Silver Lining:It's Gonna be Too Dark to Sleep Again
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| October 21, 2022 – Episode 6: It's Gonna be Too Dark to Sleep Again | ||
Ships collide, and the Silver Lining responds to the distress call. But nothing is ever as it seems in the dark of space.
Cold Open
The old man is wearing a naval officer's cap as white as his beard; he looks at you dumbly for a brief second, then the light of intelligence shines in his eyes as he opens his mouth to speak.
Characters Introduced
NPCs
- Commander Tobiaz Roland - Commander of the Mechanized Soldiers air wing on the UWS Starlight.
- Ahmed Udai - Assassin for the Blue Dragons Syndicate, and mastermind behind a prison break
- Captain Paolo Crocetti - Commanding Officer of the UWS Starlight
Locations
- The space above Adelbart 4
- The jungles of Adelbart 4
Summary
The Silver Lining is between jobs, on its way to see if there is any available work from the Knaves, when they receive a distress call from the UWS Johns, a United Worlds supply vessel in support of the Starlight. It is currently breaking apart in the skies over Adelbart 4, with 88 souls on board. The Johns collided with something and needs help desperately, as there are survivors who were ejected into space. When the Silver Lining arrives on the scene they are asked to provide aid (and coordinated by) the Starlight who has also responded to the distress call. Mechanized Soldiers are already deploying and attempting to gather survivors - the Silver Lining will serve as a temporary triage ward for the MSs to bring the survivors to. As the immediate rescue operation is being wrapped up, the Starlight makes another request - records indicate several escape pods jettisoned to the planet below, and the Silver Lining is in the best position to offer aid to anyone who landed planet side. There, they will encounter a mob hit man who orchestrated an escape on a prison tender, which went wrong and lead to the collision of the orbital prison with the Johns. They must deal with the hit man, the hostages he has taken, and the other prisoners he's recruited to his side.
Scene 1 - Rescue in the Debris Field
The emergency radio channels light up with activity. "Mayday, Mayday, this is *****son of the **** ohns. Mayday Mayday. We require immediate aid. Tracking beacon Alpha-October-Two-Two-Eight-Zero. We have collided with an unidentified object and are breaking up with 88 souls on board. Mayday Mayday"
If there's resistance to helping John says they have - it's one of those "rules of the sea" type things.
Upon reaching the site of the accident, Silver Lining is hailed. "Unidentified C-22 Greyhound, this is Commander Tobiaz Roland of the UWS Starlight requesting aid in rescue and recovery operations"
The debris field is a jumbled mess. A large gash can be seen across the port side of the Johns, from middle ship to stern. What ever hit it can only be seen as multiple pieces of debris - some engine parts, twisted bits of metal, drifting way in several pieces. MS's can be seen swarming around the debris.
Roland asks the Silver Lining to move in and assist by holding onto survivors and giving whatever first aid they can, until they an be transferred to the Starlight. The Starlight patches the Silver Lining into their traffic control system to better coordinate the operation.
People being brought to the Silver Lining are all wearing different colored jumpsuits to indicate their department aboard the Johns. Red, Blue, Yellow, Orange, etc. Several people are panicking, shouts of "I don't want to die", etc. Common injuries are severe lacerations and amputations from hitting debris at speed and hypoxia & collapsed lungs, etc, from being exposed to the vacuum of space. Several people had temporary survival gear built into their jump suits - providing they had the wherewithal and presence of mind to use it.
The general impression is the Johns had just transitioned into orbit around the planet, and was preparing for an ejection burn to rendezvous with the Starlight when then impact was felt. There was no indication of any other vessel in the vicinity. Location: the space above Adelbart 4
Scene Complications
Debris Field
Panicked Survivors
| Rescuing Survivors | |
| Something has collided with the UWS Johns, and the Starlight has asked the Silver Lining to assist in rescusing survivors 'in the water'. | |
| Difficulty | Challenging |
| Beats: | 3 |
| Successes: | 4 |
Completing the test with beats left over will reveal some extra information - the orange jumpsuits are not military personnel - they are prisoners. And most of the dead come from them, as they don't have the build in survival gear of the military style uniforms. The Johns was not transporting prisoners. A Challenging test to scan of the a map of the system turns up that this planet was the site of the Adelbart MaxSec Orbital Penitentiary. Was being the key, as there's no indication of the structure being here anymore.
Scene 2 - Crash Site
A small tender shuttle, the Tyson, docks with the Silver Lining to transfer survivors for transport back to the medical teams awaiting on the Starlight. As the last few get moved over, Roland calls the Silver Lining.
The Starlight has reconstructed some possible trajectories the the escape pods/lifeboats and it will take a few hours to prepare the MSs for atmospheric operation The Silver Lining is the obvious choice to head down and check for survivors.
If the PCs have figured out the prison ship angle and mention it to Roland, he will just say "Interesting. Then you'd better be careful."
As the Silver Lining descends to the surface of the jungle planet, they immediately begin to pick up a tracking beacon ping from escape pods.
Several pods seem to have crashed in one spot, along with a completely wrecked tender ship of some kind.
Ahmed Udai, a dangerous assassin for the Blue Dragon Syndicate orchestrated a breakout on the tender ship while being transferred to the orbital penitentiary to serve several consecutive life sentences. (He was recently convicted of murdering a judge and several political officials on some planet). During the breakout, the tender ship crashed into the orbital penitentiary, which resulted in it being pushed into the Johns path just as it was ascending from Adelbart. This broke the prison apart, and the tender along with escape pods and bits and pieces from the ship hurtled down to the planet below.
The prisoners have now armed themselves and taken a prison guard and surviving pilot hostage. Their plan is to use the hostages as leverage to find a way off planet.
THe prisoners don't reveal this immediately, just indcate that someone is hurt in the wreckage. They want to take one or more PCs hostage, and use that to get the Silver Lining, and out of dodge.
If the PCs don't fall for the ruse, Udai will reveal himself and be more direct, trying to convince the PCs to take him and his men, promising the hostages and PCs won't be hurt. He is lying.
If the PCs refuse or fuck about too much, he will kill the hostages and attack. Udai will not give himself up - he has no illusions about his situation. Either he dies or the PCs do.
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Wrap Up
As long as things go reasonably well, the wrap references back to the Cold Open.
The Starlight calls to the Silver Lining:
"Hello, Silver Lining, this is Starlight Communications Control, please hold for a word from the captain.
A moment passes and when the screen clears a young woman can be seen standing there, consulting a data pad. She looks up, then somewhere off screen. "Sir! Sir, it's them!" Then an old man appears on the screen. He has a large, bushy white beard, is wearing a dress white uniform, and a captain's hat....
"Hello my friends!" he calls in a thick Italian accent, "This is Captain Paolo Crocetti of the UWS Starlight. I'd like to thank you all for your service here today. You've done a fine job and as thanks, please accept this 'Starlight Captain's Metal', and proudly display it upon your ship, to show you are friends of the United Worlds and of all free peoples in the universe. Starlight, over and out!" and the screen goes blank.
Reward: Signature Asset for the ship Starlight Captain's Medal
| Musical Inspiration | |
|---|---|
| Song: | Rusty Cage 
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| Artist: | Soundgarden |
| Album: | Badmotorfinger |
| Listen online | |
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