Prison Pit
- Characters
- Prison Library
- Logs 1
- Logs 2
- Jailbreak
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Maximillian trade nexus, stugarden high orbit, bucroth system, 16:10 shipboard time 119/1106
Up to this point, all the shopping the cons had done had been online; but there were some things they wanted to get out and pick up personally. With the hated prison fatigues replaced by clothing of their choice, they were beginning to relax a bit. A trip out to the nexus shopping mall was agreed.
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Alice took Kimii Mruaak off to one side. "You know by now that we don't mean you any harm," she said reasonably. "but you're stuck with us for the while. I'm prepared to take you with us, if you'll give your word not to do anything silly like screaming or running away. It'll be a nice break and let you pick up any supplies you need." Kimii smiled slightly. "I'd rather be out with you and Manx than back here without you and with Scarrow and Hurker," she said promptly. "I agree."
Although Stugarden itself had no technical law level, the starport itself was policed by a mixture of SPA and Maximillian Industries security, and ship crew carrying heavy military equipment around wasn't going to go down well - so the four took only light personal weapons. As they took the slidewalk out of the passenger hub and into the huge satellite's main concourse, the flavour of the place became more apparent. With Bucroth having little population, there was little in the way of tourist facilities; most of the establishments were aimed at commercial customers and passing ship crews. The volume of these was considerable, however, so there were extensive facilities.
Maximillian trade nexus, stugarden high orbit, bucroth system, 17:30 shipboard time 119/1106
Remarkably, weapons were uppermost in most of the cons' minds, and except for Gripper their first stop was an establishment called Armenaur's Arms. Although there was an armourglass double door at the entry, security wasn't overly obvious, and certainly didn't get in the way of the selection experience. Glass-fronted display cases lined all three inner walls, with more free-standing in the centre of the sbop. The four ex-cons browsed through the stock, noting a fairly good selection but little or nothing built above tech level 11. After a few minutes, a snap of Marttha's fingers brought a floorwalker to enquire what they might like.
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Martha started by enquiring for heavy support slugthrowers, but while the heavy machineguns were intimidating to look at, the ratings were not especially impressive compared to the Maximillian-issued gauss rifle she already had, and she rejected them. She moved on to the rocket-assisted munition launchers often added on to said gauss rifles, and was told that these were out of stock but that they were expected in two days' time. She ordered four. A glance at the personal armour on display was enough; it was light stuff designed for shipboard merchant security guards, and barely as good as the Maximillian light combat armour she already had.
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Manx had his eye on something a little less military; a fully-automatic shotgun. The floorwalker eyed his modest physique. "Have you used one before?" she asked, "they're kinda heavy." Manx nodded confidently, and the floorwalker handed him the stubby weapon. Liking the balance, he put it on the pile and added several boxes of ammunition for it. His next errand was on behalf of Gripper; a sniper's rifle. Armenaur's didn't carry the specialist sniper model of the gauss rifle, but did have a rather nice example of the breed in a CPR slugthrower. "We can throw in chaemelon surface for an extra Cr500," said the floorwalker hopefully, and Manx nodded, requesting a box of cartridges of each available type. The last thing he asked for was a really good concealable nonmetallic pistol. "Ah yes," said the floorwalker, "we have them in single-shot-throwaway, automatic and revolver." He paused. "To be honest," he said quietly, "the automatics tend to jam. Take the revolver." Manx grinned and followed the advice.
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Alice wanted a sniper's rifle too, and added a second. She also selected a full set of gunsmith's tools, reloading gear, and some odd extra tools and supplies such as a few grams of metallic mercury. She was just turning away when something occurred to her. "Got any lightsabres?" she enquired.
The lightsabre was a peculiar weapon, rumoured to originate in the wild reaches of Foreven Sector somewhere. Legends aplenty had arisen concerning them and their wielders, and interest was sufficient that several of the Imperium's arms companies had attempted to replicate them. Something in the design eluded them, however, and the best available was powered by a belt-mounted power pack connected to the weapon itself by a cable. The weapon did produce a finite length blade of plasma energy as per spec, but having it wired to the wielder just seemed wrong, and Alice abandoned the idea.
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Piling everything up, they paid and arranged delivery to the HOG once the order was complete. The rest of the trip was fairly mundane; Alice and Kimii headed off for some more feminine shopping, Gripper went to a liquor store to add some specialist drinks to the general booze Martha had already purchased, and Manx and Martha returned to the ship, Manx to unpack his new tools and give the ship's engines the overhaul of their lives. Although Gripper joined him eagerly enough after his return, hoping to learn something, it was all over bar putting the cowlings back on, and all he could do was sit back and admire the results. The only thing lacking was some of the spare parts he needed.
