Session 18 Log

After our return to base and an evening's rest, we headed off to Galilea to discuss her relationship with Dack. We haggle info back and forth a bit, but we end up letting her know who has offered the bounty on Dack. She gives us a bio sample from one of the various limbs and blood she's removed from Dack. He's been converted to a nearly 90% cyborg. After the exchange, we leave the clinic. We head back to base and Kyle asks his hobo network for info on the WInds. We find out that they have been holing up in an abandoned, dilapadated office bldg. They've had lots of visitors, but none of the Winds have left the building. Rodworth and Kyle are going head off to talk to the Winds and see if we can come to an understanding. The other folks head off to look for info on the quillbats. Joseph and Kyle arrive in the WInds area and kids run up and ask if we're there for "powder"...wink wink, nudge nudge. The building is caving in. Rebar sticking out from the concrete, trash has been piled on top, the walls are crumbling. The place appears to be a single safe story to the whole place. The front door is wide open and portable lighting is visible. Upon entering, the place really shows its disrepair. There are two small rooms visible, nearly collapsing in upon themselves. Upon entering, there are a few gangers in the room and they say "Dave's not here, he'll be back in like 20 min." Rodworth gives the folks inside a cake and they devour it greedily. He introduces us and says we're with the Neon Tygers. The gangers kinda freak and say they don't want any trouble. We have a calming discussion and leave. The rest of the folks arrive at the university. On their way, they find another sample of "Old Earther" language on the wall. Eusyl takes a picture of it and files it for later translation. They go to a lab that is studying the quillbats. There are pens with the bats in various stages of development. Eusyl starts talking to the professor and he's worried about us being from the government. Eusyl gets to the point and asks about the bats. The professor says that there is an error in the quillbat DNA. The bats need zinc to be healthy. Without it, they're breeding themselves to dormancy and death. Eusyl asks if there is a way to distinguish the bats that are the originals or the ones that people are breeding them to get the bounties. The originals were chipped. They have a mini-chip that broadcast their location. Further questioning reveals that the professor thinks that the Uni-dome/Warrens is the source of the infestation. If you go to the other domes, you won't find the chipped bats. The bounty has switched. Bats are still 1 SGI, however, the chips are worth 10 SGI. Eusyl buys 2 chips from the guy. The guys go to the library to look up the geosurveys to see where there may be zinc on the planet, but they don't find any records. They head off to a store in the Unidome that sells zinc to see what information they can glean. Eusyl gets an idea and scans for one of the repeaters for the quillbat signal and finds one. He sets about decoding the system while the others head off to Plaster and Paint to see who purchased a large amount of zinc. He finds a record of a 10000 SGI load of zinc powder. It was a couple of vrusk, one male and one female, with a truck and they drove off. We go through our facial recognition and we see the vrusk about a week back, but nothing recently. Rodworth contacts "the Butler" about the vrusk and he found them toute suite. They came in a month ago and left 4 days ago. He says they were staying in the Skydome Hotel. The butler listens to Eusyl and has the hotel be expecting us to do some scans. Eusyl and Kyle continue to work on the repeater and the rest of the team head to Oldport, as the Butler says that the vrusk had a LARGE shipment delivered by the freighter "Knackers". They're headed over to see what they can find on the what was delivered and if the freighter is still in dock. In OldPort, bribes are a way of life. A small bribe will get nearly anything ignored. Rodworth asks about some info and a guard asks for 100cr, of which, Rodworth pays. The guard says that he remembers the Knackers and shows that they reported that they were weapon shipments. However, they did drop a crate and it was full of these odd grapefruit-like balls. They are napalm flamethrowers. There are about 100 of them (4kg each). The guard remembers one of the vrusk's name, Rarzi. He remembers that they had some Streel temps help load the truck. Eusyl and Kyle finally tear through the computer and find it's a basic repeater. Taking in one frequency and transmitting another. We find several more of the repeaters and triangulate where they're sending. We find