This page contains session recaps for all sessions that occurred before 03/05/2010 (real-life date).
Session Recaps
Bjorn's Notes
Session of Saturday, November 14, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2511
Soren researches the battle where the Pallas was captured (9, just the news feeds)
Seren gives Fu a physical. Everything seems normal, hearing is much better than normal, no evidence of blastomeres, no indication of why her metabolism is so fast or why she doesn’t remember things more than two years ago
Bret and Soren find a few current articles on the area around Oleksei – rumors of pirate activity & a possible response, Soren finds a couple ships bound from Thirdway to Oleksei – one from Transworld Shipping (fairly large border world firm). Bret gets into Transworld Shipping’s records. Electronic security on their outlying facilities isn’t as good as on their core facilities. Bret gets their shipping records. Amount of unprocessed ore shipped out went up 50-60% after Tumbledown Jones took over. Slight increase in munitions headed to Oleksei. Next freighter is inbound in 11 days. Transworld ships drop by every few months. This shipment includes an expensive set of handcrafted wooden furniture.
We reach Aberdeen. No orbiting spaceport – land or send shuttles.
Seren detects & avoids debris in orbit.
Galington Port Control hails Pallas. They’re surprised Seren reports debris. “Must have been a comsat or something.”
Nicole goes by Nic. “Only my mother and sister call me Nicole.”
Soren will investigate Quintin Chamberlain, Seren will pilot shuttle with Bret, Nic, and Cecilia. Bret talks to a servant & a couple hours later gets an appointment for just before dinner. Advised to set down at Galington & take a carriage to the estate. (.4 creds/person)
Galington – modeled on Londinium, stone, clock towers, trying to a metropolis but really isn’t that big, nice upgrade from Beylix
Shuttle does not have a remote summon. Jason will be putting one in. In the meantime, Seren will stay with the shuttle.
Soren investigates Quintin Chamberlain (5). Finds a noble by that name. Quintin Chamberlain + Li Swan (5) – zilch. Checks for Yi Lin (12 on 2d6) – 2-3 docs by that name, only 1 of granny age – got her med degree on Osiris
Soren sees an extra blip in the shuttle area.
Coraline is wearing a dress in the Londinium style. She’s a bit older and more serious than the picture we saw.
She doesn’t think she can fulfill the contract regarding the horse.
Cecilia senses Coraline is angry but under control.
Coraline asked if Mr. Giorgio apprised him of the nature of the business relationship between him and her father. It was amicable 20 years ago. Giorgio wouldn’t allow him to sell to anyone else on Beylix. Mr. Mayberry never stood up to Michael. She says a fair value for Lord of Thunder would have been 3000 credits, not 600 credits. She would like to see Michael Giorgio in court. Bret advises going ahead with this contract & then making it clear business will not continue as usual.
Cecilia checks contract. It’s written through the estate, not just through Mr. Mayberry.
Bret repeats his suggestion. Coraline says he doesn’t understand any of what’s going on. Cecilia wonders if she’s hiding something. She’s afraid of revealing something rather than trying to hide something.
Coraline says if she fulfills the contract the ranch won’t have a future. Lord of Thunder is her last breeding stallion. A few months ago most of the other horses went missing.
Seven stallions were taken. Their records were taken at the same time. There are duplicates in the central Bureau of Trade, which isn’t coming up with the information.
Her mother’s jewelry was also taken.
RFID chips in horses would have been disabled. Cecilia: A third party could find DNA elsewhere….
Coraline: “You aren’t the sort of people I expected Mr. Giorgio to send.”
Coraline has 37 employees. They’re free, not indentured.
Coraline cautions the party that the aristocracy has held power for a long time & doesn’t take interference well.
Her stablemaster is Mr. Donald. The butler is Charles.
Bret comms Soren.
Jason does volumetric measurements and finds what he thinks are a couple smuggling compartments in the port shuttle bay, but can’t open them.
Ship’s meeting
Jason says he could invest in her ranch.
Soren checks the cortex for who owns adjoining property. Finds the contact info for the government land office.
Soren finds the Aberdeen legal code. (Intel + bureaucracy (10)) to read the legalese. Penalty for horse theft is steep - Horses are a major resource. Damage payments or dueling including seconds and champions.
