Cepheus Deluxe: The Bounty Hunter - Session 11

 

The ship

Introduction

After recovering in hospital our bounty hunter Arman Doyle has been whisked offplanet by the Network, safely hidden away in a cryotube on a freighter bound for the planet of Honi 3. To play Cepheus Deluxe solo we're using Mythic Game Master Emulator 2nd Edition. I'm also going to use Zozer Games's Solo. 

The Adventure

Scene 12 | Jaketown, Honi 3 | 3023.05.018 | Cr44,558 | Chaos Factor: 6

Something I keep forgetting about is Arman's experience points. He's got 2 unspent ones which he can put towards his skills. This is enough to give him level zero (basic training) in one skill. After all his dealings in the shadier side of Siento's society I'm going to give him Streetwise-0. That should help him track down rough characters who don't want to be found.

Arman is awoken by noise and bright white lights. Electronic equipment bleeps, he has a sensation of extreme cold, opens his eyes suddenly and is greeted by the sight of the inside of a cryotube covered in frost. Warm air washes over him and the frost slowly clears from the transparent plastic in front of him. He shivers and slowly comes to his senses. Abe Clarke was true to his word then. He must be on some other planet now, safely out of range of the police state of Siento 1.

A few minutes later he sees a medic approach the tube and tap some buttons. The plastic quickly slides open and the cool air from the ship makes him shiver again. The medic, a dark skinned man with dreadlocks holds a cardboard bowl under Arman's chin and he immediately vomits into it, surprising himself. "That's it, you're alright." The man says. "We've arrived at the jump point in Honi. We're en route to Honi 3, should be there in about nine hours. You can get your stuff from the lockers over there." He points to a wall of numbered lockers, telling Arman he's number seven.

Arman gets out, still feeling shaky, and opens locker seven to find his communicator, the 3D scanner he uses to confirm captured targets with the Network, and an unfamiliar set of drab-looking clothes. Makes sense, he thinks. His leather jacket must have been soaked in his own blood. He puts the clothes on and takes his belongings, then walks over to a door marked "Freshers". He enters a toilet cubicle and wills his cybernetic forearm compartment to open.

Did the surgeons remove the body pistol from his forearm? (Unlikely)

5: Yes.

The compartment is empty, his small handgun missing. Hmm. They must have done a full scan at the hospital. He's unfamiliar with the Honi system but hopefully he'll be able to legally buy a couple of new guns here. He wouldn't be much of a bounty hunter without one. He should really get a new weapon for close quarters battle too, since the rubber mallet he bought back on Siento 1 was always a bit useless.

Leaving the fresher he sees the other low berth passengers filing out of the room, a large cavernous space that looks like a cargo bay, into a corridor beyond. He follows them and hears a woman's voice over a loudspeaker. "Attention low berth passengers. Please make your way to the passenger deck for refreshment. In approximately nine hours we will arrive in orbit of Honi 3 where our shuttle will transport you down to Jaketown."

Jaketown? What kind of name for a city is that? He ponders this as he gets into a lift with several other passengers and goes up a couple of decks. He spends the next few hours eating a microwaved ready meal consisting of three different coloured pastes and sitting in a chair by a window, watching the vast emptiness of space go by slowly. Other low berth passengers mill about or slump in the seats while the ones who paid for staterooms chat to each other.

I'm not doing any rolls for encounters or interrupted scenes here since I want to get Arman started on the next stage of his adventure.

Hours later the large round shape of Honi 3 comes into view out of the window. Arman sees blue oceans covering most of the planet, with small continents and archipelagos dotted about. They look green which is always a good sign. "Attention," the voice comes over the speaker again. "Please remember that in order to leave the spaceport you will need to buy a breather and air supply due to the thin and tainted atmosphere of Honi 3." Great.

An hour and a half later Arman walks into the arrivals area at the spaceport. It's a large grimy building with a glass roof crisscrossed by rusting metal beams. Outside it's raining and cloudy. Huge hills in the distance are covered with what look like fir trees. Mist rolls between and over them. "Welcome to the Honi system, Mr Doyle." A voice says from near Arman's left shoulder.

Who is this person? I'm going to use the patron encounters tables in Cepheus Deluxe to find out. We get a female government official. She's tall and her most notable characteristic is that she's a drunkard or drug addict. We'll say she's got a highly stressful job involved with managing Jaketown so she's become addicted to a local drug that keeps her energised and awake. The good old Seventh Sanctum name generator gives us Adela Puckett.

"Adela Puckett. I'm an associate of Frank Hancock. You know, Amtep Logistics on Siento 1?" Of course he remembers Frank, the man who recruited him into this whole mess.

"Where do I go? What do I do?" Arman mumbles at her.

"Still a bit frosty from the tube eh?" She looks him up and down. "Don't worry, I've got good news."

Adela explains in more detail what Abe Clarke told Arman in the hospital - Hancock has smuggled him offworld two parsecs away to the Honi system, safely out of reach of Siento's police force. Hancock believes he's ready to take on better contracts so he's arranged for quite a nice ship to be delivered to the starport here, a three hundred ton gunship capable of holding its own in combat as well as taking on passengers and freight if Arman desires.

She tells him he'll need to put a crew together, but that it shouldn't be too hard with all the spacers passing through Jaketown from the asteroid belt and the nearby systems. In theory he should just be able to hang around in the bars near the spaceport and meet some candidates that way.

"And here she is." Adela says as they arrive at a landing pad in a large hanger, its roof currently closed to the harmful air outside. A very large red ship sits on the pad. Not unattractive but somewhat threatening, it looks very impressive. "Three hundred tons of light crystaliron armour, two triple pulse laser turrets and a double missile turret. A J-drive that'll take you up to two parsecs away in one jump, model three computer with conversational ability, twenty staterooms, ten cryotubes, medbay, cargo bay... it should be more than enough for your needs."

"And it's... mine?" Arman asks. It sounds too good to be true, which it is.

"No. Fifty percent is owned by Amtep Logistics, surprise surprise. The other fifty is mortgaged in your name. You've been hired by Amtep as a security consultant, which is how you secured the mortgage. The salary Frank listed in the application will not be paid to you, but the Network will provide you with regular contracts on an interstellar scale."

Adela says that the ship is worth 108 million credits in total. 1/320th of half of that needs to be paid each month for 480 months (40 standard years). That comes to Cr168,750 per month. Arman's eyes go wide, remembering the thousand credits he was paid for capturing the fat man in the hotel after chasing him to another province.

"Don't worry, you'll find plenty of opportunity out there to make far more than that each month if you're as resourceful as Frank and Abe say you are." She looks him up and down again and chuckles to herself. "Now all you need to do is think of a name for her." And with that Adela turns and walks out of the hanger.

Arman puts his hands on his hips and looks up at the big ship in front of him. Red... He remembers the sign on the warehouse opposite the building where he was riddled with bullets. Red Devil Shipping, or something. The Red Devil. That's as good a name as any for a ship. He'll go with that. Stepping up the ramp to the airlock on the side of the hull, Arman places his palm on a biometric scanner and the airlock unlocks. Then he steps inside.