Gold Shield
Background: The session starts off more than a week after the events of Typhoeus I and II, with the "Penelope/Zeva mining consortium mobile supply and deployment site" (a.k.a. "the Rock") leading the fleet through Ragnar's stormy upper atmosphere, still avoiding the Cylon basestar and it's recon drones trying to track it down. Sun not only faces suspicion over her behavior and a growing suspicion among the small military presence that she may be a Cylon humanoid, but has also been court martialed for her actions on Typhoeus. She has been found guilty of willfully disobey orders and sentenced to six months confinement (having been drafted into the fleet back on Pegasus, as you recall).
Deke has recovered enough from his injuries to return to duty and is assigned to the Rock's hangar maintenance area, occupying the vacant position of Executive Deck Officer. Nike and Aella have both recovered fully from their injuries with Nike assigned to the Rock's small Viper squad and Aella taking her place among Admiral Drake's own security detail. Aella is further assigned the task of implementing a Colonial Marines Basic Training program for the Rock's existing security forces in preparation for an active draft that is soon to be implemented. Nike likewise is tapped as a possible instructor for a planned fighter training program.
Regina Cauler has managed to use her new found fame to secure a position with the Rock's security forces. Though she lobbies strenuously all week for a squad of Marines to re-supply and reinforce the handful of comrades she assumes are still fighting for their lives back on Typhoeus, she is eventually forced to give up (they've probably long since run out of oxygen, if not outright killed or captured). Toward the end of the week she manages to get transferred to the docks as a security officer there in order to stay in touch with the team through Deke.
Over the last week or so we find that Admiral Drake and Captain Hanson's plans have largely come to fruition with the Admiral taking command of Hanson's heavily armed fleet of "independent merchant" ships in order to protect the civilian fleet while Hanson returns to his seat on the Rock's operations committee (a.k.a. "the Gold Shield"). Now, however, Drake and Hanson find they face opposition from the other members of the Gold Shield when they attempt to integrate the civilian fleet's ship captains into the committee. Meetings have come to a head recently and conditions are tense on the Rock as the two charismatic leaders work together to push for the integration of the fleet into the political structure.
Finally, during sporadic visitations with Sun during her confinement, we learn that Sun claims that her father was a member of a secret religious order from his days on Gemenon. Through him she learned of a lost Sacred Scroll, considered by the order to be a false scripture full of heretical teachings that has caused untold evil in the distant past on Kobol. The order had apparently been dedicated to tracking down and destroying the scroll as well as rooting out the heretical cult preserving it. Sun had always assumed the whole thing was ridiculous and had never paid much attention to her father's ramblings on the subject. When she spied the hydra symbol on Typhoeus, however, (supposedly the symbol of the cult) she claims to have had a disturbing series of visions regarding it, resulting in her odd behavior.
Sun is currently documenting the visions and refuses to discuss them, intending to submit them to the priests there on the Rock and leave it at that. Beyond that she claims no more interest in the subject, being rather frightened by the whole experience and never having considered herself a religious person to begin with.
Most interesting of all are the various reports trickling in concerning other encounters with Cylon humanoids and the apparent religious roots of the Cylon's war of extermination against humanity. The committee and the local priesthood takes a particular interest in Sun when these reports echo her assertions concerning the small monotheistic cult on ancient Kobol, as it seems the Cylons are following a similar, if not identical, religious belief. Speculations have begun to circulate that this secret cult Sun speaks of may actually exist and might well have had contact with the Cylons during the armistice, influencing their religious beliefs and leading to the current war.
Scene one:
As the latest and likely most important round of meetings with Admiral Drake and the Gold Shield committee begin, Aella is called into conference with Jarvis Carder, who Captain Hanson now has assigned as second in command to Admiral Drake. Carder informs her that one of the leading Gold Shield members, Moses Lander, has a high ranking lieutenant in his "organization" who claims to have information related to Sun's revelations. This man, Myles Nestor, is offering documentation he's obtained providing a link between several members of the group of refugee scientists we picked up on the Anchorage station (and who later committed suicide on the Griffon) and secret government research that may well have been used in the creation of the Cylon humanoids. If this is true it may explain the Cylon's otherwise inexplicable technological leap in the creation of their humanoid models and reinforce Sun's assertion that a group of humans may have colluded with the Cylons during the armistice.
