- Smitty. (Brian) Captain. A focused spacer with a remote built in so he could control drones, gifted with sharp senses. He had a salvage kit and a drone named Jethro.
- Gasper. (Jesse) Disfigured ship’s medic.
- Clyde Bruskin. (Mr. S) Tech and all around tough guy.
- Jan Klaya. (Jeremy) Charismatic sword mystic.
Wake Up, Sleepyhead
Klaya was thawed out on the ship; the bridge officer had been gone more than 4 hours, so protocol woke up someone else. Suffering from hibernation sickness, she was spotted through the cockpit window by a droid on the ship, and it scanned her; she used her allclear trigger so it registered her as authorized.
She got to a com unit and put in a call to the crew, who were drinking with the chasekin. They promised to return immediately. Gnawdit would escort them. The next day they would come by at the beginning of the sunup cycle to pick up Rabadab, then they’d take him to the exchange point and get 600 feet of coaxial cable in exchange.
Using their bracelets, they bypassed the robots that Jack had called up to guard their ship. (They gave Klaya a bracelet.) After Gasper checked Klaya over somewhat brusquely and determined she was okay, Bruskin went into the ship software and disabled the “wake up other passenger” protocols (somewhat optimistically.) The captain broke out some liquor to give everyone but Gasper a pleasant buzz, and they passed the night in relative peace.
Climbing to the Exchange
The next morning they reviewed the security footage of what the bots shot at in the night; an emu like bird, some chasekin, whatever. They asked Jack of the bots could stand guard and repair the hull breaches, and Jack agreeably issued new orders.
They met up with Gnawdit, who was annoyed that he had to pull back. They pretended to try to get the bots to not shoot the chasekin, but without ident badges it wasn’t possible (fortunately.)
Klaya used her image enhancer to look bigger and stronger, to intimidate the chasekin (who really liked the effect.) They continued on to the base of the service lift up to the chasekin lair, and picked up Rabadab, who was in bad shape; dehydrated with blood loss, broken leg, cuts all over. Gasper patched him up and gave him some painkillers, and they hauled the battered rabbitman with them. Jack marked the rendezvous point on their datapad maps. The chasekin stayed behind to await their return.
They headed to the elevator leading up, finding it overgrown. Clyde used his energy prybar to cut the greenery off the door, but when they opened it there was a pulsing heart-like meat/plant wad suspended by vine cables. They shot it to pieces, then pulled back as the walls trembled with the thrashing of vines and branches grown up behind them.
They decided to take the stairs.
Up and up and up, finally they were lit up by little laser sight dots, and they spotted the rabbitish snipers with cyber-limbs and platforms. They reached the rendezvous spot to parley with an armored rabbit cyborg, who claimed Rabadab and hooked him to a crawler bot that carried him up the wall (but not before Smitty flicked a tracer onto the bot.)
The attached office had the 600 feet of coaxial cable, draped over Clyde and Smitty.
The rabbit person in armor told them the bounders put a tracer in Scratched Skull’s head cyber, and if he ever got in an exposed position, they’d be ready with sniper rifles. Now he hides in his office, out of range. The spacers asked about the supplies they need, and the armored bouncer offered them an atmospheric scrubber if they brought Scratched Skull’s head on a plate. The armored bounder put a mod in Smitty’s drone, and said they could use the drone to notify the bounders if they wanted to take them up on the deal.
Back Down to the Chasekin
As they headed down the branching gantries and stairs, they disrupted a massive wasp nest infestation. Klaya leaped off the stairs onto the vines, sliding down out of range and swinging back onto the stairs, as Gasper sprinted down the stairs. Smitty and Clyde couldn’t move fast enough. As they fended off the mass of huge stinging wasps, Smitty got out his sticky demolition charge and was smearing it around the wasp nests when he fell off, banging his knees and head and jerked to a halt by the coaxial cable connecting him to Clyde (who took a beating, dragged to the railing and covered in wasps.)
Clyde swung Smitty back onto the steps, cut the cable, and raced down the stairs. They outran the wasps, and headed to the bottom of the stairs, on the ground, where they rested and regained their breath (and hit points.)
Walking back to the chasekin territory, they had earnest conversation about what to do. They also passed some repair bots cutting plants back and fixing a ship that was well beyond repair. They didn’t interfere.
Victory
They headed up the slow lift, and Scratched Skull was delighted to see them. As the chasekin pulled out a drink for everyone to share, Jan distracted them with a show of martial prowess of the Grass Mantis type, sparring with Gnawdit. Gaspar measured out a huge dose of sedatives, and Smitty tipped it into the drink without the chasekin noticing.
Relaxed and safe at home, the chasekin drank to their success. About the time everyone got woozy, the spacers shot the runt of the chasekin (who didn’t get a drink) and Klaya struck Gnawdit’s head from his shoulders with her vibroblade.
Moving fast, the spacers stuffed Scratched Skull’s severed head in a bag, slew the drugged chasekin, retrieved Captain Josephe’s identity bracelet from the mummy hanging on the wall, and freed the little mushroom person and buxom mutant teenager from the chasekin cages.
The freed prisoners asked for asylum before making their way home, and the spacers agreed. No one wanted to use the slow lift, so they used a ladder arrangement instead. It still took a while to get all the way down to the bottom, but they faced no guards, and made a clean getaway back to the ship.
Fictive Fantasies 