- GM’s note: Continuing on with the third of three sessions back in the Tachyon Squadron universe, when Grant and Ethan were much younger.
This session has two mini-stories. The first deals with the aftermath of the smugglers’ ship, the Dark Shadow (first introduced in Session 210.
After this session, we return to the current timeline.
Part 1 – Return to the Dark Shadow
- The cadets from Starfighter Academy captured the armed freighter, “Dark Shadow” about two months ago. Since then, the intelligence forces of Draconis have done a lot of work to figure out who Captain Maggar was working for and who was trying to ship weaponry to the Arco space station.
- “Deadeye” and “Chance” are part of the crew of the captured “Dark Shadow”. A meet has been arranged at a rendezvous point in space. Another ship, unlisted and with more armament than the “Dark Shadow” approaches.
- The plan is to board the unidentified ship and capture the encrypted data storage before their presence can be detected and the data storage destroyed. “Deadeye” and “Chance” spacewalk across with two others – “Flash” (a hacking/decoding expert” and “Glare”, a Draconis marine who is a bit of a weapons nut. They manage to open one of the exterior hatches without tripping the alarms while the ships dock and extend a boarding tunnel in order for the official ‘meet’ to occur.
- They reach the data storage and “Flash” gets to work. “Glare” assembles a signal jammer to prevent the crew of the unidentified ship from sending a distress signal. “Deadeye” is sent to secure the cargo bay while “Chance” is sent forward.
- They go hunting. They are heavily armoured up and prepared to use flash and sonic weapons. Alarms go off – but they didn’t trigger it – something else is going on, perhaps the official ‘meet’ is going poorly. A few crew members are quickly dealt with, but “Chance” runs into trouble when he reaches the airlock to the “Dark Shadow”. One of their crew is in powered armour and wearing a huge honking sonic weapon. “Chance” blinds the crew member with a flash grenade and overpowers him with a melee weapon, knocking him over and pinning him to the deck. He hurries onto the bridge and finds that the crew have an armed drone hovering by the door. He throws a grenade and the stunned drone falls, its circuits fried.
- On the bridge itself, the two crewmembers are hurriedly getting into powered armour while a functioning warbot (like a tripod) stands guard. Judging that he has to act quickly, “Chance” hurls in another grenade which blinds the warbot and it starts firing erratically. One of the stray blaster bolts severs a power cable and the lights go out on the bridge.
- Using the darkness as cover, “Chance” dives into the room and ‘sonics’ the men. The warbot is still shooting in all directions when he uses a blaster to finally silence it. “Chance” calls in to report that the bridge is secure – the jammer doesn’t affect the local secure comms that they have prepared.
- “Deadeye” has already taken the cargo bay. There are no comms from the “Dark Shadow”. “Glare” and “Flash” have what they came for. “Chance” reports some damage to the bridge controls (loss of sensors) but control could be rerouted to engineering. Both of the bridge crew are alive but unconscious. They are instructed to hold position and wait for the ‘all clear’.
- They wait almost ten minutes before the next instructions are given. They are advised that there is a standoff on the “Dark Shadow” – the agents who went across from the unidentified ship are still there, in a Mexican standoff with the crew of the “Dark Shadow”.
- “Deadeye” heads across to break the stalemate. The two are called “Argent” and “Silver”. “Silver” has a cybernetic arm and other enhancements. They speak another language in an attempt to converse privately but “Deadeye” can understand them. They know that their cause is lost and they are trying to figure out how to get out of the situation alive. “Deadeye” convinces them to stand down and that they will be fairly treated. They surrender.
- The team from Tachyon Squadron return with both ships. The unidentified ship is carrying warbots, heavy weaponry and armed drones.
Part 2 – Revenge of the Dark Shadow
- A few weeks later, Draconis Intelligence has enough from interrogating the prisoners and going through the encrypted data storage to figure out the next target. There is a crime lord named Jasper Jerome who is operating out of an asteroid field on the edge of Dominion territory. He sounds like bad news – a techno-rogue who is out for himself – young and ambitious. It seems that he has a total of three unregistered ships that are used to carry weapons to Dominion sympathisers in Draconis space.
- The unidentified ship has been repaired and has now been given an unofficial name – “Sally”. The team from Tachyon Squadron are given a new mission – to capture Jasper Jerome and bring him back to Draconis to face justice.
- To make this easier, Draconis Intelligence has acquired the item that Jasper was expecting to receive as payment – a large sculpture made of crystals.
- “Deadeye” and “Chance” take “Sally” to a small moon on the edge of Dominion space in order to meet with Jasper. Jasper welcomes them and is very pleased when given the artwork. Jasper offers them some very expensive alcohol out of a bottle carved from diamond to congratulate them, at which point “Chance” cuts him off and tells him that he is under arrest.
- Before Jasper’s bodyguards can react, they are taken out by “Deadeye” with two quick sonic blasts. However, Jasper drops a cufflink that explodes with a deafening sound and he gets away into a concealed elevator. The two novice Lords of Gossamer are staggered but quickly shake off the effects and go after him.
- In the hangar bay below, there are two racing vessels and one is ready to take off. “Chance” seals the doors and “Deadeye” uses Wayfinding to easily locate Jerome in the racing vessel that has not yet powered up.
- One of the racing vessels takes off and slams into the hangar door, exploding in flame. As the automatic extinguishers spring into life to put out the fire, “Deadeye” calmly takes Jasper into custody (but offers him a drink).
- Jasper has a lot of loot in his lair. There are priceless pieces of art (a lot should be in museums), cash, precious materials and a lot of weapons and data crystals. Jasper offers “Chance” and “Deadeye” many inducements to convince them not to turn him in, but they are not particularly interested. They take a few hours to load up “Sally”, using some of the service drones to assist them – and then depart. Both are wary that Jasper may have somehow called for aid and they don’t wish to push their luck.
- They return to Draconis space and report in.
- Over the next few weeks, they make multiple trips in order to quietly retrieve more of Jasper’s cache.
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