Jason briefs Soren & Bret about the smuggling compartments. Soren makes his once-a-session Intel + Influence roll (10 on 2d6). Bret spots an oddly-placed cargo hook. It loosens bulkhead plating. Soren thinks the bottom of the compartment revealed looks odd. He peels back the flooring to reveal a case. We eventually find the other compartment. It’s empty.
Cecilia had found out that the black box is an older military model, requires the right kind of hardware connector. Grudenworks 3MP Grudemworks was based on Hera, one of the four major military manufacturers, appears to have gone bankrupt in the war, no mention of in last seven years.
Bret briefs Jason on the black box. Bret, Soren, Seren, Jason meet to examine the case.
Seren recognizes military-style locks on the case.
Jason recognizes it as a classified carrycase. Mechanical lock controlled by biometric lock (fingerprint & retina) & passcode. No self-destruct mechanism but if could lock down permanently (need a fusion cutter which obviously could trash the contents).
Bret points out that CR Early is probably after the hidden items rather than the ship per se. We could send word of empty compartments up the chain. Or we could start rumors of these objects been seen / sold / etc.
We do cortex searches on horses & such. Bret & Jason find lots of brokerages & auction houses. Trades between worlds usually go through two brokerage houses. Most of the traffic does go to Beylix, sharp rise over the past few years. New brokerages are popping up. Ranching was mostly a pastime. A few freemen started their own ranches. The Mayberry Ranch is the largest of the half-dozen or so independents. The other ranchers are aristocrats. Almost all aristocrats have an interest in ranching. Sometimes they even settle disputes with races. Bret isolates the three main brokerage houses.
DNA tagging filed with Office of Agriculture & Natural Industries (AgNI) – secure site
There are sites that track races – win/loss totals, etc.
Bret & Jason map out the AgNI network – defenses aren’t very good compared to core worlds – decent firewalls, some data encryption, no defensive AIs, no IDS (intrusion detection system). Only a live operator would notice so now (night) is the best time to go in. Jason (14) provides 3-step bonus. Bret uses once per session goal roll (24+3 bonus, officially “ridiculous”). Bret basically owns the AgNI system. He downloads enough to seriously fill up ship’s resources (with plans to delete what’s not needed).
Bret has Soren look for new horses in the standings who could be Mayberry stallions (10 on 2d6). Soren makes a spreadsheet. No obvious pattern, but has the raw data.
Bret puts in a back door to the system, password: I rule (Queen of Hearts). Jason learns things watching him.
Soren sacks out after 2 hours.
Jason writes a program to analyze the spreadsheet.
Bret & Jason work a total of four hours. After five hours sleep, Mr. Donald (Coraline’s stablemaster) waves.
Tuesday, October 5, 2511
Aerial craft spook the horses, but Mr. Donald can pick up the crew with a hover mule.
Soren puts his sword in the shuttle in case he needs to impress nobles later. Pistol, too. Nic is armed, but then she’s the security specialist. Off-worlders are allowed to carry weapons, but the laws are stricter than on most border worlds.
Four possibilities for Mayberry horses come up in Jason’s program.
The download of the AgNI database is almost complete.
Jason is staying on board. With Fu.
Bret asks Jason to look into Child Services & Quintin Chamberlain. They thank him for calling. They haven’t actually put the pieces together yet. Child Services is a two-person office in Red Bridge – one social worker & one secretary. Some local orphanages.
Yes, there’s a noble named Quintin Chamberlain. Jason will try again later.
Staff: stable master, vet, 2 apprentices, fivs trainers, quite a few stable hands, had two jockeys – currently down to one, let the other go – Mayberry was doing too well & isn’t let into as many races. Jockey Stew signed on with Smith Wallow. The other jocket is Maurice – she is married to one of the apprentices. Stew volunteered to go. There is also house staff.
Cecilia doesn’t think Donald is capable of lying.
Donald says Mr. Mayberry was very trusting. Miss Coraline is shrewder. Donald had some precautions in place, and it would have taken a conspiracy to steal the horses. Outer fence is electrical. Alerts if broken. Motion detectors on outside of barn. Vidro inside. Stables are locked. Need transportation to move them. There were no tracks. Cameras & detectors all went offline. Mr. Mayberry had been maintaining the system. Then it went to Matthew (Coraline’s brother). He’s been despondent, so Charles has been dealing with it.
