Commissions
Scene One:
The episode begins with our characters docking on the Pegasus, who's parked out somewhere opposite Tauron's stellar orbit. On approach we can see about a dozen commercial and civilian ships have fallen in with her and we've arrived in time to witness a Raptor jump in leading yet another. Pegasus has clearly taken a damage in a recent battle and repair crews are visible hard at work on her hull.
Once we've docked and exited our ships it only takes a few moments for Pegasus' XO to isolate us and Daymude as the ones leading the rabble. The civilian passengers debark and are quickly hustled off for interviews while Deacon, still unconscious from multiple gun shot wounds, is rushed to the infirmary. Nike, Sun and Daymude are then escorted to a conference room nearby. There the XO questions us about events leading up to our escape from Caprica, conditions on Caprica and the disposition of the Cylon forces we've encountered then and since.
Daymude soon has some hard questions to answer concerning his attempt to return to Caprica with the Griffon but he claims the two Caprican agents forced him to cooperate, threatening the passengers. He also goes on a bit about Nike, claiming he's unreliable and "loose cannon" that he didn't want to entrust the ship to. The XO halts the argument that erupts between the two of us and orders Nike to report to the CAG for reassignment. Nike leaves in a huff. Sun stands up for Nike a bit, pointing out the apparently long standing personal feud between the two men and speaking of Daymude in a rather disagreeable tone (she still holds Daymude responsible for the attack on Deacon and herself by the two agents).
Once the XO has a concise picture of what has occurred with us up to now he calmly informs Daymude that he's been drafted into the Viper squadron and then orders him to report to the CAG as well. Daymude huffs and puffs a bit but when it becomes clear how involuntary this assignment is (two armed marines enter the room to escort him) he shuts up and goes along. Sun is told then that she is to report to the Chief of the Deck to get him up to speed on the Griffon and what it's capable of. When she asks she is told that she'll probably be folded over into the infirmary to make use of her medical training after that.
Sun then spends the rest of the duty shift showing the CoD around the Griffon's systems while Nike and Daymude go through orientation with the CAG. Deacon is the infirmary undergoing some minor surgery.
By midnight Deacon is awake (he's healed his Stun damage but still has lots of Wounds). After being conscious for only a while he is surprised when the doctor (reluctantly) pronounces him able to perform his duties. The doctor informs him that Admiral Cain has ordered him to issue Deacon painkillers and send him off to the Chief of the Deck as soon as he's ambulatory. The deckhands are currently spread very thin.
Sun gets to work on the Griffon, overseeing the minor repairs to the hull from Nike ramming it with Topbird. Topbird is flown out of the launch bay with most of the civilians that we were ferrying, minus a handful with some technical skills or pilot training that's useful to Pegasus. Having worked a couple of hours past the normal duty shift (since she arrived in the middle of the shift anyway) she is issued quarters and is off for the evening. When she asks the CoD she is informed that for the time being she's been drafted in with the deck crew as a deckhand until they get the Griffon squared away. Deciding to postpone sleeping a bit longer she heads out to try to visit Deacon.
When Sun arrives in the infirmary and finds out Deacon is to be discharged the next morning without having had time to properly heal she pitches a small fit. She wrangles with the doctor a while but eventually is unable to convince him to keep Deacon in bed. The doctor is operating under orders directly from the Admiral and it doesn't look like she can change his mind. Sun immediately demands to speak to Admiral Cain about the matter and the doctor simply points her down the hall toward the bridge.
When Sun arrives at the bridge and manages to get word to the Admiral she is escorted inside and meets with Cain right in the CIC. Cain lights into her pretty quickly and makes it clear that nothing and no one without use to the ship has a place on board. She makes it clear as well that Sun is expected to work with the CoD to develop something useful out of the stealth technology on the Griffon and that she better be damned quick about it. When Sun begins to argue Cain interrupts and lays it out pretty clearly that Sun will get either get with the program and give it a 110% or she'll be shipped off to one of the civilian vessels. The same ships that the Cylons will be flying through to get to Pegasus in their next engagement. Cain presses the point, demanding an answer from Sun immediately one way or the other, with a real air of menace about her. Sun finally just gives in, agrees and is escorted off the bridge.
When she passes a Viper pilot in the hall on the way to her new quarters and asks about Nike she finds he's already out on CAP, patrolling. With that she calls it a night and heads to bed. She's thoroughly disgruntled to find she's sharing a bunk with four other deckhands.
Nike completes basic orientation along with Daymude less than an hour after reporting to the CAG. They are both assigned Vipers and have only another hour to get to know their fellow pilots before they find they've been placed on CAP that very night. They are to relieve the two exhausted pilots who were originally scheduled.