To that end Moses Lander has requested that Carder send someone representing Admiral Drake's interests to meet with his lieutenant in private. Specifically someone who Sun trusts to escort her, as Myles Nestor insists on meeting with her in person when he presents the evidence. Having decided to conduct this meeting quietly Carder asks that Aella escort Sun to the meeting and authorizes the rest of the team to help her in doing so. After meeting to discuss it we're all for the idea, as it may present the opportunity to clear up some of the suspicions surrounding Sun if we can produce evidence to back up her claims.
Meeting up at the Rock's detention wing we wait while Sun is fitted with a tracking device on her wrist that will allow the Rock's security team to monitor her (she's still under confinement following her court martial, after all). Aella is given a tracker as well, as she's to escort Sun. Regina is also on hand to represent the Rock's security force, having been in Deke's company when Aella contacted him. From there we proceed directly to the "Pair-A-Dice" casino two floors down to meet with Myles Nestor. Right off the bat we have some tension when Regina goes out of her way to stick close to Deke, even flirting outright with the clear intent of communicating her interest in Deke to Sun. Sun is not at all happy with that.
Once we arrive at the casino it becomes apparent that the casino staff is unaware of any meeting with Nestor, claiming he's "not available". We take a seat at the secluded table where we're supposed to meet and Aella makes a call to Carder to inform him of the situation. From him she learns that the staff probably hasn't been notified of the meeting, as Nestor and Lander both want it kept quiet. He also suggests that we should probably stop broadcasting it by asking around for Nestor. Duly chagrined we wait patiently for Nestor to contact us himself.
While we wait we are approached by three members of the casino's security staff asking for identification. It soon becomes apparent that someone has recognized Deke and knows his background as a convict when they focus almost solely on him. Apparently these guys take their jobs as bouncers seriously and, though it's never stated outright, it's clear they don't like having a convicted murderer (manslaughter notwithstanding) in the casino at all and are leaning on him to leave. (It also becomes obvious that one of the security officers is interested in Aella and is flirting with her.) When the rest of us pipe up defending Deke they back off a bit but it's clear they're keeping a close eye on him after that. Nike, however, attempts to follow his horoscope's lead by encouraging Aella to chat it up with the security officer (who's still hanging around) but she shuts him down quickly and rather impolitely tells to the bouncer to take a hike. She's on duty, after all.
Nike determines that the situation with Regina, Sun and Deke must instead be what his horoscope is referring to, decides it's time to play "matchmaker" in that department and begins asking Regina and Deke questions concerning how they've been getting along together. Deke is more than a little uncomfortable as he's only now become aware of Regina's interest and is still wrestling with his attraction to Sun. Deke decides Nike is toying with him again and silently determines to break his jaw if the opportunity arises to do so. Regina, meanwhile, is more than happy to discuss Deke in the most glowing terms (especially in Sun's presence) while Sun slowly becomes furious at just about everyone at the table. (hehehe, Nike's just nasty, ain't he?)
Eventually Sun and Regina start getting snarky with one another and raising their voices to the point that the bouncers still keeping an eye on Deke start edging a little closer to our table. Aella finally reminds everyone that we're all technically on duty and that she's perfectly willing to make "shut the hell up" a direct order. With Sun on hand as evidence of her willingness to enforce her authority to the point of court martial we all decide shutting up is a good idea. Regina, however, isn't with the Fleet and continues subtly goading Sun and sidling up even closer to Deke.
Finally someone comes out of the crowd to sit at our secluded table and introduce himself as Myles Nestor (thankfully giving everyone something else to focus on). After offering a round of drinks and chatting about our past adventures a bit Aella begins pressing him on the issue of the evidence he's supposed to have on hand. "Myles" more or less ignores her and begins asking Sun pointed questions concerning the cult of Heracles, her visions and waxing philosophical about the Cylons and their religious beliefs.