Cecilia asks about fights with other ranches. Other apprentice Ned is a hothead, frustrated that they can’t race. Noble ranches look down on them. Ned’s won 3-4 fights.
Matthew would either be in the church or in the drink (off-ranch where his sister can’t see him, probably Flanagan’s). A number of churches in the city, including St. John’s Cathedral. Matthew has 49% but Coraline is in charge.
Bret asks how Donald would steal horses – shut down security, shut off the tags, have transportation
Bret: How could you sell the horses elsewhere?
Donald: False ID, switch with a horse that was never going to race, buy off an official
You can do a few things to disguise a horse’s appearance & fool the public. You can’t change the gait or fool a horse expert.
If Coraline, Donald, and Edrick (master trainer) sat down together with the data, they might be able to ID the horses.
Bret uploads full info on the Mayberry horses to Jason.
Bret is sending Seren, Cecilia, and Nic a couple other locations. Probably borrow the mule.
Jason has four DNA possibilities on horses. Two transactions is between individual sets of names that don’t show up anywhere else. Two were sold by Alexander Huxby, a noble in the area. Huxby’s horse didn’t have a birth record in the system. Next session Jason will look for horses w/o birth records.
Charles shows Bret the safe in the basement. Nic and Cecilia both notice there’s a tiny hole bored into the safe. Nic has buddies who were safecrackers. The hole is smooth.
Safe was hit the same night as the horses were taken. Last shift leaves around 7 PM that time of year. Ned opened up around 5 AM and the horses were gone. The security system failed about 1 AM.
Missing from the safe – jewels, optical discs with the horses’ information, Donald isn’t sure what else
Nic asks about criminal records. Donald has one – assaulting a noble who was interested in the same girl he was
AP: 3 each
Dave's Notes
September 4th.
On 3rd Way, a ship of 200 evacuees. A lot of outlying worlds are hurt by Reavers and evacuating to Greenleaf. Varying symptoms, some have scarlet flush to neck, sore throat. Hacordion Fever. Rarely life-threatening, requires antibiotics. Deaths b/c of throat swelling. Antibiotics to treat it.
September 5th
Cargo. 200 Units of Ristoral, general antibiotic. 25 units prepackaged IVs. 400 Units toothpaste. 400 units brush/floss combo packs. 25 units standard med kits. 10 units epimacin (high strength prescription anesthetic.) 100 units cratinam y (aspirin). 1000 units vitamin supplements. 1000 units protein supplements. 25 units polyvistrix (designer antibiotic mutable for different germs). MANIFEST ACCURATE
Ross oversees several small bureaucratic departments for a In charge of everything from Bernadette to Aberdeen, about 15% of the planets. The administrator. Under interplanetary affairs registration, find Ross’s staff office. Have their contact information. 70 years old, born on Osiris. Little data on early life, schooled on Londinium, involved in politics ever since. In current position for 15 years. Planetary governor prior on Ezra. Left before war, became the lieutenant for his Administrative predecessor. So, he’s been involved in this administrative job for about 25 years. Speaks with a very slow manner. ODDITY: Why is someone of his position so concerned with this one minor shipment? One of Soren’s friends works under Ross. Ross made this request at the party at New Dunsmir on Beaumonde.
All contracts done through Universal Packing Services. Have form to request info on Ship/Captain. SUBMIT.
Alliance news IDs Sun’s ship as a possible slave trader, diligent efforts of station manager and Alliance crews saved 1000s of lives.
Mr. Jacobs, the station manager, gave us a 150-credit discount on fuel for fixing the hydro pump.
September 6th: Travel to 3rd Way.
September 17th
Land on Oleksi Spaceport, Orphanage 7-8 miles out from main town, near beginnings of mountain range. Terrain is rolling hills, some flat plains, rocky. Whole planet relatively rocky. There is another landing pad distant, for industrial use.
Bored looking mid 20s guy sandy hair, playing darts at port. Jake
Irenei. Hand on shoulder, calmed child who then smiled and ran off. Not hearing many children around. Eyes watching us from window, shuttle unloaded quickly.
