Episode 19 - Gang Wars
Participants: Stephanie Fox, Jordan Fox, Father Gerald Trent, Billy Eagleclaw, Cookie
Description: After making Starrise in the Tol-in-Gaurhoth system, the team was contacted by an automated
navigation beacon which instructed them to report to the Wytherby Memorial Spacestation, orbiting Gaurhoth, for
proper permits and registry. After reporting to the station, the team decided to split up, sending the group listed
above to the planet's surface to conduct a ground survey of the planet, while the rest of the team remained aboard
ship conducting an orbital survey.
The ground team caught a shuttle to Admin Island, the planets main administration hub, and the residential location
of most of Gaurhoth's on inmate population. There they secured the name of a guide, a Mr. Florian Gastauff, a former
inmate who now runs the most successful guide service on the planet. Mr. Gastauff's office is located in the main
inmate city of Trenchtown. After taking a hover shuttle (the Colonial Divisions in charge of security on planet
have a strict; "if it flies it dies" policy, in regards to vehicular traffic on Gaurhoth) to Trenchtown
they meet Mr. Gastauff and made arrangements for transportation and a guide. They were informed that they have
to apply travel permits at the Wardens Service office. After stopping in front of the office, Cookie observed a
well-dressed male accompanied by another individual who was obviously a bodyguard. Two females, who were acting
in a suspicious manner, were approaching them. After the team exited the vehicle, a single shot rang out and the
well-dressed male fell over. Stephanie observed the shooter on top of an adjacent building, and immediately returned
fire. Two other individuals armed with pistols exited the building across from the Wardens Service office and began
firing as well. A short firefight ensued, after wounding the shooter atop the building and one of the two other
men, the attacking group retreated. During this exchange Cookie had managed to scare off the two females by brandishing
his SMG and clicking his formidable Weren fangs. After the battle Billy treated the wounded individual, a Mr. Gino
Scarzonie.
It turned out Mr. Scarzonie was one the principal figures in an organized crime gang which is headquartered on
Jagger the Orion capital. Mr. Scarzonie was grateful for the team's intervention and offered them compensation
in the form of information in return for one more favor. Finding out the names of all off-worlders currently issued
travel permits. This information they easily acquired through their outfitter, Mr. Gastauff for some extra consideration.
After providing the information, Mr. Scarzonie provided the team with the coordinates of what he claimed was a
precursor site.
After traveling for four days overland to reach the site, the PC's finally drew close just as an infrequent storm
hit. The site coordinates were located on a cliff overlooking the coast. The storm was especially violent and the
team observed numerous heavy lightning strikes. One strike out to sea seemed to linger a little to long and the
team after using long range optical equipment was able to observe a small ship ablaze approximately a kilometer
from shore. Shortly thereafter a saucer shaped craft similar to others they had observed on Terra overflown the
PC's vehicle. Within minutes their vehicle was under fire from a large group of the alien creatures known as the
Grays. They used their unusual plasma technology and destroyed the team's vehicle in short order, fortunately the
team had fled. They returned fire apparently killing quite a few of the aliens, but there were well over 40 aliens
involved in the assault and they just kept coming. During this time a large human male was observed pulling himself
over the cliff. He quickly secured a rope to the cliff top and indicated that the team should make a retreat down
the rope. This was done by all members of the team except Billy who due to the press of time and proximity of the
aliens attempted to jump? from the cliff. For a moment he appeared to be flying, but was quickly brought under
the psionic powers of Father Trent who safely lowered him to the boulder strew cliffs below.
The new arrival was later questioned and gave his name as John Smith, a member of the New Mormon Church. He was
huge (6'4", 250 pds), and claimed to be a member of the New Mormon Protectorate. A group within the church,
which sought, out and fought the demonic invaders who were threatening mankind and the faithful (New Mormons).
The team quickly discovered a sea cave and took refuge in it. The followed the low entrance approximately 60' before
coming to a large cavern. The cavern had a very high ceiling which wound all the way back up to the top of the
cliff, but the opening was not visible from the cavern floor, however it did allow in a goodly amount of light.
Dominating the center of the room was a Monolith; identical to the one the team had encountered in the jungle in
Panama. After some observation the team discovered etched onto the side of the Monolith the following in French,
"that which lies eternal, can never die." Beneath these words were three crudely etched representations
of pictographs already on the Monolith. When the team touched all three of these pictographs at once the far wall
of the cavern slide away which revealed a modern looking blast door, which also then slid open. Beyond the door
was a room of burnished metal. At about this time Jordan who was guarding the entrance to the cavern was set upon
by a lizard/amphibian bipedal creature, which was identical to one the team had encountered on the seacoast in
Massachusetts back on Terra. A violent struggle ensued, in which the creature was eventually joined by two of its
compatriots, and they withstood damage from heavy machine gun fire at point blank range, which left them only moderately
damaged. Mr. Smith eventually used a rocket launcher to cave in the entrance to the cavern on top of the creatures
buying the team enough time to retreat to the metal room and give Billy time to figure out how to close the door
to the room using the wreaked control panel he found within the room.
In the room the team found a stone which had obviously been dragged in from the outside cavern on top of which
what later turned out to be a data crystal had been smashed. In the center of the room was a floor to ceiling force
field, which enclosed another data crystal. After extensive work Billy and the team managed to figure out how to
how to bring down the force screen and retrieve the crystal. They also managed to disassemble part of the control
panel for the force screen and bring in with them when the evacuated the room approximately 18 hours later. They
exited through the opening in the top of the cavern and called the Wardens service for emergency evacuation.
Postscript:
What was eventually learned from the data crystals.
* In contained information apparently put there millennia before detailing how they were savagely attacked by an
insect like race which used terrible gravetic weapons to cause the planet to suffer severe volcanism, rendering
it uninhabitable.
* The race, who's name for themselves roughly translates as "Sky People", were set up for this attack
by another alien race that could disguise themselves to look like the Sky People and travel among them at will.
* From the broken crystal MAC scientists were able to retrieve a string of numbers which turned out to be coordinates
that matched every know planet of the Twilight Sector. However there was an additional set of coordinates.
GM: Michael Cross (e-mail)