Tranquillity Dawn August 27, 2019 Travellers: Thea [Alex] Viky [Chris] Dr Fred [Garret] Sabina [Hannia] Vance [Esra] “Breaking and Entering” y295.49.4 The Travellers are in the surface level of Count Winchester’s base on the planet Palmia. Having just defeated two of the Count’s guards the Travellers plan how to invade the lower levels of the base and break into the Count’s vault. Thea destroys or disables all the cameras she can find on this level. Dr Fredderic and Vance work on converting an oxygen tank into a bomb. Thea uses the last spray on camera tat she had been given by Kandel Taper. She sprayed the camera onto the back wall of the elevator in order to watch and detonate the oxygen bomb at the most optimal possible time. Meanwhile, Viky and Vance decided to simply head down the shaft and “have at it”. After considerable time debating their actions the Travellers decide to simply head down both the shaft and the elevator and simply entered the base. As she descended the shaft Vicky discovered that the shaft, and most likely the elevator shaft, could be sealed. A form of lockdown for the lower levels of the base. Very useful information to have learned. Through an incredible amount of luck the six remaining guards still believed the two they had sent up the elevator had the situation under control and only one guard was waiting in the elevator chamber. Vance was the first Traveller to burst into the chamber. He threw Thea’s last remaining flash grenade into the room but forgot to pull the pin so it did not go off. Still, the guard was surprised and Vance was able to jump out of the shaft and fire two bursts at the single guard but both missed. The guard returned fire hitting Vance with a burst from his own SMG but doing minor damage. Vance’s second two bursts of his SMG both hit tearing through the guard’s body despite the combat armor he wore. Two other guards were discovered in the next chamber. Thea, having retrieved the stun grenade that Vance had thrown earlier, pulled the pin and threw it stunning one of the two guards. Vance was able to take that guard out with two bursts of his SMG. Thea then attacked the second guard with her broadsword, taking him out and avoiding any injury from the SMG burst fired at her. A fifth guard was discovered locked in the control room. By a stroke of near miraculous luck, Dr Freddrick had previously read through the schematics for the same make and model of the locked control room irris value and was able to hack the electronics and open it. The surprised guard had no choice but to surrender. His name was Malic. Using a dose of truth drug the Travellers were able to learn the passcodes to the base security computers. Sabina was able to use these codes to access the base video feeds and locate the remaining guard. From Malic they learned his name was Jarad and over the base communication system they convinced him to surrender. Thea promised that he would not be harmed. The Travellers used handcuffs to secure Malic and Jarad in the Base Rec Room. ---- The Travellers found the door to vault in a small chamber down a short flight of stairs. The door was guarded by two security robots of the same type the group has fought in the past. Discussing options the group asked Sabrina to help them review security footage of Count Winchester visiting the vault. They learned that it was face recognition that allowed the Count to pass the robots and that it was a simple setting of the vault door dials that allowed him to open the vault. Sabina, using her computer skills, took an image of Winchester from Thea’s pen recorder, and enhanced a zoom of his face and transferred it to a data pad. It was at this time that the base sensors detected a ship approaching the planet. Sabina was able to remove the transponder code of the incoming ship from the security satellite database causing the security network to open fire and drive the ship away. She then added the transponder code of the Star Lance to the database to allow the team to escape after opening the vault. With the security now recognizing the Star Lance, Leon left the base to bring his ship near the base. As a backup plan to get past the robots the team brought surface dust and rigged an oxygen tank to blow the dust into the chamber in order to reduce the effectiveness of the robots lasers. Using the image of Winchesters face on the data pad Vance approached the first of the two robots guarding the vault door. He held the data pad in front of his face. The first robot accepted the image as the real Winchester but the second robot failed to accept the image on the data pad. Flooding the chamber with a dense cloud of surface dust created by the use of the rigged oxygen tank they attacked the remaining robot. During a brief combat the Travellers were able to disable the robots offensive ability and mobility. It did shoot back but it’s laser shots could not penetrate Thea’s combat armor. It was at this time that the base fail safe security system triggered. Sabina was able to delay the impending base lock down by putting the system into a loop but this was only a temporary measure. The base would soon seal itself trapping the Travellers. Vance deactivated the remaining robot that had accepted the image on Winchester on the data pad and dragged it up the stairs with the intention of “borrowing” it from the Count. Thea and Dr Freddreck attempted to open the vault door. The vault was door had five dials, each had a glyph of a pyramid divided into sections. They reasoned that the “key” was not a physical key but an encoding the values of the five dials. Sabina could only hold off the lock down for a handful of seconds, enough time to give the time only two tries at the dials. Their first attempt was a combination of adding and subtracting the number of same colored Bearls in the different sections of the pyramid. That failed. Viky ordered Gates, whom she had hired as a bodyguard, to assist Thea at the vault. They quickly debated options and based on what they knew about the Count and how long it took him to open the vault during his previous visits. From the security video in the control room. He was a straightforward man so they reasoned the color coding of the glyphs on the vault door showed which bearls to add up to find the value for a dial. This worked and they opened the vault. With in the vault the discovered twelve metal cases, each identical except for colored labels. These labels were: A medical symbol Corbett Orbital Scan Adam’s Tech Mondo Bits Tomlin Elanor Wordlaw Sandfist “Twist” Travel Cash Assets Heritage(?) No label Thea, Gates and Dr Freddrick had only fractions of seconds in which to grab two cases each and make it out of the base. Vance abandoned his efforts to “borrow” the Count’s robot and dashed down the stairs in order to grab one case as well. The team carried out the case with the medical symbol, Adam’s Tech, Mondo Bits, Elanor Wordlaw, Assets, Heritage(?) and the unlabeled case. Viky did point out that the unlabeled case was most likely empty. Thea argued they had to take the chance. While the cases were being grabbed, Vicky helped Jacob move Malic, who was still unconscious from the dose of truth drug, up the shaft to the surface level. Thea gave serious consideration to shooting the remaining guards. A mercy killing to prevent them from a possible worse fate should they fall into the hands of the Count. However, she was talked out of it by the other Travellers. The Travellers all made it out of the lower sections of the base just before the lockdown occurred. Aboard the Star Lance Dr Freddrick administered Fast Drug to both Jacob and Malic. This would allow them to travel without overloading the ship’s life support system. As Leon took the ship off the planet the other Travellers open the cases. They discovered four flash frozen embryos belonging to their friend Baron Lattimore, a strange metal ring with properties that should be physically impossible, four ampules of an alien drug, ten years of detailed history on the crimes committed by Mondo Bits, and empty case and Jinsu Document. Vicky turned out to have been correct that the unlabeled case was empty. Dr Feddrick studied the Jinsu Document and discovered that it is a report by a Da-Ren doctor named Jinsu, who performed a genetic test on Rodham Elanor, mother of the current Duchess of Mensah. It turns out that the Duchess is not the daughter of Cordell Richmond but the illegitimate daughter of someone named Wordlaw. Which means she is not entitled to be Duchess. This was Sword of Damocles that Count Winchester held over her. This was how he was the power behind the throne. Continued September 17 - Now Comes the Hard Part