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Session 22 Log and such

The group debates on what to do with their new ship, and some of the gear (spacesuits) on board. And debate, and debate, and debate some more. The decision is made to use it as a mixture of passenger and cargo ship. Rodworth goes out hunting for some suppliers for cargo in old port. After a some hunting (and a barfight), who offers a job shipping electronics, sadly at to high a price. Rodworth suggests selling the chip to Justin white, the negotiations could have gone more smoothly, but an arrangement is made. Some silly men in business suits with guns show up and pay for the cargo, as well as statements for Joseph that he make favorable statements about Justin white, who's running for president, much like Joseph and Yaz. Joseph releases a press statement with Nargoo the newscasters assistance. The group proceeds to set off to sell their cargo out in space, and receive an offer for more jobs. We make out with 105k credits after paying off our school debts. The group returns home, and discovers the valkyries are keeping peace and order. A rather strange person in a mask approaches Eusal and offers a job. They ask us to retrieve Alice from the malthar station, surprise surprise, it’s Lisa Styrigy. The group sets to work modifying their ship and making plans to rescue Alice. Later we get ambushed by a group of thugs targeting Lisa, forcing the group to do a retreat under fire. We manage to get Lisa safely to the Valkyries hideout, though she was slightly wounded in the fight. Mr. Beetle comes and gives the group one of the assassins that attacked them, who is taken to the Valkyries for interrogation. Joseph and Eusal do the interrogation, where Joseph breaks a hypnosis that was helping him resist the effects of telol. We find out his boss is K’dit, who heads a group of assassins for hire. They were hired by Mr. Beetle, who’d been playing us for fools.
Despite our bloodymindedness, I had a thought later that night: While Beadle definitely set us up, the situation is may be more complicated. If he's connected to The Malthar, he may have been pressured into hiring those guys. Malthar is probably a lot like Whitey Bulger, where half the guys are doing stuff so they won't get killed if it doesn't happen. Which reinforces the general consensus that if we find him, we take him alive, at least so he can give us info. Also, if we do succeed in getting Princess Leia--er, Alice Styrigi away from the Dea--er, Malthar Station, we should be prepared to get the hell out of Dodge. I don't expect we'll actually take out the Dralasite himself, and he has a long and vicious memory. 
Which begs question the question, if am I Han Solo, is Kyle Luke and who is Chewie?
Why are we messing with the Malthar so soon? We dont have infrastructure to take on the Malthar and I dont think many of us are ready to just leave the planet. Yaz is liking the set-up and we are starting to make a difference. Also, why the hell would we do propaganda for White?? He's an asshole, right?  If we have to go up against the Malthar, though not sure why that would HAVE to happen, then I want a contract with the Styrigi and UPF that provides some sort of alliance, so if we are attacked by the Malthar, he needs to know that would be war against Styrigi and the UPF. We need a big friend backing us if we are going to pick on a bully. How did the team convince Yaz to give up the chip to White? What did we get for the chip and what long term benefit does it provide us? $105K is nice, but it seems that money came at a pretty big cost to our long term success here.
The reason we're tackling the Malthar so quickly is that we're being paid 100K to do it by Lisa Styrigi. The propaganda was part of the payment (along with the ancient chip) towards getting the funds to finance our first haul which netted the 210k that ended up paying off our student debts and financed the air car with the left over funds providing a shipping office.  It's not like we're going to charge off immediately. We need to get data, plan and prepare.  With her funds, the consideration from the UPF and Alice Styrigi after the rescue and the two ships we can sell, there's no reason we can't get a good Void capable ship and head out into the greater Frontier.  OTH, we could collect our 1000 credits a day shipping profits (this is after expenses) for a while and decide what to do then. If we work a year, we'd end up with 400K free and clear. Not exciting but profitable.  Nothing's set in stone. Though Eusyl would feel obligated to at least protect Lisa since we've gone through considerable trouble to save her (Twice). 
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I can't be Luke...don't want to be Luke. My sister is a hideous ginger troll and I *AIN'T* kissing her. Also, should we want to take out the Malthar, we could either discover evidence that would cause the UPF to go in and get him...or...we could "discover" evidence and get the UPF involved. Either way, he's out of the picture.  We just have to not get caught.
Hmmm... "Kill with a borrowed knife" that's an interesting angle. We should see what it would take to get the UPF to move on the Malthar.
