Action 2: A Long Road

[GreyWolfVT]

Eugene - Navigator exploring outside dome

Eugene, Ike, Carter, LZ:
"Uhhhh...well, what do you expect me to do about it? This is the rental-rover dispatch office." The voice sounds about as peeved as the words would suggest. Somehow the "emergency transmission" panel that was so clearly labeled still seems to have been unclear.

Eugene turns to his comrades "I don't think they are going to help us. I guess we should wait until we get back inside the dome and find someone who cares." Eugene pauses for a moment obviously in thought and then speaks again. "Did we take the additional rover insurance that they kept pushing? You know the one that would cover all costs to any damage done to the rover."

Carter shrugs "Didn't you pay for it Eugene?"

[DadsAngry]

Eugene - Navigator exploring outside dome

Carter shrugs "Didn't you pay for it Eugene?"

"Your right I did, but I didn't take the insurance. Darn, we better be careful with this rover. I can't afford any extra expense. I already used most of my partial advance the captain gave me. I hope they don't charge me extra on the communique. I still want to get a souvenir from the gift shop."

[Grognardsw]

Ike, rover

"Well we did our duty and reported it," says Ike. "I'm sure its not the first such call they've gotten. Smuggling isn't uncommon around here I've heard. Let's go in the opposite direction and explore since we still have time."

[Nuke66]

Turning to Samantha
"I think that I owe you something of an apology.
You wanted to try and buy some cargo and I seem to have dragged you into something ... 'else'.
So let me ask you, do you want to find out what is really going on and try to help 'Lorin' ... if he is caught up in something other than simply cheating a merchant?
Or do you want out?
If we do nothing, Benjik will hire someone else to grab him.
We must be careful.
Lorin may be a pawn caught up in something over his head ... and he may be a viper.
We need to find out which before we do anything."

"Well" Samantha begins. "This will prove adventurous. I agree we must be careful and not get in over our heads. I ain't no muscle but I can generally talk my way through some sticky situations." She discreetly holsters the tazer trying to appear non-threatening.

[Keehnelf]

Carter, LZ, Eugene, Ike:

The group in the rover double-checks their oxygen supply and notes that there are two hours remaining to the communal tank, plus 15 minutes apiece on each vacuum-suit reserve. They turn southward, off the track but in another direction, and after roughly half an hour find themselves on the precipice of a huge, gray stone canyon that stretches off for dozens of miles.



At first it looks natural, but here and there the group can see signs of digging--this huge excavation must be the result of mining operations that have stripped Trieste bare of the majority of its precious minerals.

Down at the bottom of the canyon a mile directly below them, the group can see a handful of vac-suited workers picking their way among the loose stones on the ground, looking for something.

33 hours till lift-off

[DadsAngry]

Eugene - Navigator exploring outside dome

"Hey look at those guys down there. I wonder what they are looking for? We should go see. Maybe there is something interesting from the mining days still left down there like an old piece of equipment or some precious stones. I bet it would be a better souvenir than the domed shaped snow globes of a dome in the gift shop."

[atpollard]

"Well" Samantha begins. "This will prove adventurous. I agree we must be careful and not get in over our heads. I ain't no muscle but I can generally talk my way through some sticky situations." She discreetly holsters the tazer trying to appear non-threatening.

Vinnie, September, Samantha:

Vinnie
"I suggest that upon landing, we follow up on the leads we have from the news search and whatever local contacts we can make. We should keep an eye out for Mr. Lorin Highwater, but we are just looking for information at this point."

"September, would you like to check in with the local street life crowd and see if anyone has an opinion of Lorin, the Kamoor Temple or Denner trade?"

"Samantha, would you like to try and rub elbows with the more respectable crowds, local diners, that sort of thing and see if anyone knows anything about Lorin Highwater's famous rescue of Benjik of the Kamoor Temple? You might be able to find out how Miriam Istrik ties in with Lorin Highwater."

"I think that I am going to try to play off my family name and see if I can meet with Samien Verge or some other ranking member of the Verge Cartel. I would like to know if we are stepping into a drug cartel turf war."

"I think that we should meet up in an hour near the landing port waiting area. If you are on to something, follow the lead and we will meet at the same location in two hours ... just before the launch leaves. If we decide to escort Lorin to meet Mr Benjik, we can plan to depart in three hours ... when the launch returns."

"I can take the bodyguards with me as window dressing, but I don't really need them to sell it. Would either of you prefer some company?"

[GreyWolfVT]

Eugene - Navigator exploring outside dome

"Hey look at those guys down there. I wonder what they are looking for? We should go see. Maybe there is something interesting from the mining days still left down there like an old piece of equipment or some precious stones. I bet it would be a better souvenir than the domed shaped snow globes of a dome in the gift shop."

Carter

"I think we should stay out of it. It really is not any of our business."

