Introduction

The initial discussion triggered primarly by Matt wanting to find out what the other charaters/players might know was interesting from a number of perspectives, not the least of which is that I find the specualtion somewhat amusing, and more often than not some of it can be quite acurate, which generally means I am forced to say nothing in order to avoid giving things away. Matt was wrong from one perspective however. If this had been my campaign rather than a TV series, aka "Module" as it were, then yes I would be using your speculations to send you down red-herring rabbit holes, but I many respects I've as constrained as much as you are as players. There is one major difference however, you actually have more information about certain things than the script writers in the series allowed the characters to have (potentially another failing of the script writers). This does mean that I've had to re watch a number of future episodes to ensure the information I'm handing out is relavent and correct.

The other thing that was expressed was that you had no clear idea of exactly what was going on or what the path forward is. This is pretty much what the characters in the series faced at this point, although they had somewhat of a clearer revenge motive to go after Corso than you all possibly do. As I sort of aluded to at the end in the discussion nothing ever happens for no reason what so ever, and you just need to fit the pieces of information you do have together.  I don't think anyone speculated that there was more to the case relating to the killing of the rookie cop and the security guard being closed than what it first appeared as, somebody wanted the case to go away, but even then I don't think anybody speculated that it might have anything to do with who controlled or would benefit from controlling Corlactic Industries. Additionally nobody questioned whether the grainy image of Corso was real or planted, and if it was what might be the motive. And before you ask yes there was a degree of Narative Imperative in you going after Corso because I needed you to follow the story, but as you found out there was potentially more to it than that, or did you think a Galactic Authority just turning up out of the blue was just a co-incidence?

The other thing which came out of the after market discussion at the end, was a possible reason for Seven being on-board. Right at the start of the game I made it clear that everyone had secrets in their past, and not all of them have come out completely yet. When I started the game I only had a vague idea as to what Seven's secret was, and it wasn't until we got the the Wexlar/Traugott/Eridan-3 scenario that I had completely decided on what that was, except none of you took the bait at the time, or bothered to follow up on it. Even when I gave Six the information based on Seven's real identity from his GA record nothing happened. Even Kevin didn't heed the very explicit warning I gave him, when somebody turned up and told Seven he knew exactly who he was and what he formally did, and that if anybody in the prison realized or knew who he was he'd be a dead man. Of course there was a catch, protection comes at a price, which Seven declined to pay, and the rest they say is history. Now as I've already said, nothing happens for a reason, yet nobody queried why there would be a Volkov-Russi cruiser at the prison. The presence of the GA cruiser was obvious, as was that of the Ashieda cruiser, and of course, given that Truffault had somehow given Three the plans to the prison, the Mikei cruiser.

So what is the way forward given everything you're facing? It is probably also worth noting that the characters in the SciFy series were sort of in the same boat at this point.

The House of Xairon (Ashieda) are at war with Pyr, and their war is disrupting commerce and travel which is annoying a number of the major Corporations
Ferrous Corp want you all dead for screwing them over and double dealing them over the mining outpost to Mikei
Mikei don't want you dead but do want you to incriminate yourselves over Eridan-3 by confirming that you stole the White hole device from a Traugott Reseach facility, there by removing them from the hot seat.
Tragott want you dead becase you know that the Whitehole device came from thier research facility and can therefore confirm that they were conducting illegal reseach.
Dwarfstar want Rebecca back, although whether that because they also want her dead because she's psychiatrically flawed is another matter entirely.
The GA want all of you now for various reasons, partly to do with the Eridan-3 incident, but also in connection with the escape from Hyperion-8 and what happened during that escape.
Lisa, who may or may not have a flaw, now has a blackmarket and highly illegal software upgrade that allows her to behave and pass as any other human.
Where is any current or future income going to come from as Talbor Calcheck, your "Business Partner?????" come fixer seems to have gone to ground post the Dwarf Star Mission (I'm not actually sure how much cash you actually have left at the moment).

