Introduction

James was uncharacteristically absent this week, although in the context of the current scenario with Varrik and Bradic on the Marauder it didn't really matter.

Once we'd resolved a few things arising from the last session log then we moved on to hunting Corso.

One of the things arising from the last log was whether or not Hannah, as has often been the case, was tracking you're finances or not. It turns out she hasn't. Now as I alluded to in the last session log you've burned through all you cash and have only what was in the bank account. Now I'm going to allow you to subtly alter that if you wish, you can reduce the Bank account Balance by $250,000 and retain £250,000 in cash. Cash is more useful when paying for information or paying off people to make them forget they've seen either any of yourselves or the Razza. Station Services , fuel, water, food, materials, reapirs can generally be paid for electronically, and are typically paid out of the Razza's onboard account (functions in a similar way to your PDAs - see last session log).

For reference your bank account is in the name of OctamasiQ Export and Shipping. It has(had) a balance of $811,928.

Once more unto the breach

We pick up in the Razza with the logical need for somebody to go alert the Marauder to the presence of the GA cruiser, given that any form of Comms will give away the Razza's location. After something of a heated discussion Emily manages to persuade Lisa that she should go, on the grounds that she is more able to cope with the terrain and conditions than either Emily or Devon can, and she has a greater ability to defend herself than either of them do. Even so it takes Lisa 30 minutes to reach the Marauder, by which time they've detected the Landing GA shuttles and shutdown as a precaution. Lisa then returns to the Razza. [GM note she will only just have started the return trip when the complex blows up!]

With the Razza element resolved we switch back to the interior of the complex where Portia, Boone, Ryo, and Nyx are about to open the door to Corso's panic room. Boone tells everyone else to stand back whilst he takes up postion to fire into the room when Nyx opens the door. Opening the door, reveals the room to be empty of any actual occupant. Stacked shelving lines the left hand wall, leading to some form of sleeping accomodation at the far end of the room, whilst the right hand wall is a mixture of shelving, refrigerator, cooking facility, and washing facility. Additional crates are stacked against the shelving to both sides and a large crate resides in the middle of the floor. On the crate appears to be paraphanlia associated with dressing a bullet wound, including blood soaked gauze and swabs.

Venturing into the safe roof reveals that just beyond where the crate is, between the crate and the bed in the floor is a trapdoor. Carefully Boone raises the trapdoor. There are no resulting explosions, but the trapdoor leads to a laddered shaft which descends about 30ft to a narrow corridor. Boone leads the way down. The corridor heads approximately North for about 30ft before intersecting with one of the main mine tunnels. The tunnels are about 8ft wide and 8ft high in the center. The vertical section of the tunnel walls are about 4ft high, and are then semi-circular to form the roof. Metal Alloy supports every 5ft (1.5m) with a woven metallic alloy material stretched over them providfe the retaining barriers forming the walls and ceiling. The floor is compacted crushed stone. There is no indication which way Corso went. Additionally the structural composition of the mine walls means that Comms no longer work down here. Boone and Nyx turn left, Boone sticking to following the left hand wall each time they encounter a junction. Portia and Ryo head right, and again principly stick to following the left hand wall.  After several minutes Portia hears what could be movement ahead and slows down moving more cautiously. The sound decreases and then faades as the distance between them and whom ever is making it decreases.

Portia increases her pace opening up a gap between herself and Ryo, but appears to gain on who'm ever is ahead. Coming to a right hand branch she places down one of her pistols to indicate which way she went. Alerted by a sudden increase in noise she stops and hugs the wall as Corso comes around the corner from the right. She grabs his gun arm, knocking the gun from his grip and kicks him backwards down the corridor. As she does so something falls from Corso's pocket. She kicks him a couple more times sending him further down the corridor and knocking him off his feet. This allows her to retrieve the object, a PDA from the floor, it's displaying a countdown timer with 17s on the clock when she first picks it up. She asks Corso what it is. He just says it's too late it's all over and laughs.

The clock ticks down to zero and explosions rip through the complex above triggering collapses throughout the mine tunnels. The explosions are visible to those on the Marauder, and clearly audible to those on the Razza.

Portia finds herself trapped in a section of tunnel with Corso, with both tunnel collapses behind her and ahead of them. She wants to try and get back to Ryo but Corso points out that's a waste of time. There's no telling how far the collapse goes and they're pretty close to the exit as it is so the logical way to proceed is to dig in the direction he was going, at least they should be able to get out. Portia eventually relents and tells him to get digging then.

As the explosions rip through the complex, Nyx suddenly bullrushes Boone sending him flying, and causing him to hit his head on the floor. As they pull themselves together, blood running from a scalp wound on Boones head and his vision blurry giving him double vision, its obvious that had Nyx not done so they'd have been burried under the collapsed tunnel. WIth no other option they start making their way down the only available route.