out its in Skyport Central. After we arrive, we track it down to the movie theater. We have to buy a ticket to enter the theater to continue to track down the signal. We found an abandoned theater screen and find its locked. Eusyl picks the lock and we enter quietly. We see a round theater with a central holovid. One section of the seating is covered with boxes. We head down to the box area and start snooping. Upon opening a box, we find a scuba tank. We don our gas masks and eek out a small sample and Joseph scans it. It's a quillbat hormone spray. We open more boxes and we find a bunch of sundry electronics, chronocoms, empty cred sticks...and another repeater computer sending off a stronger signal to the lowest level of the dorm warrens, in the Pink Monkey. We head off to the Pink Monkey. About half way down the elevator, the whole place vibrates, as if a big bomb went off. We hit the ground level and there are quillbats all over the place. We hurry off to the monorail and rush to get to the Pink Monkey. We get to the dorm dome and there are bodies everywhere The security guards are hiding and taking potshots at the bats. We find out that the bats are immune to doze grenades. The elevators are damaged and stuck. We're going to have to take the stairs to get to the bottom, a full third of a kilometer. Eusyl and Bal try to glide down as the rest of the gang take the stairs. Eusyl gets to the bottom first. He sees the Pink Monkey, doors wide open. The Fight Club and the Labyrinth are closed up tight. Things stay quiet and the rest of the team finally arrive. We duck into the pink monkey and find bodies all over the place...infested with quillbats. Doing a quick explore, we find a hole with a ladder going down. We go down the tunnel and encounter a robot. It fires at Balta'sax but misses. Kyle rushes the robot and deactivates it. We further explore and find 2 more robots. During the fight with the robot, a slither pops out. We fight and defeat it. <break until next week>

Well here the art, the origin story of the Neon Tygers' name Neon Tyger I returned from Valkyrie's head quarter after asking Artemis to marry me, to find a boy perched at the entrance of the Neon Tygre's Headquarter. “Mr Shimout ?” he asked as he held out an envelope. I nodded as I handed him a ten credit chit and took the envelope from him. I was a bit surprise to open it and find a single card with the symbol of a gold badge, and written on the back was the name of Trou Noir, the bar at the Newport's space port. So I went, what could I do. If the Gold suits were on Styrigia they knew where to find me and there was no use hiding. A single Gold Suit sat alone in the booth facing the door, he was wearing his helmet with its gold tinted polarize visor down, he nodded acknowledging me as I enter the bar and as I sat down he began to remove his helmet. Long silky hair cascaded out the helmet catching my eyes, and when I concentrated on the face, my heart skipped a beat. It was my cousin Andy. “Andy, you son of space pirate, what are you doing here?” He pulled back his hair and smile, “ Well cousin, I was working with Star law on a mission in this system when my ship got a subspace message saying that you were on Styrigia. So I had to drop by and see my cousin. It has been four years.” We both smiled and hugged, growing up Andy was my best friend, we were closer than brothers. We sent the next couple of hours drinking and catching up, we didn't even notice when we found the booth surrounded by Valkyries. “So I find you meeting your Spacer slut!” the angry voice belong to Artemis and she was holding a machine pistol on the both of us. It took a few seconds for her to realized that the head belonging to the lovely locks was a man and not a woman. “Wait, you not a woman!” Andy stood and took her hand and kissed it, “No my lovely lady, I am Andrew Starfire, and Rodworth here is my cousin.” Andy was always one filled with charm, Artemis was blushing at the gesture and even the surrounding Valkyries seem to be mesmerized. It took only a few minutes for him to convince them to join us. In about half an hour, the bar was filled with Artemis and her girls laughter as Andy enchanted them with the tales of the adventures of our youth, it was when he finished the tale about how him and I was caught skinny dipping in the Clan ship's water tanks that he noticed the sticker on my Skein suit. “Cous that not a Neon Tyger? Are you crazy?” he asked as he look at it with disbelief. “What the problem with the Sticker ?” Artemis asked. “My cousin never told you the story? The Neon tiger is one of the most wanted outlaw of Dixon, heck he blamed for every thing from murder to the destruction of the Commercial space