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Getting the Hell Out of Bowman

As of Wednesday's Meta session, we've reclaimed the Ark (surreptitiously, and with it remaining in Dr. Simone's safekeeping), rescued the little girl, Meg, from the IISS base and the stranded LSP personnel from Prometheus station, finished installing our new jump drive, and docked at Garrison Station. We've done an under-the-table deal with the megacorporation in which we got to basically "loot" Prometheus Station for whatever we wanted, including two LSP shuttles. The shuttles are going to be claimed as lost by the company, however, so we can't sell them in Sector 268. We also got a reward from the IISS for our assistance in stopping and containing the mysterious plague (which occurred for reasons unknown). The Company Docs are currently correct. The Ares Specs, Cargo Holds and Ship's Manifest tabs are all up to date and mathematically sound. I've also sold off the excess loots from the Ship's Locker and added in all the goodies that we grabbed from the IISS Base and Prometheus Station. We have already turned Meg and Steve the Station Survivor over to Garrison Station. At this point it's safe to say that we can have all the routine repairs done, leaving only the Structure damage (1 point), which should cost 1d6 weeks. The Shuttles As relates to the two LSP Unmarked Shuttles that we... happened upon, they are 90 dTon System Shuttles with a base value of 33MCr each, but we can't sell them in District 268. We also can't currently fit Ares with docking collars here (facilities aren't up to the job), and our smaller J-Drive couldn't take the additional mass without taking a hit in performance, anyway. That means we have the following options: We can basically chop-shop them and sell them off as salvage. That would take time and certainly would net less than the base value of the shuttles. We can pay a tender 1.8MCr to tow them the 3 parsecs to our next Port of Call (Caliburn/Sword Worlds-1430). Another asteroid mining system, Caliburn should have ready buyers for the shuttles, so we should be able to get a good price for them there. We can decide to keep the shuttles for our own use, assuming we're going to pay another 1.8MCr (or more) to tow the shuttles to yet another system with a serious Star Port, refit the Ares with docking collars to carry them, re-replace our new(ish) Jump Drive with another large one, and build in additional fuel tanks somewhere for the additional fuel required.  Sebastien recommends choice #2. Should we decide to go with #3, we would have to tow the shuttles to either two stops along our original course, at a cost of 3.6MCr, to Tenalphi to get all of the refitting done, or we could pull the shuttles one jump to Grote/Glisten (1731) and get the work done there, but that adds two or more jumps to our itinerary. The Ark The Ark, of course, presents us with even more of a quandary. It is very powerful, very dangerous, very valuable and very illegal. Again, we're going to have to choose from among options that are more complicated and morally ambiguous than some of us would like. At the moment, it is safe to assume that LSP, the Imperium and the Darrian Confederacy all know that the artifact is around, though we almost certainly know more about it than anybody else. Some or all of the above also probably assume that we have the artifact or that we know where it is. That uncertainty is one very good reason to keep the two Psi-corps officers as our guests for the time being at the very least. Zenobia certainly knows that we have the Ark and Davebh, well, he's crazy. In the short term, our choices with the Ark pretty much binary: we either keep it, or we sell it. A whole nest of branching choices unfold from each of those choices, but let's start with giving the Ark to one of the powers in system; LSP, the Imperium or the Darrians. Get Rid of the Damned Thing While we could probably get the best deal out of LSP, even Sebastien doesn't want to see them get the Ark. It is technically illegal for any non-governmental entity to possess Ancient artifacts or technology by Imperium law, but Sebastien can get us a hefty "finder's fee" from the Imperium for dutifully handing the Ark to the appropriate Imperial authorities. The meaning of "appropriate" here is pretty wide open. Let's consider the Navy (as represented as the RayEagle), the Darrians (as represented by their newly arrived contingent, and perhaps Admiral Galen), and the Aristocracy (as represented currently by Marquis Sebastien of Lunion, but eventually to turn over the artifact to the Spinward authorities that empower him). Navy>Psi-Corps>Maarg. Non-starter, to my way of thinking. The IISS probably has the best legal and ethical claim to the artifact, as they dug it up. The problem is, they were working with Psi-corps right at the dig. See above. That leaves the Aristocracy. Obviously, Sebastien prefers this choice, although it doesn't have its downside. Namely, in order to hand the Ark over to them (and get paid), we have to get it to them. That's four jumps. Politically and personally there are lot of reasons for Artemis Group to build this bridge to the Nobility. Not the least of these, of course, is because we're currently heading into their territory under summons. They are also specifically trying to counter-balance the machinations of Captain Maarg's boss, Duke Norris. They would have very reason to keep the Ark safe and hidden from him and Psi-Corps. But, of course, there is also the Darrian Confederacy. As I've mentioned before, Jacob feels that we were used and betrayed by the "our" darrians in this matter, so he'll be against this, but he could be out-voted. There are certainly points in favor of turning the Ark over to them, and we have dealt with them in similarly sensitive matters before, and it worked out well for us. Keep It I'm lumping any scenario in which we leave the Bowman System with the Ark in here, including #3 above, selling the thing to Sebastien's "bosses." If we keep the Ark for any period of time we're going to have to deal with the twin security threats of the cursed thing itself, and those who will come after us to get it. Aside from the whole us dying part, we could certainly kiss any hope for stealth or anonymity goodbye.  