After several minutes of this it finally begins to become apparent we're not getting any useful information out of this guy at all. Aella begins to insist he stop wasting our time and "Myles" dithers, claiming someone is on the way to deliver the documentation to us here at the table. He whines a bit as well, claiming he was assured he'd have ample time to chat with Sun and therefore has made no particular effort to have the documentation delivered in a speedy fashion. We all grit our teeth a bit and let him chat it up with Sun while we wait. Figuring this "Myles" guy must have more than a passing interest in Sun, Nike decides playing matchmaker here, too, might be a good idea...until Aella stomps on his foot under the table really hard.
In due course "Myles" has already shifted his attention to anything and everything else, chatting about local gossip, sports and politics. He doesn't even appear interested in Sun anymore at all. We're finally starting to get more than a little irritated at his rambling and when he challenges Nike to a round of Triad, producing a fresh deck of Triad cards, Aella's had quite enough. She insists he produce the documentation he's promised immediately or we'll simply leave with Sun and reschedule. "Myles" then sighs and makes a call, supposedly to whomever is bringing the documentation. After a minute or two we're a little amazed to find he's chatting with whomever is on the other end about their mother's health and ignoring us completely.
Before we abandon the table altogether and just leave with Sun, I use Nike's Intuitive asset for the day to confirm that this guy doesn't have any of the information he's promised at all. With that we decide we're ditching this guy and reporting in to Jarvis Carder that it was all some ridiculous scam.
[Deke gets 1 Plot Point for his Convict complication. Nike gets 2 Plot Points for his efforts to follow his horoscope and play matchmaker all over the place. Aella gets 1 Plot Point for following her Straight-Laced complication in telling off the bouncer flirting with her and 1 Plot Point for her Toes the Line interaction with the team (especially Nike) during all this. Sun gets 1 Plot Point for some hilariously catty role-play with the GM's character, Regina.]
Scene two:
As we get up to leave the table we're surprised when Jarvis Carder storms up out of nowhere with three members of the Gold Shield security forces in tow. He's pretty furious and outright accuses us of some kind of conspiracy concerning Sun. When we ask what the heck he's talking about he claims that security found Myles Nestor's body several minutes ago, tossed into a waste reclamation bin right outside the casino. When we turn our attention to the "Myles Nestor" at the table with us, he looks surprised (though some Alertness + Perception checks reveal he's faking it) and reaches into his jacket, claiming he has identification confirming his identity. When we decide to grab the guy and keep him from pulling out whatever he's reaching for the GM calls for an Initiative check.
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1)
Aella and Jarvis share the lead in initiative and Aella leaps around the table to grapple "Myles". She grapples him once but he breaks free, forcing a second more successful attempt. She is unable to attempt a disarm against whatever he's grabbing due to the multiple action penalty, though. Jarvis, startled by her lightning fast attack on "Myles" draws his pistol and has everyone under the gun, ordering us all to "freeze". "Myles", meanwhile, manages to pull the pin on the grenade in his jacket and drop it to the floor. He makes a final attempt to break free from Aella but fails.
The two security officers with Jarvis pull their pistols as well to back up Jarvis and we're surprised when the casino bouncers who were watching Deke suddenly pop up in the middle of the action. One of them (the guy who was flirting with Aella earlier) pushes her out of the way to grab "Myles" with a polite "I got him, ma'am" and Aella loses her grip on to him. The other two bouncers both grab Deke, apparently assuming he's causing all the trouble. Deke breaks free easily with his Wrestling talent but burns up two actions doing so.
Nike jumps up, spotting the grenade that's fallen out of "Myles" hand and snatches it up. He tosses it over handed aiming behind the bar nearby, figuring we can spare a couple of bartenders to save the lives of all the civilians near us. He misses the throw and it bounces down the bar to fall to the floor amidst a crowd of people on the far side, though.
Sun stands up and grabs a chair, not sure what to do but wanting to be armed should she need to be next turn. Deke, now free of the bouncers grabbing him and standing near "Myles", goes ahead and grapples him as well.
2)
(Across the room past the bar we're relieved to find the grenade "Myles" dropped was a flash bang grenade that does little more than scare the heck out of the casino patrons there when it detonates.)