Jared needs electric impellers and a fuel filter.
We get assaulted at the port. Jake IDs the survivor as Cole. Cecilia says the people in town are dead. Jake: I didn’t want to be part of it, I didn’t have any choice. My friend Lenny and I, we just wanted to do something with our lives. We signed on with this—I didn’t do it, ok.” Now, who did it? “Jones, mayor. “ how long? “Since he killed the other one, two years ago now?” What’s this mayor’s business? “Anything he can get his hands on. You hear stories about bandits, it’s exciting and fun . . it’s not like that. Jones is a smooth talker, and he makes promises everything. He brought in a bunch of boys, me and Lenny and kinda took over.” Care to put a number to bunch? “There’s can’t think. Not all in once place. Some watching mines, some in town.” Who’s working in the mines. “Miners, but he doesn’t let em out like they used to. Won’t let em stop working.” What about Ujanov and what used to be an orphanage? “Don’t get through to talk to him. Saw him one time, seemed different.” Seen the children? “Yes, wasn’t allowed to work there anymore.” Why not? “Caught sneaking extra rations to children.” “Jones takes everything that comes in.”
When Jake called for instructions, he called the next person up, Travis.
Cecilia, “Pastor Smith warned me not to be nosy or ask questions.”
Jones keeps 12 or so at orphanage.
Proximity Alarm.
START OF NEXT SESSION:
Cecilia comms contact about Jones
Shade interrogates Cole
Find out what Cecilia learned from Jake
Figure out needed repair parts
Get to 3rd Way
Hath contacts bro about Ross’s trustworthiness
Possible Contact Ross
Possible Inform Alliance of Issue on Oleksi
Cole gives list of 20 names, gets anesthetic. “Tumbledown Jones” Jones has 15 watching over orphanage. 400 or so orphans supposed to be there. 800 who might become orphans. Jones has 50 or 60 men in all. Weapons for all. Couple machine guns. No armor for the spitwads. Special armory for bigshots. Travis Berkley, keeps his foot on the townspeople’s throats. Cole dislikes Chen Lee. Chen Lee killed a woman Cole loved. Jeanie, comes every once in a while, does his networking, comes every once in a while, seen her four times, ask Jake about her. Jones takes 12 armed and armored guys out with him. Shade would fit right in. Take horses into the mountains, mules on main roads, trucks for everything in between.
Bret describes Palamino. Can outrun anything in the system. Normally captained by Jones, but someone else can captain her. Jeanie doesn’t come in on the Palamino.
Jones used to have a guy, Brusch in charge of the mines. Things went south, he took too big a cut, and went missing 7-8 months ago. Now Jones handles it mainly himself through radio contact and patrols. Generally 6-10 per patrol.
Jake: Travis runs town, murdering bastard, runs town. Chen Lee doesn’t care about others. Third guy disappeared one night, curly mustache, “Bruche?” Men are stationed watching mines, at least six at each of the main sites, no one too important, just quick. 4-5000 mineworkers. Jones goes out once a week with guards, maybe 12, sometimes in a mule, mainly walks. Jones goes to Pastor Smith’s church, only one on Oleski.
Once a man with two ships tried to stop Jones, Jones shot him and sent men to the elementary school to kill kids if the people fought.
Jeanie robbed a train by herself, smuggled a weapon in her bonnet. Long dark hair, slightly curled. Pretty, clothing to match, showed herself off. Knew she was good looking and made sure the men knew it too. Olive skin, light eyes. 5’9 or 5’10, 148 or 149. Comes once a month or so, stays for a few days. What ship does she come in— Jake was told never to log in the Brazen Bay. Bret researches Brazen Bay on a non-Alliance criminal listing site. [rolls 15] Listed many places. Generally far Rim worlds. Generally theft, one Alliance alert pasted there, wanted for hitting an Alliance envoy (name not listed). Bret Memorizes list of worlds, dates, crimes. Bret searches for Jeanie in conjunction with illicit activity and Brazen Bay, [rolls 16] finds picture with a caption of Brazen Bay from a random dockworker, uses name Jeanie.
Ujanov again, press release [11] taking over orphanage from day it was founded. Nothing linking him to Oleksi before.