Lastly of course there is the "Key Card" that Five stole from some "mark" on a space station. As Matt commented we're now a  year into the game and people have fogotten things, like the fact that all of Five friends were killed within 24 hours of her stealing that key card, and she and her 'boy friend' were forced to flee in a hurry ending up on the Razza. Then there is Arax's change of behaviour and his attempted theft of the key card. Why? And of course it's a key card, and key cards usually activate, allow to operate, or open things, but what and who is responsible, and to what end?

Another Issue not dealt with in the SciFy series

The problem with me running the game, especially if I'm allowed to think about things, is that I'll find a hole, that they completely ignored, but which in reality adds a huge level of complication.

The problem is Identity and coupled to it Banking. Now we have to assume several things. Your ID PDAs/Tablets are you. Amongst other things they must be biometric and contain information that verifies that you are who you say you are. This does mean that Lisa must had had something akin to this to get onto any space station as Kiva Ehrens her 'human' id.

Now amongst other things this allows you to be tracked if somebody knows your identity, hence why Two, Three, and Four, as Portia-Lin, Marcus Boone, and Ryo Tetsudo, thier real identites (or is that Two's real identity as Rook referred to her as Rebecca) kept their PDAs under those names in the Vault (note I'm assuming that after you found them you put them back there, although technically it doesn't matter).

This leads to one plot hole. When you were captured logically the GA would have found all the fakes IDs for Two, Three, and Four, and updated their records to add these aliases, which leads to a further plot hole in that as they have long records why don't the records have known aliases (especially in Marcus Boone's case). This also means how would they be able to continue to function as individuals because the other information or function that the PDAs perform is that they act like your own personal bank, or at least a verified credit repository, which means that electronic banking needs to operate on some form of blockchain crypto-currency, which allows funds to be transferred around.

Now the MegaCorps are going to want to have more control over their employees than this which means that Bank Accounts must exist, even if they are blockchain crypto-currency accounts, and for business to busuness transactions, both parties are going to need an 'Bank Account' just to make life easier. Its why the 'Razza' under a false Company ID does have a bank account and why the ship itself has the equivalent of a PDA wallet as it allows you to pay station and docking fees (something else which is more or less overlooked in the show and something I have been equally guilty of ignoring - at least in most cases).

But cash also exists, at least in the form of 'Bars', altough these are rectangular metallic polymer blocks 170mm x 89mm x 8mm. Each bar must also carry a fixed size blockchain crypto-currency denomination, and thus to be considered legal and tradable must be issued by a verfied issuing agency. In a similar vein to be able to move them to a PDA or Bank account they must be transferred by a verified device which wipes the 'bar' rending it nothing more than an inert piece of metallic polymer. Note these are what you found in the vault initially and what Mikei paid you with for the Traugott operation. Bars come in a number of designations, each designation being a different colour, $1000, $5000, $10,000, $50,0000, $100,000.

So this in effect deals with Two, Three, and Four. They all have established fake IDs, and in some case like Three a whole number of them (who's a bad boy pissing people off then????).

This therefore leaves Nyx, Devon, Five, Six, and Seven. Nyx and Devon are the biggest plot holes from the series, how on earth do they have IDs. They escaped from the prison with you lot so they could have had their PDAs because as prisoners they wouldn't have been allowed them. Logically they would have been in some sort of secure vault at the prison, so they could be returned at the end of their sentences. 

Next on the list is Five, Emily Kolburn. Now she was never a prisoner (as such) so she would have potentially had her PDA, assuming of course that it wasn't just left on the Razza along with everybody elses for the Forensic Team(s) to examine once they arrived.  But it's also revealed that she has a Juvinile GA record, so the GA know who she is.