[Nuke66]

Samantha puts ad on her hip and cocks it just so. "I don't need to bring any help, I'm sure I will find plenty.. That sounds like a plan, I will try the higher class establishments and see what I can find out."

[Grognardsw]

Ike, in rover

Ike looks through the binoculars at the searching men, trying to determine if they are miners or explorers, or if they look like smuggler types. He sees if they are bearing weapons or have any insignia on their clothes.

[Keehnelf]

All of them (there are four) appear to have pistols at their hips, but none are wearing insignia or carrying significant firepower. They don't appear to be transporting anything, and are not engaged in any kind of excavation. Instead, they appear to be picking through the rocks as though searching for a lost object.

[Pulpatoon]

"September, would you like to check in with the local street life crowd and see if anyone has an opinion of Lorin, the Kamoor Temple or Denner trade?"

September asks Vinnie for some pocket money, and then calls on both his childhood of privilege and his latter years of destitution to put on the airs of a bored and naive rich kid offworlder, slumming it and looking for a quick thrill. He's looking for some denner, and crazy stories about life in the backdomes.

He tries to target some of the local young folks—provincial enough to want to ride on an exotic tourist's largess for the afternoon, canny enough to think they can take advantage of him by playing up to his patronizing interests, hard enough to actually know what's what on the local scene, but soft enough that they probably won't just slit his throat and take his wallet.

[Grognardsw]

Ike, rover

All of them (there are four) appear to have pistols at their hips, but none are wearing insignia or carrying significant firepower. They don't appear to be transporting anything, and are not engaged in any kind of excavation. Instead, they appear to be picking through the rocks as though searching for a lost object.

"They probably wouldn't welcome company," says Ike. "What do you think?" he asks the others.

"Maybe if they leave soon we can poke around, maybe find what they're looking for."

For some reason Ike can't seem to shake the continuing background thoughts in his mind computing the thermochemical composition of the sands out here. The standard molar entropy of silicon dioxide So298 being 42 J·mol−1·K−1[1].

[max_vale]

Loraine 'El Zee' Zane


Loraine looks over the men and frowns upon seeing them all armed. "I'm guessing we should probably contact the local law enforcement agency as I don't think whatever they're doing is legal." It's times like this that she misses having a weapon at her side....

[DadsAngry]

Eugene - Navigator exploring outside dome

"Gosh, I hope they leave soon. I want to get down there and get a souvenir. Maybe I can find something nice for Samantha. I promised her I'd get her something neat."

[atpollard]

"September, would you like to check in with the local street life crowd and see if anyone has an opinion of Lorin, the Kamoor Temple or Denner trade?"

September asks Vinnie for some pocket money, and then calls on both his childhood of privilege and his latter years of destitution to put on the airs of a bored and naive rich kid offworlder, slumming it and looking for a quick thrill. He's looking for some denner, and crazy stories about life in the backdomes.

He tries to target some of the local young folks—provincial enough to want to ride on an exotic tourist's largess for the afternoon, canny enough to think they can take advantage of him by playing up to his patronizing interests, hard enough to actually know what's what on the local scene, but soft enough that they probably won't just slit his throat and take his wallet.

Vinnie hands September and Samantha each 1000 credits for expenses.

I guess that Vinnie takes the bodyguards with him and heads to the 'Gentleman's Club'.
"Congratulations gentlemen, you are now 'made men', wiseguys in the Masseria Crime Family.
Keep your heads and you may become 'Soldatos' with a future."

[GreyWolfVT]

Ike, rover

All of them (there are four) appear to have pistols at their hips, but none are wearing insignia or carrying significant firepower. They don't appear to be transporting anything, and are not engaged in any kind of excavation. Instead, they appear to be picking through the rocks as though searching for a lost object.

"They probably wouldn't welcome company," says Ike. "What do you think?" he asks the others.

"Maybe if they leave soon we can poke around, maybe find what they're looking for."

For some reason Ike can't seem to shake the continuing background thoughts in his mind computing the thermochemical composition of the sands out here. The standard molar entropy of silicon dioxide So298 being 42 J·mol−1·K−1[1].

Carter "I agree Ike I doubt they would welcome us. If we seek to stir up trouble then sure lets go. But I'd suggest we move on elsewhere."

[Nuke66]

Samantha pockets the bribe spending money and brings up directions to a martini bar.

[Grognardsw]

Ike, in rover watching searchers

Carter "I agree Ike I doubt they would welcome us. If we seek to stir up trouble then sure lets go. But I'd suggest we move on elsewhere."

"Let's wait 20 minutes in case they give up and leave," says Ike. "Then we can go in and check it out ourselves."

[max_vale]

Loraine 'El Zee' Zane


Loraine fidgets while waiting and watching to see what the scavengers/bandits/treasure seekers do next….