Waiting in the hangar for their turn to launch Nike decides Daymude's bitter rivalry needs to be dealt with. He admits to stealing the job with the Archimedes corporation, agrees that Daymude should have had the job and offers to confess the same to anyone who asks from here on out. Daymude, though still plenty bitter about it, is at least put off balance a bit. (I'm hoping to buy off the Rival complication after this session, so I'm trying to lay groundwork for that.)
While out on CAP Nike, Daymude and the Raptor pilot "Slider" are suddenly ordered to engage one of the civilian passenger ships, the Grand Princess. Darting across to Pegasus' port side they find the Grand Princess powering up her FTL. Nike tries to make radio contact but receives no answer. They are then instructed to disable the ship without damaging the FTL.
When we asks for clarification of our orders we are informed that causing enough structural damage to the ship will make the FTL jump impossible without taking time to reconfigure the jump. Meanwhile a Raptor with a squad of Marines has already been launched to take advantage of the delay, board the ship and prevent it's escape.
Without any further information Daymude moves on ahead to engage the Grand Princess and so Nike joins him. With little time to approach the difficult maneuver of disabling a ship without destroying it or the FTL drive we open fire and hope for the best.
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Control rolls:
Nike makes his control roll and his Viper uses its Agility.
Daymude fails his check and his Viper uses his Agility.
1)
The pilot of the Grand Princess cannot maneuver as he's trying to remain on course for the jump. Daymude had initiative over Nike so he fires and rips up one side of the passenger carrier. When the GM asks me to make an Alertness + Perception roll for Nike he fails it but I use his Intuitive asset for the day and ask if the carrier has already been disabled. When I find out it's still operational I have Nike open fire and rip up the other side of the ship.
2)
When we see that the Grand Princess is still operational the next turn (though tore up plenty) Daymude opens fire again. We are a bit dismayed when the ship promptly ruptures and disentegrates.
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[Nike gets 1 Plot Point for role-playing his Rival complication and 1 Plot Point for avoiding destroying the Grand Princess personally, though Daymude still managed to pull it off anyway. Sun gets 3 Plot Points for role-playing her Contrarian and Duty complications as well as her awesome role-play with Admiral Cain. Deacon unfortunately slept through most of his Plot Point opportunities.]
Scene Two:
Deacon wakes the following morning and is discharged from the infirmary, issued an orange jump suit and ordered to report to the Chief of the Deck. Ashen and shaky he nevertheless reports as ordered (once he's downed a few pain pills). There he is immediately set to work on a handful of damaged Vipers already under repair. After several hours of hard labor he's managed not to exacerbate his injuries and still achieved results enough to impress the CoD (a very successful Intelligence + Mechanical Repair complex action and an Endurance check).
The CoD then pulls him off of working with the Vipers and assigns him to another project off the ship. Before he leaves, however, the Cod takes him aside and informs him that he's learned some troubling things about his background from some of the staff members from the Griffon project. After making Deacon aware that he knows of his prior manslaughter conviction and reputation as a brawler (whether Deacon feels the reputation is deserved or not being immaterial) he is sternly warned to watch his step. Speaking plainly the CoD warns him that so long as he produces results his past will be overlooked but the moment he steps out of line he can expect to join the civilians. It's clear from the context that "joining the civilians" is a fate largely considered far worse than merely being confined to the brig. Clearly the civilians are viewed as expendable.
At the starboard launch bay he joins two other engineers and a small squad of Marines aboard a Raptor, heading out for one of the nearby civilian ships. He grabs a tool belt and is issued a sidearm by the Marines once he boards. From them he learns they are to board a cargo ship and seize a whole list of compatible FTL engine components for Pegasus. The Marines are coming along in case the ship's crew objects.
Once on board the cargo ship he sets about with the other engineers working quickly to remove and box the various parts on the list. Working on a rather harsh timeline he manages to pull it off despite his condition. While he's doing this, however, he realizes that many of the parts on the list must be taken directly from the FTL engine and that by removing all the components on the list they have rendered the ship's FTL completely inoperable. When he reports this to the Marines they simply shrug and he then demands to speak with the CoD. Once he gets him on the wireless he discovers that the CoD is perfectly aware that they've hobbled the civilian vessel but maintains the Pegasus requires spare parts that aren't available anywhere else. When Deacon asks what the civilian crew is supposed to do with a sub light ship when Pegasus jumps away he's simply ordered back to work and advised to let the command officers make the decisions.