station orbiting the planet during the ends of the corporate war. As I remember there still a million dollar bounty for the clues on the identity of that rogue, and my cousin here flaunt his involvement in the matter as if was nothing.” Andy tone started to carry a slight tint of anger. “Tell us more! We want to hear the story.” one of Artemis' girls asked. And before Andy could say anything, I spoke. “It really not his tale to tell. Gather close ladies and I will tell you the saga of the infamous Neon Tyger!” It never rains on Laco, except for today. We landed in the midst of torrential down pour, and I was quick to grab the rain poncho from the ship's survival pack. My brother Barnes, cousin Andy and uncle Spider was just as swift to refuse one, preferring to get wet. How was I to know that the makers of the poncho used a cheap dye for coloring that would run the first time it got wet and that the material of the poncho was not exactly water proof. Of course the storm lasted for about ten minutes and soon the sun was once again beating down on us. The sun was so hot that in minutes any moisture that clung to us began to rise as steam as we walked across the desert. I removed the poncho and found that the dye had run all over me, covering any exposed skin and skein suit in bands of neon pink streaks. My brother started to giggle, and I became angry, we were on serious business. This was no summer picnic, we were to kill two men and avenge my father's dead. “What you problem?”, I asked my brother with a huff, but he broke into uncontrollable laughter. My cousin Andy, replied as he giggled, “Rod, you look like that character from that Dixon's kiddie show, Neon Tyger!” My uncle look at us, he gave a slight grin, “Don't mind them, they are just nervous and the brain look for ways to distract from the unpleasant things we are to do, but it is quite funny anyway.” He turn in the direction of small mining town we were headed and spat. “Lets go, don't want to be late!” The streets of the town was almost deserted, the few people that were up and about paid little attention to us as we entered. We appear to be just a couple of prospectors returning from searching for diamonds in the dessert who else would be out in the back water sector of Laco. There were several air cars park in front the town's only bar, and my Uncle motioned for us to head toward it. Inside the bar would be two security officers from the Laco Space station. These men were working with Streel in order to hi jack vessels belonging to the Clan, it was during one of these attempts that my father was killed as he and my uncle Spider foiled their efforts. In the aftermath these men fled to the outlands of Laco. What they did not know that agents from Pan Galactic had tracked them down, and have reveal their location to the clans in order to gain our support in their war with Streel. “Ready, we went over what to do. Andy take care of the air cars.” Spider said and motioned for me and Barnes to enter the bar. The nameless tavern, was filled even this early in the day, we spotted an empty table and worked our way to it. Generally no one would not have given us a second look, but I found my self the center of attraction, the pattern of neon stripes on my face and clothes caught the eyes of the bar's patrons, there were several snickers and couple of people even gave off a small meow, mimicking the cry of Neon Tyger cartoon character. Barnes spotted our targets, across the bar seated at a table with a pair of hire guards standing behind them. The guards eyes locked on me, and they grinned and started to whispered, very likely sharing some joke about my appearance. But as all eyes were focus on me, no one noticed my uncle spider working his way to a position behind them. When Spider gave us the signal we jumped into action, both Barnes and me set off a pair of smoke grenade, the crowd went wild, and start to head for the exist as the smoke expanded to fill the bar. Me and my brother don our breathing mask with their inset infra red goggles and watched as Spider open fire on the two guards with an electro-stunner. Both guards went down like a sack of potatoes, as the pair of men they were guarding rush toward the front exit. Unfortunately for them, me and my brother had already place ourselves between them and their escape. “Out my way, boys.” one of them cough, as they struggle to breath “I afraid not, you two killed my father, and we are here to avenge him.” Barnes uttered before he open up with his auto pistol. I joined him and watch the pair collapse under a hail of bullets. Spider rush to us and pushed us toward the door. Andy was waiting outside, sitting in an air car that he hot wired. “Need a lift?” he