two troopers who have line of sight engage Six and Three. Six returns fire whilst Three charges the Troopers taking one down with his stunners. The trooper who hadn’t previously fired shoots Three.

Two continues to engage Cain whilst Four applies patches to Seven’s wounds to staunch the bleeding (No Injectors the paramedic kits would logically be in the Med bay not the vault – the same way as spare Comms units would be in Engineering. Note I did miss one thing, Tash did have a Comm as does Cain, so in theory Two could have taken Tash’s Comm, thus she would have had a better idea that Cain was tracking them, and also an idea of how Wexlar was reacting, but as I forgot, we’ll leave things as they are..)

Six manages to close down and stun one of the other two troopers, whilst the remaining Trooper tries to club Three with his rifle and Three tries to stun the Trooper in return (basically they are in melee so the Trooper can parry Three's attacks thus making the shot miss). Six not being in Melee eventually stuns the Trooper. Its at this point they can determine that the ID plates on the Armour identify them as from the VRC Demetriove.

Two manages to shoot Cain again and gets shot in return. Cain now suffering throws himself across onto the cross gantry making Two's next shot miss.

By the time Two cautiosly makes her way into the cargo bay, Cain is nowhere to be seen. Peering cautiosly around the edge of the cradels for the cargo containers, she spots Cain under the walkway on the lower deck. She is rewarded for her effort by Cain tying to shoot her, but his shots bounce off the cradel. She shoots him in return. Given his 'superior' position she waits for about 20 seconds and then checks agian. Cain appears to have slumped to the ground either unconscious or dead. Cautiously approaching it appears he's died as a result of the wounds taken (bled out).

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