M-Space - Part 6 : Close quarters

There are few personal possessions in the cabins, just suitcases full of toiletries and civilian clothing interspersed with Sunbeam Corp work uniforms -- white jumpsuits with the corporate logo emblazoned on the chest in vivid yellow. Everyone pools together the clothing and finds some things that mostly fit, or can be passably altered. Their own clothes are washed in the fresher units and set aside for when they disembark.

[Q: Anything good in the ship? 50/50 (4+): O4 C6 - yes
Q: What? Judgementally / Valuable - some objets d'art -- this is important later.

The 6 days in hyperspace were run as an Extended Conflict. I used the Dinner Party schema as a starting point. Everyone gets a single "action" per day. The "winner" (best successful roll) does 1d6 damage to anyone who fails their skill roll, but may decide not to deal damage to any given person. "Initiative" is in order of highest current HP (though initiative doesn't make any particular difference in this conflict).

Everyone's Conflict Pool (HP) is the avg of INT+CHA, and they each get a Goal, which I rolled randomly for the NPCs:

T 16 - figure out Cloelia
C 15 - keep powder keg from going off [Stop / Tension]
D 14 - get the upper hand over SpecEx Hanna [Ambush / Competition]
S 13 - make the enemies & traitors pay [Vengeance / Tactics]
H 12 - make an alliance [Create / Allies]

To make things more interesting/varied/creative, no one can use the same skill more than twice. I will narrate events in whatever order makes sense, and put the mechanics in a section at the end. Only the successful die rolls were noted to make it easier to compare numbers for the successes.]

Scenes from Hyperspace

day 1

"Are you using the fresher in there?" calls Theophania from atop the dishevelled bedsheets.

"Yes," replies Cloelia.

"Why?"

"You should, too, if we're going back out there."

"Back out? Why?"

"I think we should hang out in the common room a while and make sure they all play nice."

"Why?"

"I just want to see as many live bodies get off this ship as got on."

. . . . .

Stipan is shut in his cabin trying to steel himself for the trip ahead, but Damiana and SpecEx Hanna are in the lounge, albeit on opposite sides of the room.

"This is cheery," says Cloelia as she walks in. "Honest opinion time: how's this uniform I found suit me?" She strikes a little pose, at which the others can't help laughing.

"I'd not use you on the front of the Sunbeam corporate brochure, if that's what you're asking," jokes Damiana.

"It doesn't, um, zip up all the way in front," observes SpecEx Hanna.

"Hmmmm... Theophania didn't seem to mind... Anyway, it's already depressing in here. Why don't we try to make the best of a bad situation and just pretend we're on a passenger liner."

"To that end," says Theophania, "look what I found in the captain's personal liquor cabinet."

"I'll get some glasses."

"Thanks, ummmm...," begins Cloelia, "I was going to say, 'Thanks, SpecEx Hanna,' but... what's your given name."

"It's, er, Abigail -- but no one calls me that, not even me mates. I got used to being just Hanna in the navy."

"Well then, thanks, Hanna."

Theophania fills the four glasses. Cloelia raises hers and says 'prust' or something similar, an archaic Clyteian toast. Damiana frowns momentarily, but elects to keep her cool. As a proud Inahian, she bears the customary prejudice against the neighbouring system, but is smart enough to know when to let it rest [Passion - Hate Clyteians (36%); luckily she fails her roll]. She stays as long as is polite, then retires to her cabin, pleading exhaustion.

Hanna is fading as well. But as she is leaving, she pauses in the doorway. "I... I'm sorry about earlier. I hope you two don't hold it against me. You were an unknown quantity and I had a job to do."

. . . . .

"So, what do you think about our new friends?" asks Theophania.

Cloelia yawns. "I think I need to sleep on it."

[d1

T 16 - Influence, fail
C 15 - Influence, 41
D 14 - Insight, fail
S 13 - Willpower, fail
H 12 - Influence, 23

Cloelia wins the contest. She doesn't want to wear down Theophania (and/or isn't being especially closed off towards her), and can't affect Hanna (who succeeded in her roll), so deals 1d6 to Damiana & Stipan. Damiana takes 6 damage, dropping her pool to 8. Stipan takes 3, putting him at 10.]


day 2

Theophania doesn't know what to make of Cloelia's dedication to her new 'project', so spends the day watching her watching them. Hanna tries to make herself scarce, but winds up bumping into everyone. Stipan tries to convince the others that Hanna is plotting to take over the ship, but is reminded that they're in hyperspace, so taking over the ship would have no practical effect. Also, she can't fly it.

