Introduction

I had no idea how tonight’s session was going to go. It was either going to work or be a complete disaster and therefore the end of the Campaign. As things stand when we left things we are hovering on that cliff edge. One particular move will end the campaign, so if you want to go on and find out what other twists and turns I have up my sleeve, you’re just going to have to trust me.

As with a number of things players will be players and not characters badly written by TV production writers, so they do things in their own way, even if that makes my life complicated, although they did in the end solve the Wexlar problem for me.

A couple more things, if we do get to continue after next week there will initially be a lot of secret squirrel stuff which means you’re not all going to be involved at the same time.

I also need to remember to execute another scene involving Five in a Secret Squirrel session now that she is alone on the Bridge. I completely forgot this happens until I was writing the log (actually I’ll rephase that, I remembered earlier in the session but you just weren’t going about things in the same way so by the time we got to the end of the session where it was pertinent I’d completely forgotten about it – so this is primarily a reminder for me than for anything else).

Wait! I don’t have a clue what's going on!

Six, Seven, and Lisa(The Android) depart the Razza and head down to the planet, approaching the DwarfStar complex from the west at canopy height (about 35m AGL). At about 5Km out, Lisa moves to the rear of the Marauder, opens the rear door and steps out.

The Marauder continues on but the Dice gods don’t favour Six and the Marauder gets tagged twice by the anti-aircraft guns. They were deliberately just making a fast pass so I was generous and only reduced the shields to 10%. The Marauder heads away to continue circling at a distance whilst they wait for Lisa’s signal (any form of explosion at the complex).

Time ticks inexorably by, minute by minute, passing the hour mark. Six not being at all favoured by the Dice gods fails to notice the sensor readings indicating a sizable ship leaving the complex, although Seven, and Five on the bridge of the Razza fair considerably better. The ship is highly streamlined, about 60ft long, 40ft wide, and about 30ft thick. It exits the atmosphere, and as soon as its at a safe distance jumps to FTL. A later check of the sensor logs indicate the ship is “The Lazarus”, Alexander Rook’s private yacht. Note if you check the external surveillance footage then the ship also appears to have vectored thrust similar to that of the Razza.

About 15 minutes pass before a series of explosions rock the complex, and people begin streaming from the building, including Two and Lisa. The Marauder heads for the complex to pick them up. DwarfStar personel are far more concerned about their own safety to bother the Marauder, Two, or Lisa, given that both of the later are armed.

Back on the Razza, Lisa and Two are welcomed back, and discussion moves to how to string Talbor "The snake in the Grass" Calcheck up and extract what he owes them from him. One of the problems of course is that they have no idea where to find him, and their only means of contacting him is his number which only Two has in her PDA. Eventually it is decided to "capitalize" on Two's supposed demise at the hands of DwarfStar/Rook and Six is elected to make the call "as he's the most diplomatic". Unfortunately when they try and make the call they get a "Unknown Number" return. Lots of discussion ensues about who, what, why, where, etc some of which was actually correct, but I'm not saying which, other than there was a distinct hint in last weeks log.

Eventually discussions move on  as to what to do next. Seven suggests they return to the station where the Razza was refitted (which was the FTL route programmed into the system by Lisa before she left). Two disaggrees and after more discussion it’s decided not to return anywhere they’re been previously. They ask Lisa about options. The closest Independent Station is19ly away but has a GA station on the Station (Note this is not that unusual. About 60%, generally the more law abiding and “safer” of the Independent’s do.) The next closest is 27Ly (note I had a mental moment on the FTL time based on the Razza’s speed which is 4ly/day not 20ly/day, thus the FTL time is 6 days 15hours). During the discussion it's also suggest by Six that they might want to debrief Two, and Lisa  about what happened down there, especially as Two is still sporting a very visible wound across 60% of her forehead.

Given they haven't eaten, or for that matter slept in a while, every one adjourns to the Mess haul for a celebratory meal, including inviting Lisa to join them. They all thank her for saving Two causing her to be somewhat embarrassed. I can’t remember who, Five possibly, but somebody did comment about ‘Androids being embarressed’ was significantly unusual given they’re supposed to be entirely logical. (Wendy as a ‘pleasure’ model was deliberately programmed to display a pseudo emotional response.)

As the meal progresses of the elements of the discussion revolves around what to do with the Wexlar popsicle. Three says they should have spaced him all along, and that's what they should do now. Seven thinks they should had him over to Mikei, as he knows almost as much about what happened with the White hole device as they do. There is of course the problem of getting him to Mikei, and Five thinks that Mikei are out to get them over what happened, although there is a certain amount of discent, primarily from Three about this. This brings us back around to Calcheck and his comment "well you see what happens when you don't go through proper channels" with everyone correctly infering that he was a little pissed that he didn't get his commision on the deal.

