Chapter 01 Session 10 Wrap Up

Narrative Recap

After completing a kidnapping contract for the local Federal Republican Navy colonel, the crew of the Albatross was granted twenty-four hours of shore leave at the Eris spaceport — enough time to shower, drink, and weigh their next move. Two jobs were on the table: a high-profile run to the core world of Betelgeuse, an oceanic planet of underwater cities and heavy federal presence, or a quieter supply delivery to the backwater frontier moon of Peric IV D. The crew chose the safer option, accepting a contract to haul supplies from Aethel to an outpost called Acheron’s Rest for a guaranteed thousand-credit profit, with all travel costs covered. With the cargo loaded and the ship sitting heavy on its landing gear, they made their way to the outer edge of the Eris system and passed through the Federal Republic’s hyperspace gate, entering the folded void between stars.

The six-day transit through hyperspace gave the crew time to breathe — and to dig into the mysteries of their own ship. Shackleton spent his hours investigating the alien systems installed aboard the Albatross, eventually piecing together that the former mess hall had been gutted and replaced by a compact alien jump drive storing an almost incomprehensible amount of energy in a space barely five yards across. He determined that a single direct hit to the device while fully powered could obliterate the ship and everything around it. He also confirmed that the rotating twenty-sided device wired into the navigation computer — which he nicknamed ICO — was self-aware to a degree, capable of calculating non-standard jump lanes through gravitational fluctuations in real time, though its connection to the ship’s systems was limited strictly to navigation. When Shackleton typed a query asking for its name, a cascade of alien symbols returned that no one could read, and when he simply asked if he could call it ICO, the device offered no response at all.

Six filled the transit hours with his own brand of discipline, meticulously cleaning every surface of his armor before turning the cramped cargo bay into a makeshift training ground. He challenged Ronin to a series of non-lethal sparring matches, curious about the challenge of fighting an opponent with four arms. Ronin held his own better than Six had anticipated, and in one memorable exchange, the four-armed pilot managed to topple the armored giant entirely — earning himself a bruise in the process and a grudging acknowledgment from Six that the multiple limbs presented a genuine tactical problem. Meanwhile, Rock tended to the crew’s minor injuries and quietly noted that the ship desperately needed a proper medbay, especially given Six’s habits, and that long-term reliance on military rations could begin to erode a person’s mental state over time. Ronin’s first attempt at preparing the rations for dinner was, by all accounts, disgustingly awful, though he improved steadily over the following days, while Six simply dropped the sealed bags in front of everyone and walked away.

The Albatross emerged from hyperspace into the Peric system and made its approach toward Peric IV D, a frontier moon orbiting a failed star. The moon’s weather was notoriously volatile — sunshine could give way to blizzard within the hour — and Ronin guided the ship through turbulent, shifting atmospheric pressure to set it down at Acheron’s Rest, parking the large vessel diagonally across a landing pad with the nose barely clearing the edge. A sensor sweep from the cockpit revealed dozens of small, isolated homesteads scattered across the wilderness below, most appearing to be family-sized farming operations scratching out a living on the frontier.

As the front cargo hatch lowered, a woman was already waiting at the edge of the ramp. She wore an official badge around her neck, carried a blaster on her hip, and held a notepad with the practiced efficiency of someone who had done this many times before. She introduced herself as Director Eady, the local authority — sheriff, judge, and administrator all in one — and made it immediately clear that gunfighting within the town limits was strictly forbidden, and that anyone who caused serious trouble would be sent off-world to be dealt with by the marshals. She reviewed the cargo manifest, cleared the crew to proceed, and walked away without a second glance — including at Ronin, who asked her to dinner and received nothing but silence in return.