Ross will dispatch an agent to collect the two potential criminals and a full investigation will be forthcoming. We will be paid for the 8 days waiting for his ship. Leaving us with a number. If by chance the proper response of the gov’t isn’t as swift as desired against these criminals and we happen to run into them again we should pass all information along.
Session ends September 30th.
NEXT SESSION
Smuggle Jake out
Get repairs at Beylix (the junk planet, have recommendation)
Have LT and Jared work on gerry-rigged weapons
Buy mesh under armor for Bret
Buy all things ship should have had
Bret wants security gear
September 30th
Leave for Beylix (a couple hours away)
Shade/Bret/Jared bought ammo, pistol for Jared
Cecilia butters up Vinny for parts
October 1st
Circus Georgio –more upscale and well-kept.
Repair Station Manager Garnet, or Garn.
NEXT SESSION
Smuggle Jake out
Ensure Garn has a good time, make loot at cards, get good deal on repairs
Get mesh from Shade
Jared makes rail-gun, plasma torpedo, plasma gun designs and rummages junkyards; trains with gun
Cecilia makes Vinny look good, makes new contacts amongst mob leaders, acquires cheap parts
Hath researches upgrades to ship
Shade wants to help crew by killing people
September 9th 2009
Bret gets friendly with Julie
2 pax try to break into the ship, scared off by new girl
2 extra shade-wearing suits outside high roller area where Cecilia went
Early teen girl w/ smiley face tshirt and pigtails
Jonas Temper man of influence, gotten out of scrapes
10 creds for Temper's number, 90 if Jared gets off with
Nicole the bounty hunter, Ms Stevenson —Cortex research: minor infractions, fights, etc., one file erased, originated on Bellerophon.
Collated all articles on Shade's “terrorist” event. Some locals tried to hit an Alliance arms shipment, but reinforcements with air support rounded almost all the “terrorists” up. Found mug shot of Shade.
Michael Giorgio, son of Circus owner on Beylix.
NEXT SESSION:
Hire Engineer: Engineer last name Crete (carrier class) gets high recommendations.
Lawyer for Jared: Michael Giorgio has contact, plus shipment.
Schedule: Find out shipment details, put out call for passengers and cargo along way.
Date with Julie.
Consider Nicole for security.
Discuss Hath's ship situation and apparent enemies.
—Follow up on crime report for Pallas' break-in.
In GAME OCT 2 2511
Michael Giorgio has legal contact. Has pickup—bought racing horse, family bt from has reneged despite having sent them a deposit. Has done much business in past, has been friendly. Needs subtlety and empathy. Convince seller to fulfill agreement. Coraline Mayberry. On Aberdeen, only 10 hours if a straight shot. Time frame for racing season: 13 days.
Hires Nicole for Aberdeen trip, sister coming with. Crete calls child services for Fu.
Check employment for Jake. Gets Jake provisional job, gives him 40 creds for discretional spending and two weeks’ lodging.
Drop off whassisface.
Pickup for horse “Lord of Thunder” from Mayberry Ranch, 15 miles outside Galington, a major city on Aberdeen. Two ways to get there—long way, 36 hours but one burn. Could do it faster with multiple burns, but 18 hours. Protostar interference. 600 creds for horse, seems undervalued somewhat significantly for a thoroughbred, contract signed by father, 300 creds already sent to the estate.
Research:
Ranch: 17, Most land owned by aristocracy, land leased. Ranch is a freehold, owned by nonaristocrats. Mayberries are one of the few land-owning non aristocrats. 800 acres, one of top breeders for almost a decade.
Father: 13, Marcus Mayberry. News says died of stroke. 62
Coraline: Raised on Aberdeen, schooled on Ariel. Got her MBA, is 29. Pale blue eyes, dark brown long hair, delicate features but not a delicate person. Formerly emotional streak, more mature but occasional flashes. Smart, articulate. Sometimes undefendable stances.
Giorgios: ??, occasional news items linking them to organized crime. Info about businesses.
To do List
— Look up Yee Lin on Ezra medical facility – Works at Rehab facility.