Damiana manages to corner Cloelia. "I'm not saying Stipan is right, but Hanna's dangerous. No one that young gets to where she is otherwise. We should all keep an eye on her."

"I dunno. I bet she's more scared than us behind that façade."

[d2

T 16 - Perception, 02 crit!
C 15 - Deceit 61
H 12 - Stealth, fail
S 10 - Influence, fail
D 8 - Influence, 40

Theophania wins. Her whispered insights to Cloelia deal damage to Hanna & Stipan: Stipan takes 2 damage (down to 5hp), Damiana takes 5 (down to 6hp).]


day 3

"Nooooo," pouts Theophania, "It's boring out there. Let's just stay in bed."

"But I've had such a grand idea! We're all going to make dinner and eat together. Trust me, this will make it a lot less tense. It can't fail!"

Miraculously, Cloelia is able to convince everyone to share a repast. Hanna endeavours to watch everyone for signs of weakness, but is too easily drawn in to Cloelia's little party games. Damiana relies on her charm school lessons to be pleasant with her inferiors. Stipan tries to stay focussed on his suspicions, but is out of his element and the wine may be going to his head.

[d3

T 16 - Influence, 30
C 15 - Influence, 47
H 12 - Perception, fail
D 6 - Courtesy, 41
S 5 - Willpower, fail

Cloelia wins again, doing 4 damage each to Hanna & Stipan; Hanna's down to 8hp, Stipan has 1 left.]


day 4

"You're awfully quiet this morning," says Cloelia.

"Lost in thought," says Theophania.

"I can tell. You always twirl your hair round your finger when you're thinking deeply... except when we're lying here, you've taken to twirling mine."

"Sorry."

"If it bothered me I'd have said. Credit for your thoughts?"

"I was just thinking... about us."

"Oh?"

"So, like... are we...?"

"Are we...?"

"You know..."

"Oh my dearest darling, you know I can't answer that question until you can ask the whole of it."

. . . . .

Hanna is alone in the lounge when Theophania and Cloelia emerge. "Thank the gods it's you," she says. "you're both far less uptight than the other two. I don't think they're really ever going to forgive me for... you know."

Stipan and Damiana do eventually arrive. Theophania uses her psi-powers to read everyone's emotional state (except for Cloelia's); the boredom and frustration they all evince conceal nothing deeper.

Cloelia tries to get everyone talking about Aretesi. "It's all kind of messy there, with the various power blocs and offworld corporations fighting all the time. Now, the main factions are..."

But no one really wants to listen. Hanna fidgets for a while, then excuses herself to her cabin. Damiana leaves next, having had about as much of that Clyteian's babbling as she can take for one day; she needs to play the long game, so no use wearing herself out now. Stipan isn't really interested either. But he permits himself a parting shot as he leaves.

"Hanna's using you two, you know, if it isn't obvious. She trying to turn you against us. Don't let her. Remember who she works for, and what she was doing when you met..."

[d4

T 16 - Empathy, 17
C 15 - Politics, fail
H 8 - Streetwise, 27
D 6 - Willpower, 23
S 1 - Influence, 21

Hanna wins this round, mostly by staying out of the way. A frustrated Cloelia takes 3 damage (down to 12hp)]


day 5

Theophania is still trying to figure out just what, exactly, Cloelia meant the other morning. Did she want her to ask her...?

Cloelia, for her part, is restless, wandering in and out of the lounge on the slightest pretext, hoping to find something to say to the others.

Hanna is convinced that Stipan is up to something, and observes him stealthily, but he doesn't go anywhere except the lounge and his own cabin.

Cloelia has convinced them all that one meal a day as a 'crew' is necessary for their cohesion, and no one has seen fit to argue. At dinner time, Stipan tries to get them talking about their plan for when they have landed on Aretesi, but has as little success as Cloelia in drawing them out.

Everyone retires early, leaving Cloelia and Damiana alone in the lounge.

"Trouble in paradise?" asks Damiana. "Sorry, but I think you two are a disaster waiting to happen."

