Marsh shaved the time on the
plot down to thirteen days, but that still left the crew and passengers with a
nearly two week trip to Beaumonde. One of the
passengers, a Dennis Fletcher lives on Persephone and pressed to be dropped off
on the way. However, to meet Killian’s
deadline and to avoid a run in with Darius Nightblade,
Chan had to say no. Xavier was able to verify that Killian could not only cover
the costs of his high speed run, he was a wealthy and well known
philanthropist.
The trip proved to be
uneventful with the biggest challenge being how to stretch the food to last
long enough to keep everyone eating for the whole trip. There were potential
fireworks as the two female passengers – Jessica Bascome
and Heidi Bergstrom ran afoul of Cindy for flirting with Marsh, who wisely,
rejected their fake advances realizing they were purely to gain food or other
minor comforts. The women each were wise enough to recognize the threat Cindy
posed and kept their distance from the pilot.
The other passengers Fred Wong,
a mid-level mining guild rep, proved to be the least bothersome of those on
board. The last of the escapees was John Taylor a high strong sort that William
pegged instantly as a potential problem, but had Willis keep him pacified
during the entire trip.
On arriving on Beaumonde, Killian revealed his plan. Namely to outfit the
‘Ghost as a sort of roving “Red Cross Express” for those on the rim in need of
medical care but are too poor to afford treatment. Killian proposes a six month
cruise/charter with a hazardous duty bonus for contract the crew as guards. The
care is meant to be first rate and will supplement Cindy’s skills with three
medics, two nurses and a doctor.
The sticking point is the costs
are high enough that Killian wants to use investors to split the costs to
finance the endeavor. Killian is a long time campaigner and has the skills to
set up a fund raiser. He will see to all those details while the crew repairs
the ship and gets ready to attend the party. Chan tried to dodge the party, but
Killian was insistent. The donors needed
to see and talk to the crew to be certain they were right for the
job. Not having much choice, Chan
agreed. Killian said his advocate would
send the contract via wave in a couple days. The party would be in three days,
the crew had that much time to repair the ship, buy proper clothing, and learn
proper manners in order to make the fund raiser a success.
As Willis and Marsh focused on
repairs, the rest of the crew began preparations to fit into the fancy shindig.
Marsh and Willis went to one of the scrap yards to search for salvageable
parts. The first yard they stopped in,
amazingly enough, did not have any Firefly hulks. The second yard did and Marsh
quickly spotted the needed sections of hull plates needed and Willis was so
skillful in extracting them, that the dealer reduced the price by a quarter to
70 credits for a total of 820 credits to repair the damage fully. Willis was
again brilliant and completed repairs the same day as he started, which gave
him and Marsh one full day to practice their manners and get outfitted.
Chan and William had a high
quality outfit, purchased forever ago when they were trying to earn their first
cargo run from Patrick Hong on Verbena. Li Ming had an extensive wardrobe and
easily could come up with a fitting outfit. Willis, Xavier, Marsh, and Cindy
were the ones that needed to find something appropriate and with how much the
repairs to the Ghost had devastated their cash supply, the crew had to get
creative to find the proper outfits on a very tight budget. Scraping together the bare minimum and with
some surprisingly deft help from William, the entire crew arrived in outfits that
were completely fitting for the formality of the fundraiser.
During the party everyone but
Li Ming got cornered at one point to speak on behalf of the mission. Chan,
Cindy, and Xavier all spoke very well (roll Hard), while William was not as
eloquent as he typically was (roll Average). Willis spoke brilliantly (roll Formidable),
which compensated for Marsh’s stumbling (roll Easy) overall the crew performed admirably
in an area that was completely foreign to them, earning even higher esteem from
Killian
The next five days were a
whirlwind of activity as the ship was stocked and made ready for an extended
cruise. The doctor, two nurses, and
three medics easily fit in the four double passenger cabins. Ensuring nothing was overlooked kept most of
the crew too occupied to be on guard more than usual.
However, Li Ming had less to do
than the others and noticed they were being watched always certain of her
abilities, she chose to confront the observer.
One man spotted Li Ming and the chase was on. The next several minutes were a wild
steeplechase with Li Ming coming within a hair’s breadth of catching the man
twice before he finally escaped.
Frustrated, the gambler returned empty handed.
During the distraction, Cindy
was alone and approached by an old war buddy; Thomas Dewitt served with Cindy
and rescued her at Du Khang.