Why would we want to hang on to the Ancient Psionic Zombie Apocalypse Egg? Here are the reasons I've heard so far: To Destroy it. There is a case to be made that this thing is too dangerous for anybody to have it. Of course that means we have to figure out a way to destroy it, and we probably get nothing but grief from the folks who want it, on top of the grief we've already experienced getting it and closing it. An interesting version of this notion is that we could try to find somebody who would be willing to pay us to destroy the Ark. I'm not feeling that one, but it gets points for creativity. I suppose we could try to run a kind of galactic protection racket. "Pay us to destroy this thing, or at least take it away, or we turn everybody in your star system into Pullers!" To Study it. While there is a certain appeal to this idea, it only increases the danger that the object poses to us and everybody else. There are potentially unimaginable (literally!) rewards at the end of the long, expensive and difficult of researching the Ark. You know, if we survive and don't become middle-aged suicidal psionic zombies (MSPZ).
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It is a pretty crazy idea... but what about using it as bait to draw Maag out? I'm sure he'd want it.  Our two psy op passengers know all about it, and they know we have it. But they may not know that Maag is keen to see our atoms rush up to the top of a mushroom cloud (?). If they do know, they don't know that we know they know ... because we don't know ... So we could let them go back home, hopefully to let Maag know that we have it. He may come for us personally. Perhapse a spy could tail them while we're busy retrofitting the ship? Spy could even snoop all the way to Wypoc to scope it out. By the time the Ares gets sorted out and catches up our scout will have had plenty of time to round up some valuable intel.  The bait idea may be a long shot, but it's the best way I can think of to draw him out and tango with him on our own terms rather than blundering into his lair. 
I'm not keen on the idea of having the damned thing around any longer than absolutely necessary, but I have to admit that that's an interesting idea, Alby.
Alby’s idea is interesting; it could also work well in concert with “Let’s destroy the damn thing”, by making the black hole the site of the confrontation, and giving him incentive to engage us on our own schedule, rather than his. However, it does make Maarg’s capture complicated, as the result would probably be an epic space battle where he dies; and that would make Sebastien’s job harder, wouldn’t it?
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This post is in the character of Gevaudan and is based on his knowledge, personality and preferenced.  It can also be prejudiced based on his culture and personal discrimination. This one all for black holing the thing, even if used to fish for Maarg.  But needs be done when Gentleman Sebastien green-light with his Nobles legal dance, yes? Problem.   Ares  going in wrong direction, towards Trojan Reach.  Suggesting this one detach, build Far Scout and take Sister-Dame home for Artemis Group.   No more press.  ...no more drama too...   Artemis  get paid and whack Capt. Chromedome while garbage chute of the thing for all galaxy sake.  Three kills with one stone is how to say it?  All get paid, all get off hook and Artemis Group gets..... *checks his translation software*, tabula rasa - the clean slate.  Good name again.  Corporate startup.  Fresh, new tickets.  Drop off Isis where she wants.  No more fortune telling.  No more stupid Infighting.  No more of many things. Who all is tired?  Or is just this one? Edit:  Whenever I want to give my opinion, as a player in this campaign, I try to do it from an in-character point of view.  This is to show where I am coming from as colored by that character's portrayal.  My opinion as a Referee is, as Alby terms, rubbish.
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((I figured the discussion was "out of character" up till this point. I'm going to assume this conversation isn't some casual chat in the mess, but rather in private with psi shields up.)) "Tired? Not me. Could do this forever. I thought you lot out in the Extents had an entire culture based on " stupid infighting "? Did Isis say that Maag was a teleporter ? Or does he just read minds? If he's a teleporter catching him alive is going to be a real trick. But if we could catch him in the same kind of statis that we found that naked fehuman in our job is made a whole lot easier. Just means ... well ..  letting him open the crystal again ... and creating another bunch of souless zombies. All I know is that it's easier to catch a flying insect with sticky paper than it is to snatch it out of the air. .. That was supposed to come out like a wise proverb. Sounds kind of lame now that I'm hearing myself say it though. Sounded better in my head. "
Jaunt not open the thing as lady Zenobia use  tele-,   movement-by-mind.  Prof. Isis say Maarg just jaunt and mind-talker. And......Infighting in Spinward Marches  stupid.  Infighting in Extents real, for real Vargr - not Impy, collar-lapdogs. Caliburn, Smoug, Tenalphi, Lunion for refit.  Coreward or Rimward once refit?