For a couple of hours after that, only the arrival of the delivery robot with the parcels broke the waiting. Manx trawled the news feeds for reports of people operating in his old field. He found some, but none operating in the Flavin subsector. Offshoots of the theocracy of Radabarien on Corcir were the nearest there was, and they operated more on a missionary basis - and were seldom welcome! Creating some private files, he compiled a dossier on each group, and set alerts to automatically feed their activities into their files.
Maximillian trade nexus, stugarden high orbit, bucroth system, 19:10 shipboard time 119/1106
Gripper was on duty on the bridge, slouched in the pilot's chair reading a book, when the proximity sensors pinged. A ship's boat was heading across the docking stands towards the Hand of God. Gripper leaned on the klaxon to sound All Hands, and as the others arrived on the bridge commented, "I think it's Flash Harry." Martha's brows drew down. "Then why doesn't he say so?" she growled. "Benkin, get in the turret and power up!" Manx picked up the mike and keyed up a hailing channel. "Spacecraft entering docking cradle 97," he called, "identify yourself immediately!"
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A familiar and irritating cockney voice sleazed out of the speakers. "Good evenin' laydeez'n'gents," said Everett Steel, "'ere we are, on schedule, to finish our business. No need to get all panicky now!" Muttering, the four left the bridge and headed down to the cargo hold as Steel's vessel lined itself up and extended a docking tube. "Last chance - do we want to lose anyone else?" asked Martha. No-one had changed their minds, so the decision was left as 'just the Exismolia's original crew'.
Gripper and Manx placed themselves at the far side of the hold, with crates to hide behind, to cover good fields of fire across the side door. Alice placed herself right in front of them, next to Martha who would be doing the negotiation. There was a hiss and the pressure indicator on the side door showed atmosphere outside, so Martha hit the control and the door rolled up, to show a short flexible passage with a solid floor connecting the open hatches of the two vessels.
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Standing inside the small craft opposite were Steel and Max the Thug, both armed, and four other disreputable-looking men. These had weapons slung on shoulders or holstered, but rolled-up sleeves and cargo gloves showed they were really there to move merchandise. Mostly. On seeing Martha, Steel's face lit with a beaming smile that left his eyes cold. "'Allo, darlin'," he smarmed. "Let me see your money, sir," said Martha briskly. Steel shifted his shoulders and resettled his bowler. "Oh. Yeah, rite," he said, and stuck his right hand into his jacket. Instantly, Gripper, Manx and Alice's weapons twitched towards the ready, and the small man froze, his men's hands moving to their weapons.. "Just the money," he said reprovingly. Slowly he removed his hand to show a sheaf of currency, and the tension eased back again.<
Martha stepped aboard Steel's ship to examine the money. It looked OK to her, but she knew she wasn't an expert. Tapping her mike, she called Bnekin down out of the turret. "Check these," she said, handing him the banknotes.
Martha stepped aboard Steel's ship to examine the money. It looked OK to her, but she knew she wasn't an expert. Tapping her mike, she called Benkin down out of the turret. "Check these," she said, handing him the banknotes. While he checked them, his men started lugging the freezers across the gap into the boat. Something occurred to Alice. "Are you interested in the freezers as well?" she asked. "We won't want them again." Steel considered for a moment. "Not sure if I will eiver," he replied. "I'll giv ya five fousand each," he added. Manx chuckled. "Try again," suggested Martha. With a shrug that said well it was worth a try, Steel tried again. He and Martha fell to haggling, and finally - "on'y becos I likes ya, pretty laydy" - settled on KCr21 each. With fifteen to sell, this was quite a profit on the whole deal, and meant far less time connected to Steel's ship into the bargain. There was a nasty moment when not all of the cash he used to pay for the freezers turned out to be real, but after some valid banknotes were substituted, the deal was closed. "A absolute pleasure doin' business wiv ya, laydeez an' gennlemen," said Steel, tipping his hat and coming closer than he'd ever know to a RAM grenade in his cargo bay as the doors slid shut.
Maximillian trade nexus, stugarden high orbit, bucroth system, 19:10 shipboard time 121/1106
Alice gathered the whole crew and explained that anyone who wanted to split off and stay on Bucroth was welcome to disembark at this point. Common sense suggested that scattering was probably the best way to avoid everyone being recaptured again. After some thought, Chris the Zhodani - who wanted to make a run for the border - Spanners and Slippers decided to leave the crew. "That's fine," said Martha, "you're free to go." Spanners glared at her. "Hang on," he said with some outrage. "Don't we get any share of the cash? We've lugged freezers, risked being shot, helped steal this ship and allowed this bozo -" he pointed at Gripper who coughed and looked away, "to drug us to simulate being ill; that alone should be worth danger money!"