— Look up Pendler – Small time smuggler
— Look up Ping — Nope
— Quentin Chamberlain – Aberdeen Aristocracy, art collector. Aaron will specify his odd travel patterns. Shows up places with little travel record. No one apparent in his circles with Swan name.
— LT is going to do a full physical on Fu.
— Inform Child Services about Fu being on board.
— Request Fu’s medical records from Ezra facility and Yee Lin.
— Look up all current news and shipping records for Oleksi.
— Investigate the books Cecilia is trying to find, along with Harold Smith and his possible relationship to Whassis Oleksi face. (probably Travis Berkley, Tumbledown Jones’ Deputy)
— Cecilia plots acquisition of railgun parts.
In GAME OCT 3 2511
Physical turns up Fu has outstanding hearing.
— Wait for results from request for Fu’s medical records from Ezra facility and Yee Lin.
— Look up all current news and shipping records for Oleksi: Pirate warnings.
— Talk to Jason about remotely calling shuttle.
Investigate
Transworld Shipping (largish border firm) Rolled 16 to hack Border Satellites. Get shipping info for most of Sector, get all of Transworld’s for Oleksi and nearby systems. Cargo info, dates of travel, ship ID codes, captains. 12 ships. Amount of unprocessed ore picked up by 50-60% percent since Tumbledown Jones showed, up, ammo and explosives slightly picked up. Next scheduled freighter inbound in 11 days, cycle every few months. Expensive handcrafted wood furniture inbound. High end retailer.
Galington is a middish city, Londinium English feel, well planned. Refreshing after Beylix.
Mayberry horses and jewelry stolen. Genetic records taken on disk. Copies in gov’t computers. Can we reconstitute the stolen optical disks? Talk to stable master, employees, those with access and/or proximity.
Look up horse transactions since theft. Most sales traffic going to Beylix. Sharp rise in sales to Beylix over last few years. Only one brokerage before, but appears to be the one boom business. Ranching was an aristocratic pastime. A couple entrepreneurial freemen started ranches, only a few remain. Mayberry largest and best known of independents. Maybe six other small stables. All the rest are aristocrats and every arist. Has at least some interest in ranching. Have isolated three main brokerage houses. Could attempt to access their databases.
DNA Tagging filed with: Office of Agriculture and Natural Industries. 15 on Agni enumeration. Laughable defenses by Core standards. Ok firewalls, some data encrypted behind firewall. Rolled to penetrate database 27. Established complete electronic control. Install backdoor passphrase !Ru13theQuE3n0fHe@r75
Filed places which track the nobility’s races and wins and losses.
1 Vet, 5 trainers, 2 stable apprentices, a large number of hands, used to have two jockeys but retained one. Stu was let go (volunteered to be the one), not that many races allowed in anymore. Doing too well. Former jockey signed on with Smith-Wallow, no hard feelings. Mr. Mayberry not a suspicious man. Donnell said he instituted some defenses. Outer electrical fence. If it’s broken, alert issued. Motion detectors outside the stable. Video feed inside the stables. Stables have locks. Need transportation. No tracks found. Security cameras, motion detectors all went offline. Controlled by computer. Used to be maintained by Mr. Mayberry, but passed off to Coraline’s brother Matthew, or the butler Charles. Matthew goes to Flannegan’s to drink or St. John’s Cathedral. Matthew has a 49% stake and theoretically shared responsibility. Has been really down.
Whoever did it would need to know the schedule, disable security, have transportation, turn off tags. Have to use false DNA ID, take a horse never used or entered into the system, and claim that DNA belonged to the stolen horse. Only works if the party sold to goes along or doesn’t pay attention. One Horse, Tropical Jerry was well known. Midnight Express a bit more common, but one of the fastest sprinters ever. Night shift leaves 7PM, morning shift arrived at 5AM. Security cams stopped about 1AM.
Put out call for stuff to transport from Aberdeen to Beylix.
Investigate ranch workers personal finances.
Ned, one of the apprentices is a hothead, upset they can’t race.
Master Trainer Edric.
Determine shipping in that time frame.
First two horses sold by noble, Alexander Huxby.
Safe in a basement room.