Aella, a little ticked off at the bouncer's interference, snatches "Myles" away from both him and Deke (spending 2 Plot Points on that snatch and succeeding handily over everybody.) She then grapples him again, knocking him prone despite his attempt to resist and stomps on his face one good time. Jarvis and the two security officers with him thankfully decide to hold their fire and continue insisting loudly that everyone just stop grabbing each other.
"Myles" stands up after having taken a slight bit of boot to the face from Aella but all else he can manage this turn is to snatch a small pistol from a hidden holster. The two bouncers on Deke grab at him again, still focused on taking him down, but he dodges them easily. Nike then snatches up his chair and whacks "Myles" with it two solid times, using one strike to successfully disarm him (to which "Myles" loses his Agility check and drops the pistol). Sun simply throws her chair across the table at him but misses.
Deke then grapples "Myles" without any resistance and slams him back to the ground to follow Aella's fine example and stomp on his head repeatedly with his Brawling skill until he's unconscious.
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Following that rousing bit of action we all just toss up our hands and surrender to Jarvis and his men while Deke lets the thick-headed casino bouncers grab him and toss him onto the floor. Once the dust finally settles and everything's cleared up Jarvis' men haul the imposter Myles outside while Jarvis pulls Deke out from under the two very heavy and very stupid casino bouncers. On the way out the door Aella threatens to stomp on the casino bouncer when he asks for her number. Once we're all outside the casino Jarvis orders the security officers to haul the imposter down to the security station for interrogation. Nearby we can see Gold Shield investigators already at work around the reclamation bin and the real Myles Nestor's body under a sheet on the ground nearby.
Jarvis then hustles us into his personal vehicle to drive us to a secret meeting with Moses Lander. At that meeting we report the events that occurred to Lander and his advisors, with Jarvis backing up what he witnessed personally. Lander immediately suspects Bemus Quint, another high-ranking member of the Gold Shield committee, may be behind all this, attempting to make him look foolish and undermine his efforts at the current meetings.
It would seem these meetings are not only deciding the future role of the fleet captains in the political process around here but the various Gold Shield committee members are using them to improve their positions as well. Moses Lander then requests of Jarvis that he order us to track down whoever hired this imposter to supplant Myles Nestor and find some link between him and Bemus Quint (or, for that matter, whoever is behind all this). Jarvis agrees with Lander and gives us the order but warns us he'll be keeping us on a tight leash.
Scene three:
Leaving the meeting with Jarvis we accompany him to the security station to observe the interrogation of the imposter. Using our slight downtime there Deke and Nike do a little fetching and running to make sure everyone (except Sun) is armed and has body armor, as well as whatever gear everyone thinks they'll need. Still, it takes several hours for Jarvis to finally get the name Tyrone Adara out of the prisoner. Adara is apparently well known to Jarvis and his men as one of many middle men around the Rock known to set up "service contracts" with both amateurs and professionals alike. Up to this point Adara has managed to avoid any actual prosecution but has been acquitted of conspiracy to murder charges no less than three times.
After getting the "go ahead" from Jarvis we head out to small shop that Tyrone Adara works out of, finding him there with no trouble. With Aella and Sun being our two most "persuasive" members we let them take first crack at the guy. Sun tries first to soften him up a bit and makes a good impression but runs head first into Adara's firm commitment to charging an arm and a leg for any services, including providing information. When Aella attempts to Intimidate him she likewise fails to make any headway, though she does manage to shake him up a good bit.
In the process of all this, however, we have noticed the well maintained collection of memorabilia from the first Cylon war that Adara's shop ostensibly deals in. It's clear that Adara at least values the merchandise and several items are in prominent display, at least suggesting his pride in possessing them. Figuring that if we have to pay this guy for information we might make use of his weakness for these particular antiques, Aella uses her Pack Rat asset (and a couple of Plot Points) to dig up a nice looking (but non-functional) silver-finished pistol dating back to the first Cylon war. Adara is naturally infatuated with the pistol and caves to Sun's negotiations fairly easily. He soon offers documents showing Bemus Quint contracted through him to hire the man now being held for murdering Myles Nestor. Pouring over the document we naturally find there's nothing indicating that Adara was in any way privy to the murder part of that deal so there doesn't appear to be much we can do on that front.