On his way back to the FTL engine to complete his much hated assignment he is suddenly confronted by two of the crew who are rather irate, having overheard the conversation. Things heat up quickly and Deacon realizes he's going to have to defend himself in a minute. Bearing in mind what the CoD said to him earlier (and the fact that one punch in the right place will land him back in surgery) he swallows his pride and ducks back to the Marines in the cockpit. They then escort him back to the engine room while the crewmen are forced to make due with simply glaring at him.
When Sun wakes (way too early for her liking) she hoofs it down to the CoD, arriving late. After getting chewed out a bit she's told that she'll be pulling double shifts for the foreseeable future, spending one shift working on the Griffon and the other in the infirmary. Sun decides that sucks a bit but is otherwise acceptable as both seem to be worthwhile endeavors.
With her first job of assembling a list of parts and components to start working on a prototype Sheep's Clothing device for use in Raptors, she heads down to storage to grab what parts she can from there. After arriving and finding someone willing to take the time to help her she tracks down the various components she starts loading them up on a cart. While doing so she spends some time with the dock worker helping her, discussing various subjects and basically getting the lay of the land. She's a bit disturbed at some of the things she learns, especially concerning the fact that spare parts are being stripped off every civilian ship in the fleet for use on Pegasus. Not only that but many civilians with skills and training useful to the war effort are being unofficially drafted into service, often separating them from their families and prior duties against their will.
Most disturbing of all is that one FTL capable passenger liner refused to allow itself to be boarded and attempted to jump away from the fleet just last night. Unfortunately the captain tipped his hand with the CIC as to his intentions and Admiral Cain ordered the Vipers on CAP to disable the ship. The pilots apparently used a bit too much deadly force and the ship was completely destroyed. Over a three hundred civilians were killed. This does not place Nike very high in her consideration when she remembers that he and Daymude flew CAP last night.
Sun decides then and there that she needs to get herself and Deacon off Pegasus. Nike is another matter and she's unsure whether he would join them or just turn them in if she brings the matter up with him. Deciding she trusts the nice woman she's talking to (Gina!) she asks covertly if there's any way off the ship. Gina informs her that with the civilian vessels all being stripped of every conceivably useful component it's unlikely that any of them will be FTL capable before long. In fact, many may not even be capable of significant sub light travel. Gina then encourages her to stay on board, hinting that there's important work for her to do here. When Sun continues to ask questions Gina changes the subject and produces the last part on the list. "Taken off a private passenger ship just a few hours ago", she says. With that she disappears back to the loading docks.
Sun then heads back to the deck and gets to work piecing together a Sheep's Clothing device while determining what else she'll need to pull it off. Already she can see it'll be a project requiring at least a week if not a full month's hard work just to construct a test worthy prototype. By the end of the shift she's accomplished most of what she needs to get started in earnest the next day so she shucks her orange jump suit, grabs a quick shower and reports to the infirmary.
The previous night Nike reported in alongside Daymude after completing their CAP patrol. Both got seriously reamed for destroying the passenger liner though it's clear that the loss of its FTL is the main concern. Heading out for their bunks Nike finds that even Daymude considers the officer's nearly exclusive focus on the destroyed FTL to be "seriously frakked up". Any hopes that Nike has of actually getting along with Daymude for a moment are dashed with he stops in the hallway to inform him that what was said before the patrol means nothing to him. As far as Daymude is concerned Nike needs to pay for the good fortune he's had all his life at the expense of others. With a final glare Daymude stomps off for his quarters and Nike is left more than a little frustrated.
The following morning as Deacon stumbles down to the hangar deck and Sun wakes up late for duty, Nike attends the preflight briefing and is very thankful not to be teamed up with Daymude today. He is to pilot a Raptor out to one of the civilian ships, escorting a couple of Marines who are to oversee its evacuation. Nike asks around on the way down to the flight deck to get the story on the mission and isn't happy with what he learns. Apparently engineers have been hard at work on the ship for two days stripping valuable components for Pegasus. It seems it's gotten to the point where the ship won't be functional much longer. As there have already been a couple of incidents between the engineers and the ship's crew the Marines are being sent there to keep things in order until all the passengers are removed. A couple of ugly looks tossed his way tell Nike that many of the pilots hold him responsible for the escalating tensions between the Fleet and the civilians after the destruction of the passenger liner last night.
The trip out to the cargo ship Destiny's Edge is short with Nike arriving and docking without a problem. Leaving the Raptor and boarding Destiny's Edge, however, he and the two Marines find themselves walking right into the middle of hostage situation (The GM made a Sixth Sense roll for Nike before exiting the Raptor and he actually failed it). Ahead of them Nike sees a civilian, apparently one of the flight crew, holding a pistol the head of one of the engineers. Two other crew members have pistols as well and train them on the Marines, ordering them off the boat. The Marines respond by shouldering their weapons and before Nike can decide whether to draw his own sidearm a firefight breaks out as one of the anxious civilians opens fire.