In GAME OCT 3 2511
Nelson's Notes
Monday Oct 2, 2519
- Jason contacted child services
- He dropped Fu off at child services and filled out 3 hrs of paperwork
- Bret contacted his contact in the mafia
- His contact wanted him to convince someone (Coralline Mayberry on Gallington, Aberdeen) to sell him a racehorse ("Lord of Thunder", which they had already agreed to sell him). Coralline's father had recently died, and she wasn't returning calls.
- We had 13 days to deal with it.
- His contact wanted him to convince someone (Coralline Mayberry on Gallington, Aberdeen) to sell him a racehorse ("Lord of Thunder", which they had already agreed to sell him). Coralline's father had recently died, and she wasn't returning calls.
- Bret and Hath hired Nicole
- Her sister is paying her own way
- Bret tried to find work for Jake on the planet
Tuesday Oct 3, 2519
- Leaving Baylix headed to Aberdeen
- Bret researched the horse farm during the trip
- The land on Aberdeen was mostly owned by the aristocracy, but the ranch wasn't (it had been free-owned for two generations)
- The ranch was only 800 acres, but consistently produced good racehorses for the last 8 or 9 years
- Coralline was raised on Aberdeen, but was schooled on Ariel. Came back after getting her master's in business administration (~4 yrs ago).
- When we went to eat, we noticed that a bunch of protein bars were missing
- We took inventory and several sodas and some food were missing
- We searched the ship and found Fu hiding in Lydia's room
- We confined her to quarters and had her write an essay on how she got in, her interests, etc.
*We searched the security logs and she had snuck in behind one of the shipments of parts
- During dinner, everyone questioned Fu about her background
- She came from Haven to Ezra, where she met "Granny Lynn"
- From there she went to Beylix
- Hathaway, Bret, and Jason had a meeting after dinner
- Bret had found a missing persons report that someone on Aberdeen was looking for his god daughter. The picture on the report looked just like Fu. The person was Quinton Chamberlain.
- Bret told Seren that she should give Fu a medical exam the next day, since she seemed to be eating way too much for her weight.
In-transit
- Sarin did the physical on Fu, but didn't find anything abnormal
- We requested Fu's medical records, but didn't receive an immediate response
- We informed child services that Fu had snuck onboard
- Bret and Hathaway researched ships going into and out of Oleksi
- Hathaway found that Transworld Shipping had ships going into and out of the planet
- Brett hacked into the local shipping records
- He noticed that once Tumbledown Jones arrived, the amount of ore outbound increased significantly and the inbound munitions supply increased slightly
- He also noticed a particularly nice set of furniture (enough hand-carved wood furniture to furnish a house)
- Brett hacked into the local shipping records
- Hathaway found that Transworld Shipping had ships going into and out of the planet
Wednesday Oct 4, 2519
- We entered orbit around Aberdeen
- We barely missed hitting some debris
- The object that caused it seemed to be small, but couldn't be identified
- The planet's control center contacted us, and we took up orbit over the area
- We barely missed hitting some debris
- Brett called ahead and set up an appointment with Coralline
- Brett, Nicole, Seren, and Cecilia went down to the planet on a shuttle
- They took a carriage to the estate
- A servant (Charles) met them at the gate and led them to Coralline and they began negotiations
- Coralline was upset because the Giorgio family was forcing her father to sell the horses underpriced and they were forcing the ranch to sell solely to them
- Also, her breeding horses had gone missing and the local government didn't look into it. Selling Lord of Thunder would put the ranch out of business, since it was their last remaining male breeding horse.
- Their records of the horses' identities had also been stolen
- Also, some of her mother's jewelry went missing
- Brett decided to try to find the stolen horses (and data)
- They made an appointment to meet with the stable manager, then headed back to the surface
- While they were on the planet:
- Jason continued his search of the ship
- He found two areas that may be smuggling containers
- Hathaway searched for more info on Fu's background
- He didn't have any luck locating anything of value
- Fu escaped from Lydia and began exploring the ship
- When Lydia caught her, she said she had been looking for Jason
- Jason continued his search of the ship
- Once everyone got back onboard, we had a crew meeting
- Jason mentioned that he may be able to invest in the ranch to help stabilize the issue
- After everyone else left, Jason spoke with Mr. Hathaway and Brett about his discoveries
- Jason, Brett, and Hathaway headed down to the shuttle bay to do a quick search
- The first panel, was empty, but had a fake bottom. Inside the second compart
- We met up with Seren in the conference room to look at the case
- The case was military and had biometric, mechanical, and passcode (keypad) codes
- Jason, Brett, and Hathaway did cortex searches on various topics
- Recent horse trades: There were many local horse-trading locations. Inter-world trading was usually done through brokerages. Most of the trading went to Beylix, and there was a recent , sharp rise in trading. We also found that all of the DNA tagging information was filed with the Office of Agricultural and Natural Industries (OANI). We also found Cortex pages that track races.