Six is in two minds about what to do. Wexlar is a loose cannon and a liability, so they can't really let him go but murdering him doesn't sit right. Given he's in stasis, the option of just wiping his memory in the same way that their memories were wiped comes up, the problem is that nobody actually knows how this was done. [GM Note:Not strictly true, but something probably went wrong, but even the person who might know something about what happened doesn't know what the actual intent was and therefore can't work out what might have gone wrong.]. The subject of retaining a copy of Wexlar's neural matrix prior to a memory wipe comes up, but given that's illegal under GA law, although Two, given what they're already suspect of doing, excluding the loss of 20,000 lives when Iriden-3 was destroyed, doesn't see it makes much of a difference in the end. Eventually it is decided to override the cryopod protocols and eject Wexlar as a popcile into deep space, the Razza briefly dropping out of FTL to allow this to take place.

People eventually retire to get some much needed sleep....

Four wakes first and early, and as he's want to do heads for his Dojo. As he enters the cross corridor leading to the stairs he notices Lisa lying on the floor in the main corridor leading to Engineering. He moves to investigate finding her unresponsive, and puts out a broadcast alarm that "Lisa is down". Two immediately heads for the bridge along with Seven. Five is persuaded to join Four as she knows about androids, whilst Six and Three begin searching the ship. Two can find no suspicous entries or access to the ship. Five when she arrives determines that Lisa is both offline and that her control chip is missing. Two eventually moves to help Four and they move Lisa to the Med Bay. Six and Three continue to search the ship. Four goes to get himself a drink. When Six and Three finish their search which takes about 3 hours and reveals nothing out of the ordinary, it's realised that nobody has seen or heard from Four. He's now also not responding to his comm. Five remembers last seeing him going into the Conference room. Entering the Conference room they find him unconscious on the floor.

Taking him down to Med bay they invoke the EMH to perform a diagnosis. Whilst he's breathing, he's otherwise unresponsive, in some sort of deep coma. He also has a foreign substance in his blood stream, but the EMH does not have the capability to determine what the substance is.

I can't remember exactly how the subject of they've search everywhere, except Fives vents and secret places came up, other than Three making a comment about it. When its suggest that she may want to search them, she suggests (I think although it might have been Two) that they all put on space suits and depressurise the ship. There is then the question of 'emergency pods' in the event of a breach, except the cryo-pod housings double in this capacity, which is why they are scattered about the ship. They decide that they also need to keep watch on the pods incase their 'Intruder' tries to make use of them. [GM Note: one thing I didn't think about at the time,was were there enough suits for everyone? There were 4 at one time in the lockers by the Upper Hull airlock, except one of those is now missing, having been ejected into space by a certain someone.... Since I didn't think of it at the time I shall have to let things ride as they are. I also didn't think about Four and Lisa in Medical, although you could have put them in the containment chamber which has it's own seperate filtered air supply.]

It takes an hour to depressurise the ship. There is no reported activity around any of  the cryo-pods. They re-pressurise the ship which takes another hour. When Two asks for a role call there is no response from Six. Where T|hree goes to check on the location he was monitoring he notes a body slupped on the stairs. When he turns it over, and with Two not getting any response from Six, he finds its Six, breathing but unconscious, very similar to Four. He waits for Two to arrive to help him move Six to sick bay.

Removing Six's space suit in sick bay, and then his jacket Two notices that he has an puncture mark on the back of his left shoulder. The EMH confirms the same symptoms and foreign substance in his blood stream as Four.

Five on the bridge, locks down the ship systems as she did previously to lock Wexlar out.

Time passes. Eventually the stress gets to Three and he decides he needs to go get a drink. He heads for the Mess hall followed by Two. Opeing a bottle of whiskey he pours himself a drink and then stops sniffing it. He asks Two if her nanites can detect poisons and toxins. She correctly answers they can't but they may be able to reduce its effects and counteract  them given enough time [GM Note: Both correct although a large enough does may still be able to overwhelm them and kill you before they can counter the effects.] As he's debating about drinking the whiskey or not the ship suddenly drops out of FTL, the Enginering board on the bridge lighting up like a christmas tree. Two calls Five

According to the diagnostics, they have lost all sensory readouts from the power conduit control console(s) which relate to power to the Engines (both FTL and sub-light), Shields, and Weapons. As far as she can tell all the systems are offline. [GM Note: Life support appears not to have been affected]. Two and Seven decide to head for the Upper Hull airlock, Seven to stand guard whilst Two goes for a space walk to investigate the Power relay housing. Three, being the paranoid merc that he is has a "brain wave???", and decides to head for the Med Bay.

As Two prepares to enter the airlock Five notices a sensor readout on the command console. Long range sensors have just picked up a ship closing on them. Its a GA Cruiser..

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