The Marshall Cooperative (T20)

We got up to Sage's cabin, found some other guys who are looking to do Sage wrong, apparently, then headed up into the mountains. We found a hidden complex with security guards that are supposedly from Sage Security...bad. However, they have a prisoner--and anyone John Sage wants locked up is probably a friend of ours at this point.

Follow up:

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February 7, 2010

We land in some hick town with our communicators off. We will rent a repulsorlift minivan and head off to the cabin. We will ditch the vehicle a couple miles from the cabin and walk up; Sage hasn’t used the place in a few years, but we’re pretty paranoid.

Report on Traveller News Service: From Ampanan, a week ago, a small fusion generator blew up a week ago. Death count 350+ people. City-owned backup; improper shutdown. The quadroplex of the Marshall cooperative was on this block; most of the crew lived in that block. Sergey’s place was vaporized.

We haven’t checked our personal communicators (we’ll be tracked) or contact Amaryllis.

IFIS (Edward Derkings) sent a message to Angel: If you surrender now, you may come out of this without a jail term. It was two months ago. Too late! Other than that, no communication of note. Nothing from Vos or Amaryllis or the Rainwind. However, it appears that no one has accessed the account.

The updates from Vos about Rainwind ended about a week ago, around the time that our house blew up. Vos was at the Navy up-port.

Speaking of fusion reactors blowing up, that’s a hard thing to make it happen. The one at the cabin will be smaller and less explosive.

We head up the hill for 1.5 to 2 hrs; the road is very bad. We pull off a couple klicks away and will walk to the cabin. We circle around to get a good look at the place without being seen, but do a pretty poor job of it. We see three hovercycles out front. This is a one-story place made of wood (unusual!), a generator a few yards off the back, and lights on but shades are drawn. No signs of movement.

Angel attempts to use Clairsentience inside the building. There is one guy peeking through a corner of the window, watching us. There is another guy behind the couch with a gun aiming at the door, and a third guy behind the kitchen counter aimed at the door. They are wearing leather jackets – dressed appropriately for motorcycle riding. Some of us notice the peepglass that the dude by the door is using.

Angel hears one of them ask, “Are they doing anything?” “They’re just sitting there.” They want to leave but they’re afraid of us.

They are packing gauss pistols. They don’t look like robbers or punks, but they’re also not law enforcement.

Jack walks up with his guns holstered, hands out. The rest of us cover him as he goes to the door; he opens the door. He spots two guys drawn on him, and one guy is missing.

Dude behind the couch says, “It’s not polite not to knock.”
Jack: I’ll remember that. What you doing in sage’s cabin?
D: I could ask you that too.
J: We’re looking for someone. You?
D: We heard rumors…
J: Before you put some holes in me, there are six guys back there.

One guy mentally counts, and Jack hears him say, “Dammit!”

D: I don’t see why this has to get ugly. What we’re looking for isn’t here.
J: What we are looking for might be. How about you skedaddle, and we’ll check it out.
D: Who you with?
J: You don’t need to know.
D: But what if we missed it, and you find it? Then we have to answer back. We’re looking for a guy and a girl.
J: They would be pretty hard to miss, wouldn’t they be? I assume you’ve been through every room here.
D: Tell me which corporation you’re with, and I’ll tell you which one I’m with.
J: You first.
D: Trust us. You might have six guys out there, but we got you right here.
J: We’re with the Marshall Cooperative.
D: What? With the Marshall Coop?
J: You know, the building that got vaped last week, half the Imperials here are looking for us…
D: We’re with the Shull corporation (they are one of Sage’s competitors, and they make commo gear).

Shull is on TMC’s board. Elan Olson is their rep.

J: How’s Elan doing?
D: We are not in direct contact with Mr. Olson.
J: You here looking for D’Messul and his girlfriend too?
D: Yeah.

A guy from behind the couch holsters his gun and stands up. Guns are down.

D: They ain’t here. I got an idea. You didn’t see us, we didn’t see you.
J: Sounds fair.
D: Have yourself a walk back, because while you and me may have made a deal, the rest of your people might should us. When you get back there, you let us leave and whatever happens here isn’t our business.

Jack returns and explains this to us. We see three guys mount up and leave. We let them go; the second they go past Jack and Nelson go inside to look for bombs. They find no bombs but *do* find a dead guy in the back room. It looks like he was killed in the hallway and dragged in here; he’s already cold. 7-8 hours ago by a gauss pistol wound. It looks like he was set up for hiking. His stuff was rifled; his name is John Rorshaier of the Reardon Company (security) – it’s another competitor of Sage; one of the 25 largest multiworld corps – primarily into shipyards and shipbuilding.

We look through the cabin; Jose rolls terrible. This place doesn’t seem real clean; it’s not used much. The lights are on of course; there is a generator control panel inside. The water is off. The fridge is on and empty. There is a path going out the back door up into the mountains.