- Ranching families: Ranching is mostly a pastime for the nobles. There are a couple of ranches on the planet, but most of them had gone out of business. The Mayberry ranch was the only large one—the rest of the free stables were very small. Almost all of the aristocracy had their own ranches.
- Looking into the Cortex pages for the local racing circuit: Hathaway managed to correlate the data from the pages into a spreadsheet.
- Hacking into the OANI: They had no AI defense, decent firewalls, and some of the data was encrypted. We downloaded their entire database.
- Next Brett and Jason coded up a search for the data to try to find the horses, then went to bed.
Thursday Oct 5, 2519
- Brett got a really early comm call from the stable manager (Donnel)
- He was willing to meet them and was eager to help
- He told Brett that they had a hover mule available and could pick the up
- Jason checked on the search results
- It found a listing of the missing horses, but the digital copies were the "official" versions. It had also found duplicates of four of the missing horse's DNA.
- Jason contacted child services
- Local child services consisted of a 2 person office in Redbridge
- Jason also tried to find info on Fu's "godfather", but had no luck
- Everyone (including Lydia) except Jason went down to the surface
- Lydia headed off to an art show
- Everyone else went to the ranch to investigate
- Donnel gave them a list of the stable hands. There was also the veterinarian, two apprentice stable assistants, five trainers (Ettrick was the master trainer), and a pair of jockeys (although one had been let go because they weren't allowed in too many races).
- The jockey ("Stew") that had left signed on with Smith Wallow. He had volunteered to leave when the decision had to be made.
- The farrier would be supervised when with the horses
- Security:
- Outer fence is electric with intruder alarm
- Horse stable has exterior motion sensors
- Stable has interior video CCTV
- Stable has locks
- The entire security system went offline during the heist
- The system was controlled by a single computer in the main office
- The systems were maintained by Mr. Mayberry and later Coralline's brother (Mathew) and Charles.
- One of Donnel's apprentices (Ned) was a bit of a hothead, and was upset because he wasn't able to race. The folks from other ranches would rub it in his face, and he would start fights.
- Coralline's brother tended to drink at Flannigan's (the bar). His sister didn't know that he drank. He also attended a church in the city—Saint John's Cathedral.
- He had 49% ownership of the ranch. He was supposed to help with running the place, but hadn't been much help since his father had died.
- Important things to know to plan for the heist:
- Knowing the schedules
- Removing the security
- Transportation
- How to remove the tags
- Offloading the horses would have been difficulty and required false DNA ID.
- "Tropical Jerry" was pretty well-known and had unique features, and wouldn't have usable on-planet.
- "Midnight Express" was a very good sprinter with more common features
- The others were young and not very well-known.
- Donnel provided them with notes on the horses:
- Veterinary records
- Extensive photo records
- Extensive notes on behavioral mannerisms
- Donnel took them to the room with the safe in it
- The safe was in its own room in the basements, with a locked door
- The safe was old-fashioned and used an old-fashioned wheel-style combination lock
- There was a tiny hold bored into the front of the safe (for a borescope)
- The burglary would have had to been after 7 PM, and the security
- The items in the safe:
- Jewelry
- Horse DNA records (optical disks)
- Possibly other items
- The hole cut in the safe was smooth, so it was likely made by a newtech item (rather than a drill)
- While they were on the surface:
- Jason traced the horse sales backwards
- Two of them was sold between invalid names (fake names or not well-known)
- Two of them were originally sold by "Alexander Huxby", one of the nobles near the ranch. Huxby definitely didn't have birth records for his horse.
- Jason widened the search to find more horses that didn't have birth records
- Jason traced the horse sales backwards