Once we've clinched the deal we hand over the pistol and take the document in hand, preparing to leave. To our irritation Tyrone Adara simply laughs at us, suggesting that Bemus Quint is a rather ruthless man and very well connected. Most likely he is already aware that we're on to him and Adara is confident we won't even make it back to the security station alive.
As we exit the shop and prepare to make our way back to the security station with the documents two Gold Shield security vans pulls up and several security officers pile out to confront us. The lead officer informs us that Jarvis Carder has instructed them to take us into custody and escort us back to the security station. He demands we disarm and surrender immediately. When Aella questions his orders he becomes somewhat threatening and all five of security officers lay hands to their holstered pistols, indicating they're ready to enforce compliance.
Aella insists on contacting Jarvis Carder herself to confirm his orders and carefully pulls out her wireless to call in while the security officer in charge restates his demands that we disarm and surrender immediately. Though her call goes through we're surprised when her radio suddenly whines loudly. Sun immediately recognizes it (as does Aella) as the unmistakable sign of radio traffic being jammed. Regina suddenly pipes in stating she's never seen any of these guys before, though she admits she hasn't met every Gold Shield security officer just yet.
Figuring that's all the indication we need that we're being railroaded we go for our weapons and roll Initiative.
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1)
Regina takes the initiative, drawing her pistol and landing four stunning called shots to the head, two against each of the security officers nearest her. She drops them both stone dead instantly. Sun, unarmed, quickly dives under Regina's pistol for the dead guy closest to her and snatches his pistol out of his holster. The lead officer quickly draws his weapon and fires on Regina. He misses all three shots at her when she opts for a suspiciously impressive innate defense.
Nike draws his Picon 57 and drops three called shots to the head of the lead security officer, missing all three. I use his Lady Luck asset to re-roll the first shot and score a hit. The lead officer isn't dead but he's got a nasty head wound. Aella likewise draws and follows up with two called shots to the same officer's head, dropping him dead as a doornail.
With two officers remaining Deke doesn't bother drawing his weapon but steps over and tosses off a flurry of blows that drops him unconscious, then turns and does likewise to the remaining officer. Unfortunately he only barely manages to clip the last man with one punch, thanks to his Out of Luck complication kicking in on one of his successful attacks. The security officer quickly steps back from Deke's assault, draws his pistol and manages to squeeze off one shot at him at point blank range. Fortunately Deke's armor easily absorbs the glancing shot and he only suffers a couple of stuns as a result.
2)
With only this last remaining security officer on hand and Deke having initiative over him, we all take aim on the guy but hold our fire until Deke lays him out with a nice called-shot slug to the chin.
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We soon find our wireless radios still jammed so we dig around on the dead guys and produce some restraints which we use on the two Deke knocked out. We then haul those two into the nearest of the two security vans and head back to the security station. Before long we hear someone over one of the guy's radio call in for a report, identifying himself as Collins(?). Seizing the opportunity we have Nike answer, pretending to be one of the security officers and report that we're all dead. Whoever it is catches on pretty quick, though, and demands to know who it is he's talking to, then suddenly disconnects before we can respond.
Back at the station we drag the two guys (still KO'd) inside and turn them over to security there. To our surprise the officers there identify them both and confirm they're Gold Shield security alright. Regina just shrugs and maintains she's sure never seen them before. Once we get the folks at the station started processing them and kick a couple of people back toward Adara's shop to lock down the crime scene there we ask to see Jarvis and find out he's gone on ahead back to the committee meeting. We also find out from the security officers on hand that one of Bemus Quint's top lieutenant's is named Adonis Collins and, like many of the Gold Shield committee member's "troubleshooters", he's known to bribe security officers to do his dirty work from time to time.
Since the guys at the security station have seized the van we're forced to take public transport to the Gold Shield building to find Jarvis and present what we've got to him. Unfortunately we soon find that, of course, no one is allowed onto the floor where the meeting is taking place and we aren't on "the list", so to speak. Pulling out her wireless again Aella finds we're no longer jammed and intends to call Jarvis directly. Sun, though, stops her from interrupting the meeting and instead butts heads with the public relations officer blocking us. In short order she's used her Bureaucracy skill to get his head spinning until he finally just waves us on up.
