Session One: Stranded on Caldera Station

Scout Ribar (Brash Explorer who Talks to Machines) and Delphinius "Del" Grand (Clever Speaker who Infiltrates) are Reclaimers. Independent contractors who travel throughout Corporate Space repossessing the starships of people behind on their payments.   Scout and Del have found themselves on Caldera Station. Their last Trace was to reclaim The Clipper, for failure of payment, from one Zinko Tornep. They had tracked Zinko to Caldera Station, but he skipped out on them before they could complete the assignment, leaving them stranded and with not enough credits to book passage off world.   Del searches the local I-Web for gig job offers that didn't quite read as fully honest in their descriptions. He found seven listings that met his criteria. He discussed his findings with Scout. Three offers were deemed too risky right at the start;

• Steal a high-tech medical device from an elite hospital that caters to the rich, to save the life of your employers brother.
• Travel to a research colony that has gone silent to find answers and locate your employers father, who ran the site.
• Mechanic needed; engine making the worst rattling noise.

Our heroes then pondered the remaining four gigs for their best opportunity;

• Couple needs a priest to marry them, and then need quick transport out of system.
• Log of a repeating distress signal: "... my pilot is dead and i am alone. Fuel is low and I can't remember ... Hello? ..."
• A ship's pilot is missing. He was last seen in a station bar.
• Help needed to recover a lost cruiser with a legendary name. Profits to be split between the employer and your team.