"Yes, you should," said Alice and Gripper, expecting Manx and Martha to echo the sentiments. There was a sad lack of any outpouring of generosity, and then Martha said reluctantly, "Oh, I suppose so," and handed out Cr5,000 each. The looks she got indicated that the three of them were not going to remember her at least with any fondness as the three disembarked with the clothes they'd stolen from the Exismolia's crew, a laser carbine and autopistol each, a set of new papers from Benkin and five lousy grand. It was enough to scrape a low berth ticket somewhere if they were lucky.
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"Right," said Martha, "better get this show on the road." Gripper took the controls, while Taxi settled into the navigator's seat and Manx took the engineer's. Martha sat at the computer although there wasn't a lot for it or her to do. Alice glanced around. "Well, I'm rather unnecessary here," she said, "I'll go and check the hatches are secure." The others nodded absently as they prepared for their first Jump in the HOG. Taxi fed the astrogation data for Lyrar into the computer, and routed the resulting flight plan to Gripper, who eased the ship away from the cradle as Martha confirmed departure with Nexus TrafCon. The computer rattled off the pre-flight checklist and the items checked out one by one as the Hand of God accelerated away towards Stugarden's jump point a hundred diameters away. Nearly four hours later, the ship reached the proper distance, the computer alerted Gripper, and Manx hit the switch to engage the Jump drives. The hull grid lit up, real space slipped away as they slipped into J-Space and they were on their way.
jumpspace bucroth-Lyrar, 10:02 shipboard time 123/1106
Gripper had spent a day or so in the cargo bay, getting used to his new sniper rifle. The hold wasn't really long enough for him to sight it in, but he set up a target and test-fired it a few times. He finally gave up when Manx joined him with his new shotgun, and after Gripper had patiently pecked three or four half-inch holes in the target blasted it to atoms with three rounds from the shotgun.
Part of the service from the spaceport at the trade nexus had been refitting and cleaning the autochef RAM-C. and the ex-cons gleefully loaded it with the improved supplies they'd bought. Some fairly eclectic meals resulted, raising everyone's spirits. It wasn't until the end of the second day in Jump that the crew noticed the absence of Dr Kimii Mruaak.
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A thorough search made it positive that she was not aboard the HOG. Heads were scratched; she'd been fairly carefully watched, and definitely seen aboard since the shopping trip. "Ill check the footage," said Martha. "I'll help," offered Alice. The pair went to the bridge and Martha dialled up the security footage for the side door just before launch. Some instinct took her straight to the correct sequence - and there it was; Alice ushering Kimii out through the hatch, Kimii leaving Alice with a grateful peck on the cheek and hurrying away as Alice dogged the hatch once more. The pair looked at each other for a long moment. Then Martha reached deliberately to the console and tapped the key that would permanently delete the incriminating evidence. Once the (abridged) news of Kimii's 'escape' was announced, Manx was rather depressed. "She was the only woman on this bucket who wouldn't kill me in my sleep," he mourned.
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This process got Alice thinking, however. Unearthing Governor Pinkus' hand computer, she opened the files on the prisoners it contained and began to read. with all the talk and distrust of Hurker, it had occurred to her to wonder if it was actually true. Starting at the beginning, she began to unfold the grotesque history of the man called Jebediah Hurker. She'd brought a drink and a snack with her, but fifteen minutes in her appetite left her, and after half an hour she was close to throwing up. He was everything they imagined and far more.
Closing his file with a shudder, she skimmed through the other cons' dossiers. Burkins' was interesting. His prison nickname had been "General" but it was dead accurate; he'd been just that in the Imperial Army until being unwittingly embroiled in the plots of a shadowy criminal mastermind, then badly wounded trying to escape the task force sent to break the crime ring. The task force had been led by one Captain Martha Canary. Alice couldn't be sure, but she had a strong hunch that the criminal activities Burkins had been drawn into had been masterminded by none other than that same Martha Jane Canary.... This led her to the files on herself and the other command crew. Those she carefully read, then deleted from the hand computer.
A short conference on what to do next was a bit inconclusive, but one decision was made - to write a precis of the Terbium Process, circulate it to various PAN nets by XMail and attempt to get one of Maximillian's rivals - or maybe Maximillian themselves - to buy it. Martha, aided by the rest, set to producing this during the seven days of Jump.
Session Date: 8th June 2011 (160/-2507 Imperial) |
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