The crew spent the next half hour offloading eighteen to twenty heavy pallets from the ship, with Six hauling the heaviest crates by hand while Marlo Petrak stepped in without being asked and worked the pallet jack diligently alongside him. A brief detour to Peric Provisions — a small frontier dry goods store run by a woman named Bergljot — revealed that the cargo needed to go to the warehouse across the way, managed by her son Edward. Edward directed the crew on where to store each pallet, specifically requesting that two of them be placed near a parked all-terrain delivery vehicle at the rear loading dock. Once everything was accounted for, Edward handed over a signed delivery slip, and Bergljot settled the crew’s payment — nine hundred and ninety-eight credits, with two deducted for the pair of cigars Six had quietly purchased on his way out. Shack used two hundred of those credits to fully resupply the ship’s food and water for the next journey, and Bergljot offered the crew an additional contract: deliver a portion of the cargo out to the Roberts homestead, a few hours into the wilderness, in exchange for more credits and the ship supplies they had just purchased.

That evening, the crew gathered at the Outpost Cantina, a privatized former mess hall that served as the social heart of Acheron’s Rest. The barkeep, a man named Bonaccorso Van der Stoep — who went by Bona — poured potent local moonshine from a bizarre apparatus of tubes and jars behind the bar, and the crew ordered rounds of roasted Garet, a local barbecued creature roughly three feet long that arrived tender, juicy, and covered in sauce alongside a potato-like vegetable and a long green stalk. It was the first real food any of them had eaten in over a week, and the relief was palpable. Six drank every glass put in front of him without hesitation, while Ronin sipped his with slightly more restraint — though not much. Rock eventually placed a large pitcher of water in front of Six as a medical intervention, which Six promptly chugged in its entirety.

Ronin noticed a figure sitting alone in the back corner of the cantina — androgynous, heavily armed, with their back to the wall and a gun leaning within arm’s reach, scanning every newcomer who walked through the door. He crossed the room and introduced himself, and the figure gave their name as Nat, a security contractor who protected local homesteaders from local grievances. The conversation was brief but warm enough that Nat smiled before a mysterious woman arrived and sat with them. Before the two departed together through the back door, Nat mentioned to Ronin that there might be work available for the crew’s captain. The party returned to the ship not long after, Road Sodas in hand.

The next morning, Six was up before anyone else, running laps around the colony perimeter in his full combat armor. The automated security sensors triggered, and Director Eady stepped outside to investigate — only to find Six jogging past and waving cheerfully. Shack, meanwhile, spotted a woman watching the crew from a trade shop window as he made his way toward the cantina — the same woman he had seen with Nat the night before, now studying him with a quiet, measuring look. Inside the cantina, Ronin was already working through a breakfast of green eggs and blue meat alongside a morning drink, and Six arrived shortly after with Marlo Petrak in tow, having decided the provisional crew member deserved a proper introduction to local whiskey. Shack entered, assessed the situation, and gave everyone fifteen minutes to wrap up before meeting at the ship.

The crew left Marlo behind as a ship-sitter and climbed into the tracked all-terrain transport vehicle that Edward had prepared, loaded with the two pallets bound for the Roberts homestead. The route took them south-southwest across the desolate wilderness of Peric IV D, the outpost shrinking behind them until there was no sign of human civilization in any direction. Rock spotted a metallic glint from a rocky outcropping above the path just as Ronin drove the vehicle into a ditch he hadn’t seen. Six was out of the vehicle before it had fully stopped, tucking into a roll, slamming his helmet on, and coming up with his vibro-axe drawn and his gun ready. The others scrambled for cover as the first shots came down from the ridge — two ragged, gaunt, identical twins armed with hunting-style blaster rifles, firing from behind the ridgeline.

Shackleton deployed his scouting nanobots to reconnoiter the ridge while the others returned fire. Six unleashed a devastating burst from his weapon that obliterated one of the twin snipers entirely, while Shackleton’s sonic stun rifle struck the second. The surviving sniper attempted to flee down the far side of the hill, but Six gave chase on foot while the nanobots tracked the target’s movements and relayed them directly to his helmet. Six ran the attacker down and fired, and the chase was over. Back at the vehicle, Ronin struggled repeatedly to maneuver the tracked transport out of the ditch, and Rock eventually shoved him aside and took the controls — only to struggle with the same problem himself.