Six of course has two IDs and most likely a bank account for both Ids, Karl Varrik - his real ID, and Griffen Jones - his undercover ID. Since Six was a GA operative they know about both of these IDs so you can be pretty sure they've at least frozen the Giffen Jones account, if not his real account as well. Lastly there is Seven, who again has two IDs, Alekseyev Zakharovivh - his real ID, and Mishlav Bradic - his current ID. Now as Alekseyev Zakharovivh he, as a Volkov-Russi employee is likely to have a bank account, whilst as Mishlav Bradic, it's possible he doesn't - Note in realty he does but "in character" he doesn't know this and he's not checked.

Now what does all this mean? Well Two, Three, and Four are used to operating "under the radar" hence why they all have fake Ids, and assuming that the GA didn't add which ever of their current aliases they're currently choosing to use to their wrap sheets they can continue you use them (of course given you're all now Wanted by the GA you potentially can't avoid Visual Identification by somebody recognising any of you from your Wanted posters - note these will be electronic and be displayed on electronic billboards at any Station that has a GA facility). For Five, Six, and Seven, this means a whole raft of problems because they likely can't use any of their existing IDs, because the GA would be tracking any transaction based on or use of those IDs, and yes this is the big hole in the SciFy series that they gloss over. 

The other complication is none of you have Forgery Skill. Of course Talbor most likely knows a good Forger, but then you'd need to find Talbor to find out..

To Kill a Corso!

Once the discussion petered out we moved to the matter at hand, dealing with Corso. I had taken the liberty of adding the Planetary scans to the last session log, mainily to avoid having numerous uploads to Discord for the scenario.
The LH image is a general planetary scan, and as Lisa points out most of the settlements are located along the Western edge of the Southern Continent. The RH image is a close up of the region alluded to by Bones as to where Corso's hideout is, what used to be a Mining Settlement in the Northern Hemisphere. EM readings eminating from the settlement are consistant with a small Fusion Reactor. Note unlike Military Ships, which tend to shield their reactors to reduce EM emmissions and make it much harder to detect them, reactor intalled in Commercial vessels and Settlements generally aren't because 1) its expensive and 2) there's generally no need.  The Razza's reactor is shielded!

Once the team decide to fly down and take a closer look, more details about the settlement and its location are revealed. It also enables them to get a thermal scan of the facility which indicates that the reactor is most likely in or under the building indicated. All of the other buildings are at 'ambient' temperature. Note if you're trying to hide then you do as little as possible to make it apparent there is anybody present...

Varrik opts to approach from the SE where the mountainous terrain and trees screen their approach from the facility. He sets down about half a mile from the facility. Bradick remains on board as a guard, whilst Portia, Boone, Ryo, and Nyx head into the complex.

Aside from the fact that the main door isn't boarded up unlike a lot of the rest of the facility there's little to indicate any form of recent use or access. Even the interior of the main builiding screams not been in use for at least 10 years. If there are monitoring cameras or other devices they are very well hidden. There is feint evidence in the ryme on the floor that somebody may have passed through here at somepoint in the last 3 weeks or so..

Slowly they make their way through the building. At the rear they enter a cross corridor where the temperature is feintly warmer. They turn right, the temperature increasing very slightly as the transit the corridor. Opening the door at the far end, they are greeted by a blast of much warmer air. There is also a light on in this section of the corridor, although its a very low level of red light. To see much of anything they are reliant on their own mag lights, although these only illuminate a narrow area where they are pointed.

To their right in this section transparent windows divide the corridor from a storage area to the right, and a gap in the windows provides access into the area. Industrial racking at least 8ft high and 4 feet wide provides storage for shipping crates and boxes, although more crates are piled up in places in front of the storage racks. Cautiously they make their way into the storage area.

Nyx suddenly calls a halt. When Portia and Boone ask her "whats'up", she says "Not Sure" then suddenly pushes Portia aside as the sound of gunshots ring out and bullets pass through the space previously occupied by Portia. Boone fires wildly unable to determine where the shots came from. As they try to advance more shots ring out although none is particulalry close to the mark.

