What follows is a loose log of a group of individuals (the Traveller campaign) beset by circumstance.
It all started with Port Almacen (The pic above was inspiration. It's asteroid Gaspra/951. Almacen litterally means 'Storage'/'Warehouse' in Spanish). A sleazy little rock distantly orbiting Glisten; too far away for a casual visit and too close to Glisten to want to go there. It's purpose as a long range scout and belter facility had long ago been exhaused leaving its lingering purpose questionable. It was a husk and all that was left was a warehousing operation. And that would be complementary, as it was more of a foot note on corporate ledgers of things they'd rather forget. It was the stopping ground for crates and containers of failed projects and clandestine cover ups. That was the rumor anyway.
Coincidentally people lived there as much as moss clings to life in a desert; scraping by a meager existence on the periphery of corporate trade lines.
It's here where we meet our characters in a gaming parlor passing away their time. LaChuk is suited in almost questionably legal combat armor; a grizzled star marine gambling away his last credits on recorded races from Horosho. Strenek hasn't a credit to his name and is similarly frittering away his time - another star marine with combat armor though not yet equipped. 'Tookie' is the only officer around - and yet another star marine. The most curious of all is Carik, a belter that had a run in with a pirate and was laying low for now.
Running low on cigarretes, Carik asks LaChuk to fetch some more from the vending machine down by the dock yards. Shortly after a large alien walks into the bar barely able to speak any common. He asks for ice from the waitress and eagerly gobbles the cubes down. Carik brilliantly uses his computer to load up a language program and begins to talk to him. He addresses himself as "Klic Clik Faernmn" and, after getting frustrated with Carik for not enunciating the 'm' in his name among other things, he reveals a transit note covered in what appears to be saliva. Stranded, He merely wishes to go to Glisten and asks for help to get there.
The team rises to the challenge.
Meanwhile Lachuk notices a ship docking that bares the resemblance of the pirate vessel that Carik is avoiding when fetching the cigarettes. Within short order the team packs up their belongings, gears up, bids farewell to the dump of a rock, and purchases 5 tickets to Glisten on the next launching pinnance.
Carik arrives to the docking platform with Faernmn and 3, previous undisclosed, members of his family in tow while the alien refers to them all as "me" and "I". (It is later revealed the exact reasoning behind this. They are his family members and of lineage to his consciousness- and before the inherit that intellect they have all the intellectual breadth of a retarded fruit fly. Faernmn treats them as such).
Arriving on Glisten the Faernmn is not easily recognized and is placed into quarantine by customs. Carik is given legal custody and is to report back in a week to retrieve him. In the interim the group goes into the bazaar to look for a translator for Faernmn to little success. They encounter an irritated Aslan among other characters.
Strenek is accosted by a woman, by the name of Chazmine, pleaing for help with their home world of Overnale. She claims to be victimized by an off world corporation and they are forcing her people to starve. Strenek checks her story out with the local guards and they confirm it to the length of their interest. Not interested in taking on a charity case, the group moves on to the scout deck to look for some other more profitable lead. Largely ambivalent, the attendant flips through the recent job postings and mentions a mercenary contract that was recently posted for Overnale to assist with local police efforts being placed by Sharushid.
The pay was hefty.
Realizing that there may be more truth to Chazmine's story they decide to take the moral high ground and assist her. They are guided to an Aspiration class minimum capability barge, of which lays fuming and dripping fluids onto the flight deck. The jump is uneventful, though the trip was longer than expected due to the horrible state the ship was in. (At this point Carik chimes in with concern that he is delequint on picking up Faernmn- by a week at the soonest). Inspite of this the crew piloting the barge slammed the ship inappropriately through the atmosphere to avoid landing at the proper starport.
It crashed and fell to its side with minor injury.
The group then journeyed by foot to the down trodden city of Ghirhitz where their garb and off world armor earned them a hero's welcome. The mayor however, was a little confused by armed individuals being forced into his office and decided to bring them to the office of the Sharushid representatives that, through a client company called Kwik-Bite, was forcing all the local cattle operations to shift product off world for an appalling cheap sum and to the more industrialized western continent as well.
The representatives were unimpressed by the group's actions and diplomatic/legal skills (LaChuck did most the negotiating with vague hints of violence). They gave dictum that they were compassionate and that their presence here was universally good before kicking them out.
This led the mayor to agree to incite a riot- he himself had no success convincing the representatives to more reasonable trade terms. He offered the group an ATV and some explosives. They were to head out and stop a cattle shipment under the advice that the locals were being watched and the police were largely under Sharushid's influence.
The group went out to a farm where the cattle were to be picked up, befriended the locals, and camped out waiting for the moment to strike the cattle train...