He asked to speak to Cindy in private who agreed. Once alone Dewitt asked what
Cindy thought of the rebellion. Dewitt played on the medic’s fears and
superstitions to weaken her resolve and plant the seeds of the Neo Browncoat
movement. Dewitt played his part masterfully and managed to wrest a promise of silence
that they had spoken. [Invoked Superstitious Trait reducing Cindy’s Willpower
to d6 another activated Traumatic Flashbacks reducing Influence to D2. Finally rolled a 20! On 2D10 against Cindy’s
4 to implant Neo-Browncoat party line and rolled 16 to Cindy’s 5 to remain
silent]
Once the ship was fully
stocked, they departed Beaumonde on
Cindy fought with nightmares
since leaving Beaumonde and Marsh struggled to help
her through the rough times eventually breaking through her pain. It took
several more days before Dewitt’s words broke their hold and she was able to
tell Chan about the warning of an attempt to hijack the Ghost after they
reached Beylix. However, not ten minutes later, Marsh
detected two ships closing fast! Chan demanded to know what was going on and
Cindy steadfastly denied knowing but before the scene could get ugly, Williams
stepped into say he believed that Cindy was telling the truth. Chan accepted this
and everyone prepared for battle.
Chan snapped off a series of
orders and for hard burn. William, Chan, Li Ming, and Cindy all donned full
armor and grabbed their heaviest weapons, once ready, Cindy prepped her aid bag
as the others took up positions in the cargo bay in case they were
boarded. Chan stopped by the bridge to
see if out running their pursuers was possible, but the speed of the two ships
an old Mercury-class courier and an even older Treefrog-class
freighter made that clearly not an option.
Chan then had the medical staff take shelter in the infirmary with
orders to stay put unless called for by one of the crew.
Rushing back to the bridge,
Chan was about to have Marsh and Willis set up the “fluids flush” that had
crippled the Reaver ship, what seemed like forever ago, but the plan was scrubbed
as soon as the Mercury, named the Zephyr, fired a warning shot missile and then
ordered them to have to and prepare to be boarded by forces of the
Neo-Browncoat militia. Dumping the ships water supply would only work if the
pursuing ship was very close and since the Zephyr was armed they wouldn’t get that
close.
Chan was turning the leave the
bridge, when she had a flash of insight. Her insane plan would only work if the
Mercury was the only armed pursuer and if Marsh was as insane as she thought he
was. Not having much choice, she quickly filled the pilot in on the plan and
knew it was as crazy as she thought when Marsh loved the idea. Marsh began a
careful deception to lure the Mercury in closer.
Marsh’s first attempt at luring
in the purser was a disaster and allowed the Zephyr a missile launch.
Fortunately, the missile became confused by Marsh’s evasive maneuver and failed
to lock on. Marsh and the Zephyr played a deadly game of cat and mouse, with
Marsh getting the hang of the Zephyr’s maneuverability and pilot’s skill and
slowly luring the Neo-Browncoat ship into position.
Willis had carefully set the
ship’s engines to respond to Chan’s insanity, but with an instant response to Marsh’s
touch. One near miss slammed the crew about, but only Cindy was caught off
guard taking a blow to the head as she flipped end over end. Her armor absorbed
most of the blow leaving her only slightly stunned and more embarrassed than
injured.
Once Marsh had the Zephyr in
position, he initiated plan “Crazy Chan”, rather than a rapid reversal by pivoting
the ship’s engines in opposite direction, Marsh slewed the Ghost perpendicular
to his direction of flight and caused the ship to spin by pivoting the engines
to have one pointing up and the other downward. Xavier then over rode all the
safety interlocks to cause the empty shuttle to detach and with the spin Marsh
created, fly directly into the path of the dumbfounded pilot of the Zephyr.
Caught completely by surprise the Zephyr never had a chance to evade. The
shuttle slammed into the Neo-Browncoat ship and the damage was devastating. The
Zephyr survived the impact, but very quickly main power failed leaving the ship
on the draft. The Treefrog named Cupid’s bow had to
break off pursuit to assist their disabled comrades giving the Ghost the chance
to go to hard burn.
Marsh changed vectors several
times as Chan waited for a response from Killian about the attack. The crew was
stunned to hear Killian’s reply which ordered them back to Beaumonde.
The insurance on the mission and the backers would not risk the investment and
regardless of Killian’s desire to continue, forced a cancellation of the
mission. Six days at hard burn got the Ghost safely back to Beaumonde.
A deeply chagrined Killian met them when they landed and apologized for the
sudden end of the planned job, but paid them the normal chartered vessel rates
for fifteen days, refueled their ship and most importantly of all, replaced
their lost shuttle.