The UPF was formed to serve the Frontier for one reason: to defend the Frontier from external foes (the Sathar). Over time, their role expanded to include patrolling the space-lanes because they were doing it anyway. They DO collect taxes from the member planets, but only to support the fleet and the star law rangers. The UPF charter does not allow them to interfere with local governments no matter how reprehensible (as represented by the Styrigi or the Malthar). The exception to this rule is when there is direct and clear evidence of Sathar activity that is not being handled. In fact, most governments hand over Sathar investigations to local branches of the UPF, which are often overburdened with false alarms. Although the UPF does fight pirates and will hunt down known pirate ships, without proof of collusion by the Malthar, they can't do much. Even with proof, unless he is personally involved, it would probably amount to a fine - which he wouldn't have trouble paying.  He's had to pay several such fines in the past for such infractions as allowing known pirate ships to dock with his station (and leave again). He also got in a lot of trouble a few years ago... something to do with smuggling some Inner Dramune animals for some reason - and actually firing on UPF ships. However one of his lieutenants took the fall for that one - and no proof could be found to nail him directly. There is a single UPF liaison that serves Darkworld station to keep ties with the Malthar. There are (were) several small offices in Styrigia. However, the primary presence in the system is Pinnacle station, which orbits directly opposite Darkworld. Majora station (over Inner Dramune) also has some UPF offices and ships, but that is not the center of activity. Regardless, this is likely to all change when task force Cassadine arrives in one more game day. Admiral Druuth (a dralasite), who commands the Admiral Haarsevoort (the flagship) will outrank any of the UPF representatives in the system. Oh... and XP for last session: +1 everyone that was expected to be on time was on time +1 log +1 artwork (the spaceship drawings) No new goals completed The new total: 179 + 3 = 182 xp
I was wondering where the Dramune Run would figure into your campaign... Shame the Malthar ducked that one. Thanks for the precis on the UPF situation. I guess there's a good reason why the big Dralasite's been in charge for so long with impunity. We still might be able to enlist the UPF in a non-official capacity; drumming up a "Casus Belli" of some sort. But it really just may be beyond our capacity to attempt this and have any chance of success. 
So I do want to ask again what do we want to do as a party. The reason I ask is that I may need to roll up a new character as Yaz is perfectly fine staying on Styrigi, setting himself up with the Styrigi family, Alice to be specific, and developing a vast network of import/export with a side of espionage. I think the Neon Tygers are perfectly positioned to become a hidden/not so hidden power in this place and being a big fish in a small pond with so much going on works for Yaz - he never really wanted to get off planet, he just wanted a better life. If we want to move in the direction of heading off planet and maybe taking up the UPF invite to be a fixer unit, then I may make up a different character - one with environment as a focus - gather info, stealth and analysis. Want to make sure I align with the party and keep it moving forward.
If we actually free Alice Strygi and set her up as some kind of parliamentary monarchy, (or circumstances allow that to happen) we could indeed do all those things, though establishing that kind of organization would probably preclude the idea of adventuring; we'd be too busy with the day to day operation to get involved in "a side of espionage". But I'm prepared to be wrong. It might be that our sessions are taking Now --as politicians say-- let me be clear; I'm not against staying on Outer Reach. At least for a while. We have six months of game time before the election; if we want to make a play at being big fishes in a small pond we should stick around and see what happens. We might be able to aid in altering the entire tone of the planet, moving it away from the "Hive of Scum and Villainy" structure that it has now.  OTOH, if you're into import/export, getting a size 5 ship and becoming a inter-system transport company would, I think, scratch that itch and allow for a more broad set of opportunities/adventures. With our present resources (office 1.5 working ships, 1000 Cr/day shipping business) we're not that far off from getting there. All of this is a medium term discussion. If we generally agree about doing something about Alice S., a plan should be fleshed out for the next couple of sessions. At least we should do a delivery to Darkworld to see the lay of the land.  Also, a possible business opportunity revealed last session; because the roads are all out of whack, we can "ride shotgun" on the vehicles moving from dome to dome, plus using our air car for the same purpose. We only need two of us to do the orbital business. 
Excellent points Alexander and I'm open to all of it. I believe the side of espionage can have a game mechanic that enhances our PC adventures vs becoming them. As I see it, we have been building a network of informants and video surveillance in our neck of the woods. Yaz can continue to build that up via Blue Book and some in game play. To track it, I can develop a Google Spreadsheet that documents the various informants, camera locations, costs per week, and main purpose/mission. Scott can then use that information as Bonuses for various rolls or freebie rumors and opportunities. i.e. plot devices. Setting up the import/export business can support that side of the business and the espionage business can help develop or improve the transport side of the business. Example, what if we happen to have some interesting dirt on the port inspector that reviews our shipments? What if we pick up on a plot that a street gang is going to raid a warehouse and we happen to have merchandise now needed by the poor folks robbed? Investing in information is never a bad thing and while it is limited to our little neck of the woods, it could have a trickle down effect and with greater success we can start to expand into other areas, like politics, intergalactic corps, etc. Not saying that is easy, just saying with enough resources and a good foundation, anything is possible :) I agree that we need to get Alice in a better position and that would go a long way to helping our own cause. So I'm down with saving Alice. I just dont want the wrath of Malthar before we are ready to deal with it. So planning would be good :) Thanks for at least thinking about it. CR
I'm going to start a new thread to discuss where to take the campaign next.