Pictures on the wall are not personal (none of Constance, for example). It appears that the place is cleaned somewhat regularly. Nelson goes out to check the generator with Sergey and Jose. The generator was turned on a couple months ago; otherwise, it comes on for 4 hours every couple of months. Reactor looks good. Apparently someone lived here for about a week here and there, with the last time being three weeks ago.

There is some climbing gear here, but enough for two people we figure.

We head up the path looking for clues. There have been people through here. It looks like some groups of more than two people; there is no consistency to the footprints. We continue hiking and at some point see the path going one way and people tracks going another way. We follow the tracks and after a half hour we find a brushy area near a cliff face. It looks like there’s an opening into the cliff behind some brush. Jack leads us to find a door—old, worn, and pitted metal. This is advanced material.

We hack the security panel while Angel Clairvoyances on the other side. Large well-lit room there. Nelson opens the door with the “open” button. The electronics look old – early Third Imperium, perhaps. It’s a thousand years old, for certain.

There is a square area, then a roundish area with passageways off of it. This is all empty and is 48 meters across and all cut by machine from the bedrock. The floor is not dusty (clean, actually), the air is fresh, and it is warm. We first come to a door with open/close button. The lights come on as we enter. This room is full of shelving floor to ceiling. It’s divided into sections – one side has food and living supplies; the food is of recent manufacture but it’s meant for long-term storage. Oldest food is 5 years old. Center section has lab and scientific supplies (biological research stuff). There are also replacement maintenance parts, a lot of which are recently made but for old Imperial stuff. No weapons. It’s not dust-free, but it’s pretty clean.

We go into the next left hallway and follow it down. We find a spot on the wall that looks funny. It sounds weird (hollow?) but we can’t find any kind of device. Looking more carefully, a panel slides back to reveal a passageway and ladder going down. We head on down. We go through another hatch and find an octagonal room. Hallway to the south; there is a four-way intersection. We try to bypass one keypad; it’s a standalone card reader that we bypass. We find a fusion reactor humming away happily. It’s in good shape but it’s very old. There is an old computer below…it is early third Imperium and there should be a central control on this, but the generator was re-wired to use a standalone rig. You’d never do this on a starship. This was made within 5 years and is hardened. No outside communications. It is connected to a few analog alarms. The reactor is about 10% capacity; its partner is online and functioning. It has been 10%-20% for the last two and a half years (it was recertified).

Going across the way, we find a room beyond an open door. There was racking in here…behind us, we hear someone shout, “Put down your weapons and put your hands up!” Init!

Sergey ducks behind the north corner and draws. Angel thinks these guys with guns look like guys with guns; they are dressed similarly. She moves, draws, and hits the ground. “Who are you people?” Nelson draws and moves.

A guy fires towards Sergey and misses badly. He was shooting at Sergey, not just shooting a warning. Jose moves and draws, but yells out, “We don’t want any trouble, can we talk about this?” Jack ducks behind Sergey and draws.

Dude: We can talk for sure, just throw down your weapons. We only want you to surrender; we will turn you over to the proper authorities. You are trespassing!

Angel says, “Those terms suck!”, stands up, and starts a full-round action.

Nelson tries to skip a round off the floor between 3’s feet and does so. “Next one’s in you; you guys drop your weapons!” Jack hits 1. 3 drops prone and shoots.

We keep attacking. Nelson drills two of them and says, “I didn’t want to kill you! You shot first!”

The last guy fires a burst at us and misses. Jose again calls for surrender, but it’s not going to work. Jack rolls a 1 and has to reload his pistol. Twice.

1 drills Nelson. Jose tells Nelson to back up if he needs to and prepares to move up.

We end the fight. Sergey stabilizes the dying guys and we disarm the last dude.

Angel: Please tell me everything you know, here.
Dude: Four levels, we are occupying all four.
Angel: Do you have a map?
Dude: No. I don’t think any of us do; it’s not that big a place once you walk around a few times.
Angel: Who is “we”?
Dude: Sage Security.
Angel: Why are you here? What’s in the facility?
Dude: All the regular facility stuff, some labs, and supplies…there are a couple scientists here and a prisoner.
Angel: Prisoner’s name?
Dude: I don’t know; I don’t guard him. We call him “The prisoner”.
Sergey: How many more security guys?
Dude: Not sure, maybe 20. All armed like except the supervisors. By the way I feel terrible.
Angel: Why?
Dude: You shot me! What did you think?
Angel: You shot first.
Dude: You’re intruders, you’re trespassers!
Sergey: Where is the prisoner?
Dude: Down a level; go through a hatch. End of the hall; last right before the end room.
Angel: How regular are the patrols?
Dude: We walk around, but there isn’t supposed to be anyone in here.
Angel: Thank you. This ensures you and your friends won’t die.

We take their keycards and guns. We hit them with Medical Slow, grab their radios, and call the game for the night due to super bowlage.