[d5

T 16 - Insight, fail
C 12 - Insight, fail
H 8 - Stealth 20
D 6 - Insight, 24
S 1 - Oratory, fail

Damiana wins. She is tired of Stipan's shit, so does damage to him, leaving him at 0. She also damages Theophania & Cloelia: 5&3 damage respectively puts T at 11hp, C at 9.]


day 6

Theophania has almost asked Cloelia to make things official six times... almost. She doesn't want to ask until she's sure of her answer.

Cloelia has snuck off into the lounge again to see if there are any good snacks left. Theophania assumes she's checking up on the others. Or stress eating.

Hanna has been trying to get a private word with either of them, but didn't hear Cloelia moving about, and misses her chance.

But Damiana finds Cloelia on one of her forays into the lounge. "You've got to do something about Hanna before we arrive."

"I thought we all had an agreement."

"Easy for you to say -- you and lovergirl have guns. We've no such leverage, Stipan and I."

"Just drop it, kay? I'm not in the mood."

[d6

T 11 - Insight, fail
C 9 - Stealth 17
H 8 - Perception, fail
D 6 - Influence, fail
S 0 - x

Cloelia got a terrible roll but still won the round. She does 6 damage each to Hanna & Damiana reducing them to 2hp & 0hp respectively.

That was the last round of the conflict, so it's time to look at the results. There's no single winner with the schema I was using; the success or failure of each person's goal depends on how much damage they took to their Pool.

Pool reduced to 0

- Damiana gets no edge over Hanna; she'll have a -10% penalty on any further attempts

- Stipan wasn't sure where to start; -10% to further actions taken against his companions

Pool reduced to below half

- Hanna isn't seen as a threat by Theophania & Cloelia, but neither do they regard her as an ally

Pool above half

- Cloelia keeps the simmering tensions from boiling over (her Pool dropping below half would have resulted in an incident. Dropping to 0 would have made her directly involved in the incident, if not its instigator)

- Theophania gains some insight about Cloelia, but as they are at the same level it isn't a complete success.]

Theophania starts as the door opens and Cloelia stomps into their cabin.

"Nothing good left in the stores?"

"No... it's not that," sighs Cloelia, flopping heavily down on the bed. "I'm just tired of this vipers' nest. They aren't even trying to make the best of it, just jockey for position. It's exhausting! At least I can count on you for a safe haven."

She's leaning on me for support, not just out of boredom, thinks Theophania. I'll definitely ask her when we get to Aretesi. It'll be better, not to do it on the ship... when did I get so insecure?

At 12 hours until arrival, the 'crew' convene for one last dinner in the common area.

"So," says Damiana, "what are we going to do when we arrive?"

Stipan shoots Cloelia a didn't-we-both-try-to-raise-this-point-already look, but she ignores him.

"We should probably get to the planet first," says Cloelia. "And see if we can't turn some of these, er, objets d'art decorating the cabins into cash. I'm afraid all my currency was lost aboard the freighter."

"We should also try to get away from this ship," says Hanna. "Before it gets reported stolen."

"Must we?" asks Damiana. "This ship is Sunbeam corporate property."

"Is it, though? Did anyone make any headway with the computer?"

[Computer rolls for cracking security--

Stipan (50%): 87, fail
Theophania (46%), but at a Formidable (-40) difficulty since she was really just obsessing over Cloelia: 53, fail]

"I couldn't defeat the security measures," says Stipan.

"I, er, didn't get very far either," mumbles Theophania. "Now, when we land on Aretesi--"

"When was that decided?" interjects Stipan. "There's a refuelling station orbiting it--"

"And we have so much fucking cash on hand!" snaps Cloelia. [Influence 51% vs Willpower 45%: 96 vs 98...]

Her outburst cuts him short, but they both lapse into uncomfortable and embarrassed silence.

"So where shall I put us down?" asks Theophania. "The main port, a minor one, or somewhere rural so we can ditch the ship?"

[I made a quick 1d6 table to determine the NPCs' votes based on what their personality/deviousness/leanings seemed to indicate.

  maj. min. rur.
  --------------
C 1-3  4-5   6
H 1-2  3-4  5-6
D 1-5   6    -
S  1   2-3  4-6

And rolled 1,2,4,1...]

They go round the table, and everyone votes for the main port, including Theophania -- though she went last, as she was going to vote the same as Cloelia, no matter what.