joked and we boarded. Spider was the last one in, and as boarded he hurl a grenade into the bar. “ You planned the charges Andy?” he asked as he motion for us to go. Andy nodded and produced a radio detonate. Spider grabbed the detonated and motion for Andy to take off. The grenade in the tavern exploded and when we a safe distant away Spider pressed the detonator button and the entire front of bar went up with the air cars. I started to smile, we had did it! Avenged the death of my father, but my brother Barnes face still sported a frown. “Uncle how are we going to escape, the minute our ship lift off the planet the local militias going chase us down?” Barnes asked. “I wouldn't worry about them, they and Streel's privateers are going be busy defending the space station, for all the good it will do them.” Spider answer while wearing a wick grin. As it we were getting to Spider's assault scout, the Clans' privateers and those of Pan Galactic was speeding toward Laco's only space station, one run by Streel. As the fleet approached a few ion driven merchant craft that accompanied the clans' ships began forming an ion window, creating a  massive cloud of radar interference that cover the fleet. The Streel and Dixon militias flew to intercept confident in the energy sensors that they possess to provide them the means of tracking the Clans atomic driven crafts. What the energy sensors could not detected were the thousand of meteors and small asteroids that trail the Clan fleet, which were render invisible by the ion window in front of them. Just as the fleets got into range of each other weapons and the clan ships moved to disengaged and the Streel ship spotted the man made meteor storm on a direct course for the space station. The Streel ships did the best they could opening up with every weapon they had in a brave attend to save the station. The station fired it maneuvering rockets, but the could not get out of the way of storm. Scores of air car size meteors, struck the station, punching holes into the meteor shields and pressure hull. Even a couple of Streel vessels were hulled as they attempted to save the station. The station seem to weather the worse of it, until an undetected asteroid the size of cruiser struck the station and cause it to disintegrate. We had just got past Laco's moon when this happen, and found ourselves in the midst of the clans' war fleet as it head back to our home ships, park in Laco's L2 point. We were all silent, the awe of what had just happen had overwhelm us. “Why?” was all I could ask, “Uncle I under stand us hunting down my father killers, but the space station. Why destroy it?” Spider looked at me, his eyes boring into mines, “ Boy them killing your dad was just the tip of the iceberg. Attempting to jack our trading ships, was an attack against the clans. The officials on Laco just stood back, and let it all happen. They had to be shown what will happen if they don't reign in Streel. The next attack could be a series of meteor strike on target on the surface. We are mobile, the Clans will be heading out to our hideys holes in the belt. The folk on Laco don't have that luxury. By tomorrow they'll sue for peace, and Streel will find it self alone in a war with the clans and Pan Galactic.” All I could do was nod. “Hey everyone I'm picking a news report from Laco!” scream Andy We all gathered around the communication console and watch the news report on the console screen. “In a coordinated surprised attack, elements of Clan Pirates destroyed Station Laco, while a team of assassins killed the stations manager and head of security. Witness were only able to provide a description of one of the attackers. And Police sketch artists have provided the following drawing.” as the news caster spoke, I prepared myself, every one we ran into on the planet seem to have their eyes drawn to me. Once the sketch was broadcast, I wouldn't be able to set my foot on the planet again. As I was caught up in my thoughts, everyone else broke out into laughter. I looked up and on the screen was a drawing of the cartoon character Neon Tyger.  Spider look at me and winked. Laughter filled the bar as I finished my story, Artemis girls were laughing so hard that they were in tears, but Artemis just look at me with a sad expression. “You never told me about your father death, it must have been hard.” with that she grab me and buried her head in my chest. All I could do was hold her against me and stroke her hair. “You know cous, that girl must really love you.” Andy whisper in my ear. “Why? Cause she can see empathize with what I was going through back then?” “No because she having you followed. How else would she have know we were here?” he laughed..