Sun repeats this with the guards outside the meeting room, with Aella backing her up by presenting all of our identification. Once we get past them and through the doors we find ourselves interrupting what is clearly a very delicate point in the negotiations and everyone's a little pissed that we've just barged right on in like that. Nevertheless we make the best of it and gesture Jarvis over, presenting the document and dropping Adonis Collins' name as a possible connection as well.
Once Jarvis has all this he scoots over and relays what we've told him to Admiral Drake who, in turn, stands and delivers it all to the committee, calling on Bemus Quint to explain. While Quint stutters and turns red in the face, Captain Hanson demands the document and looks it over. In a few moments he interrupts Quint's furious denials and, to our surprise, announces the document is a forgery. Pointing out something on the document to Jarvis, who likewise soon nods and agrees that it is indeed clearly a forgery, Captain Hanson further points out the Adonis Collins is presently aboard another ship much farther back in the civilian fleet. From that distance the EM interference from Ragnar's storm makes direct contact with anyone on the Rock utterly impossible, ruling out any possibility that the person we talked to on the wireless (who apparently was issuing orders to the corrupt security officers) could be him.
Bemus Quint, now quite furious and positively bellowing, demands Admiral Drake issue an immediate apology for his slanderous accusations and further demands we ourselves be made to pay compensation for dishonoring his name in front of his peers. As the meeting falls apart and everyone is soon reduced to tossing accusations and insults at one another Admiral Drake levels a glare at us and curtly gestures that we follow him as he storms out of the meeting.
[Everyone gets 1 Plot Point for getting the document from Tyrone Adara and 1 Plot Point for surviving the attempt to arrest and execute us by the corrupt security officers. Aella gets an extra 1 Plot Point for noticing Adara's war memorabilia fetish and using her Pack Rat asset to take advantage of it. Sun gets 1 Plot Point for getting us all in the meeting so quickly and stumping the GM in the process. Deke gets 1 Plot Point for his Out of Luck complication putting him in danger.]
Scene four:
Pretty sure we're all about to get seriously reamed and busted down to KP duty for the foreseeable future, we slump off after Admiral Drake and meet with him in his private quarters nearby. There he demands we recount everything that's happened since we picked up Sun at the detention area.
A few minutes later we've finished telling our story, leaving nothing out. Admiral Drake then takes a while to consider the matter before informing us that he suspects Captain Hanson may be behind the whole thing! According to the Admiral he's noticed Hanson orchestrate a number of clever incidents right under his nose to encourage the various committee members to stay at one another's throats. Since he's arrived on the scene and began working with his old "war buddy" to organize the fleet he's come to suspect such underhanded scheming may well be how Hanson was able to get a seat on the committee in the first place, considering his well-known reputation as something of a pirate lord. In fact, Admiral Drake has come to believe that turning his fleet of armed merchant ships over to his control may have merely been a ruse to make Hanson appear less of a threat, divorce himself from the pirate mystique a little and turn the committee's attention to the Admiral while he goes about destabilizing things still further.
While Admiral Drake doubts Hanson suspects that he's been perceptive enough to pick up on any of this (probably counting on their seeming war-buddy trust), he's also doesn't doubt that Hanson is one to leave loose ends that might link back to him. To that end he's persuaded that he should act quickly if he's going to bring any of this to light. After a moment's further consideration he orders us to quickly bring in this "Tyrone Adara" fellow for interrogation, on his authority, before he disappears.
Taking the Admiral's cue Aella has us double-timing it down the service hall and out the "back door" of the place as quickly as we can. There we decide hotwiring one of the committee member's vehicles is a good idea (don't ask me why, seem like a good idea at the time). Once Deke pops the lock and Sun bypasses the security on the thing we're cruising back to Adara's shop. We arrive in time to witness a shoot out between two heavily armed men inside the shop and the three Gold Shield security officers who've locked down the walkway outside to investigate the bloody scene we left there earlier.
By the time we skid to a halt and pile out with weapons drawn all three of the security officers are dead and the two men, armed with SMG's, are sprinting up the walkway in our direction. Fortunately neither of them seem to have spotted us yet but they're already drawing closer.
