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The Gemini Pheonix Affair: Ep 4 - Red Tide

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(@greymorn)
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The crew rendezvous in their cheap hotel room and plans the heist. Lutrin cautions Tony to check with the whole group before taking dangerous jobs like this.

Tony takes the lead. He crosses the docking area boldly and enters a small workroom right under the windows of the security office. He jacks in and hacks the dock control system which has surprisingly light security. The doors leading to their target pop open and he signals the team to get moving.

Gem distracts the dock boss with questions while Lu and Quinn slip down the corridor leading to the storage area. They scan the crates and locate the five they need. Lu heads back to the docking area to grab a forklift, asking Gem for cover. She fast-talks the dock boss all the way out of the bay.

While Lu and Quinn relabel the crates and move them to the loading zone, Tony hacks the much tighter nodes in the security office and wipes the last few minutes of camera footage, then sets the whole camera system to reboot. While the cameras are down he makes his escape.

Back in their hotel room, they contact Rossi and wait to be paid. He sends them 10,000 credits each and the rendezvous details for the Black Orpheus. Just on a whim, Tony hacks the hotel system and changes the names on the room reservation. When they reach the lobby, he's very glad he did.

Three Martian Legionnaires are standing at the front desk arguing with a clerk. The clerk can't seem to find the guests the Martians want. Gem and Lu stay in the elevator and go back up while Tony and Quinn stay in the lobby and keep an eye on the soldiers.

Eventually the Martians leave and Gem and Lu come down to the lobby. Quinn leads them on a round-about route to the docks while Tony follows the Martians from a distance. Two of them go straight to the docks while their commander heads elsewhere.

At the docks the Legionnaires give local Luna security a hard time. Tony listens in. It's clear the locals have been told to give the Martians whatever they want. They tell security to ground the Wilma Deering and let no one near the ship. One of the Martians leaves, the other stands guard near the door leading to the hanger where Wilma is parked.

The security guard notices the skulking Tony and asks if he needs directions. Tony commiserates with the officer, saying he can't believe Martians can act like that here on Luna. Who do they think they are? The officer agrees but warns Tony to stay the hell away from the Martians. They have a frigate docked at Gateway Station and the higher-ups ordered full cooperation. Best to keep one's head down and follow orders.

Meanwhile, Quinn, Gem and Lutrin got a heads up from Tony and are hiding out in a teamsters' break room close-by. They try to come up with a plan. If they hide long enough, Luna might get frustrated and force the frigate to leave. But then the Orpheus will be long gone. They decide to take out the guard and try to escape in the Wilma Deering while they still have a chance.


   
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(@greymorn)
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Tony meets them in the break room. Quinn remotely warms up the ship while tony hacks the soldier's comm. As soon as he's in, Tony jams the soldier's comm and Lu makes his move. The big man charges across the docking bay and shoots the legionnaire in the gut. The Martian dives for cover and tries to sight Lutrin with his rifle. Lu it too fast and flanks the soldier, getting in too close for the rifle. He hits the Martian again but can't penetrate the man's armor. The soldier jabs with the blade on his gladius, overextending as Lu slips past his guard and fires a point-blank into the side of the man's helmet. The soldier drops.

Quinn leads Tony and Gem across the bay while the guard is fighting Lutrin. Lu spends a moment to take the man's rifle and helmet, then catches up. Tony has to use the manual override to depressurize and open the hangar, then they launch, ignoring protests from the flight control tower.

Quinn flies low and fast while Gem comes up with an ad hoc flight plan. They head in-system at first to mislead any pursuit. Quinn tries to deactivate the ship's transponder but ends up breaking it. Gem's course sends them on a long 4-hour intercept to where they hope the Black Orpheus will be if it leaves Luna on schedule.

 


   
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Overlord
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@greymorn, thanks for the update. You indicated before that your group was having issues with Critical Failures. How is that going? Is that how Quinn broke the transponder?

Scribe of the Adventure System


   
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(@greymorn)
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@scribe  Correct. So the good news is they are out in the black and no one can find them. The bad news is they are out in the black, all alone, and if anything goes wrong no one will ever find them.

We'll make a Tech (4) check to repair it once they have access to parts.


   
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Overlord
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@greymorn, to be very clear, I do not disagree with your ruling in any way. I just want to point out that was your call based on your prior feedback about Critical Failures. As there was no specific rule stating that the Critical Failure would break the transponder, the result could have been... you can't spend Fate and no further attempts may be made... So, the transponder is not disabled. Welcome to the Dark Side.

Scribe of the Adventure System


   
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