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1)
Everyone gets Initiative over Nike and we're all surprised (including the GM) when both Marines drop from the initial fire from the civilians. Both the two armed civilians are killed as well and even the one with the gun to the engineer's head is wounded. The engineer miraculously escapes injury in the bullet-fest. [Seriously, all the npc's on both sides rolled very high during this turn and I was pretty concerned for Nike who no longer had cover with the two Marines in front of him now being dead.]
Nike's turn comes up and he decides to leave his sidearm in its holster and try to reason with the last man. After all his horoscope tells him not to be impulsive today. He soon finds the man rather hysterical after seeing his two friends gunned down beside him, not to mention getting a little shot himself, and isn't looking to be reasonable. He turns his pistol on Nike and orders him of the ship "Now!". I decided Nike isn't into to get shot by npc's wielding high D6 rolls today and he makes with the discretionary aspect of valor.
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Falling back to the Raptor Nike calls into Pegasus to inform them of what's going on. He is then ordered to detach from the cargo ship, fall back out of skirmish range and monitor until a Marine boarding team arrives. He spends the next few minutes trying in vain to contact someone on the cargo ship via wireless, hoping to defuse things before the Marines arrive. When two more Raptors swoop in, docking at each of the cargo ship's docking hatches, he listens helplessly as the reports over the wireless detail the slaughter taking place over there.
[Deacon gets 1 Plot Point for his Convict complication and 1 Plot Point for recognizing that the ship's FTL has been stripped useless and then reporting it. Sun gets 1 Plot Point for her role-play with Gina the Cylon and her Trusting complication. Nike gets 1 Plot Point for following his Superstitious complication when it could have gotten him shot, even though he was primarily trying not to get shot in the first place.]
Scene Three:
After nearly ten hours hard at work stripping the civilian ship Deacon finally finishes up along with the other two engineers. He breathes a sigh of relief when they manage to pack up the Raptor and disengage without any further trouble occurring onboard.
Back on Pegasus he finds he's not quite finished for the day and despite pointing out to the CoD that he was shot, more than once in fact, just two days ago he's sent off on yet another errand. With this being his last duty before the rack time he's been looking forward to, Deacon pops a few more painkillers and gets to work quickly. Installing some of the components other engineers have stripped from other ships onto Pegasus' fuel distribution system he finds the task not at all challenging by his estimations.
When he's joined soon after by two other deckhands coming to pitch in he finds they're already deep in conversation about a certain hot new tech working with the CoD. It's only a moment before he realizes they're talking about Sun. Johnny decides not to drop any Plot Points on Deacon's Willpower check and naturally fails it. He immediately tosses down his tools and lights into the two men. When they scoff and disregard his outburst Deacon makes a last ditch effort at not beating them both unconscious. He tells them Sun is his little sister and that he doesn't appreciate the way they're talking about her. That shuts the two men up as quickly as a sock to the jaw and Deacon is gratified that the work proceeds in silence from there. [We all got a hell of a good laugh out of that one. Even Ally thought it was funny.]
While working Deacon makes an Alertness + Perception roll (which he does drop 2 Plot Points on) and spies an odd looking device attached to the housing of the fuel line shaft. When he leans inside with a flashlight and takes a closer look he spots the timer on it, counting down and already showing 33 seconds. Deacon then pulls out quickly and digs around in his tools for the ones he'll need, then dives into the shaft up to his waist to get at the bomb. Spending a few precious moments looking it over he decides removing the cover is safe and does so. Eyeing the internal workings of the bomb he soon figures he doesn't have the technical skill to meddle with a blasting cap without risking setting it off. He does decide, however, that since the thing has a timer it probably isn't motion sensitive so he simply snatches it off the shaft wall and ducks back into the hallway.
With only seconds before the bomb detonates and nowhere to run Deacon reviews what he knows of the battlestar's technical layout. He determines an explosion somewhere down the nearby side hall would do the least amount of damage and run practically no risk of igniting the fuel lines running parallel to this hall. He then bounds forward, tosses the bomb as far as he can down the side hall and jumps back to cover around the corner, managing all three in the one turn left to him despite an Out of Luck complication re-roll. When the bomb goes off a second later the combination of range and cover reduce the concussion enough that Deacon is fully protected as are the two deckhands who're still wondering what the heck happened.