As they sweep the area ahead of them with their mag lights, Portia suddenly catches sight of somebody leaving the room to their right. Boone agian fires indescrimately but hits nothing but shelving. As they adavance into the room and attempt to turn right they are met with another barage of gun fire.

Slowly they continue making their way through the maize of storage racking and packing crates. Suddenly more shots ring out narrowly missing Boone. He returns fire and catches the glimpse of a figure diving through a doorway into what is most likely a safe room. He doesn't notice that the figure is limping slightly.

Corso now safe in his safe room taunts them, "The room is fully stocked and he can last weeks here. He's also called for reinforcements."

Boone asks if anyone knows anything about the Safe room. Portia doesn't but Nyx does. She says shes familiar with the design and it has a flaw. She moves to the left hand side and indicates. If you cut through here then we can gain access to the door control mechanism and I can open it."

Ryo says I'll be back shortly and heads back the way they came returning about 15 minutes later with a plasma cutter. Firing up the cutter, he cuts through the skin of the safe room, allowing Nyx access to the door controls.

Meanwhile in orbit Emily, Lisa and Devon have been monitoring operations from the bridge of the Razza. Suddenly the FTL transit alarm goes off. Lisa says its a GA cruiser. Devon asks "how the hell did they find us?" whilst Emily asks if they've seen the Razza.

Lisa replies that its unlikely as it will take as few seconds for their sensors to adjust to normal space. Emily asks how far away they are. [GM note: I got the distance wrong!] The cruiser is actually about 20Km away.

[GM note: What none of  you as players twigged was that a GA cruiser suddenly appearing out of no where 20Km from the Razza's position in more or less geo-stationary orbit above Corso's hideout cannot have been a coincidence. The GA would have had no reason to be here, pretty much out in the fringes of GA territory unless they knew that you were going to be here. The only way they would have known that you were going to be here is if they already knew that Corso was here and that you had already done something which indicated you were going to be here, most likely hunting Corso. Now in the SciFy series the crew are here hunting Corso in revenge for Corso assassinating Moss. Since Moss had died previously I couldn't use this mechanism but I could engineer it such that Varrik and therefore the rest of you believed that Corso was responsible for the death of the Rookie cop and the Security Guard that Varrik wanted to interview in connection with Moss's wife's death which had been pinned on Boone, except it wasn't Boone that killed her. It wasn't Corso either but that's another story. I should additionally point out that whilst searching for Danny Bones, and from information Bones gave you, you knew Corso had gone to ground because he believed somebody had put a hit out on him. Now I suggested that one possible interpretation of that might be beacuse you as the crew of the Razza were looking for him, and given your presious reputations, that might be a legitimate interpretaion. You also knew from a previous event, the Hyadum-12 bombing, that the GA were not above being duplicitous. What nobody thought of was that rumour could have been started deliberatly by the GA, if they already knew where Corso's hideout was, to force him to go to ground there, which of course they did. So in simple terms the GA set an elaborate trap and the Razza and it's crew walked into it. As to where all this leads you'll just have to wait and see. But remember you came here to kill Corso.. you gave your word to Bones that Corso would never trouble anyone else again.]

Lisa reacts to the cruisers arrival by opting to take the Razza into the planets ionosphere, making them temporarily undetectable to the crusiers sensors. The problem is that once through the ionosphere they would be detectable unless the Razza is on the ground and pretty much powered down. Hence she drops the Razza through the ionosphere and then has to break hard to avoid a hard stop with the ground. Down on the deck after a hard landing, Lisa powers down leaving only Emergency Power active. As far as she knows they weren't detected by the Cruiser.

Emily suggests warning the Marauder and the others, but Lisa points out that any form of transmission will give their position away. If they are going to warn the Marauder then Emiliy will have to go on foot. The Razza is about 2.2 Km from the complex also on the SE side.

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