Scout points to one of the offers randomly, and says "let's do this one." He picked the one with the missing pilot. They get in touch with the crew of the Jaxon, a tramp freighter docked at Caldera Station. The crew tells them that their pilot, Bortran was last seen at the Delta Flame bar two nights ago, and never made it back to the ship.   Del and Scout head through the Main Concourse of Caldera Station, past the various shops and services that line the three level section of the station. Various neon shop signs competing with fine statuary and elegant fountains to draw the eye, and the credit stick, of the passerby.   They arrive at the Delta Flame bar around 15:30 (3:30 pm). The bar is mostly empty at this time of day, with the exception of a few serious drinkers. They approach the bartender and ask about Bortran. The bartender responds with a wry comment;   "If you want a drink, be lookin' at the bottom shelf." he said while gesturing at the racks of spirits behind him. "if you have questions, be lookin' at the top shelf."   Del spins an almost true tale of trying to find Bortran to recover credits owed to Del. With a promise to share the credits, Del convinces the bartender to answer some questions with just a well drink. The bartender shows them footage from the security feed from the other night. It shows a beautiful woman, clearly an upper management type, talking to Bortran, and then taking his arm and leaving the bar with him. Their heads close together in an almost conspiratorial manner. The bartender remembered them because a high class woman like that has no business being in a bar like this, let alone picking up a rough character like Bortran.   Scout notices the woman's exquisite fur coat in the vid. a quick I-Web search reveals that it is made from Denorian Fur, a very high end luxury item. This woman is clearly not a resident of the station, and unlikely to be from a majority of the ships docked here. Scout and Del head down to the station's port authority to try and locate the mysterious woman.   Dell and Scout look at the vid display of arrivals and departures to determine which ship might house the elegant woman they're looking for. they realize that there are two luxury star-liners in port at the moment. They hatch a plan to approach the Security kiosk and have Del distract the security officer and have him check on one of the star-liners while Scout remotely access the security monitors at the kiosk to look through footage of people disembarking from the other star-liner. Del spins such an inspired lie to gain the officers assistance that the officer drops everything and scours the footage to find the woman in question. Which he does in short order.   Unfortunately (Game Master Intrusion), the woman simply appears suddenly on the viewscreen in the center of a hallway that leads to the airlocks of both star-liners. She is seen manipulating an intricate bracelet on her wrist which must be some sort of vid scrambling tech.   They check to see which ship will be leaving the soonest. They learn that the Solar Prince will be leaving in a few hours. They decide to sneak on board and check the Solar Prince for the woman and the missing pilot. Scout and Del work their way down to the loading dock where the Solar Prince is taking on new supplies. while contemplating how best to get aboard the Solar Prince, Del notices a large unlocked crate (Player Intrusion) waiting to be loaded abord the star-liner. Scout and Del pull out enough items from the crate to allow them to fit inside. A short while after they settle inside the crate, it is loaded into the ship. Our heroes remain undetected.   After the sounds of the crewmen fade away from the crate, Del and Scout exit the crate and set to work. Scout finds a nearby computer terminal and attempts to call up the passenger manifest out of a cargo inventory computer interface (Level 3 Task). Meanwhile Del looks around to find spare crew uniforms to fashion a disguise out of, but doesn't find any. Realizing that he had wandered a bit away from Scout, Del heads back. When he returns to the terminal that Scout was working at, he is greeted by Scout saying that he found her in the manifest. Her name is Cora Kasteron, and she is in the Executive Suite. Scout pulls directions down to their wrist-pads.   Now they have to figure a way to get from here to there. Remembering Mx. Kasteron's coat, they grab a push-cart, and an empty box, and pretend to be hand delivering fine clothes from The Cashmere, one of the merchant-ships docked along the Main Concourse of Caldera Station. Del again spins a lovely falsehood, drawing forward the name of the last person they encountered to strengthen the tale for each new telling. Finally, after avoiding or bamboozling several crewmen, they find themselves in the main corridor of the elite staterooms of the Solar Prince. The elegantly decorated hallway is wider than one typically finds aboard a starship. The stateroom doors are spaced far from each other, indicating the grandness of the staterooms hidden behind them. Del and Scout are approaching the last turn before reaching their destination, when a well build man turns around the corner;   "You don't belong up here. Leave now." He says, the obvious bulge of a blaster pistol under his jacket lending menace to his statement.   Del jumps immediately into his, at this point, well practiced spiel about specially ordered luxury garments. In the course of the conversation, Del is confident that the bodyguard is being truthful about Lady Kasteron being at the Captains Table and not in her stateroom.  The bodyguard, Norris Ellestro, finds himself unable to resist the finely crafted lies that Del presents. He leads them to an ornately carved wooden door with a nameplate that reads: Lady Cora Kasteron. And in smaller print underneath reads: Owner Aboard. Scout's breath catches in his throat.   The bodyguard places the ring on his hand to a sensor by the door to key open the door. He steps inside as the door opens, and gestures to a spot near the door.   "Place it over there."   As they enter the antechamber of the suite, Scout and Del make the silent signs they have developed over the years that let each other know stuff's about to go down.  With preternaturally fast reflexes, Scout snatches the comm device out of the bodyguard's ear, and places his blaster to the back of the man's head.  Norris Ellestro, being an skilled and professional bodyguard, is fully aware that he can't outrun a bolter blast to the back of the head.  He quietly surrenders, and is disarmed by Del.     Del shows the image of Bortran to Norris.  He claims to not recognize the man, but Del picks up on Norris' quick glance back into the stateroom. They move from the antechamber into the stateroom proper.  It is the most elaborately decorated room they have seen aboard the Solar Prince.  everywhere they look, they see real wood fixtures and furniture.  Except along one wall, where a tapestry is pulled to one side to reveal a heavy metal door.  Using the bodyguard's code ring again, they open this door. It moves slowly.  The room inside is initially dark as the door opens, but then bright lights begin to flicker on.  The room has an antiseptic smell to it.  Along the walls are rows of metal shelves with odd containers holding dark liquids. In the center of the room is a metal chair-like device with the pilot Bortran strapped to it.  Machinery at the base of the chair is connected to Bortran by surgical tube, which are slowly withdrawing his blood from his body.   They swiftly disconnect Bortran from the device and place him in the push-cart. Then they handcuff the bodyguard to the device.   With all the haste they can muster, they flee the way they came.  Thoughts of space vampires racing through Scout's mind.  Miraculously they exit the Solar Prince before they are caught by any pursuit.   Scout and Del eventually get Bortran back to the tramp freighter Jaxon.  The luxury star-liner Solar Prince has left port by the time they get the pilot settled aboard his ship. The grateful crew thanks them and pays them a decent reward for his return.  It's not enough to get Del and Scout off of Caldera Station, but it's a start.   . . .