Scene 12

Chaos: Out of control (d8)

Setup: arrival at 0403 Makif/Aretesi

NPC List: New Dawn, Sunbeam, Cloelia, SpecEx Hanna, Damiana, Stipan

Threads: long term-goal, short-term goal, Cloelia, Corporate War

[In the last scene, the Oracle decided that there would be a problem with the ship after arrival at the destination system. So,
Q: Does it occur immediately, or after contact with the planet? (1d6): 1-4 immediately, 5-6 afterwards: 1d6=2
Problem: Kill / Weather (=Life support failure)]

Some ships exit hyperspace more gracefully than others. There's always a bit of a wrenching sensation as the ship plunges through hyper-dimensions back into normal spacetime, but beyond that it's up to the ship. Bulk freighters tend to lurch, sleek space yachts tend to purr, whilst most civilian craft tend to vibrate for a greater or lesser time. But the vibrations usually last a few seconds, not two minutes.

"Oh shit, we're venting atmosphere!" shouts Cloelia even before the warning klaxons sound.

Cloelia puts on her own vac suit then assists all the others to get into theirs safely, naturally starting with Theophania but expending no less care on Stipan or Damiana: another testament to her orbital childhood. She sees that Hanna learnt how to suit up properly in the navy and leaves her to it.

[Cloelia made a successful Vac Suit (51%) roll to help the others. Neither she nor Hanna needed a roll to get suited up, and unless anyone tries anything acrobatic, no more rolls are needed.]

When Hanna is suited up she rushes down to the engineering section to run diagnostics and make repairs. She returns dejectedly to the bridge about 15 minutes later. "There is a major life support failure and a hull breech in the aft cargo section. I can't fix it with the tools onboard. It think it needs a major overhaul."

[Her Engineering (55%) roll was 00, critical failure, so it there had been a chance of fixing it, there isn't one now.

Q: What is the first contact they have over the comm? (1d12): 1-3 refuelling station, 4-5 main port, 6 minor (local) port, 7-9 faction military, 10 world military, 11-12 roll 2x: 10]

Other than automatic beacons, the comms stay surprisingly quiet until they hit Aretesi's gravity well, when the comm lights start flashing a priority communication and a trio of aerospace fighters appear on the scopes.

[The communication (via UNE): insane - illusion - current scene; they think the PCs ship is an enemy vessel and scramble fighters

Cloelia's Influence (51%) assisted by Politics (+12=63%): 59, success, but would have failed without the boost from her Politics skill.]

"Let me," says Cloelia and switches the comms over to her suit before anyone as a chance to argue. The voice on the other end (they can all hear the conversation but not interject) belongs to the rather improbably titled Sub-orbital Sub-commander of one of the Aretesian militaries. Cloelia and the soldier have a long argument back and forth (luckily she knows all about the situation on-world!), and although they eventually accept her explanations, they still insist on the fighters accompanying ship to the nearest port.

Theophania sets the ship down on the platform indicated, and everyone trades their vac suits for breath masks. Aretesi's atmosphere should have been human-breathable decades ago, but corruption and corporate warfare have slowed, if not reversed, the terraforming process.

They are greeted at the exit ramp by a unit of local soldiers who politely request they come out unarmed. Each must submit to a minor interrogation in a starport outbuilding, and they are released one by one. Hanna makes it back to the ship several hours after the rest, but no one is the worse for wear from the experience; neither Sunbeam nor New dawn are involved in the nearby conflict, so the locals lost interest in the new arrivals. Their ship, however, is grounded. Due to heavy fighting, no departures are allowed for the foreseeable future. They were lucky not to have been shot down.

[Q: Is anyone detained? Unlikely (5+): O6 C3 - yes, but... for only 1d30=3 hours
Q: Who? (1d6) 1 T&C, 2 D&S, 3 H, 4-6 everyone: 3]

Back aboard the ship, they are busy packing up anything portable and of potential value (mostly some old vases and odd bits of glass art) into the various suitcases and carry-alls aboard the ship whilst wondering about their next move.

[Stipan is up to something. He pits his Stealth (at +20%) vs everyone else's Perception. No one makes a successful roll, but as they are distracted and busy, his attempt succeeds.]

Stipan sneaks off to the bridge and sends a voice communication to the local Sunbeam corporate HQ over what he hopes is a secure channel. "Galle 9 has fallen. Section V Manager Damiana Manabat is a traitor. Have intel on a New Dawn military officer involved in the raid and two possible spies or saboteurs -- or at least witnesses. Headed to main port. Will contact further from there."


to be continued...