Session 3: Pharmaceutical Shipping
As a result of the previous job, the crew had a few modulators left over. While Watson monitored the dark net for buyers, Charlie shared a slice of Starloaf, confessing that it was his seventh birthday — two years past his expiration date. With Axel they discussed approaches to investigate the Maker’s Guild.
Watson notified them that he’d received a nibble; they had a buyer for the two “extra” modulators on Lithos. They agreed to meet and were wired the location of an ice block and permacrete warehouse for a noon delivery the next day. They showed up and sold off the spare yokes (Axel attempted to plant a bug to track them, but interference prevented the tracers from signaling), and were offered a job shipping “worn pharmaceutical equipment” to Amerath. The equipment was seven large (8’x4’x4′) crates, and Balin (Bal Yn) explained that the hard part would be evading the customs scans around Amerath. (He stressed that it was critical to avoid scanning, and the crates were too large to all fit in the smuggling hold.) The goods were needed on Amerath ASAP–within three weeks, sooner was better.
[There was a fun bit where Jet handled the negotiations, during which Balin ignored both the parka wrapped lizard and Charlie, who was playing up being a dim Yaru. Then Axel called Jet aside and they plotted, returning with Axel heading the negotiations and Jet in the support position.]
They decided on a bold strategy of bursting through the lane walls on the final leg to Amerath, to allow them to avoid the heavy security at the lane mouth. They succeeded in bursting through the lane wall, but the ship shut down under an incredible power surge, leaving only flickering emergency lighting. Charlie barked orders and coordinated the whole team through a manual reboot sequence. At the last second, on hearing a dangerous crackle, Jet diverted the restored power, preventing the delicate comms system from overloading. Watson came back… different.
From there they struggled to regain their bearings, using sun sighting and triangulating from a transmission device that Charlie threw out the airlock. With their position and vector calculated, they plotted a course to catch up to Amerath. As they approached, they were contacted by a 51st Legion patrol ship on customs duty. They switched their transponder to an ice freighter and Axel charmed then bored the officer when he became suspicious at the excessive ice volume Watson incorrectly calculated and transmitted.
They agreed to land at the spaceport, but switched transponders and landed for their jungle meeting. A couple of hoverjeeps showed up an hour later, driven by a pair of humans and transporting six Yaru. The hoverjeeps looked familiar to Charlie, reminding him of the hoverjeeps around the secret base where he was decanted — just minus the Maker symbol. The Yaru unloaded the equipment after their contact scanned the crates to ensure that they were the proper crates. Jet chatted up the agent, and told him that his Charlie was starting to break down. Jet slipped the agent (who was trying to pose as a druglord technician, but came across as very Maker’s Guild) some creds and he agreed to share Charlie’s output. He popped in an optical mem chip, scanned Charlie, seemed shocked at the result and rescanned Charlie, told Jet that he’d been taken and passed over the chip with the readings. The crew took their pay and headed to town. (During the distraction, Axel planted a tracker on their hoverjeeps — and did such a good job [critical] that it’ll transmit for months and never be discovered.)
Everyone blew off stress, but Charlie went a little deep on his tailored pharmaceuticals, which combined with his research and new obsessions has him lost next session.