It all started with Port Almacen (The pic above was inspiration. It's asteroid Gaspra/951. Almacen litterally means 'Storage'/'Warehouse' in Spanish). A sleazy little rock distantly orbiting Glisten; too far away for a casual visit and too close to Glisten to want to go there. It's purpose as a long range scout and belter facility had long ago been exhaused leaving its lingering purpose questionable. It was a husk and all that was left was a warehousing operation. And that would be complementary, as it was more of a foot note on corporate ledgers of things they'd rather forget. It was the stopping ground for crates and containers of failed projects and clandestine cover ups. That was the rumor anyway.
Coincidentally people lived there as much as moss clings to life in a desert; scraping by a meager existence on the periphery of corporate trade lines.
It's here where we meet our characters in a gaming parlor passing away their time. LaChuk is suited in almost questionably legal combat armor; a grizzled star marine gambling away his last credits on recorded races from Horosho. Strenek hasn't a credit to his name and is similarly frittering away his time - another star marine with combat armor though not yet equipped. 'Tookie' is the only officer around - and yet another star marine. The most curious of all is Carik, a belter that had a run in with a pirate and was laying low for now.
Running low on cigarretes, Carik asks LaChuk to fetch some more from the vending machine down by the dock yards. Shortly after a large alien walks into the bar barely able to speak any common. He asks for ice from the waitress and eagerly gobbles the cubes down. Carik brilliantly uses his computer to load up a language program and begins to talk to him. He addresses himself as "Klic Clik Faernmn" and, after getting frustrated with Carik for not enunciating the 'm' in his name among other things, he reveals a transit note covered in what appears to be saliva. Stranded, He merely wishes to go to Glisten and asks for help to get there.
The team rises to the challenge.
Meanwhile Lachuk notices a ship docking that bares the resemblance of the pirate vessel that Carik is avoiding when fetching the cigarettes. Within short order the team packs up their belongings, gears up, bids farewell to the dump of a rock, and purchases 5 tickets to Glisten on the next launching pinnance.
Carik arrives to the docking platform with Faernmn and 3, previous undisclosed, members of his family in tow while the alien refers to them all as "me" and "I". (It is later revealed the exact reasoning behind this. They are his family members and of lineage to his consciousness- and before the inherit that intellect they have all the intellectual breadth of a retarded fruit fly. Faernmn treats them as such).
Arriving on Glisten the Faernmn is not easily recognized and is placed into quarantine by customs. Carik is given legal custody and is to report back in a week to retrieve him. In the interim the group goes into the bazaar to look for a translator for Faernmn to little success. They encounter an irritated Aslan among other characters.
Strenek is accosted by a woman, by the name of Chazmine, pleaing for help with their home world of Overnale. She claims to be victimized by an off world corporation and they are forcing her people to starve. Strenek checks her story out with the local guards and they confirm it to the length of their interest. Not interested in taking on a charity case, the group moves on to the scout deck to look for some other more profitable lead. Largely ambivalent, the attendant flips through the recent job postings and mentions a mercenary contract that was recently posted for Overnale to assist with local police efforts being placed by Sharushid.
The pay was hefty.
Realizing that there may be more truth to Chazmine's story they decide to take the moral high ground and assist her. They are guided to an Aspiration class minimum capability barge, of which lays fuming and dripping fluids onto the flight deck. The jump is uneventful, though the trip was longer than expected due to the horrible state the ship was in. (At this point Carik chimes in with concern that he is delequint on picking up Faernmn- by a week at the soonest). Inspite of this the crew piloting the barge slammed the ship inappropriately through the atmosphere to avoid landing at the proper starport.
It crashed and fell to its side with minor injury.
The group then journeyed by foot to the down trodden city of Ghirhitz where their garb and off world armor earned them a hero's welcome. The mayor however, was a little confused by armed individuals being forced into his office and decided to bring them to the office of the Sharushid representatives that, through a client company called Kwik-Bite, was forcing all the local cattle operations to shift product off world for an appalling cheap sum and to the more industrialized western continent as well.
The representatives were unimpressed by the group's actions and diplomatic/legal skills (LaChuck did most the negotiating with vague hints of violence). They gave dictum that they were compassionate and that their presence here was universally good before kicking them out.
This led the mayor to agree to incite a riot- he himself had no success convincing the representatives to more reasonable trade terms. He offered the group an ATV and some explosives. They were to head out and stop a cattle shipment under the advice that the locals were being watched and the police were largely under Sharushid's influence.
The group went out to a farm where the cattle were to be picked up, befriended the locals, and camped out waiting for the moment to strike the cattle train...