In moments security and fire teams arrive and Deacon gives them an accounting of what has occurred. They snidely suggest he take a basic course in demolitions before tossing bombs down hallways and Deacon pops back that he was damned civilian mechanic yesterday and never asked to be drafted. When the CoD gets on the scene, however, he's begrudgingly praiseworthy of Deacon's fast thinking. It is soon determined that since the explosive seems to have been primarily an incendiary little damage was done overall other than the hallway now needing a new paint job. Deacon is order to write up a report in the morning and told to hit the rack.
Late into the second shift Sun is working in the infirmary treating the crewmen recovering from injuries sustained in whatever action occurred prior to our arrival. She performs exceptionally and even manages to lessen somewhat her "newbie" status among the nursing staff, not to mention being thrilled to work in medicine again.
At 2100 hours, however, the infirmary suddenly finds itself receiving several badly injured Marines who were shot while boarding a civilian ship only an hour before. Apparently the civilians on board had taken Fleet engineers hostage and killed two Marines before the boarding party was deployed. As the civilians had time to barricade themselves in before being boarded a second time the Marines here paid hell digging them out. Worst of all the infirmary staff find they're three beds short to treat the men and none of the recovering fleet crew can be moved safely.
The Officer in Charge of the Marine squad then suggests that the doctor move out the three Sagittaron patients, all of whom are unconscious and worse off than any of the recovering crewmen. To Sun's surprise the doctors agrees and orders it. As the nursing staff move to carry out the order, effectively intending to toss the three patients out into the hall, Sun finds her prejudice against Sagittarons far outweighed by nearly all of her other complications. She refuses and even attempts to physically intervene to prevent the nurses from laying hands on the three patients.
The OIC immediately orders the three Marines who escorted their wounded comrades to the infirmary to remove her. Sun tries her best to reason with the lot of them but to no avail. Their loyalty to their wounded brothers and generally hard-heartedness make that a wasted effort and she finds herself literally being dragged away. In a last ditch effort to save the three Sagittarons she snatches at one of the Marine's sidearms but comes away empty when he spots what she's after. Sun is quickly beaten unconscious by the three Marines and hauled away to the brig.
When he returns to Pegasus Nike finds the CAG more or less approves of his actions in leaving the ship to the boarding party. Nike still feels a bit cowardly but consoles himself that he followed his horoscope's advice and thus the better outcome. Nevertheless he is shocked to see the wounded Marines being loaded off the other two Raptors and to discover that there were apparently many more armed men waiting in the wings on board the cargo ship.
Several captured civilians who participated in the action are unloaded as well and soon stand shackled on the deck, waiting to be escorted to the brig. Before they can be moved out, though, none other than Admiral Cain herself arrives on the hangar deck to look them over. After a short, harsh speech reminding everyone that the cargo ship had long since been commandeered by the Fleet she points out that the civilians lined up before her are therefore guilty of hijacking and piracy. With that she orders the four Marines and the three pilots on hand (including Nike) to draw weapons and execute them right there on the flight deck.
More than a little shocked at what he is being ordered to do Nike falls back on his horoscope and decides, first of all, not to act rashly or impulsively. With that he tries to determine its relevance to the current situation and eventually decides the "hard work" and the "big push" to do what's "right" clearly pertain to the execution. Convincing himself that it's the right thing to do is a bit hard but he barely manages it, considering it's in accordance with his Duty. Nike then draws his sidearm and joins the Marines in gunning down the five shackled civilians, with only a slight twinge of conscience.
[Deacon gets 1 Plot Point for his Jealousy complication in play and 1 more Plot Point for his hilarious delivery of the "that's my lil' sister" speech. He gets 1 Plot Point for surviving his Out of Luck complication as well. Sun gets 1 Plot Point each for her Contrarian, Duty and Idealist complications since she role-played them all very well and got herself beat down over them. Nike gets 2 Plot Points for his Superstitious and Duty complications and 1 more Plot Point for the fact that Sun and Deacon are really going to hate him when they find out what he's done.]
Advancement:
Deacon decides he's had enough of all the trouble his behavior towards Sun is getting him into. He spends 2 Trait points to lower his Jealousy complication from d4 to d2, reflecting his earnest commitment to refrain from acting like an ass anymore. (House rule applying the same method to decreasing complications as to increasing Assets)
Nike spends 2 Trait points to eliminate his Rival complication, reflecting (hopefully) the impact his humble confession had on Daymude.
* Nike's horoscope for the day:
"Don't act too rashly today -- your impulsive side doesn't know what's going on."
"You don't mind a little hard work when you know the payoff is worth it and today you can see that it is. Whatever feels right to you should be much easier to put your shoulder behind for the last big push."
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