Before anyone could fully regroup, three gas canisters launched from the ground and landed around the vehicle on three sides, releasing thick obscuring smoke. Six attackers in mismatched rags and face wrappings leaped out of camouflaged underground trenches on the opposite hillside and charged. Ronin, still in the vehicle, drew every weapon he had — his grazer pistol in one hand, a blaster pistol in each of the others — and opened fire in a sweeping arc, cutting down three of the charging attackers in a single devastating volley. The remaining three reached the vehicle; two of them grabbed for Rock, with one successfully seizing him and attempting to drag him out of the driver’s seat, while a third wrenched open the rear cargo door and began rifling through the supplies. Six sprinted back down the hill, stopping halfway to fire his weapon. The shot burned through the raider grappling Rock with massive damage. Shackleton fired from the ridge and scorched one of them across the chest, and Ronin finished the last one on the vehicle at point-blank range with the grazer pistol, leaving the front of the transport splattered and the immediate threat neutralized.

Rock finally got the vehicle moving as the crew scrambled to regroup. Shackleton’s nanobots tracked the cargo thief as he leaped out of the rear of the truck with an armful of stolen supplies and sprinted into the wilderness. Shackleton fired and missed, but the thief was brought down a moment later, the stolen goods scattering across the rocky ground around him. The vehicle rolled to a stop, the smoke beginning to thin, and the crew stood amid the wreckage of the ambush — six attackers down, the cargo mostly intact, and the Roberts homestead still waiting somewhere out in the wilderness ahead of them.

Memorable Moments

“This is not a time to fuck off. We’ve got a good job to do. This is not a fun mission. This is a business mission.” — Six

Six, who learned the concept of ‘fun missions’ from Ronin, solemnly corrects Ronin’s casual attitude as they prepare for the delivery run.

“When I hurt you badly enough, you tap me on and I let you up. That won’t happen.” — Six

Six explains the concept of tapping out to Ronin before their sparring match, completely deadpan, with zero doubt about the outcome.

Ronin attempts to flirt with Director Eady, asking her to dinner, and she completely ignores him and walks away without a word.

Ronin tries his charm on the stern local authority figure immediately after she finishes her official inspection of the crew.

“I have learned what fucking off means from Ronin.” — Six

Six announces this proudly and literally to the crew as they head to the cantina after completing their delivery, having finally grasped the concept.

Ronin simultaneously fires his grazer pistol and two blaster pistols with four arms, obliterating three ambushers in a single devastating volley as they emerge from hidden trenches.

The second wave of six attackers emerges from camouflaged underground trenches under cover of smoke, and Ronin unleashes everything he has.

Six leaps from the moving vehicle, tucks and rolls, slams on his helmet, and comes up with his vibro-axe drawn and gun ready the moment the ambush begins.

Rock spots a glint on the ridge just as Ronin drives the vehicle into a ditch, and Six reacts with instant, practiced lethality.

Rock places a large pitcher of water in front of the heavily drunk Six to prevent a hangover. Six immediately chugs the entire pitcher without hesitation.

After Six drinks every glass of moonshine put in front of him all evening, Rock attempts a medical intervention.

Six goes for a morning jog around the colony perimeter in his full combat armor, triggering the automated security sensors and bringing Director Eady outside to investigate.

The morning after heavy drinking, Six’s idea of recovery is a full-armor fitness run around the frontier colony.

Shackleton discovers the ship’s alien jump drive stores energy equivalent to a dreadnought’s entire capacitor array in a space roughly five yards by four yards, and that a single blaster hit could destroy everything nearby.

During the six-day hyperspace transit, Shackleton investigates the alien technology installed in the former mess hall.

Ronin repeatedly fails to drive the tracked vehicle out of a ditch during an active ambush, requiring Rock to shove him out of the seat and take over — only for Rock to also struggle with the same maneuver.

Neither the crew’s designated pilot nor their medic turns out to be a competent ground vehicle driver under fire.