January 8th, 2019 Travellers : Victor [Cory], Thea [Dylan], Kaito [Alex] Y295.00.0 The Travellers are on the island of Roy’s Folly after spending two weeks training at the Navy base on Vone (a moon in the Mensah system). Thea spends time playing chess with Baron Lemmon and defeats him. Lemmon may have been distracted by the fact that his Orson pod was busy detonating an underwater drone. He explained that someone has been attempting to send sophisticated recognizance drones to Rolly’s Folly ever since the Marquis began hosting a group of Da-Ren scientist. Kaito and Roosevelt bond while working on Kaito’s chariot. Victor’s small room in the hunting lounge is filled with the books he bought on Tantry. Books written in the language of the inhabitants of the village of Dormoor. The Marquis Raj requests Victor to escort a quest to the Adam’s port and see the he has safely boarded the Capital Shuttle to the Durran system. The guest is Barnabas, a Lytic in the Sacrament of the Amber Glow from Durran. Barnabas had been hired by the Da-Ren to modify and improve their simulation of the Timaeus project. Victor borrows an air/raft from Bobby Nelson on Swann Martens. Jengo, Kaito and Thea joined Victor in taking Barnabas to the Adam’s port. Along the way Kaito noticed another air/raft following them. Victor was able to out maneuver their tail and they continued onto the port unhindered. Victor landed the air/raft at the TAS hotel near the port (Thea is a TAS member). They noticed two Mensah police officers checking those who attempted to enter the port. Thea attempted to enlist their help in escorting Barnabas into the port but the officers, with belligerent, rebuked her. Victor attempted to carry a rifle into the port and was quickly arrested by the officers. He told the others to carry on and see to it that Barnabas reaches the Capital Shuttle. Rather than wait four hours for the liners ship’s boat to land for passengers, Kaito found and recruited Rita Lucas of Lucas Unlimited to transport them into orbit to meet the liner. After thanking the Travellers Barnabas departed. Thea convinced Rita Lucas to land on Roy’s Folly rather then return them to the Adam’s port. After only a short time in jail, Victor is contacted by a man who identified himself as Ishmael. Ishmael paid to release Victor and offered him Cr 15,000 to place a small hockey puck sized listening device in one of the tents used by the Da-Ren scientists. Victor agrees and after contacting Sir Oswald Paris flies back to the island. Victor shows the Marquis the hockey puck who then directs the sniper to throw it into the ocean. Victor reports on Ishmael and the bribe. The Marquis tells the Travellers to stand by as he may have a job for them in a few days. Y295.01.3 The Marquis introduces the Travellers to Doctor Huang Gang, the Da-Ren scientist that until recently had been the director of the Timaeus project. Doctor Gang would like to hire the Travellers to escort a human scientist, a young woman named Peter Damon, to at least four of the control centers along the Timaeus volcano tube. She is to be given time in each center to copy raw sensor data from the computers. The Travellers are offered Cr 50,000 each. The Travellers discuss the offer and ask for Cr 75,000 each due to the fact that if they are caught they could be charged with treason. The Marquis agrees to cover the additional expense. Doctor Gang informs the Travellers that there are security robots from Carthage in each of the control centers. They will activate only if the center airlock is activated. The Travellers have encountered these types of laser armed security guards in the past. A special “stealth” submersible is made available to the Travellers but they will have to recruit a pilot as none of them have skill in operating a small water craft. Kaito goes to visit Ernest Bennett in Swan Martens, just off the coast of Roy’s Folly. Bennett is a skilled small water craft pilot and instructor. Kaito successfully recruits Bennett to pilot the submersible. Y295.01.4 Kaito travels to the city of Gorham to hire some “muscle” from Mondo Bits. After meeting with and dealing with minor functionaries Kaito is able to successfully recruit three men to assist in shooting the robots. After paying Bits his “tax” of Cr 22,500 Kaito promises each of the men Cr 22,500. The men are Patrick, Dennis and Billy. Once the men agree to assist Kaito he takes them to the Adam’s Port and purchases for each cloth and reflec armor plus a revolver. Except for Patrick who is given Kaito’s old set of Ablate armor. Interestingly, the armor is rather nondescript. No flashy colors or flower print patterns. Kaito takes the three men back to Roy’s Folly. Y295.01.5 Thea, Kaito, Jengo, Peter Damon, Patrick, Dennis, Billy and Ernest Bennett board the submersible and Ernest heads towards the site of the Timaeus project. Despite the rain of cooling magma being ejecting from the top of the artificial volcano Ernest is able to safely dock the submersible with the airlock of the sixth Timaeus control center. Thea leads the party through the hatch followed by Patrick, Billy and then Kaito. Ernest’s instructions are to wait until the center is secured then to avoid random patrols by project security he is to take the submersible to the bottom and wait for Thea’s signal. The Travellers are “greeted” by two security robots that request access codes. Thea decides to cut the discussion short by ramming her Broadsword through a vent on one of the robots, crushing it’s electronic brain and rendering it inert. (Has she been spending too much time hanging around Kaito?) Kaito, Patrick and Billy engage the second robot with revolver fire but it’s armor proves a match for their shots. A long drawn out battle begins and one by one the remaining robot picks off it’s human attackers with it’s internal laser rifle. First Patrick goes down to clean hit. Then a lucky shot get’s through Thea’s combat armor and takes her out. And although the Travellers and their hired guns have placed shots through the robots armor they have not inflicted enough damage on it to take it out of combat. Finally, after using a speed loader to reload his revolver Kaito finds himself alone against the heavily damaged, but still functional security robot. With only four bullets left Kaito fires a well placed shot that takes out the robots laser. Calmly walking up to the functional, but harmless robot, It’s motor functions having been shot away during the battle, Kaito fires three rounds through one of several holes in the machine. Unfortunately, one of his shots penetrates the robots single remaining functional battery, causing it to explode knocking Kaito unconscious to the floor of the control center. Minutes later Kaito and Thea recover consciousness thanks to administrations by their friend Jengo. The scientist they were hired to protect is at work on a computer terminal downloading the first batch of data she needs to collect. Billy also recovered having sustained only minor wounds, however Jengo informs the Travellers that Patrick and Dennis are in critical condition and will need intensive medical attention.