Ryo is not quite so lucky. As he comes too he finds himself pinned from the waste down under rubble from the collapsed tunnel. Just out of reach is his gun and it's attached maglite. As he orientates himself with his predicatment he hears someone appraoching from the direction he originallly came from. As the figure approaches he can see it's someone in a GA uniform. The figure tells him not to struggle it will only make things worse.

Ryo asks him who he is. The figure replies "Chief Inspector Kierken, Galactic Authority. You're under arrest." Ryo remains silent.
After a minute or so Kierken asks "Who else is down here with us? Portia-Lin? Marcus Boone? It doesn't really matter if they're still alive then we'll find them as well"
Kierken doesn't appear to be overly concearned about their current predicament...
Several more minutes pass before Kierken asks "How exactly did you escape from that prison? You had help didn't you? Somebody on the inside? Couldn't have done all of that on your own." after a brief pause he continues "Was it one of the guards may be?". Ryo continues to remain silent. Kierken continues "I keep telling my superiors that as long as we farm out prisons to Corporate interests its a recipe for corruption"
Ryo laughs at this point.
Kierken: "What's funny"
Ryo: "You consider the Corporations corrupt, but somehow the GA's different? You serve the corporations."
Kierken: "I serve the Law. I protect the innocent from people like you."
Ryo "You protect the innocent so that corporations can continue to make profit off them. They're cattle, and when it comes time for the slaughter you'll be the one driving them not me."

Elsewhere Corso stops digging complaing he's tired, and his leg is still bleeding. Portia agrees. Corso turns around and sits down on the rubble pile facing Portia.
Corso: "Tell me something. Based on everything I've heard about Portia-Lin she'd have just shot me. So why haven't you" Portia doesn't respond. "Something happened in that Mind wipe didn't it, and you've gone soft."
Portia responds by telling him to get back to digging. When he prevaricates she cocks the pistol and levels it at him. He resumes digging.
As daylight breaks through he stops once more and turns back towards Portia.
[GM Note: I can't exactly remember what Hannah/Portia said at this point other than we end up with ..]
Portia: "Because you murdered One's Wife"
Corso: "No I didn't I wasn't anywhere near the place"
Portia: "So who did?"
Corso: "If I tell you that then you're just going to kill me, so thats for me to know."
Portia: "I could just kill you anyway"
Corso: "No you won't. The old Portia yes, but you've gone soft. Just wait until the world hears about this. You're done. Finished."
Portia knocks him unconscious at this point, then proceeds to enlarge the gap so that she can get out, hauling the unconscious Corso with her. As she hoists him on her shoulder she notices a group of GA troopers a hundred or so meters away through the trees. They appear to be engaged in digging somebody out of the Mine. She sets off in the direction of the Marauder.

After what seems like an eternity of tunnels, Nyx and Boone come to what appears to be a main access door. The doors are obviously designed to slide sideways. None of the control mechanism appear to be registering any form of power, meaning that the doors are going to need to be opened manually. Nyx searches around for something that they can use to pry the doors apart. With a lot of effort they manage to open then enough to be able to squeeze through although they have to disloged the snow piled up against them to do so.
Emerging into the cold light of day, Boone spots a figure about 30m away moving away from them. He's pretty sure its Portia. They set off after her.
They've gone about 50ft when Boone snags one of the trees, snapping a branch and bringing down a whole load of snow from the branches. Alerted by the sound Portia turns around.
Boone and Nyx can now see she's carrying somebody on her shoulder. Boone signals her to keep moving.

When they reach the Marauder Boone realises she's carrying Corso. He pulls his gun intent on shooting him in the head.
Portia "No guns you muppet. The place is crawling with GA, and I'm pretty sure they've got Ryo."

Boaring the Marauder she dumps Corso's body on the floor.
Portia: "Six, he's all yours. I want him alive. He knows who killed One's wife. Seven you're with us. We need to get to the GA before they get back to their Shuttles."

[GM Note: Whilst the Marauder is powered down it is pretty much undetectable to both the Cruiser and any GA shuttles on the ground. Six will know this. If they power the Marauder there is a chance the Cruiser will just open fire on it. It depends on where the Cruiser is in orbit in relation to where the Marauder is, and what the Commanders orders are. Now the Marauder does have shields, so it could potenrially withstand a missle strike, but using the shields gives if a much more detectable signature. Your current best option is to remain undected for as long as possible.....

One more thing.... Are you the "Good Guys" now or are you still the "Murdeous Pirates" you used to be? And what are you going to do about Corso given you gave your word to Danny Bones..]

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