Traveller Play Session 1
Dirty deeds, done for a price
Dramatis Personae
Jet Finnegan - played by Shooter
John Haskell - played by Mouse
Jet Finnegan sat in a dingy pachinko joint, idly watching the other patrons gamble or drink. He felt no real desire to join in, nor could he given his material circumstances. His life had been primarily one of boredom since his discharge from the scout service onto the surface of Daedalus. He had been allowed to keep his ship and shotgun, but the ship sat in dock racking up fees and the shotgun was gathering dust in his cabin. It had been too long since he had done any work. His reverie was interrupted by a tap on his shoulder, and a young cocktail waitress saying he had been invited into a private room, gesturing to a smoky glass door. Resolving to at least get a drink out of the arrangement, Jet sidled over to the door.
Captain John Haskell enjoyed gambling. He wasn’t particularly good at it, but there was no being good at panchinko, it was just luck. A serving girl had told him some big shot had invited him to a VIP room, but John had little intention of going. He was used to giving orders, not taking them. Plus he was up 500 credits, and that was cause for celebration. On his way out of the door to find a more respectable place to buy drinks, he was stopped by the bouncer. The bouncer was a big man, with some sort of cybernetic arm stapled to him.
”the boss said he wanted to see you.”
”I don’t rightly know what you mean, partner. I’m leaving this joint and that’s final.”
It made an odd scene. The big bouncer, Johnathon, was not a very bright man, and he was used to having people simply do as they were told by virtue of physical size differences. The boss wanted to speak with this guy, but this guy was resisting. His accent was strange too, it sounded more like what Johnathon heard in the vid feeds he watched about the ancient Terran gunslinger myths than anything modern. This all resolved itself with the older, average looking captain appearing to stare down the big bouncer. A fact which was not lost on the patrons at large.
"Well, I can reckon I can see what your boss wants anyhow. There ain’t much to do on this civie world for fun anyway. Mind showing me where, partner”
Johnathon obliged, leading the older man to the same smoky glass door where Jet was waiting. They were let inside by another cocktail waitress, and were met by a large cloud of purple-grey smoke. This smoke rolled smoothly from the end of a faux-gar, a nicotine alternative popular on stations and dome cities because of their relative lack of particulates. They were unnecessary on open air settlements like habitation ten on Daedalus. The owner of the smoking implement was a portly fellow in a well kept suit. He looked them up and down critically and then burst into a wide grin.
“Welcome boys, I’m Big Jim Morrison, but you can call me Jim. Let me get straight to the point, I have a job for you two, one I think you will be more than happy to take on.”
"Well that’s a hell of statement there hoss. What makes you think I want to work for you at all? ‘Specially after your man out there threatened to rough me up if I didn’t come in here.”
”Johnny? Well he only really knows one language, and when the pretty girl didn’t convince you to come meet with me, I didn’t want you leaving. My apologies if he was rude. Either way, since you’re here, you might as well hear out.”
”Yeah, I guess. So spill.”
”Well, a former associate of mine has absconded with a piece of my property. A trophy, for the Daedalus All Planet Junior Darts Tournament specifically. I’d like you to retrieve it. I’ll pay you each 10,000 credits for the expedition, as well as cover fuel costs.”
An hour of haggling goes by, with the price of the adventure being upped to 15,000 credits, and Jet and John learning that the thief was a man named Haddigan Bran. Haddigan had stolen the trophy as a means of petty revenge against his former boss, and slunk off to the Juniper system. The juniper system was a known lawless place, with warring dome cities and gangs sprawled across the only habitable planet. Jim needed some people with space and combat experience to head over and take his property back, and it just so happened that two hardened service veterans had been discharged here just weeks before. Jet and John agreed, on the condition that Johnathon, hereafter called “Arm,” go with the as extra muscle. With the specifics covered, they made their way to the port.
Arm was not smart, and brought all his weapons in a large, jingling bag. The port police were on them almost as soon as they stepped into the main annex, with a small drone buzzing over to request they remain stationary as they had been selected for random search. The situation resolved itself when Arm dropped his bag and made a run for the bathroom, on orders from Jett. The police took the bait and followed the obliviously suspicious fellow and allowed the other two to board the S class scout ship Jett had retained after the service, weapons in tow. Arm returned later, sore and sour from his treatment at the hands of the bureaucracy of Daedalus.
Jumping was always a weird feeling. It was even weirder when you didn’t really know where you were going. John and Jett had argues over navigation, finally deciding to jump to a barely explored system near Juniper. All that was known about this system was that there was a gas giant there, meaning Jett could refuel with his scoops.
The system itself turned out to consist of a large world with nothing but ocean on it. There was nary a landmass above the surface. Jett fired a probe off, only to have it sucked into the immense gravity. Retrieving it cost 6 hours of missed orbits, until he was finally able to land on a shallow region, where the water was only a few feet deep. The atmosphere here was breathabled, but contained an exotic hallucinogen. Jett collected some into a container, for hopes of use or profit later. Probe retrieved and fuel tanks fuel, they made another jump to Juniper.
Juniper was a shit hole, there was no two ways about it. The bar run by Haddigan was called the Blue Nebula and was crammed between a loading bay and welded up storage areas. It was full of dockworkers, but the trophy in question was proudly displayed on a shelf, though it was protected by a sophisticated computer vault and double-paned glass. Close inspection revealed that the glass contained a barely visible gas inside. A quick casing of the joint revealed that Haddigan’s guards were interspersed among the patrons, pretended to drink at various tables. With Arm as a backup, Jett and John entered the bar seperately and decided the direct approach was best. The lack of laws in this system allowed jet to walk into the bar, shotgun in hand, with no issue. Jett intentionally caused a scene, which resulted in the unfortunate killing of one of Haddigan’s guards. Haddigan himself was roused from his office, and Jett offered the hallucinogen payload as payment. While the guards were distracted, John hacked the computer safe, but was unable to do so in time to remove the trophy without being seen.
Back at the ship, Haddigan tried an incredibly stupid plan of releasing the hallucinogen in the cargo hold, revealing he had surgically implanted nose filters. Jett easily avoided the effect (endurance check) and turned Haddigan into a bloody mess on the floor with a blast from the shotgun. Haddigan’s guards were not so lucky and were overcome with awful visions and eventually passed out, to be summarily executed. Haddigan was patched up, minus his nose, and locked in the airlock.
With Haddigan disabled, it was trivial to retrieve the trophy from his goons, and jump back to Daedalus. While in transit, they learned from Haddigan that he and Jim had once been members of the Syndicate, a high level crime family that run Daedalus from behind the scenes. Jim had framed Haddigan for a crime against them, and Haddigan had stolen the trophy and left the system as revenge. This sob story did Haddigan no good, as the duo realized he probably had a sizeable bounty, and immediately packaged him up for delivery.
Meeting back with Jim Morrison, they were paid and the ship refueled. They were also proven correct in their assumption about Haddigan’s worth, and were given a contact point for a syndicate bounty man named Officer Dooley. Meeting Dooley was a matter of some extravagance, as they had to present a specially marked chip at the port customs office. Once done, Haddigan was delivered and they were each paid 25,000 credits for the effort.
This adventure took three weeks in total.