It's true that throwing (or luring, or whatever) Maarg into a black hole with the Ark without first getting the full story of Wypoc and the Colonel's assassination would mean failing Sebastien's Ticket and Warrant. Or at least not fulfilling it completely. I'm not quite sure how we would work that out, anyway. Discussion of Maarg's specific powers and tactics for confronting him should probably be a different thread, as well. But, going back to the topic at hand, I'd say that keeping the Ark for the time being, for later use as bait to lure Maarg out is certainly worth considering, although I don't think it's worth the risk, the more I think about it.  The fact that Black Hole Gambit would pretty much require us to either forfeit on the Dame's Ticket or send Gev and company off to the Extents on their own, also discounts that idea, as far as I'm concerned. 
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((OOC, sort of)) You may be right. A confrontation over the black hole, as epic as that would be, is loaded with potential failure for us. There is a nice world on the way (almost) to Wypoc called Tavonni. It has population zero and isn't really on the way to anywhere. Maybe an alternative to the black hole "confrontation" could be this place? So opening up the crystal there as a part of a trap to catch Maarg would mean almost zero zombie creating collateral damage. Even if we didn't want to open the crystal, that could be a believable place where we leaked to Maarg that we plan to open it up.  Looking at the world's stats I was wondering why such a nice world had nobody living on it. Seemed like a great place to set up a colony. When I looked into the Traveller wiki it seems that someone else was wondering the same thing - the New Era stats for that world have a decent sized population living there. For now it's population is zero.  Shuttles ... how to people feel about these? Maybe the best plan would be to sell them at Caliburn seeing that they are technically hot. Lugging ISPs ships around may be bad for us down the track. The money from the sale could be used to purchase our own shuttles (or whatever) later on.  
Runt the LSP shuttles are now unmarked so don't worry about that. You should really get your eyesight checked, unless you mean it's bad for a different way?
well painting over their logo may make them unrecognizable as LSP shuttles to a casual observer, but think each ship's transponder has a special registered code that identifies it against starport records a bit like a fingerprint. Changing that may be a bigger deal. Or maybe not?  You're right about needing my eyes checked though. Wouldn't be the first time I've not noticed something obvious right in front of me. 
Keep in mind that the shuttles are going to be reported as lost in a much larger catastrophe, not stolen per se, so nobody is actually going to be looking for them. I suppose new owners, whether that's us or somebody else, will have to deal with obtaining or forging new registrations and codes, etc., but I doubt that would be all that big of a deal. Certainly not for anybody with skills and resources. We've agreed to take them out of the system as part our deal with LSP purely for their peace of mind. If we could get docking collars in-system, I'd probably be all for keeping the shuttles, but as things stand we'd have to pay to tow them multiple jumps. Especially when Caliburn has demand for them, and is full of belters who probably don't care all that much about the niceties, I think the best plan is to tow there and sell them off.
Yay! We made it out!
did we? this could just be some psi bad dream
Time to make our psi dreams come true then. Kiss my fury arse Bowman!
Watching Serenity ATM they went i believe to the "Bowman" system and the psycker went psyco. hahahah 
<a href="http://i.qkme.me/3td8d7.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://i.qkme.me/3td8d7.jpg</a>
yer that bloke died in Serenity as well.
Am a little worried about "Bob" our resident nut job, he went burko in jump space, and no one was playing with the "Orb", i think this thing will go apeshit where ever it is and will cause a sector wide of crap before any one can fix it. &nbsp; 1 i seriously doubt it is nuke powered prob psi powered so a sun wont make it get worse, and even if it is nuke powered we just dump it in a sun with no/low pop and hope for the best &nbsp; 2 Maybe we can dump it in jump space, even if it does make it back into normal space, no one will find it as to find a football in an area 3.3 light years by 3.3 ly by 3.3 ly at even 6 g would take 10's of thousands of years and by that time i wont care. &nbsp;3 i give odds that it will go off with in 2 years of us selling it.
I think Bobs psychosis was caused by factors apart from the crystal? Still, mentally unstable teleporters is the last thing anyone needs.&nbsp; Kayleb: "It's like I keep saying, sometimes it's kinder to just put them down."
yer but Humans are more civilized than that, well i am. sometimes shhhhhhh
Don't me make separate you two...