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Since we've all got a free turn on the two guys we divide up our targets and spend the turn aiming for called shots to the head, then spend 3 Plot Points each on our initiative (we were all tired of getting shot up so badly at the end of every episode).
1)
Naturally we all get initiative over these two poor npc's, with Aella dropping her target with three(!) shots right between the eyes. Nike follows up with four shots (only one hitting) and Regina drops him right after with two of her four shots hitting.
Shortest gun fight yet.
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Of course by now it's occurred to us that we could just have easily disabled the two guys and have someone to interrogate but it's too late. We sprint down the walkway to Adara's shop, figuring we'll find him either dead or gone. Indeed we find him laid out dead on the floor, pumped full of lead most likely by the two guys we just shot.
Then the GM has Nike roll a Hard Awareness + Perception (+ Sixth Sense) check, which I pull off, and Nike suddenly knows the bundle we all just spotted on the floor is a bomb of some kind and it's about to go off right now. With only one turn available to us we all sprint and dive for the cover of the walkway outside but Sun changes her mind at the last moment. Figuring those guys wouldn't bother with a bomb when Adara is already dead unless there was some evidence in the shop, she decides to count on her Destiny asset to keep her alive and dives for the bomb instead. She spends 4 Plot Points on a quick, last ditch effort to disable the bomb and pulls off a stunning Heroic Intelligence + Technical Engineering roll supplemented by her Disable Devices Talent. When we all get the cojones to peek back through the doorway we see Sun grinning back at us with a disabled IED in her hands.
A good hard look around the place turns up the documentary evidence we expect to find and once we look it over it's clear we have conclusive evidence that Captain Hanson has been employing the late Tyrone Adara in a number of enterprises recently.
Returning to the Gold Shield building we meet with Admiral Drake and present the documents to him. We then call in a number of investigators from the local security station who are able to link up some of the men hired by Captain Hanson through Adara with several incidents against various committee members.
We follow the Admiral back into the meeting to be on hand should there be any trouble when he presents all this to the committee. Sure enough, after a lot of confusion and yelling, Captain Hanson bolts for the door but Deke is already there to knock him on his ass.
The session ends with Hanson hauled away by Gold Shield security on a long list of charges and Admiral Drake shaking our hands and congratulating us on a job well done. Surprisingly, he gives Sun a reluctant handshake as well. Though he's clearly still suspicious of her he's at least approving of her actions in this matter. Of course, Sun's already back in restraints and will soon be hauled back to detention but she's still happy enough with that outcome.
Finally, Jarvis Carder approaches Admiral Drake and more or less conveys his dissatisfaction with Captain Hanson's leadership over the last couple of years. He offers his service to the Admiral who readily accepts (we get the impression that something has occurred behind the scenes to gives the Admiral some reason to trust Carder). Carder then turns to Sun and informs her that the documentation linking the refugee scientists to the research we expected was indeed recovered from Myles Nestor's body. While it hasn't thoroughly been investigated yet, he seems to believe there are already indications that this may well be how the Cylons develop such advanced technology so quickly. He promises to keep us all informed with what he finds during the course of the investigation.
[Everyone gets 2 Plot Points for recovering the evidence against Hanson so quickly, especially considering the GM had intended the building to be on fire by the time we reached it. ;)]
*Nike's horoscope for the day: This is a very good time to go to the theater, an art exhibit, or social gathering. You want to see beautiful things and exchange pleasantries with others. In fact, matters of the heart are on your mind and you may want to play match-maker now.
Advancement:
Nike spends 4 Skill Points to increase his Unarmed Combat to d6 and gain a d8 Offensive Martial Arts skill.
Sun spends 2 Trait Points to rid herself of her Idealist complication, becoming more inured to settling disputes with violence. She also spends 2 Skill Points to increase her Guns to d6 for the same reason.
Deke spends a whopping 4 Train Points completely eliminating his Out of Luck complication, reasoning that Deacon's feeling a lot more confident and sure of himself these days.
Aella spends 2 Trait Points to reduce her Unstable complication from d4 to d2, citing the availability of discrete psychiatric services on the Rock.
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